Dying of Whiteness

Mount Rushmore

Jonathan M. Metzl’s extraordinary 2019 book, Dying of Whiteness, How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland just gets more relevant as the COVID-19 pandemic worsens and our country approaches the 2020 election. As the virus rages across the country with no end in sight and President Trump attempts to distract his “base” […]

From the Hood to the Holler

Charles Booker

“From the Hood to the Holler,” that’s the campaign slogan of Charles Booker, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Kentucky.  I applaud the notion of poor black folks and poor white folks working together to challenge the modern-day Cotton Kingdom (today’s top 1%) that’s making ALL the folks lives tougher every day. As Booker says: […]

Trump, the Jim Crow President

George Wallace and Trump

Even more than Richard Nixon’s 1968 “law and order” campaign, Trump’s ugly antics resemble those of former Alabama governor George Wallace, the virulent racist who also ran for President in 1968 and made no secret of his wanting the country to return to Jim Crow.

Our Law and Order President

Jefferson Memorial

Trump is blatantly fueling hatred and racism to get reelected. Being the “law and order” President sounds a bullhorn that he will keep the Black Lives Matter demonstrators, white America’s latest embodiment of the “other,” safely in their place for another four years!

Trump’s Enablers

Trump's Enablers

If everything wrong with American law enforcement got fixed tomorrow, African Americans and other people of color would still be suffering injustice until we tackle our society’s overwhelming structural economic inequality. Our system is an unjust, horrific mess!

I Can’t Breathe

The murders of Eric Garner and George Floyd were about domination, not law enforcement. Putting your knee on someone’s neck while they plead for their life isn’t something that should be covered by police training, it’s a manifestation of sadistic hatred, plain and simple.

America is All Too Willing to Sacrifice People of Color to COVID-19

Even if they are acknowledged to be “essential workers,” people of color are treated as expendable (i.e., black AND brown lives don’t matter!) and dying in disproportionate numbers because there’s no economic incentive for most white Americans to care whether they lie or die.

The “New Normal” Ain’t Gonna to Be Too Good!

Delivery Man with Packages

Maybe it’s more efficient to ship every conceivable item in the known universe out of Amazon’s warehouses, but what about the people who lost their jobs at retailers all across America? Even if Amazon could hire them all, do we really want the whole country working for Amazon?

The Biggest Decision of Trump’s Life (He Didn’t Make It)

Trump in the Coronavirus

Trump will be remembered for his negligent and incompetent management of the COVID-19 crisis, which destroyed our economy and caused the worst unemployment since the Great Depression, NOT the “greatest economy in the history of the world.”

Don’t Let History Repeat Itself

COVID Protests

The “liberate” protests going on all across the country, some led by gun-toting, right-wing extremists, are trying to turn what should be a non-political public health decision into another rally against the “liberal elite” and the tyranny of big government.

Inequality Is the Root Cause of What Ails Us

Robber Barons

Our dysfunctional healthcare system, increasingly unaffordable housing, and insurmountable student loan debt all make it obvious that our country’s economic system was a disaster for most Americans long before the COVID-19 crisis.

When People Are Out of Work, Unemployment Results

“When people are out of work, unemployment results.” Those are the infamous words of
President Calvin Coolidge from almost 100 years ago. Why do so many of our leaders in
Washington seem equally mystified by COVID-19’s impact on the unemployment figures?

Trump FAILED to Stem the Tide of Disaster

Trump with Puckered Lips

A long list of missed opportunities and errors in judgement led to our America’s COVID-19 disaster. Tracking all of Trump’s mistakes is like reading about his bankruptcies, only this time his failures are not only well documented by the media, but by hundreds of tweets!

In the Long Run, We are All Dead

Lincoln with a Face Mask

The COVID-19 pandemic tragically illustrates our country’s crippling polarization and economic inequality. It should be obvious that a democracy can’t survive with a wealth gap that leaves so many people living paycheck to paycheck. Talk about a house of cards on the brink!

Could Trump Even Function in a World Without Twitter?!

What is Trump Without Twitter?

If Donald Trump had led the Confederacy, the Emancipation Proclamation and Juneteenth might have come much sooner! He probably would have enjoyed leading a nation that’s existence was based on slave labor, but it’s hard to imagine him functioning in a world without Twitter!

A Big, Fat, Dumb Ostrich

Donald Trump

A True Embarrassment For Our Country What more I can say about President Trump’s incompetent handling of the coronavirus outbreak that I didn’t say last week, or that hasn’t been said all over the Internet and the airwaves? We always knew he was completely lacking in the qualities necessary to be President—he’s so neurotic and […]

President Trump, Our President Davis

Jefferson Davis and Donald Trump

This former Confederate officer has hesitated to say anything until now, despite it being painfully obvious, but President Trump reminds me all too much of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America—and that’s an insult to both of them! President Trump’s pathological narcissism in the face of the coronavirus crisis is devastating to […]

Biden and Sanders: Old White Men

Biden and Sanders

Anything about “old white men” given I’m approaching two hundred years old and about as Anglo Saxon as they come… Blond-haired and blue-eyed, all the usual stereotypes that come to mind. (Supposedly my family descended from the ancient kings of England, but that’s what most all the Southern cadets at West Point said back in […]

Stop and Frisk

Michael Bloomberg

Mike Bloomberg might be one of the wealthiest men in the country and the former mayor of its largest city, but his pitiful defense of stop and frisk shows that, at his oblivious white man’s core, he’s no different than a small town sheriff in the Jim Crow South.

America’s Lies

American Flag

Last week, I wrote about some of the many lies in America’s history. Lies that have been turned into myths and taught to our children as facts. There was a time when I didn’t think there could be any greater lies than those perpetrated by the masters of the Cotton Kingdom; to defend the institution […]