Dems should blame themselves

July 29, 2019

By John Kass Chicago Tribune (TNS) There must have been a point in the Robert Mueller hearings when the big thinkers of CNN and MSNBC curled up on the floor in fetal positions and began breathing into brown paper bags, trying to remain calm. Breathe. Collusion. Breathe. “Did not reach a determination as to whether the president committed a crime.” Breathe. Ted Lieu? Breathe. Those paper bags popped in and out, out and in, when Democratic media wizard David Axelrod and Harvard Law’s Laurence Tribe pronounced the Mueller hearings an unmitigated disaster for their side. And Donald ...

Migrants flee something worse

July 19, 2019

Not long ago, President Donald Trump tweeted that detained migrants, most hailing from Central American countries, are “living far better now than where they came from, and in far safer conditions.” Trump was responding to searing reports of the filthy and overcrowded facilities where detainees, including young children, endure a lack of access to water, food and showers. To state the obvious, Trump’s comments display his callousness, lack of empathy and petulant belief that lies and deception make everything better. But after my initial horror, I realized: He’s not entirely ...

Defund Lutheran groups for open borders now

July 18, 2019

If you were shocked by the images of the Mexican flag flying over an Aurora, Colo., immigration detention center this weekend, you’ll be appalled at an even more disgusting spectacle: One of the top promoters of the so-called Lights for Liberty nationwide protests by Trump-hating, ICE-bashing radicals was a nonprofit religious organization known as the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. As a designated “host,” LIRS played a key role in publicizing, organizing and participating in demonstrations against President Trump’s deportation enforcement actions targeting some ...

The ‘squad’ doesn’t bother Israel

July 18, 2019

In part of his latest Twitter barrage, President Trump has been accusing four first-term congresswomen of infecting the Democratic Party with anti-Israel bias. His rant has left Israelis scratching their heads. Referring to Ilhan Omar, of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib, of Michigan, Ayanna Pressley, of Massachusetts, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, four women of color collectively known as “the squad,” Trump accuses the Democrats of using “foul language & racist hatred” in an effort to delegitimize the Jewish State. “I can tell you that they have made Israel feel ...

Trump’s tweets: A foretaste of toxic 2020

July 17, 2019

racism was at the root of Donald Trump’s 2016 candidacy, and so it will be again in 2020. Either we decisively reject it at the ballot box, and thus begin to salvage our pluralistic values, or we can acquiesce in the slow death of the American dream. The only thing that’s shocking about his racist tweets — demanding that four congresswomen of color, four U.S. citizens, “go back” to the countries they came from — is that anyone in America still has the capacity to be shocked. He has been operating in plain sight ever since he relentlessly lied, year after year, that the ...

Best outcome for lawsuit to fail

July 17, 2019

There’s an important bit of contingency planning that Republicans have neglected to do. Neither in the White House nor on Capitol Hill are they prepared for the possibility that their lawsuit against Obamacare will succeed. Most observers don’t expect the courts to strike down the law, and last week’s oral arguments in a New Orleans federal courtroom didn’t change many minds. If the suit is successful, however, it will create an acute problem for a lot of people. Insurers will again be able to discriminate against people with chronic conditions. Many states’ budgets will be ...