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

Union-killing bill dies in New Hampshire

“Right-to-work” is one of those marketing euphemisms like “pro-life,” which is designed to disguise the actual agenda. In the case of “right-to-work,” the actual agenda is to kill unions and give workers the “right” to work for low wages under oppressive conditions. Much to my surprise, Republicans—who have long been in the vanguard of “right-to-work”—joined […]

Defeating the Iraqi Insurgency

and How USAID Helped Us Defeat the Iraqi Insurgency, The Bulwark Its projects reinforced our military efforts, and served American interests while saving and improving lives. The story . . . Many senior military officials are fans of the USAID like I am. Anyone who actually knows what that agency does, or who has seen […]

WWE to Run Dept of Education

“Education is meant to be the great equalizer for our children, not a great investment opportunity for the billionaires ransacking our federal government.” Getting rid of the Department of Education will take an act of Congress. Republicans are more than willing to approve all of Trump’s requests and nominations. This appointment is an interesting pick. […]

Trump takes NYC hostage

New York City has had a long history of problematic mayors, and the corrupt current mayor, Eric Adams, is honoring that tradition. Now, heaping corruption on corruption, the corrupt current President, Donald Trump, is trying to exploit the corrupt Justice Department to do a corrupt deal with Adams: “ . . . President Trump had […]

Republicans* approve quack to direct HHS

“Kennedy, an “unfathomable” nominee in the eyes of public health experts, has questioned the link between HIV and AIDS, tied gay and transgender identities to chemical exposure, pushed to remove fluoride from drinking water, suggested COVID-19 was genetically engineered to target certain races, claimed Black people may have different immune systems and suggested anti-depressants are […]

Is there a self-enforcing budget deal with Trump?

Is there a self-enforcing budget deal with Trump? In yesterday’s column, Yglesias makes a critical observation:  “there is genuinely no point in negotiating a bipartisan appropriation bill if the president is going to ignore its terms. . . . the entire premise of a bipartisan spending deal is precisely that money will be spent on […]

They’re lying

““Contrary to the hysteria, redirecting billions of allocated NIH spending away from administrative bloat means there will be more money and resources available for legitimate scientific research, not less,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said.” Here’s how you know they’re lying. If they were telling the truth, there would be no net reduction to the […]

Some links on the current constitutional predicament

Democrats need to win elections, full stop.  As I wrote here, this may mean “heightening the contradictions”.  Michael Dorf: If there is a path back to sanity, then, it probably must travel through a change of heart by the people who support Trump’s assault on democracy. They will not likely be won over by appeals […]

Worker Shortage in Washington D.C.

People complain about the size of the Federal Government, its costs and taxes, and how the size of it infringes upon the nation’s economy. Complaining of the size of government, Grover Norquist once said, “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into […]

Threatening the World with Tariffs

I am finding there are a greater degree of politics going on in economic commentaries. Maybe it was always there and I was just missing it? A bit of Paul Krugman this Wednesday morning on Global Trade and Tariffs. Trump’s threatens countries with tariffs if they do not bow to him and do as he […]