Caligula vs. conservatism: The ‘values’ of the president’s budget

  If you want to know a nation’s values, just look at its budget. There really is no better measure of our values than how we spend our money. And the president’s proposed FY20 budget tells quite a tale of his values. It’s nothing new for Republicans and Democrats to have different fiscal views. But, …

‘Tis tax season, Christmas for plutocrats

  It’s tax season, which means it’s time for hard-working Americans to donate to our favorite philanthropic cause: corporate welfare. I know, after four decades of real-wage stagnation for working-class Americans, you’ve all been hand-wringing over the plight of our country’s bloated billionaire class. After all, according to the Economic Policy Institute, the top 1 …

Immigration: This side of the rabbit hole, do facts even matter?

“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” That quip from Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the longtime U.S. Senator from New York, was long accepted as truth. You could twist and spin the story all you wanted, but at the end of the day, facts remained facts, and everyone knew it. …

Civility is needed from both ends of our toxic political spectrum

  “Today we affirm a new commitment to live out our nation’s promise through civility, courage, compassion and character.” Those words, from George W. Bush’s 2001 inaugural address, strike a sad note in today’s America. It’s painfully obvious our nation has failed to achieve “civility, courage, compassion and character.” Our nation’s grand incapacity for civil …

Breaking through the echo chamber: lessons in the wake of Helsinki

  This week’s whirlwind of Trumpian treason — or at the very least, cowardice — in the face of Vladimir Putin, followed by the president’s furious backpedaling at home, reveals two important takeaways: 1) Trump is a pricey but easily acquired marionette, whose strings beg to be manipulated by ratings and the approval of strong-arm …

Trump and Hobbes visit NATO

  Seventeenth century philosopher Thomas Hobbes warned of a state of nature when the ordering powers of mutual contracts are removed — a state of “continual fear, and danger of violent death: and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” For as long as humans have been human, we’ve been organizing into …

Celebrate, and defend, Independence

Today we celebrate our 242nd Independence Day — originally a celebration of no longer having a king, of gaining liberty from tyranny. This Fourth of July, I urge us all to pause and ponder where our nation stands today with respect to that liberty, and what course we are charting for our children. Our unlikely …

Our border policies on children: a bipartisan travesty

  It’s unacceptable to abuse and terrorize children. As Americans, we shouldn’t need to debate that. Yet here we are. Much has been made in the last week of how we treat children at the border, and that we somehow misplaced 1,475 of those children. All of this sparked much outrage — as it should …

Celebrate true patriotism this weekend

  It’s Memorial Day weekend, which means it’s time to dust off those flags in the back of the closet, fire up the grill and indulge in our annual orgy of patriotic fervor. It is appropriate to honor our nation’s fallen service men and women, and to thank veterans, especially those permanently damaged by war in body, …

Our collective sickness: Killing ‘others’ for tribalism

It’s been a bad week for peace, human decency and the teachings of basically every major world religion. On Monday, Israeli troops killed 60 and injured more than 2,700 Palestinians in Gaza.  Israel apologists vilified the dead, to justify the bloodshed in the name of ‘Murica and God. And why were Palestinians protesting? Imagine your …