VOICES

COMMENTARY - I remember finding out I was about to become a mother. I felt the fear taking hold of me. My brain stopped. I remember crying but had no tears. I remember trying to run, but I couldn’t move.

WORDS ON WAR - A recent New York Times op-ed was perhaps the strangest, most awkward and tentative defense of the military-industrial complex — excuse me, the experiment in democracy called America — I’ve ever encountered, and begs to be addressed.

DC RALLY - You know what they say: “Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice ... well, you can’t get fooled again.”

SUPREME VIEW - When Clarence Thomas wasn’t working as a mute-ass puppet for former Justice Antonin Scalia, he literally was a real-life mute who was apparently attempting to break the Guinness record for being the Black man on the highest court who had absolutely nothing to say about anything.

COMMENTARY-If the leading cause of death among police is COVID and 20% of the LAPD workforce is requesting exemptions (so they can be more efficient incubators of future variants?), where does that leave the residents of Los Angeles? 

COMMON DREAMS - Too often climate change is reduced to quantification of greenhouse glasses or melting ice caps.

GUEST COMMENTARY-In an op-ed entitled “Why California liberals turn into raging conservatives over housing,”

MEDIA MONOPOLIES-We have faced tough times before. World wars, famines, pandemics, economic ruin.

LGBTQ POLITICS - Noted queer academic Judith Butler accused transphobic feminists of allying with fascists in a new interview with The Guardian.

THE SENATE RULES - You’ve probably been hearing a lot about the filibuster these days. But here’s one thing about this old Senate rule you might not know: the filibuster actually violates the Constitution. 

CONSTITUTION WATCH - Bruce Fein, constitutional law specialist who has testified before Congress approximately 200 times, calls Congress “an inkblot.” Let’s see if he is exaggerating.

WAR LOOSE ENDS - I was a college student on 9/11. The ensuing “War on Terror,” anchored by the bombing and U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, has been with us ever since — virtually my entire adult life.

COMMENTARY-Due to the dead-of-night shenanigans of the regressive Supreme Court, the recent victory of the misogynists in Texas over women’s and girls’ rights to their own bodies will certainly be echoed in other states until and unless Congress can return our rights at the national level. 

THE WALKING UNVACCINATED - Radio host Howard Stern has a reputation for saying things other people shy away from in polite company.

COMMENTARY - Incumbent officeholders have a built-in advantage in seeking reelection as their position gives them ready access to the press, name recognition with the electorate, and the ability to generate goodwill by being generous with the public’s money.

VOICES - Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick’s baseless claims about unvaccinated Black people being the bearers of COVID-19 were not surprising at all. This is yet another instance of people, and not just elected officials, using Black folks as scapegoats for the failures of the state. 

SPIN SCIENCE - As the world tries to escape from the grips of a deadly pandemic, America is also battling another, perhaps more formidable foe that is taking over the country.  Bootleg science.

IMMIGRATION POLITICS - It’s easy to say, “our immigration system is broken.” Or to declare: “we are a nation of immigrants.”

VOICES-This letter has been sent to Ms. Alice Tolar, the 405 Express Lanes Project Manager at Metro: 

COMMENTARY - For all the doom and gloom about China taking over American culture at all levels, and a younger generation that has grown up with Tik Tok and a China-controlled media since at least 2012, there is reason for hope that the American spirit persists.

RANDOM LENGTHS NEWS - Coal miners are like longshore workers in that they’re tribal in nature. Distinctions are made  based on how many generations your family has been a part of the profession and successive generations of children are raised to live, work and eventually die the way their fathers had — in the mines. Trumka was no different.