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14 Dec

Posted at 06:00h in Uncategorized
Let's face it, my friends, 2020 has been one hell of a hard year. Can you believe that the Trump impeachment hearings, complete with his dutiful senatorial acquittal, took place only last February? It seems eons ago. Of course, the pandemic loomed over all of 2020 and still does. Reuters reports that one person in the United States now dies every minute from COVID-19; as of last Wednesday, the national death toll surpassed 150,000—the highest in the world, thanks to Trump's sadism and ineptitude. Furthermore, that number is expected to increase over the holidays. No other country in the world has anything close to numbers.

09 Nov

Posted at 06:00h in Uncategorized

How tempting it is to leap ahead to the end—or simply to post a downcast photo of he-who-shall-not-be-named with the all-in-caps words: YOU'RE FIRED! How tempting to shout KAMALA DEVI HARRIS from the rooftop. But it's revealing to remember the process. This was the process. It’s Wednesday, the fourth, at dawn. I’ll be writing this in real time, in stages, adding on news breaks as they come—at least up to the moment when I must file this. I have no idea how long this will take. Weeks? A month? Agony. This is not what any of us were expecting. What we have got to keep in mind: 1) We told everyone to please be patient ; we cautioned everyone that this could take days or much more. We should listen to our own advice. 2) The razor edge margin of the vote in some places—say, Georgia—demonstrates the fortitude of those voters who stood for...

05 Oct

Posted at 06:00h in Uncategorized
Well, that was certainly dramatic: the debates, and then Covid 19. Still, we’re going to stay focused, persisting with our single in-depth subject related to the elections. The Post Office, The Census, the Debates, and today (brace yourself): The Electoral College.

21 Sep

Posted at 06:00h in Uncategorized

The census?! Who cares? Boring! Well, if you think you know all about the census, you haven’t been paying attention. Enshrining this particular political tool in our Constitution marked a turning point in world history. Previously, censuses had been used to tax, confiscate property, or conscript male youth into military service. The visionary genius of our Founders lay in making this tool of government into a tool of political empowerment for the governed over their government. The plan was to count every person living in the newly created United States of America, and to use that count to determine representation in the Congress. Right now, it’s being manipulated to do just the opposite. But unlike the Postal Service, another fundamental American institution under siege, it isn’t garnering public support, although this is the first time the census has been conducted since the rise of social media, and the first time...