From the Left
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Suddenly, Retribution Changes Sides
The Harris-Walz campaign radiates sunshine and good times to come. Donald Trump, on the other hand, spreads gloom through his lame insults and crazy delusions. What's happening is that Trump's nastiness now bounces like a pink Spalding ball off the Democrats' reinforced concrete of jubilation. The superior crowd sizes and tightening poll ...Read more
Religious Freedom on Campus
"Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith. This fact is so unimaginable and so abhorrent to our constitutional guarantee of religious freedom that it bears repeating."
So wrote Judge Mark C. Scarsi in issuing a preliminary injunction this week to three Jewish students who sued...Read more
The Trump Crack-Up
As the Harris-Walz team soars (polls are already showing Kamala taking the lead), Trump is cracking up.
His ego can’t take it. He is freaking out that his opponent — a Black woman — has more energy and momentum behind her than he has.
Last Thursday, after 10 days of Kamala in the limelight, Trump was so desperate for attention that he ...Read more
Walz Catches Light, Leaves Trump in Dark
With one word, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz changed the public conversation: "joy." That word stumped and trumped former President Donald Trump's brand of rage. He looks fit to be tied in that very long red tie.
When Walz joined Vice President Kamala Harris as her running mate, he thanked her for bringing back the joy in politics. He added, the ...Read more
A Flock of Rich Plutocratic Democrats Want Lina Khan's Head. Why?
We've recently learned about Project 2025, the GOP's scheme to let corporate agents take over our government. But what about the less visible effort to make Democrats install corporate-subservient officials who'll expand their monopoly power?
High-finance finaglers of Wall Street and Silicon Valley are quietly demanding that Kamala Harris ...Read more
Too Close for Comfort: The Pro-Hamas Crowd Dislikes the KKK Comparison
Families paying $100,000 a year to send their kid to Columbia University shouldn't think they're not getting their money's worth. Extracurricular activities aren't limited to Ultimate Frisbee and the fencing club, because there's ever so much more to choose from. There's the student group known as Columbia University Apartheid Divest, one of ...Read more
Will Walz Keep Nebraska's Blue Dot Blue?
The 2024 presidential election, we are told, will be decided in a handful of battleground states. The race is so tight that a single Electoral College vote could determine the outcome. And that explains the great focus on Nebraska's 2nd congressional district, which often votes Democrat but not always.
Nebraska is one of only two states that ...Read more
How Kamala Harris Can Secure Federal Abortion Protection Once and For All
The Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade set off a wave of new attacks on abortion, causing a catastrophic public health crisis and rapidly eroding our civil liberties and reproductive freedom. So far, 14 states have banned abortion completely, and others have severely limited access to abortion by criminalizing it after the ...Read more
Why ‘Stolen Valor’ Political Fights Are So Intense -- and Misplaced in the Cases of Walz and Vance
While the saying may be true that candidates for vice president usually don’t make much of a difference in the ultimate success of presidential candidates, they do give us plenty to argue about.
That’s particularly true of the current contenders.
Vice President Kamala Harris seemed to barely have gotten the name of her chosen running mate,...Read more
The Trump Crack-Up
As the Harris-Walz team soars (polls are already showing Kamala taking the lead), Trump is cracking up.
His ego can’t take it. He is freaking out that his opponent — a Black woman — has more energy and momentum behind her than he has.
Last Thursday, after 10 days of Kamala in the limelight, Trump was so desperate for attention that he ...Read more
Crazy
Donald Trump is clearly flailing. He has reportedly taken to complaining about his campaign, which candidates tend to do when they are looking for someone to blame. He is, in the words of The Washington Post, "steaming" at what has happened to him. This is what he posted on Truth Social on Tuesday afternoon:
"What are the chances that Crooked ...Read more
Don't Get Obama'd Again
Then-Sen. Barack Obama's 2008 run, a classic identity play, emphasized the history-making potential of electing the nation's first Black president. No one knew or cared much about Obama's policy positions, and he didn't bother to share them. Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2016 and 2020 bids were policy arguments focused around a succinct set of issues: ...Read more
Military Service, Partisan Smears and the Parody of Patriotism
The Trump campaign's attack on the military record of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz -- who served honorably as a volunteer in the National Guard for 24 years -- invites us to remember the military service of former President Donald J. Trump.
Except there isn't anything to remember concerning Trump's military service since he never served. Neither ...Read more
The Olympics Teach Us To Practice Good Sportsmanship in Our Everyday Lives
I don't have a favorite Olympic sport. I'm not an athlete. High school marching band was my team sport. But I do love the Olympic Games, and for me, it's all about the stories -- stories of perseverance, camaraderie and sportsmanship. I love watching athletes show us what they're made of and who they really are by how they rise to the ...Read more
J.D. Vance and Poverty Snobbery
Q: What's a "hillbilly marriage counselor"?
A: A 2 x 4
Hoo hoo! That shore is funny, Zeke! Pass me the jug!
Used to be, if you had embarrassing relatives, you kept 'em out of town until the race for county commissioner was over.
If you had an Italian last name and you were running for office in Connecticut in 1960, and your Uncle Joey the ...Read more
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz: The Perfect Fit!
Pinch me. The political skies have been cloudy for so long, it’s hard to believe we’re now bathed in sunlight. But are we ever! So real and so sudden. As Gilbert and Sullivan once rhapsodized, “Oh joy, oh rapture unforeseen.”
Indeed, the world’s turned upside down in just the last two weeks. All for the better. Joe Biden stepped aside...Read more
Usha Can't Neuter J.D.'s Cat Lady Musings
Republicans handed Usha Vance the unenviable task of cleaning up her husband's history of hostile comments regarding women. Alas, she tried.
Specifically, Usha attempted to dismiss J.D. Vance's trashing of "childless cat ladies" as a "quip." A "quip" is a witty or clever remark, often characterized by its brevity. Had Donald Trump's running ...Read more
A Safe and Smart Choice
From my point of view, it was the best night of the 1988 general election campaign. It was the night of the vice presidential debate. With a single comment, Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, the Democratic nominee for vice president, skewered Sen. Dan Quayle, his Republican counterpart. "I knew Jack Kennedy," he said. "Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. And...Read more
If Kamala Harris is a DEI Vice President, is Usha Vance a DEI Bride?
The Indian-American duo of Usha Vance and Kamala Harris will challenge stereotypes. Welcome to the new, improved 2024 presidential campaign.
No matter how this plays out, a woman of Indian-American descent will be moving her influence into the White House.
She’ll either be the President of the United States Kamala Harris, or the wife of the ...Read more
Virtual Fences: Are We All 'Phono Sapiens' Now?
Free things are now being colonized across social spaces and public squares. Since 2020, for example, togetherness at work retreated to the private virtual sphere.
There's no better time to beware the social price we pay for privatizing time, water, air, news, and human attention and conversation.
America is enmeshed in a loneliness epidemic...Read more