"Blow up the bags of sham" – Jean Arp
One question that I get asked over and over is “What if Trump loses and doesn’t leave?” Actually, it’s not so much a question as a statement of worry. My reply to that “question” is always the same: “If Trump loses my bet is that he makes noise but leaves. We can make him leave…
Herman Cain died of complications due to COVID. A right-wing businessman and supporter of Donald Trump, Cain was an early COVID-denialist and was against wearing face masks. He didn’t just pooh-pooh face masks, he made strong statements in support of hardcore face mask haters. He also refused to wear one, including at Trump’s Tulsa rally,…
It is Saturday, August 1, 2020. In Portland, peaceful protests are being held at the Mark O. Hatfield Federal building. People are gathering in the streets in front of and around the building, continuing to demand the end of systemic racism and police abuse. Occasionally, someone throws a rock at the barricades surrounding the building….
In writing these Comments, I try to stay even. Admittedly, right now, staying even is a tough thing to do. There is a demented baby-man in charge of the country. He is surround by a pack of playground snot-eaters that attach themselves to bullies. He has an incredible arsenal of power and, thanks to the…
The United States has a long history of political repression. That does not minimize what is going down right now, especially what is happening in Portland. No, what I want to convey is that what we are seeing is not out of the historic norm. In fact, this is what happens when we rise up,…
Back in April, Trump started his Open Our Country campaign. At the time, a handful of states were getting hit with COVID-19, most of them run by Democrats who, in March, had issued shelter-in-place orders, along with guidances on social distancing, hand washing, and mask wearing. Non-essential businesses were shut down to get the virus…
A few recommended reads for you as we (hopefully) start bunkering down again to beat the coronavirus. In the U.S., one of the biggest obstacles in fighting the coronavirus is lack of political leadership, particularly the obstruction of Donald Trump. Countries with competent leadership share a different challenge with us: COVID-denialism. In Australia, the United…
The past two months have seen a rise in doomsday what if’s regarding the 2020 general election. The scenarios each present, in an authoritative voice, a possibility that introduces a special thing and then dwells on that thing in length and detail, but without introducing probability or any suggestion that if the scenario happens, we…
While Hilary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign was approaching internet organizing like it was 2008, a group of far right-wing provocateurs, internet trolls, and attention freaks calling themselves The Deplorables exploited social media in the present and helped elect reality TV-businessman Donald Trump president of the United States. The Deplorables’ use of bigoted innuendo and blatant…
On July 3, 2020, President Donald Trump went to Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota and gave a speech. The event was billed as a national celebration of the country’s birthday; however, the speech Trump gave exposed the spectacle as a white supremacist-themed Trump re-election rally. After a series of Thank You’s and a run-through of…