Donald Trump actually achieved something worthwhile this week. A ceasefire deal that will result in all the hostages being released was hammered out between Israel and Hamas, and the guns have gone silent in Gaza. Whether this results in a long-lasting peace deal remain to be seen (there are a lot of details that are still "to be determined" in the deal), but progress has definitely been made. However, Trump did not achieve what he really wanted in all this, as the Nobel Peace Prize was announced today -- for someone else. Maybe he'll be considered next year, but so far the petulance and anger from the MAGA crowd has already begun.

Read Complete Article »

The mayor of Portland and the governor of Oregon are (so far) doing a pretty good job of pushing back against Donald Trump's attempted invasion of the city by soldiers. The state has sued Trump in court and has already won two injunctions preventing the deployment of troops. The first barred Trump from using the Oregon National Guard in the city, and the second was necessary because Trump decided to attempt an end-around play by deploying the California National Guard instead. The judge -- a Trump appointee, by the way -- was not amused, and her second injunction barred Trump from using any National Guard troops from any state in Portland. The judge's rulings were pretty scathing, pointing out that Trump's insistence that there is some sort of insurrection happening in Portland is completely divorced from the reality on the ground.

Read Complete Article »

Normally, on a Friday following the end of a month, we would all be talking about the new jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics right about now. We can't do that today, because the report didn't appear on schedule. This was due to the government being shut down, of course.

Read Complete Article »

The United States of America now seems to have officially become a banana republic. That's really the only conclusion one can draw, after the events of the past week (and the past eight months, for good measure).

Read Complete Article »

Last night, Jimmy Kimmel returned to the airwaves. Well, most of them, at any rate. Two corporate conglomerates of ABC affiliates refused to air the show, but with modern technology available, everyone can now watch his opening monologue even if you live in a television market where his show was pre-empted.

The official YouTube video of the opening of Jimmy Kimmel Live! has (as of this writing) 15.7 million views. If you haven't seen it yet, it is well worth watching. In fact, today we are pre-empting our own political column to present a full transcript of what Jimmy had to say last night in his opening monologue, because it is an important statement on free speech that stands on its own, and one that everyone who cares about free speech should either read or watch.

Read Complete Article »

Disney, in the end, did the right thing. That's the big news today. And it is a clear victory for free speech.

Last week, Disney abruptly yanked Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show off the airwaves, after being pressured to do so (for purely political reasons) by the head of the Federal Communications Commission. Today, Disney apparently saw the error of their ways and announced that Kimmel will return tomorrow night.

Read Complete Article »

[Program Note: Once again, we are pre-empting the entire format of this column due to the seriousness of the situation America now finds itself in. Most weeks, we strive to rise above the firehose of distractions from Donald Trump and his administration, to focus instead on things which truly matter -- which, this week, include Trump once again rolling over for Vladimir Putin while he invades another NATO country's airspace, as well as Trump blowing up boats in international waters just because he feels like it. But this week the distraction truly was what really mattered. Because this week we had a direct assault on the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press in a way not seen since Joe McCarthy trod the halls of the U.S. Capitol. So we had to write an extended rant instead of our usual column, just to warn everyone in advance.]

Our subtitle this week is meant to honor the passing of Rick Davies, one of the founding members of the musical group Supertramp, who passed away less than two weeks ago. In one of their biggest hits ("The Logical Song"), one lyric seems to sum up where we now stand as a nation:

Read Complete Article »

I should say, by way of a preface, that it is a very dark day in America, as those in power actively shred the Bill of Rights right before the nation's eyes. But I decided to wait until tomorrow to talk about all of that, to give myself another day to let it all sink in. So today I am choosing instead to write something positive, because I think we could all use some good news right about now.

The state of New Mexico just announced that, beginning in November, it will become the first state in the nation to offer universal free child care to all parents. Here's the basic story:

Read Complete Article »

Republicans, led by Donald Trump, now apparently want to rewrite the First Amendment's guarantee of the freedom of speech. Their interpretation of it seems to be that conservatives should be allowed to say whatever they want -- no matter how vile or vicious or hateful -- about whomever they want, while liberals should be locked up if they ever say anything negative about conservatives. That's how they want to define "free speech" these days: free speech for me, but not for thee.

Read Complete Article »

Remember when people on the right side of the political spectrum were so incensed about the left's "cancel culture"? It wasn't that long ago. Conservatives railed at how people were being held accountable for things they said by being "cancelled" in one way or another. They called the lefties "snowflakes" who couldn't take what they saw as merely robust and unbridled free speech. Any rightwing free speech should be consequence-free in the real world, they argued at the time.

Read Complete Article »