The headline in Daily Kos read, "Virulent anti-immigrant zealot announces bid" for the Pennsylvania governorship.  Even before I opened it, I said to myself, "Whatta want to bet that it's a man and his name is from one of the ethnic groups that came near the 1924 congressional cutoff of mass immigration?"  Sure enough, he's Lou Barletta.  Earlier, as a city official, he pushed an anti-immigrant ordinances that the court struck down.  The lawyer for that expensive case?  Kris Kobach. Read More 

The dateline in the New York Times was from China, and the sub-headline read:  "Fueled with money from Wall Street and local officials, [Chinese] automakers are building a huge production lead.  They plan to build 8 million electric cars a year by 2028, more than Europe and America combined."  We Westerners are so accustomed to thinking of ourselves as threatened and so willing to engage in rivalry that my first reaction was "we are losing this game."  Detroit, which began mass production of automobiles, is going down the tubes, and a nation that depended on water buffalo until recently is outpacing us. Read More 

I'm sorry, but my mind can't help picturing Republican consultants slapping their knees and howling with laughter as they witness the continual gullibility of their target audience.  You probably have seen that their latest game is convincing naïve folks in Arizona that thousands of ballots for Biden were flown in from Southeast Asia and can be identified by bamboo fragments in the paper.  Guys in MAGA hats have stirred up Phoenix's election office, making a mess as they examine ballots for bamboo.  Some state Republicans regret that they authorized this "audit" -- but consultants make money from such nativity and nonsense.  I'm sure they laugh all the way to the bank. Read More 

The more time passes, the more I am impressed by the enormity of January 6th.  It will be a day that will live in greater infamy than December 7, 1941, when Japan attacked our Hawaii Territory.  January 6, 2021, however, was our own citizens attacking our own Capitol -- and threatening to kill officials who were elected by a majority of their constituents.  Many commentators pointed out that this was the first invasion of the capital since the War of 1812 -- but that attack also was by another nation, not by our own citizens.  Nothing ever has been comparable to last January. Read More