The usual and expected point of attack against laws regarding the use of bath and changing facilities by transgender people is the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, arguing that they are denied the equal protection of the laws by being denied the right to use the bathroom or locker room that conforms with their sexual identity.

But in a suit brought by a group that calls itself “Women in Struggle,” together with transgender and nonbinary people, has challenged Florida’s “Bathroom Ban” as a matter of denying expression under the First Amendment instead. Continue reading →

For both simple and complex reasons, there is no jury in the New York attorney general’s case against Donald Trump. The verdict will be in the hands of Justice Arthur Engoron. If that name sounds familiar, it might be because Trump has mentioned it numerous times during his impromptu courthouse hallway pressers along with words like “deranged,” “disbarred” and “criminal.”

You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind and you don’t — I would think — defy and needle the very person who holds your financial fate in his hands.

Most sentient people would think it a poor tactic to attack and anger the decision maker in a very serious matter that stands to topple your jenga empire. Not Trump. Is there method to his madness? Continue reading →

Two firsts happened yesterday. A black lesbian was sworn in as Senator from California, despite a dubious connection to the state. A Speaker of the House of Representatives was ousted by eight MAGA insurgents of his own party, with the cooperation of the Democrats, leaving the House incapable of acting unless and until a new Speaker is chosen.

There is a story that a woman asked Benjamin Franklin following the Constitutional Convention of 1787 what form of government was chosen, a republic or a monarchy. Franklin is said to have replied, “A Republic, if you can keep it.” Can we? Continue reading →

I’m neither a fan nor hater of New York City Mayor Eric Adams. It’s not that he’s doing a good job, but then, it’s not as if any recent mayor has done a better job. But despite his being a  black man and a Democrat, he’s not the “right” sort of black man or Democrat as far as the progressive wing of the party is concerned, which makes him as blameworthy as a MAGA wingnut. But for a flood?

As the storm approached last week, Mr. Adams failed to adequately warn the public. Worse, the mayor seems to have suggested in the hours and days since that doing so was not his job. Continue reading →

Despite no one being hurt, and no complaint being made to the New York City’s Civilian Complaint Review Board, Detective Junior Sesay was tried for his actions on May 30, 2020 when his police SUV was surrounded by a mob of Black Lives Matter protesters. The protesters figured that if they surrounded his RMP, climbed atop it, he would be unable to move based upon the general rule that it would be illegal for the detective to harm the protesters by driving into and through them. In the minds of the mob, they owned the cop. In the mind of the cop, he was not about to let them own him.

As it turned out, this “one cool trick” of putting one’s life at risk by blocking the police SUV didn’t work. Sesay drove and now he was being interrogated by the CCRB prosecutor as to why he would risk killing them. Continue reading →

Fire emergency doors with big red signs about alarms going off are very confusing. Who could possibly know that it meant a fire alarm, and that by pushing the bar that said “alarm” would set off an alarm and not just open the door that said “emergency exit only”?

That would be New York Congressman Jamaal Bowman. Continue reading →

At the New York Times, Peter Coy makes a convincing argument that the only way to address the deficit is to raise revenues, or in human terms, raise taxes. Of course, money already spent by the government has to be paid for, eventually, even if it was spent on things we would have preferred it not be spent on. Going forward, it would be nice to think that money will be better, more wisely, more effectively spent, but what are the chances of that happening? And so, future expenditures will have to be paid for as well. By taxes.

You don’t hear this from either Republicans or Democrats because calling for higher taxes is seen in Washington as politically fatal. As I said, it requires imagination. When you step back from the daily tit for tat, it’s hard to imagine any way to fix the nation’s finances in the long term that doesn’t involve more tax revenue. As Sherlock Holmes said, “When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

Continue reading →

We’re approaching October, and that means it’s time for my yearly guide to a stress free, happy Halloween for all readers of the Friday Funny.

If you’ve been reading my work for the last two years, you know by now I love Halloween. It’s fun to watch the kids get dressed up and roam the neighborhood with other children in search of the best candy hauls that evening. It’s a fun night where kids and their parents can let loose a little and just have fun with ghouls, ghosts and things that go bump in the night. Continue reading →

It would be fair to say that no one, even a judge, would take issue with a woman attorney using the salutation “Ms.” It’s not because a state Supreme Court ordered it, but because it has evolved into standard use. And, indeed, there is good reason for that happening, since the marital status of a woman is irrelevant in most contexts. But when a court has to order it, it means that it’s not standard and the court has compelled the introduction of a politicized non-standard usage into its legal proceedings.

That is what the Michigan Supreme Court has done. Continue reading →

When a dear buddy lost his brother in a car accident while we were in college, I came home for the funeral to be with him and give him someone to talk to. One of the things that brought him comfort was told to him by the rabbi, that if all the people in the world threw their troubles into a big pile and got to pick anyone’s trouble to take out, they would choose their own.

We all have our problems and, much as we care about others and would like to be there for them, help them if we can, we no more want their problems than they want ours. We are not them. They are not us. So be it. So how did sympathy become something only bad people gave? Continue reading →