Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Why are so many pundits conflating U.S. blue-collar voters’ concerns that are similar to their British counterparts’ who voted for Brexit with the separate issue of whether the Brexit vote itself will influence U.S. blue-collar voters’ votes in November? These are completely different issues.

Some of our wisest political observers informed us that Brexit would be great news for Donald Trump, because it shows (somehow) that there may be more support here than expected for his nationalist message of restoring American greatness through restrictionist immigration policies and turning the clock back on globalization. So it’s a bit surprising to […]

Who Will Be the Next President?

by Mike Kimel Who Will Be the Next President? We don’t know much about Panama before the Spanish arrived other than that it fit the usual pattern you see just about everywhere – there were periods of bloody violence (wars, genocides) alternating with periods of some sort of coexistence.  After the Spanish arrived, there was […]

Sigh.

McCain answered the question about the gun debate by citing Obama’s culpability for the attack through his foreign policy: “Barack Obama is directly responsible for it, because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, al-Qaeda went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it is today thanks to Barack Obama’s failures,” McCain said. … […]

Male, Female, and Transgendered Athletes and the Future of Sports

by Mike Kimel Male, Female, and Transgendered Athletes and the Future of Sports Men and women don’t compete directly against each other in sports ranging from basketball to golf to track and field. This seems intended to simultaneously acknowledge and paper over the performance difference between men and women in those activities. The process is […]

Ken Burns Delivers Stanford Commencement Speech

I believe the fully and completely ignored danger in this election is believing Trump is just a flash in the pan and he will never win against HRC regardless of how much she is denigrated by Republicans trying to prove Bengahzi or DEMS who believe Bernie is their candidate. It is not a good time […]

Paul Waldman conflates two entirely different things about media coverage: media coverage of and about Trump himself and media coverage of Republican congressional policy proposals. He’s right about one of those things, but clearly wrong about the other.

[The left’s] belief that Trump’s success is primarily a media failure has a parallel in the way conservatives have always explained their own defeats. We would have won, they insist, if only the media hadn’t been against us! If only they had told the voters just how much Barack Obama hates America, or if only […]

The Clinton Campaign Continues to Help Trump Ensure That Policy Won’t Matter in This Election

Time Magazine serves up a fascinating look at Donald Trump’s evolving campaign strategy, in which Trump and his top advisers leave little doubt that they think they can win mainly by dominating the media environment, in a way that will smash all the old rules of politics. The piece recaps several recent episodes in which Trump […]

Jon Chait rhymes with Click Bait

I find Jon Chait extremely interesting and stimulating. I often check his blog and regret the rareness of his posts (look who’s typing). He usually overstates his case and has an even the liberal New Republic hippy punching background. This subtitle is pure click bait How Can Hillary Clinton Win the Bernie Sanders Vote? By […]

Cash for Criminals

by  Mike Kimel Here’s a CNN story on “Cash for Criminals”: And so Operation Peacemaker was born. Loosely based on an academic fellowship, the ONS program invites some of the most hardened youth into the fold: often teenage boys suspected of violent crimes but whom authorities don’t have enough evidence to charge criminally. These fellows […]