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The Bishop's Table: Louisville's Community Powerhouse for Police Reform
Louisville, Kentucky, got their Christmas present early this year. The Department of Justice, Louisville Metro Government and Louisville Metro Police Department have signed a Consent Decree, an agreement to enact significant, systemic reforms to policing in Louisville.
In 2020, the murder of Breonna Taylor sparked protests across the country ...Read more
A Santa by Any Other Name
What I've got is an "LED Santa Blow Mold With Warm White Light & Light Skin."
He stands a little over 2 feet tall.
So, what is it I've got?
It's one of those plastic Santas you put in your front yard, hopefully just during the Christmas season. The rest of the year, he lives in your garage, next to the bin for recyclables, just across from ...Read more
Bill Press: The media’s disgraceful surrender to Donald Trump
Despite the gloom and doom surrounding the results of November 5, it would be nice to end the year with a glimmer of hope: the certainty that at least one guardrail against a Trump dictatorship was still in place. Alas, that’s not the case.
Two other guardrails, the courts and the Congress, were already lost. The Roberts Supreme Court has ...Read more
The Herculean Effort to Keep Trump Happy
The older he gets, the bigger the baby. Donald Trump has turned the U.S. government into one giant pacifier to calm his fear of seeming less than all-powerful. Consider those billionaires now dropping bags of gold at his feet, concerned that he would use his presidential powers to hurt them.
Donald Winnicott, a prominent English pediatrician ...Read more
ABC News Caves to the Bully
Pitiful.
That's the best I can say about ABC's decision to settle the defamation suit that Donald Trump brought against ABC News because star anchor George Stephanopoulos said he had been held liable for "rape."
Trump's claim: he was not held civilly liable for "rape," but for "sexual assault."
In fact, the judge had already rejected Trump'...Read more
The Post Office: A Wonderful Establishment
There's one thing Donald Trump can't take away from me.
I'm ready for living in a reality where a knock on the door could take you and your rights away. I'm prepared for violent Jan. 6 offenders in prison to be pardoned on Trump's first day. I'm even braced for freedom of speech -- and the press -- to ebb toward being things of the past.
...Read more
Greed Is Immoral. Health Care Greed Is Abominable
America has endured a long panorama of corporate greed -- from the East India Trading Company to the Robber Barons, Gordon Gecko Wall Streeters to Elon Musk. But down at the bottom of raw greediness today, you'll find the insatiable profiteers of the private nursing home industry.
Of course, many providers deliver honest, truly caring service...Read more
Kash As King: A Hatchet Man Comes To Town
It's in vogue since Donald Trump's election last month to suggest that using words like "autocrat" or "strongman," let alone "fascist," to describe the once and future president is bad form at best and terribly out of line at worst. The problem with this suggestion is what the president says and what he does; other than that, there's no ...Read more
What Are Daniel Penny's Politics?
Is Daniel Penny a Republican, a Democrat or something else? As of this writing, his political leanings remain a mystery. Republicans clearly want to adopt the white Marine veteran who strangled a threatening Black passenger on a New York City subway car. They may deny it, but the racial dynamics created a desired optic for their warm support. ...Read more
Trump's Remarks on Birthright Citizenship, Explained
President-elect Donald Trump has said that he intends to issue an executive order to end birthright citizenship for millions of children. Trump's campaign website states that, to qualify as a citizen, any baby born after his executive order would need to have at least one parent who is a citizen or lawful permanent resident. Scholars across ...Read more
How the DOGE billionaires plan to kill Medicaid
I’ve shared with you the plans of Trump’s unelected multi-billionaires, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, to undermine Social Security — the most popular and successful program in the federal government, into which you’ve paid your entire working life.
Today I want to share their plan to gut Medicaid.
Medicaid is less politically popular ...Read more
Kash Patel and His 'Bureau of Intimidation'
When Merriam-Webster chose “polarization” as the word of the year for 2024, the timing was dramatic for many of us who make our living through words.
Defining the word as “division into two sharply distinct opposites; especially, a state in which the opinions, beliefs, or interests of a group or society no longer range along a continuum ...Read more
A Broken System
What does it mean that an alleged murderer has become a folk hero, that literally millions of people in this country have taken his side -- in social media, at least, if not as potential jurors -- in a case of cold-blooded murder? What does it mean that the McDonald's employees who reported him have had to resort to police protection to deal ...Read more
We Hate Health Insurance Companies. 3 Reforms Would Help.
The arrest of a suspect in the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a street in midtown Manhattan leaves some questions unanswered. But the gleeful reaction to the executive's slaying leaves nothing subject to interpretation. Many Americans feel they have been treated so shabbily by the health insurance industry that they ...Read more
Even When Kennedy Is Right, He's Totally Wrong
The publication last week of a new and innovative report on the causes of colorectal cancer could not be more timely, coming as it does when Americans are debating whether what we eat is killing us prematurely -- and whether Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s "Make America Healthy Again" slogan should qualify him to serve as secretary of Health and Human ...Read more
This Holiday Season Feels Like a Post-Election Balm
We put up our Christmas tree on Nov. 9 this year. Right after the election. I cannot remember a time when I've been more eager for the holiday season. We have holiday favorites playing on Alexa and in the car when we're driving around town. This holiday season feels like a post-election balm, a well-timed return to everything the season ...Read more
One Bright Day of Murder
Money and power are persistent. They grind toward the twin goals of more money and power. They are not distracted, and they can identify their enemies.
The people, which is the rest of us, are not so focused. We're not always sure who our enemies are, and we're limited in the kinds of hell we can raise. The key feature of a "popular uprising"...Read more
No Defending This Wannabe Secretary of Defense
It’s a ritual as old as America. A new president is elected. He then selects the leaders of his team, who are subject to confirmation by the Senate based on their experience and qualifications for the office to which they were nominated.
There’s only one thing lacking today: a laugh-out loud test, whereby some nominees would never be ...Read more
Americans Need to Dance
The late 1970s were a sad time for America. The Vietnam War had just ended. Big cities fell in the grip of crime and neglect as the 1975 fiscal crisis pushed New York City to the brink of bankruptcy.
New York uniformed police, angry at the mayor's budget cuts, handed out "Welcome to Fear City" leaflets at the airports. Featuring a hooded ...Read more
The MAGA Attack on Joni Ernst
The first woman combat veteran to serve in the Senate, and a sexual assault survivor, Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst understandably had serious questions about the nomination of Pete Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense.
Initially, she said he would "have his work cut out for him" to be confirmed and told Fox News that she was not yet a "yes" on his bid,...Read more