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Local

Smaller places can rot with undiscovered corruption just like big places can, and those smaller places need reporters.

Safety

We live in a security nation now. We are supposed to be afraid of everything, all the time, and so give up much of what makes life worth living for the blessing of "safety."

Labor Day

We are killing ourselves with efficiency. We are killing our culture, our society, our communities.

Stephen Miller's Nightmare

And here's the thing I want to tell you: These people are fired up and angry and ready to go to the mat. Even better, in Trump country, the scales are beginning to fall from eyes.

Socialist Demons

It was just a small election for a supervisor seat in a suburban Pennsylvania township. But what happened in Towamencin Township almost three years ago was a harbinger for right now.

Keith

People will die because of this. And not only will people die, but hospitals are at risk of dying, too, because when people lose this coverage, they go to ERs for care, and then don't pay the hospital because they don't have the money.

Private v. Public

The people in that photo above, with the gray hair and the dad pants? They stood up, fought back, and, so far, they've won.

The Shame of JD Vance

Vance has made himself an avatar for the moral and ethical vacuum at the heart of American government. He's not worthy to play Bingo at a parish fund raiser.

Brotherly Love

This is my midlife crisis, I guess. Instead of buying a ridiculous car, or taking up with a far-too-young cocktail waitress at the Las Vegas Sands, I'm renovating my house.

Choking Chester

Those of you who've been receiving this for a little while may recall my post from February about the trash incinerator in Chester, PA, where my book, The Mayor, is set. Well, now Chester is set to receive another dose of health-damaging pollution thanks to Donald Trump.

Burn Down the Think Tanks

I tried to explain to Third Way almost a decade ago when I was asked to come to Washington to speak to them...

Update! The Scam Economy and the Populist Myth

It's a good illustration of the corruption that has infected our government and the finance industry, corruption that comes at the expense of common people trying to save a little money. It highlights the myth of Trump's "populism."

Wall Street Comes to Fayette: Update 5

While the Wall Street players battle in court, people like those in Fayette – and Cleveland, Toledo, Indiana, and so on – are out of work and retirees who put in their years are scrambling for money.

Cool Buildings, Chester and New York, and My Transport Nightmare

I was in New York this last week to record the "Introduction" and "Acknowledgments" for the audiobook version of The Mayor. My publisher, St. Martin's, wisely would not let me within a hundred miles of recording the body of the book. Another guy, actor