When language becomes a political weapon, democracy becomes the victim… Have you noticed how elected Republicans and hate-radio and -TV hosts are so committed to mispronouncing Vice President Kamala Harris' name? Or how incapable they are of saying "Democratic Party"? These are symptoms of a political party that's devolved into a pathetic (but deadly) mobocracy, lacking any moral or policy core, devoted instead to pursuing the singular goal of obtaining, holding, and wielding great wealth and ultimate, unchecked power. Way back in the spring of 1956, then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower spoke to a group of Republican women about the need for the GOP to remain "soundly based" in "moral" values.

Will Trump manipulate the Constitution and the courts to take the presidency without winning the vote? Sometimes I hate being right. Donald Trump is campaigning in Blue states right now, including California, Colorado, and New York. It has pundits scratching their heads: is it just all about his ego? Is he crazy? Or crazy like a fox? I'd argue the latter: that this is part of a strategy to legally seize the White House after he's lost both the popular vote and the Electoral College vote, much like Republican Rutherford B. Hayes did in the election of 1876.

— Head’s up: I’ll be a guest on Ali Velshi’s brilliant show this Sunday morning — Chief Justice John Roberts is shocked, shocked, I tell you! that the public is horrified that he wrote a decision saying that Trump, if he returns to the White House, can commit all the crimes he wants with impunity. — The GOP’s evil purge strategy to win in 2024. — The GOP’s main messaging strategy is to tell lies — the more outrageous the better, per Hitler’s “Big Lie” technique — and it’s working. — Vice President Kamala Harris made a major proposal this week that the media has almost entirely ignored. — Is Putin Running Out of Cemeteries? — Musk’s new robot confesses ‘human’ desires. — Wisdom School: how do societies evolve? — ADHD Hunter in a Farmer’s World: Distraction by design.

Will service workers benefit, or will hedge funds and big banks reclassify bonuses or bribes as tips? Back in 1982, Republicans and the Reagan administration determined that they needed to raise taxes on average working people to pay for part of the massive tax break they were giving billionaires (they dropped the top income tax bracket from 74% to 28%). Reagan imposed income taxes on elderly people on their Social Security income, ended the tax deductibility of interest on car loans and credit cards, and ended the tax deduction on two-income households. But one of the most truculent ways Reagan went after average working people to fund his tax cuts for billionaires was to sign legislation and issue new rules requiring the IRS to more aggressively require employers to track and report tips earned by their employees, and tightening penalties on tipped workers who’d failed to report their tip income. Speaking last month in Nevada — the state with the highest percentage of tipped workers in the nation — Donald Trump proposed eliminating taxes on tips altogether. Not to be outdone, Kamala Harris has also endorsed the idea. But there are big differences between the two.