Bits & Pieces
Articles with unfiltered opinions
Latest Politics
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...
Asshole of the Month: Tucker Carlson
Fox News pioneered the dark art of pandering to the right-wing mob’s baser instincts to boost ratings and profits. But we really had no idea how hypocritical the whole charade had been until the stunning revelations flushed out in March by the Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6-billion lawsuit against Fox. Rupert Murdoch, Sean Hannity and the...
GOP Tried to Kill the Ethics Cops
House Democrats stopped them…at the very last second. It took nearly a week and 15 rounds of voting before Republicans accomplished their first order of business in the new Congress: electing a Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Their second task was much quicker: devising a tactic to prevent fellow Republicans from facing accountability...
Asshole of the Month: Sarah Hukabee Sanders
This past February, President Biden delivered what most unbiased observers praised as one of the best State of the Union (SOTU) addresses ever—a masterful performance by a veteran politician at the top of his game. His alleged senility was proven to be nothing more than partisan bullshit as he eloquently touted the many accomplishments of...
Sedition, Conspiracy and Insurrection
Brought to you by the former president of the United States and (still) leader of the Republican Party. It’s been a long time coming, but we are finally approaching the Accountability Phase. It’s difficult to keep track of all of the crimes, particularly as some of the statutes involved haven’t been prosecuted since the Civil...
Asshole of the Month: George Santos
Republicans were gleefully predicting a red wave miracle in last year’s midterm elections. Like Moses parting the Red Sea, it would drown Democrats and allow the MAGA tribe to wade into the promised land: domination of the House and Senate in D.C. and state legislatures and gubernatorial offices nationwide. But the big wave turned out...
Party of the Endless Grift
Republicans may not be able to win elections anymore, but they’ve learned how to turn losing into “winning.” Once upon a time, America had two major political parties. They disagreed on some things, mostly domestic matters, while generally concurring on foreign-policy issues. Tending to favor businesses and the wealthy, the Republican Party sought to lower...
