I Know, Let’s Have a Debate!

We watched the first Democratic presidential debate this week. Judging by the wealth of post-debate comments posted on social media, we weren’t alone. Most of us who sat down to watch already knew our own favored candidate would win, and funnily enough, that’s exactly how it worked out. I’m no different. I favored Hillary Clinton going in, […]

Tuesday Bag o’ Yaks

No doubt all right-thinking Americans will tune in the Democratic presidential debate tonight. We’ll be watching, if for no other reason than to see how the candidates hold up under questioning and attacks. I’m not betting on Joe Biden coming in, and will be surprised if he shows up at the last minute tonight, but what do I know? I haven’t paid much attention to the news today. I think Joe will definitely step in if Hillary stumbles, but I don’t expect her to do that.

The Test

Conservative friends tell me Democrats are the real racists, not them. Their argument, if you can call it one, is based on the universally-acknowledged fact that the Democratic Party was, during the Jim Crow era, the party of white southerners. They love to point out that Senator Robert Byrd, a Democrat, was once a member […]

Thursday Bag o’ Anchor Babies

I was hoping the mean-spirited and loaded phrase “anchor baby” had gone the way of the dodo but then Trump (who else?) had to say it and of course the media too, and now it’s stinking up the whole place again. Second- and third-tier Republican candidates are tripping over microphone cables to announce their own plans […]

Cable News

My problem is I still think of the primetime MSNBC news shows … All In with Chris Hayes, the Rachel Maddow Show, the Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell … as news shows. Chris Hayes, I’ll give him this, covers a lot of news (his recent series on water use in the American Southwest was exceptionally good), but […]

Terrorism & Hate Crimes

James Comey, the director of the FBI, says the murder of nine African-American churchgoers at a prayer meeting in Charleston, South Carolina, is not terrorism. His reasoning? Terrorism is act of violence done or threatens to in order to try to influence a public body or citizenry so it’s more of a political act and […]