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. Honestly, on this, the 14th anniversary of the day that has been used to justify… so much… I’m not really sure I have anything to add (other than, of course, happy 9-11 to all, even the haters and losers; what did we all do before The Donald?) One of the things that 9-11 did spawn, of course, was blogs. This one will celebrate its own 14th birthday in a week or so. Fourteen years… represents over a quarter of my life, but something like 90% or so of my daughter’s… and she (and countless millions of her contemporaries) have...

To Vermont Senator, and perhaps our next President, Brooklyn’s own Bernie Sanders, who turns a spry 74 today. We’ll leave aside his opponents’ youth and inexperience and note that just as things a mere seven years ago were so awful that, we could have a Black man as President, the nation’s worst job… so it seems, a septugenarian Jewish socialist from Brooklyn might be the man for these times. Who knows? Repeat after me: with Hillary, all things are possible. Happy birthday, Bernie!

Let’s try to do some reconciliation of the following, shall we: Item: A national poll (whether we accept its methodology or not) now shows upstart Republican candidate Donald “The Donald” Trump with a 45-40 per cent lead over Hillary Clinton (and a lead over other Democrats such as Sanders, Biden, and for some reason, Al Gore). Item: WaPo reports that the Gruesome Twosome Gomez and Morticia Bill and Hillary Clinton paid an on-duty State Department staffer separately to maintain Hillary Clinton’s e-mail server (located in the Clinton manse in Chappaqua, New York), while Mrs. C. was the Secretary of State....

And other things do… Anyway, this piece on “Aristocratization” from our friends at the Onion, even seven years later, is still funny (and no, that is not Stately Dog Manor in the picture).

The Grey Lady gives us this exegesis on the now thirty-year collaboration between the National Security Agency and itself AT&T. Short answer: if it was technically feasible for AT&T (and to a lesser extent apparently, Verizon) to hand the government anything transmitted over telecommunications (telephone or internet traffic), it would appear that it was done. Which has been my surmise for some time: the only limits on the government’s ability to spy on you are technical, not “legal” let alone “constitutional.” And so the powerful– the government and its corporate partners (and yes, that is the word used), can, and...

The Grey Lady treats us to its own version of NY Post style speculation/encouragement on the issue of whether Vice President Joe Biden will be entering the Presidential race against Eva Peron Eva Braun Hillary Clinton. Let me say that with Hillary Clinton, all things are possible. She has already been instrumental in giving us our first Black President (no, not her husband). Right now, she is on track to give us, quite possibly, our first Jewish/avowed socialist President, or possibly our first Latino President, or, maybe even our first woman President (Elizabeth Warren or perhaps some Republican… such as...

A WaPo op ed columnist urges us to “Stop Laughing at Donald Trump,” even as he mocks Republican icon John McCain for having been captured in the Vietnam War. Seems like reasonable advice, given that he might well be a false flag candidate. The slow moving toxic-waste-train-wreck that is the Greek bailout rolls on as the EU approves a seven billion euro loan to pay back the EU bondholders

As you know, American national policy is that Paranoia is Patriotic [TM]. Today, and really the last few days, are truly worthy of the old adage, “Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.” Not over the official horsesh*t, like ISIS Islamic State ISIL, but over, well, you know, the world coming apart at the seams. (I’d personally blame that water-stealer Tom Selleck, but that’s just me.) Item: the Greek PM has, shortly after sacking the only grownup in his government Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, gone back to the EU finance people begging for a new three year loan, without discussing any specific...

As Druids dance around Stonehenge, and Americans celebrate Father’s Day, Roy Edroso gives us this taste of “heritage” from the American experience, in response to the recent racist horror of the murder of nine people in a church in Charleston, S.C. Roy’s inimitable take pulls no punches. Of course, the premise in which one can pull no punches these days is humor. People of goodwill have now been trapped by their own sense of fair play, which has metastasized as if a cancer into the premise of “everyone is entitled to their opinion,” which in turn has morphed into the...