Bird of Ill Omens (aka Vinnie the Vulture, Pandemic Pal) On October 22, 2020, the US saw the largest reporting of new Covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic. Over 77,000 new cases were reported. In the Presidential debate that same evening, Trump once again repeated the falsehood that American had “turned the corner”... Continue Reading →
“The Great Evasion,” Building Community, and Masking
Frontier Con-Man In a previous post (On Radicalism, “Civil Disobedience”, and the “Anti-Lockdown” Protesters), I mentioned my old history professor, William Appleman Williams. Williams was a member of “antifa” (that is, a decorated executive officer in the US Pacific fleet during WWII). I believe he also marched with MLK and was targeted by Senator Joe... Continue Reading →
The “Covid Conniption”: A Star Trek A Parody in 7 short parts
“The Covid Conniption (part one…) The Starship Enterprise has returned to Earth from the distant future to the old earth year 2021. We are on the bridge… Chekov to Kirk: (excitedly) “Captain, I’m getting a recorded distress call from a continent on this planet.”Kirk:(tensely) “What does it say?”Chekov: (puzzled) “It just says, “Testing, testing, testing”... Continue Reading →
What Black Lives and Palestinian Lives Have in Common
A Cry for Justice What the lives of American people of color and Palestinians have in common is first and foremost that they both matter. To remind people of this simple fact is not to suggest that other lives don’t matter—that is just nonsense—a cheap distraction and sophomoric talking point. The point of the slogan... Continue Reading →
Larger Pandemic Lessons
Family Under Lockdown I don’t want to minimize the human suffering caused by the pandemic. Rather, I think taking a bigger view of it might help us alleviate a much wider occurrence of human suffering in the future. Step back a moment and consider the pandemic as a huge scientific experiment. Maybe it’s nature’s way... Continue Reading →
Trump’s Wuhan—Boo Hoo, Hoo, Hoo! Double Talk on China and the Dangers of “American Exceptionalism”
Trump’s double talk on the Covid-19/China connection is so transparent it literally takes the breath away. Transparency is not what one has come to expect from this administration. I guess I don’t mean real transparency, but the sheer obvious clumsiness of Trump’s lies and blaming. Consider the Trump argument: China knew about the... Continue Reading →
Mind-Cast 