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Federal Reserve Determined to Stop Growth
Jobs are back so workers have a target on their backs. The Labor Department reports the economy produced 263,000 jobs in September. After losing an unimaginable 22 million jobs in the first two months of COVID as the economy shut down under Donald Trump, we've now gained all those jobs back and then some. Wages have even begun to inch upwards.
Jesse Jackson: First Concern in College Sports Should Be the Lives, Health of Athletes
Covid-19 isn't "disappearing," as President Donald Trump suggests; it is surging, setting new records in daily cases. The states that rushed to "reopen" the economy now are reversing course. Yet the NCAA still assumes that the college football season will begin at the end of August, and that mandatory practices will begin this month.
The Right to Vote Needs Constitutional Protection
Democracy is based on the power of the people choosing their leaders in a secret ballot. The right to vote is central to the legitimacy of any democratic system. Yet in the United States Constitution there is no federal right to vote. Voting rights are determined by the states. And in the states we witness a fierce struggle between those who seek to suppress the vote and those who seek to protect and extend it.
Reform and The Moral Center
"Too radical, impractical, too costly, impossible, can't pass the Senate." Those are the terms centrist Democrats use to describe the bold reform ideas put forth by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in the Democratic presidential primaries. "Venezuela, socialist, communist tripe, crazy" are the jibes preferred by Donald Trump and Republicans. All this begs the same question: What do they plan to do to meet the challenges we face?
Kavanaugh Showed Us Exactly Who He Is
Brett Kavanaugh is now a justice of the Supreme Court. He is there only because he is what he showed himself to be in the Senate hearings: a vicious, partisan operative utterly committed to a right-wing judicial activism that will inevitably lead to a constitutional crisis.
Venezuela Needs a Helping Hand, Not a Hammer Blow
If you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. The United States has a big hammer: the military, plus the intelligence community's covert intervention forces. So we are dropping bombs from drones in seven countries.
White Churches Have Moral Responsibility to Stand Up
In 2019, we will commemorate 400 years since the first 20 slaves were transported by ship from Africa by white slave traders and landed in Jamestown, Va.
Can America Break Its Gun Addiction?
Can America break its gun addiction? After mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, Southaven, Mississippi, Dayton, Ohio and Midland and Odessa, Texas, public demand for sensible gun reform once more soared. And once more, Republican politicians, led by Donald Trump, were intimidated into inaction by the gun lobby, led by the National Rifle Association. Remarkably, it was America's largest retailer -- Walmart -- that exhibited the courage politicians lacked.
Bluster Is Not Strength
For Donald Trump, America First is increasingly translating into America alone. He apparently believes that the United States is so dominant that it needs no friends. Trump prefers to act alone, often on impulse, in conflicts across the globe. He views allies as a burden, international law as an affront. He claims that America is back, more respected than ever. In fact, it is becoming more isolated than ever.
Biden's Inauguration Offers New Hope and New Energy
On Monday, we marked Dr. Martin Luther King's 91st birthday; on Wednesday, Joe Biden will be inaugurated as president, promising change after a dark period of division. Dr. King's relationship with John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson offers instructive lessons for today's movement for justice.
Eastern Kentucky Deserves Better Leaders
The extreme weather that is savaging various parts of America hit Eastern Kentucky last week when unprecedented flash floods wiped out homes and devastated communities, taking at least 37 lives, with hundreds still missing." The region was hit by 8 to 10 inches of rainfall in a 24-hour period, what experts called a one in a thousand-year rain event. Those who escaped now struggle to survive in high heat and humidity, with roads and bridges washed out, and food and clean water hard to find. And the region is under another flood watch as this is written.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Reflection and Action
How should Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday be celebrated? It should be celebrated in many different ways.
Democracy Is In Retreat
For all the talk about the national debt and the fiscal deficit, what truly threatens America is a dangerous and growing democracy deficit. This country presents itself as the champion of democracy against authoritarianism across the world, but at home, democracy is in retreat in areas vital to our lives. Consider.
The GOP's Attack On Women
Alabama -- led by utterly clueless male legislators -- just passed the most restrictive ban on abortion in the country, with Georgia and Missouri piling on. Other states dominated by right-wing Republican politicians are jockeying to join in. Their aim is to get the courts, newly packed with right-wing judges appointed by Trump, to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark precedent that established a woman's right to choose in the early months of pregnancy.
Let Us Remember, and Rekindle the Spirit of, the Emancipation Proclamation
One hundred forty-five years ago on January 1, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, helping to transform this country from a union of states into a nation, from a country stained by slavery into one moving at great cost closer to "liberty and justice for all."
SCOTUS Guarantees That Poor Women Will Suffer
In their decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the six right-wing judicial zealots on the Supreme Court scorned legal precedent and mocked history to deprive women of equal citizenship under the law.
Georgians Will Have a Clear Choice On Jan. 5
On January 5, Georgia will hold a run-off election for both of its Senate seats. The races capture national attention because control of the Senate is at stake. If the two Democratic challengers, Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock. both win, the Senate will be effectively split 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie. If one or both lose, Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell will retain his ability to obstruct the incoming president.
Biden Should Revive the U.S. Commission On Civil Rights
A new president takes office with the sense of possibility that comes with a new dawn. This is particularly true for Joe Biden, taking office after the divisive turmoil of Donald Trump's years in office. Biden inherits truly fearsome troubles -- among them the spiking pandemic, the collapsing economy, corrosive inequality, catastrophic climate change and entrenched structural racism. He stood up for Black Lives Matter and has promised a new day for civil rights, with particular emphasis on police reform.
Voting Is the Fundamental Basis of Democracy
The coronavirus does not discriminate, but people do. The coronavirus is not partisan, but politicians are. When we should be coming together to address a shared crisis, some are intent on driving us apart, and on exacting partisan advantage in the midst of the crisis.
Party of Lincoln Wouldn't Recognize Trump's GOP
Last week, President Trump, in a rambling stump speech in Montana, bizarrely compared his oratory to that of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, arguing (incorrectly) that Lincoln was "ridiculed" for the speech.
