Progressivism without Protectionism?
Yesterday's employment figures mean that the continuing export of US jobs will continue to be a big issue in the campaign. But Democrats must be careful not to fall for the lure of blunderbuss...
View ArticleMalign neglect: Corporate greed and personal tragedy
Two weeks ago tonight I went into our next door neighbor's apartment to check on him. He had started drinking again the week before but this time he had fessed up and checked himself into the hospital...
View ArticleMarch of the Conservatives (or Penguins Are Us)
In the science section of today's New York Times, Jonathan Miller writes that conservatives have taken to the film "March of the Penguins" as support for traditional marriage, since penguins form...
View ArticleControlling corporate lobbying in a democracy
There is a fundamental problem with both lobbying and campaign finance that none of the existing laws or proposed reforms can fix, one that stems from the decision of the Supreme Court 30 years ago in...
View ArticleMy response to the Archbishop of Canterbury
On Huffpost I saw a story about an interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/...] in which he said gay people had to change their sexual ethics and should be welcomed but...
View ArticleMedicaid as a right wing tool?
My partner Michael and I have assumed the primary responsibility for Mary, the 96 year old mother of his late partner Louis, who died in 1989. Michael and Louis were together for 14 years and, after...
View ArticleAngry populism and recapturing the loot
Robert Reich has a piece up on TPM about the rise of angry populism in the face of the coming bailout. The public knows all too well that it is being fleeced by the financiers of Wall Street. At this...
View ArticleAngry populism and recapturing the loot
Robert Reich has a piece up on TPM about the rise of angry populism in the face of the coming bailout. The public knows all too well that it is being fleeced by the financiers of Wall Street. At this...
View ArticleResponding to the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United
I have thought for some time that the focus on banning corporate and union money in politics was missing the central problem. This issue isn't that some juridical entity is acting politically, it is...
View ArticlePoll-watching with a cop
Last Tuesday, I was poll-watching in the Democratic primary race in the NY state senate district of Pedro Espada. He’s the one who staged the coup in the state senate by switching to the Republican...
View ArticleMy RSVP to a fundraiser invitation
A few days ago, I received an invitation from Kevin Jennings to an Obama fundraiser. It was apparently aimed at well-off members of New York's GLBTQ community. As much as I want to see marriage...
View ArticleOpening a Second Front against Citizens United
On the day before Thanksgiving, the New York Times ran an editorial called "A Broken Election System." The last section had proposals for diluting the power of money in the political campaigns, but...
View ArticleFighting inequality on the street with "day fines"
When I read about an app that increases inequality on the street by letting people auction off public parking spaces to the highest bidder, I was reminded of a way that several countries have actually...
View ArticleStrange bedfellows at NYC's Pride March
We just got back from watching the pride march from the front steps of a Lutheran church on Christopher Street which now has a gay pastor. We were taken aback to see floats and contingents of marchers...
View ArticleConnecting Hobby Lobby, Harris and Citizens United
The conservative ideology underlying the decisions of the Roberts court can be summed up in the title of Prof. Adam Winkler's post on Huffpo: Corporations are People and They Have More Rights Than You....
View ArticleRegistering voters at Summer Streets in New York City
We just got back from 5 hours of registering voters and handing out our homemade literature about Bernie Sanders. My husband has done this before but it was my first time tabling. It turned out to be...
View ArticleTaxing Inequality: Putting the Gini to Work
On August 9, 2015, the New York Times published an article titled Capitalists, Arise by Peter Georgescu, which proposed a five year trial program in which the government would give a tax break to...
View ArticleCrucial special election in NY on the South Shore of Nassau County, Long Island
Whether you are for Bernie or Hillary and whether or not you are a registered Democrat, you have a chance to strike a blow against the Republicans in the New York State Senate by voting for Todd...
View ArticleTrump is a decoy. Don't take the bait.
I have been concerned for some time that people are so caught up in opposing Trump and his craziness that they are losing sight of the big picture — the threatened destruction of Social Security,...
View ArticleAn incident on the 23rd St. subway platform
When there are delays on the NYC subway, there is often an announcement that the delay is due to "an earlier incident" at some station. On our way uptown this afternoon, my husband and I witnessed a...
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