In 2015 two economists at Harvard University reported on an extensive study they conducted on five million IRS records of anonymous families with children. The study showed that poor children who grow up in some cities and towns have sharply better odds of escaping poverty than poor children in other places. Among the 100 largest … [Read more…]
Twenty-five years ago this week, a jury acquitted four Los Angeles police officers of the use of excessive force in the videotaped arrest and beating of Rodney King, setting off several days of widespread riots in Los Angeles. Are things better now? No. Things are not better. The jury failed to convict the white police officer who … [Read more…]
In case you are lost for words to describe our dear president, please see the descriptions below from a long-time, staunch conservative commentator, George F. Will, in his May 3 column. “It is urgent for Americans to think and speak clearly about President Trump’s inability to do either. This seems to be not a mere … [Read more…]
Our President, Donald Trump, makes many outlandish statements. One of his latest was to praise President Andrew Jackson and suggest that if Jackson had been around a few decades later, there would not have been a Civil War because Jackson “had a big heart.” There is a reason there was a campaign to replace Andrew … [Read more…]
EJI’s New Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration April 12, 2017 Construction is underway in Montgomery, Alabama, on the Equal Justice Initiative’s new racial justice museum, which will explore America’s legacy of slavery, racial terror, segregation, and mass incarceration. EJI’s planned museum attempts to address our country’s failure to create cultural spaces that have honestly … [Read more…]
Congressional Democrats need to get better at their jobs, especially the public relations part. Republicans are excellent at PR. Democrats are not. Look at the situation. After Justice Antonin Scalia’s death in February 2016, Republican Senators—in an unprecedented move–refused to have a hearing for President Obama’s nominee to fill the position on the Supreme Court. … [Read more…]
“Ever since they waded into cannon fire to protect the right of rich people to own black people, poor white people have, in the aggregate, been victims of the longest con in American history. Monied interests have used race to disadvantage them time and again.”—Leonard Pitts
“Donald Trump is a narcissist. It’s a personality disorder. It’s often referred to by a broader, less politically correct term: mental illness. I suggest that everyone read up on it, because its effect is going to disrupt our country for his entire term and perhaps well beyond. To call Trump a racist is to severely … [Read more…]
I might as well ‘fess up. For many years, I have called our medical care “system” barbaric. Since developing this description, I have acquired substantially more education but no better words to describe the medical care situation in the United States–at least until ObamaCare—the ACA– which relieved the situation a bit. It has always seemed … [Read more…]
Fortunately, the Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) failed last week. Opponents of this reprehensible Act should hold their celebration, as the primary reason it failed is not good news for its opponents. The key features of the Republican plan (the AHCA) to replace the ACA was to cut Medicaid and provide that … [Read more…]