president. They often have unrealistic ideals about what can be accomplished in a democratic system. Worse, we are now in a situation where the other party is run by wide-eyed zealots who are inspired by wild conspiracy theories and extremist ideas. Meanwhile, liberals, among whom I count myself, have unrealistic ambitions about what a president and representatives in the House and the Senate can accomplish when confronted with agents of chaos that MAGAts have elected to destroy the government. Pelosi, Biden and Schumer have accomplished miracles within that context. But idealists often do not have a clue what it takes to achieve progress against an intractable opposition party that cares little about the good of the nation and will only vote to advance their extreme agenda - which has nothing to do with conservatism, by the way.

longtime residents. As a historical town closely tied to Hawaiian culture, that should be the highest priority in planning.

avoid or push back negative thoughts and emotions. Instead of quickly reacting to negative thoughts in a negative way, I suggest that it is far healthier to acknowledge such thoughts and feelings and then shift focus to something else. Vipassana insight meditation suggests we quietly "observe" negative thoughts when they come up, not pushing them away or embracing them, and then gently shifting the mind's focus to observe the breath and other sensations in the body that are conditioned reflexes in response to those negative emotions. It is perhaps a subtle difference, but the result over time is to gradually reduce the physical response to such emotions as they arise. We become more aware of our physical reactions, which are real, instead of focusing the memory itself. Just observing our body - breathing, sensations in the chest, stomach, shoulders, etc - allows them to relax. The more aware we become of our unconscious physical reactions to negative emotions, the less power they have over us and the less violently our body reacts to them.

a negative thought or feeling as it comes up and then letting it go. Suppressing a thought or feeling reinforces it and it will come back stronger. I'm not saying the process is easy, but it can be learned and is very beneficial. That's different from a therapeutic context where a trained therapist can listen to traumatic or negative events and provide guidance to integrate and understand the effects of those events.

little research into how the lack of immigration and a rapidly aging society has negatively impacted Japan. You are treading mighty close to Republican taking points my friend. You also seem to lack a moral compass if you think we should turn away refugees from repressive regimes and gang violence. Immigrants don't take any jobs from Americans. They do the jobs Americans refuse to do. They are already a vital part of our economy, without being extended the privileges of citizens, or even the opportunity to obtain citizenship. They get injured on a job and are thrown by the wayside.

improvements." Air quality improvements continue to have a beneficial effect on the air we breathe. While wildfire smoke seriously degrades air quality, it is not permanent, and lasts only as long as the fire burns. Other sources of improvement - controls on industrial emissions and vehicle emissions for example - are still in effect and will continue to have a beneficial effect on air quality. Air quality has returned to norma where we live in Virginia now the the Canadian wildfire smoke is no longer reaching us, as its will elsewhere. The progress is not "unravelling." It is a temporary decrease in air quality. Seems like a very pessimistic way to portray the effect of wildfire smoke. No doubt it has negatively impacted the health of many people, but if other emissions control had not been in effect, the cumulative effect could have been catastrophic.

land use permitting policies. Nothing should be built next to rivers or streams within 100-year floodplains (or make it 500?). Nothing should be built on steep slopes - roads in particular. Nothing should be built within reach of predicted sea-level rise along the coast or within range of predicted tidal surges. I'm not as familiar with fire danger, but increasing occurrence of wildfires should be taken into account when permitting future building in fire-prone areas. Some smart communities in the Carolinas are buying up property along streams in urban areas that are increasingly prone to flooding and reserving them for gardening or park use. That way there's a flood plain made available to dissipate the energy of floodwaters and return streams to a more natural state. It's about time we started to take climate change seriously and get real about where people should be allowed to live under insurance or government protection.

editorializing. The title implies that the subject of the story was directly confronted and publicly shamed for her actions. That's what "to humiliate" means. Just as we expect the Mass Media to correct the falsehoods spewed by Trump, for example, I think we can rely on DU posters to avoid using headlines that are misleading or factually incorrect, whether or not that was the original headline.

Derangement Syndrome. They'll have to fight this out within their own deranged minds. Talk about cognitive dissonance.

pretend it's all above board, he doesn't have a foot to stand on.