From the Left
/Politics

Four ways the mainstream media is quietly helping Trump and his Republican allies
The mainstream media is helping Donald Trump and his authoritarian allies in four ways.
First, it’s drawing a false equivalence between Trump and Joe Biden — claiming that Biden’s political handicap is his age, while Trump’s corresponding handicap is his criminal indictments.
Rubbish. Trump is almost as old as Biden, and Trump’s ...Read more

The Connection Between Neofascism and Capitalism
As an ever-greater portion of the nation’s total wealth goes to the top, it’s hardly surprising that ever more of that wealth is corrupting American politics.
In the 2020 presidential election cycle, more than $14 billion went to federal candidates, party committees and Super PACs — double the $7 billion doled out in the 2016 cycle.
...Read more

Have they no sense of decency? Trump, his lackeys try to smear Judge Engoron’s law clerk
On Friday, Trump Republicans in the House turned their ire on the judge presiding over Trump’s civil fraud trial and his law clerk.
Representative Elise Stefanik, the third-ranking member of the House Republican leadership, filed an ethics complaint against Judge Arthur F. Engoron — claiming that the judge and his law clerk are biased ...Read more

The War is Causing My Students to Fear Each Other
I’m worried about my children. Not my biological ones — they’re fine — but my students, whom I think of as my children because I have taught them and counseled them and nurtured them for years.
They are at a time of their lives when they’re trying to figure out the meaning of social justice and their roles in seeking to advance it.
...Read more

The Inhumanity of Humans Toward Other Humans
Many of us feel overwhelmed by the brutality and hatefulness around us — in Israel and Gaza, in Russia’s continued attacks on Ukraine, in mass shootings here at home, in the violence and hostility that erupted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and continues to divide Americans, in Trump’s vicious lies and rants that fuel racism, ...Read more

We Accomplished So Much, but Couldn’t Stop the Storm
As Israel readies a ground invasion of Gaza — which in my view is likely to be a dreadful mistake, substituting revenge for strategy and killing many more thousands of innocent men, women, and children — my mind goes back 30 years to a world that seemed far simpler.
I was in the White House Rose Garden in September 1993, when Bill Clinton ...Read more

The Corrosiveness of Hate
I’m trying not to despair, but the world seems awash in hate right now. In the Middle East. In Ukraine and Russia. In rabid anti-immigrant movements in Europe. Among some Trump followers, including Trump Republicans in Congress.
Threats are mounting against Muslim Americans and Jewish Americans. On Saturday, outside of Chicago, a 6-year-old ...Read more

Trump’s Chaos Agenda: Reagan’s Negative View of Government Has Morphed into a Malevolent Anti-Democracy Fervor
Like most of you, I’ve been following the harrowing news about what’s occurring in Israel and Gaza — and, of course, Trump’s crazy attempt to blame it on Biden. “The horrible attack on Israel, much like the attack on Ukraine, would never have happened if I were President — zero chance!” he said with his usual modesty, even though ...Read more

Is the Trump Fever Starting to Break?
Is the Trump fever starting to break?
I’m feeling a bit more secure about the strength of our democracy this morning, notwithstanding Donald Trump’s escalating rants.
For one thing, a large bipartisan coalition in both chambers of Congress just beat back the House MAGA Republicans’ attempt to shut down the government.
This was a major ...Read more

Mr. President, Joining the Picket Line is a Good Start
Dear Mr. President:
Kudos for joining the UAW picket line tomorrow. You’re the first president to ever join a picket line.
But, please, don’t stop there.
Go on to criticize the CEOs of America’s big corporations who are now raking in more than 350 times what the average American worker is earning (in the 1950s, they took in 20 times).
...Read more

America Needs a New Sane Republican Party, and Here’s Who Should Lead It
Last Tuesday, former Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney tweeted this in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim that the criminal indictments of Trump are politically motivated:
“Putin has now officially endorsed the Putin-wing of the Republican Party. Putin Republicans & their enablers will end up on the ash heap of history. ...Read more

No Labels, No Fables, No Third-Party Betrayals
I had trouble sleeping recently. I made the mistake of looking at a lot of voting data before bedtime and then reading some of the BS being put out by the third-party group “No Labels,” as well as by my old friend Cornel West, who’s now running for president as the Green Party candidate. It was a mistake. It’s now 2 a.m. where I am, and ...Read more

What We All Must Try To Do if American Democracy Is To Survive
The week after Labor Day weekend usually signals the start of a return to serious business — summer vacations over and kids back to school, fiscal years ending and new ones beginning, cleaning up and battening down for winter.
This particular week after Labor Day also marks the start of a terrifyingly high-stakes ride for America — five ...Read more