The triple convictions of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd prompted a variety of reactions including relief, joy, renewed hope, satisfaction, release and more. There was a palpable and stated sense of rightness that justice had been done. And there was another verse to this song. Tucker Carlson went on a fresh, yet… [read more]
Speak
On Saturday I attended the Rally After the Verdict, organized by the Abolition Coalition of Skokie, IL and supported by the NAACP of Evanston. The point, of course, was to open eyes to the need for action, that the verdict isn’t the end of the story. Indeed, some don’t even see it as a victory…. [read more]
The Names
Daunte Wright Rayshard Brooks Daniel Prude Breonna Taylor Attatiana Jefferson Aura Rosser Stephon Clark Botham Jean Philando Castile Alton Sterling Freddie Gray Janisha Fonville Eric Garner Michelle Cusseaux Akai Gurley Gabrielle Nevarez Tamir Rice Michael Brown Tanisha Anderson and of course, Rodney King* Those are just a few of the Black people who have been… [read more]
Pizza and Water
The issue is not whether it should be illegal to give a slice of pizza and a bottle of water to an old lady waiting in line for hours to vote on a Tuesday in November in Georgia. Focusing there completely misses the point. Our brilliant and frightened (read: deranged) White supremacist citizens know that… [read more]
RepublicanLand
This is not just another rant about anti-democracy, anti-fact, anti-truth, anti-progress Republicans. Sure, this is a rant and it’s fun to bash the bullies, but what Republicans are doing is amplifying their ingrained dishonesty to the point of imperiling our national bedrock. So, this is a semaphore signal or perhaps the ride of a descendant… [read more]
We’re Still Not Free
Can you believe we’re still having conversations about basic Covid stuff? I mean, we’ve known what to do to defeat this pandemic for most of a year and the rising availability of vaccines has greatly enhanced our ability to fight it, but still over 60,000 Americans test positive every day and our hospitals are filling… [read more]
Survival
“The single greatest threat to our security right now is domestic terrorism and the tensions and polarizations between us.” – Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), former CIA Agent, now serving on the House Homeland Security Committee. Given her security background and current access to national security information, it seems likely she knows what she is talking… [read more]
No Really, Facts Don’t Matter
Over the last 10 years more than a billion votes have been cast in America. During that time there have been 31 cases of confirmed voting fraud. That’s 0.0000031% voting fraud, or 31 hundred-millionths of a percent. That’s the same as 99.9999969% authentic, legal voting. If these pitifully few cases of voting fraud were lumped… [read more]
Liberal and Most Illiberal
Liberal New York Times conservative columnist Bret Stephens has an interesting post on our politics. He says we’re not divided by liberal versus conservative; we’re divided by liberal versus illiberal. Here’s what he says liberal democracy is supposed to be: By “liberal,” I don’t mean big-state welfarism. I mean the tenets and spirit of liberal… [read more]
Take This Personally
Immigration, kids in cages, refugee camps, asylum seekers – these are some of the terms that are at last being taken seriously. We’re finally looking into what is and has been driving so many people to our southern border. We’re actively looking to see what we can do to make life better in El Salvador,… [read more]
