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

‘The Trump Swamp Is Growing’

‘The Trump Swamp Is Growing’: President Fires Ethics Chief as DOJ Moves to Drop Eric Adams Charges Common Dreams U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday fired the director of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) as his administration (packed with billionaires and riddled with conflicts of interest) abandons even the pretense of opposing corruption and lawlessness. A course […]

Judges for me but not for thee

Suddenly, Trump supporters are no longer fans of district judges: “For those of us who lived through the reigns of Judges Matthew Kacsmaryk and Reed O’Connor (so, like, we who were alive six months ago), this is a surprising turn of events. “The Kacsmaryks and O’Connors thwarted the Biden administration constantly, and on much hackier […]

The CIA is a “leftist” organization?

Apparently, there’s this weird, ahistorical conspiracy theory out there that the CIA is a leftist organization. Not only is there not an atom of evidence for this theory, there’s ample evidence of CIA involvement in destabilizing and overthrowing liberal and leftist governments in favor of right-wing dictatorships: Here’s a short list of CIA interventions in […]

Why didn’t John Dillinger think of that?

“Johnson said he “wholeheartedly” agrees with Vice President JD Vance that courts shouldn’t try to control the president’s power as DOGE slashes through the federal government. “The courts should take a step back and allow these processes to play out,” Johnson said at the Capitol.” Pretty Boy Floyd. Al Capone. Bonnie and Clyde. All just […]

District Courts Push-Back

All The Litigation – by Joyce Vance Civil Discourse At least one federal judge isn’t intimidated by Trump cronies attacking federal judges who have ruled against the new administration during its first three weeks of operation. Those attacks have taken the form of Elon Musk posting that 1% of the constitutionally life-tenured jurists should be fired every […]

Gaza

First, you put them in a cage. Then, poke them with a stick by taking ever more of their land, making life difficult, and things like that. When they get mad, label them terrorists. Seventy-five plus years now. There has never been a doubt what Israel wanted; it wanted it all. Not publicly. Let Moshe, […]

Musk, USAID, and a Crazy Conspiracy Theory

Recently NBC and The Washington Post have reported that Elon Musk’s hatred of USAID and his decision to feed into a wood chipper (claiming authority that Trump let alone Musk doesn’t have) is based on an insane conspiracy theory spread by an conspiracy theorist called MIke Benz. According to the Post, when Musk tweeted that […]

A Bit of Krugman on a Monday

Old stuff . . . an economy in good shape. Yep, this is a copy and paste. Yep, I stole it (January 15th) from Krugman’s array of articles that are more open to us now than before. Yep, I agree with Krugman on his assessment of the economy. Yep. there is inflation. What do you […]

15 Additional Drugs Selected for Medicare Drug Price Negotiations

HHS/CMS Drugs pricing negotiation. August 2023 . . . HHS announced they would negotiate the pricing for 10 drugs covered under Medicare Part D program. This was the first cycle of selected drugs to be negotiated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or HHS as many know it. The first cycle of negotiations, with […]

Coup or Autogolpe?

I used to believe Republicans would join with Democrats if there was an threat to the United States. The first clue I had of this not being true was watching Josh Hawley give a fist up to the protestors who turned into rioters attacking Capital police and breaking into the building. I am with you […]