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Hatchet Job Haven: The Justice Department Gets Torched
"Everything she writes," Mary McCarthy famously said about playwright Lillian Hellman, "is a lie -- including 'and' and 'the'." Historians wrestling with how Americans permitted their democracy to be so badly debased during the President Donald Trump era will have to first assess why so many millions of us consumed patent falsehoods so eagerly...Read more
From President to Profit
Donald Trump's approval numbers continue to crater. Even Republicans have cooled on the president's performance. But the president shows no sign of noticing, nor is he changing his ways. Even his gaslighting has gone wan. He's failed to make Americans believe that prices are going down when they're clearly not.
What gives? Why isn't he trying...Read more
When Officials Disrupt the Peace in the Name of Preserving It
For decades I have been hearing the old courtroom saying about how a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich if given the chance, but I never expected to see it happen.
What the saying conveys is that grand juries, which approve or reject charges to go to trial, only hear from one side, the prosecution, and only have to find probable cause to ...Read more
Musk and Mamdani: The end of harsh capitalism?
Last week, two things happened that may shed some light on where American capitalism is heading.
First, Tesla’s board caved in to Elon Musk’s demand that he get a pay package of $1 trillion (if he meets various goals).
Musk’s trillion-dollar pay package is so grotesque as to make a mockery of the most ardent free-market capitalists. ...Read more
Shutdown Politics
It has been a terrifying week for the one in eight Americans who depend on food stamps -- the SNAP program -- to feed their families. Would they be eating this month?
With two federal lawsuits and two federal judges breathing down the administration's neck, President Donald Trump took to social media this week to threaten to withhold SNAP ...Read more
The Mamdani Latte
"Put a little extra caramel on that latte," I told the young woman at Dunkin' Donuts. "If you know what I mean."
"Sure," she said, drizzling a little more caramel on the mountain of whipped cream that topped my decaf white chocolate latte.
Maybe she didn't know what I meant. Maybe she did. She was a perfectly nice woman with a slight ...Read more
Jubilation!
It feels good, doesn’t it?
Democrats deserve to break out into a full-throated chorus of “Happy Days are Here Again” after their amazing string of victories on November 4.
There’s no way Donald Trump or MAGA fanatics can spin it otherwise. For Democrats, this was a total blowout. A governor’s race in Virginia; a governor’s race in ...Read more
The Test for a Conservative Court
Is the Supreme Court really a conservative court, bound by conservative principles of statutory construction and judicial review, or is it President Donald Trump's Court, ready to do his bidding, no matter how radical it may be? This week's tariff cases, challenging the president's power to unilaterally impose whatever tariffs he chooses, will...Read more
Pregnant and Postpartum Women Face Neglect and Abuse in ICE Detention
*Names have been changed to protect identities
Shackled and chained while miscarrying, denied prenatal care, given inadequate food and water -- these are the conditions that pregnant women in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention must endure.
Despite its own directive advising against detaining pregnant individuals, ICE has ...Read more
Hegseth’s War on 'Woke' is An Assault on American History
When Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered the cancellation of any official observance of “cultural awareness” months in the military service, I immediately wondered what it would mean for the legacy of Milton Olive.
In case you didn’t know, Milton Lee Olive III was the first Black American soldier to receive the Medal of Honor in the...Read more
Trump's Attempt To Roll Back Key Civil Rights Enforcement Tool
On April 23, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at narrowing civil rights protections and directing federal agencies to roll back the use of the disparate impact standard in "all contexts to the maximum degree," including across housing, lending, employment, education and health care. The order represents a major reversal ...Read more
Obama Challenges Trump’s Remap Power Grab
Friends who are frustrated by the current White House regime still ask me, “Where is Obama?” As if he might miraculously arise again in the political skies like Mighty Mouse singing, “Here I come to save the day!”
Dream on, I point out. Having served two full terms, Obama has maxed out of his constitutional eligibility.
But, behind the...Read more
Louisiana's Black Voting Power Is On the Line in Redistricting Fight
When Louisiana finally won a second majority-Black district in 2024, I felt a weight lift from my shoulders. For decades, Black voters like me knew that having only one voting district where we could be heard was not enough to reflect a third of the state's population. So when the state gained a second seat, I thought of those who fought ...Read more
Hegseth’s New Rules for Journalists Won't Make America Safer
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has done it again.
As his latest outrage touched off an unprecedented revolt by almost every media outlet covering the Pentagon, I once again was reminded of my own Army days when we called it the “five-sided funhouse,” although not within earshot of the “brass,” our superior officers.
The headquarters of...Read more
Your Questions Answered: How To Push Back on Abuses of Power
In his first nine months back in office, President Donald Trump has abused his power to attack our neighbors and communities, suppress free speech and create a climate of fear. The president has deployed military troops and federal agents into our cities. He has threatened nonprofit organizations, universities and political opponents who don't ...Read more
Pam Bondi Faces Critics, 'Burns' Them
A lot of political figures are understandably nervous about facing a Senate committee probe.
Not Pam Bondi.
In more than four hours of testimony Tuesday to the Senate Judiciary Committee, she responded to the most polite questions with the air of contempt worthy of her boss, President Trump, who tends to react to the idea of accountability as ...Read more
Welcome to the World of MAGA Machismo, Where Muscles Trump Brains
Ladies and gentleman, here is your United States Senate, then and now:
Sen. Daniel Webster on March 7, 1850: “It is fortunate that there is a Senate of the United States (with) a just sense of its own dignity, and its own high responsibilities, and a body to which the country looks with confidence for wise, moderate, patriotic, and healing ...Read more
Trump and his lawyers think he can get away with anything. It's outlandish.
WASHINGTON -- "The king can do no wrong." That is the ancient legal maxim used to explain why a sovereign should not be held to account for misdeeds. President Trump and his lawyers are now making arguments that make this legal doctrine look wimpy. Their vision boils down to: The king can do whatever wrong he damn pleases, and there's nothing ...Read more




















































