Afederal judge in Seattle has stymied yet another effort by the Trump administration to make it as difficult as possible for people from other countries to seek asylum in the U.S.

Consider: $1.5 trillion in student loan debt, millions of struggling borrowers, an out-of-touch federal regulator and assurances that there’s nothing to worry about. The echoes of the last decade’s mortgage crisis are unmistakable, and frightening.

At its 243rd birthday, the United States has a proud and widely-admired political tradition of freedom and generally democratic elections of its own leadership.

If you watch TV, you might have seen the ads for ThunderShirt. It’s a sort of sweater designed to soothe frightened dogs and cats through “gentle, constant pressure.”

If you’re one of the evidently healthy people who decided that 50 is the new 40, here’s a dose of sobering news.

It took Marianne Williamson wading into bizarre references about New Zealand, the moon and the power of love for me to realize something: The GOP made the right decision in their own overpopulated primary on the road to 2016. Not in whom they chose, of course, but in how they chose. The two nights of Democratic debates have offered insightful policy discussions, fierce sniping and funny mic gaffes. But they’ve also only made one thing clear: It’s time to separate the contenders from the pretenders; it’s time for the real candidates to share the stage, and for everyone else to be relegated to the kids’ table.