My after-school job my senior year of high school was in a bakery attached to a supermarket in my home town, a sort of Jurassic Publix setup. On the night before Christmas Eve, we had orders for a little over 400 pies. The baker asked if I would work with him through the night and, needing the money for my college fund, being locked in an empty supermarket to bake 400 pies for twelve hours at overtime rates seemed like a wonderful idea.
Guest Columns
Guadalcanal Memories: Remembering the Mosquito Bowl on Christmas Eve, 1944
No football game ever played, or ever to be played, will exceed the drama surrounding the Mosquito Bowl, played on insect-infested Guadalcanal in 1944. The 4th and 29th U.S. Marine Corp regiments faced off before their next stop, Okinawa.
Trump Borrows Hitler Language in Anti-Immigration Speech in New Hampshire
Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination for president in next year’s election, said that immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country.” He pledged to toughen immigration laws, including by reinstating a travel ban from “terror-plagued countries” and requiring “strong ideological screening” for immigrants in the country without authorization. Hitler used similar language about Jews “poison[ing] the blood of others,” in “Mein Kampf,” his 1925 manifesto.
When Trump Says He’ll be a Dictator, Believe Him
The twice-impeached Trump has made it clear he is still seething about being voted out during the 2020 election. The emotions Trump harbors toward his Republican rivals are volcanic levels of seething anger. His dictatorial impulses–and ambitions–have to be taken seriously.
The End of the Republican Party
Talk of political parties facing impending doom is nothing new. Similar rhetoric was levied toward the Democratic Party in the mid-1980s after it had endured consecutive losses at the presidential level, including a massive 49-state rout in 1984. But the Republican Party seems to be engaging in a level of infighting and dysfunction that has even the most cynical observers stepping back and taking notice.
In Florida, Voter-Suppression Is Essential to GOP’s Edge
Republicans in 2023 are on a campaign to emulate what occurred during Reconstruction by disenfranchising African Americans, engaging in severe gerrymandering so that the odds are turn in their favor in 2024. Their harsh and uncompromising position on abortion is costing them support and has led to losses in primaries. But the GOP’s political strategy is explained by former President Donald Trump, who has said the quiet part out loud: Republicans will never again win elections if democratic reforms make voting easier.
Bridging Our Divides From a World Away
For all the polarization of America, there are still ways to bridge divides and engage in meaningful conversations, and seeing perspectives from the other side of the river–or the other side of the Atlantic, as does Christine Flowers.
Should Biden Reconsider His Bid for a 2nd Term?
Stung by a succession of high profile polls showing President Joe Biden trailing former president Donald Trump among crucial swing state voters, the White House and its allies in Congress have scrambled to calm jittery nerves and reassure donors and establishment leaders all is well and under control. Many aren’t buying it.
Florida Lawmakers Put Developers’ Interests Ahead of Residents’ Hurricane Safety
In a bill to supply aid to the victims of Hurricane Ian and Idalia, lawmakers told local governments in counties hammered by the storm that they were not allowed to make “burdensome” changes to their land-use or growth plan regulations for three years. No learning from their mistakes and trying to avoid repeating them.
By God: Why Matt Gaetz Is In Love With Mike Johnson
That Matt Gaetz is so deliriously happy should tell you quite a bit about Mike Johnson, the latest speaker of the House: he is the most unabashedly Christian nationalist speaker in history.