Years ago, when I was a high school sophomore, at the beginning of the academic year one of our teachers gave us an assignment to come up with ideas to reform the American political system. Continue reading
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That was no debate, it was a 90-minute insult to America
If Trump stays in office, can ‘The Purge’ be far behind?
The 6 most revealing moments from the presidential debate
The first presidential debate was as horrific as we feared it would be. We were barely able to hear a word from Joe Biden or moderator Chris Wallace thanks to Trump’s incessant interruptions and nonstop insults. Continue reading
COVID-19 and the reality of ‘small government’ conservatism
With 200,000 dead, Americans are concluding that a more Rooseveltian response was in order.
Amazingly, America has become a nation of socialists, asking in dismay: “Where’s the government?” Continue reading
Here’s your hat, Donald Trump, what’s your hurry?
Even though opponents in the fight against slavery, the example set by Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas could help light our way ahead.
The other night, amidst all our upending national disasters, I was taken with an offhand comment—or rather, offhand tweet—made by presidential historian Michael Beschloss. On March 4, 1861, Beschloss wrote, “Defeated candidate Stephen Douglas held Abraham Lincoln’s hat while the new president gave his inaugural address.” Continue reading
The menace of far-right historical revisionism
The impeached U.S. president, Donald Trump, has taken a step never attempted by any of his predecessors. Trump, who every day is exposing his fascist policies and intentions, has announced that he is establishing a “1776 Commission” to re-write American history and force-feed it to every public and certain private school students throughout the United States. Trump’s move is intended to counter the 1619 Project of the New York Times, which is designed to place slavery and the slave trade in a central context in dealing with the history of pre- and post-colonial America. Continue reading
Renewed Azerbaijani attacks seek to destabilize Caucasus region and deprive Armenians of right to live on their own lands
Repelling foreign invaders has been the single most recurring event throughout all of Armenian history. This year is no different. Continue reading
Gallup: Americans tend to trust only news that confirms their beliefs; highly educated Americans are by far the most closed-minded group
On September 11, Gallup headlined “Bias in Others’ News a Greater Concern Than Bias in Own News”, and reported (based upon polling a randomized sample of 20,046 American adults) that “69% of Americans say they are more concerned about bias in the news other people consume than its presence in their own news (29%).” In other words: 69/29, or 2.38 times, as many Americans are closed-minded (prejudiced) regarding information-sources which don’t fit their ideology than are not. Continue reading
Disappointing football games and a loser’s lamentation
It’s Saturday, September 26, 2020, 8:22 pm EST and I just watched the Texas Tech University/University of Texas football game on TV, channel 10, Fox Sports, played at Lubbock, Texas. Continue reading
Trump tax-dodging exposed; average Trump hotel worker pays more than him
In the year he became president, Donald Trump paid only $750 in federal income taxes. The average worker at his Trump National Doral resort hotel in Miami, meanwhile, with a salary of just $38,000, paid almost $3,000—four times as much as the president. The shamefully small amount of tax forked over by Trump while his workers paid their share is just one detail among many exposed in an explosive report on the president’s finances published by the New York Times. Continue reading
The Court of God: How a Catholic secret society took over SCOTUS
With his latest SCOTUS nomination, Trump advances the designs of a clique of ultra-conservatives with ties to a Catholic secret society and Cold War stalwarts leading the US to the brink of overt fascism.
The Trump White House wasted no time in nominating Amy Coney Barrett, a devout Catholic, to the Supreme Court after RBG’s passing gave this administration an unprecedented third bite at the SCOTUS apple. Barring an improbable successful challenge by Democrats, Barrett is on her way to becoming a Supreme Court justice and tipping the scales of the highest court in the land in favor of Conservatives by a margin of six to three. Continue reading
‘We Need Medicare for All’: Tens of millions more expected to lose employer-based insurance by 2021
The strain on employers ‘just shows how ridiculous it is to have a system where a person's health insurance is tied to their job.’
While for-profit health insurers have reported record-high earnings this year amid the coronavirus pandemic, small companies across the U.S. are reporting difficulty paying premiums for their employees—and tens of millions of workers are expected to lose their employer-based health insurance by the end of the year, even if they keep their jobs. Continue reading
The coming civil war over Trump’s ego
What is America really fighting over in the upcoming election? No particular issue. Not even Democrats versus Republicans. Continue reading
Palestinians need to smash the status quo
A new leadership must go beyond old hatreds to aim for peace and dignity for all
It is a tragedy of epic proportions that after decades of struggle for their rights the hopes of Palestinians are being systematically dashed. There is no Palestinian state on the horizon and realities on the ground are no longer conducive to what remains the official policy of just about every member of the United Nations. Donald Trump’s pro-Israel bias has ridden roughshod over the few cards that were left in the Palestinian Authority’s hands. Continue reading
As his extradition trial drags on, media and rights groups are still ignoring Julian Assange
Many mainstream rights groups and media organizations have a mixed history when it comes to opposing Washington’s agenda. The case of Julian Assange has been no exception.
