In 3 weeks, TalkLeft will be 15 years old. I'll be deciding whether to keep the site going another year. Feel free to let me know your thoughts.

TalkLeft is actually pretty expensive to run, because it has so much material it has to be on its own server. As I get older, I can't help but think of other things I can do with that money, particularly if I think I'm no longer contributing anything of substance to the discussions of the day. I'm not convinced my voice is needed over the next three and and a half years, since we've already gone to Hell in a hand basket, and absent a universally agreed upon despicable act by Donald Trump that is likely to lead to his resignation or impeachment, I'm not sure we'll get him out before 2020. I doubt I am willing to give this uncouth carnival barker another three years of my attention. I'd rather fade into the woodwork and hide my head in the sand, and hope there's still a world in place when I take it out. [More...]

Trump continues to self-destruct and feed his aides to the wolves. Yesterday he sent staff out to make denials, only to personally admit today what they denied. Yesterday:

“I was in the room — it didn’t happen,” Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, said in an appearance outside the West Wing, which was sent into chaos on Monday afternoon by reports that the president had disclosed extremely sensitive information about an Islamic State plot.

Trump today: I had every right to disclose whatever I disclosed to Russia.

Israel is the country whose intelligence information was exposed by Trump. [More...]

Happy Mother's Day to All. I got some good news from the TL kids (there are now two) which I can now share. [More....]

What a hail storm we had yesterday. This is not snow, but hail.

Time for a new open thread, all topics welcome.

Here's a new open thread, all topics welcome.

TalkLeft is moving to a different server tonight. The site should only be inaccessible a few minutes while the DNS changes over. You can always check our backup site and I'll put something there when the site has finished moving.

Busy work day, this is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Update: Winter storm is here, 6 to 12 inches of snow expected.

Our last open thread is full, here's a new one, all topics welcome.

I haven't followed the news this week, so there's been little to write about. That will probably change soon. In the meantime, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

I'm looking forward to the start of the Univision series El Chapo tonight. The fictionalized series about the life of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was based on the collective work of screenwriters and journalists in Univision's investigative unit who have followed El Chapo for years. From the Columbia Journalism Review:

To construct the narrative of El Chapo, the screenwriters and journalists had to learn to understand and accommodate each other’s perspective. While scriptwriters have the creative licence to tell a story in the most engaging and dramatic way, journalists are wed to the reality of what actually happened. Reyes describes it as a mixture of fun and frustration. “Fun because it’s a creative process,” he says. “But at the same time, we journalists are fact-addicts, and we think that reality is colorful, interesting, and complex enough that you don’t need to make it up.”

[More...]

In the news: 7 things Trump and Sessions Get Wrong About MS-13

Jeff Sessions wants the border wall to hurry up.

Ivanka Trump is going to participate in the W20 (Women 20) summit in Germany next week. Her topic is "women's economic empowerment." She can share her experience in one sentence: Be born with a rich father, then marry a rich husband.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Here's a new open thread, all topics welcome.

Neil Gorsuch was sworn in today as Supreme Court Justice.

I continue to have no interest in writing about Donald Trump. I haven't read a single article about him or his family since the day he dropped missiles on Syria. That his son now feels entitled to consider a run for NY Governor is laughable.

What I am reading: news in other countries, particularly, Mexico and the latest arrests of allegedly corrupt cops, prosecutors and politicians.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.