'…a major destabilizing influence'
I have a friend who had a big dream recently that was full of apocalyptic symbolism. In her dream there were catamounts prowling the city streets. It was very ominous because nobody could be sure where they were going to appear next. They would manifest on a crosswalk and vanish just as they do …
Continue reading “How living under the pandemic has changed me as a writer”
Fishs Eddy, NY — Driving from Philadelphia to our summer home in the Catskill Mountains region of upstate New York, my wife and I normally leave Interstate I-81 at the old coal-mining and railway center of Scranton, and head off on a meandering route on secondary roads through hill country passing farms, woods and …
Shoot before you get shot Fly the coop and don’t be late Make a beeline for the finish line Duck the clothesline Speed up at the stop sign First the city went to the dogs And then it went to the cats Great cats prowling the streets Crossed at the crosswalks Merged with shadows on …
During President Trump’s appearance on a nationally televised Town Hall forum held recently at the U.S. Constitution Center in Philadelphia, he engaged in the ‘Big Lie’ – that propaganda technique linked with Hitler’s Nazi regime. Trump spun Big Lies of varying size on topics ranging from health care to racial hatred throughout that Q-&-A session …
I voted enthusiastically two years ago for Democrat Madeleine Dean to represent the newly un-gerrymandered Congressional district in which I live here in Pennsylvania. An attorney who moved into politics and was a state representative in Harrisburgh at the time she ran for Congress in 2018, Dean sold herself as a new progressive voice …
Continue reading “Rep. Madeleine Dean Won’t Get My Vote for Re-Election”
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 …
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 …
Continue reading “Screwing with the Unemployment Statistics By Dave Lindorff”
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. …
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 …
(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 …