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How do we tell the emperor that he’s not wearing clothes?

MIKE: I hereby call to order the first annual meeting of the tripartite national commission to discuss with the emperor his recent garment shortage. As you all know, of late, the emperor has been a bit, let’s say, confused and has on one or two occasions, only, but still, he’s appeared to have ventured out of doors ... inappropriately attired for the weather. MARCO: He’s been naked, you mean. KAROLINE: Marco, please. Let’s not repeat the fake news being spread by disgusting domestic terrorists who are relying on the biased testimony of their liberal eyes. I have seen the ...

Romney says he wants higher taxes

Congress is debating major funding bills that would avoid another of those phony government “shutdowns” now scheduled for Friday. One sticking point is that Democrats want to either defund ICE, or greatly reduce its budget even though it is following the law in arresting and deporting people from other countries, some of whom have committed crimes while here. Adding nothing positive to this debate is Mitt Romney, the GOP nominee for president in 2012. In a lengthy letter to the editor of The Wall Street Journal, Romney seems to be channeling Democrats when he writes that he is ...

Does Trump need a portrait of James K. Polk?

Donald Trump has a painting of Andrew Jackson in the Oval Office, but as he tries to browbeat Denmark into coughing up Greenland, maybe he should add a portrait of a Jackson acolyte — James K. Polk. If cold-eyed American expansionism is the theme, there are fewer better representatives than the 11th president. He added more than 1 million square miles to U.S. territory and extended the country all the way to the Pacific, making him the most successful president not celebrated as part of the American pantheon. Trump’s impulse to throw his weight around and assume control of ...

Trump’s outrageous threats are getting some practical results

Think about it: Heads of government do not normally reveal the texts of private communications from other heads of state. Yet that is what Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store of Norway did on the first weekend of the World Economic Forum in Davos, where the international press would have no difficulty finding appalled foreign leaders. You could think of this as a hostile act of a statesman appalled that the American head of government does not know that the government of Norway does not decide who gets the Nobel Peace Prize. It is probably better to think of it as an ...

Honoring the legacy of Claudette Colvin

When I read the news of civil rights activist Claudette Colvin passing away this month, I looked at a list of other civil rights visionaries who have died who were, like Colvin, not as well known. This includes Autherine Lucy, the University of Alabama’s first Black student; Lucille Times, who participated in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which catapulted a young Martin Luther King Jr. to national leadership; and Myrna Carter Jackson, who actively protested racial injustice in Birmingham. Ala., certainly one of the most significant battleground states of the civil rights movement, and ...

Consider the status quo vs. the alternative

The last two weeks have been, like the preceding weeks, nuts. The president insisted the United States must own Greenland and he would not rule out military force, if necessary, to take the island. He imposed tariffs on the NATO allies who oppose his territorial lust. Then he walked it all back for the framework of a deal. The reality is, President Donald Trump has a knack for getting things he could have gotten without all the drama, but the drama is salesmanship for his base. They insist it is the art of the deal, he is the best negotiator and the deal is amazing. Most often, the ...