“Kiss My Ass” (aka Please Bribe Me)
President Trump is delighted to force other world leaders into subservience: “They all want to kiss my ass” (aka “bribe me”), he boasted. We know that Trump has an insatiable ego and craves power, but his off-the-charts narcissism never fails to amaze, as demonstrated this past week when the “yippy” bond market forced him to […]
Trump’s Twisted Truth
One of President Trump’s latest executive orders, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” targets the Smithsonian Institution, which includes 21 museums, libraries, research centers, and the National Zoo. Needless to say, if there’s anyone who is no position to tout truth and the virtue of sanity it’s Donald Trump, the mad king himself. Does […]
Trump’s Self-Destruction
As I have often acknowledged, a sizeable portion of Trump’s MAGA base have good reason to be angry about their circumstances, even if that anger is totally misdirected at boogeymen such as liberals, elites, the media and internationalists, among many. But no matter if their feelings are justified, they’ve settled on a horribly negative worldview […]
Trump’s Sacred Idol
Like a lot of people, this humble spirit suspected that all the excitement about Ukraine’s rare earth minerals was an obvious ploy that would allow Trump to save face while making a peace “deal” in Ukraine. (For Trump, the author of The Art of the Deal, everything has to be a “deal” or he isn’t […]
King Trump
It should be clear that Donald Trump wants to be America’s king. He doesn’t want to work with Congress or respect their power (of the purse) as a co-equal branch of government. Although we don’t know whether he will defy the Supreme Court and risk a constitutional crisis, he’s made it clear he doesn’t have […]
Trump’s DEI “Common Sense”
President Trump and his MAGAs are even more obsessed with DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) than “wokeness.” Their obsession represents a fanatical opposition to civil rights for the “other” (lately their hatred of the transgender community appears to have surpassed their fear of black and brown people). They’ve turned DEI into the latest in their […]
Trump’s Shiny Objects
Well, Trump saved the worst for last, didn’t he? “The American Carnage is Over” was replaced by “America’s decline is over,” but there was still plenty of anger and darkness on display in his inaugural address, and his speeches later in the day at the Capitol visitors center and the Capital Arena were even worse. […]
Lies and Euphemisms
The bodies had hardly been cleared from Bourbon Street when President-elect Trump spouted off on social media about terrorists coming across the southern border as a result of Biden’s immigration policy. Typically, he had no idea what he was talking about and never apologized for the mistake. For his MAGA supporters, however, anything that comes […]
The Oligarch Brigade
Is there any question that Trump and his billionaire allies want to turn the country into an oligarchy, not unlike the one Putin created for himself in Russia? The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) should be called the “Oligarch Brigade.” Forget about the old Republican donor class, the Oligarch Brigade is now leading the charge […]
Delay, Deny, Defend
The reaction to the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is one more demonstration of just how angry and unhappy many Americans are—and understandably so. Among all the explanations for Donald Trump’s reelection, none is more salient than the pent-up rage people experience in so many aspects of their lives. As ugly as it may […]
“Your Body, My Choice”
There’s no pretending the Trump Campaign’s hateful misogyny wasn’t just that, blatant hostility toward women. And not surprisingly, now that he’s been elected, it’s on display with a vengeance. It’s more than coincidence that two of his most important cabinet picks (Matt Gaetz and Pete Hegseth) are plagued by accusations of sexual assault. With the […]
Maslow’s Hierarchy
The media pundits are currently obsessed with slicing and dicing the election results, because, after all, that’s their livelihood. I’m not sure what there is to be gained by rehashing and/or refuting all the finger-pointing and recrimination, but my own thinking is as simple as applying Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. According to Maslow, people’s most […]
Cultural Heroin
“Cultural Heroin” is how J.D. Vance described Donald Trump before tech billionaire Peter Theil made him a rich man, paid for his Senate campaign, and helped him become Trump’s 2024 running mate. As Tom Nichols so insightfully describes it in The Atlantic, the deadly addictive drug, for which so far there is no antidote, is […]
America’s Natural Disaster
Sadly, all the absurd and dangerous “misinformation” about the two recent hurricanes, Helene and Milton, distracts attention away from the fact that our poorest citizens usually suffer the most from natural disasters. Not only do they tend to live in less desirable, more vulnerable locations, quite frequently they don’t have the means to escape (money, […]
American Crisis Unfolding
Along with just about everyone else, this humble spirit fears that he’s spent too much time writing about Donald Trump. Unfortunately, the man provides an almost bottomless pit of material, and he’s getting worse as the election approaches. No one looks forward to the country “getting past” Trump more than I do, but until then. […]
Racist Hate-Mongering
It would appear that Trump has nothing left to say to the American people but to spread ridiculous conspiracy theories about Haitian immigrants eating pets, babies being killed after birth, and rampant sex change operations, whether they be transexual immigrants in prison or children going to school and coming home a different sex. Your humble […]
Trump Violates Hallowed Ground
Given that Donald Trump violates everything and everybody, most especially women, it’s not very surprising that he and his campaign staff violated the hallowed ground of Arlington National Cemetery. Trump using the 13 fallen heroes and their grief-stricken parents to score political points is once again a new low for the former president. His behavior […]
Trump’s Greatest Hits
Despite what his advisers tell him, Trump refuses to abandon his tried-and-true (if always false) play list—which primarily centers on drumming up irrational fear and hatred of the “other.” From the start, Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign regularly highlighted stories about migrant crime, using pictures of Black and brown men who have immigrated to the U.S. […]
Freedom!
No matter what happens in November, the Democrats finally have a viable candidate in Kamala Harris. After the frustration of feeling powerless to stop Donald Trump from winning back the presidency, at least now it’s a fair fight—people are energized and volunteering, money is flowing into the campaign, and states are in play that looked […]
Yes, We Have Work to Do
This humble spirit would like to join the crowd in commending President Biden on passing the torch. Even avid Biden supporters should acknowledge that what we saw wasn’t a “bad debate”; it was a sad and painful display of significant cognitive decline. On the chance that he defeated Trump, the odds of which were getting […]