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 ...

  In the spirit of the holidays, I’m re-gifting a piece I wrote in late November of the blighted year 2020. Post-election, pre-vaccine, it has nothing to do with the holidays, or even with good spirits. Nor is it especially topical. I’m recycling it mostly because I still like it. It still feels more-or-less true. It isn’t too dated. And I know some of my newer readers haven’t read it. For those of you who have — you know who you are — I invite you to take a second look. No pressure. I had a zoom call the other day with an old friend I’d neither seen nor communicated with in about five years. We schmoozed and caught up and trashed Republicans and shared our amazement over this whole pandemic thing, and then he said something I had to think about: “It’s not a bad time to be old.” Hmm. To be sure, it’s a great time to not struggle in the job market. It’s an excellent time to not worry where your next meal is coming from. It’s a sensational time to not be rais...

Let me start by saying that Liz Cheney is not my favorite person. Heir to Dick Cheney, one of the foulest public figures of the last century, she was born on the wrong side of every issue. Only rarely has she strayed from the toxic values of her father. She voted with Trump 93 percent of the time. Including the $2 trillion tax boondoggle of 2017, which no doubt added a few million to her own estate, and several multiples of that to her daddy’s. That said, one can’t help but begrudgingly look on, with some tiny bit of admiration, at the limb she has intentionally — and with eyes wide open —slithered out on. Unlike the Democrats on the Jan 6 committee — who are only trying to save democracy — Cheney has arguably a more difficult job. She seems to have taken it upon herself to be the one to take down Donald Trump. Or barring that, to exorcise him from the Republican party. Both are tall orders, and to make them happen, she has to work closely with Democrats, whom she despises. And...

We’re approaching what some are calling a “break-glass moment.” Democrats, and the democracy they’re named for, cannot afford the loss of either the 2022 or the 2024 elections. And there’s an excellent chance both will be stolen. The situation grows more poisonous by the day, and we don’t seem to be getting the urgency we need from people with skin in the game. Especially the press, who remain committed to the “both sides are equally bad” narrative. While that narrative is effective at attracting clicks — and advertising dollars — it has also given Republicans cover to indulge their basest instincts, and to launch coup-like operations on institutions that can’t take much more stress. I have lived long enough to witness the long, inexorable degradation of the Republican party. It is no longer a party in the sense we want that word to mean. It has become, rather, a tumor that has already metastasized, and now threatens our very existence as a nation. I do not use that metaphor ligh...