Recently, and not the first or last time, issues involving the black community have been workshopped without input from one of the groups it affects most. On August 4, University of Virginia historian Allida Black, Princeton University history professor Sean Wilentz, journalist Anne Applebaum, presidential historian Michael Beschloss, Vinay Reddy,...
Virginia
I am not counting my trees before they are hugged, but with the help of West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, Joe Biden is one Democratic party vote away from passing a historic climate bill. The former Build Back Better legislation is now called the Inflation Reduction Act. There are still...
Since around age sixteen, I have had friends and adults in my life who have said to me more than once, ‘no, no, I don’t do politics.’ Well, to those who angrily rebuffed me—I say—you may not do politics, but politics is doing you. From local legislatures and school boards...
In full football withdrawal (Pro Bowl, yuck), I spent the weekend rewatching a few of my favorite movies. One of which was Birds of Prey And the Fabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn. Politics has become such a national obsession; even a fantasy starring the beautiful Margot Robbie reminded me...
When one speaks of the far-right-left, the obvious target for progressives would be Democratic Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Although they both are low-hanging fruit, the harvest is bountiful. Voices of the left, like comedic satirist Bill Maher, longtime Democratic strategist James Carville, and...
The freshly defeated Democratic nominee for Governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, is a lousy politician. Let me preface the past statement with the admission that if I lived in Virginia, I would have wholeheartedly voted for Mr. McAuliffe over the new incoming Governor Glenn Youngkin. While McAuliffe lived in the past,...
The Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races are going to be decided on Tuesday, November 2. Although Republicans Glenn Youngkin and Jack Ciattarrelli are playing hide the Trump, Democrats Terry McAuliffe and Phil Murphy lead in the polls; McAuliffe narrowly and Murphy, reportedly, with a lead from six to twenty-nine...
Apparently, Rudy Giuliani just discovered video filters. Specifically, he found the Planet of the Apes Cornelius filter and added a stovepipe hat. Or maybe it’s Abraham Lincoln. I don’t know. The last thing I want to do is try to get into Rudy’s head. I imagine it’s a little like visiting a...
“No, no. There's 52 senators who don't agree, okay, and there's two that want to work something out if possible in a most rational reasonable way.” Joe Manchin fessing up that he and Sinema are Republicans to CNN reporter. Manchin Cheerfully Gives Republicans A Senate Majority (video in link) West Virginia is...
For Christmas (and Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa), Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders wants to give working-class West Virginians a child tax credit, child care assistance, free preschool, two free years of community college, lower health insurance premiums, expanded Medicare, home health care assistance for the elderly, an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit...
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin just cooked the planet. I don't mean that in a metaphorical sense. I mean that literally. Unless Manchin changes his negotiating position dramatically soon, he will be remembered as the man who, when the moment of decision came, chose to condemn virtually every living creature on Earth...
…suppressing your opposition with power; strong regimentation of society and economy, and dictatorial power- Fascism In the collegial setting, politics is taught as a science. It is meant to be an apolitical study based upon history or comparison, its global effects i.e. international implications, and accepted theory. Although modern fascism...
Schumer Says White House Talks with GOP on Infrastructure Hit ‘a Brick Wall’. Politico reported: Bipartisan infrastructure talks between President Joe Biden and GOP Sen. Shelley Moore Capito are over, according to an administration official. The president will now focus on working with a bipartisan group of 20 senators. Biden...
The addition of the 1982 amendments to the Voting Rights Act was a turning point in terms of minority representation. Redistricting is the process of drawing electoral district lines every ten years intended to bring about racially proportional representation. While its purpose was to give weight to minority votes, it...
These are days fraught with political battles over cultural histories abjuring complexity. Today it’s The Wall Street Journal and the reactionary path to critical race theory, the latest bit of Trumpist ignorance now projected into personnel policies and the larger revisionist history project that would deny the historical relevance of slavery...
The simplest explanation for lawyer Michael Godwin’s law is that the longer a debate or disagreement extends, it will eventually devolve into an unfounded comparison to Hitler and the Nazis. Godwin’s Law is a current topic because of Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). Marjorie Taylor Greene may have decisively proved...
Virginia Foxx is a U.S. representative from North Carolina and not, as you might suspect from her name, a now-bitter original member of Emmet Otter’s Jug Band. Honestly, I’d never heard of her before. Yes, I’m a politics nerd, but apparently she’s been hiding her light under a bushel basket...
So this happened yesterday: Glenn Youngkin, a wealthy first-time candidate who walked a line between his party’s Trump-centric base and appeals to business interests, won the Republican nomination for governor of Virginia on Monday. He heads into a general election in one of only two states choosing their governors in...
http://www.cnn.com/… The Food and Drug Administration is giving emergency approval to the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid Vaccine for use in juveniles from 12 to 15 years old. Several of the vaccine manufacturers are conducting limited trials for younger groups. Vaccinations of young people will not only increase the percentage of the population...
Received this e-mail today from Democracy for America: On March 9th the United States House of Representatives passed H.R.842, Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2021, known as the PRO Act. The PRO Act vastly expands labor protections related to employees' rights to organize and collectively bargain in the workplace....
