Can you hear the voice of the late John Spencer as Leo McGarry on The West Wing, whispering in your ear? “I’m tired of it! Year, after year, after year of having to choose between the lesser of who cares?”
Tag: history
A Place of One’s Own
A very good friend recently had a life-altering event. And it did not just change things going forward. It changed past, present, and future. Not only does it make him reconsider, wondering what his final role is in this neck of the universal woods, but it has profound implications for me, too.
Why I am Grateful to George Herbert Walker Bush
Unless you live under a rock (and probably even if you do), you’ve noticed the death of George Herbert Walker Bush, 41st President of the United States, on November 30, at age 94. You’ve probably also suffered through multiple personal remembrances of the man and his presidency — some positive, some negative, some mixed. Mine, which you may read below if you’re not already worn out on the topic, is of the latter variety.
In the House, Everything New is Old Again
House Democrats are raiding the Smithsonian’s dinosaur exhibits to fill their leadership positions. They’re tapping some younger faces for a few less powerful leadership positions, but the old guard — the politicians who lost Congress in 2010 — are simply stepping back into power as if the last eight years never happened.
Doing Justice to Trump’s “Invasion” Claim
It’s perverse to characterize a migrant “caravan” — a group of civilian non-combatants, many of them women and children, moving from one place to another in search of safety, freedom and livelihood — as an “invasion.” Is the morning commute of millions of workers into every major American city an “invasion?” More than 1 in 10 Americans move each year — often across city, county, even state “borders.” Are they “invaders?”
“Red Flag Laws”: Rights Can’t be “Suspended,” Only Violated
Hanna Scott of Seattle’s KIRO radio reports that prosecutors in Washington are wrestling with the question of whether or not the state’s “Red Flag law” applies to minors, and trying to stretch it to do so. Under the “law,” Scott writes, a judge can issue an “Extreme Risk Protection Order” to “temporarily suspend a person’s gun rights, even if they haven’t committed a crime.”
Two Numbers That Explain Why Trump Won’t Sanction Saudi Arabia
No later than December of 2002, and presumably before that, the US government knew that the 9/11 hijackers had received significant funding and support from Saudi government officials and members of the Saudi royal family. That information remained classified until 2016, when 28 previously redacted pages from Congress’s official 9/11 report were finally released to the public — and still “friendly” relations between Washington and Riyadh continued without interruption.
On Colonialism
Mine is an admittedly amateurish review of the history of colonialism, but two themes stick out: 1) colonialists primarily desire the physical resources and additional tax cattle of those they are colonizing, and 2) colonialists sell this to its useful idiots (nobles, priests, peasants, and soldiers) as a moral obligation to bring their obviously superior…
Hypocrisy Alert: Republicans Agreed with Ocasio-Cortez Until About One Minute Ago
When congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) confessed her personal financial dilemma — “I have three months without a salary before I’m a member of Congress. So, how do I get an apartment? Those little things are very real” — to the New York Times, guffaws broke out on the right.
Scott Gottlieb’s Nicotine Nazism Will Kill Kids, Not Save Them
On November 15, US Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced new measures regulating the sale of products that seem to reduce the negative health impacts of nicotine addiction — in the name of protecting children from those health impacts. Oddly, Gottlieb also announced a plan to dramatically increase the availability and variety of flavored cigarettes — in the name of banning them.