Watching the Republican presidential debate last Tuesday night, I kept flashing back to George W. Bush's acceptance speech at the 2000 Republican National Convention. Vice President Al Gore, Bush charged that August night, "now leads the party of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but the only thing he has to offer is fear itself." Coming as it […]

Months after Donald Trump cemented his frontrunner status, the American media and the Republican Party are now approaching a state of panic. Press and pundits have scrambled to explain how Trump--despite his blatant lies, casual race-baiting, religious bigotry and shameless xenophobia--has in the face of their predictions of his certain doom nevertheless tightened his grip […]

From the very beginning of the debate over health care reform, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has delivered the same two messages to Congressional lawmakers. First, over a 10-year time frame, the Affordable Care Act--aka Obamacare--reduces the national debt. Conversely, the CBO has always found, repealing "every word" of Obamacare will necessarily increase the […]

Just in time for holiday party season, there's a new drinking game certain to make things more jolly. It works like this: Every time Speaker of the House Paul Ryan says "tax reform," "close loopholes," "simplify the tax code," "lower rates," or "broaden the base," Americans have to drink. After all, for more than six […]

Speaking to farmers in Spencer, Iowa on Saturday., 2016 GOP front-runner Donald Trump declared, "We are going to get rid of the estate taxes that are making the farmers sell their farms." That came as no surprise, given that Congressional Republicans and virtually every recent GOP White House wannabe shares the same position. But Trump's […]

This was a very big week for American billionaires in the news. On Tuesday, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Dr. Priscilla Chan marked the occasion of their daughter's birth to announce that "during their lives" they will donate 99 percent of their Facebook shares to charitable purposes. But just one day after we […]

In the wake of the terror attacks in Paris that killed 130 and wounded hundreds more, there is little doubt that the U.S., France, the UK and other American allies will step up their strikes on Daesh targets in Syria and Iraq. Beyond that, the questions about what the coalition should--and shouldn't do--to combat ISIS […]

In the wake of the slaughter in Paris, the 2016 Republican White House hopeful and their conservative allies have done a stellar job whipping up hysteria about the terrorist threat from ISIS. But when it comes to domestic terrorism from right-wing extremists, that dangerous amalgam of anti-government, anti-abortion and anti-tax radicals whose body count has […]

In the aftermath of the Paris slaughter perpetrated by French and Belgian nationals, the GOP's best and brightest are waging an incendiary rhetorical crusade to prevent 10,000 Syrian refugees from joining the roughly 2,300 already here. Among the 2016 GOP presidential field, Donald Trump declared his support for a database to track Muslims. Marco Rubio […]

In the wake of the attacks in Paris apparently carried out by French and Belgian nationals, Republican leaders and a majority of the American people now stand against accepting 10,000 Syrian refugees. While the GOP-controlled House pass legislation erecting new roadblocks to those fleeing the sectarian carnage in Syria, 26 governors (almost all of them […]