Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
The whole world is atwitter – with fear and loathing – over Iran electing hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi to succeed purported reformer Hassan Rouhani as president. I submit, however, that this reaction is much ado about nothing. Kudos to The New York Times for at least putting Raisi’s election into proper geopolitical context – as… Read more.
Juneteenth commemorates the news Union soldiers delivered to enslaved Blacks in Galveston, Texas, of the Emancipation Proclamation that freed them two and a half years later. But if you think that was belated, what do you make of it taking another 156 years for the US Supreme Court to tell colleges they can’t treat student-athletes… Read more.
Episode 37: History Repeats Itself: From Vietnam to Afghanistan, Trump to Carlson…? Related commentaries: al-Qaeda obits…snatching defeat… failure in Afghanistan is likely… Obama saluting… Pentagon report… WikiLeaks… how many more must die… aping “stupid” Obama… Listen.
Related commentaries: Juneteenth… Read more.
The conviction of Derek Chauvin for murdering George Floyd allowed (Black) America to exhale – but only for a minute. Because viral videos of tragic encounters between white cops and Black men since then have had Blacks hyperventilating non-stop for criminal justice, hoping against hope that such videos become obsolete. But the first thing to… Read more.
The New York Times has spent the past week marking the 50th anniversary of its publication of the Pentagon Papers. Those documents exposed the lies the US government repeatedly told the American people about the Vietnam War. Here is an excerpt from a commemorative report on June 9: __________ Daniel Ellsberg, an analyst on the… Read more.
Episode 36: Yale Prof Timothy Snyder Predicts a Republican Electoral Coup. I Disagree. Related commentaries: tribalism… Listen.
Dozens of Apple employees have written a letter signaling their frustration with a policy asking them to return to the office for three days a week from September. … The letter began by addressing the growing concern that Apple’s location-flexible work policy, and the messaging around it, have already forced some of the staff to… Read more.
Most American commentators repeatedly bemoaned what they feared was the irreparable reputational damage former President Trump was costing America with, among other things, his xenophobic “America First” policies. And he hardly allayed their fears by going through every trip abroad like a bull through a china shop. I was more sanguine. For example, it’s arguable… Read more.
Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia is easily the top trending topic in Washington these days. And he would clearly have it no other way. In fact, he has framed his vote as so critical to Biden’s progressive agenda that Democrats of all stripes are courting him. Here, for example, is how CBS News reported… Read more.
