California Democrats pushed a controversial new healthcare tax through the legislature without a single Republican vote. Gov. Gavin Newsom included it in the 2026-27 budget package — the last...
I marvel at the determination of MAGA-leaning intellectuals and apologists to define Trumpism as some sort of philosophy. Trumpism is whatever happens to suit President Donald Trump. When he turns 180 degrees, he expects his followers to — well, to follow. Those who insist on trying to find consistency in his ideas, or who claim […]
Many have left behind the obsession with diversity, equity, and inclusion that infected entertainment (and society) back in 2020. But CBS‘s Survivor has not, and its DEI casting is killing what used to be one of the best shows on TV. In 2020, CBS imposed racial quotas on the casting process for its reality shows, […]
Can you guess which of these quotes came from a politician and which came from a show for three-year-olds? “There are at least three [genders].” “I say to all trans and nonbinary people: We see you. We love you. We will never stop fighting for you.” “I’m nonbinary … And I also use ‘they’ and […]
The students who were sixth graders when schools first closed for COVID-19 are high school seniors today. In the Democrat-run school districts of our cities and large suburban counties, these students did most or all of seventh grade by “remote learning.” Then they spent eighth grade being forced to wear masks. Now, they’re skipping school. […]
Despite the prosecution’s eventual loss in its felony sex trafficking and racketeering case against Sean “Diddy” Combs, there was not an honest broker in America who walked away from Diddy’s acquittal on the more serious charges with the belief that the man was innocent. The world watched the former rap mogul kick, beat, and bruise […]
On a crisp autumn afternoon on Nov. 26, two blocks from the White House, the crack of gunfire shattered the routine of National Guard troops Sarah Beckstrom and Andrew Wolfe. Beckstrom, a 20-year-old enlistee from West Virginia deployed to bolster federal law enforcement, succumbed to her wounds hours later. Wolfe, shot in the leg and […]
Ours is an era in which elected officials, like public figures more generally, have by and large abdicated their responsibility to model good behavior. Once, politicians felt compelled by the sweeping visibility of their office to demonstrate an outward sense of virtue, decorum, and etiquette. It would have been inconceivable for President John F. Kennedy […]
The Netflix series Death by Lightning offers a compelling, dramatic look at James Garfield‘s rise to the presidency. It also explores the journey of Charles Guiteau, the man who assassinated Garfield when the newly elected president refused to give him a job in the administration under the “spoils system” that took shape over the previous […]
China’s people, as is sometimes said, are “trying to breathe,” hoping to find some freedom from central control. Four female college students in the central city of Zhengzhou tried to breathe in June 2024 as they decided to take an overnight 50-kilometer bike ride to Kaifeng, where they could enjoy a meal of soup dumplings. […]
It goes without saying that a person who is or was a famous millionaire is unlikely to elicit sympathy, but sometimes such individuals can break our hearts, despite our prejudices against them. On the strength of his stellar new Hollywood drama, Jay Kelly, Noah Baumbach understands this irony better than most. The movie, which debuted […]
As a lifelong resident of rural America, I have grown accustomed to the media periodically sending journalists out to low-population areas to discover what is wrong with us, particularly after elections that Republicans win. In Rural Versus Urban: The Growing Divide That Threatens Democracy, political scientists Suzanne Mettler and Trevor E. Brown continue the tradition, […]
Ask someone to explain what “revolution” is, and there’s a decent chance they will reply that, though they can’t offer a precise answer, they know it when they see it. This nebulousness, according to Donald Sassoon, is innate to the concept. No “strong definition” is possible; at best, like “most complex phenomena,” it can only […]
And so this is Christmas, and for those of us who’ve spent decades hunting down every scratchy demo, rehearsal, studio outtake, telecast, or concert the Beatles and solo Beatles ever laid down, it’s a special one. The season heralds the release of Anthology 4, a new album and documentary of Beatles rarities and oddities. Nobody […]
I have been a professional writer for nearly 40 years and have been giving speeches and appearing occasionally on television for two decades. Since 2004, off and on, I have recorded a weekly audio commentary on the entertainment business, broadcast for the first 16 years on Los Angeles public radio, then independently as a podcast. […]
