If 4.9 percent economic growth isn’t good enough news for you (China would kill for that). If inflation’s downturn doesn’t boost your spirits (3.2 percent – enough now to end the Fed’s tight-money push). If various economic indicators (notice gasoline prices lately?) don’t temper your worries as the forces of right-wing zeal ready their battering…
DetailsThis is Penny Lane’s second Thanksgiving. I expect her below-the-dinner-table behavior to be exquisite. Penny is a sweet-as-frosting rescue who’s almost a dog. “Almost,” I said. And, no; this isn’t a “not yet” thing. When I say “almost,” it means, “We’re still speculating.” We thought we had a dog when we brought her tiny-ness home…
DetailsIn the winter of 2017, an earnest panel of newsgathering pros convened to discuss one question: Was it journalistically ethical to call the new president a liar? More specifically, the debate was whether what Donald Trump seemed to say with every other breath could be called a “lie.” Or should news organizations find a way to…
DetailsSo, how’s that red wave going? Mumble, grumble, fumble. And the quest to give state lawmakers and Congress power over women’s bodies. How is that going? Gnashing, grimacing, throat-clearing. The red wave forecast for the 2022 election didn’t happen. And what has happened in 2023? We have a pushback wave tied to abortion rights. Republicans…
DetailsDon’t worry, folks. There are enough liars in Ken Buck’s sprawling district to fill his vacancy. In Colorado’s most red-tinted congressional district, the 4th, the five-term Republican congressman has decided lying isn’t the job he signed up for. The former Colorado GOP chairman won’t be running for re-election. His rationale was blunt: The Party of…
DetailsSo registered: one more man with one more weapon of mass-killing capacity — 18 more dead. It’s a scenario now as commonplace as Friday Night Lights. Mass murder: the American pastime. Time after time, the specifics rarely vary. The killer uses an AR-style, high-capacity weapon. And Republican lawmakers wave their arms with a rationale supplied…
DetailsThe day Joe Biden made an arduous and risky flight to Israel, I rubbed my eyes to read the account of another president’s mission to a remote land. This one was to North Dakota. Enroute to a campaign rally in Fargo, N.D., then-President Donald Trump had the ear of the state’s junior Republican U.S. senator,…
DetailsThe disbelief in the room was audible. I had just informed students in my college mass media class that – yes – a felon could be president. A multiple felon. A sentence-serving felon, as long as the felon is 35 and a citizen. Check your Constitution. Check Google. One student said she heard someone could…
DetailsUntil through our consumptive excess we no longer fit into Earth’s plans, religion will reign as the most destructive force on the planet. So much suffering: so many moral precepts stamped by – and corrupted by — mortals. Consider the war raging in which many more will die today – civilians of all ages, soldiers…
DetailsFrom the unearthly tint of his reverse mullet to his cowhide smile. From his claim of obscene wealth – “I’ll finance my own campaign” — to the countless followers he conned out of countless dollars to “Stop the steal.” From a phony foundation to a fraudulent “university.” From illegally inflating the values of his properties…
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