News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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When Trump ran into trouble during his first term, he reportedly cried out, “Where’s my Roy Cohn?!” Alas, his favorite thug-fixer-lawyer had been dead since 1986 (having perished just six weeks after he was disbarred for fraud). Nobody in Trump’s embattled orbit was qualified to pick up the torch and run with Cohn’s credo, which, was quite simple: If they hit ya hard, hit ‘em back twice as hard. Back in the day, Trump told the press, “If you need someone to get vicious toward an opponent, you get Roy.” Now he has Cohn 2.0, courtesy of slavish s...
Politicians have been lying since the dawn of our formerly vibrant democracy. Random examples abound. John Adams and his pamphleteering surrogates said that Thomas Jefferson if elected would shut down all the churches. JFK tried to pump up his anti-Soviet credentials by inveighing against a Republican-created “missile gap” that in truth did not exist. Bill Clinton said, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.” But nothing in our history can compete with the industrial strength lies that emanate with fascistic discipl...
When I heard the news the authoritarian imbecile had fired the Bureau of Labor Statistics director for the crime of factual math, I dimly recalled something that George Orwell had written in a magazine essay 86 years ago. I had to look it up to confirm my memory, but there it was: “It is quite possible that we are descending into an age in which two plus two will make five when the Leader says so.” Orwell wrote that at a time when fascism and communism were riding high in Germany and the Soviet Union, a time when it was beyond impossible to...
See if this rings a bell: In 1994 the voters in Italy elected, as their leader, a flamboyant demagogic mogul with no governing experience. Silvio Berlusconi vowed to lurch Italy rightward, and the nation’s neo-fascists rejoiced. He was not a fan of free speech. During his multiple stints as prime minister, he routinely attacked the media, particularly when it investigated his ongoing conflicts of interest, declaring at one point that reporters were using TV “as a criminal means of communication.” He was constantly targeted for prosecution, and...
What’s most important to remember about the monstrous “big beautiful” bill ginned up by Trump’s Reichstag is that Republicans are just being themselves. They’ve always pined to fatten the fat cats and screw the average citizen – to take from the needy and give to the rich, like Robin Hood in reverse. None of this is new. What’s different now is the sheer scale of the cruelty, the scope of the destruction, and the spineless fealty to a fascist. And what truly galls me is the Republicans’ repugnant hypocrisy. In 2011, President Obama proposed...
With Marines on American streets and fascist disinformation invading American minds, one is compelled to wonder what Edward R. Murrow would say. But that query is a tad irrelevant. There’s no space in today’s political media culture for an Edward R. Murrow. Granted, if you watched George Clooney’s play “Good Night, and Good Luck” (broadcast live last weekend on CNN), or if you’ve seen his streamable 2005 movie by the same name, chances are you were stunned and disturbed by the many parallels between 1954 and now. In Murrow’s time, right-w...
Until August of 1934, German judges swore an oath that reflected the spirit of the democratic Weimar republic: “I swear loyalty to the Constitution, obedience to the law, and conscientious fulfillment of the duties of my office, so help me God.” But that fateful summer, the judicial oath was tweaked just a wee bit: “I swear loyalty to the Fuhrer of the German Reich and people, Adolf Hitler, obedience to the law, and conscientious fulfillment of the duties of my office, so help me God.” Donald Trump would love to mimic what Hitler intoned...
If only we could all be like Danielle Sassoon, who told the thugs to stick their crime where the sun don’t shine. Hard as it’s been for us sane Americans to navigate the MAGA idiocracy, the journey has been even more torturous this past month for public servants who still believe in venerable America values like the rule of law. This dilemma is not new. Typically, cogs in the government wheel suspend their consciences and bend to the prevailing winds, fearful of job loss and mindful that they have mouths to feed at home. It has long been tha...
I get that people who love democracy and detest MAGA fascism are alarmed about President Joe Biden. I share the concerns. What’s astounding – and it speaks to how numb we’ve become – is that virtually no one with a public megaphone, in the wake of last week’s debate, is calling for Donald Trump to get the hell out and leave us in peace. Yes, Biden ratcheted up the age issue anew with his oft-enfeebled performance. Perhaps the Democrats would be better off if he withdrew and cleared the decks for a more vigorous candidate (assuming that can...
While pondering the pathetic fates of three Trump legal eagles – Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, and Lin Wood – I’m reminded of a line from an old Jackson Browne song: “The strangled cries of lawyers in love“ Plus, this old cliche: “When you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.“ It’s been satisfying to see those guys suffer the consequences of fronting for a crime boss. Lawyers with even a smidgen of integrity know full well there are lines they should not cross, even when the client is a fascist lowlife. But this toxic trio was apparently...
During World War II, Americans put up with rationed gas and car tires, rationed coal and fuel oil, rationed silk and nylon, rationed meat and dairy products, rationed jams and jellies, even rationed coffee. Would today’s Americans – some of whom freaked out, during the worst of the pandemic, when they couldn’t get their hair done – be willing to endure even a minuscule fraction of the sacrifices that our forebears weathered 80 years ago? I’ll answer my own question with a question: Can you imagine what would happen if coffee were rationed,...