Bits & Pieces
Articles with unfiltered opinions
Latest Politics
Asshole of the Month: Greg Abbott
After its successful war of independence from Mexico in 1836, Texas existed as an independent republic for nine years, until joining the United States in 1845. Then, in 1861, it seceded with the rest of the Confederate states to wage our bloody Civil War in defense of slavery. Ever since, there’s been a virulent suspicion...
Asshole of the Month: Harlan Crow
“Money is the root of all evil,” goes the old saying repeated by theologians and moralists. That might not be the whole story, but in the world of American politics, we can definitely say “dark money” has become the root of evil ever since our conservative-leaning Supreme Court green-lighted unlimited campaign spending with the 2010...
Democracy’s Last(?) Stand
Even at road’s end, if the “problem” is the First Amendment, so too is the solution. After interviewing various MAGA types involved in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol for her documentary The Insurrectionist Next Door, Alexandra Pelosi—yes, Nancy’s daughter—asserted, “They’re not bad people, but they have a different social media feed...
Asshole of the Month: Robert Mercer
In this century, a radical watershed moment in American government occurred in 2010 with the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling, allowing unlimited spending on political campaigns. This deplorable decision equated money with free speech, accelerating the transition from democracy to plutocracy (rule by the rich). Trevor Potter, former chairman of the...
I Can’t Fight This Feeling Anymore
Conventional wisdom about Donald Trump and elections is always right—except when it isn’t. As we go to press, it seems an all-but-foregone conclusion to most that Donald Trump will become the Republican Party’s 2024 Presidential nominee for a rematch against President Joe Biden. Short of an illness—or worse—befalling Biden, there is little question that he...
Asshole of the Month: Mike Johnson
Choosing the speaker of the House of Representatives in Washington has usually been a routine, undramatic affair: The leadership of the party holding the majority selects a candidate, and the troops normally fall in line, voting almost unanimously to approve the new speaker. But the Republicans have turned this process into a dysfunctional clown circus....
Asshole of the Month: Lauren Boebert
Colorado, a formerly purple state, has been shifting to the left in recent years, even beating California and other blue states to the punch in legalizing recreational marijuana in 2012. But head westward from the green Rocky Mountain highs around Denver, Boulder and Fort Collins, and you’ll find the legal pot dispensaries drying up, like...
91 Criminal Felonies
Because the “character” of the President of the United States counts! Dear President Clinton: Character and family values count! (Impeach!) Dear Vice President Gore: You tried to steal a Presidential election! (Sore-Loserman!) Dear Secretary of State Clinton: Mishandling classified documents is treasonous! (Lock her up!) Love, the Republicans P.S. Just kidding! Suckers! I’m old enough...
Democracy vs. Hypocrisy
Republicans learn the hard way (again) that voters like freedom, rights and, yes, democracy… “These unnecessary off-cycle elections aren’t good for taxpayers, election officials or the civic health of our state,” Ohio’s chief elections official advised in late 2022. Secretary of State Frank LaRose was leading the fight to convince state lawmakers to ban August...
Asshole of the Month: Tommy Tuberville
In the American South, aka the Bible Belt, two institutions reign supreme, with legions of fanatical devotees congregating on weekends to celebrate together. On Sundays they meet in Christian chapels, and on the preceding Saturdays, they convene in stadiums to worship college football teams with the same fervor. According to a Pew Research Center Religious...
The Chief’s “Moderation” Trick
Don’t be fooled. There is nothing “centrist” about John Roberts or his radicalized, far-right Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court made headlines for some stunning opinions as it neared the end of its term in June. It wasn’t for its radical, out-of-control ideological rulings—as expected from the corrupted, right-wing majority—but for those that media outlets...
Asshole of the Month: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Challengers to an incumbent President from his own party or third parties have never been successful in America. Eugene McCarthy failed to unseat LBJ in 1968, Reagan lost his first Presidential bid against Gerald Ford in 1976, Edward Kennedy fell short against Jimmy Carter in 1980, and Pat Buchanan and Ross Perot both fizzled in...
Lifestyles of the Rich and Thomas
The Supreme Court’s most corrupt Justice is still sitting there—still corrupt and still corrupting. This may become an annual thing. Last year, almost precisely at this time, I documented “the stain left on American jurisprudence and democracy by the corrupt, right-wing, activist jurist and his corrupt, right-wing, activist wife.” I was writing about U.S. Supreme...
Asshole of the Month: Jesse Watters
While the air we breathe grows hotter and more foul by the year, at least we can be thankful for a reduction in airwave pollution lately: Bill O’Reilly was canned by Fox in April 2017 after The New York Times reported that the company had shelled out $13 million in sexual-harassment suit settlements to five...
Start the Steal
A critical battleground state leaves its doors wide open to fraud and doubt in the 2024 presidential election. At this point it seems like the Republicans who run Georgia are begging for disaster. In truth, this story began around 2002, when Georgia and Maryland became the first states to mandate statewide use of 100%-unverifiable touchscreen...
Asshole of the Month: Tim Scott
The GOP clown car of Presidential candidates will have to stretch into a limo soon to accommodate all of the long-shot hopefuls crowding the race, including Tim Scott, one of only three current Black U.S. senators (there have been only 11 total in history) and the only Black person to serve in both chambers of...
Vigilance Trumps Vengeance
After 49 years of HUSTLER’s fight for free speech, our constitutional rights still hang by a thread. It’s early, but later than you think. The 2024 Presidential election is shaping up to be a rerun of 2020, when Democratic candidate Joe Biden narrowly defeated Republican strongman Donald Trump. A lot could change between now and...
90 Seconds to Midnight
Despite apocalyptic dangers, democratic nations must not cower to Putin’s “nuclear coercion” in Ukraine. “The clock is now ticking.” Those ominous words ended my July 2017 column headlined “2½ Minutes to Midnight.” At the time a new, dangerously unpredictable President had just been inaugurated, and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced it had ticked...
Asshole of the Month: Asa Hutchinson
As the Great Orange Doofus continued fighting his never-ending legal problems (indicted on 34 felony counts by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg in April), a cavalcade of ambitious Republican hopefuls sniffed blood in the water and entered the race for the 2024 Presidential nomination. It’s a new parade of clown cars, ranging from the ridiculous and...
Fox “News” Has a Dirty Secret
A voting technology company’s defamation lawsuit may be just the beginning of the end for Rupert Murdoch’s GOP propaganda empire. Fox “News” was never either “fair” or “balanced.” That was an ad slogan to hoax you into buying its bullshit. But Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6-billion defamation lawsuit against Fox has laid bare that BS. Filed...
