Volume 264 | No. 18

Pompeo and Circumstantial Evidence

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The President and his cult of followers have managed to let a pandemic kill off the equivalent of the population of Nashua. In the process they’ve also managed to stop a humongous economy in its tracks. These things may be bad, but it must be admitted—they are also colossal achievements. An ordinary gang of run-of-the-mill comic book villains would be sitting back at this point with smug smiles on their faces, smoking big cigars. Not this bunch, though. There is [Censored by the Legal Department] left to be done, and there are [Censored by the Legal Department] yet to be committed. [We regret the necessity …

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A Somewhat Ambiguous…Mash Note?

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“While we no longer want to receive the paper version, we believe it is still worthwhile to keep reading the digital version no matter how distasteful it is.” – E.F.R., Beaverton, Ore. –=≈=– “If you stick a knife in my back nine inches and pull it out six inches, there’s no progress. If you pull it all the way out that’s not progress. Progress is healing the wound that the blow made. And they haven’t even pulled the knife out much less heal the wound. They won’t even admit the knife is there.” – Malcolm X; b. May 19, 1925 “Healthy does not mean ‘healthful.’ …

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Trump Botched All This

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by Tom H. Hastings OK, I have seen, in my life, Eisenhower and Kennedy and Johnson and Nixon botch Vietnam. I have seen Reagan botch the Euromissile crisis alongside the AIDS outbreak. I watched George Bush the Younger and Dick Cheney utterly botch Iraq. But in my lifetime I have never witnessed any U.S. president botch anything so disastrous as Trump has botched the response to Covid-19. I didn’t know so many mistakes were even possible and he just won’t stop. His coronavirus denial was lethal and health care experts knew that, and were trying to advise him, but Trump takes no advice. That, he …

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We Need Joe Biden

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To the Editor: Joe Biden has provided us with a good model for the “she said/he said” situations so common today. He respected his accuser’s right to speak and be heard. He did not attack her personally, question her motives or attempt to destroy her reputation. He has asked the National Archives to release any relevant Senate records and has called for an investigation. We may never know the full truth of what happened 27 years ago, but whatever it is, it will not change the reality of Donald Trump’s catastrophic handling of the Covoid-19 pandemic and his inability to coordinate, collaborate, unite and lead. …

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What’s the charitable thing to do about inequality?

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Our society has coined expressions like “philanthropist” to encourage and hail people’s charitable spirit. Look on the flip side of that shiny coin of generosity, however, and you’ll find that its base substance is societal selfishness. After all, the need for charity only exists because we’re tolerating intentional injustices and widespread inequality created by power elites. A society as supremely wealthy as ours ought not be relegating needy families and essential components of the common good to the whims of a few rich philanthropists. Yes, corporate and individual donations can help at the margins, but they don’t fix anything. Thus, food banks, health clinics, etc. …

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A Stimulating Use of Stimulus Funds

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To the Editor: In March, President Trump signed a “relief” bill that relieved the U.S.A.’s 43,000 wealthiest taxpayers of (an average) $1.7 million each, costing the rest of us $90 billion. This after wasting two months before finally showing some seriousness concerning the pandemic. Now we are in the midst of a chaotic situation where underprepared states are “opening up,” with no clear direction from the White House. We, a married couple, are responding by donating our stimulus money to Democrats who will defeat Donald Trump and enough of his Republican enablers to re-take the Senate as well as the Executive Branch. That is the …

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