Volume 265 | No. 6

Mon, Dec 7

2006—The “Justice” Department fires eight prosecutors for failing to persecute enough Democrats. 1997—Six skydivers leap from a plane over the South Pole. Three of them die when their chutes fail to open. 1995—France is virtually paralyzed when 1.75 million workers protest global exploitation. 1993—The Department of Energy admits it conducted more than 200 secret weapons tests. 1987—A disgruntled ex-employee shoots a Southwest Airlines pilot and co-pilot. The plane breaks up while diving at Mach 1.2, killing all aboard. 1985—Their warnings overruled by Ronald Reagan—selling arms to Iran and giving the profits to assassins is illegal—Cap Weinberger and George Schultz joke about jail visiting hours. 1970—R.I.P. …

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Sun, Dec. 6

1967—Chaplain Angelo “Charlie” Liteky carries 23 wounded men to safety in Vietnam despite intense hostile fire. For his bravery he is given the Medal of Honor, which he returns in 1986 to protest U.S. foreign policy. 1962—Speaking to journalists at the Deadline Club in New York City, Pentagon spokesman Arthur Sylvester says “It’s [the] government’s right, if necessary, to lie to save itself when it’s going up into a nuclear war.” 1951—The National Association of Broadcasters adopts a Code of [Cowardly and Obsequious] Conduct. 1937—The Supreme Court rules poll taxes Constitutional—why should Blacks and poor whites get to vote? 1933—Federal judge John M. Woolsey rules …

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President Humpty Dumpty Trumpty’s Great Fall

President Humpty Dumpty Trumpty had a Great Fall. Some people have said it was the greatest fall of all time. No one has ever seen anything like it. In fact, there may never again be anything like it—because we might not survive this one. The last we heard, President Humpty Dumpty Trumpty retained full authority to demand the nuclear football, right along with his next bag full of Big Macs.® If we were in a comic strip, the joke would be on the angry, overweight, overgrown child. Alas, we’re not; the joke is on us. For all his vain posturing, the real Michael Richard Pence …

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A Court More Pious Than the Pope

We are in a theater. We cannot leave; the doors are locked and we’re chained into the seats. On the screen is a horror movie. We’re about 300 reels into it. We should be bored out of our wits. We’re not just the audience, though. We’re the cast, too. Half of us are screaming, “Don’t open that door!” Up on the screen, though…. Someone opened the door. Of course someone opened the door. Not only do they have every right to open it, but you, you hateful, despicable person, have shown yourself to be un-American by questioning their right to do so. Doors flew open …

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Going “Back to Normal” Is Too Dangerous to Even Contemplate

by Robert Reich “Life is going to return to normal,” Joe Biden promised Thursday in a Thanksgiving address to the nation. He was talking about life after Covid-19, but you could be forgiven if you thought he was also making a promise about life after Trump. It is almost impossible to separate the two. To the extent voters gave Biden a mandate, it was to end both scourges and make America normal again. Despite Covid’s grim resurgence, Dr. Anthony Fauci—the public health official whom Trump ignored and then muzzled, with whom Biden’s staff is now conferring—sounded guardedly optimistic last week. Vaccines will allow “a gradual …

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