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

Religion and Tax–not an easy issue

by Linda Beale Religion and Tax–not an easy issue The Atlantic magazine has an article in the May 3 2016 issue asking “Should Courts Get to Define Religion?” The article deals with a Catholic shrine in Attleboro Massachusetts, Shrine of Our Lady of LaSalette, that covers almost 200 acres of land and includes what are […]

Trump the Debt

Needless to say, Donald Trump has expressed some odd ideas on the US national debt. He has argued that we can’t afford this or that because we are 19 trillion in debt, promised to pay back the debt in 8 years, & asserted that the debt is no big problem (one out of three right […]

SCOTUS Approves New Rules for FBI Hacking and Legislates New Law

In 2014, Joseph Hall explained why this could be an issue. “The US Department of Justice is seeking to drastically expand its abilities to search computers remotely through an obscure change in the rules of criminal procedure. This would have the effect of making it easier for law enforcement to remotely break into and search […]

A really important issue

I’m not a fan of Organizing for Action.  I think they’ve squandered a chance to be effective, and judging from the emails I’ve received from them they’ve focused mainly on things I don’t care about or don’t support.  In short, it’s been much more a centrist/center-left organization than a truly progressive one, because the Obama […]

Dealing the Woman’s Card—Clinton’s. And Mine. And Dealing the Man’s Card—Bernie Sanders’s. And Donald Trump’s.

There are limits to the analogy between Clinton’s 2008 primary contest with Obama and Sanders’s primary contest now with her.  Clinton doesn’t get that.  But she needs to figure it out because the differences matter. — There are limits to the analogy between Clinton’s 2008 primary contest with Obama and Sanders’s primary contest now with […]

Paul Krugman Retracts a Key Part of Last Friday’s ‘Sanders Over the Edge’ Op-ed: That Sanders, rather than the New York Daily News editorial board members, don’t know what Dodd-Frank authorizes the federal government to do concerning ‘systemically important’ (a.k.a., too-big-to-fail) financial institutions. Good for him.

Which brings us to Snoopy, who has, for reasons I don’t fully understand, long been the emblem of the insurance giant MetLife. “At the end of 2014 the regulators designated MetLife, whose business extends far beyond individual life insurance, a systemically important financial institution. Other firms faced with this designation have tried to get out […]

Senator Warren to Senate Republicans; If you do not like the choice of being shot or taking poison, then “Do Your Job”

A question to Senator Lindsey Graham by “The Daily Show’s” Trevor Noah asking why he endorsed Cruz for the Republican Presidential candidate over Trump. Earlier, Noah ran a clip of Graham stating it was a choice between getting shot or being poisoned and the reasoning for the choice of Cruz was there may be “an […]

Chris Blattman’s Blog: “An open letter to Senator Chuck Grassley from an Iowan high school student”

Someone far younger than us has seen the false logic of the Republicans in resisting the selection of a Supreme Court Justice. “The argument many Republicans are making is that Barack Obama is a ‘lame duck’ president, and, because “the people have not spoken,” he should not be allowed to nominate a replacement for Justice […]