Abortion and Authoritarianism {NOTE: On this, the fiftieth anniversary of the Roe decision, I offer some of the deep history that lies beneath the perceived need of men who are insecure to control women’s bodies. Versions of this essay were previously published on Salon and Substack. I’ll explore this topic in much more…

The final negotiations were held in Munich on the second anniversary of what McCarthy termed “the glorious attempt by patriots to end the evils of democracy.” Munich. January 6, 2023. “The negotiations were really tough,” Unrepresentative Kevin McCarthy (0, CA) told reporters at a news conference here today, “but I never doubted that I…

My autocorrect changed “predictions” to “pre ruins” NO ONE knows how it will turn out. Predictions [perhaps meaningfully, autocorrect changed that word to “Pre ruins” when I typed it] of a “Red Wave” are intended to discourage Democrats and believers in democracy and Americanism from voting. The media continue to play into the hands of the haters…

“Ah, yes good people, the matters goeth not well to pass in America, nor shall not do till the greedy plutocrats be no greater masters than we be.” That is an adaptation of a statement made by John Ball during the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. It came into my mind on this, the morning of our nation’s 246th Birthday. The United States is under attack from internal enemies that have brought the American Experiment in self-government perilously close…

West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency decision could be even more devasting than last week’s pro-gun and anti-woman rulings Last week the Anti-United States1 Supreme Court created by the Federalist Society, the Koch Brothers, Phyllis Schlafly, Rupert Murdoch, Mitch McConnell, Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and others ruled that states are not permitted to stop people from carrying guns but are permitted to force women to carry fetuses against their…

As we recoil in horror at Vladimir Putin’s aggression against Ukraine, it may be helpful to have the lineups so we are clear about who and what are on each side. It is essential to realize that Putin’s side is not represented by the flag of the Russian Republic. His is the side of the Czarist Russian Empire. {Robert S. McElvaine’s latest book, The Times They Were a-Changin’ — 1964: The Year the Sixties Arrived and the Battle Lines of Today were Drawn, will be published by Arcade (distributed by Simon & Schuster) on June 7.}

Anne, our children and grandchildren, friends, my real (adoptive) parents, the uterus of Annabelle Louise Compher (a woman I never met after I left it), my four half-sisters I didn’t know I had until 2020, friends too numerous to list … Love, Life, Mother Earth, evolution, the promise of America…

As recently as the early 1960s, a noted historian called a man who accompanied Columbus and boasted of brutally raping an indigenous woman a “jolly dog” who liked to have “a good time.” — {On Friday, Joe Biden became the first president to commemorate the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. It also remains Columbus Day. A year ago, Mr. Biden’s predecessor — a man whose depth of historical knowledge was reflected when he said in his 2019 Independence day that the…

The all-white, all-male jury in the 1955 Mississippi trial of the murderers of Emmett Till joined by their “Republican” Senate juror 2021 counterparts. “Acquitted — Again” read the headline in the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. Here in Mississippi, that has a very familiar ring. What 43 Republican Senators did in the second…