I don't think that disasters have to be spectacular. They can be a slow corrosion.

Life, as the signs in the liquor stores say, is too short to drink bad wine. And summer is too short to read bad books.

Donald Trump is the least unpopular thing about today's Republican Party. I mean, the idea that a Mitch McConnell or a Paul Ryan could say, "Let's toss Trump overboard and return to our program of plutocratic politics, health care removal, massive income tax cuts for the affluent, deregulation of finance" - if they cut loose from Donald Trump, it's like, you know, storm in channel, continent cut off. If they cut loose from him, they are much likelier to sink.

A generation ago, or two, when there were three channels, plus PBS, and when you needed - when you needed 15 million people to make a living, the media could focus on the broad country. And most people had no choice about getting political information. It was there at 6:30 whether you wanted it or not.

People need to understand that in Washington, the process is the punishment.

Donald Trump doesn't believe in much, doesn't want to do much.

Partly because of the desperate economic situation in the country, what were once the leading institutions of conservatism are constrained.