Think of the filibuster as a check valve that only goes one way. To the right. — I can recall the days of Trump. I distinctly recall Trump calling for the end of the filibuster. Then Senate Leader Mitch McConnell refused to consider the notion, much less put it to a vote. Former President Donald Trump (the former guy), one of the most popular politicians in history…

You’re too late — The mantra of the Republican Party is “states’ rights”. Everywhere I turn I see them extolling the virtues of states’ rights. Lately, states’ rights have been the GOP’s defense of new rules enacted in many states that impose greater restrictions on voters. It seems to them that states have the…

There is no escaping the consequences of our actions. — It is pretended by some that we can destroy without consequence, that we can give without consequence and that we can separate our own fate from that of another, whether we do good or bad. …

Imagine you’re on the beach, hip-deep in water. The sun is shining, there is a gentle breeze, and the water feels cool around you on a warm day. You feel the waves go in and out. The scene is almost like a dream. And then you notice a big wave…

Revenge politics: Kevin McCarthy exaggerates the importance of Wyoming without acknowledging its outsized power. — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was right. On Tuesday, August 16th, 2022, Liz Cheney lost the Republican primary for her seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. That was easy to see coming given all the polling that showed Cheney behind her Trump-endorsed opponent, Harriet Hageman. …

Just in case Democrats are looking for a way to win the midterms, here’s something they can use. — I just read about yet another depressing pollution study. Thanks to forever chemicals like PFAS, rainwater isn’t safe to drink. I notice that the businesses that created those novel substances aren’t stepping up to pay for the health care costs resulting from exposure to those chemicals. Better living through chemistry…

Ignorance always breaks at scale. — Plastic is everywhere. It’s easy to find a study, a depressing study, that describes the microplastics in the water, in the soil, and in the food we eat. Now they’re finding tiny plastic particles in the air we breathe. We’re finding plastic in places we once thought pristine like the…

Somehow, Trump’s dalliance with secret documents has left Democrats confused and bewildered. — Former president Donald Trump had no business taking secret documents from work to his home in Florida. He thought he could just issue a “standing order” to declassify everything that he took home with him, like that would be OK. It wasn’t. So he must have known it would bring…

What will they think of next? Do we really need to give AI any “incentive” to invent? — I believe that artificial intelligence is only a threat if we let it be a threat to us. Artificial intelligence is finding cures for cancer, developing novel materials, predicting crime, and replacing expensive labor with cheaper labor. And thankfully, the courts have ruled that an artificial intelligence cannot be awarded…