Browsing: Opinions

        I grew up poor, that is, American poor. I fantasized about food at night–mashed potatoes, buttery dinner rolls, raspberry cheesecake. I would wake up and imagine a breakfast–strawberry waffles with whipped cream, cold orange juice–then, talk myself toward accepting what I knew was there–toast with peanut butter and usually, milk. My dad did not tolerate ungratefulness. 

    Political instability is often best captured through metaphors. Today, America’s democracy isn’t facing some distant threat—it’s already caught in a storm. Like a house in the storm’s path, Democracy—our House of Cards—is in immediate peril. Merriam-Webster defines a house of cards as “a structure or situation that is unstable and likely to collapse.” That’s exactly what democracy becomes when its core institutions are undermined.

Nunnie on the Sideline

Democratic Mayors Can Show Our Party How To Win Working Class Voters Again

If you told me three years ago that I’d be traveling on behalf of a brand trip—for any company—I probably would’ve laughed. Especially for a well-known brand like SHEIN, a brand I actually shop with.

   I   don’t  want  to   appear    clairvoyant or a braggart but I warned MAGA loyalists that Trump would dismiss them once he had their vote.

    There was a time not too long ago when American scientists and American research facilities were the envy of the world. In those days, our scientists typically swept Nobel and other international prizes. Not anymore; the Trump administration’s drastic cuts in scientific personnel and budgets will “essentially end America’s longstanding role as the world leader in science and innovation,” said Toby Smith, senior vice president for government relations and public policy at the Association of American Universities.

     Between Elon Musk’s brief, disastrous tenure with the misnamed “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) and the Republicans’ mad rush to gut health care and food assistance for millions of lower-income Americans, you’d think they’d just discovered a massive cabal of diehard leftist criminals committing “fraud, waste, and abuse” in the federal budget. Of course, any pretext that all this was in the interest of reducing the deficit was belied when Trump’s Big Ugly Bill handed the giant corporations and the richest among us billions in tax cuts they don’t need.

     Humanity has a serious nuclear weapons problem. We have created a weapon that is so powerful that it poses an existential threat to us as a species. Not surprisingly, the use of nuclear weapons in war has been a redline, not crossed since they obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

      This metaphorical caption that Democracy is being “Gang-Raped provides a graphic description of how the principles and core values of Democracy perceptibly faces violation and abuse. The abusers in this metaphor are political Officials, supporters, and wealthy oligarchs. Who bears witness to this abomination? Who is the leader of this gang?