Rube Goldberg would marvel at Sen. Joe Manchin’s wacky, convoluted machinations to rig the system so fossil fuel polluters can run roughshod over nature, local people, and democracy. Goldberg was a master of satirical cartoons,...
Unfortunately, it’s 1984 again in America. Not the year. The book. George Orwell’s classic novel tells of a far-right totalitarian clique that uses “newspeak” and “doublethink” to impose their rigid, anti-democratic doctrine on society. ...
All those firecrackers on July 4 got me thinking about the headline revolutionaries who signed the 1776 Declaration, fought the Brits for independence, hammered out the Constitution and installed our Bill of Rights. Old Ben,...
Here’s an embarrassing turn of events: The six right-wing ideologues now controlling the Supreme Court recently decreed that helping some students get into college through affirmative action programs is henceforth unconstitutional. This is somewhere between...
About 150 years ago, Gen. Philip Sheridan was sweltering in the relentless heat of a Texas summer. He was not happy: “If I owned Texas and all Hell,” he groused, “I would rent out Texas...
Two pieces of good advice: (1) “Never sign nothin’ by neon,” and (2) “Never negotiate with snakes.” But Joe Biden violated both rules this year, getting out-negotiated by Senate Republicans (and their tag-along Democrat, Joe...
The political extremists demanding that government control every woman’s personal reproductive decisions claim that they are “pro-life.” But that’s a rhetorical fraud. Look at their overall policy agenda and you’ll see that they are merely...
When you think of Americans whose music has made a lasting difference, you might think of Scott Joplin, Woody Guthrie, Maybelle Carter, Harry Belafonte… or Roger Payne. Who? I came across Payne in a June...
In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Humpty Dumpty scornfully declares that, “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean.” So what does “woke” mean? It’s become the pet political aspersion...
Years ago, a Texas lawmaker got caught using his official position to enrich himself by taking money from special interests, in exchange for voting their way. The culprit did not deem this as corrupt, but...