Breaking News

Uncategorized

This cannot go on forever

Whether you’re feeling queasy or euphoric, or even a bit of both about the opening weeks of the second Trump presidency, my advice is to remember Stein’s Law. Richard Nixon’s former chief economic adviser, Herb Stein, declared: “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” I’ve found this to be a valuable, if obvious, insight for the stock market, depressed teenagers and, of late, political junkies. For those who follow such things closely, the sheer pace and audacity of Donald Trump’s opening gambits have breathed new life into cliches such as “drinking from a ...

Where is the end of the law?

He is the most lawless president in American history. He’s allowed Musk’s rats unfettered access to the Treasury’s payments system. Banned birthright citizenship. Refused to spend money appropriated by Congress. Closed U.S. AID and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, independent agencies, without Congress’s approval. Substituted political loyalists for civil servants. Unleashed the military on civilians. And on it goes. Republican lawmakers won’t restrain him. In one of the most shameful apologia for dictatorship I’ve ever heard coming from a public official, ...

Spring cleaning the government

It’s a bit early for spring cleaning but that’s what President Trump and his faithful companion Elon Musk appear to be doing. When I was a child, every spring my mother would open closets and check the attic and basement for clothes and other items that could be discarded or given to charity. Sometimes it was difficult to part with them, especially if they had sentimental value, but generally we went along with most of it because clutter was regarded as unnecessary and taking up space that could be used for other things. Today’s cable shows have programs about what they call ...

Egg prices are Donald Trump’s fault

During the campaign, Donald Trump stood before a table of groceries, a box of eggs included, and promised: “When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on day one.” It’s now past day 14, and eggs prices are hitting record highs. Or to use a Trumpian locution, egg prices are the worst they’ve been in history. You surely heard that Waffle House raised the price of its breakfasts by 50 cents an egg? Or that 100,000 eggs -- valued at $40,000 -- were just stolen from a single store in Pennsylvania? Where are prominent Democrats emoting in supermarket aisles, ...

Demolition of USAID is a scandal

A “special government employee,” wealthy beyond the dreams of Croesus, chose as his first target the poorest and most vulnerable people on Earth. On Sunday evening, Elon Musk and his peach-fuzz goons locked employees of the U.S. Agency for International Development out of their email accounts, shut down the agency website, announced that nearly everyone would be fired and crowed that USAID had been fed into a “wood chipper.” President Onlooker muttered approvingly that the agency had it coming because it was dominated by “radical left lunatics.” Musk called them ...

Bobby Kennedy Jr. an unhealthy choice

For anyone doubting whether America is ailing and headed for an unhealthy next four years, President Donald Trump’s exquisitely characteristic blaming of a midair collision of an airplane and a helicopter over the Potomac River on the promotion of racial diversity should be a wake-up call. Unfortunately, it won’t be; Americans decided fair and square that they were fine having a narcissistic con man run the country. As the Bible teaches, we reap what we sow. Two weeks into another Trump presidency, what we are sowing is pretty chilling. We’ve got a Defense Secretary in command of ...