Most of us, one might hazard to guess, try to avoid crises; our lives are crazy, complicated and chaotic enough. We in the West crave moments of serenity, sanity and normalcy. Not so our current President, Donald J. Trump. Here we will not only show ways in which he creates false crises and then rides […]
Donald Trump
Ben Carson and HUD Being Sued
As the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) marked its 50th anniversary in April 2018, several civil rights groups, led by the National Fair Housing Alliance, were suing the agency and its Secretary, Dr. Ben Carson, “for suspending an Obama-era rule requiring communities to examine and address barriers to racial integration.” According to reporting […]
Mr. Kobach and the Judge
Remember Kris Kobach and President Trump’s Voter Fraud Commission? The story of Kobach and the most recent news about him is one of those examples of the intersection between an activist right-wing politician, immigration, voter suppression, Trump’s basic bigotry and racism, fear-mongering, a brave judge, the impotence of current Republican lawmakers to challenge Trump’s policies […]
Neo-Nazi Group Unravelling, Spencer Backing Off: Positive Steps in the Battle against Racism and Bigotry
A group that few of us have heard of, which “advocates for racially pure nations and communities and blames Jews for many of the world’s problems,” is having some problems lately. The neo-Nazi Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP) lost both its primary spokesperson and its leader in mid-March. [SPLC “Weekend Read/ Issue 71,” March 17, 2018] […]
Disrupting Toxic Masculinity
Stephanie Ruhle of MSNBC recently interviewed a number of young men about the connection between mass shootings in the US in recent years and the pressures on teenage males. In the introduction to the segment, MSNBC senior national correspondent Chris Jansing noted the sobering statistics: 94% of all mass shootings in the US are committed […]
Reasons for Hope
In the midst of disheartening news in the trying times in which we live, it is important for our national conversation and personal well-being that we bring to mind the positive things that are happening all around us. Here’s a sampling. DACA stays the law of the land! “The Supreme Court on Monday [Feb. 26] […]
Revisiting Quality-of-Life Issues in Our Sister Nations
Earlier posts have looked at quality-of-life statistics of the United States compared to other advanced democracies, especially in the European Union. As we have noted, a number of European nations have far higher standards of living than the US. By many measures, Finland consistently ranks as having one of the best education systems in the […]
First Lawsuit Filed to Challenge Trump Medicaid Attack
Certain Republicans and conservatives would love to damage, severely weaken or kill off Medicaid (and other social safety net programs that have been in place for decades). A first step was recently taken in Kentucky and approved by the Department of Health and Human Services. According to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, on January […]
Immigration Lessons from the Bible
We in the United States remain in a season of partisan contention, angst, uncertainty, resistance, divisiveness, and a recent government shutdown. One of the major issues of disagreement between our political parties is that of the “dreamers,” those young people brought to the US illegally as children by their parents, and the Obama-era measure put […]
Better Reasons to Look at Norway
Now that President Trump has mentioned Norway (!), let us take the opportunity to reiterate some of what we have already discussed about that very progressive nation. It is quite certain, contrary to Trump’s desires, that we will not soon see an influx of Norwegian immigrants to the US: while Trump presumably wants Norwegians primarily […]