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“‘The public…will not decide wrong, unless it decides too hastily’: Revisiting Thomas Paine’s…
[Note: This is the largely unrevised text of a talk I gave at this conference at Iona College in October 2018. The “PP” marks in the text…
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“In your guts, you know he’s nuts:” Right wing Extremism in the GOP, 1964 and today
As the 1964 Republican convention approached, many political observers warned that right-wing extremists were about to take over the Grand…
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Hamberder lovers vs. “burg-tards:” An analogy for life in Donald Trump’s America
I’ve been trying to come up with an analogy that captures my experience of living through the Age of Trump, and I think I found a so-so…
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Transcript of President Trump’s Good Friday Corona-Rally. April 10, 2020.
Jesus was a man who was treated very unfairly, very roughly, by pilots, by seizures, by everybody really. There was even an advisor named…
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Can Eric Trump Even Hear Himself Speak?
There’s a good chance that in 13 months, Eric will be the son of a former President who traded on his father’s name and position to make…
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That time I tried to engage with someone from The Federalist as if they gave a shit about anything…
Ok, this is going to be embarrassing for me, but here it goes anyway. Back in June of 2017 I, a stupid person, thought that, based on…
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What I learned from my Twitter jail sentence
I spent the day today in Twitter jail. Punishments are supposed to teach people lessons, so here’s my effort to extract a lesson from the…
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Yes, Americans did refer to the nation as a “democracy” and not just a republic in the founding…
Neither the word “democracy” nor any of its cognates appeared in Thomas Paine’s Common Sense (1776), one of the most radically populist…
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Dateline: September 6, 2068. The Original Text of the Historic, Billings Address
The Perpetually Failing New York Times has acquired the original, handwritten notes for what has come to be known as President Trump’s…
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What happens when that joker from Palookaville becomes President?
Anyone raised in a small town like I was probably recognizes who Trump is. He’s the ballsy guy who recognized in 2nd grade that the rules…
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A dispatch from 2018 that I was inspired to return to given today's indictment
Or, that day 5 years ago when it suddenly and shockingly occurred to me that Trump might actually try to stay in office illegally
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The conservative remaking of the Supreme Court is the culmination of the GOP’s 80-year war against the New Deal
This excellent piece by @HC_Richardson reminded me of a disturbing article about the Supreme Court and the New Deal I read in 2005. It…