1 I’m tired of periods and Words that end sentences I’m tired of waking up to Days that end in oblivion I’m tired of writing sentences This sentence is out of order I am at a mountain lodge I am the timekeeper The workshop gets started The conference room is filling up with students Papers …
Time for a little truth about the economic crisis:
Screwing with the Unemployment Statistics By Dave Lindorff
Something is screwy about unemployment numbers coming out of Washington. In late July, just before the end of the supplemental $600 weekly checks for people collecting unemployment benefits, the New York Times reported that 30 million were receiving those checks. That’s 30 million laid-off workers who qualified for unemployment benefits, which is not everyone …
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Estate sale
I We pass an estate sale And pull over. In the shade of a few maples 3, 4 and 5-dollar tables The books are 50 cents Spread out on a blanket. We don’t need anything: (We just don’t want to go home yet.) No furniture, vases, bookends Ornate hairpins Trivets, mirrors Lamps, mugs or plates. …
Commander-in-Chief Bonespur waddles into a new controversy:
Trump Disses Troops but Correctly Labels 2 of America’s Costliest Wars Unjustified or ‘Stupid’
Let’s be honest about America’s wars and the men (overwhelmingly) and women who have fought them. Most of the wars that the US has launched or fought in, dating back to at least the War of 1812, were not just or necessary, could have been avoided, and wasted precious lives and national wealth, often while …
President Trump could singlehanded kill the program:
Social Security in the Crosshairs
(A joint publication project of ThisCantBeHappening! and Tarbell.org Could President Donald Trump destroy Social Security, the New Deal retirement program that for 85 years has provided critical support to old or disabled Americans — currently numbering 65 million? At first blush, the idea that a president could singlehandedly destroy a program that was founded …
If Social Security matters to you, can you trust Trump?
Older Voters, especially Republicans, Need to Think Before They Vote
In 2016, exit polls show that Donald Trump won the over-50 vote by a big margin. With voters over the age of 50 accounting for 45% of voters that year, Trump, according to a study by AARP was the choice of 55% of that demographic, compared to 44% who voted for Hillary Clinton. Trump’s …
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Hope you're dead...
Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang-bang!
One of the most shocking things I learned talking with a Los Angeles Police Officer I became friends with while working as a reporter on my first job in L.A. was that LAPD cops were trained to “empty your revolver” whenever you fired at a person. It’s not like in Hollywood cop movies, where …
Right-wing columnists seem to get a factcheck pass:
When It Comes to the Truth of Opinion Columns, It’s ‘Reader Beware’
It is quite normal for newspapers to run columns in their editorial pages written by people who don’t share the same editorial perspective of the publication’s editors. It’s why they call them “op-ed pages”—for “opposite the editorial page.” But normally, there is at least the assumption, among professional journalists and readers alike, that the opinion pieces …
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Postal service cuts bad for public health:
Trump and Crony Postmaster’s Attack on the USPS Threatens Nation’s Rural Residents, not just the Election
In these pandemic days most of us are used to the daily visits from trucks belonging to Amazon, Fed-X and UPS, as well as Uber and Lyft drivers delivering everything from food to clothing and parts for DIY plumbing and electric repairs. With all that private delivery service activity going on, it’s easy to …
Non-Violent Meets Non-Lethal
Veteran Slimed By Rhinos In Portland
Herds of rhinoceroses rushing at top speed through the streets became a sight that no longer surprised anybody. People would stand aside to let them pass and then resume their stroll, or attend to their business, as if nothing had happened. – Eugene Ionesco, “Rhinoceros” Few can hold a candle to Vietnam veteran medic Mike …