To whatever extent rational calculation plays a part in Donald Trump’s thinking on the shutdown, it would have to be premised on his belief that the Democrats will finally end it lest the toll of the human suffering it causes grow too great. Consider the numbers: The shutdown is not only causing major economic distress […]
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A Break from Walls, Shutdowns, and Tweets
The poet Mary Oliver died at 83 yesterday. I hope you’ve encountered her work.  She is the great poet of being human, a lyrical poet who managed to touch a large audience with her simplicity and eloquent insight about making meaning from everyday wonder. Here is part of one of her best, from her […]
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“All Right Then, We Are Two Nations”
That’s what John Dos Passos wrote in his great USA trilogy, recounting the divisions in the country at the time of the 1927 execution of Sacco and Vanzetti—another season when nativism was running high and Italians were viewed by many “older stock” Americans as an inherently dangerous population. Plus ca change: In a survey released […]
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Seth Moulton, What Were You Thinking?
Like a fine wine, Nancy Pelosi just gets better with age. Disinviting Trump to give the State of the Union address in the people’s House, of which she is now speaker, is a stroke of genius. It must be driving Trump nuts, if that’s not redundant. Trump is simply not accustomed to strong women, much […]
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The Emerging 2020 False Choice: “Just Beat Trump” or “Progressive Change?”
According to a story in today’s New York Times, “the most consequential political question facing the Democratic Party is whether liberals will insist on imposing policy litmus tests on 2020 presidential hopefuls, or whether voters will rally behind the candidate most capable of defeating the president even if that Democrat is imperfect on some issues.” […]
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More Hedge Fund Predators Buying Up Newspapers
You may have missed it, but an outfit called Digital First Media (DFM) is trying to buy the Gannett newspaper chain. Last year, I wrote a lengthy investigative piece on how private equity and hedge fund companies like DFM are destroying what’s left of America’s metropolitan dailies. You can read about it here. The basic […]
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Happy Birthday, Alex Hamilton!
Facebook probably didn’t alert you—he didn’t have an account—but today is the birthday of Alexander Hamilton. He was born on January 11, 1757. Why does this matter? Well, Hamilton might have a lot to say about our current situation. First, he was very much of an infrastructure guy. He wrote America’s first industrial policy, his […]
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How the Shutdown Ends
It will likely end one of two ways. An increasingly demented Trump could go ahead and declare a national emergency, order the military to build the wall—and his order will end up being quickly reviewed by the Supreme Court. It’s not quite a slam-dunk that the Court would approve it, because Chief Justice Roberts is […]
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Governor Newsom and the Return of Laboratories of Democracy
This week, a number of states are swearing in new Democratic administrations. California, of course, was Democratic before November’s election, but it’s more so now, with Gavin Newsom taking the oath yesterday to succeed Jerry Brown as governor, and with the share of Democrats in each house of the legislature rising from just under two-thirds […]
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Needed for the Democrats—a Process of Elimination
With more than two dozen Democrats likely to declare for president, how on earth do they stage debates? We all remember what happened with the Republicans in 2016. With an immense field, there was no discussion of issues; it quickly turned even more nasty and personal than usual, paving the way for the most negative […]
