Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
Juneteenth and reparations for slavery Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. It stems from slaves in Galveston, Texas, not being informed of their emancipation until June 19, 1865. That was two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863. What about reparations? The US House of Representatives… Read more.
Donald Trump doesn’t have much to commend in his presidential legacy, but criminal justice reform stands out. Trump’s criminal justice reform The legislation signed by President Donald Trump on Friday makes big changes to the treatment and rehabilitation of low-level federal prisoners. The new law, called the First Step Act, retroactively applies changes Congress made to drug sentencing… Read more.
Woman on dollar bill The US government is teasing plans to put a woman on a dollar bill. Except that paper currency is falling into desuetude. That’s why the media hype surrounding this belated and misguided honor seems contrived. This celebration is like hailing the appointment of a Native American as Postmaster General of the United States Postal… Read more.
John Kerry left an open seat in the Senate when he became secretary of state. Yesterday, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick (D) appointed his former chief-of-staff to fill it. William “Mo” Cowan Cowan will serve until a special election in June. I have mixed feelings about this. I am glad Patrick ignored Rep. Barney Frank’s… Read more.
Presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney pulled a “full Ginsburg” on Friday by appearing on all of the major TV networks in a futile attempt to counter the pummeling he was taking from the Obama campaign about his business practices at his investment firm, Bain Capital. Specifically, Team Obama was flooding the media with stories about… Read more.
There is nothing new about female sex tourism. It’s only that women who travel for sex have been more discreet than men who do. Female sex tourism The Cannes Film Festival is famous for launching modest films into worldwide acclaim. Some of those films even become blockbusters. That was the case, for example, with Fahrenheit… Read more.
Black users of crack cocaine are far more likely to end up in jail than White users of powder cocaine. Nothing exemplifies unequal justice in America better than this. Two things explain this disparity: racism and wealth. They also explain why Blacks who steal peanuts end up in jail while Whites who embezzle millions walk… Read more.
KKK imagery The top of the Washington Monument looks like the hood of a Ku Klux Klansman. This was thrown into stark relief last week. The media were covering workers repelling down the Monument. They were inspecting the damage caused by the recent earthquake. Most people seemed mesmerized by the workers’ Cirque-du-Soleil acrobatics. But I… Read more.
Jack B. Johnson is the chief executive for Prince George’s County, Maryland. He was as influential there as former Mayor Marion Barry was in Washington, DC. That is, until the FBI caught him and his wife flushing $100k down the toilet 11 days ago. Prince George’s executive Jack Johnson and wife arrested Prince George’s is… Read more.
A tale of two drugs For over 25 years, many politicians, including the late Senator Ted Kennedy, fought to redress the imbalance between federally mandated sentences for possession of crack cocaine and the powder form of the drug. For example, a person convicted of possessing five grams of crack cocaine got the same mandatory sentence… Read more.
