Jeff Robbins

Established shortly after the Civil War, Memorial Day is a solemn day of remembrance for Americans to honor those who have sacrificed their lives defending American democracy.

Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen recently claimed that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee was "un-American," an announcement that surely surprised the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of American citizens who have supported AIPAC, whose forebears and family members served in America's military and fought for their country in America's wars. Van Hollen is prominent among Democratic politicians scrambling to denounce Israel more loudly and more mindlessly than their potential rivals. This includes parroting the obligatory nonsense that, in defending itself from a genocidal attack on Oct. 7, 2023, and trying to prevent a reprise, Israel is actually the party guilty of genocide.

In a 2011 Los Angeles Times column titled “When Unity Was All-American,” writer George Skelton marked the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor by recalling a time when Americans respected those whom they elected. “What I remember most,” he recalled about America during World War II, “are home-front adults pulling together, willing to sacrifice, committed to a common goal: victory. Gasoline, tires, meat, sugar and shoes, all rationed, and no one really griping. Government was the protector, not the enemy.”

In a 2011 Los Angeles Times column titled “When Unity Was All-American,” writer George Skelton marked the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor by recalling a time when Americans respected those whom they elected. “What I remember most,” he recalled about America during World War II, “are home front adults pulling together, willing to sacrifice, committed to a common goal: victory. Gasoline, tires, meat, sugar and shoes, all rationed, and no one really griping. Government was the protector, not the enemy.”

In a 2011 Los Angeles Times column titled "When Unity Was All-American," writer George Skelton marked the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor by recalling a time when Americans respected those

In a 2011 Los Angeles Times column titled “When Unity Was All-American,” writer George Skelton marked the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor by recalling a time when Americans respected those whom they elected.

For Americans traveling in Western Europe this summer, it's a time of real humility, and some humiliation. You have to be quite the American exceptionalist to defend America these days, when what seems truly exceptional about our country is a presidency that is openly, even flagrantly, corrupt. It's a strident word to use, but it is, as the expression goes, what it is: the president and his immediate family pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars in deposits to Trump family businesses that can politely be called speculative, payoffs and protection money from foreign and domestic fortune-seekers looking for favors or just a pass from our government.

There was a time when lying all the time was frowned upon, and when easily demonstrable lying all the time could get a fellow into trouble.

There was a time when lying all the time was frowned upon, and when easily demonstrable lying all the time could get a fellow into trouble. If President Donald Trump has succeeded at anything, it is in proving that those days are over. Pathological, even felonious, lying did not impede his 2024 election and doesn't appear to have shaken his hold on his considerable base. The quaint idea that presidents were supposed to model decent, honest conduct lies in a shambles.

There was a time when lying all the time was frowned upon, and when easily demonstrable lying all the time could get a fellow into trouble. If President Donald Trump