10 Jan 2016
What the Big 5 Sunday Shows Tell Us About Who to Value
Reporting for Rachel Maddow’s Blog, Steve Benen tallied political guests on the big five Sunday Talk Shows: “Meet the Press,” “Face the Nation,” “This Week,” “State of the Union,” and “Fox News Sunday.” In 2015, Donald Trump made 36 appearances – or three Sundays every month for a year. A number of his “appearances” were by phone, but he still had a constant, free platform...
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31 Dec 2015
Bring It, 2016!
2015 went by like a speed bump. Is it that I just turned 57, so every year races by faster than the one before it? Is it the dense time suck of social media and the phone addiction I share with millions? The sense that I fell short of the goals I set for myself? Or that, once again, I’m at a crossroads; an odd...
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23 Dec 2015
Hillary, You May Not Go To The Bathroom and Other Double Standards
The criticisms leveled at Hillary Clinton are in an orbit beyond familiar disparities in male vs. female candidates’ coverage and treatment. Last week, four of Bernie Sander’s campaign staffers “improperly accessed the Hillary Clinton campaign’s proprietary voter database” and downloaded private Clinton voter data. Sanders apologized for the breach during last Saturday’s debate. Hillary accepted, even while his campaign distracted from their actions by claiming...
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16 Dec 2015
Hillary Clinton’s Must-Watch Speech on Keeping America Safe
In the wake of the terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Hillary Clinton’s comprehensive speech on counter-terrorism was a sober alternative to the bellicose posturing heard at tonight’s Republican debate. Listening to her remarks, it is impossible not to contrast her gravitas, knowledge and resolve with the ignorant braggadocio offered up by Trump, Cruz and other Republican presidential candidates. Fred Kaplan’s Slate article, America’s New Know-Nothings,...
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10 Dec 2015
Who Is More Dangerous: Trump or the Media?
Acknowledging that unlikely Republican front-runner Donald Trump has hit a nerve with a notable segment of his Party, there is little doubt that his xenophobic comments are, among other things, a cynical headline grab that gets him tons of free air time. But who is the bad guy here? The man making these statements or a corporate owned media, so starved for ratings, it will...
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07 Dec 2015
Media Complicity in Donald Trump, Demagogue-in-Chief
Mainstream media helped create, feed, and cynically fed on, the creature that is Donald Trump, but have now decided he has gone too far with his latest xenophobic statement that there be a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” Their complaints are as cynical as his candidacy. Leaving aside that his comment is a likely ISIS recruiting tool, Donald Trump is...
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01 Dec 2015
Republican Hate Mongering, Planned Parenthood and Hillary Clinton
Most 2016 Republican presidential candidates daily bellow inflammatory rhetoric to stir the passions of their political base, no matter how many falsehoods are spread by such hate mongering. Consider this: Carly Fiorina’s lies about Planned Parenthood “selling baby parts” likely helped load the gun that Robert Lewis Dear used to murder three innocent people, including a police officer, and wound nine others, when he stormed...
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20 Nov 2015
What the Politics of Fear Cost Us
There are heated opinions on whether America should be welcoming Syrian refugees to our shores after the terrorist attacks in Paris and Beirut last week. Yet, much as we might dread the unknown, part of what it means to be an American is that we rise above the fearful rhetoric and xenophobia now taking hold with a vast number of Republican presidential candidates, and in...
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19 Nov 2015
Missouri Students Are Just Getting Started in Their Fight
Racial tensions and protests have continued to escalate on the University of Missouri campus even after the President of the University resigned. Death threats, swastikas painted on the walls of buildings and altercations at student events indicate that the controversy is far from over. While students may have won the battle when they forced the resignation of the President, they have much farther to go...
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14 Nov 2015
Is Starbucks Really the Company We Should Be Boycotting?
The brouhaha surrounding Starbucks stark red and allegedly non Christmas-y coffee cup has caused such an uproar that even Republican front runner Donald Trump jumped into the fray. He calling for a Starbucks boycott even though one such venue resides in Trump Tower. “We’re sure gonna be saying “Merry Christmas” all the time if I’m elected” puffed the publicity hungry candidate. But Starbucks’ veteran friendly...
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