Alby's Latest Posts
July 21 Open Thread: This Self-Inflicted Cut Hit Bone
I’m going to go ahead and state the obvious here: When you hold a news conference and afterwards 49% of Americans think you committed treason, it doesn’t leave you a lot of wiggle room. The lockstep GOP consists of the 27% who disagreed, not a lot more than the 21% or Republicans who agreed that […]
The Values of Corporate America on Display
Liberals sometimes think corporate America is a bulwark against bigotry, because corporations usually opt for inclusiveness in dealing with the concerns of minority groups. Such liberals should know better. Corporate America backs inclusiveness because it doesn’t want any group of potential customers to stage a boycott. They are doing it to placate customers, not to […]
July 20 Open Thread: Trump Dreams of Biden
Is Donald Trump trying to goad Joe Biden into running for president? Sure seems that way. He just repeated his claim that Biden is the Democrat he’d most like as an opponent in the 2020 race. Biden is Hamletting his decision, but he’s not one to back down from a mano-a-mano challenge, and Trump knows […]
Bipartisanship Forever! Coons Takes Wing With GOP Lame Duck
Don’t accuse Sen. Chris Coons of doing nothing about Trump’s treason. Yesterday he swung into bold action by — INTRODUCING A RESOLUTION! Better yet, it’s a BIPARTISAN resolution! The Republic is saved! Or maybe not. His Republican symbiote on this is Arizona’s Jeff Flake, whose career died when he attacked Trump and scared any other […]
July 19 Open Thread: Back in the USSR
Having just arrived back from the land of Les Bleus, I thought I’d take a look at how Trump’s open treason was playing with the folks back home. As my Magic 8-Ball would say, “Outlook not so good.” Trump cultists, of course, see nothing but good. That’s how cultists are; nothing can be done about […]
July 6 Open Thread: OK, Black Bart, Now You Get Yours
I’m not denying that Scott Pruitt’s downfall is satisfying. We all want to see these bastards get theirs, and as Amanda Marcotte says, liberals needed something to celebrate after the most destructive week yet of the Trump Interregnum. But this victory is hollow, because Pruitt’s cartoonish corruption wasn’t the actual problem. As she wrote before […]
July 5 Open Thread: There Are No Centrists
E.J. Dionne uses data from a couple of political scientists to show that there is no up-for-grabs centrist bloc of independent voters. Independents mostly lean one way or the other; those who don’t pay no attention to politics and almost never vote. Other findings: Republicans more than Democrats no longer consider themselves centrist, and political […]
Should Democrats Fight or Compromise?
In recent days we’ve suffered a rash of visits from some Ghosts of Democrats Past. Various commenters, presenting themselves as “centrist” or “moderate” or “blue collar,” have argued that full-bore liberalism will cause other people — not them, mind you, but other people — to react by voting for Republicans. The product of this mind […]
July 3 Open Thread: Trade War Is Hell
When the Trump administration was tearing apart families, most of corporate America said nothing. When Trump supported white supremacists, most of corporate America said nothing. When Trump made clear everyone was either with him or against him, most of corporate America flattered and bowed like 18th-century French courtiers. Now that Trump is carrying through his […]
July 2 Open Thread: Chemistry vs. Physics
The annual “Peanuts” cartoon of Charlie Brown trusting Lucy to hold that football is a wonderful metaphor because it’s so adaptable. Some people see it, like a divorcee’s marriage, as the triumph of hope over experience. Others see the eternal gullibility of the average person. What most people forget are the endlessly inventive inducements Lucy […]
June 29 Open Thread: The Trump-Kennedy Connection Runs Through Russia
Wow. Talks about the fix being in. Turns out that retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy has a son who was global head of real estate capital markets at Deutsche Bank, which just happens to be the only legitimate Western bank that would lend money to Trump. This apparently was the cornerstone of a high-pressure charm offensive […]
June 28 Open Thread: The Foxification of America Continues
High-school dropout Sean Hannity, Trump’s de facto chief of staff, recommended ousted Fox News executive Bill Shine, Roger Ailes’ right-hand man, as White House communication director and, hey presto! He’s hired! Many media accounts call him a “disgraced” former exec, but that assumes he has shame, a supposition for which no supporting evidence exists. There’s […]
In Disaster of Biblical Proportions, Kennedy Retires
At some liberal web sites pundits already see rivers and seas boiling, fire and brimstone falling from the sky, and the walls in the 39th precinct bleeding. Cooler heads point out that Kennedy was no centrist; by one rating he was the 10th most conservative justice of the 20th century. But he did provide the […]
Recent Comments