From the Left
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Lighting the Torches of Others for Women's History Month
Just in time for Women's History Month, there's an essay collection called "Fast Famous Women" releasing March 4. I'm honored to have contributed a chapter about iconic humor columnist Erma Bombeck. However, what's perhaps even more special about this collection is its editor. Gina Barreca, who holds a doctorate in English literature, is at ...Read more
Thank You for Your Diversity
I went out to buy envelopes Tuesday.
When you're semiretired, as I am, those small tasks become the day.
"Well," you say to your wife when you wake up, "I gotta go buy some envelopes today."
I walked to a chain drug store. They had envelopes. You got a box of 100 for $2.99.
The woman behind the cash register looked, as my father used to ...Read more

Bill Press: Who’s in charge? It’s not Donald Trump
No wonder the American people are confused. At first, it’s hard to know who’s actually running the country these days, the elected President Donald Trump or the unelected, unconfirmed “Shadow” President Elon Musk.
But take a closer look and there’s no doubt about it. Who stood alongside the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office last week ...Read more
He Needed Me, but I Let Him Down
The "he" in this case was Rusty, an ornery old mutt who didn't do the cute doggy things that get clicks on social media videos. He wouldn't "sit." He'd rarely lick my face. And if a baby was gurgling nearby, he'd go the other way.
But Rusty had two things going for him. He was part Chihuahua, which meant he was small with a cute face. ...Read more
Who Will Speak for You?
Good for Janet Mills, the governor of Maine. On Friday, at the White House, she did something that too many politicians have been afraid to do.
She stood up to President Donald Trump and stood for the rule of law.
The issue was Trump's threat to cut off federal funding for public education unless states comply with a recent executive order ...Read more
Musk Acting Fast as Trump's Macbeth
"If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly." - William Shakespeare, "Macbeth"
"Quickly" is the key word for Macbeth as he muses before the bloody murder of King Duncan of Scotland. He must do the deed with his dagger by night, while the court sleeps. Act now or not at all.
"Quickly" is the passcode for Elon Muck ...Read more
Ironically, Trump's Coup Attempt Is Uniting Americans to Fight for Their Common Good
The Trump-Musk administration thought they could just stomp on us and our Constitution, replacing democracy with a MAGA monarchy. But they had not reckoned with one fearsome opponent: Sen. Chuck Schumer.
The Senate's top Democrat says he's getting "furious" about the GOP's oligarchic coup attempt. Wow, he might even fire off one of his ...Read more
Bloody Hands, Legacy of Shame: Oct. 7 Stains America's Left
What remained of the bodies of 32-year-old Shiri Bibas, her 4-year-old son Ariel and her 9-month-old baby boy Kfir were returned to Israel last week. Autopsies showed that they had been brutally murdered by Hamas and Islamic Jihad after they were kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, and dragged, terrified, into Gaza. Hamas, which held the two Bibas boys ...Read more
NIMBY Needs a Lot of Defending
NIMBY stands for Not In My Backyard. It's often employed as a shaming tool to portray those unwilling to turn their neighborhoods over to developers as selfish or even racist. It's a weapon in efforts to plow through zoning laws put in place to preserve a sense of community and the comfort of continuity.
Some peddlers of builders' interests ...Read more
'Hope Is the Counter to Fear'
One of Daishi Miguel-Tanaka's earliest memories is walking into his first-grade class in California and being struck by how diverse the student body was.
"I saw kids of all shapes and colors holding their hands over their hearts (saying the pledge) under the American flag," Miguel-Tanaka recalls. "That was huge for me. I fell in love with ...Read more

Fire the Muskrat. Now.
Please call your members of Congress today and tell them Elon Musk must be fired. Immediately. (The U.S. Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121. Tell the operator where you’re from and the operator will connect you to your representatives and senators.)
This past weekend, Musk, the richest person in the world, posted a message to millions of ...Read more

Voter’s Remorse? Not Much, But Give It Time
Colorful billionaire and presidential adviser Elon Musk sparked quite a reaction at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington last week when he leaped around the stage waving a chainsaw.
“This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy. CHAINSAAAW!” he politics/fromtheleft/clarencepage/s-3609505">Read more
Is This What America Wants?
"But isn't there really a lot of waste, abuse and fraud in all the government spending?" my Uber driver asked.
I don't bring up these topics with strangers. Too dangerous. But my Uber driver raised it, wanting to know what I thought of Elon Musk and Donald Trump's latest doings in D.C. I thought I'd avoid the topic by just telling him I was a...Read more
One Word Describes What Trump Has Done
As Americans struggle to grasp President Donald Trump's reversal of American foreign policy, which abruptly overturned decades of cooperation with other democracies to contain authoritarian aggression, many observers have faltered.
Describing what Trump has done strains the usual vocabulary of analysts, who are still not fully prepared to ...Read more
A Movement Beats a Party Every Time
As Democrats continue to deconstruct the root causes of their recent defeat and attempt to regroup for next year's midterm elections, they might want to consider a new factor in American politics: the seductive power of a movement compared to a boring old party.
On the surface, the 60th American presidential election was the usual two-way ...Read more
Are You Ready To Believe In What's Possible? There's a Podcast for That
Shortly after the election, I decided to refocus my column. Instead of contributing to the vitriol found in much of the public discourse, I want to carve out space dedicated to shining a light on the people doing good work to help make this world a better place. I'm holding space for good. It's what I'm calling my column going forward.
This ...Read more
Me and Throop
Some people (fewer every decade) put a little sticker inside the front cover of books they own. It's called a "bookplate," and it tells people you own the book. Maybe it also makes people return the book when they borrow it from you. Sometimes the bookplate says, "From the library of," and then your name. You can have them made, and they're ...Read more

Put On Your Marching Shoes! Time to Hit the Streets!
As bad as it is, there are parts of the country where the damage already done by Donald Trump has not yet sunk in. But, as I discovered, Washington, D.C., is not one of them.
On Presidents’ Day, walking down the Capitol Mall, I came across a huge crowd, out in freezing weather, protesting the firing of federal employees. On the Metro a couple...Read more
Why Is Trump Sabotaging the U.S. Auto Industry?
If Chinese leader Xi Jinping wanted to take down the U.S. auto industry -- and he probably does -- he couldn't have a better helper than Donald Trump. The American president's tireless efforts to slow America's shift to electricity-run transportation is a dream come true for China as it leads the world in that transition.
Electric vehicles ...Read more
A Web of Disinformation
"You should have never started it," President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, accusing Ukrainian leaders of having started the war with Russia. "You could have made a deal." He followed up the next day on social media, branding Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine's leader, as a "dictator without elections" who had "done a terrible job" in office.
Even...Read more