Where does one begin? Maybe with a sneeringly political speech – that part of it which was remotely coherent — to captive Boy Scouts. (Donald Trump gauged crowd size as a personal tribute. No, Sir. Big numbers can be anticipated at a national jamboree.) Maybe with a cross-eyed game of…
Newt Gingrich told a gathering the other day that state and local leaders should embrace “Trumpism.” Not surprisingly, he did not define his terms. Racism? Sexism. Infantilism? Whatever. The former House speaker, whose greatest gift to democracy – correction, to Democrats – was to shut down government in 1996, observes the wreckage Trump wreaks in…
“The prosecution calls Rhona Graff.” Rhona — that’s the name. If Robert Mueller knows what he’s doing, Rhona will play the role of Rosemary – Rosemary Woods — in the 2017 remake of that immense thing that toppled a president in 1974, in what HBO’s John Oliver has dubbed “Stupid Watergate.” Woods was the White…
“There was no place in it where a man counted against a dollar. And worse than there being no decency, there was not even honesty.” So wrote Upton Sinclair about the meat-processing industry in his 1906 masterpiece “The Jungle.” The result of Sinclair’s undercover work in Chicago plants, the novel sparked changes in the way…
Donald Trump and his apologists have put the “con” in “conservative.” Conservatism? He doesn’t stand for anything in particular. What he stands for is the con. What Senate leaders have hilariously named the Better Care Reconciliation Act is just another con — just another luxury vessel Trump wants to christen as his own. “Better Care”…
Donald Trump, running for president, said he would not cut Medicaid. He said that though he would eviscerate the Affordable Care Act with a mighty and swift sword, “Everybody’s going to get covered" under his alternative. "I don't care if it costs me votes or not.” So, America, do you think he would veto any…
Donald Trump didn’t just say the House-passed bill to replace the Affordable Care Act was mean. He called it “mean, mean, mean.” That’s “mean” times three. Interesting. When he invited the House White Caucus, er, Republican Caucus, over for a celebratory photo op after its passage, he said the bill was “incredibly well-crafted.” But let’s…
Sen. Richard Burr: “Do you have any doubt that Russia attempted to interfere in the 2016 elections?” Former FBI director James Comey: “None.” It was the kind of question you’d expect someone concerned about national security and the state of our elections to ask the man who ran the FBI until recently. It was the…
It’s easy to distill Donald Trump’s decision on the Paris Climate Agreement down to the fact that, like a coddled toddler, he ascertained that as president no one could make him do it. Easy to deduce that, like a smart 3-year-old, he rejected peas and carrots because, yuck. The thing is, if that was Trump’s…
Betsy DeVos took the Jared Kushner route to a prominent place in America’s life. She married into it. She did it by betrothing billionaire ($5.5 billion net worth) Dick DeVos, whose father founded Amway. Dick got his turn as CEO. It’s the American way. So is buying influence with lawmakers. Over the years, the DeVos…