Saturday, July 19, 2025

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LEONARD QUART: My minimalist days

A few days ago, as I entered the café, I ran into the two conscientious, caring managers (who have always been concerned about my welfare) pushing out an aggressive homeless man who has been threatening them for a long time while stealing petty cash.

STEPHEN COHEN: A ray of sunshine in a dark time

Our nation may be waking up. Immigration and the fear of the other was the Trump linchpin for his electoral success, and the polls now show a turning away from his brutal enforcement and his deportation policies.

The Epstein file controversy is a sideshow distraction from even larger abuses of minors

I see this controversy as a distracting sideshow to the even larger, scandalous, and pervasive abuses of the welfare of millions of our minor citizens, abuses embedded as fiscal time bombs in the recently passed federal budget bill.

I WITNESS: How to tell if you are a brainwashed cult member, Part One: An evening to remember

It all started quite innocently. While standing on a corner on Market Street in San Francisco, I was approached by two very friendly young people who struck up a conversation with me. Always game for random social interaction, I wandered down the street with them.

I want to see the Epstein files

I am amazed the MAGA faithful have been mostly silent on all the law-breaking, horrid, cruel—add you own adjective here—acts Trump has gotten away with, only to find the Epstein files to be what has shaken the MAGA bedrock. Who knew?

BRIGHT SPOTS: Week of July 16, 2025

Here are only a few of the many bright spots.

Unless you are MAGA, raise your hand if you care about the Epstein file

Before the election, after Kash Patel, Pam Bondi, and other right-wing conspiracy theorists claimed that the FBI had the Epstein file but refused to release it because Bill Clinton and other Democrats were likely included, the MAGA drums were beating for raw meat.

Proposed high-density housing project for 546 Main Street

That Great Barrington has a housing shortage is indisputable—both affordable and market-rate housing. I think that every person on Mahaiwe Street is in agreement. I am concerned about the wholesale selling of our community to developers without input from us.

The MAGA debt bomb

We should be taking action to bring the national debt down, not giving away our treasure—and our future—to billionaires and large corporations.

This ‘war’ on Canada is getting serious!

If the Orange One decides to slap a tariff on Bare Naked Lady tickets or, heaven forbid, Bare Naked Lady decides to boycott the U.S. in solidarity with other Canadians, our lives will be far poorer for it.

I WITNESS: Republican legislators are allowing Donald Trump to destroy our country. So are the Democrats.

Here is exactly what the Democratic Party has done, writ large—or perhaps writ small—to oppose the Trump presidency and the Trump agenda: nothing.

Commonwealth unfairly targets Arcadian Shop

After decades of Arcadian Shop renting kayaks at its Lenox location and then bringing them and their renters to the beautiful Stockbridge Bowl to paddle, the state announced a new policy that rentals aren’t allowed to launch from its facility.

Clarification on ‘The impact of the GOP budget bill on Social Security’

As Mr. Perloe says in his letter to The Edge, the SSA statement was misleading. In my opinion, some sections were flat wrong.

CONNECTIONS: We shouldn’t be surprised that we still have to fight for democracy — even after 249 years

I don’t know how we arrived at a place where we thought everyone would support democracy because it was an intellectually superior form of government. All of human history contradicts that notion.

A Declaration of Doomsday: “47th” president’s Fourth of July attack on democracy

This is not governance. This is governance against the people.

Freedom fighter John Lewis

The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and The Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act combat ongoing racial discrimination, establish basic standards for free and fair elections, and expand early voting and mail-in voting options.

I WITNESS: While we were reeling — with thanks to lovely Rita for putting it on my radar

As many of our best writers and talking heads have reminded us, continually, now is not the time to look away and capitulate.