The Consequence of Matters

  In his charmingly self effacing memoirs, All For the Union, Elisha Hunt Rhodes, wrote of a Confederate attack on Washington. "Our columns passed through the gate of Fort Stevens, and on the parapet I saw President Lincoln standing looking at the troops. Mrs. Lincoln and other ladies were sitting in a carriage behind the earthworks. We marched in line of battle into a peach orchard in front of Fort Stevens, and here the fight began. For a short time it was warm work, but as the President and many ladies were looking at us every man tried to do his best. Just at dark I was ordered to take my Regiment to the right of the line which I did at a double quick. I never saw the 2nd R.I. behave better. An old gentleman, a citizen in a black silk hat with a gun in his hand, went with us and taking a position behind a stump fired as cool as a veteran. The Rebels at first supposing us to be Penn. Militia stood their ground, but prisoners told me when they saw our lines advance without a brea...

  Sheldon Adelson proposed dropping a nuclear weapon in the Iranian desert as a demonstration to force them to do what they are told. Sheldon Adelson proposed turning the Israeli-American council into a political lobbying group to rival the main Israeli lobby, AIPAC. Why? Because AIPAC supports a two state solution and continued aid to the Palestinians and Adelson does not. Sheldon Adelson became a Republican after labor unions at his Las Vegas casinos sought higher wages for their members. He told Shelley Berkeley, a House representative from Nevada who worked for Adelson previously, that "old Democrats were with the union and he wanted to break the back of the union, consequently he had to break the back of the Democrats" Sheldon Adelson donated $6 million to Newt Gingrich's PAC, American Solutions for Winning the Future. In 2012, he supported Gingrich for president. His wife contributed an additional $5 million with instructions to advance a "pro-Newt" messa...

  Quite a few of my friends have claimed that Donald Trump is the worst president in history. For all but the very beginning of Donald Trump's career as president, I've freely admitted that I considered him to be the worst president of my lifetime, but not the worst president of all time; that position was held by James Buchanan, who, I noted, actually broke the country. After today, however, I have to say I've changed my mind; Donald Trump is, without qualification, the worst president we've ever had. You are free to disagree, of course, but you are wrong. James Buchanan allowed the country to fall into the Civil War because he believed the founding principles of the country did not allow anyone to stop it from happening. He was wrong but at least there was a principle behind it. Trump, it is now perfectly and unambiguously clear, would be delighted to have the country fall into a civil war, not for principle, but simply for ego. His lazy, half-assed, shambling coup at...