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Is What’s Past Prologue?

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It’s a great time to be alive. No, seriously—it is. How can we say that? Well, have you considered the alternative? We spend much of Monday, when we should have been writing, getting cardiovascular exercise. How many reps? We lost track. Mounting the stairs of our editorial tower, closing the windows against the deluge, opening them again to relieve the heat, then closing them again as endless waves of violent weather rolled through town. We’re not complaining, mind you. It could have been worse. Just ask our new neighbor. He recently moved into a formerly-shabby little house which is now a realtor’s “hidden gem”—allegedly worth …

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Sat, July 16

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2018—V. Putin gets Dolt #45 alone for two hours in Helsinki. 2013—Jimmy Carter says, “America has no functioning democracy.” 1991—The Trump Taj Mahal files for bankruptcy 467 days after opening. 1979—A dam, badly built on shaky ground, collapses in Church Rock, N.M. It spills 1,100 tons of radioactive mill waste, 93 million gallons of effluent, releasing as much radioactivity as the Three Mile Island meltdown. 1973—Nixon aide Al Butterfield reveals he’s been bugging the Oval Office at the behest of The Man himself. 1964—A white cop shoots James Powell—15, 112 lbs., and Black—dead. The Harlem riots begin. 1963—In NYC, Tom Cornell and Chris Kearns stage …

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Permanently Endangered

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Just when we thought the Supreme Court had done all the damage it could in one session, it decided to kill off more of us. Yes, we know, this is getting monotonous. We Ranted about the Court just last fortnight, and now here we go again. We are so sorry—sorrier than we can say. When the Court rules, though, that the EPA cannot regulate poisonous emissions from coal-fired electrical power plants, we can hardly be expected to remain silent. Air pollution currently causes one out of every six deaths, scientists say. Apparently that’s not enough. Having attended neither Harvard nor Yale, we have no idea …

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Privatizer Nominated for Social Security Board

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by Jake Johnson Defenders of Social Security on Tuesday urged the U.S. Senate to block President Joe Biden’s little-noticed nomination of Andrew Biggs—an American Enterprise Institute senior fellow with a history of supporting Social Security privatization—to serve on the independent and bipartisan Social Security Advisory Board. Social Security Works, a progressive advocacy group, is leading the charge against Biggs, highlighting his role in the George W. Bush administration’s failed attempt to privatize the New Deal program in 2005. At the time, Biggs worked on Social Security as an associate director of Bush’s National Economic Council. “Andrew Biggs has advocated for Social Security cuts throughout his …

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