The Election Police
Trump and the rest of his MAGA Republican cohort just keep on keeping on, telling their “base” what they want to hear, again and again. And Trump’s “big lie”—that the 2020 election was stolen from him—is still at the top of the list. As we all know, however, the falsehood that elections are being stolen […]
It’s Inequality, Stupid!
In case we needed any more evidence that economic inequality is tearing our country apart, take note of the growing number of thefts from cargo trains, mostly packages being shipped by Amazon and other on-line retailers. The thieves take the merchandise and leave the shredded boxes strewn across the tracks as if a tornado hit. […]
Trump’s REAL Enablers
Former President Trump has his visible allies and enablers—the likes of Mark Meadows, Steve Bannon, and Sean Hannity—but he also has his REAL enablers, the unseen doners to the Republican Party we rarely hear about. I’m not talking about all the suckers who continue to send Trump money because they believe the “Big Lie.” I’m […]
2021 Comes to an End
Even from the perspective of someone who’s been hovering about this earth for almost 200 years, 2021 was an awfully disturbing and sad year, and it’s good to see it end. Here are some of the year’s events—many of them ongoing, growing threats—that resonated most with your humble spirit. MAGA Racism and the January 6 […]
A Metaphor for Our Country
It was painful to watch Kim Potter, the police officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright, on the witness stand, crying damn near hysterically, claiming it was an accident, demonstrating her sorrow. It’s hard not to feel sympathy, but she had no explanation for why she did it, how an officer with 26 years of […]
Santa, Please Bring Ammo
With Christmas nearly upon us, I just can’t get Representative Thomas Massie’s delightful Christmas card out of my head. Who could forget the joyous holiday scene, the happy, widely grinning, gun-toting family—including his bright-eyed teenage kids, all clutching their high-powered weapons—coming just a day after the terrible school shooting at Oxford Highschool in which four […]
Ron DeSantis Wants an Army
You’ve probably heard that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis wants to create his own militia that would be controlled by . . . guess who, the governor. In other words, one of the worst right-wing MAGA governors in the country is proposing he have his own private army at his disposal. The governor wants to call […]
Black Man Running
I concur with those who say the verdict in the Ahmaud Arbery trial represented “accountability” rather than “justice.” Accountability is perhaps the best remedy a civilized society can devise under the circumstances, the unbearable injustice of an innocent young person’s life taken for no reason other than the color of their skin—he was a “Black […]
Kevin McCarthy’s “Magic Minute”
Last week the House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, tied up the House floor for over eight hours, bombastically grandstanding to delay passage of the Democrat’s bill aimed at increasing our country’s social safety net and combatting climate change. Not only was it history’s longest “magic minute,” the House equivalent of the Senate filibuster, it was […]
Return to Barbarism
I don’t know why someone who’s been hanging about this earth as long as I have is still shocked by atrocious human behavior, but Representative Paul Gosar’s (R, AZ) violent anime video, in which he relishes killing his congressional colleague Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D, NY) and swings a sword at President Biden, is way over the […]
White Vigilantes’ Victims
Ahmaud Arbery’s killers—not representing a major news outlet or being an officer of the court, I’ll dispense with terms like “defendant” and “accused”—are being tried by a jury with 11 whites and only one Black in a county that’s 25% African American. Maybe it’s not the notorious “all-white jury” of yesteryear, but something’s still wrong […]
Time to Serve the Sausage!
This time I’ve got my fingers crossed that it will finally happen, but . . . I fear the Democrats’ failure to pass the president’s agenda, the “Build Back Better Act,” in anything resembling its original form has turned into a marathon demonstration of government’s inability to solve people’s problems. I’m sorry if I’m repeating […]
Schoolboard Hysteria
I’m not sure which came first, parents protesting mask and vaccine mandates or parents protesting Critical Race Theory, but once apolitical, nonpartisan local schoolboards are suddenly partisan and the issues causing all the ruckus are no longer local. Schoolboards have become one more example of a country that’s gone from “all politics are local” to […]
The Democrat’s Maginot Line
My frustration and anxiety about America’s future in the face of the Republican assault on (what remains of) our democracy continues to rise. Too many people, and I’m referring especially to President Biden and the Democratic leadership in Congress, seem determined to hide their heads in the sand rather than confront the threat head on. […]
Inequality Is Destroying Our Democracy
Your humble spirit has been contemplating his words from last week and wondering if perhaps I should have said a good deal more about our democracy’s plight. I don’t apologize for joining the chorus of those sounding the alarm that our democracy is under siege, but the sad truth is that our democracy was in […]
Our Democracy at Risk
It feels like our democracy is at a crossroads and the problem is more than just the usual suspects—Donald Trump’s “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen, or MAGA Republicans passing suppressive voting laws in 18 states, or shameless gerrymandering all over the country, or the filibuster that allows the Republicans to paralyze the […]
Replacement Theory
Tucker Carlson, currently the right-wing “media personality” enjoying the highest ratings at Fox News, has taken to touting “Replacement Theory,” also known as “the great replacement,” and other members of the right-wing media universe are surely likely to follow given it so closely aligns with their generally racist, anti-democratic agenda. Replacement Theory is a blatant […]
Right-Wing MAGA Media
I don’t know how much longer our country can endure the right-wing MAGA media’s alternative reality, their total disregard for facts and truth, their complete lack of integrity in pursuit of the almighty buck. (Fox News owner Rupert Murdock made over $30 million this past year!) These people have no claim on being journalists and […]
The Race to the HYPOCRITICAL Bottom
I’ve spoken before about the “worst of the worst” in Congress, the “MAGA” Republicans who never shut their moronic mouths, but perhaps I’ve been negligent in not calling out the troop of hideous and destructive Republican governors who have the power to destroy people’s lives on a daily basis. After all, these dudes are the […]
Everything in Limbo
Among the definitions of “limbo” found in Webster’s Dictionary are the following: A place or state of oblivion for persons or things cast aside, forgotten, or out of date. An intermediate, transitional, or midway state or place. A place or state of imprisonment or confinement. I can’t decide which of these statements best describes America […]