Left Jabs

   As I’m not writing this week, I’m re-running my most profane piece, an exploration of FAFO, a term that has grown ever more pointed as time goes by. The piece goes back to February 2025, before the tariffs, before the Epstein scandal went nuclear, before the Iran War. Back then, things were looking quite bad indeed, especially for large parts of the MAGA base. And while, as the title says, these F-bombs were entirely appropriate then, they’ve only grown more so since.   I try not to write the word ‘fuck’ too often. This is not from any prudishness or discomfort — I use it regularly in everyday speech — but seeing it in writing quickly gets old and tired. I do use it occasionally for effect, but the effect is usually minimal. In this post, however, I can’t get around it. This one is about the ironic, unintended meanings of the redneck t-shirt slogan “Fuck Around and Find Out.” A masterpiece of trashy thought, trashily expressed, I can’t talk about...

   Depending on where you live, gas prices are way up. No surprise. Thanks to Trump’s tariffs, his wars, and his general malevolent incompetence, we now pay between $4.00 and $4.25 per gallon in Michigan, and that fluctuates according to whatever pump-and-dump scam Trump has going on in world markets. There are states that pay more, and states that pay a lot more. Four-dollar gasoline is a real hardship for millions of Americans, many of whom are now, as a result, cutting back on food and medicine, which aren’t getting cheaper either. This is the logical consequence of a war that started stupid and got stupider as time went on. Now in its fifth month. So imagine if gas were twice that and threatening to go much higher. That’s what many Russians are paying on the black market — one of the few dependable sources — right now. And when it comes to hardship, Russian hardship is exponentially harder than ours. This is the logical consequence of a war that started ...

   Once again, Democrats are dealing with the S-word. Socialism.  Not the economic theory. Not the Marxian doctrine. Not state ownership of the means of production. Nothing nearly so intellectual. No, they’re dealing with the word itself, and this time it’s not Republicans using it as a bludgeon to beat Democrats into submission, though that will certainly continue, probably forever. Rather, it’s Democratic candidates embracing one of the most politically charged words in the English language. This is not a risk-free proposition, and I hope they know what they’re doing. In the last few years, New York City has emerged as ground zero for a new brand of progressivism that labels itself socialist, but really isn’t. It’s more related to the social democrats of Europe, which is to say it’s about capitalism with regulatory guardrails and, presumably, a social conscience. Starting with the election of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2018, and her sweeping asi...