From the Left
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For the Mothers Who Didn't Have To Be
Last weekend I visited my aunt and uncle. Their 30-plus acres tucked into the foothills of Appalachia has been my place of refuge for more than 20 years. It's where my husband proposed to me, and it's where we return to again and again with our son. Last weekend, we enjoyed the birds and played in the garden, weeding, mulching and identifying ...Read more
The Pope's Nose
I saw a priest in the coffee shop Wednesday morning.
He was wearing a cassock, the long black robe with buttons down the front that Catholic priests wore everywhere until Vatican II.
The cassock might mean he's what they call a "trad Catholic," which is short for "traditional Catholic" and means you act the way every Catholic did in 1964, ...Read more

Clarence Page: Trump immigration crackdown enters the Twilight Zone
Kafkaesque.
One hears that word a lot in discussions of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Or, for lowbrows like me, "The Twilight Zone" might be the pertinent reference.
Abrego Garcia is the Maryland man who was wrongly deported and imprisoned without trial in a grim prison in El Salvador. In March, agents of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ...Read more
Politics and the Age of Politicians
Democrats are deep in debate over the age of their older leaders. Some need replacement, according to younger Democrats who want to replace them. And in some cases, they are right.
But these arguments turn toxic when they equate age with capability. Ageism is bad politics, especially when you look at the age of the electorate.
David Hogg, ...Read more
Cheers for Senator Thom Tillis
On Tuesday, Thom Tillis, a Republican senator from North Carolina and a key vote on the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced that he would not support the nomination of one of the most over-the-top Trumpers (I know, that's saying a lot) Ed Martin to be the U.S. attorney for Washington. Tillis told reporters that he had let the White House ...Read more
Black Lives Matter: Challenging Police Impunity
On May 3, 2024, Roger Fortson was on a video call with his girlfriend when a knock came at his door. Fortson, a 23-year-old Black man, was a Senior Airman in the U.S. Air Force, stationed in Florida. Okaloosa County Sheriff's Deputy Eddie Duran had responded to a domestic disturbance call at the apartment complex. Building staff directed him ...Read more
A Strange Exchange: Civil War, Writ Small
Scene: walking in Washington at dusk, looking around an old market neighborhood made new again. I'm coming from a book talk, searching the lively sidewalks for the Metro station.
A guy sees my shop bag and asks what book I'm reading. I show him: "Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History." Chris ...Read more
The Big Fool Says To Push On -- Better Yet, Push Back Against Him
Donnie Trump -- what a joker, huh?
Remember his promise to end Russia's war against Ukraine on Day One of his presidency? No joke, he bragged: "It'll be done within 24 hours. You watch."
Well, here we are at Day One Hundred, with the war still raging. So, President Donald Trump either lied ... or failed. But The Donald had a Joker up his ...Read more
Guys and Dolls: A Cringeworthy President Tells the Kids To Suck It Up
Hard to believe, but President Donald Trump seemed to be just making it up this past week, selling Americans the line that the bad economic news was, in fact, good economic news. Ever the real estate salesman and historically practiced at the art of con-artistry, he claimed that the collapse of financial markets since his inauguration, negative ...Read more
The Tariff Target on Roses Makes Zero Sense
May is usually the best month for florists, Mother's Day being a big reason. But Donald Trump's tariff war is raining pain on their bestselling season.
Pierson's Flower Shop and Greenhouse in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, expects customers to dial back on purchases because of higher prices forced by tariffs.
"We ship a lot from Europe, we ship a lot ...Read more
Your Questions Answered: Trump's First 100 Days
In the first 100 days of President Donald Trump's second term, we've seen a whirlwind of executive orders, policy proposals and media commentary that have left many of us questioning the future of our democracy. It can be hard to separate what's truly important, what's fact and what can be done to safeguard our rights. We believe that an ...Read more

Don’t call them ‘potential conflicts of interest’
Words matter. When the media points out Trump’s “potential conflicts of interest,” as it has in recent days when describing Trump’s growing crypto enterprise, it doesn’t come close to telling the public what’s really going on — unprecedented paybacks and self-dealing by the president of the United States, using his office to make ...Read more

Let’s Take Advantage of the Crime Downturn to Learn What’s Gone Right
Will Donald Trump have Chicago to kick around anymore?
That question, an update of Richard Nixon’s memorable farewell to news reporters as he dropped out of the California governor’s race in 1962, came to mind on the heels of some unusually welcome news about violent crime in Chicago.
The city finished April with only 20 reported murders, ...Read more
The Blame Game
This was the week that was supposed to be celebrated for the accomplishments of President Donald Trump's 100 days in office. It didn't turn out that way. The president rained on his own parade. The two biggest crises facing the new administration -- the rule of law and the economy -- according to him, have nothing to do with him. Blame the ...Read more
50 Years After the Fall of Saigon, Let's Accept Defeat
My mom had an uncanny ability to size up current events and accurately predict their long-term effects. Fifty years ago, I sat in my mom's colonial dining room and watched the fall of Saigon on her black-and-white TV with two folds of aluminum foil dangling from the rabbit ears. America was not riding high. A year earlier, gas rationing went ...Read more
Finding Your People Makes Life Better
When you know where you belong, it's easier to be yourself. As an adult with autism, Sara Lamb's search for belonging has been a long road, which is why I wanted to talk to her. Sara described herself as "quirky" and "shy." When she attended public school as a child, she felt like a "lone wolf." She said, "I just didn't have a lot of lasting ...Read more
His Mom Found His Pot
A word on generations. I'm from the "his mom found his pot" generation, which, speaking in substances, comes after the "Spanish fly makes girls crazy" generation and the "cocaine isn't really addictive, like heroin is" generation.
In other words, I graduated from high school in a proudly all-white, working-class Midwestern suburb in 1975.
...Read more

There’s No Real Future Without Empathy
From Gulf of America to mass expulsion of “illegals” (people of color) to continuing genocidal complicity in Gaza to whatever the daily news brings us … welcome to Trump America! Welcome to the small-minded, white nation so many long for, free once again from those large, inconvenient values – e.g., the Declaration of Independence – ...Read more
Canada Starts the Real Resistance to Trump
Most remarkable about the recent Canadian election is that patriotism rather than raw economic interest propelled voters to resist Donald Trump. Canadians rejected the MAGA-fied Conservative Party, despite an economy suffering from anemic growth and high housing costs, all pinned on Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party.
Trump's devastating tariff ...Read more
Sheer Lunacy
What do you do when you've screwed up so badly that any competent president would be demanding your resignation? Easy. Attack women.
That's the solution Pete Hegseth, reeling from an unauthorized disclosure of war plans to his wife (and his brother and his lawyer), adopted this week. On Tuesday, in what his leaking-like-a-sieve aides ...Read more