Category: Politics
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The Expertise of Air Traffic Controllers
In the wake of the collision between an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter at Washington National, and Trump’s blaming the accident on diversity hiring, I’m reminded of Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” The movie left me with two impressions. First, that governments are competent to organize meeting and communicating with visitors…
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The Wisdom of Donald Trump
A collection of found items “Trump Fragrances are Here” How About in Two Weeks? Does Two Weeks Work for You? — New York Times, June 19, 2025 Donnie Brasco At the meeting of the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7), a forum of democracies with advanced economies, President Donald Trump told reporters: “The UK…
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The Ten Commandments in the Classroom
The Louisiana Law Louisiana House Bill No. 71 requires the following text to be posted in all “public elementary, secondary, and postsecondary schools”: “The Ten CommandmentsI AM the LORD thy God.Thou shalt have no other gods before me.Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven images. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy…
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Alabama Declares War on In Vitro Fertilization
Roe still got it right The argument against embryo personhood takes only one sentence: The living cells that are embryos cannot survive outside the womb. Life at conception may be your religious belief, but it’s not mine. And the first clause of the First Amendment says religious belief alone isn’t law. Alabama Supreme Court On…
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Quotations from Speaker Mike
“I am a Christian” “I am a Christian, a husband, a father, a life-long conservative, constitutional law attorney and a small business owner in that order,” Louisiana state Representative Mike Johnson told the Louisiana Baptist Message in 2016, “and I think that order is important.” In 2016 when first elected to Congress Johnson, his wife Kelly, and…
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Minority Rule
Unrepresentative by Design & Neglect House of Representatives A Small and Divided Majority The House Republican majority’s failure to avoid a government shutdown has been blamed on a small group of extremists, as few as five, who would rather tear down than build or govern. But as I began to research the topic, it seems…
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Marjorie Taylor Greene Stumps for Joe Biden
President Biden posted this video on Twitter, writing “I approve this message.”
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The Doctrine of Discovery
Christopher Columbus’s first landing in America on October 12, 1492 by Dióscoro Puebla, 1862 (Wikimedia Commons) and White Christian Nationalism Doctrine of Discovery It all began with the Doctrine of Discovery. Before the Spanish started the oldest permanent settlement in North America, St. Augustine in 1565. Before the English arrived in Jamestown in 1607. Before…
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Prager University on Slavery
Slave Owners Were Democrats PragerU The Prager University Foundation, or PragerU, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that promotes conservative views. Despite its name it is not an academic institution and does not offer degrees. PragerU has been accused of publishing misleading or false content on climate change, slavery, racism, immigration, and fascism, and promoting anti-LGBT politics. With this reputation to uphold, Candace…
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Republican Authoritarianism and Fascism
President Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021 rally before the White House. Three large screens show a close-up of Trump’s face, looking like Big Brother from Orwell’s “1984.” (John Minchillo, Associated Press) Author, historian, and culture critic Ruth Ben Ghiat was on The New Abnormal to answer the question nobody is asking: What stage of the fascist…
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Read a Slave Code
Because History Makes Ron DeSantis Feel Bad Slave Codes The transcript of the South Carolina Negro Act of 1740 that used to be online at South Carolina Educational Television is now on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. It’s a sign of the times. Slavery in the United States was governed by laws that developed from…
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Disinformation and the Internet
Section 230 permits moderation Internet statistics are amazing, even when 7 years old. 700,000 hours of YouTube videos watched in 60 seconds. It sounds like a time warp, but all it takes is 42 million users online. There are over 5 billion internet users in the world today. How much of this is disinformation? Disinformation…
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Abortion as a Civil Right
Demonstrators protest outside of the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, May 3, 2022 in Washington. (JOSE LUIS MAGANA / AP) Roe v. Wade got it right Legal History The Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade (1973) examined in depth the legal history of abortion. “It perhaps is not generally appreciated that the restrictive criminal abortion…
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Masks Are Routine
Airborne Covid Requires Them Wearing Masks Masks are routine protection against airborne infections in hospitals in the United States. Other countries like Japan have used them in public for to prevent illnesses as common as colds. “I think there are cultural differences in Asia as a whole. Mask use in Korea, in Japan, Taiwan, Singapore…
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Elon Blocks Blocking
Image: The Verge and other free speech offenses Elon Musk has said that he will delete account blocking on X: The X Help Center says Block helps people in restricting specific accounts from contacting them, seeing their Tweets, and following them. . . Blocked accounts do not receive a notification alerting them that their account…
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Free Speech on Social Media
Background The Biden administration has asked the Supreme Court to hear two cases on Florida and Texas laws preventing removal of social media posts. They were passed in response to conservative complaints that censorship by internet platforms violated the First Amendment freedom of speech. The laws’ supporters said the measures were needed to address “Silicon…
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We Can Raise Taxes
The Politics and Economy are Aligned A survey of tax history, arguments for and against raising taxes, and an exhortation to tax the rich. Why We Need Taxes Unless you’re a disciple of Grover Norquist and want to drown government in a bathtub, you might see taxes as necessary for certain community needs like law and order,…
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Adjusting the Race Lottery
Affirmative Action and Legacy Admissions Remember that you are an Englishman, and have consequently won first prize in the lottery of life. ― Cecil Rhodes, 1853-1902 While reading Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates in 2016 I thought about the advantages of being born in America and not a third world country, and being born white.…
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Voting in the Time of Corona
Absentee Ballots are the Future The first warning was the March 17 training video for the April 7 Spring Election. Hand sanitizer would be provided, but the supply was limited, and poll workers “should bring their own.” The Election Official Newsletter covered the initial public health recommendations that did not yet include masks. In-person training sessions…
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A History of U.S. Immigration Laws
A History of Racism, Jobs, and Resistance to Change Recent debate over immigration and closed versus open borders raises questions about the American history of immigration. It seems that every native-born citizen is descended from immigrants; even the first Native Americans were new arrivals at some point.2 This article looks at tightening restrictions on immigration after…
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Is Trump a Fourth-Grader?
