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Category Archives: Issues

I’m a Swiftie now!

I just realized that I have not weighed in on what appears to be the most important issue of the day, so I want to make my position clear: I know these positions are controversial, but I feel I owe it to my readers (if they exist) to be upfront about these things.

Don’t expect consistency from this court

Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, is planning to turn the tables on the Supreme Court, using the same dodge Texas used to abolish abortion rights to abolish the already bogus gun rights. In their rush to permit the state of Texas to deputize private citizens to bring lawsuits against women seeking abortions and their abortion providers, […]

An infrastructure story

As I write this I’m sitting in a house we own in Vermont. It is at the end of a dirt road, just down the road from the piece of land Michael Douglas owns, which explains why on some maps this road, properly known as Ethan Allen Road, is misnomered Michael Douglas Road. Even Garmin […]

Biden moving a tad left

Just saw this article. Joe Biden has (somewhat) embraced some progressive positions, albeit not quite all the way there. He’s suggested lowering the Medicare eligible age to 60, and forgiving student debt in certain situations. It’s the latter that I’m wondering about: The concept I’m announcing today will align my student debt relief proposal with my […]

Not alone, at any rate

I have to pass this along, just to prove that I'm not entirely crazy. A few days ago I made a list of a number of policy positions the Democrats should take to attract, you know, voters. Among my suggestions: forgiveness of student debt and free college education. Well, I'm not alone at any rate. […]

Time to clamp down

DALLAS — A Dallas nurse who treated the Liberian man before he died of the Ebola virus last week has tested positive for the disease, officials said Sunday. Although the nurse was wearing protective gear, the director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday that the latest report indicated a clear […]

Another meme debunked

I came upon this via Dean Baker. It’s worth reading, as it explodes another of the memes that gets endlessly repeated until it becomes something everyone knows, when there’s precious little truth in it. In this case, it’s the fable that jobs are going begging in this country because our school systems are simply not […]

The ACLU at the right wing money trough

  A couple of years ago I became involved with a local branch of the ACLU, but I found that I just didn’t have the time to attend the meetings. Even then, I had my doubts about the organization, when I learned from a state legislator that the ACLU had opposed attempts to outlaw political […]

Corporate veto power; the coming thing

  There are folks out there who insist that there isn’t a dime’s worth of difference between the two parties, so one should either cast a Naderesque protest vote, or not vote at all. I’ve always felt that there is too much truth in that position to totally reject it, but that on the whole, […]

Republicans don’t need no education

Reality intrudes again. On yet another issue, the Republicans are wrong on each and every point they are making about one of their ginned up issues: To improve its public schools, the United States should raise the status of the teaching profession by recruiting more qualified candidates, training them better and paying them more, according […]