Longer Step: Ideas for Justice and Sustainability

 Poor Puerto Rico! I had a friend at BPA who told me that the law doesn't allow PR's electric grid to be built back stronger/more resilient than it was, and therefore every huge storm wipes out the (obsolete) grid all over again. How stupid is that? We keep paying many millions of dollars in recovery work, that are 100% destined to fail. We need to rebuild their grid to be storm-safe. Also, we need to push enough funding down there to raise the lower bridges to much higher levels, and to buy out homes in potential floodpaths and relocate their owners to safer spots. It's not hard; it only takes commitment. This is a great example of how limited a well-meaning administration and Congress are. With hundreds of thousands of elected officials and bureaucrats, nobody in the entire Obama or Biden administration can spot this need and resolve it? Insane. We must have the worst form of govt on the planet... (Photo credit: Getty Images)

 Regarding Trump's request for a Special Master, in the feds' investigation of his illegally keeping Top Secret records at his home after he was no longer President: I heard legal experts say no one else in the US (including other past Presidents) would've gotten a Special Master at this point (primarily because there've been no charges yet filed vs Trump, and he will get his personal property back, and he could ask the trial judge to advise on the (bogus) Executive Privilege claims, so there is no need for a S.M.). I suspect the judge appointed the S.M. for mostly-political reasons, because it will take a little heat off of her, from the Trump side, and will make the eventual outcome look a bit more fair to the Right. Judges are people; they think about things like "appearances" and "how to minimize the chances of having a bomb put in my car." But in the end, this will only cause delay, which is Mr. Trump's consistent legal strategy throughout...