At a town hall this week in Concord, the sleepy capital of New Hampshire, Democrats were riled up. “I call Washington every day on my lunch hour,” one member of the audience said in an exasperated tone. “I’m doing my part. I feel let down. There is no fight in the Democratic Party anymore.” The town hall was hosted by Rep. Maggie Goodlander, a longtime … Continue reading Democratic lawmakers still don’t get it
“No,” proclaims the longtime fact-checking site Snopes, “Trump Did Not Call Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists ‘Very Fine People’.” It’s a puzzling headline, published yesterday and making the rounds through social media as users try to figure it out. Do they remember this wrong? Is Snopes wrong? What’s going on? The headline refers to the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, the home of … Continue reading Snopes gets it wrong
A recent online exchange has me a little tense about a lot of things. Here, in short, is the backdrop. Donald John Trump, who was president of the United States for one term, is running for a second non-consecutive term. Trump now holds the distinction of winning more votes than any other candidate in an election except one candidate, who is, of course, Joe Biden. … Continue reading Once again, the Constitution is not a magic spell
Welcome to a surprise episode of Our Long National Nightmare because, after months of no one having the guts to do it, the Colorado Supreme Court held today that Donald Trumhop engaged in an insurrection and is ineligible to appear on the presidential ballot in the centennial state. The court’s basis is the Fourteenth Amendment, which may or may not actually say that. What’s the … Continue reading Colorado says Trump can’t be on the ballot. Is that allowed?
The strange Republican primary season had its fourth debate – its final official one – on December 6th, hosted by NewsNation (formerly WGN). Political commentators seem to be thoroughly sick of this by now. Politico lamented the level of attention given to the Haley-DeSantis rivalry, comparing it to the long-defunct NFL “Playoff Bowl” between the teams who failed to qualify for the Super Bowl, while … Continue reading The Last Official Republican Debate: Running to Replace Trump Without Running Against Trump
The third Republican debate was held on November 8th on NBC – and was uploaded to YouTube officially this time. Each debate seems to be getting easier to find on streaming, so that’s something. With only about two months left until primary voting starts, time is running out for candidates to figure out how to campaign in a way that appeals to voters more than … Continue reading The Third Debate Was Better, but it’s Still a Fight for Second Place
What’s that? It’s presidential primary season?! Well, I guess it’s time for your resident debate hate-watcher to come out of hibernation and check out the first debate of the 2024 cycle. I hope being over a week late isn’t too far off to be topical. The first debate of the Republican primary was on August 23rd, exclusively on Fox News (and exclusively available online on … Continue reading A Primary Debate Without the Primary’s Leading Candidate
In six rounds of carefully managed balloting, Republicans made their dividing line extremely clear. The 200-or-so members of the party who advocate conspiracy theories are on one side and the roughly two dozen members of the party who believe those conspiracy theories are on the other. They have to unite if they’re going to name a Speaker of the House. They have not yet done … Continue reading “I Never Imagined Leopards Would Obstruct MY Face,” sobs leader of the Leopards Obstructing People’s Faces Party.
In his concurrence in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Justice Clarence Thomas suggested that it was high time the court consider whether the Fourteenth Amendment’s language about liberty should really apply to all of these scandalous concepts it’s been applied to. Thomas highlighted access to contraception, consensual sex, and same-sex marriage as areas where the court might have overstepped by asserting the government could … Continue reading Justice Thomas seems to think a lot of things can be overturned – except Loving v. Virginia
A draft opinion of the Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was leaked late Monday and seems to show that the court is going to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that upheld a right to abortion access. The opinion would put into caselaw a long-circulating conservative idea: that Roe v. Wade was decided incorrectly and should be overturned because … Continue reading What is liberty?
