40 Years of Voodoo Economics The 40-year project to transfer the wealth of the nation to a new oligarchy is complete. The coup de grâce was delivered unexpectedly by Covid-19, which stripped the façade from our Potemkin economy, revealing tens of millions of Americans on the brink of penury, even as the 1% reaped a […]
Navigating Chaos It’s summertime. This was when the virus was supposed to back off for a while. That’s certainly not happening. America’s response to this pandemic has been a tragedy, and a national embarrassment – the result of a catastrophic failure of leadership, and the deliberate politicization of recommended measures to limit the spread of […]
The inauguration of Donald Trump brought on a whirlwind of scandal-a-day chaos that has made it impossible for me to assemble the long form Risk & Opportunity newsletters that I have published since 2002. As a result, I have only published twice since the 2016 election: “Donald Trump – The Chaos President” in July of […]
Steve Bannon once held forth that the agenda of the Trump Administration is the “deconstruction of the administrative state.” In its place he envisioned a no-holds-barred nationalistic capitalism, grounded in a medieval Christianity – waging war against secularism and Islam. As time goes on, however, it has become clear that President Trump has something else […]
With the ascension of two new conservative justices to the Supreme Court, anti-abortion activists have been busy ramping up an array of anti-abortion bills in Republican controlled states, with the ultimate goal of overturning Roe v Wade. In the course of 40 years of destructive political warfare over abortion, public sentiment has remained surprisingly unchanged. […]
Jeff Flake’s speech from the floor of the Senate announcing his retirement is one for the history books. It is an inspiring recitation of the highest ideals of our nation, and an unflinching rejection of the moral degradation that has consumed the Republican Party and poisoned our political culture. It’s a shame a politician feels […]
Mark Lilla’s seminal book, The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics has been getting a lot of attention lately…thankfully! The lede from Lilla’s August 11th Wall Street Journal article sums it up: “Liberals should reject the divisive, zero-sum politics of identity and find their way back to a unifying vision of the common good.” This book should be required […]
This assessment of the condition of the American republic was posted by Andrew Bacevich on Tomdispatch.com. This statement should be required reading for every citizen. I am by temperament a conservative and a traditionalist, wary of revolutionary movements that more often than not end up being hijacked by nefarious plotters more interested in satisfying their own […]
This has been a difficult letter to write. The turbulence unleashed by the election of Donald Trump has continued unabated. The belligerent torrent of attack tweets and “alternative facts” emanating daily from the White House leaves one wondering how this could happen in America, and what will become of us. The news has become all […]
Casual threats of nuclear war are ratcheting up the odds of an “accidental” nuclear war. Our media need to tear themselves away from the Donald Trump reality show, and start paying attention to this and other existential threats proliferating behind the curtain. For a reality check, review the litany of nuclear close calls posted at futureoflife.org.