The Republicans have replaced my parents with pod people
When I was growing up in the 60s and 70s, my parents were, by far, the most liberal people I knew. They were (and still are) intellectuals. Above all the things they taught me, they taught me to...
View ArticleTaking the gloves off with friends and family
Dear friends and family:I am writing this letter to you to ask you to cast your vote for Barack Obama next week. Although we could discuss a myriad of reasons, this letter will only have one:...
View ArticleA Republican Mind Control Experiment You Can Try At Home!
To prove my theory that republicans make their obvious lies "stick" by using simple mind control techniques, I offer you this simple thought experiment that you can try in the safety of your very own...
View ArticleResponding to real and imagined unintended consequences of ACA
ACA is such a hot-button issue now that whenever employers or health-care providers (or anyone else) makes an unpopular change, naysayers are quick to jump on it and say "See I told you so -- Obamacare...
View ArticleGovernor Mike Pence of Indiana calls infant mortality rate 'deplorable' -...
From The Statehouse File[Republican] Gov. Mike Pence on Friday called the state’s infant mortality rate – one of the worst in the nation –“deplorable” and said improving it is a key goal of his...
View ArticleACA - Enabling Real Job Creators
Would better social services result in more self-employment and lower unemployment?Today on another thread, a claim was made in the comments that the US venture capital system (and capital system in...
View ArticleIt's the feelings, stupid
To change the minds of republicans we need to communicate in ways that will be effective -- in particular we need to understand the emotional impacts that their messaging (and ours) have on different...
View ArticlePlease don't thank me for my service
(I am a disabled veteran, long discharged. The following projects what my feelings would be if I were still in uniform today.)I am an American fighting man. I serve in the forces which guard my country...
View ArticleThe good Samaritan goes to Indiana
There has been alot of Scripture thrown around in the current discussions about the Indiana RFRA. However, all Christians everywhere agree that the two most important commandements are "Love the Lord...
View ArticleBernie Sanders is the most Christian of all candidates. By an enormous margin.
Far too many of the already-declared and yet-to-declare candidates for President invoke G-d or Christianity -- both as way of ingratiating themselves directly to (Christian) voters as well as a way to...
View ArticleTrump is patient, Trump is kind
In listening to a well-known passage of Scripture recently, a dissonant word substitution jumped unbidden to my mind:Trump is patient and kind; Trump is not jealous or boastful; he is not arrogant or...
View ArticleIt was supposed to be a debate, so evaluate it as a debate!
Gaah! From Gail Collins: "Clinton is not a very interesting speaker, and her failure to say anything stupid made her side of the debate all the more unexciting." Look, I'm sorry, but the point of a...
View ArticleNarcissistic psychopaths always have a tell: Why I think Trump rigged the...
Unless you have lived with a narcissistic psychopath it is really hard to understand how removed their thought patterns and behaviors are from “normal”. I can’t even really understand the pathology...
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A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand
One of Lincoln’s most famous speeches was his “House Divided” speech.A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do...
View ArticleAn Open Letter to Paul Ryan
(Note: If you hate Catholics and/or the Catholic Church, please pass over this diary. It is intended to challenge the dissonance between Paul Ryan’s statements about his Catholic faith and what the...
View ArticleWhat's It Going To Be, Speaker Ryan?
Dear Representative Ryan:You often claim the Catholic faith in public and that it informs your views. Yet, your policies and actions are more aligned Ayn Rand than with the Catholic Church. I hope...
View ArticleAmerica was great when the class struggle had a buffer -- a professional, and...
I had a bad cold/flu over the Christmas holiday and so had some down time to do some reading. For reasons I don’t recall, I skimmed through Das Kapital (which is about economic capital, not political...
View ArticleTruly Universal and Genuinely Affordable
Truly universal, genuinely affordable. This must be the goal for health care in the US and this must be our motto. It is only four words. Although they are multisyllabic, even Republicans should be...
