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Here’s the Real Cause of Our Growing National Debt
Last Friday, the credit rating of the United States was downgraded. Moody’s, the ratings firm, announced that the U.S. government’s rising debt levels will grow further if the Trump Republican package of new tax cuts is enacted. This makes lending to the United States riskier.
(Moody’s is the third of three major credit-rating agencies to...Read more

Trump Embraces South Africans — the White Ones
President Trump’s refugee policy reminds me of what automaker Henry Ford supposedly said about his company’s Model T:
“A customer can have a car painted any color he wants as long as it’s black.”
So it is with the Trump administration’s policy toward refugees who are fleeing war or political persecution, albeit with a color ...Read more
Stopping Trump's Qatar Airliner Scam
Eager to accept a luxury airliner from the government of Qatar, President Donald Trump is testing the limits of Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Usually eager to behave like the servile puppies that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) once described with scorn (before becoming one himself), at least a handful of GOP elected officials seem worried that this "...Read more
How Zionism Causes Antisemitism
Antisemitism as we know it has resulted from a complex witch's brew of historical stereotypes, economic resentments, ignorance and political extremism. Antisemites believe that Jewish people "have too much power," "have too much control and influence," and "are more willing than others to use shady practices to get what they want."
A central, ...Read more
One Tech Corporation's Legacy: Lifting Communities and Preserving Land
Washington's "tech bros" dominate the news with how they use their wealth to influence politics. It's easy to forget that some leaders of industry actually use their success to contribute to causes with an eye on the greater good. I'm not just talking about billionaires such as Bill Gates, who recently announced that his foundation will give ...Read more
Sleazin' on a Jet Plane
When I was much younger than I am right now, I got a new job.
I'd been out of work for a while before I got the job, but I had some freelance work and some money in the bank, and I lived cheap.
A small number of people worked there, and it was at least a little cozy, and I was new in town.
And I wasn't there too long before it was almost ...Read more

Leo XIV: A worthy successor to Pope Francis
“ Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum: Habemus Papam.”
“I announce to you a great joy: We have a Pope.” On Thursday, May 8, 2025 with that famous Latin formula, the whole world learned that the College of Cardinals had elected a new pope to succeed Pope Francis.
Ending my six-week sabbatical in Europe, I was in St. Peter’s Square that ...Read more
The Political Message from Omaha Should Be Obvious
As I flew into Omaha for the first time, the only thing visible from my descending plane was cornfields. You could even see the tassels. I was wondering, where is the city?
There certainly was a city, with a world-class medical center, famous zoo and great nightlife. Old school steakhouses mixed with Persian and Asian restaurants. Anyone who ...Read more
States of Resistance: A Way Forward
Resistance: a watchword for our times.
The state of Wisconsin is showing us how, above all 49 others.
In Washington, a senator and congressman heeded the call.
To inspire us, first Wisconsin stood up to the Trump-Musk blitzkrieg in a state Supreme Court race. Elon Musk spent $20 million to back a right-wing Republican.
That obscene outside...Read more
My Church is a Farmer's Market -- And Vice Versa
Well, habemus papam. Welcome, Pope Leo! Bless him ... and us.
I hope no one thinks I am blasphemous, but I go to a church nearly every Saturday that is not denominational. It isn't held in any sort of ornate cathedral, temple or mosque. It's a plain wooden, open-air shed with a metal roof and a loose brick floor -- but it's filled with ...Read more
Counterweight: A New Pope Heralds A Blessed Contrast
The decline in religiosity in America is oft-noted and well-documented, as survey upon survey demonstrates. Gallup reports that while 44% of Americans said in 2000 they attended services weekly, by 2023 that figure had dropped to 32%. The percentage of Americans who identified with a particular religion likewise fell during that period.
But ...Read more
Without a SALT Fix, the Republican Majority May Be Doomed
At least six congressional Republicans are demanding a radical fix in the 2017 tax law targeting residents of high-income states. If they don't get it, they may sink Donald Trump's tax-and-spending package, his "one big beautiful bill."
And who can blame these reps from New York, New Jersey and California? At issue is the unfair cap on the ...Read more
Voters Reject President Trump's Dystopian Plans for 'Public Safety'
President Donald Trump has been pushing mass deportations, aggressive law enforcement measures and a sweeping expansion of the death penalty as the path to public safety -- all while cutting the very programs that actually make communities safer.
Voters aren't buying it.
New research from the American Civil Liberties Union, conducted in ...Read more

The Grift That Keeps on Grifting
Trump is overplaying his hand.
Not just by usurping the powers of Congress and ignoring Supreme Court rulings. Not just abducting people who are legally in the United States but have put their name to opinion pieces Trump doesn’t like and trucking them off to “detention” facilities. Not just using the Justice Department for personal ...Read more

Pope Leo XIV Seems Well Loved, But for How Long?
Once loyal Chicagoans got over the double shock of hearing that a local native, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, has been named the 267th pope, some critically important, locally familiar questions came up:
Which parish is he from?
Sox fan or Cubs fan?
And what bearing will his papacy have on the Great Pizza Schism, under which the local deep...Read more
The Perfect Trump Story
It's the perfect Trump story, one that tells you everything. It begins, as so many of them do, with a candidate whose qualification for high office is appearing on Fox News, proving once again that talking about something on television -- and looking good -- is not the same thing as actual experience.
In this case, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a ...Read more
Trump Is Shocking But Not New
The philosopher Nigel Warburton shrugged: "Users of slippery slope arguments should take skiing lessons -- you really can choose to stop." But slippery slopes are a thing precisely because people often choose to keep cruising along until they smash into Sonny Bono's tree.
Critics from both parties describe Donald Trump's behavior and policies...Read more
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

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