A former senior executive in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, Mr. Naj divides his time between overseeing medicine companies he has founded and writing; his latest book, Pandastic Times (Brazen House), is a fable of the Covid pandemic. Some two decades ago, when I mentioned what I did for a living …
Read More »Fires, Hurricanes, Extreme Weather: The Media Misses the Climate Link
Margaret Klein Salamon, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of Climate Emergency Fund, which raises funds for and makes grants to non violent climate activists. She is the Author of Facing the Climate Emergency: How to Transform Yourself with Climate Truth. Who is to blame for the Los Angeles fires? For …
Read More »President Jimmy Carter, My Father, and Me
I used to hate Jimmy Carter more than anything else in this world. Let me explain. It’s November 1979 in Oak Harbor, Washington, and I’m counting days. 24, 23, 22. I’m in the eighth grade. After school, I fold and then deliver the Seattle Times on Whidbey Island, the second-largest …
Read More »What Happened to Justin Trudeau?
Outside Rideau Cottage in Ottawa, a gust of wind blew away Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s notes Monday. It was moments before he was to announce his resignation as head of the Liberal Party and his exit from the PM’s office after nine years in power. It was a too …
Read More »Trump's Imperial Ambitions Are Welcome News to China and Russia
President-elect Donald Trump has always used his public press conferences and social media posts to seize attention and dictate the terms of national discourse. But his recent trolling about taking over Canada, acquiring Greenland, and reclaiming the Panama Canal reveals something more complex than rhetoric. These statements, far from harmless …
Read More »No, American Health Care Is Not Better Than Ever
The parenthetical space between Christmas and the new year is the closest thing many of us get to Jubilee, the ancient biblical holiday in which debts were forgiven and indentured servants were released from bondage. Instead of relief from the $1.2 trillion Americans hold in credit card debt or the …
Read More »Trump 2.0 Is About Punishing the Vulnerable and Enriching the Mega Wealthy
Donald Trump led a virulently anti-immigrant campaign for president, fixated on the idea of “migrant crime” and the notion that foreigners are “taking your jobs.” The president-elect and his incoming administration remain committed to deporting undocumented immigrants and asylum-seekers — but Trump has already made clear he won’t stop big …
Read More »How RFK Jr. and His Underlings Will Make America Sick Again
As Ranking Member of both the House Appropriations Committee and of the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education Subcommittee, I oversee funding for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the largest department in the U.S. government. This pillar of our government administers the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency that provides health …
Read More »Luigi Mangione, UnitedHealthcare, and the American Health Care Scam
A gun with three bullets; one man dead on the pavement, one man in custody. From a distance, the death of Brian Thompson looks like any other in a uniquely violent America. But the circumstances surrounding his murder were unimaginable just two weeks ago: A reclusive gunman partially built a …
Read More »Elon Musk Wants to Pay for His Tax Cuts With Your Social Security and Medicare
President-elect Donald Trump hasn’t even taken office, and congressional Republicans are already taking cues from Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy and the pair’s new playground, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. GOP lawmakers immediately lined up against the original short-term government funding bill released this week after Musk voiced …
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