Corruption
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The Phony Left: Pawns in a Game It Doesn’t Understand
Few communities in America prospered as much as Texarkana during President Joe Biden’s four years in the White House, and few communities were more ungrateful than the voters of that region, which is anchored around twin cities spread across the Texas-Arkansas border. In 2024, in spite of economic growth under a Democratic president at rates
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Gotti Residence Searched by FBI for Evidence of Crimes–and in Civil Case Takes 5th
Would we have seen any less of a defense of John Gotti if Republicans had elected him rather than Trump? Here's what they'd say: John Gotti is a Catholic and a good family man. He's not a politician, but a successful businessman who understands how to get things done. Sure, he's not perfect, but he's all
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Why the ‘quid pro quo’ Matters
If I hear another talking head say that the 'quid pro quo' doesn't really matter, that the only thing that matters is Trump's asking a foreign leader to support his political interests, I'm likely to . . . whatever. The 'quid pro quo' matters, and it matters critically. What doesn't matter is that Trump has
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The Mueller/Barr Report
So like everyone else, I’ve been obsessing about what is going on with the Mueller report. This column by David Leonhardt comes close (with a few interspersed objections) to my own take on this. Here are the last three paragraphs: Barr’s summary doesn’t answer why Russia went to such lengths to help Trump win, writes The Atlantic’s David
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Zizek, McCain, Trump, and Big Daddy
I'm no expert on Slavoj Zizek, the Lacanian psychotherapist and edgy philosopher from Slovenia, but I find his distinction between the Oedipal Father Figure and the Primal Father Figure an interesting frame through which to observe the events surrounding the death of John McCain in the last week. Elites in the American media and political
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Another approach to putting the predators back in their cages
Not clear what the criteria are to get to his goals, and who decides which candidates gets the thumbs up, but I'm for it until there's a reason I shouldn't be. A little quixotic, maybe, and I'm not given to the quixotic, but this is a walk I'd like to take–at least it gets
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The Deep State
I've said in a recent post that the Tea Party is right to be angry but wrong because it channels that anger in unconstructive ways. Last night on Moyers and Company, Moyers interviewed Mike Lofgren, a former Republican congressional staffer, who explains why. He's coined the term the "Deep State", and describes more precisely and
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SCOTUS Rulings Lost in the News
From today's NYT piece on the Robert's court 'steady move to the right': In lower-profile cases, the court’s rulings continued to be good for business interests and bad for the Obama administration. “We shouldn’t lose sight of the court cementing its legacy as the most pro-business court in the modern era,” said Lee Epstein, who teaches