As usual, Tom Friedman has it exactly right in The New York Times on April 7.

Israel and America are two nations “that gave birth to themselves in the name of self-proclaimed ideas,” according to author Dov Seidman. The countries are based on their peoples embracing shared systems of values. Right now, neither of these prominent democracies is driven by a shared ethos despite the leadership of both nations claiming that there are common principles underpinning the nations.

President Biden is right. Politics is the art of the possible.

What was evident to me during my year on Capitol Hill was that compromise, consensus and common ground are no longer possible between Republicans and Democrats. Even as my boss Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) extolled the virtues of the “80% on which Dems and the GOP agree,” nothing got done without legislative tricks.

I was no fan of Donald Trump. I thought he set an awful example for the nation, but he did have some interesting policy ideas particularly in the international arena. He called out the Chinese Communists for the thugs that they are and actually made progress in the Middle East where none had been made for fifty years. He also initiated Operation Warp Speed and that got us vaccines way before anyone expected. He was not a complete failure and for the conservatives out there he certainly packed the courts.

If you don’t get your way when it comes to a political decision, the recourse on the part of major league athletics and large businesses is extortion.

The Republican Georgia legislature and state Governor have enacted a new voting law in the state that they claim is aimed at assuring fairer elections and ending fraud. This took place after Donald Trump lost the state and the two newly-elected U.S. senators are Democrats despite the fact that there was no fraud. Hmmm—I wonder why the GOP legislature and Governor felt it necessary to advance a new law. If there was no fraud, why the new law?

If this is news then what I see on TV or hear on the radio or read on my computer does not strike me as really being news. It is supposed to be noteworthy as well as novel (not to mention true).

This is not about the environment or climate change.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is a freshman Congresswoman from Georgia who is on record as supporting Q Anon, anti-Semitism (Rothschild-sponsored space lasers caused the California wildfires), and the murder of Democratic members of Congress.

My conservative friends insist that I am a liberal. I did vote for Joe Biden, reluctantly, but given the alternative what else was I to do? I believe that Black Lives Matter has a point. As I recently wrote, I believe that the trans-female athlete competing against other girls is a particularly vexing problem, but one for women’s athletics to solve, not state legislatures. I also believe that there are too many guns in America.

      They’re still coming to America, just as they have for over 200 years. It’s just not as orderly in Juarez as it was on Ellis Island. Thus immigration 2021 is, unlike fraudulent voting, a real problem.

The United States has two main land-based borders with other countries. In the north, it is a lengthy one with Canada. As far as I can tell there are no crises brewing on our northern border. In fact, I suspect that there are few Canadians who wish to immigrate to America. Given the relative state of race relations, health care and poverty in the two countries, Canada’s only down side is its winter weather.

This is an easy one. Whatever it takes to make it easier for everyone to vote, the better. Period. Mail-in balloting. Great. Longer poll hours. Fabulous. Same day registration. Great idea. Easier ID confirmation. Even better!