Left Jabs

We teach our children about fairness at an early age. We consider it a duty. Fairness is, after all, a key part of our social contract. We enshrine it in our constitution and embed it in our laws. Not that we’re naïve — we understand the limits of fairness. We know about bullies, about casual cruelty, about people who put their thumbs on life’s scales. But while we freely acknowledge the weaknesses in the social contract, we nonetheless live by it, more or less, all our lives. Which is why we’re so sickened to see that contract routinely breached by an endless parade of bad actors doing deep institutional damage, and getting away with it. As much as we love the stories of bullies getting their comeuppance, the sad truth is that they rarely do. They revel in their unfairness. They invert reality. They smugly proclaim that up is down, then punish us for dissent. They make us the villain, and they hold our sense of fairness in abject contempt — a weakness to be exploited. The Repu

I have heard now from several of my readers — and on multiple occasions — that my writing is, shall we say, less than uplifting. The word “depressing” has come up. For this, I don’t so much apologize as empathize. What I’ve been writing about depresses me as well. The times we live in have gotten far more interesting than I ever thought they would. There’s a lot to be scared of, but there’s a lot to write about too. Because while I never really thought my country would reach the point where a fascist coup could be a realistic threat, I’ve had a certain morbid fascination with the idea, probably since high school. Now that it’s happening in plain sight, topics that are interesting but depressing are a target-rich environment for me. Consider, for example, the poll numbers showing that people have grown “disappointed” with the Democrats. That Biden’s performance — and by extension, that of all Democrats — is somehow not living up to its initial promise. That they should be “doing m

By now it’s pretty clear that Republicans are out to steal your lunch money. If they take back the House, it will be two years of committee hearings for Hunter Biden and two more years of festering stasis for the rest of us. So we need ideas, fast. I am one of many who believe at least part of the answer lies in the business world. Corporate America needs to step up. Large corporations have significant financial leverage over Republicans at every level — federal, state, local — and we need them to use that leverage to get us out of this mess, not just for our sakes, but for their own as well. It is inexcusable that hundreds of mega-companies continue to contribute to the campaigns of Republican congressmen who openly denied the 2020 election results. These companies continue, in other words, to finance treason. This is appalling on any number of levels, but let’s start with whether they’re getting their money’s worth. The Republican agenda they underwrite is so corrupt, so co

Dear Rupert  (or Lachlan, or whoever’s in charge of FOX these days) : Please help us understand the upside of undermining vaccines. What’s in it for you? What do you gain by giving your viewers information so bad, it literally kills them? Where’s the profit in overloading the entire healthcare system to the point of catastrophic failure? Who benefits from that? Are your advertisers on board with this? Are Ford, Progressive, Bayer, ADT, Sandals — to name but a few — really that eager to kill off their customers? To be sure, they’ve all sheepishly looked the other way while your avatars — Tucker, Sean, Laura — spread their venom through the population. We know they all love reaching the FOX audience — Ford no doubt sells millions of F150s to Trump voters — but how much do they enjoy the aggressive propagation of malignant fictions, aimed at gullible rubes? Especially when those fictions keep their workers out sick and their supply chains in chaos. Which of your