The deaths of Prince and Carrie Fisher: what lessons can these icons teach us? How about “Don’t do drugs”? Okay, the only thing tackier than maudlin tributes to dead celebrities is dead celebrity jokes, but we geezers have a special reason to crack wise. I was 31—31!—when the original Star Wars came out, so, no,…
Search Results for: Tea Party
George F. Will Explains It All For You. Incorrectly.
George “F for Farrreeeky!” Will has a piece up, “Infrastructure projects aren’t jobs programs”, which, all inadvertently, explains why infrastructure projects are jobs programs. Saith St. George, “New Deal public works gave the nation splendidly useful engineering marvels, including the Golden Gate Bridge and the Hoover Dam. It did not, however, significantly reduce unemployment, which…
Dying Elephant, Struggling Donkey: Politics for the 21st Century
As of this writing, the odds favoring Hillary Clinton’s election stand at 92%, almost enough to allow me to breathe easily. I wish it were higher, but just think how I’d feel if it were only, say, 75%! Yes, Donald Trump’s big mouth, and his tiny, groping hands, have made life much easier for Nervous…
Donald Trump probably not as bad as the Spanish flu, Conor Friedersdorf avers
As World War I was coming to an end, the Spanish1 flu epidemic killed an estimated 675,000 Americans. Would a Trump presidency produce a similar body count? asks the Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf. Well, probably not, Conor, but I, in turn, have a question for you. Would the United States recover as quickly, and as completely,…
“Disciplined” thievery gets Ryan nod
According to House Speaker Paul Ryan, Donald Trump is “more disciplined” these days. How is that, Paulie? Because he’s staying “on message” about stealing Iraqi oil? Every prominent Republican who has not announced, at the least, that s/he will not vote for Donald Trump lacks even a shred of honor. “Establishment Republicans”—which includes every surviving…
Eli Lake, from 20/80 to 80/20, pretty much
Back in the day—July 10, 2014, to be precise—I whaled on Bloomberg’s Eli Lake for pulling together a lot of ass-covering/blame-shifting “if only the president had listened to me” quotes from former members of the Obama Administration to explain why the government of former Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki failed to prevent the rise of…
Globalism lays an egg. Why?
As unprecedentedly awful as America’s politics are right now, in one way, we’re perfectly normal, because we’re just like everyone else. The monumental disarray of our Republican and Democratic parties is perfectly mirrored in the UK by the Conservatives and Laborites. Donald Trump and Boris Johnson could be twins. The specter haunting Europe these days…
Jonathan Rauch Redux
Jonathan Rauch has a new article up at the Atlantic that is basically a rehash an updating of his free book Political Realism: How Hacks, Machines, Big Money, and Back-Room Deals Can Strengthen American Democracy. The article is getting praise from people like Robert Samuelson.1 Last fall, I devoted three posts to refuting Jon’s little…
Ben Sasse, B.A., M.A., M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Yeah, you read that right. Ben Sasse, junior senator from Nebraska, has more degrees than a compass: a BA from Harvard (government), an MA from St. John’s (liberal studies), and an MA, MPhil1, and a Ph.D. from Yale (all in philosophy). Yet he talks just like me and you. Most of the time. Ben has…
Ben Sasse, Wall Street Tool
Nebraska Junior Senator Ben Sasse recently posted “AN OPEN LETTER TO MAJORITY AMERICA”, bemoaning the fact that neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump offers what the American people—the real American people, the folks down at the WalMart—really want. When ole Ben finally gets tired of patting himself on the back for being the fine, down…