Illustration by William Hennessy (SCOTUSBlog) From Politico yesterday: “President Joe Biden has just 12 days to meet his self-imposed Aug. 31 deadline to decide whether he’ll use executive action to forgive thousands of dollars in student loans for millions of Americans.” “When Nightly asked about Biden’s upcoming decision, the White House responded with an answer from press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s Aug. 9 briefing, in which she said the president would have a decision by the end of the month.” “‘When it comes to the cancellation — look, I just said the president understands firsthand t ..read more

ten·den·tious A great adjective meaning “expressing or intending to promote a particular cause or point of view, especially a controversial one.” For example, "a tendentious reading of history". Or, my favorite use of the word: “America has become a tendentious nation.” Increasingly our politicians and media don’t look at the facts in order to form an opinion. Rather, they know what they think and marshall only the facts that support their view. Very dangerous for a society, especially when combined with our hyper-polarized politics and the increasingly sophisticated deep fake capabilities of ..read more

It is pretty remarkable to me that post-election, when historically a certain degree of optimism and hope have traditionally taken root, most people with whom I have spoken--whether disappointed conservatives or happy progressives-- have little confidence that President-elect Biden's promise to try to end our poisonous politics is achievable. This skepticism is a problem (though understandable). Regardless of our personal politics or confidence that Biden can succeed, it is in all Americans' interests to give him an extended, solid chance. Neither sports teams nor congregations, nor families ..read more

Reposting another of the short biographies of leading Liberal Republicans from the 1970’s. There were many Liberal Republicans through the 1970’s—long after Abraham Lincoln’s and Teddy Roosevelt’s eras. They were not RINO’s any more than Lincoln or Roosevelt were, but rather members of a vibrant wing of the Republican Party dating back to Lincoln’s days. The existence of this branch of the Republican Party is generally unknown to Americans under the age of fifty, and younger people often find the existence of such Republicans surreal. But our politics are SO STALE, a half a dozen to a dozen ..read more

A friend asked me this again today. So thought I would reshare this post (slightly edited) from the www.theloneliberalrepublican.org website. This whole quixotic project is geared towards tilling ground to restore the Republican Party to the balance it has had through most of its history—not RINO politics, just what the Republican Party has actually been historically. For many of us who regard ourselves as somewhere in the middle politically, I believe that there are two major issues that separate most who would identify as Republicans from those who would identify as Democrats. The first is w ..read more

  Gallup published a poll last month titled “Satisfaction With Own Life Five Times Higher Than With U.S.” Here’s an excerpt: “Americans' satisfaction with the direction of the country has fallen to 17%, the lowest in a year. At the same time, Americans' satisfaction with their own lives has ticked up to 85%, just five points shy of the 2020 record-high point.” Yet CNN, citing the exact same poll, reported something different: “American happiness hits record lows” “One word can describe how Americans are feeling about the way things are going: bad. That’s the finding of a new  ..read more

It is pretty remarkable to me that post-election, when historically a certain degree of optimism and hope have traditionally taken root, most people with whom I have spoken--whether disappointed conservatives or happy progressives-- have little confidence that President-elect Biden's promise to try to end our poisonous politics is achievable. This skepticism is a problem (though understandable). Regardless of our personal politics or confidence that Biden can succeed, it is in all Americans' interests to give him an extended, solid chance. Neither sports teams nor congregations, nor families ..read more

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Thailand, my current home, is a middle income country of around seventy million people. There have been fifty-eight deaths here from the virus and no local cases for months. Life has mostly returned to normal, though almost everyone wears a mask, temperatures are taken entering malls, restaurants, parks and stores, and hand sanitizer is everywhere. ‎And the sports stadiums and nightclubs remain closed. The resistance in the United States to masks and other steps routinely taken in countries in Asia and Europe to defeat the virus is regarded as insane and shameful to folks here...and in most ..read more

I am so glad to see this headline in the New York Times today: How Police Unions Became Such Powerful Opponents to Reform Efforts. I hope it begins to change people's perceptions regarding the obstacles to police reform. Misdiagnose the problem and it's awfully hard to cure it... I am tired after having listened for decades to too many of my contemporaries and now younger friends, shaped by the politics of the Sixties, putting social justice groups advocating for police reform (like Campaign Zero) and all unions together on "the left" side of the ledger, and the police (including organizations ..read more