The Fortnightly Rant

What Could Possibly Go Right?

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Thirty some-odd years ago we lamented in these pages that surveying the political landscape was like being strapped in the cheap seats, being forced to watch the glacier races. Congress conducted its business through a process known as “regular order”—committees and subcomittees held hearings, budgets were debated and passed, and so forth. A democratic president played to a broad swath of voters, largely by promoting policies associated with republicans: cracking down on crime, lightening up on regulation, balancing the budget, and making trade deals. Few were paying attention to an obscure Georgia congressman with the name of a small reptile. A certain Australian newspaper heir’s …

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Trump 2.0 — It’s the Bomb

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We had thought we would lead off this issue with the incoming administration nearly shutting down the federal government more than a month before it even takes office. How naïve and unimaginative of us. What’s a little domestic turmoil when you’re annexing Greenland, occupying Mexico, and re-taking the Panama Canal? Even that may just be the small stuff. At this time of year when the separation of church and state is observed with a wink and a nod at best, even we are on our knees, praying that the soon-to-be inauguree was too busy on December 16th to read the Wall Street Journal column headlined, …

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Sympathy for the Devil

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What a weird time to be alive. It’s Friday, the 13th of December. Forget about how many days ’till Christmas—we’re counting down to TrumpMania 2025. Just 38 days to go under the old regime, and after that? Nobody knows, apparently anything goes. Despite our editorial policy on superstitions—i.e., just ignore them—it seems a little extra caution might be prudent. So, we’re not going to re-hash European history from ninety years ago. Neither will we try to predict what this incoming administration might get up to. Trying to make sense of a single event from this fortnight will be challenge enough. When a person is shot …

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Let’s flex our freedom, while we can

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Under the terms thrust upon us in 1789, when this newspaper was well into its thirty-third year of publication, the responsibility for keeping the federal government honest lies with a free and independent press. As the last remaining example of that species, we had best get cracking. The current state of affairs is, shall we say, somewhat less than optimal. In fact, as we scan the horizon, we are reminded of Hercules, tasked with removing thirty years of accumulated filth from the Augean stables, and given but a single day to do it. Fortunately we have fifty-two days to put the ship of state in …

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“American Carnage, Part Duh”

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You may have to squint to see it, but there is some good news. The long, uncertain, and potentially violent struggle which we had anticipated, over who would next occupy the White House, has been abruptly cancelled. The good news pales, next to the bad. D.J. “Felonius” Trump, spared the trouble of finagling a return to the scene of the crime, will soon be ushered right back in with all of the usual pomp and ceremony. Grab your popcorn, people. Here comes “American Carnage, Part Duh.” The tagline: “Don’t bother trying to prepare. Nobody knows what’ll happen next—least of all him!” Lest we forget, let …

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Election at Bernie’s

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It seems odd. Prior to July 21st, news organizations could not stop talking about the mental fitness and acuity of the candidates in the 2024 presidential race. Now it seems like anything goes. This is a delicate issue, so we’d like to make one thing clear: we harbor no prejudice against those who speak gibberish. Professor Irwin Corey had no more devoted fan. The line must be drawn, though, at the entrance to the Oval Office. The problem here is that if the media were to start applying the standards they once used on Joe Biden to the Republican nominee, they would immediately be buried …

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