Kudos not to Republican Senators John McCain, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins. All heroes of last summer's vote barring repeal of Obamacare, all seemingly concerned about normative Senate procedures, all at least minimally sensitive to protecting against societal inequities, all caved early this morning to the first step in a GOP strategy to undo The …
Category: Politics
Cutting taxes for rich isn’t tax reform
Let me get this right. A so-called tax “reform” bill that could screw up our economy, hurt millions of middle class families and is opposed by a strong majority of the American people is being rushed through the Republican-controlled Congress without serious deliberation simply because fat cat Republican donors have warned legislators that their campaign …
RoyMooreDonaldTrumpHarveyWeinsteinAlFrankenKevinSpaceyMarkHalperinRogerAilesLouisCK,Etc
Yecch! Al Franken was a boor. A jerk. A pig. A sexual assaulter. Not like serial offenders Roy Moore, Bill Clinton or Donald Trump, but on the sexually offensive spectrum nonetheless. In 2006, on a USO tour, a photographer took his picture mugging for the camera and appearing to grope the breasts of entertainer Leeann Tweeden, …
Trump’s Asia trip a failed opportunity
Just because Donald Trump didn't vomit on the Japanese Prime Minister the way George H. W. Bush did in 1992, didn't make the President's 12- day Asia trip a resounding success. Announcing billion dollar business deals negotiated prior to the trip, still only memoranda of understanding with hard details to follow, doesn’t rise to the …
Moving beyond zero-sum politics
It's hard not to feel good about last Tuesday's election results. Winning beats losing. Trying to tout losing by special congressional elections by ever-narrower margins doesn't cut it. Never mind that Virginia trends blue anyway and voted Democratic the last three Presidential elections and four of the last five gubernatorial races. Tuesday's special election victory …
Guns and other insanity
So, the consoler-in-chief has visited Las Vegas in the wake of a mass slaughter at a concert there, and, unlike yesterday's shameful performance in Puerto Rico, he stayed on script. He called the gunman "sick and demented, " but he refused to be drawn into discussing solutions to the mass killings. Don't look to Donald …
“What Happened?” Clinton gets it
"What Happened?" It's a question many have been asking at least daily for the last ten months. So it's an apt title for Hillary Clinton's new book, a reasonably clear-eyed analysis of the 2016 presidential election debacle. While she glosses over a few issues, she shows a surprising self-awareness and candor. In the end, "What …
Joe DeNucci, Contender for the People
Joe DeNucci won most of his fights in the ring and in politics. In a long series of majority decisions, he won his fight for the hearts of the people. But on Friday, at the age of 78, the state’s longest-serving auditor and before that five-term State Representative, lost his fight with Alzheimer’s disease. He …
Warning: watching polls may be hazardous to your health
Last Sunday, when the Cubs were down 3-1 to Cleveland, celebrated prognosticator Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight proclaimed that the Cubs had a smaller chance of winning the World Series than Trump did winning the presidency. More recently, he’s been soberly covering his bases, indicating why more reassuring predictions of a definite Clinton victory could be wrong. The …
Continue reading Warning: watching polls may be hazardous to your health
Slouching to November 8th
I voted early yesterday. Ten minutes before the City Hall polling place was to open a line was forming. Quickly 50 or 60 people joined the line. The stream was constant. To the extent that there was conversation, it was in dribs and drabs about this exciting new opportunity to cast ballots before election day. …
Marjorie Arons-Barron 