"Blow up the bags of sham" – Jean Arp
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…
I originally wrote this as a Comment in 2017, before this blog existed. I stumbled on it and thought it was especially relevant to today, with a few minor tweaks….SS As “good Catholics” cross themselves when entering a church, “good Americans” start political debate with an affirmation of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution…
In Tuesday’s Washington Post, Aaron Blake zooms in on a reason why Donald Trump might have honestly not known about Russia paying the Taliban to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan: He doesn’t read. Intelligence sources contend that the White House was informed about the Kremlin’s bounty program back in February, that the information was presented…
A reader asks: I was wondering if you would write about the GOP appointing so many judges since 2016 (in today’s news 200 vacancies filled). What progress can people make given these lifetime appointments? It will make it harder to change laws. Correct? I’d appreciate your perspective if possible. I reply: Good question. Out the…
This is a cautionary tale on “police reform.” Since 2015, police have shot and killed over 5,400 people, more than half of the dead are people of color. Most of these killings are reported only in local media, if at all. The high-profile cases – Michael Brown, Alton Sterling, Freddie Gray, Philando Castile, Oscar Grant,…
In Sacramento 1990, I was part of a group of young people who organized a series of mass protests in Sacramento, against the build up to the Gulf War. After our first protest drew far more than we expected, we decided to do a 24-hour occupation/protest on the west steps of the State Capitol. To…
This was written back in 2017, when New Orleans was taking heat for removing Confederate statues. It is relevant today, especially the very last paragraph.) Let’s talk about statues, particularly statues honoring the Confederacy. Last week (April 24, 2017), the city of New Orleans started to remove statues dedicated to the Confederate “heroes” Robert E….