"Blow up the bags of sham" – Jean Arp
Before the internet, cell phones, and instant communication, news was reported and consumed like this: An event happened. Planned or spontaneous, the reporters on the scene reported what was happening in real-time. Of the three mediums – print, television, radio – radio was usually the first to report an event in real-time. The reason for…
Immediately during and after events such as Wednesday’s failed Trumpist insurrection, I hop on the Facebook and warn about overreaction. My warnings often elicit a quick response from people who are angry and frustrated and want something to happen now. Some of the backlashers frame my warnings as me not taking a situation seriously and/or…
So, Donald Trump, occupant of the White House, made another stupidly self-destructive phone call, this one to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger urging him to overturn Georgia’s presidential election results. Regardless of what was going on in Trump’s head, whether he truly believes the crap he talked or was trying to cynically strongarm Raffensperger…
No doubt about it, 2020 was a rough year. It certainly wasn’t a good year, but was it necessarily a bad year? Perhaps, 2020 was like all years, it was a year. Pluck any year out of history and lay out the important major and minor universal or near-universal events and pick through them. Now,…
The Republican Party is in deep, deep trouble. We read a lot about Democrats in Disarray, but truth is the Democrats “disarray” is a permanent and mostly healthy struggle within the party over policy and direction. The Republican’s problem is foundational. They are in the midst of a party realignment, with two factions fighting for…
Monday evening, I watched the Georgia senate runoff debate between Kelly Loeffler and Raphael Warnock. Warnock is minister and the Democratic challenger. Loeffler is the sitting senator, a billionaire Republican Trump-ally appointed by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. Loeffler finds herself in a tricky place now that Kemp is on Trump’s shitlist for not helping the…
Back in October, New York public health officials were concerned about rising COVID rates in Brooklyn, particular emanating from houses of worship, which had been holding mass gatherings with few pandemic precautions and lax mask wearing. Governor Cuomo responded by adopting tiered restrictions based on the infection rate in said communities. Specifically, …the executive order…
Thanksgiving 2020 and, man, am I thankful for a lot of things – For the 80,026,721 people who voted to dump the president and those who work to make sure he goes; For the people who fought the administration in court and worked the system to limit and stop the damage; For the workers who…
The Clown Car Coup is what a friend calls the bumbling spectacle that Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani are engaging in. To what end? Obviously, the demented duo is driven by two constants: Greed and the hunger for attention. Beyond that, question marks. Trump has never been a man with a plan or at least…
We hear a lot about the urban/rural divide and commentary about the divide is nearly always framed as if this is some naturally occurring phenomenon that divides half the population against the other half. The reality is this: About 27% of the US population lives in urban areas and 21% live in rural communities. The…