David Matthews Portable Bohemia

I support the left wing in spite of myself and in spite of itself. —Albert Camus Socialism means justice and common decency. —George...

When the essay in progress threatens to degenerate into a veritable tome of gibberish, maybe it is best to step away for a bit and give...

Jimmy Aldaoud was born in Greece. His parents were Chaldean refugees from Iraq. The family came to the US when Aldaoud was six months...

Already on the evening of July 15 I regretted having written in that morning's Portable Bohemia newsletter that Donald Trump's tweets...

Antifa is a gift to the alt-right and its fellow travelers, from Donald Trump on down the line. The antifascist cadres could hardly do...

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez lost me when she played the race card on Nancy Pelosi after Pelosi addressed a slanderous tweet by...

Yesterday alone three news items prompted incoherent spluttering when they came to the attention of your oft humbled scribe. How can...

First impressions are not like fine wine. They may not age well. I came away from Wednesday's debate cautiously hopeful because it was...

It takes some doing for Donald Trump to come off as the voice of reason and restraint in any room. To be fair, the bar is low when it's...

There are reasons why government does not work well, and why it sometimes seems not to work at all. Not the only one by far but prominent...

It can feel lonely out here on the left when you're not on board the impeachment train. Some of that may be an echo-chamber effect. The...

The usual suspects weigh in on the Green New Deal with not a doubt in their military minds. One side delivers ringing endorsements of a...

I have thought of myself as a faction of one within Indivisible Oregon since the group reached a consensus that it is time to call on our...

I can almost hear Bob Dylan wheezing into his harmonica and croaking in his Nobel laureate voice, "it may be the president / it may be...

There is no indication that the Mueller report is changing hearts and minds on either side of the great divide. My own heart and mind...

Each day brings fresh outrage courtesy of the Trump regime. This presents a challenge. It can be difficult to know where to start. Is the...

America I'm putting my queer shoulder to the wheel. —Allen Ginsberg It is time, way past time, for all of us to put our queer shoulders...

Yesterday Americans throughout the countrey gathered to call for release of the Mueller report. On an overcast afternoon with the skies...

The Barr report on the Mueller report does not tell us much. The upshot is that the Mueller report comes off much as many of us...

Politics is a duty, poetry is a need. —Alexandros Panagoulis (I think it was Panagoulis who said this. It's been rattling around in my...