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

Hit by the Proverbial Mack Truck, Alas it is empty

Republican: A synonym for Selfishness and Narcissism and Violence Synonym: a word or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word or phrase in the same language; a person or thing so closely associated with a particular quality or idea that the mention of their name calls it to mind. Selfishness: the […]

Higher Covid Death Rates in Trump States

I was reading the usual MedPage Today articles. One commenter discusses the State of Florida under Governor DeSantis having a high Covid Death Rate. Fourteen of 15 states favored Trump in the election and have the highest Covid Death Rates. The article: “Florida’s Surgeon General Sends a Dangerous Message” | MedPage Today, Thresia B. Gambon, […]

What Bill and Hillary Clinton Don’t Get: That the way to win Rust Belt white blue-collar voters isn’t to go centrist; it’s to go economic populist.

The changes to the platform testify to the strength of the Sanders campaign, and, like that campaign, they are a sign that the dynamism within the party arises right now from its left­wing faction, led by politicians like Mr. Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. What is less clear is if Mrs. Clinton is […]

I doubt that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee.

I’m not sure whether this is a serious post or not. — How likely is it that Donald Trump, if elected, would serve more than a few months of his term?  How likely is it that he will even continue as the nominee much beyond the convention?, Me, Angry Bear, Jun. 3 That sentence is […]

Is it just me, or is the Clinton campaign’s take on how to appeal to African-American voters really demeaning?

It’s worth noting that Clinton has an interesting built-in advantage here. Clinton is campaigning as the candidate of continuity, at least in the sense that she is promising to build incrementally on the Obama agenda, while Sanders is implicitly arguing that the change of the Obama era has been woefully insubstantial when compared with the […]

Why are so many Dem-leaning pundits so profoundly clueless? [Updated.]

Today, Martin O’Malley, the former Maryland governor who has been talking about challenging Clinton from the left, was repeatedly asked by reporters to comment on Clinton’s emails, and he repeatedly refused. Not because he doesn’t think there are legitimate questions here, but because his advisers say raising them might reflect badly on him: “His advisers say there’s […]

Political Journalists Should Follow the Lead of Insurance Industry CEOs and Read Angry Bear Regularly. Seriously.

Meanwhile, health insurers warned that Rubio’s legislation [to kill the insurance risk-corridors provision in the ACA] would lead to the government-run health-care system that most alarms conservatives. And there was the awkward fact that the risk corridors were the same mechanism Republicans used in the 2006 prescription-drug legislation. — From Obamacare to the IRS scandal, […]

Republicans and Dana Milbank Solve the Unemployment Problem in Germany, Canada, Taiwan and Australia: Those countries just need to repeal their universal-healthcare laws and tie healthcare insurance to full-time employment at large corporations!

It’s worth appreciating the perverse nature of the [Republicans’] lie on display [in a new web ad against North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan here. Because Republicans are absolutely wedded to their “Obamacare is a job killer” talking point, the CBO report’s findings are being distorted into proof that the law will inflict job losses on […]

Poetic Justice for Justice Alito. Maybe.

U.C.-Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu’s nomination to the Ninth Circuit Court of appeals was killed a couple years ago by Senate Republicans upon the pretext that Lui had trashed Alito to the Senate Judiciary Committee in testimony during Alito’s confirmation hearing.  Lui predicted that Alito as a justice would be exactly what Alito as a […]