We are all witnesses to what may be called the trial of the century. If nothing else, an American inflection point. The alleged crime is assault, murder, and in my mind under the color of law. The man on trial is former. Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. I write this because at times it feels as the person on trial is George Floyd. This will be even more obvious once the defense starts to present their case. This is the defense out for Chauvin.
At the heart of the argument, though this is exactly how the adversarial system of justice…
tansaisuketti via Wikipedia
President Joe Biden has proposed a large infrastructure plan meant to bring the nation to the 21st century. The package also includes increasing corporate taxes and closing loopholes. This is to prevent companies from paying zero taxes, as some do. This program is also going to rebuild infrastructure around the country. It’s not just roads and bridges, nut sewage plants, and water distribution systems. This is about competent government investing in the things we need to grow the economy in the future. This includes the green energy distribution of the future and high-speed railways.
We have not invested in this…
Let me make this clear, if this was happening when getting a vaccine was easy, I would have little issue with this. But at this point, we even have United States Postal Service workers who cannot get their shots. We have lost many an essential worker, that should be getting the shot now. We also have many low-income areas, where people cannot get the shot. We still have trouble finding them with ease. But while we are having all these issues with equity, we already have vaccine tourism coming into the United States.
This is a good opportunity to talk about animals and their behavior. When we got our cockatiel, Tuky, research into animal cognition was in diapers. We followed the emerging research and adapted our relationship with first one parrot, and then two, accordingly. When I married and left for Hawaii with my husband, we left them with my sister. We got a baby sun conure in Hawaii, who was raised with respect to her obvious intelligence.
We missed the other two birds, and once we came home, we introduced the young conure to her two brothers, who were very happy to…
When COVID started, the far-right mobilized. It did so quickly because it saw the disease both as an opportunity and a threat. This started in China, and while diseases are no longer named for the location where it starts, this did not stop the right. Or for that matter the previous president from using slurs attacking Asians. But there were other aspects to the story.
In the beginning, there was fear across the nation. This is a new disease, that is killing our elders left, right, and center. It forced economies to close. Not only in the United States but…
We live in a time of extreme partisanship. While it started in the 1990s, at this point it is damaging to the country, and to both parties. Also, both parties are fractured into different factions that cannot stand each other, and at least two could easily belong in either party. It is very obvious with the Republican Party, but less so with the Democrats. However, If we decided to join the nineteenth century and adopt a proportional representation system, both parties would break apart. This is one reason it seems Washington can’t do a thing because both parties have factions…
The new Georgia election law has in it what they call more stringent photo ID requirements. Never mind the 2020 election was the most secure in American history, per both federal and state officials. It is looking to solve a non-existent problem. So objectively what is the problem with having to show photo ID at an election? And how far could this requirement take us down towards a national ID?
First, who do these laws target? These are not meant for middle-class whites, but the elderly, people of color, specifically blacks in Georgia, and the young. …
We have these surges every spring. Sometimes they are larger, and sometimes they are smaller. It matters little if the policies from Washington are more humane or more draconian. People are still leaving the Golden Triangle, and there are solid reasons for this. Until we do something at the point of origin, this will continue. One of these is climate change. Some are the consequences of American foreign policy going back to the 1970s, some are the result of genocide.
First, we need to understand that the 1980s in particular were brutal for these nations. We had civil wars, in…
Here we are again. Another day, another mass shooting. It almost feels we are going back to the pre-pandemic normal. This is the second mass shooting in a week. The first involved a handgun. This one an AR-15 style weapon. As usual, we have the same theater. Meaning, Republicans arguing once again that we can’t do anything. Apparently, background checks are Un-American. So is the idea that some weapons don’t belong in the streets. …
Over the last four years, we have witnessed the almost exponential growth of conspiracies, and distrust of the political system. While both have been around for as long as I remember, the reality is that now it is dangerous. Many of these conspiracies have become mainstream, including antisemitic tropes and racism is now cool. We are to the point that they will make our recovery from the pandemic harder. Why? One of the crazy ideas that is increasingly mainstream is a deep anti-vax sentiment, which is leading to widespread vaccine hesitancy.
There is a political component. It seems a whole…
Nadin Brzezinski
Historian by training. Former day to day reporter. Sometimes a geek who enjoys a good miniatures game.