President Joe Biden set a new goal of having 70% of adult American vaccinated for Covid (with at least one dose) by the Fourth of July. About 56.4% of adults in the US were vaccinated with a dose as of yesterday. The pace of vaccinations has slowed dramatically with only...
The Washington Post Editorial Board made their endorsement today: IF VIRGINIA governors were allowed consecutive terms in office, Terry McAuliffe could have run for reelection in 2017 and almost certainly would have won easily. But the commonwealth is an outlier — the only state whose constitution mandates eviction for governors every four...
Only Republicans would encourage running over demonstrators by indemnifying and pitting RWNJs and their vehicles against peaceful crowds. Because who knew that the “unintentional” weaponizing of personal vehicles was possible when pretending you’re driving a Tesla into a crowd of demonstrators. “Five states besides Florida introduced similar bills this year, granting some...
A new book suggests now the necessity of reexamining the historical materialist project of Walter Benjamin recognizing those moments of historical contact as acts of recognizing the constructed historical object. “Historicism tends to be hermeneutic because it values cautious, rigorous, and contextualized interpretation of information; or relativist, because it rejects notions of universal, fundamental...
Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) was born in the heart of the old Democratic south. He is a devout southerner, born in Mississippi, and attended college at both the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt in Tennessee. At age sixty-nine, I believe it is safe to say that the one-time southern Democrat,...
You know, I’m happy they were able to take Kyle Rittenhouse into custody after he allegedly shot and killed two people during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year. That’s the way these things are supposed to go. I just wish conservatives didn’t feel the need to turn him into a...
Received this e-mail today from U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D. VA): We've all seen the headlines about Republican state legislatures passing outrageous voter suppression laws that roll back mail-in voting and even make it a crime to hand out water bottles at polling places. But while other states are attacking...
President Joe Biden announced today that every state has removed age eligibility for Covid-19 vaccinations so anyone 16 or over can received a Pfizer/BioNtech shot and anyone18 or over can receive a dose of Moderna’s vaccine. Biden’s goal of 200 million vaccinations in his first 100 days should be reached this Wednesday, eight days...
The Black Codes of the late 1800s are making a comeback in America. These ordinances were meant to control the free movement of people of color using minor infractions as the reasoning, which was a literal attempt to keep black people in their place. The beginnings of policing in America...
Americans over the age of 65 years are now 80% vaccinated with at least one jab of a Covid vaccine. That is according to numbers released for yesterday by the CDC. The percentage for all adults is 48.3% having received at least one shot, and 37.9% of everyone in the US...
A U.S. Army officer is suing two Virginia police officers over a violent traffic stop last December. Police body camera video shows the officer in full uniform being approached by the cops with their guns drawn. Christina Ruffini has more.
Can’t wait to see this asshole go: 📹On @FOX43, Sen. Toomey says he wants PA to adopt Georgia's new election laws. I ask what he says to BPOC who say those policies make it harder to vote? He said it's a "ridiculous argument." "Are we really supposed to believe African...
I check off a day every morning on my calendar because I am counting down to the day of my second Covid-19 vaccination. I, like a lot of other Americans, especially black Americans, have expressed skepticism over the speed, effectiveness, and side effects of the vaccines. I wrote about a...
More NYC stories of anti-Asian hate. Because bullies and haters come in all shapes and sizes. TRIGGER WARNING NYPD says 65-year-old Asian American woman was walking to church this morning when suspect assaulted her and said “f*** you, you don’t belong here.” Happened in front of 360 W. 43rd St....
So much thick-headed media activity this past week. OTOH Chuck Todd panders to the center again, or perhaps it's the college drop-out demographic. x A @MeetThePress fail today: talking about anti-Asian violence and racism – without any Asians on the panel. I can’t imagine MTP having a discussion about anti-Black...
A noted piece of work, State Senator Hensley, a Sons of Confederate Veterans member, decided there were so many new ways to get a KKK founder’s statue to stick around in the usual battles of Tennessee culture. This particular 1978 bust is a Jim Crow monument with marginal historical value other than honoring...
Here’s the latest news on the recall effort in California: The effort to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has gathered over 2 million signatures — a number of signatures, if validated, that could force a measure on a ballot. The leaders of RecallGavin2020 announced this week that their effort reached over 2,060,000 signatures...
In case you missed this: Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) erupted Tuesday on the House floor, imploring his Republican colleagues to stop their obsession with stoking culture wars and shift focus to helping Democrats pass legislation to aid Americans struggling through the coronavirus pandemic. “Stop talking about Dr. Seuss and start...
The one thing that will directly help the working poor is the $15/h promise. Few Rewards Today, more people than ever are working in jobs that pay too little and offer too few benefits: nearly half the workforce earns under $15 an hour. This isn’t right, or inevitable. We should...
Received this e-mail from MoveOn.org: Dear MoveOn member, This is a make-it-or-break-it week for Democrats, who are poised to start voting on President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill, including an increase in the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour.1 All 50 senators in the Democratic caucus are needed to...