From the Left
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Musk Was Smart but Clueless
It feels strange talking about the world's richest man, only 53 years old, in the past tense. But that somehow seems appropriate for Elon Musk, who weeks ago was considered Donald Trump's co-president. Now he's clearly falling off that high perch, just as Tesla, his star asset, reports net income cratering by 71%.
Musk was undoubtedly a ...Read more
The Rule of Law Is Not a Distraction
Gov. Gavin Newsom did it again. He is so busy running for president, so attuned to his general election campaign in 2028, that he has lost his way. It was bad enough that his podcast debuted with two MAGA-maniacs, Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk, with whom he was trying to find common ground. It was even worse when he turned on transgender ...Read more
April Is a Revolution Month
Greetings from the eye of the storm.
Is the time right for a second American Revolution? The first broke out 250 Aprils ago in Lexington and Concord.
Let's conjure up Paul Revere's midnight ride in this dark hour.
Our ruler makes the English king, George III, look like a sweet prince. President Donald Trump's brazen revenge spree is ...Read more
What Is Behind Trump's Lust for Greenland?
President Donald Trump has never been able to comprehend the plain fact that when a person says no, that actually means "NO." His view is that his every desire should be met with surrender -- even if that requires applying force.
This explains a lot about his crude approach to Greenland, demanding that the Danish territory simply succumb to ...Read more
Trump's Expanded Domestic Military Use Should Worry Us All
There's growing concern that President Donald Trump might invoke the Insurrection Act to bring National Guard troops under federal control and deploy them within the U.S.
Make no mistake: If Trump invokes the Insurrection Act to activate federalized troops for mass deportation -- whether at the border or somewhere else in the country -- it ...Read more
Disappeared: A Court Warns America That Its Values Are Slipping Away
Late in the new Broadway show "Operation Mincemeat," the sparklingly inventive musical comedy based on British Intelligence's deception of Adolf Hitler about Allied war plans during World War II, the marvelous slapstick pauses momentarily. "If people like us just blindly follow orders," one of the characters warns, "the fascists won't need to ...Read more
It's the Economy. It's the Economy.
Many in the Democratic base are frustrated that their party isn't pounding away at Donald Trump over his attacks on the rule of law, academic independence and decency. That's not quite the case. Democrats and others opposed to the president's toxic agenda are seeing some success in the courts.
In Congress, however, Democrats currently have ...Read more

What We Must Do Now
If the Trump regime can dictate what the universities of America teach or research or publish, or what students can learn or say, no university is safe.
Not even the truth is safe.
If the Trump regime can revoke student visas because students exercise their freedom of speech on a university campus, freedom of speech is not secure for any of us...Read more

Trump Immigration Crackdown Enters the Twilight Zone
Kafkaesque.
One hears that word a lot in discussions of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Or, for lowbrows like me, "The Twilight Zone" might be the pertinent reference.
Abrego Garcia is the Maryland man who was wrongly deported and imprisoned without trial in a grim prison in El Salvador. In March, agents of the politics/fromtheleft/clarencepage/s-3678508">Read more
Doing the Right Thing
Doing the right thing isn't easy when you have a would-be dictator and a squad of political terrorists threatening you. That's what these people really are, and they are frankly scary. They don't care whether they destroy whoever and whatever stands in their way. I don't blame the law firms or universities that have caved to the terror tactics...Read more
Suffer The Little Children, At Kennedy's Whim
Conducting his first press conference as secretary of health and human services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. moved swiftly to demonstrate yet again why he is so unfit for that critical cabinet post.
In one of many egocentric abuses of his newfound power, Kennedy has directed his department's resources away from vital research on cancer and ...Read more
ChatGPT Is Disappearing Its Enemies
People worry about generative artificial intelligence.
Some are afraid it will put them out of work. Others think AI could become too autonomous, like the drones programmed to select their own targets. It will almost certainly accelerate the spread and power of government surveillance. Deepfakes are already being used in efforts to impact ...Read more
Holding Space for Hope With the 'Maybe Mindset'
We live in uncertain times. It's a phrase we keep hearing, whether we're talking about climate change or politics. But aren't all times uncertain? We could time-travel to declare uncertainty during the Great Depression, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and the COVID-19 pandemic. Uncertain times are just called life, which is why I wanted ...Read more
Is That My Job? Kilmar Garcia and Sheet Metal
I knew a guy once, clerical type guy, had a stroke, couldn't work anymore. He was a few years shy of retirement age, so he needed to get himself on disability and the health insurance the state provides for people in his situation.
He lived alone, had worked since he was old enough to work and was able to walk unsteadily and live alone after ...Read more

Everything That Doesn’t Matter
I need some help here. The Trump presidency and the “America only” future he’s hawking to the public like the world’s most arrogant snake-oil salesman feels beyond my ability to address right now, even though I consider doing so my life’s work.
But sometimes the news of the day simply feels too absurd, too strange, to seriously ...Read more
Trump's War Against the Ivy League Is All Smokescreen
Let's cut to the chase. Most of Donald Trump's threats against Ivy League colleges are an attempt to divert attention away from an economy heading into crisis.
The trade war is producing economic and foreign policy nightmares. Despite the DOGE show, budget deficits are projected to rise further under Republican rule. The stock market is ...Read more
Vengeance Is the Word
As a candidate for president, Donald Trump constantly complained about the "weaponization" of the Justice Department, arguing that its prosecution of him was politically motivated. But as president, Trump has weaponized the entire federal government, to investigate and punish those he considers the "enemy from within" -- whether it is current ...Read more
The Best Presidents vs. the Worst
The two greatest presidents died in April, 80 years apart, one 80 years ago.
Abraham Lincoln, 56, was slain while enjoying a comedy at Ford's Theatre. After 12 years of a crisis presidency, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was 63 when he died of a stroke in Warm Springs, Georgia, where the waters helped his polio.
Political geniuses who loved to ...Read more
Trump and Musk Aren't Reforming Our Government -- They're Sabotaging It
As Trump & Co. hurl horror after horror at us from the murky darkness of their extremely wasteful "war on government waste," I think of Lily Tomlin, who said years ago: "No matter how cynical you get, it's almost impossible to keep up."
But no need to swat frantically at their every assault. Their Blitzkrieg against everything at once is an ...Read more
Balderdash Express: The Anti-Weaponization Guy Weaponizes Everything in Sight
There simply is no balderdash that Donald Trump hasn't elevated to an art form, a point so obvious by now that it's ceased to register. Lately, the Balderdash-O-Meter seems to crash hourly, as the president who claimed with a straight face to be running against a "weaponized" Biden administration devotes himself full throttle to weaponizing ...Read more