From the Left
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Same Old Stuff
Fresh from his triumph in the Middle East, President Donald Trump returned to Washington and reverted to playing the vengeful monarch, holding a press conference in the White House to announce his enemies' list and demand that they be prosecuted -- for something. Having put in place a personal lawyer of his with no prosecutorial experience who...Read more
Saving Gopher Tortoises Means Protecting Their Homes, Not Just Moving Them
A rescued gopher tortoise arrived at the Nokuse Nature Preserve in Florida's Panhandle while my sister Erica and I were there. It didn't know how lucky it was. Across Florida, builders are required to obtain permits from the state to capture and relocate gopher tortoises found on development sites. It's a system meant to save them -- but does it...Read more
Hamas's Stunning Victory
Hamas's victory over Israel will go down in history as one of the most stunning upsets in the history of modern warfare. It will be studied by future resistance groups for instructions on how a guerrilla army can achieve its aims despite facing an adversary with seemingly insurmountable advantages in weaponry, technology, funding and ...Read more
Let's Stop Pretending to Be Shocked
Pretending to be "shocked" by junior Republicans revealing their inner Klansmen must be a challenge, at this late date, for anyone who has been paying attention. Perhaps some of the GOP officials proclaiming their disgust over the disclosure of thousands of racist, antisemitic, homophobic, misogynist and, yes, Hitlerian texts exchanged by ...Read more
White Bread and Tortillas
There's a corner store in your neighborhood. Some people call it a "bodega," but those people want to destroy America.
The place sells lottery tickets, soda, cigarettes, ice cream on a stick, a small selection of canned goods, beer, milk, candy, frozen pizza, single rolls of thin toilet paper and other goods you need to run a modest but not ...Read more

'No Kings' Day: Time to Take to the Streets!
Good friends: I guess there’s a first time for everything. This column is a two-fer: the first time in more than 25 years that I’ve devoted a column to more than one subject, and the first time I’ve used a column to promote any event. But the times demand a break with business as usual.
If there’s any way possible, I urge you to take ...Read more
Janet Mills Happens to Be a Lot Younger Than Bernie Sanders
So Democrat Janet Mills, governor of Maine, is running against Susan Collins, the state's Republican senator since 1997. An established political figure would be running against another established political figure, yet the current reportage for Mills tends to start off with "77-year-old Janet Mills." Collins happens to be 72.
The Democratic ...Read more
What Next?
President Donald Trump is flying high. He calls it a "historic dawn of a new Middle East," resolving "3,000 years" of conflict, even though, in his speech to the Knesset, he couldn't stop himself from insulting former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama for their "hatred toward Israel," saying they could never have done what he did.
...Read more
Dark Donald, Bright Diane
A man and woman, each 79, are in the news this week: President Donald Trump and movie star Diane Keaton. Could they be more different?
They are the dark and light sides of the baby boomers, who did so much to shape the contours of our culture and history.
Let's start with Trump. For the first time ever, on Oct. 13, Trump boosted the sum of ...Read more
America's History, Says Lord Trump, Is Exactly What I Say It Is
Our country's magnificent National Park System has been called "America's greatest idea."
These 433 treasures -- along with our rich diversity of national museums and historical sites -- each have their own stories to tell. But the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, for together they express America's egalitarian spirit and "little-d...Read more
Your Questions Answered: How To Push Back on Abuses of Power
In his first nine months back in office, President Donald Trump has abused his power to attack our neighbors and communities, suppress free speech and create a climate of fear. The president has deployed military troops and federal agents into our cities. He has threatened nonprofit organizations, universities and political opponents who don't ...Read more
Happening Here: Trump-Ordered Indictments Put Us in Tyrant Territory
In 1940, then U.S. Attorney General Robert Jackson gathered the nation's federal prosecutors in the Justice Department's Great Hall to remind them of the solemn role their morality and disregard of politics in decision-making played in protecting American democracy. The responsible, apolitical exercise of prosecutorial power, he emphasized, is...Read more
Trump Loves Farmers Into Bankruptcy
At a 2018 press conference in New York City, Trump said of American farmers, "I love them, and they voted for me, and they love me. ... And they said, 'We don't care if we get hurt, he's doing the right thing.'"
During his 2025 joint address to Congress, Trump said, "Our new trade policy will also be great for the American farmer -- I love ...Read more

Pam Bondi Faces Critics, 'Burns' Them
A lot of political figures are understandably nervous about facing a Senate committee probe.
Not Pam Bondi.
In more than four hours of testimony Tuesday to the Senate Judiciary Committee, she responded to the most polite questions with the air of contempt worthy of her boss, President Trump, who tends to react to the idea of accountability as ...Read more

They’re Calling it a ‘Hate-America’ Rally
You know Trump Republicans are worried when they slam a planned protest — more than a week before it occurs.
Last Friday, Speaker Mike Johnson described this coming Saturday’s No Kings rally as the “hate-America” rally that would draw “the pro-Hamas wing” and “the antifa people.”
I’m sure these phrases have been distributed ...Read more
It Had To End
Too much suffering on both sides. Too much division. Too much danger for Israel to be as isolated and stigmatized as it has become. Too big a rift between American Jews and the homeland we love.
Do President Donald Trump and his team deserve credit for taking a major step?
Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal said it best. He told reporters ...Read more
What Did You Do During the Trump Wars, Daddy?
My darling daughter gave me two dramatic blinks of her Aryan-blue eyes and flipped back her pure, naturally blonde pigtails. "What did you do during the Trump Wars, daddy?"
It felt like a fever dream.
What's that, evil libtard? I don't have a "Children of the Corn" daughter? Or any daughter at all? Who are you to say that ...Read more
Gay Kids and Garbage
When it rains, like it's raining today, I think about the people working the trash trucks in my neighborhood.
The town I live in does not provide or require a uniform trash container. You can put your trash out in any kind of container, and the container doesn't have to have a lid.
When it rains, the barrels without lids get water in the ...Read more
The Support I Found When I Dared To Dream
Erma Bombeck famously said, "It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else." This quote really resonates with me. Last fall, I quit my job as a newspaper editor to put my effort into writing stories that lift up the good in this world. I wrote in my column announcement that "I want to be part of a gentler, kinder world, hopefully...Read more

Call it What it Now is: The Department of Revenge
It’s hard to warm up to James Comey, and I never will. In fact, more than anyone else, I think Comey’s the one who saddled us with Donald Trump.
As FBI director in July 2016, Comey announced that the agency had found “no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information” and would therefore file no ...Read more