Life Interrupted, Coronavirus Edition

The COVID-19 pandemic is teaching us many hard lessons. One is that flow – not just of money but of all sorts of things – is fundamental to a functioning society. On both the material and non-material level, life is enabled by circulation, by constant movement. One could even say that relentless movement is one of modernity’s main characteristics. Charlie Chaplin, frantically trying to keep up with his tasks on the factory assembly line in Modern Continue Reading...

The Terrorists Are in the House. Let’s Unify Over Getting Rid of Them

Let's do this together, shall we? Let's take hands and peer over into the abyss and hope that it doesn't peer back. Okay, into the mouth of madness we go... Here's what we know that Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene believes just from things she has said, written, or responded to positively, more or less in order from completely barking mad to dangerously batshit (although the line is mighty, mighty thin): 1. She has Continue Reading...

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Trump’s Bombast

As the sun sets slowly on Trump’s presidency and we bid a not-so-fond farewell to the ex-resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, presumably leaving for exile at Mar-a-Largo, it’s worth reflecting: After all he’s said and done, what have we really learned from The Donald? By this, I don’t mean some sort of high-minded platitude, such as “Democracy is a fragile thing.” Rather, I am referring to what of value, that one can put to practical use, has Continue Reading...

Random Observations on an Insurrection

1. This was inevitable. Anyone even casually observing the last five years knew that the Trump reign was going to end in violence. Unless you willfully put blinders on and truly believe the bullshit fairy tale of "This is not who we are." This is very much who we are. We have always been a nation filled with racist, incoherent yahoos who are on the verge of violence and whose white privilege protects them in ways that no Black or Muslim person Continue Reading...

Peril in the Middle East, Peril at Home: Our Top 10 Stories of 2020

2020 was a monster of a year, leaving three million Americans dead (a record), probably nearly half a million of them of Covid-19 once everyone is counted. The fecklessness of the outgoing Trump administration was responsible for a good deal of this national catastrophe, one that did not strike our allies South Korea or Germany to nearly the same extent (what with their having competent, rational leaders and a funded health care system, and all). Continue Reading...

Protectionism, Trade and Democracy

“Protectionism” literally means we, as a nation, protect our national interests. It is one more word that has been twisted to make people think it’s a bad thing, like “entitlement” (the things we are entitled to as citizens in a democracy) or “welfare” (people in a democracy making each others’ lives better.) “Trade” is about competitive advantages. It used to mean one region can grow bananas and another can grow corn, and by trading they each Continue Reading...

We Cannot Overlook All the Ways That Trump and His Idiot Hordes Attack Democracy

They never should have gotten away with "Lock her up." One of the things we are learning is that the media and officials shouldn't have been coddling soon-to-be shitcanned President Donald Trump and his idiot hordes and allowing them to indulge in their fits and fantasies over the 2020 election outcome. "Just let him throw this tantrum," supposedly smart Republicans told us. "He'll get tired and go to Mar-a-Lago and go to sleep." It really was Continue Reading...

Trump’s Traitorous Cheating Betrays America: A Tactic to Stop Trump in His Treasonous Tracks

By squealing “Frankly, we did win this election,” at 2:24 a.m., November 4 and trying to stop counting all ballots cast, serial adulterer Donald Trump, who cheated on his wives Ivana, Marla and Melania, and is now cheating on America. The “unindicted co-conspirator” in the Stormy Daniels case – who illegally paid hush money to muzzle the porn star so her revelations about their July 2006 liaison wouldn’t affect the outcome of 2016’s election – Continue Reading...

Trump to America Today: Democracy is for Suckers and Losers

I gotta tell you: I watched Trump's appearance today in the White House press room with enough burning schadenfreude to power a small city. As much as I wanted to be appalled and saddened and enraged, mostly what I thought was "Suffer, motherfucker." If Biden ends up winning, as almost everyone seems to believe he will, this excruciating ballot count will have been worth it because Donald Fucking Trump was dragged down into the shit he created, Continue Reading...

Film Review: Totally Under Control

Totalitarian Totally Out of Control: New Doc Chronicles Covid “Response,” AKA Trump’s Genocidal Negligent Homicide of the American People The cutting edge nonfiction film Totally Under Control co-directed by Oscar-winner Alex Gibney, Ophelia Harutyunyan and Suzanne Hillinger documents the Trump regime’s tragedy of errors and terrors in its catastrophic reactionary reaction to the coronavirus. Indeed, Control is a veritable cinematic Nuremberg Continue Reading...

MAGA Cretins Worship at the Church of the Manly Grifter

One weird thing that burbled up through the miasma of the coverage of a virus-shedding President Donald Trump releasing himself from Walter Reed Medical Center to go forth and infect others is a literal - as in what the word "literal" means - desire by some of Trump's most fervid fanatics that they be healed by his blood. As fucked up as this sounds, it's not hyperbole. It's not interpretation. It's what they fucking said. Truculent doom gnome Continue Reading...

Coronavirus Exposes the Value of Human Capital

COVID-19’s multi-pronged attack Not only is the coronavirus assaulting our bodies, killing thousands, which is bad enough. It is also attacking our social and economic structures. Scientists have found that once it enters the body, COVID-19 is capable of attacking almost any organ, with devastating consequences.  It is doing something very similar to our economic systems. Your money or your life During the spring and summer of 2020, Continue Reading...

9/11 Unity Is a Fond Remembrance from the Past That Never Happened

Look, far be it from me to shit all over your 9/11 unity circle jerk, but let's stop fucking pretending that we all held hands and sang, "Give Peace a Chance" after the terrorist attacks of that day. At best, most of us on the left held our breath and waited to see if George W. Bush would fuck up the response. We were not optimistic that the dumb motherfucker who had spent a good chunk of his first 8 months in office praying about whether or Continue Reading...

On Labor Day, Trump’s Mismanagement of Pandemic has left 27 Million Unemployed and Turning to Food Banks

It is a sad Labor Day, in the shadow of the Trump Pandemic. Over a fourth of workers are afraid of losing their jobs because of the pandemic, up from 15% last year this time, according to Gallup. That is, the anxiety over joblessness as almost doubled. Many are much more worried, as well, about having their wages cut. Workers are more anxious than at any time since the Great Recession began to taper off nine years ago. Some 27 million US workers Continue Reading...

The Real Trick Behind Trump’s Executive Actions: Pass the Buck

If there is one thing that is consistent about President Donald Trump, who is really just a brain-damaged hog whose squeals can only be understood by other brain-damaged pigs, it's that he refuses to take blame whenever he's wrong. It's not that he never apologizes, like the world's shittiest tween, but he also works mightily to make sure someone else is to blame for his transgressions, his crimes, and his evil (yet dumb) schemes. And his most Continue Reading...