After months of being preoccupied with the midterms, it’s time to revisit simple pleasures, like keeping company with a good book. To assist you, I’m sharing books that have transported me, made me laugh, and enlarged my [...]
Pat Taub
We are living in a time when uncertainty has given way to anxiety, inhabiting our lives day and night. We wake up wondering what fresh assault will come next: whether the midterms will reject entrenched Republicans; whether Trump will deliver a nuclear bomb to Iran; where ICE will strike next; what new corruption among Trump’s cohorts [...]
Pat Taub
We are at a critical juncture. Basic freedoms and our safety—rights enshrined in the Constitution are under assault. We are becoming a nation ruled by Fascists, criminals and grifters. In the face of this danger, why are people disappearing into their phones, binging on Netflix, captive to gambling mania, scrolling through social media, [...]
Pat Taub
I had hoped that Troy Jackson, with a long history in labor—logger, union leader—and in local government, and who began his campaign speaking for Mainers would bring progressive changes. Yet his campaign to unseat the aging and devious Susan Collins—look at her vote for Brett Kavanaugh—now moves towards “inside the Beltway.” [...]
Pat Taub
I’ve been thinking about kindness, and how dangerous its disappearance has become at this particular moment in American life. Kindness is usually considered a private virtue—a quality we teach our children and practice with our friends. Kindness is also political. Kindness is essential to bridging differences and creating an equitable [...]
Pat Taub
GUEST POST by ABBY FULLER Each year on May 15, Israelis commemorate that day in 1948 when their country declared its independence, For Palestinians, May 15 is Nakba Day—when they grieve their ancestor’s expulsion from present-day Israel. It is impossible to understand the relationship between Palestine and Israel without understanding [...]
Pat Taub
This past weekend I watched the film, “Rental Family,” set in contemporary Tokyo. Brendan Fraser plays an American actor, whose acting roles have dried up. In desperation he signs on with a Japanese “rental family” agency where actors are hired to assume family roles. Frazer’s roles, as Philip, include: the groom to a closeted lesbian [...]
Pat Taub
Several years ago, I participated in a National Geographic “people to people” tour to Cuba. Now that Trump’s oil embargo is threatening Cuba’s very survival, I’m sharing my memories of Cuba for those unacquainted with its amazing people. Everywhere I went Cubans were open and warm, eager to share their impressions of daily [...]
Pat Taub
“The great challenge . . . is to keep awake the part of you that knows . . . what it means to be alive.” The Marginalian, February, 22, 2026 Trump’s devastating takeover of the federal government has awakened many here and abroad to the perils the U S faces. Authoritarianism merges with fascism at home. Injustice and inequality grow. [...]
Pat Taub
GUEST POST by TOM SANTULLI Lord of the Flies, William Golding’s 1954 novel, was required reading for many of us growing into adolescence. It’s the story of a group of young boys, educated and known to one another, on a plane that crashes, landing them stranded on a desert island. They make desperate attempts to maintain civilization and [...]
Pat Taub
GUEST POST by TOM SANTULLI “We make meaning most readily in times of confusion and despair when life as we know it has ceased to make sense.” ~ Oliver Sacks Watching the chaos and suffering unleashed in this country and abroad by Trump – maniacal narcissistic amoral bullying – and his toadies, despair is my first reaction… fear, [...]
Pat Taub