From the Right
/Politics
Mahmoud Khalil Has Rights, Damn It
Mahmoud Khalil could have been cooked up in a lab to offend -- no, worse -- to disgust me. And yet, despite temptation, I cannot endorse what the Trump administration is doing to him.
Based upon the postings of his group, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, Khalil, who was born in Syria, seems to hold grotesque opinions. CUAD, a leader of the...Read more
Where Would Trump Be Without His Spineless Defenders?
It's amazing how men who prided themselves on strength and toughness will submit to a gangster.
In 2022, after Russian tanks rolled across an international border into Ukraine and missiles pierced the quiet of cities like Kharkiv and Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earned worldwide acclaim for his courage and heroism. No one was...Read more
Open for Corruption
Is America open for corruption now? Unabashedly? Nakedly? Are we tossing aside not just our hard-won victories over infectious diseases but also the more than hundred-year battle against fraud, bribery and graft?
Honest, clean government doesn't follow automatically from democracy. Before civil service reform, the wealthy or well-connected were...Read more
America Joins the Jackals
As I watched election returns on the evening of Nov. 5, 2024, I was struck by the sense that Americans had missed the memo. Across the nation, in blue states as well as red, county after county showed a marked rightward shift. It was so seemingly normal. What do you do when groceries are much more expensive than four years ago, the border is ...Read more
Tom Brady's Bad Lesson
The Eagles victory was greeted joyously in our family. It's always a high when you (or your team) come out on top. But in the final minutes of the Super Bowl, as the clock remained stuck on the two-minute warning for what felt like 20 minutes (at least for those of us eager to pop the Champagne), former quarterback-turned-TV-commentator Tom ...Read more
The Trump/Musk 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 ...Read more
Why America Needs Birthright Citizenship
It's part of who we are.
The White House executive order theoretically ending birthright citizenship grandly proclaims its purpose as "Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship." As we've come to expect from this administration, the proposed change to American law would do the exact opposite. Also in keeping with the Trumpian ...Read more
An Invitation to Worship
The tone was set by Franklin Graham's invocation. Preachers are a fixture at presidential inaugurations, but until now they've confined their words to asking the Almighty to bless the new president and his family and to guide the nation to goodness and mercy. The prophets were popular choices. Not this time. Graham used the opportunity not to ...Read more
Damn the Acquiescence
It's important in a democracy that the losing side grapple with its defeat and learn the right lessons for next time. A certain amount of reflection and self-criticism is healthy, but we've blown past that point and are in danger of over-interpreting the 2024 results. Despite headlines proclaiming the GOP won in a "rout" or declaring that "This ...Read more