Samantha Bee urges Democrats to continue their historical support for working people and civil rights. I could quibble about some things, but on the whole I agree with her. One point she could have added is that by far the … Continue reading
A few years ago a friend of mine, who at the time worked for a great metropolitan newspaper (let’s call her Lois), told me that the paper had installed exercise equipment in the offices for free use of the staff, … Continue reading
One of the stranger developments in the United States over the last couple of decades has been a rise in rates of illness and mortality for non-Hispanic white Americans, especially women, the middle-aged, and those with low levels of education. … Continue reading
Most developed countries and many places in the U.S. require paid sick leave, and it turns out to have a lot of unambiguous benefits for businesses as well as sick employees and their coworkers and customers. But somehow a lot … Continue reading
To put it mildly, not everything about 2016 has gone well. But as novelist and polymath John Green points out here (in a video originally posted August 16), there have been some items of pretty good news as well, many … Continue reading
This is another one I suspect you’ve seen by now, but just in case… Link: https://youtu.be/tI3g_laToxE by … Continue reading
Donald Trump has nominated retired Marine Corps general James Mattis to serve as Secretary of Defense. Genral Mattis has not been out of the service the required seven years and hence cannot legally serve in that post, but I think … Continue reading
From a late July episode of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, a six-minute segment of advice to Hillary Clinton about how to present herself. (Usual caution to those sensitive to naughty language: This is Bill Maher speaking on cable.) … Continue reading
For a long time people have talked about the problem of low-information voters, those who typically don’t care all that much about politics, rarely watch the news, and rely on general impressions. To varying degrees this has probably been true … Continue reading
Trevor Noah, host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, has some advice to journalists on dealing with the flood of false statements from Donald Trump. (I’m going with “false statements” rather than “lies” because at least some of the time … Continue reading