As everyone knows, now, former speaker of the House, John Boehner has come out and said that the Republican Party is dead and buried. It is now, he tells us, the Trump Party. You can watch him say so in the embedded player below. He’s doubtlessly right. But, it is hard to pity Mr. Boehner.…

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1. This story is the beginning of a series of stories. The series will deal with an abject and total disaster. It will appear irregularly over the next few weeks, maybe months, as the situation requires. And it will tell a tale of hubris, and incompetence in high places, and of a Republican mayor who…

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Two articles to consider and one big issue to go with them. The issue: are us Liberals, Progressives, and NeverTrumpers in trouble regarding the 2018 midterm elections? At least some observers think so. Joe Scarborough in the Washington Post argues that Trump’s short term successes (or at least successes he can take credit for, even…

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A long, long time ago, I had the painful experience of being taken apart (verbally) by a self-important young professor who heard me use the term “elite,” as in “power elite.” She haughtily explained there was no such thing. There might be elites, in the sense of people who might influence the culture in various…

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There is a fascinating article over on Vice that everyone should read. In The Terrifying Trend of White Men Radicalized Online Becoming IRL Terrorists, David Neiwert looks at how young American white males are being lured into the clutches of extreme right-wing and Nazi organizations. In an almost mirror image of the individuals who become…

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Suppose, for a moment, that there was an agency that was America’s first and last and only defense against plagues and pandemics — whether those coming from nature, or from other human beings. (Remember those Anthrax outbreaks in Russia a while back.) And suppose you were a responsible, intelligent, well-meaning President of these United States.…

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I don’t know who John Benjamin is, and I’m at a lost to explain why he hasn’t been expelled from (or lynched at) MIT’s Sloan School of Management at which he is a student and, indeed, a Dean’s Fellow. But I do know that I’m very impressed with the chap. He has just written an…

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Okay, so yesterday we wrote here about how Trump’s North Korean summit was delayed. Today, we learn that it is canceled. Full Stop. End of story. Nothing to see here, folks. And, of course, we all saw it coming. You saw it coming. I saw it coming. Hell, my dog saw it coming. But once…

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Editor’s Note: this story has been now out of date as a result of Trump’s abrupt cancellation of the summit entirely. Like we didn’t see that one coming…     Okay, Trump now says there is a “substantial” chance that his summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un will be delayed. That sound you just heard…

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The other day, I saw the above meme on the People For Bernie Instagram feed. I did a search for the picture itself, and discovered there is, indeed, a back story. Something about two celebs having a “bromance.” And the image has become a general meme symbolizing pride before a fall. But what I found…

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