Call it what it is: forced pregnancy

Facing 2024 elections, GOP strategists have come to understand the widespread anger spurred by their opposition to letting women control their own bodies. The issue is galvanizing voters, so Republicans want to seek a new name for the pro-life movement. Democrats, if they are wise, won't let them get away with it. A rose by …

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GOP debate: the elephant was in the room and outside too

He wasn't there in person, but Donald Trump was the big winner at the GOP's 2024 primary debate. In a display of cowardice and moral corruption, six of the eight candidates said that they would vote for Trump even if the former President were convicted of the crimes for which he has been charged. Just …

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Assigned reading for civics class: Trump Indictment

Trump and his acolytes are whining across media platforms that Tuesday's grand jury indictment of Donald Trump is a violation of his First Amendment rights. The villains, they complain, are the weaponization of the Department of Justice and the criminalization of ordinary political speech. Nothing could be further from the truth. Before anyone joins the …

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Summer reading a delicious pleasure

Reading books year-round is life-enhancing, but reading in summertime seems especially to be savored. Here are some non-fiction selections. The First Kennedys: The Humble Roots of an American Dynasty by Neal Thompson will fascinate anyone intrigued by the immigrant experience, Irish roots, old-time urban ward bosses and Boston politics in the late 19th-early 20th centuries. …

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What hath the Supreme Court wrought?

On this 247th celebration of our country's birth, any American who believes in the progress of civilization must be rattling in the throes of PTSD. Over the last two years, the Supreme Court has managed to wipe out half a century of gains in achieving several foundational promises of our Constitution. We are shocked and …

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SCOTUS decision: a big whew!

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against GOP legislators in North Carolina, who had claimed that they should have unreviewable powers to set the rules for their state's federal elections. The six-to-three decision (with Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito dissenting) affirms our fundamental principle of checks and balances. This decision has implications far beyond …

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GOP Trump defense: performative art or stupidity?

How can someone be an ostrich, a worm, a sheep, a jackal and a dodo all at the same time? It's no zoological mystery. Trump supporters in Congress - the House particularly - do it every day, even those who criticize him privately. So too do most of the other Republican Presidential candidates, most of …

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Charlie Baker – big mistake with Collins endorsement?

No, Charlie, we do not need more Senators like Maine's Susan Collins.  We don't even need Susan Collins.  What we do need is to flip the Senate and deal responsibly with Covid-19 impacts, revitalize environmental standards to halt climate change, launch an infrastructure jobs bill, reform voting laws, redress economic inequities, protect the Affordable Care …

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News of RBG death hits hard

News of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death Friday hit hard, but it did not come as a surprise.  She had been diagnosed with cancer five times since 1999 and fought back fiercely. When she succumbed, at the age of 87, she left hundreds of millions of people indebted to her for her lifelong battle for …

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Not too late for end-of-summer reading, pt. 1 non-fiction

When you're done reading James H. Barron's new sweeping biography and political thriller,  "The Greek Connection," (shameless plug!)  here are some other non-fiction possibilities for the last weeks of summer. Not everything has to be about Donald Trump! The Yellow House by Sarah Broom is a memoir of a New Orleans writer, the youngest of …

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