16 Dec, 2022
Leaving a cheap crook behind
What could Biden be thinking, trading a mere basketball player for the "Merchant of Death" while leaving a Marine behind?
16 Dec, 2022
15 Nov, 2022
A Post-Election Caution
What a difference a day makes, as the old song goes. The day before Election Day, liberals and progressives feared the worst: a solidly MAGA takeover of the House and Senate. Consider these expectations that proved unwarranted:
10 Nov, 2022
Looking for victory beyond the election
After the election comes . . . the coverage, which always, at least in the mainstream media, seems to reduce everything to winning and losing, to strategy and tactics, rather than to the deep issues shaping the future.
30 Oct, 2022
Hammers are for building, not harming
Antifa comes swarming into the street, hurling full soda cans at cops and at windows, believing they alone have the right to "burn it down," ala Pol Pot, start over, Year Zero.
18 Oct, 2022
Bye-bye world: While nuclear weapons and wars exist, annihilation beckons
It’s been a long time since the atomic bombings of August 1945, when people around the planet first realized that world civilization stood on the brink of doom.
15 Oct, 2022
Democracy is an act of moral imagination
Shortly before he died, Congressmember and human rights activist John Lewis wrote a farewell to his fellow citizens, declaring: “Democracy is not a state.
5 Oct, 2022
My zero-sum hummers
I adore "my" hummingbirds, arguably the best in-close flyers in the world, with reaction times so fast they zip in next to angry defensive bees to score a sip of sugar water despite the bees coming at them in a bee fury that would dissuade virtually any other critter, including me.
19 Aug, 2022
Elections and the threat of uncritical political discourse
Tuesday's primary elections are a routine occasion of frustration for many Americans. August 16th, 2022 continued this trend.
11 Aug, 2022
Unworthy victims?
The invasion of Ukraine and the war that it initiated led to widespread coverage of the struggles of ordinary people in a zone of conflict that’s surprisingly rare.
9 Aug, 2022
Conspiracies or disinformation plots?
Some time ago, several millennia in fact, a wise man known as Confucius admonished the Chinese people to "call things by their proper names" in order to better perceive and grapple with reality, and to avoid disorder.
8 Aug, 2022
Why should war criminals operate with impunity?
The issue of alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine highlights the decades-long reluctance of today’s major military powers to support the International Criminal Court.
23 Jul, 2022
Back to the Future: Biden in the Middle East
President Biden has now completed his first visit to the Middle East. The trip was billed as an opportunity to reset relations, especially with Saudi Arabia, promote respect for human rights, and reaffirm traditional US policy on Israel and the Palestine question.
21 Jun, 2022
Dear mainstream media: Please retire the word “conservative”
Leave politics aside for a moment, if you can. What does the word “conservative” mean to you, outside of that cursed arena?
23 May, 2022
A reckoning for workers this November
Among the issues facing voters in the coming midterms are ones all too familiar to working people.
6 May, 2022
Putin’s war will not be on the ballot–but democracy will be
Historical memory can fade over time. Born in 1942, I've watched it happen. We lost sight of the cruelty of fascism and authoritarian rule and how indispensable free democratic societies are to world peace and well being.