On April 7, the US Senate Confirmed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to SCOTUS by a vote of 53 to 47. The GOP members of the Judiciary Committee — especially Lindsay Graham — have spent a lot of time whining, complaining and griping about the fact that a Democratic president nominated a Black woman to the SCOTUS. You might think the…
Kyle Rittenhouse
Kyle Rittenhouse. He was found not guilty of any crimes despite killing two people and wounding a third with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle. Please do not try to tell me that Kyle Rittenhouse, walking down the street carrying an AR-15 with his hands positioned so he could raise it and fire in a moment, presented less of a threat to…
DeSantis and Freedom
I wonder if Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will soon eliminate all laws over driving. Honestly, if you use his logic, people should be able to make their own decisions about how fast they want to drive. If someone wants to drive 65 in a subdivision filled with pedestrians, for example, the government should not reduce any driver’s freedom to do…
GOP Senators Will Not Discuss Voting Laws
You can win all the battles over early voting, amount of time polls are open, maintenance of voter registration records, and forms of ID. If you win all those battles, then whoopdie-ding-doo for you. But if you lose the battle over whether or not the other major party in your country can overturn elections you actually won by hundreds of…
Expanded Unemployment Benefits Ending
Expanded unemployment benefits ended in four states on June 12. And they ended in eight more states on June 19. Many people — primarily those who own restaurants, retail stores — have blamed the federally authorized expansion of unemployment benefits for causing a “labor shortage.” Without any evidence to support their claims, they have argued that all, most, or many…
GOP Senators Block January 6 Insurrection Commission
The majority of Republicans in the United States Senate have voted against creating a bipartisan commission, evenly staffed and composed of Republicans and Democrats, to investigate the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the United States capitol. In order for such a commission to go forward, 10 Republicans would have needed to join the majority of Democrats voting in favor of…
Democrats Building Unity with Republicans
Building unity. Many Republican legislators in the United States House and Senate have said that they don’t think President Biden has done a good job of building unity with them. Well, they said the same thing about President Barack Obama. And the simple truth is that Republicans don’t want to unite with Democrats. This is not hard to understand. The…
Derek Chauvin Verdict in George Floyd Case
I am sitting here this afternoon, waiting for the Derek Chauvin verdict in the George Floyd case. I have prepared myself for “not guilty” on all counts, because that is how all (?) the similar cases have gone, when members of law enforcement have killed people of color for reasons that are or appear ludicrous. Many of us will find…
So Many Shootings
There have been so many shootings lately — the most recent happened this morning in Indianapolis. Eight people died at a FedEx facility after someone opened fire late Thursday, April 15. Sometimes it’s a single person who dies, other times it’s more than that. I have been struggling with how to deal with all the shootings. Here is a list…
I Listened To Trump
I listened to Trump accept the Republican Party’s nomination and, during that speech in 2016, describe “American carnage.” During that nomination acceptance speech, I listened to him say, “I alone can fix it.” (He was very wrong.) I listened to Trump say, about downplaying the Covid-19 pandemic, “I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because…