Politics
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Eau de Bull: A Cologne of Arsenic and Environmental Racism for Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Wood
The Justice Department’s Environmental and Natural Resources Division is responsible for enforcing compliance with federal environmental laws. So to find that the fingerprints of coal lobbyist-turned-ENRD acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Wood are on an environmental-racism scandal is, actually, pretty par for the course with the Trump administration. In 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency found…
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NRA Recruitment Video Basically Labels the Left Violent Snowflakes
The National Rifle Association has proved once again that it’s not only gun-crazed but also contradictory when it comes to talking about those who oppose its views: the “left.” In a recent video posted to the NRA’s official Facebook page as a recruitment tool, the group references “they” quite often while never really saying who…
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Flint, Mich., Water Crisis: How Much Is Gov. Snyder Responsible?
We knew the Flint, Mich., water crisis had poisoned people—now the investigation has reached the point of manslaughter charges. Along with several others, Nick Lyon, director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, was charged June 14 with misconduct in office and involuntary manslaughter for his role in the crisis—specifically, for failing to…
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Sen. Cory Booker and Rep. John Lewis Host Sit-In on Capitol Steps to Protest Health Care Bill
On Monday night, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) sat down on the steps of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., to host a sit-in to protest the health care bill the Senate is currently debating. The Better Care Reconciliation Act was recently revealed after being kept tightly under wraps…
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Senate Judiciary Committee Investigating Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch
The Senate Judiciary Committee is investigating alleged political interference by then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch during the FBI’s investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as part of its examination into the circumstances surrounding the removal of James Comey as FBI director. In a news release on his Senate…
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How Information Overload Turns Into Writer's Block
My morning ritual is pretty consistent. I hop up out my bed, turn my swag on, I look myself in the mirror and say “what’s up!?”. Every morning. That is followed by my morning constitutional where I catch up on the news. And there is always news. In fact there is so much news nowadays…
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Trump: There Are No Comey Tapes Because I’m a Liar (OK, He Didn’t Say the Liar Part)
I told y’all there weren’t any Trump-Comey tapes, but I refuse to take a victory lap for this one because anyone with a ninth-grade education and cable television in their home knew that there weren’t any tapes of the conversations between the former FBI director and the president. On Thursday the president used Twitter, as…
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Congressional Black Caucus: Trump and His Administration Don’t Care About Black People
Rep. Cedric L. Richmond, Democrat from New Orleans and chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, wrote a three-page letter Wednesday to Donald Trump declining his invitation to the CBC to meet with him, and outlining the many reasons the group as a whole is saying no. In a letter dated June 21 (pdf), Richmond opened…
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It’s Time to Revive the Heart of the Voting Rights Act
Fifty-three years ago today, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were murdered in Mississippi, where they had gathered to register black voters as part of Freedom Summer. Their murders, and the brutal treatment of voting rights marchers in Selma, Ala., less than a year later, galvanized support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965—one…