Farewell reflections from an American who has now lost his country: I quit the GOP 13 years ago. That wasn’t enough It was in 2011, amid the eruption of the Tea Party juvenile delinquents in the House of Representatives and the then-novel asininity of birtherism, that I called it quits after 28 years on Capitol Hill —…
Who Will Protect the Watchdogs?
Inspectors general have fought for accountability in U.S. government for decades, with varying success. They will be prime targets in a second Trump administration. Government service is like no other job. Most of the time, you’re a tiny cog in a huge machine. But on a handful of occasions, you do something important, something you…
The American Billionaires Who Fell In Love With Fascism Are Not the First
The ultra-rich will happily march us into a dictatorship if we let them. “The abuse of buying and selling votes crept in and money began to play an important part in determining elections. Later on, this process of corruption spread in the law courts and to the army, and finally, when even the sword became…
Why Can’t America Build Enough Weapons?
The debasement of the U.S. defense industrial base began, ironically, under Ronald Reagan, and won’t be reversed until we abandon the free-market fundamentalism he introduced. Published June 23, 2024 in Washington Monthly On the morning of August 1, 1943, a strike force of 178 B-24 four-engine bombers lifted off from airfields in North Africa to…
What a fool believes: Donald Trump and America’s bogus respect for “faith”
How religious “freedom” has been twisted into an all-out attack on critical thinking and the rule of law PUBLISHED JUNE 9, 2024 in Salon.com Two or three years ago it was just another snake cult. Now … they’re everywhere.— “Conan the Barbarian“ Last summer’s federal indictment of Donald Trump for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021,…
Reich is Wrong: A Revolt Against Laissez-Faire Did Not Make Fascism Popular
Racism and xenophobia fanned by GOP propaganda are what have brought us to the brink. Published May 21, 2024 in Commondreams Robert Reich is one of the good guys in public life. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s secretary of labor, Reich was a consistent advocate for the average worker. When he left office, he refrained…
Merrick Garland, Donald Trump and the fall of France
Garland’s plodding, cautious investigation undermined itself from the start — and played into Trump’s hands Published April 6, 2024 in Salon.com During the past three years, there have been numerous critics of the Justice Department under Attorney General Merrick Garland’s leadership. I have been among them. It did not seem encouraging that in one of his…