View ArticleWhere I've Seen Trump's Kind of Lying Before
Trump looked especially sad and pathetic at the G20 meeting. He was that kid on the very first day at a new school. He had no friends, no one to make small talk with, no one to eat lunch with....
View ArticleThe Most Important "Family Value"
Republicans like to call themselves the party of “family values.” Never mind that their policies are viciously destructive to actual families. And never mind that what they mean by that is a...
View ArticleTo Melania (wherever I may find her)
To Melania (wherever I may find her). Come away with me Melania. You deserve to be treated with respect, and with love, and with care. You deserve a husband who will put your happiness, your...
View ArticleThe Existential Fear that Drives Evangelicals to Trump
One of the most puzzling, infuriating, frustrating aspects of Trump's popularity is that he is supported by an overwhelming majority of evangelical Christians. Although evangelicals tend to feel that...
View ArticleTrump just disrespected everyone who has ever served. Why do they take it?
As the President of the United States, I have an absolute right, perhaps even a duty, to investigate, or have investigated, CORRUPTION, and that would include asking, or suggesting, other Countries to...
View ArticleMarco Rubio, it's NOT NICE to fool with social teaching
Marco, Marco, Marco. Marco. Marco, I just ran across a piece you wrote for First Things where you invoked the social teaching of the Church and noted that central to it is human dignity — in the case...
View ArticleWith Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
Dear Mr. President — may I call you Mr. President? I do want to be respectful. People say all kinds of things about power. Sir John Dalberg-Acton, a royal person, so probably related to you, once...
View ArticleRight now, 4X as many Americans are dying per day from COVID-19 than died per...
It’s hard to sustain outrage these days. trump(*) and his lickspittle republican enablers continue to outmatch themselves. Those of us aligned against this utterly depraved and utterly incapable...
View ArticleThe Health Care Plan is in the Mail
donald trump (*) lies as easily as actual humans breathe. One particular type of lie he uses quite effectively is “the check is in the mail”— meaning, he makes whoever he is talking to feel good at...
View ArticleWhite Privilege and the Stanford Marshmallow Study
White privilege today is inextricably bound to our society’s feelings about morality and justice. In fact, a given set of circumstances can be viewed in diametrically opposite ways: as an example of...
View ArticleIt's not just 200k deaths, it's 6.9M pre-existing conditions
As of the time of this writing (September 23, 2020) there have been more than 6.9M CoV-SARS-2 (aka “Covid”) infections in the US, resulting in more than 200,000 deaths. These numbers are predicted to...
View ArticleMy reply to Martha McSally's latest campaign solicitation
I expect that many readers here, like me, have somehow gotten on right-wing email lists they can’t get off of. In my case, I receive two or three emails every day from Martha McSally’s campaign. They...
View Articletrump isn't qualified to be president. He isn't even unqualified.
There is a saying (perhaps apocryphal) attributed to Wolfgang Pauli upon reviewing the work of another physicist: “This isn’t right. This isn’t even wrong.” I love this quote because it captures that...
View ArticleI hate the right wing with the fury of a thousand suns
My very first diary here lamented the change my parents had undergone — turning from open-minded, liberal, progressives into, well, republicans. And while it was annoying when certain topics came up...
View ArticleHow the Prosperity Gospel Gave Us trump
It will ruffle no feathers here if I say the prosperity gospel is a uniquely American heresy that is utterly false. To its adherents it is the cheapest form of cheap grace, in fact, it is grace that...
View ArticleTo trump, the Big Lie is neither true nor false.
The Big Lie has so captured our attention that we even refer to it in Capital Letters and precede it with a definite article. It is the Big Lie. We all know what a lie is: “A false statement intended...
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Too Damn Much! The Hidden Reason Health Care And Higher Education Are...
Among the many economic injustices imposed on middle-class America are the unaffordable costs of health care and higher education. Health care accounts for over 60% of bankruptcies in the US. The...
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