The extradition case of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange continues in London. The U.S. government is indicting the Australian living on the other side of the world under its own Espionage Act, with the case widely seen as setting an important precedent for freedom of speech and of the media worldwide. Continue reading
How concentrated animal feeding operations fuel pandemics
The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic may be the worst in recent memory but another pandemic occurred just a decade ago. During 2009 and 2010, the world was stricken with H1NI, a novel virus hosted by pigs. Continue reading
Trump moves to finalize ‘catastrophic’ stripping of key protections for largest national forest in US
At issue is Tongass National Forest, located in southeast Alaska and described as ‘the crown jewel of the National Forest System.’
The Trump administration on Friday moved closer to its goal of stripping conservation protections from the nation’s largest national forest, putting over 9 million acres at risk of clear-cut logging and bulldozing for roads and sparking warnings of “irreversible ecological consequences.” Continue reading
Trump wants the Supreme Court, not the people, to decide the election
WASHINGTON—When the U.S. Supreme Court opens its new term on the first Monday in October, the symbol of its most important looming development will not be an individual case but an empty chair draped in black. Continue reading
Over one million unemployment insurance claims for 27 straight weeks, unprecedented US economic collapse
Nothing remotely like what’s gone on since January ever happened before in the US. Continue reading
Trump takes another shot at seniors: Medicare and Medigap costs increasing in 2021
Not content with referring to the 200,000 Americans who have perished from Covid-19 as “virtual nobodies,” Donald Trump has a particularly damaging surprise in store for senior citizens. Trump’s category of “nobodies,” who he classed as “elderly people with heart problems and other problems,” are going to see costly rises in Medicare and Medigap costs in 2021. Once considered an essential component of Trump’s base, senior citizens are fleeing away in droves from Trump, particularly in key states with large numbers of retirees, including Florida, Arizona, and Texas. Continue reading
Justice sleeps and ‘we the people’ suffer: No, the U.S. Supreme Court will not save us
The U.S. Supreme Court will not save us. Continue reading
Trump openly admits he wants to fill RBG vacancy before election day so his justice can help fight mail-in ballots
‘They aren't hiding that they want to confirm a new Trump justice so that justice can steal the election.’
Speaking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House Tuesday evening, President Donald Trump frankly stated his motive for rushing to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: To help him dispute the legitimacy of mail-in ballots in the November election. Continue reading
Palestinians are not numbers: On the future of the Palestinian discourse
Palestine can never be truly understood through numbers, because numbers are dehumanizing, impersonal, and, when necessary, can also be contrived to mean something else entirely. Numbers are not meant to tell the story of the human condition, nor should they ever serve as a substitute for emotions. Continue reading
Time to put an end to the nuclear age
2020 has been hard enough. The last thing the world needs this year is nuclear weapons.
On September 26, 1983, Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov got an alert that a U.S. missile attack was imminent. Continue reading
Will Michele Flournoy be the Angel of Death for the American empire?
If the Democrats manage to push Joe Biden over the finish line in November’s election, he will find himself presiding over a decadent, declining empire. He will either continue the policies that have led the American empire to decadence and decline, or seize the moment to move our nation into a new phase: a transition to a peaceful and sustainable post-imperial future. Continue reading
Trump and Barr make unconstitutional threat to withdraw funds from ‘anarchist jurisdictions’
Local and state leaders are blasting GOP White House occupant Donald Trump’s demand to yank federal dollars from New York, Seattle, and Portland, Ore.—cities Trump says are consumed by anarchy—as a campaign gimmick. Continue reading
Freedom Rider: The Democrats’ supreme failure
The corporate Democrats refuse to back measures that appeal to huge majorities of their base, preferring instead to campaign against one evil man and his appointees. Continue reading
America’s global reputation isn’t bouncing back anytime soon
Even if Trump loses, his administration may have permanently damaged our standing abroad. But there’s a silver lining: it makes Trumpism an ideological dead-end.
Donald Trump used to care what the world outside America thought of him. Continue reading
When men legally controlled women
In this 100th year after the 19th Amendment, we have so much to lose. But if we fight, how much more can we accomplish?
This year marks the 100-year anniversary of the 19th Amendment, when women got the right to vote in all 50 states. Limiting voting to men at the nation’s founding was part of the legal doctrine of coverture, in which a woman was legally represented first by her father and then by her husband. Continue reading
FinCen Files shine spotlight on suspicious bank transfers
The reporters behind the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers have more to share. We should pay attention.
On September 20, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) –the reporters who brought us the “Panama Papers” and the “Paradise Papers”—released the “FinCEN Files,” in collaboration with Buzzfeed News. Continue reading
Trump says he is ‘counting on the federal court system’ to declare winner on Election Night—before many ballots are tallied
‘This is an open admission that Trump hopes to use the Supreme Court to steal the election.’
President Donald Trump said during a campaign rally over the weekend that he is “counting on the federal court system”—which he has packed with right-wing judges—to declare a winner of the presidential election on the night of November 3, a statement that one journalist described as an “outright pledge to use the courts to stop votes from being counted.” Continue reading
For RBG it was all principle, for Mitch McConnell it’s all power
People in public life tend to fall into one of two broad categories—those who are motivated by principle, and those motivated by power. Continue reading
Freedom Rider: Breonna Taylor and black life
Posted on October 1, 2020 by Margaret Kimberley
Reactions to the Breonna Taylor murder, settlement and verdict all have one thing in common: Black people’s inability to protect our lives. Continue reading →