And probably justifiably. Jonathan Stein and Tim Dickinson make the point that some of us have been making since the World Trade Center fell: If we become a nation motivated mainly by fear, we will become a militaristic police state. But the blame for Iraq does not end with Cheney, Bush, or Rumsfeld. Nor is … Continue reading Mother Jones Blames American People for Iraq War
The little puddles of drying blood are everywhere, splatter evidence not from the 9/11 attacks but from our national and social flailing about and rending of cloth and flesh as aftermath. It isn’t just that the terrorist won on that day; It is much much worse than that. First they beat us, then they recruited us to do ourselves in.
I started to work in Africa in the mid 1980s. Since I had been admitted to a graduate program that was heavily involved with work in Kenya, it would make sense that I’d work there, but I was well aware of the fact that there would be no work at Koobi Fora until the Koobi … Continue reading Celebrate Freedom Day
Tom Hackbarth is from Cedar, Minnesota and is a veteran member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. The district he represents is just north of where I live (I’m near 113th and the southern border of Hackbarth’s district is 181st) and overlaps with Michele Bachmann’s congressional district. Hackbarth is a Republican and has been re-elected … Continue reading What Was Republican Rep Hackbarth Doing in the Planned Parenthood lot with Binoculars and Loaded Gun?
A chain was fastened around my waist and I was handcuffed to the chain. Then my legs were placed in chains. I asked for permission to make a telephone call but they refused. So secured, I was taken from the airport terminal in full sight of everybody. I have seldom felt so bad, so humiliated … Continue reading Dangerous Criminal Recounts Capture at Third World Airport
Trump’s support comes from a minority of Americans who are true believers mixed with a similar number of individuals who support him out of either convenience or fear. Among those fearful of him, or more exactly, fearful of attacks or undermining by violent supporters or politically equipped sycophants, are elected or appointed officers of the … Continue reading This is How Trump Ends
Does it matter that everyone across the world knows how many people are dead when some deadly disaster happens, as the event unfolds? Does it matter at all that as the death toll of an earthquake, train wreck, or mass shooting solidifies, that everyone is informed, repeatedly and at short intervals, of the ever changing … Continue reading How Many Dead?
When I was a kid, I got in trouble (a couple of times, but there was this one time…) In truth, I had done nothing wrong, but I got caught up in a drug deal I had nothing to do with. The damaging evidence was planted by the police (I witnessed that and reported it … Continue reading Fascism coming to America? Already there in the judicial branch.
Rethink The Police Attempts at police reform, or more accurately, policing reform, are stalled by right wing tactics that paint any sort of critical examination as pro-crime, and centrists and “persuadable” tend to buy what the right wingers are selling. This pattern is common in many areas of progressive change. Then, along comes some other … Continue reading And in today’s news …
As part of my contribution to celebrating MLK day, in this time of transition in race awareness in the United States, I haves an informal rhetorical analysis of King’s “I have a dream” speech. Professional Rhetoricians have analyzed this speech at a much more sophisticated level than I could ever do. This is just from … Continue reading Martin Luther King Was Good At Talkin’
Once upon a time in the Congo, there was a democratically elected President; Some* called him the “Big Man.” The Big Man was elected every seven years by a majority of 97.8%. The people loved him because before he became President, war was everywhere, and just before that, the colonial overlords and punishers were everywhere. … Continue reading What is Freedom?
South Carolina is worried about obtaining chemicals to use to kill people, so they are now adding the firing squad to their toolkit. A Georgia cop who recently killed a black man in a Wendy’s parking lot has been restated to his job. Why? Because he was fired the day after the shooting, which is … Continue reading Potpourri des journaux.
Once again, I find myself writing notes for interested parties on the geography of a killing, by police, of a black man. I lived a block from the site in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, where Philando Castile was killed. I wrote about that here. I did not ever live too near where Jamar Clark was killed, … Continue reading Daunte Wright: Geographical Context
Derek Chauvin has four known incidents of note in his history as a cop or cop-like person. In the first one, he was one of several officers involved in an incident involving both citizen and police officer violence, but when this was looked into, no action was taken because the actions of the cops were … Continue reading The Amy Klobuchar Lie and George Floyd’s killer
This is what immunity is not: You are an organism walking down the street, and you are immune to the rare virus squirrelpox. A squirrelpox virus is walking on the same sidewalk towards you. It sees you, and goes, “that one’s immune to me,” and quickly crosses the street, going nowhere near you. Beause you … Continue reading How To Think About Immunity to COVID-19