The following essay is by Michael Andrade, a friend who sent it to my wife as a Facebook message. It was powerful enough that she read it to me and I thought it was a perfect piece to run today on Martin Luther King Day, particularly as we approach the one year anniversary of Donald Trump taking office as the […]

Flip. Flop. At a bipartisan meeting with House and Senate leaders on Tuesday, Donald Trump had this to say about an impending bipartisan agreement to protect roughly 800,000 Dreamers, undocumented immigrants brought to the USA when they were children: [W]hen this group comes back — hopefully with an agreement — this group and others from the Senate, from the House, […]

Hi, ladies*, I’m here to tell you that it’s OK to step away from the keyboard for a few days. It’s cool not to check Twitter and especially Facebook, where you’re supposed to be linked with your actual friends. Because it is a cesspool right now over the sexual harassment and abuse scandals in Washington, especially with two Democrats (U.S. […]

As an academic who works in the world of words, it’s been by turns horrifying and fascinating watching Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore and his defenders try to rationalize his–alleged–history of sexual harassment, assault, inappropriate, and illegal (at the time–the statute of limitations now having expired) behavior with teenage girls. Given that Moore and most of his supporters in […]

 If you’re looking for a window into 2018 in Michigan, the most important race took place last night in the western Upper Peninsula. On first blush, it looks like a pretty routine result in the special election for the 109th state House District: Democrat Sara Cambensy held a seat that’s been blue for more than a half-century. The district has a […]

On October 16th, Donald Trump declared Obamacare dead. “Obamacare is finished,” he proclaimed. “It’s dead. It’s gone. You shouldn’t even mention it. It’s gone. There is no such thing as Obamacare anymore.” And he’s basically right: The Affordable Care Act as it was passed and originally implemented is a thing of the past. It didn’t take the passage of a […]

After Donald Trump’s surprise victory last year, it became almost gospel with beltway pundits that liberals were living in a bubble. That’s been followed by a never-ending stream of profiles of Trump supporters (aka Real Americans) who — wouldn’t ya know it? — vowed to stick with him no matter what. Now given the fact that Trump’s win shocked most […]

The outpouring of support and help from around the country and around the globe to help the people living in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey is as astonishing as it is heartwarming. There are a couple that are worth noting because they are the least likely to want to do ANYTHING to help Donald Trump’s America. First, Mexico stands ready […]

In the last week or so, we’ve seen two incidents that have generated an apology, and the apology’s evil twin, the do-over.   The second, and far less troubling, was the “adorable” social media rant unleashed by Louise Linton, the wife of Sec. of the Treasury Stephen Mnuchin. For those who haven’t seen it, here’s a quick summary:   Linton […]

At this point, 3 days after Nazis marched through an American city, killing one woman and terrorizing thousands of peaceful citizens, there is nothing that Trump could say that would do him any good. It’s simply not enough to come to the American people 72 hours after white supremacists have rioted and killed an innocent human being, clearly having been […]

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides. It has been going on for a long time in our country — not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. It has been going on for a long, long time. It has no place in America.” — President Donald Trump […]