Amash’s concerns signal he’s not a ‘total loser’

July 9, 2019

PLYMOUTH NOTCH, Vt. Rep. Justin Amash has left the Republican Party and will now represent Michigan’s third congressional district as an Independent. In a Washington Post op-ed, he wrote: “I’ve become disenchanted with party politics and frightened by what I see from it. The two-party system has evolved into an existential threat to American principles and institutions.” Responding to Amash’s announcement, President Trump called him “a total loser” who was unlikely to win a primary election next year against a Republican challenger. No one is a total loser and ...

Agreement needs tires kicked

July 9, 2019

President Donald Trump would like to see the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement ratified without delay. It’s a bit like a used car salesperson giving you 10 minutes to accept the deal of the century. You may want to look under the hood and test-drive the vehicle first. USMCA is largely an updated and rebranded version of the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement passed. That deal contributed to what the economist Joseph Stiglitz views as a defining national problem: “Stagnant or declining wages at the bottom, an eviscerated middle class, and top wages that are ...

Opening himself up to women’s stories

July 8, 2019

A few words about my sexism. Nerd that I am, I keep a book diary, i.e., a list of the 40 or 50 books I read and listen to yearly. In 2016, while perusing said list, I made a discovery that startled me: There were almost no women on it. That year, I plowed through 46 books by the likes of Stephen King, Walter Mosley, Bruce Springsteen and Carl Hiaasen. But the only woman was Tananarive Due — and she’s a friend. Intrigued, I checked my diaries for other years and most showed a similar result: 40 to 50 books, one to three of them by women. This bugged me, so I began talking ...

Beware of the predator in a cage next door

July 8, 2019

An Illinois woman and her child were recently injured after being attacked by an escaped pet caracal, a large exotic cat similar to a lynx. Both were hospitalized, and police killed the caracal. No doubt frightened, this wild animal experienced the briefest glimmer of freedom before officers were forced to take lethal action. There is not one legitimate reason why anyone “needs” to keep a tiger in a backyard pen, an alligator in a kiddie pool, a python in an aquarium or a bear in the basement. Like face tattoos, wild animals are procured for the “wow” factor, but the ...

Trump gives up on census question. Score one for nation

July 8, 2019

The announcement late Tuesday by the Trump administration that it would drop efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census is a victory not only for a more accurate census but for the rule of law. The administration had insisted that it needed to ask everyone across the country next year whether they were U.S. citizens to help it enforce the Voting Rights Act, a laughably thin excuse for an administration that cares naught for voting rights. The truth emerged early on. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the request had come from Justice Department officials. But he ...

How Democrats define themselves

July 8, 2019

Dave Anderson The Baltimore Sun College professors spend a lot of time distinguishing different theories and points of view within disciplines, choosing their language very carefully to distinguish the different camps, defending some and criticizing others. Politics, interestingly, is very similar. Candidates and political parties invest enormous amounts of resources and time defining which candidates and positions they support and which they oppose. They go out of their way to tar the other side with labels and concepts they find negative and to define themselves through ideas ...