Politics
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Politics, Lies and a Mixtape? The Unlikely Rise and Probable Fall of Ben Carson
How do you explain a phenomenon like Ben Carson? Even better, how do you explain a phenomenon like Ben Carson in our 24-hour news cycle, which is amped by the media methamphetamine that is social media? When I first started this story Wednesday, it was going to be an in-depth look into how Ben Carson,…
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5 Ways the Tuesday Elections We Missed Ended Up Hurting Black People
You can’t say we didn’t warn you, because we did. And after all that protesting noise all year about the plight of black folks under the boot of racist police, it’s quite sad that no one thought to strike this year’s electoral iron while it was test-run hot. But, in case you didn’t know, this…
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Obama to Announce Plan to Promote Rehabilitation and Reintegration for Former Inmates
President Barack Obama has been tackling criminal-justice reform with a vengeance, and on Monday the president plans to take his efforts a step further, announcing new initiatives to help former offenders successfully reintegrate into society. According to the White House, President Obama plans to announce actions that include access to education grants, an arrest guidance for…
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Boko Haram’s Horrifying Trend: Girls Used as Suicide Bombers
In case you were wondering, the group formerly known as Boko Haram didn’t go away. The vicious band of militant Islamists wrecking West Africa is using women and girls to stage a comeback. To date, there have been 53 female suicide bombers in 2015. “No terrorist group in history has used as many female suicide…
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Flat Taxes and Tithing: How the GOP Candidates Plan to Affect Your Wallet
Bills have a due date. People need jobs. And the government is never shy about taking out its portion before you get your paycheck each month. Wednesday night’s debate in Boulder, Colo., was all about your money, or at least that is what was hoped. Per the usual, the moderators got sidetracked in their lines…
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The Walking Jeb: How Jeb Bush’s Campaign Has Become the Living Dead
One of the best things about adult Halloween is that you have no pretense about what you’re really dressing up for. As a kid, it really mattered that you looked like Lando Calrissian or Donatello or a witch. As an adult, you know it’s all for fun, you’re not fooling anyone, and we all know you aren’t…
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Can We Stop Pretending That Ben Carson Is Running for President?
There was a time when running for president was actually a money-losing venture. In fact, over the last 30 or so years, most presidential candidates (including some who actually won) ended up with tremendous debts after the campaign. Being in the red during and after a campaign was so common that paying off a former…
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‘We’re Arresting the Wrong People’: Top Cops Talk the Talk on Reform
“Police departments cannot be at war with the communities they serve,” said Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck in Washington, D.C., Wednesday. “The criminal-justice system is not really broken. It’s producing the results it was designed to produce, and those are the wrong results. We have to change the way we think about crime,” said Chicago…
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Why Most Black Voters Still Aren’t Feeling Bernie Sanders
Let many a progressive pundit and New Hampshire poll tell it, and Bernie Sanders is catching fire. Raking in a cool $2 million postdebate, the Vermont senator is the hottest thing since his one-hit-wonder state compatriot, the former Gov. Howard Dean, in 2004. Look at other polls and he’s either catching up or “neck and…
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Gun Control and the Disarming of the Black Community
I hate to say it, but Ronald Reagan was the father of the modern gun-control movement in America. Of course, that was at a different time in this country, when Reagan was governor of California and black radicals had taken over the Statehouse toting machine guns and chanting “Black power.” At that time, the solution to…