The crisis of the coronavirus-induced economic lockdown and now the violent protests in the streets have unleashed a depression-level financial crisis and unprecedented human suffering -- especially in our inner cities. These events have also exposed a Grand Canyon-sized chasm that now separates how the left and the right see America today.
Newly painted in huge yellow letters on 16th Street, just north of the White House, is the slogan: "Defund the Police."
That new message sits beside the "Black Lives Matter" slogan, also in huge letters, painted there at the direction of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.
Few things are more terrifying than the unknown, as we are discovering as we struggle to navigate, avoid and (if we fail to avoid) survive a mysterious new virus. That goes double when reliable information is hard to come by; it is unquantifiably worse without credible leadership.
In his statement to The Atlantic magazine, former Defense Secretary General James Mattis says of the events of the last 10 days that have shaken the nation as it has not been shaken since 1968:
"We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers."
"America is burning. But that's how forests grow." So spoke Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey.
"Riots are an integral part of the country's march towards progress." So read a now-deleted tweet from the Democratic Committee of Fairfax County, Virginia, the affluent Washington suburb with a population of 1 million.
Harris, Demings leads our list of contenders; Biden is wise to wait on making his pick.
— Joe Biden should not be in a rush to name his vice presidential pick. Circumstances may change his list of contenders — and probably already have.
— A predictable name leads our list, but a not-so predictable name is second.
— Biden has many plausible options, but no perfect one.
"No justice, no peace!" they shout. Then they break windows.
It makes me furious.
But then I watch the video of the Minneapolis cop kneeling on George Floyd's neck, while Floyd repeatedly says, "I can't breathe," and three other officers just watch.
Dear law-abiding Americans:
You have done nothing wrong.
Being white is not a crime. Being a Trump voter is not a crime. Being a police officer sworn to "protect and serve" every day is not a crime. Being a non-white police officer proud to uphold and enforce law and order is not a crime. Being a black or brown or yellow American who rejects excusing criminal behavior is not a crime.
The recovery stage for our economy is finally here, and now the policy priority has to shift to getting people back on the job and getting businesses up and running. The best incentive to get businesses hiring again and get workers off unemployment is to suspend the payroll tax for the rest of the year.
On the fifth night of rioting, looting and arson in Minneapolis, the criminal elements were driven from the streets.
By whom? By the same cops who had been the constant objects of media derision and mob hatred.
I shouted the text of my latest story about the invasion from a Palm Pilot into a balky Iridium satellite phone. It was at least my third attempt, and the battery was dying. A Village Voice employee assigned to take dictation on the other side of the world interrupted me.
"I don't understand," she said, irritated. "Why don't you just go to Kinko's and email it to us?"
America faces a contagious infection: partisanship. Consider the responses to a poll question about treating the COVID-19 virus with the long-approved and widely used drug hydroxychloroquine.
A Morning Consult poll shows 52% of Republicans supporting the drug and 16% against. At the same time and in the same country, 56% of Democrats opposed it, and 13% were in favor.
In his half-century in national politics, Joe Biden has committed more than his fair share of gaffes. Wednesday, he confused Pearl Harbor Day, Dec. 7, 1941, with D-Day, June 6, 1944.
The more serious recent gaffe, a beaut, came at the close of a recent contentious interview with black activist Charlamagne tha God.
Early in the primary season, Republican pollster John Couvillon noted that President Trump’s "unshakable" rapport with the Republican Party’s base may be leading GOP partisans to do something unusual historically: turn out in uncontested primaries.
Look out. An "army of contact tracers" is about to be unleashed on America. Corporations, political lobbyists and government bureaucracies all win. Privacy, freedom and family autonomy all lose. Big time.
We have a choice!
Next presidential election, we don't have to decide between two big-spending candidates, neither of whom has expressed much interest in limited government.
Is the U.S. up for a second Cold War -- this time with China?
What makes the question newly relevant is that Xi Jinping's China suddenly appears eager for a showdown with the United States for long-term supremacy in the Asia-Pacific and the world.
America is starting to reopen for business across the country -- except for a handful of states where lockdown orders are expected to remain in place for weeks to come. With very few exceptions, the cities and states that have ordered their businesses to remain comatose and their millions of workers to go without paychecks are blue, blue, blue. This list includes New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Illinois, California and Oregon. They all have Democratic governors.
The corporate conservatives who control the Democratic Party are suffering from cheaters' remorse.
The DNC and its media allies (NPR, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Vox, etc.) subverted the will of primary voters, undermining initial front-runner Sen. Bernie Sanders in order to install the worst candidate of the 20 centrists in the campaign.
When a Wall Street Journal editorial warned this week against any precipitous U.S. withdrawal that might imperil our gains in Afghanistan, an exasperated President Trump shot back:
"Could someone please explain to them that we have been there for 19 years. ... and except at the beginning, we never really fought to win."
