Much as Republicans sold their soul to Trump, the New York Times sold its soul against Trump. After 17,436 (estimate) editorials, columns and op-eds denigrating their nemesis, what do they have to show for it?

A larger percentage of every racial minority voted for Trump this year than in 2016. Among Blacks and Hispanics, this percentage grew among both men and women, although men were more likely to vote for Trump than women.

For Charles Blow, this must have been devastating. But it gets worse. Continue reading →

When a candidate’s primary pitch is that he’s not the other guy, expectations are created that his supporters will buy his stump speech. The problem for Joe Biden is that, while he most assuredly wasn’t Trump, were the people who would vote for him his supporters, or were they merely people who despised Trump more than Biden? It was all speculative until the election, but the answer to those who used the hashtag #SettleForBiden is becoming clear.

As Biden appears, at least for the moment, to have eked out a win, the anti-Trump kids might be happy about it, or at least calmer about the future than they’ve been for the past few years. After all, if they don’t riot for a night, if they give their guy a break just to make him not look like a total chump for courting their support when they despise him too, just slightly less than Darth Cheeto, they can always take to the streets next week. Nope. They had work to do. Continue reading →

It’s hard to be brave, so it only makes sense that Dahlia The Fierce would feel the need to redefine it down.

But it was Scalia, tag-teaming with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who insisted that much as we might wish otherwise, “The fact is that running a democracy takes a certain amount of civic courage.” He went on to point out, rather presciently, that “the First Amendment does not protect you from criticism or even nasty phone calls when you exercise your political rights to legislate, or to take part in the legislative process.” He went on, more or less shouting that “you know, you can’t run a democracy this way, with everybody being afraid of having his political positions known!” And—no surprises—Ginsburg had his back throughout. Continue reading →

While some fondled Play-Doh in anticipation of the long night, three states held referendums that passed without national controversy. They legalized drugs.

Oregon became the first state to decriminalize small amounts of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and other drugs. And in New Jersey and Arizona voters decisively passed laws legalizing recreational marijuana. Cannabis is now legal across a large bloc of states in the West — from Washington down to the Mexican border — and well beyond.

And there may yet be more. Continue reading →

There is an outside chance the we’ll know the winner tonight. If the turnout at the polls today is light. If the returns for the day favor Joe Biden in key states. We’ll know. Don’t bother arguing for or against a candidate. That part of our existence is over for the moment, so resist the impulse.

Will there be any possibility of our House continuing undivided? Continue reading →

Most people, understandably, see the Supreme Court of the United States as the court of last resort. After all, there is no higher court in the land, so where else would one go to grieve a bad ruling? Certainly a bad ruling is bad and, by dint of being bad, should be reversed. Isn’t that what the law is for, what the Supreme Court is for? Well, not quite, according to its rules.

Review on a writ of certiorari is not a matter of right, but of judicial discretion. A petition for a writ of certiorari will be granted only for compelling reasons. The following, although neither controlling nor fully measuring the Court’s discretion, indicate the character of the reasons the Court considers: Continue reading →

Now that Halloween is in the rearview mirror, Saks is decorating its windows for Christmas, except you won’t be able to see them because they’re behind plywood sheets like a great many stores in Manhattan. You see, they are preparing for rioting and looting. Whether it will happen remains to be seen, but as the coasties say, semper paratus.

To his credit, Joe Biden has condemned rioting and looting, and been roundly excoriated by his supporters who use the hashtag #SettleForBiden as they await the great coming of WokeWorld when he either capitulates to AOC’s demands or Kamala Harris shoves the knife in his back. But what to do about it, beyond saying words, remains a mystery. If there’s rioting, if there’s looting, then what? Continue reading →

Historically, the “turnout” statistics of eligible voters for presidential elections in America is abysmal. It generally ranges about 55%, Of course, not voting is a choice as well. But this year is proving to be very different with more than 90 million votes already cast, around two-thirds of the total case in the last election, and it’s not yet Election Day.

A while back, I wondered whether there would be a huge turnout or this election would be a huge dud. It appears that I’ve got my answer. Much of it comes from the efforts to register and motivate demographics that traditionally didn’t bother to vote, particularly the 18 to 29 cohort. Continue reading →

In the aftermath, as partisans spew their rationalization in response to partisans accusations, there will still be Graham, North Carolina. While there’s more than enough basis to reject riots and looting, this was about as peaceful as a protest gets. Indeed, was it even a protest, or merely Americans celebrating their rights? So naturally, they were pepper sprayed for it.

A racially diverse group of about 200 people walked with a police escort from Wayman’s Chapel AME Church to Court Square, where they held a rally encouraging people to vote. The event was organized by Rev. Greg Drumwright, a Burlington native who leads the the Citadel Church in Greensboro, according to his website. Continue reading →

Had it somehow been revealed, a mere decade ago, that scientific journals had kept tabs on the race or sexual orientation of its writers, it would have sent waves of outrage through the scientific community. How dare anyone suggest that a scientist’s race, gender or love life play a role in assessing the quality of her work, her ideas or her discoveries? Scandalous. Outrageous. Offensive. Until it wasn’t.

Studies continue to reaffirm that diversity — on a multitude of axes — boosts performance and the quality of work across disciplines. Science is no exception. Only researchers as diverse as the people and phenomena they study, experts said, can accurately capture the dizzying amount of variation in the natural world and innovate beyond it. Scientists who hail from across spectra of gender, race, ethnicity, disability, sexuality and more are also uniquely equipped to collaborate with communities that have been ignored, silenced or even exploited and abused by the discriminatory practices of Western scientists.

Continue reading →