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A Kakistocracy Takes Over Immigration Policy

Social media has been lighting up like fireworks, with myriad Trump voters exclaiming, “I didn’t know he meant me!” For example, many MAGA cheerleaders are now shocked to learn that his …

Tariff Man

In the last week in November, Donald Trump made several extreme tariff threats. He threatened Mexico and Canada with 25% tariffs, warning that the new tariffs would remain in place “until such time …

Climate Conference Has Conflicting Conclusion

In the wake of America’s disastrous decision to entrust our country to a crazy criminal, some noteworthy news has been neglected. COP29 stands for the 29th summit of Convention of the Parties, …

Let’s Scrap the Stigma of Mental Illness

Even though one in five Americans is estimated to suffer from mental health illness, talk about mental health in the rural West remains muted. I like to talk about it at Thanksgiving because I’m …

Bold Rulings, Better Lives

Bobcat’s management forced Ethan Fitch and his co-workers into a series of mandatory town-hall meetings and then subjected them to anti-union harangues aimed at thwarting their union drive. The …

Don’t Give Up. Organize Locally

Well, friends, it’s time to think about New Year’s resolutions. And I, for one, am ready for some positive activism to encourage our best natures and our best progressive populist efforts. …

We Need to Invest in Families. Project 2025 Wants the Opposite.

I teach my children to be kind and respectful and not to judge others — we’re all in this life together. Yet families like ours are often stigmatized when we need assistance to make ends …

Lack of Civic Infrastructure Drives Rural Health Disparities

Rural counties are less healthy than their urban counterparts, a disparity driven partly by unequal access to civic infrastructure, according to a Daily Yonder analysis of data gathered by County …

The Carolina Two Step

The Republican North Carolina General Assembly is as exhausting as Donald Trump. Okay, not that exhausting. But they are relentless, unceasing, all-pervasive, ever-greedy, and ruthlessly shameless in …

Of Landslides and Mandates

In the wake of the drubbing Democrats took on Election Day, the predominant news narrative is that Donald Trump and his MAGA minions won a massive “landslide,” which in turn produced a political …

Elvis Is Still Everywhere

I was born in 1954, the same year that Elvis Presley entered Sun Studio and started recording. And had his first chart hit. As I like to say with a soupçon of jest, I’m the same age as …

Our Plutocrats Have Plenty of Money To Burn

Looking to find something special this holiday season for that mega-millionaire in your life? The Italian retailer Valextra has just what you may need: a cocktail set that offers a “vision of …

I’ve been writing political opinion nonstop for 20 years. As of today I’m done. nnLife was different when the Philadelphia Inquirer gifted me a column in January 2004. Both major parties believed …

intrepid exile Mohammed Rasoulof thwarts theocracy

In May writer/director Mohammad Rasoulof fled Iran. On May 24 he presented “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” at the Cannes Film Festival, winning a 12-minute standing ovation, four awards plus a Palme …

How Trump Plans to Seize the Power of the Purse from Congress

Donald Trump is entering his second term with vows to cut a vast array of government services and a radical plan to do so. Rather than relying on his party’s control of Congress to trim the budget, …

Musk’s Dangerous Bullying

No one better illustrates the sinister consequences of great wealth turned into unaccountable power than Elon Musk. Musk, the richest person in the world, is not only claiming presidential …

The Glumness of Trump-World

Trump et al see bête noires everywhere. Where some of us try to look upon the world with optimism, hoping that an arc of progress is inching up, the Trumpalytes see disaster. Consider the …

Another Whitelash Election

Even with high turnout, endorsements from top Republicans and former Trump aides, and outspending the Trump-Vance ticket by nearly $460 million, Democrats still lost the White House, as well as both …

European Journalists are Gearing Up Against Disinformation

It doesn’t take an historian to appreciate the long standing interdependence between the U.S. and most European nations. Centuries after that continent’s multiple invasions in the New World - and …

No Peace, No Justice

Chiwetel Ejiofor, the British actor and screenwriter, hits a home run directing “Rob Peace,” a gripping biopic streaming on Netflix now. This film is based on a 2014 biography, “The Short and …

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