Today’s pop quiz: In the election of 1860, how many popular votes did Abraham Lincoln receive in the Southern states? Answer: None. The Southern states refused to allow Lincoln’s name, or that of any Republican, to appear on their ballots. I was reminded of good old Dixie’s commitment to democracy earlier this week, when California […]
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The Idiocy of Campaign Coverage
Please excuse this rant. Today’s offender is, once again, the best of the mainstream media, The New York Times. Two items, actually. Exhibit A: Front page, Sunday piece on Kamala Harris. Print Headline: “Pragmatism, not Ideology, Defines Harris.” OK, for starters, this is a completely false framing. There is no such thing as a politician […]
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Taxing Remittances? How About Taxing the Rich When They Send Their Money Abroad?
The Trump hath tweeted, and proclaimed that he wants to subject Guatemalan imports to tariffs, and to subject the remittances that Guatemalan immigrants in the United States send back to their families in Guatemala to a tax. What, you may ask, has the little Central American nation done to deserve such treatment? Simple: Its Supreme […]
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Politicians Stop Being Polite and Start Getting Real-Time
In 2019, it’s still the case in America that if you deposit a check or have funds wired into your bank account, it can take up to five days for you to access your money. This puts the United States behind such advanced economies as India, Poland, and Kenya, the latter of which has had […]
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Going Up in Economic Ratings? Then Lose Trickle-Down.
This month, CNBC came out with its annual list of America’s Top States for Business, a ranking on which states don’t move up or down very much from one year to the next. Which is why attention must be paid, as Americans for Tax Fairness has pointed out, to one massive exception to this rule. […]
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Al Franken in Perspective
The New Yorker’s indefatigable Jane Mayer has written the definitive piece on the Franken affair. In it, she conclusively establishes that Franken’s main accuser, Leeann Tweeden, of the 2006 USO tour incident, was acting as a right-wing operative, a birther no less. Tweeden, Mayer documents, had participated in identical Franken skits involving fended off kisses […]
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Bolton, Trump, and American MEMRI
Bolton, Trump, and American MEMRI. The Middle East Media Research Institute, better known as MEMRI, calls itself a hate-speech watchdog, translating Arabic, Farsi, Turkish, and Urdu sound bites into English and posting them for mass consumption. Mideast watchers know it as a hawkish, fear-mongering nonprofit that cherry-picks the most extreme voices from Arabic talk shows […]
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Large Crowd Rallies to Stop Private-Equity Hospital Closure in Philadelphia
Health professionals, patients, and lawmakers savaged private-equity baron Joel Freedman for the proposed closure of Hahnemann University Hospital at a noontime rally in Center City, Philadelphia, today. What looked to be over a thousand supporters and activists turned out, shutting down part of Broad Street and condemning Freedman as a “coward” and a “disgrace” who […]
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Another Stop Sign for Self-Driving Cars
Elon Musk is unhappy: Somehow his grand vision of allowing every Tesla owner to sleep in the back of the car while they’re whisked around to work and play hasn’t come to fruition. According to an article at The Information, Musk has fired several top managers working on Tesla’s “Autopilot” feature, including the group’s leader, […]
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Trump’s Clumsy Dance With the Federal Reserve
It’s hilarious to watch the three-way dance between the economy, the stock market, and Trump’s hapless effort to fill two open seats on the Federal Reserve. Or, it would be hilarious if the stakes were not so high. Alert readers will recall that Trump has been badgering the Fed to push interest rates even lower, […]
