There was a time when the mere whiff of an indictment – let alone the reality of one – was enough to sink a promising candidate. Today, what do we call it when a new four-count indictment gets returned? Easy. We call it Tuesday. That’s the new normal. It’s the new normal because, frankly, what difference does it make? I couldn’t help but notice that on the same day the former president got indicted, he […]

Little-known fact: A leading cause of death in Texas is Gov. Greg Abbott. Yes, by intentional actions and deliberate inactions, Abbott has used his gubernatorial policies to kill thousands of Texans, including: his calculated refusal to extend Medicaid to millions of poor Texans [including nearly a million children]; his intentional denial of water breaks for outdoor workers broiling under this year’s 100-plus-degree heat dome; his lethal deregulation of utilities causing the state power grid to […]

I oversaw the care of an elderly friend in his last years. Up until age 86, Frank was pretty much in control. But then he was diagnosed with cancer. The disease and the drugs greatly sapped powers that old age had already altered. The telephone became his conduit to the outside world. Scammers love people like him. As Frank’s friend and power of attorney, I soon learned the necessity of building a stockade between him […]

This is what happens in academia when the donors are calling the shots. Heads roll, all right. Big-time. The dean of the faculty supervising arts and sciences went first. Then came the resignation letter from the president of the university. The system falls right apart. Watch it happen in real time at Texas A&M. See them score points at the expense of the university. Conservative politics took over the appointments process for the new director […]

Sen. Tom Cotton, a far-out right-winger, is to good public policy what a boll weevil is to a good cotton crop: totally destructive. But he is politically candid: Rather than disguising his racial bigotry, for example, Tom flaunts it, as he did last month in an open letter to the retail giant Target. While the senator is usually a devoted corporate-hugging Republican, he lashed out at Target for business policies that he furiously condemns as […]