Columnists

Trump lies for the pure pleasure of it; he just can't help himself. Often his lies are difficult to fight, destructive in their effects, and almost impossible to correct if they resonate strongly enough with his true believers, which Trump’s mostly do. -more-

At first glance, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s drive to create an executive presidency with almost unlimited power through a nationwide referendum looks like a slam-dunk.

The man has not lost an election since 1994, and he has loaded the dice and stacked the deck for the April 15 vote. Using last summer’s failed coup as a shield, he has declared a state of emergency, fired 130,000 government employees, jailed 45,000 people—including opposition members of parliament—and closed down 176 media outlets. The opposition Republican People’s Party says it has been harassed by death threats from referendum supporters and arrests by the police. -more-

Forget for a moment about the debate of forcing treatment on persons with mental illness who are uncooperative—whether we are talking Laura's Law, or the laws that existed beforehand that allowed for involuntary treatment of people—who are a threat to others or to themselves, or who are gravely disabled. Forget for a moment about how to get mentally ill homeless off the street. Forget, for just a moment, about the fact that jails have become the primary mental health facility. We can come back to this later. -more-