“You see the mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why would you take the Fifth Amendment?” Stupid question if you understand the basic principles of the Constitution. But an ironic question if posed by America’s hypocrite-in-chief, Donald Trump, who made the remark in a speech in Council Bluff, Iowa in 2016. This week, the same man took …
Author: aronsbarron
Signs of hope and despair in Tuesday’s primaries
Tuesday's primaries in Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Arizona, and Washington all sent important and conflicting messages. The high point was in Kansas. By an unexpectedly large 20-point margin, this thoroughly red state defeated a move to eliminate from the state constitution protections for abortion. It sent waves of hope to Democrats across the country that Republican …
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January 6 Committee wraps up Chapter One
It is the end of the beginning; I wish it were the beginning of the end. I have seen every minute of these riveting, often jaw-dropping sessions. While the events were known in their broad contours prior to the hearings, the Committee's meticulous documentation and building of the timeline before, during and after the January …
Novels to indulge in during summer
We may be transfixed by the January 6 hearings, but, when Donald Trump is back invading our dreams at night after 18 months absence, we can benefit mightily from a summertime escape into fiction. Horse by Geraldine Brooks is a tour de force. A gifted, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, Brooks has used thoroughbred racehorse Lexington, raised …
Free Press: Clarence Thomas’ next target?
For maximum impact, play the soundtrack of Jaws. An assault on press freedom may not be imminent, but it's looming. For full details, see today's issue of Washington Monthly, with a front-page article on the gathering storm. James H. Barron (yes, he's the same author of the critically acclaimed The Greek Connection) documents the erosion …
Independence Day – A Call to Arms
Women's reproductive rights; pollution regulation and climate change; separation of church and state; Native American rights; gun safety - the alt-Right U.S. Supreme Court has dealt a series of severe blows to hopes for an enlightened society. In all those areas, the Court is taking the country back to where it was when I was …
SCOTUS decisions: rage and grief the order of the day
In the last 24 hours, the Supreme Court has made it easier to kill people as long as it's with a gun, but it has barred women from removing from their own bodies embryonic or fetal material not viable as human beings-- even if caused by rape or incest. SCOTUS has taken a wildly absolutist …
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50th anniversary of Watergate break-in
Op ed alert. Jim Barron, author of The Greek Connection: the life of Elias Demetracopoulos and the Untold Story of Watergate, is part of The Washington Post's 50th anniversary coverage of the infamous bungled burglary in today's edition of the newspaper that broke the story 50 years ago today. Check out his article on the …
Late spring reading, pt. 2 – fiction
Want to escape temporarily from news stories about the carnage in Ukraine, the originalist black hole of the Supreme Court, accelerating inflation and the toxic swill of MAGAism? Here are four novels with the potential to take you away from it all. The Rent Collector by Camron Wright is a gift for lovers of literature, …
Late spring reading, pt. 1 – non-fiction
Hiding out from the headlines? These non-fiction selections may not transport you above the gloom emanating from the news media, but they may illuminate contemporary themes in a deeply satisfying way. Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath by Bill Browder picks up from his previous book Red …
Marjorie Arons-Barron 