From the Left
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What You Call Comes to You
If, like most people in the United States, you wanted something done about immigration, you got your wish this last week.
It may not be what you wanted. You might think it's stupid or cruel or racist or fascist. But something is by God being done, and it's being done by President Donald Trump.
Will it make things better? No one knows, but it...Read more

Would You Buy a New or Used Car From This Man?
We’ve survived two turbulent weeks of Trump Two. And, amid all the chaos, there’s no doubt who’s in charge. He’s the man of the hour. He’s everywhere: giving orders, making demands, blasting what he doesn’t like, and seizing the role of spokesman for the United States around the world. And, of course, I’m talking about – not ...Read more
Democrats Need to Pick and Choose: Start with Drug Prices
Donald Trump is executing a shock and awe strategy, burying the public in a smoky cloud of flamboyant proposals. Some, like ending birthright citizenship, are quickly slapped down in the courts. Some, like threatening to invade Greenland, are dismissed as moronic. But all are radical enough to provide news media with easy entertainment.
The ...Read more
The Good People of Mexico
I am writing this in La Paz, Mexico, a beautiful oceanfront city that is the capital of Baja California Sur and the home of a UNESCO wildlife preserve where today my daughter went diving with the sea lions. Breathtaking. All week, we have been taken care of by the good people of this beautiful country. I'm supposed to be relaxing, but ...Read more
Mercy Is Not Part of Trump's Plan
The president has declared war on the nation, the nation as we have known it. -- Anonymous
If you ever go to Canterbury Cathedral in England, drops of blood from ages ago are still there on the altar floor. Legend has it that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, was brutally murdered by four knights serving King Henry II, whom Becket ...Read more
The Royal Threat Behind Trump's Petty Pomposity
In the 1787 Constitutional Convention, the framers were clear on what they were NOT creating: a monarchy. One delegate expressed the group's absolute conviction that the founding document must exclude even the "fetus of monarchy."
Yet, 238 years later, watching Donald Trump's inaugural week, it was both awful and comical to see the royal ...Read more
Mean Boys: The Bullies and the Bros Take Over
It's an excellent time for bullies and bros in Donald Trump's Washington, where the president wasted no time confirming that if he has his way -- namely, whatever he wants -- it's going to be all thuggery all the time.
There's a fresh flood of new examples each day. They're intended to overwhelm us, and it's working. Here's one: Trump gleefully...Read more
Trump Leads America Boldy Into Decline
Not a month old, the second Trump presidency is barreling toward the decline that big-mouth leaders have been sending their countries for centuries. Theodore Roosevelt warned of such dangers.
Speaking at the 1901 Minnesota State Fair, he famously shared the African proverb, "Speak softly and carry a big stick."
Roosevelt elaborated: "If a ...Read more
Trump's Executive Orders Rolling Back DEI and Accessibility Efforts, Explained
The Trump administration's three executive orders targeting diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) initiatives take a "shock and awe" approach that upends longstanding bipartisan federal policy meant to open doors that had been unfairly closed. In his first few days, President Donald Trump is undertaking a deliberate effort to ...Read more

Trump’s First Week, the Real Story
The New York Times describes Trump as leading “a global wave of hard-line conservative populism.”
Rubbish.
What Trump is undertaking has nothing whatever to do with conservatism, which is about conserving institutions and shrinking the size of government. And it has nothing to do with populism, which is about confronting elites.
Trump is ...Read more

Trump Pardons Must Not Lead to the Unpardonable
Hindsight, as the old saying goes, is always 20/20. That thought came to mind after a couple of the roughly 1,500 Jan. 6 offenders given pardons by President Trump said they didn’t want it.
Finally, I thought, a bright light of sanity shows itself.
I am heartened by the example of Pamela Hemphill, 71, of Boise, Idaho, ...Read more
Eyes on the Prize
The Justice Department has ordered its civil rights division to halt any ongoing litigation from the Biden administration and not pursue any new cases or settlements, according to a memo sent to the temporary head of the division that was obtained by The Washington Post. It's a freeze on everything, which is a prelude to an about-face when/if ...Read more
Why Did Trump Silence Public Health Officials Again?
Within days of Donald Trump entering the Oval Office, he decreed by executive order that the United States will withdraw from the World Health Organization. He ordered the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services to stop ...Read more
Trump Grabs at a Presidency of Intentionality
There are two kinds of leaders: managers and revolutionists.
Most American presidents are managers. Managers have small ambitions, often so small as to be immeasurable. They may or not think the organization that they're taking over requires a few nips or tucks, but they believe the fundamentals are sound. The main ambition of these ...Read more
My Cat Is Afraid of Muddy Waters
Every newspaper columnist in America is expected to write 800 words every week about President Donald J. Trump.
I refuse.
I refuse because there's no point in calling someone an "enemy of the state" unless you want to kill them, and I don't want to be remembered just for the political stuff.
"Come on," I'll tell the hooded and robed judges....Read more

Official GOP Policy: Reward for Assaulting Police Officers
One thing Donald Trump can never be accused of: getting off to a slow start. After the most divisive inaugural address in history – delivered on the “scene of the crime” – he hurried to sign 26 executive orders, 12 memos and four proclamations which, among other abuses of power, revoked 78 of former President Biden’s executive actions ...Read more
A Thicker Line Must Be Drawn Between Legal and Illegal Entry
It's not hard to understand why Sen. Ruben Gallego voted for the Republican-written Laken Riley Act. The measure would force the federal detention without bail for undocumented migrants accused of any kind of theft. It is named after the Georgia nursing student bludgeoned to death by an undocumented migrant who had previously been apprehended ...Read more
Will Trump Help LA?
The fires got the new president's attention. In his inaugural address, he pointed to them: "From weeks ago, without even a token of defense, they're raging through the houses and communities, even affecting some of the wealthiest and most powerful individuals in our country, some of whom are sitting here right now. They don't have a home any ...Read more
Tragic Irony in the Rotunda
Donald Trump won the whole Monopoly game. He never went directly to jail and always passed go. Timid Merrick Garland, the attorney general, was no match and didn't even buy a railroad.
The Big Tech money boys were literally behind Trump, in obsequious unity as he was sworn in as president Monday at high noon in the Capitol rotunda.
The ...Read more
Yes, You Can Fight the Bastards ... and Win!
It's been my honor to know a few real heroes -- people who've selflessly dared to fight greed and oppression to advance the common good. Diane Wilson, for example.
For 40 years, this fiery fourth-generation fisherwoman from the Texas Gulf Coast has battled tenaciously for the rights and very survival of the area's hardscrabble ...Read more