2022 Archives

When you compare Trump’s cons with the $50 trillion that the GOP has swindled out of the American working class and given to the top 1 percent since 1980, Trump looks like a piker. The title of Maggie Haberman’s new book about Donald Trump is “Confidence Man” and, truth be told, Trump has been a con man his entire life. Haberman documents it all in excruciating detail. But when you compare Trump’s cons with the $50 trillion that the GOP has conned out of the American working class and given to the top 1 percent since 1980, Trump looks like a piker. He played his role in that GOP con, of course, setting up the very richest Americans to get more billions of dollars a year in tax breaks for the foreseeable future, but he’s a Johnny-come-lately to the GOP game.

History shows that letting dictators get away with land grabs & genocidal attacks on nearby nations leads not to peace but to even worse wars than stopping that activity early would have done. History shows that letting dictators get away with land grabs & genocidal attacks on nearby nations leads not to peace but to even worse wars than stopping that activity early would have done. This morning the strongman dictator of Russia used 28 "Kamikaze" drones supplied by the theocratic dictators of Iran to attack the democracy of Ukraine's capitol, Kyiv. Some of my tragically misguided former colleagues and guests on the left are joining with the most virulent Trump-humpers and Orbán/Putin-lovers on the right in calling for Ukraine to simply surrender a fifth of their country to Russia in exchange for "peace." (As if giving other people's sovereign land to violent dictators has ever led to peace.) What these people on both political sides are missing is the power of democracy itself to prevent wars, along with the certainty that oligarchy and autocracy, in their end-stages, so often lead to war.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Were other senior officials in the administration conspiring with Trump to end American democracy? — The Fed's rate hikes are not working: is that because our inflation is not being caused by an "overheated economy" but instead, at least in significant part, by the confluence of supply chain issues, corporate greed, and the price of oil? — Fake news is poisoning America. — Are Putin's agents trying to "clean up on aisle 5"? — Rightwing power continues unabated in America as experts warn about violence that may come along with our elections next month. — Crazy Alert! Don't mess with Nancy Pelosi! — Good News! Seniors are getting a raise starting in January. — More good news! Representatives Pocan and Khanna have introduced the "Save Medicare Act" in the House of Representatives.

It’s past time for the fossil fuel industry to face the same type of courtroom reckoning the tobacco industry did in the late 1990s and Alex Jones faced yesterday. The victims of Alex Jones’ lies about the Sandy Hook slaughter of their children were just awarded about a billion dollars by a jury of his peers. Jones made tens (perhaps hundreds) of millions peddling lies leading to years of stalking, harassment, and emotional torture of the families of the children who died. Which raises a vital question: When will the victims of oil companies’ lies — which have led to far more deaths than happened that terrible day in Connecticut — get their day in court? There’s an amazing backstory here.