Embedded Files
A cautionary tale: Viktor Orbán's Hungary - Apr 7
Hungary's authoritarian leader Viktor Orbán was elected to a fourth term in yet another deeply flawed election. In power since 2010, the Hungarian prime minister has rewritten Hungary’s constitution, dismantled judicial checks on power, stifled a once vibrant media, forced a top university out of the country, and criminalized the activities of some human rights organizations. Through tactics ranging from extreme gerrymandering to media control to unfair campaign finance rules, he has made it almost impossible for the opposition to defeat his party at the ballot box. Hungary is a cautionary tale for the United States. The American right's enthusiasm for Orbán's victory tells you just what kind of country they would like to see and how close they are to getting it.
World News Updates - Apr 13
Iran nuclear talks at a "make or break" point, French elections go to a second round, Russia-Ukraine peace negotiations break down, 60th anniversary of the failed and harmful Cuban embargo
Those whacky Republicans are still at it - April 20
MTG, Ted Cruz, Trump and Oz, DeSantis, Abbott, and Kemp - the stupidity is non-stop
Redistricting update (spoiler, it's not good) - Apr 29
New York State's Supreme Court threw out the redistricting plan drawn up by Democrats. Coming on the heels of Florida's extreme Republican gerrymander, the 2022 electoral map is even more favorable for Republicans than it was in 2020
International Workers Day and the Poor People's Campaign - May 1
Why the US celebrates Labor Day in September, the Haymarket Affair, the 21st century Poor People's Campaign, steps that Federal and state lawmakers can take to relieve the plight of today's low-wage earners...
Will Biden stand up to the saboteurs of the Iran Nuclear Deal? - May 11
The forces opposing the United States' return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and sanctions relief for Iran are numerous and well organized. They are now on the verge of success in their efforts to end once and for all the Iran Nuclear Deal. Last week, the Senate passed a Memo to Inform explicitly intended to kill any Iran nuclear deal the Biden Administration could plausibly hope to achieve...risks if Biden does not succeed, a proposal for Middle East peace, and a sad postscript on the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh...
American carnage: 1 million confirmed dead from Covid - May 16
Late last week, America's confirmed death toll from the Covid-19 pandemic surpassed 1 million. According to studies, nearly half of these may have been preventable had the nation resisted the politicization and ignored the misinformation about the pandemic and vaccines. The pandemic is not over yet, and there is still a chance for the unvaccinated to avoid the worst of the consequences of the pandemic...
Overcoming racism, stopping hate - May 19
Racism in America takes many forms from the white privilege of individual Karens to the systemic racism of the criminal justice system. This past weekend we witnessed it in its most virulent, most 21st century, most American and most tragic manifestation. A disturbed young man, incited by the Great Replacement theory, drove 200 miles to shoot and kill people in a Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York...the mainstreaming of extremist white nationalism...the role of Congress, political, civic and faith leaders, social media platforms, parents, and teachers in preventing future incidents...the role we all can play in overcoming racism
What will it take for the Gun Lobby and Republicans to allow us to end America's gun violence? - May 25
Tuesday's massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, was the 212th mass shooting in the country this year. The causes of the ongoing slaughter as well as the remedies are well known and well documented, and we must ask: "What will it take for Republican politicians and the Gun Lobby to stop their opposition to measures that could reduce America's gun violence pandemic?" ... Texas "permitless carry"... SCOTUS poised to strike down New York gun statute...mobilizing to end gun violence
The Mental Health Hypocrites - May 27
In the aftermath of mass shootings, many on the political right and in the gun-rights movement blame "mental health issues." It is a blatant attempt to deflect from their own complicity in weakening gun laws. Considering many of these same people oppose social spending for things like mental health, this is a stunning level of hypocrisy. Stigmatizing the millions of people who suffer from clinical afflictions, the vast majority of whom are not violent, does not help. Until we can vote these cowardly hypocrites out of office, and understanding that we are in a nation with more guns than people and the most lax gun laws of any high-income nation, there are things that we as individuals and communities can do to prevent mass shootings
World News Updates - May 31
News items you may have missed...war in Ukraine is exacerbating an already dire food crisis in East Africa...in spite of death threats to leftist candidates, smear campaigns, and paramilitary killings, Colombian voters sent the presidential election to a second round...after racist "Flag March" far right Israeli squatters storm Palestinian Holy Sites, towns and schools...Canada's Trudeau proposes strict new gun laws...
Jan 6 Committee goes public as the 50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in approaches - June 10
50 years after the infamous Watergate break-in that brought down President Richard Nixon, the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 US Capitol attack went public in prime time...a comparison of the two crimes, the response then and now, their effects on American democracy, Woodward and Bernstein's recollections and thoughts on the two disgraced presidents at the heart of the scandals...
Gaza blockade reaches 15 years - June 16
Largely unnoticed by the Western press and media, June 15th marked the 15th anniversary of Israel's land, sea, and air blockade against the people of Gaza. With no end in sight and with no political will to stop the oppression, the suffering in what has been called the "world's largest open-air prison" has reached extreme levels... daily life in the Gaza Strip..."mowing the lawn"...America's complicity in Israeli human rights abuses... ways to help.
We have only two choices in Ukraine - June 19
There continues to be a near total lack of diplomatic effort to end the conflict in Ukraine. Intent on "making Russia suffer," NATO countries pour weapons into the conflict, Europe and America impose ever harsher sanctions, Russia continues its assault, and people continue to die. In spite of the West's triumphalism and Russia's persistence, there will be no winners in this war, which is beginning to look more and more like the Russian operations in Afghanistan and Chechnya. We now have just two choices: we can try to bring this horror to an end by negotiation or we can try to perpetuate it.
Colombia elects its first-ever leftist president and Neoliberalism takes a blow in France - June 23
Gustavo Petro's election as the first leftist president ever in Colombia was the latest political victory for the Latin American Left. Fueled by voters' desire for change, Chile, Peru and Honduras had elected leftist presidents in 2021 and in Brazil, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is leading the polls. Across the pond, French President Emmanuel Macron's centrist grouping lost its absolute majority in parliament. Macron’s electoral defeat was seen as a strong rebuke from French voters over his ambitious pro-business plans and throws into doubt his domestic agenda.
Thanks to the maximalist written opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, the John Roberts Supreme Court by a 6-3 vote has opened the door to dismantle gun control laws across the nation. The new standard for gun regulations, according to Thomas, is that anything that interferes with rights protected in the Second Amendment - i.e., gun rights - is "presumptively unconstitutional."
Our inhumane immigration policies continue to kill - June 30
The death toll in the tractor-trailer tragedy in San Antonio has risen to 53. While inane comments spew from the mouths of some politicians, the true culprits - inhumane immigration policies - go about their deadly business as usual...MPP ("Stay in Mexico") ended by 5-4 SCOUTS ruling, border walls, Title 42
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