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Children Are Now Running Our Big Cities
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani earned national attention in a not-good way when he recorded himself in front of Ken Griffin's Manhattan home revealing the billionaire's address. He tapped the lens in a threatening manner and said guys like Griffin are going to pay more taxes.
Griffin is the founder and CEO of Citadel, a giant hedge fund. ...Read more
I Couldn't Make This Up
You wouldn't believe me if I did.
The Treasury Department takes $1.8 billion ($1.776 billion, to be exact) from the Judgment Fund, a fund that is used to pay settlement claims without congressional approval, and sets it aside for partisan payoffs. What's being called the "anti-weaponization fund" will pay claims of President Donald Trump ...Read more
The Trump Takeover Is Almost Done
Are we almost at the point of no return? Let America be America again, please, in a post-Donald Trump world.
Rebuilding our institutions, arts and trust in government is not a sure thing. Given a global economic, environmental or medical crisis, the endeavor could cross country boundaries, as natural historian David Attenborough said, in "an ...Read more
The Inequality Merry-Go-Round Built By Stanley Tools
In this day of AI smart tools, it's easy to forget that we humans once relied on "dumb" hand tools like saws, drills, screwdrivers and wrenches.
For decades, a major maker of these trusty instruments has been a company in New Britain, Conn., appropriately named The Stanley Works.
Today, having taken over other big brands like Craftsman and ...Read more
Losing Abe: A Giant Passes at a Particularly Bad Time
In the late 1940s, when clever-sounding defenses of Soviet totalitarianism had overtaken certain fashionable political circles in Britain, George Orwell publicly addressed one leftist's soft spot for totalitarianism. He noted that the fellow did adamantly deny it. "Of course he does," Orwell wrote. "What would you expect him to do? A ...Read more
What's So Bad About a Stable Population?
Back in 1969, President Richard Nixon warned Congress against the rapid growth of the American population: "When future generations evaluate the record of our time, one of the most important factors in their judgment will be the way in which we responded to population growth."
If the American headcount continued rising at the current rate, ...Read more
Your Questions Answered: What Is Redistricting and Why Should We Care?
Redistricting is the process of drawing the lines of districts from which public officials are elected. When redistricting is conducted fairly, it accurately reflects population changes and our diverse communities and is used by legislators to equitably allocate representation in Congress and state legislatures. When politicians use ...Read more
Feeling 'Under-Babied'? More Like Underpaid and Overburdened
It was just my luck last week that as my column on the fertility crisis was being laid out in newspaper pages and posted to websites, the sharpest minds of the Trump administration were gathered in the Oval Office to hold forth ... on the fertility crisis.
Bad timing is an occupational hazard. But something made it a little more painful for me....Read more
Has Trump’s Republican Party Become a Criminal Enterprise?
On Saturday, Trump took revenge on Louisiana senator Bill Cassidy for Cassidy’s vote five years ago to convict Trump, in his second impeachment, for instigating an attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Cassidy thereby became the first GOP senator defeated by a Trump-endorsed candidate in a Republican primary. (Other Republican senators who have stood ...Read more
MAGA's Idea Factory Has Closed
Donald Trump's three presidential campaigns were contests between establishment and insurgent, steadfastness versus change, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" against "burn it all down."
Trump did not offer new ideas. Rather, the vagueness of MAGA and America First promised an idea-generation machine powered by a pair of nationalist principles. ...Read more
Police Failed Katelyn Hall. So Did America's Health Care System.
On March 27, the Louisville Metro Police Department in Louisville, Kentucky, responded to a 911 call requesting help for someone experiencing a mental health emergency. When police arrived, Katelyn Hall had locked herself in the bathroom with the intention of harming herself.
At last week's Bishop's Table -- a weekly community forum -- I ...Read more
Digging to China
My ancestors, and by that I mean one or two generations ago, intersected with Chinese culture in three ways.
One was Chinese food.
One was the Chinese laundry.
The last was fireworks.
My father was a tenement kid in a Massachusetts cotton mill city, a child of the obligatory poverty-stricken immigrants. They couldn't afford Chinese food, ...Read more
It’s a Good Thing Trump is So Incompetent
Negative adjectives to describe Donald Trump could fill a dictionary. He is gross, disgusting, loathsome, shady, deceitful, amoral, crooked, cruel, mean, obnoxious, rude, disrespectful, selfish, heartless, uncaring, paranoid, arrogant, abhorrent, dishonest, sleazy, dangerous, repulsive, delusional, reckless, narcissistic, crude, corrupt, ...Read more
Decluttering Till Death Do We Part
Margareta Magnusson was an artist in Stockholm who wrote a bestselling book, "The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning." Decluttering, the removal of unnecessary items from our living spaces, had already become an international obsession. That was doubly so for Americans, whose large houses became easy repositories for the cheap goods arriving...Read more
What Do You Do?
When the war is not going well?
You assassinate more leaders.
They replace those leaders with equally bad/worse leaders?
You threaten to destroy the civilization!
That does not go over well.
Back down on that one.
Declare Victory.
Threaten to Blockade.
Tell People We're Winning.
Tell People you don't even think about the price of gas ...Read more
Could Trump Care Less About You and Me?
WASHINGTON -- Camelot, it's not. King Arthur, not even close. Donald Trump is a pretender president who doesn't even pretend to do right by the people.
In all candor, this city, graced by garden squares, memorials and museums, feels like a crime scene, with his fingerprints everywhere on it. Places we held dear are demolished (the White House...Read more
Democrats: Don't Forget That You're Supposed to Be a Party!
Washington's Democratic Party establishment keeps demanding that progressive members tone down their criticism of billionaire oligarchs and corporate autocrats. Why? Because the insiders want to rebrand the party as ideologically moderate. "Time to get serious," they bark.
Two things: First, on the ideology question, I'm with Woody Guthrie: "...Read more
'My Child Is Now a Political Debate': Immigrant Families Respond as Arguments Wrap in Landmark Challenge Against Trump's Birthright Citizenship Threats
*Some names have been changed to protect identities.
When Jane* learned about President Donald Trump's executive order to end birthright citizenship, she immediately panicked. The order was slated to take effect July 27. Jane's first child was due just 10 days later.
Jane was filled with desperation and confusion. She wanted her son to be ...Read more
Laughingstock: Bluster and Gibberish Turn Us Into a Joke
When the sorry history of the President Donald Trump Era is written, historians will note the irony that the television reality star elected twice to the presidency, assuring us that he would "make America great again," has turned the country into an international laughingstock. It was not readily imagined that on the eve of the 250th ...Read more
There's a Reason Some Populist Views Are Popular
The British election should serve as a warning to Democrats who let their left fringe run riot with scant criticism. Too many Democratic strategists and friends in the progressive media read the noise coming from the far left as evidence of broader public opinion than warranted, even among Democrats. Then come voting day, turned-off moderates ...Read more




















































