Volume 268 | No. 3

Mon, Oct 23

2015—James Comey says criticism of the police is responsible for the rise of violent crime in cities. He offers no evidence for this assertion. 2015—Senator Ted Cruz [R-Texas] warns “one more liberal justice and they begin sandblasting and bulldozing veterans memorials.” 2013—Chancellor Angela Merkel calls the White House to complain about the NSA tapping her phone. 2001—Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) introduces the senseless PATRIOT Act, & Justice official James Yoo writes a memo saying the President need not obey the law. 1998—Life being sacred, anti-abortion fanatic James C. Kopp murders Dr. Barnett Slepian in Amherst, N.Y. 1987—Robert Bork gets Borked. 1983—Suicide bombers kill 241 U.S. …

Read more

Sun, Oct 22

1987—At Yoken’s, Queens con man Donald Trump puts the flim-flam on a credulous Portsmouth Rotary Club. 1979—With an OK from Jimmy Carter, the Shah of Iran enters the U.S. for medical treatment, triggering chaos. 1968—To improve the odds of his re-election, Richard Nixon tells H.R. Haldeman to “monkey wrench” negotiations to end the Vietnam War. 1967—KGB agent Manfred Ramminger steals a Sidewinder missile from Neuburg AFB, takes it off-base in a wheelbarrow, drives away with it sticking out the back of his Mercedes, and mails it, dismantled, to Moscow. 1963—Fed up with accurate reporting, JFK asks “Punch” Sulzberger to assign Times’ David Halberstam anywhere but …

Read more

A Way Out

To the Editor: I do not applaud Hamas’ attack on innocent Israeli civilians, but the media seldom provide any context for such horrific incidents. An unprovoked attack? One has to remember that Gaza has been under a cruel blockade for 16 years and that it had been attacked by Israel five times since 2008. Moreover, 4 out of 5 Palestinian children now suffer from extreme trauma. Some Israelis want to “flatten Gaza” to eliminate those “human animals” and to prevent the 2 million human beings there from having food, clean water, electricity and fuel to maintain the few hospitals that aren’t damaged. Sadly, 447 Palestinian …

Read more

Is Peace Possible?

by W.D. Ehrhart The October attack on Israel by Hamas came as a shocking surprise and will have major repercussions no one can yet foresee. It reminds me of the Vietnamese Tet Offense in January 1968. Just as Israel has been caught off guard, so too had the U.S. The big difference is that the Tet Offensive took place on Vietnamese soil, not American. This attack is against Israel itself. And one can hardly imagine a more ruthless or brutal attack. I gather that Hamas fighters descended from the air on a rock concert largely attended by young people, indiscriminately shooting and killing unarmed civilians, …

Read more

Hell of a Way to Run a Primary

Our readers have been patient so far, but sooner or later they’re bound to start asking—“Where the hell is our coverage of the 2024 First in the Nation™ Presidential Primary Election®?” To which hypothetical question, we can only reply, “Show us a primary worthy of covering!” Because so far this thing is an unholy mess. Stand back, because we’re about to both-sides this issue. We’ll begin with the Party Formerly Known as Republicans, which we will so designate because Abraham Lincoln doesn’t deserve to be held guilty of association with this ludicrous gang of goons, thugs, and pervs. We’re not even going to list the …

Read more

Welcome to the Class War

Well, isn’t this is a fine kettle of toxic waste? One day after our previous issue hit the streets, the Middle East explodes. The Gulf Stream is getting weaker faster than anyone had predicted, even as Antarctic ice is hitting scary new record lows. The world demands action, and it isn’t exactly waiting for us to get our act together. Closer to home, the debt ceiling is steadily creeping up on us—yet again. Freddy Krueger and Lucy van Pelt have nothing on this predictable bogosity. Will Congress act? No, it can’t, because they have no Speaker. The only way this gets more absurd is if …

Read more