Newsweek’s “Trump Speaks At Fourth-Grade Level, Lowest Of Last 15 U.S. Presidents, New Analysis Finds” 1 and its source, FactSquared’s “’Stable Genius’ – Let’s Go to the Data,” 2 are fun to read because everyone has been dumbfounded by one of Donald Trump’s incoherent tweets. But no tweets were used in the making of this chart. “The website excluded communiques issued…
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Continual and Fearless Sifting and Winnowing
By which alone the truth can be found Sifting and winnowing is a metaphor for the academic pursuit of truth associated with the University of Wisconsin–Madison, coined by University President Charles Kendall Adams. Professor Richard T. Ely was known to be liberal and pro-union, having published a book on socialism. In 1894 Superintendent of Public Instruction…
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Madison’s Confederate Memorials
A Timeline of Civil War Memorials United States Madison 1857 In Dred Scott v. Sanford the Supreme Court rules that a slave, or a descendant of slaves, is not an American citizen and has no standing to sue in federal court for freedom in a free state.6 The City of Madison purchases land for Forest…
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John Bogle on Corporations
From “The Modern Corporation and the Public Interest,” a speech by John C. Bogle, Founder of the Vanguard Group, to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, December 7, 2017 . . . The enterprises that will endure are those that generate growing profits for their owners, something they do best only when they take into account…
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Freedom of Speech
Collected Quotes March 27, 2005 In 1912, feminist Margaret Sanger was arrested for giving a lecture on birth control. Trade union meetings were banned. Peaceful protesters opposing U. S. entry into World War I were jailed. In 1923, author Upton Sinclair was arrested for trying to read the text of the First Amendment at a…
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Palestine & Israel
Collected Quotes “If You’re Not Outraged, You’re Not Paying Attention” January 22, 2004 Rachel Corrie, 23, before she was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Rafah, Gaza Strip, March 16, 2003. ( REUTERS) The driver dragged his blade over her a second time while reversing back over her body. Corrie died of skull and chest fractures. (International…
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Bush and the Iraq War
Collected Quotes July 2, 2003 If you’re interested in peace, if you want people to grow up in a peaceful world, all parties must do everything they can to reject and stop violence. 53In response to a Tel Aviv bus bombing (September 19, 2002) If you want to keep the peace, you’ve got to have the…
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The Middle East and Islam
June 26, 2003 We must not deceive ourselves or the Iraqis or the Palestinians about the joint Arab capabilities to support them or to defend them. 66Sheik Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, king of Bahrain, speaking to his people of defending Iraq, while providing a home port for the U.S. Fifth Fleet (October 7, 2002) Many leaders…
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Political Science
Collected Quotes Can Science Conquer Kansas? Climate change has global consequences for human health and the environment. — Example of changes to an Environmental Protection Agency report made by White House officials under George W. Bush, June 19, 2003 Political staff are becoming increasingly bold in forcing agency officials to endorse junk science. — Jeremy Symons, a…
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Enron and Others
Collected Quotes The genius of capitalism December 28, 2002 I want to assure you that I have never felt better about the prospects for the company. 1 Enron CEO Ken Lay, after selling $160 million of his own company stock (August 14, 2001) Enron used its political clout to create what one of its own…
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Malefactors of Great Wealth
Collected Quotes THE GENIUS OF CAPITALISM Andrew Jackson on the Rich and Powerful It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth can not be…