Last Word

Assaulting the Status Quo with Ballots instead of Bullets: 21st Century Version

April 4th, 2018

"I do not believe that a democracy must necessarily become something other than a democracy to protect its national interests…We can prevent and publish the abuse of liberty by sabotage, disorder and violence without destroying liberty itself."
– U.S. Attorney General (later Supreme Court Justice) Frank Murphy, 1939

"We know what we want. We want gun reform. We want common sense gun laws…The people in office have failed us…We’ve had enough of ‘thoughts and prayers.’ So this is…

Putin’s ‘Pinocchio’ plays the peace card rather than face Mueller’s wood chipper

March 21st, 2018

“The thing to fear from the Trump presidency is not the bold overthrow of the Constitution, but the stealthy paralysis of governance; not the open defiance of law, but an accumulating subversion of norms; not the deployment of state power to intimidate dissidents, but the incitement of private violence to radicalize supporters…Trump gambled that Americans resent each other’s differences more than they cherish their shared democracy. So far, that gamble has paid off.”
– David…

Which airline is best for musicians?

March 14th, 2018

By Andrew Vait
https://www.facebook.com/andrewpaulvait

We made it to Austin! The sun and warmth feel good, but it was a hard day of travel and I think some of you guys might benefit from knowing what we learned today.

United checked our equipment in at SeaTac (Seattle-Tacoma International Airport) this morning and we were charged the full baggage fee of $120 for 4 bags and an additional $100 for an oversized piece of gear. Annoying but typical commerce transaction. At our gate, because of…

A brief thought experiment

March 14th, 2018

By Gary Olson
olsong@moravian.edu

Recently, I’ve tried to make the case that only presidential aspirants who are vetted by and acceptable to the oligarchic elite, deep state, plutocracy or whatever nomenclature you prefer, have any chance of reaching the Oval Office.

Further, as the chief administrative officer for the bourgeoisie, they often implement policies characteristic of a psychopath and do not feel guilty about it. Harsh as it sounds, as political analysis Michael Hago…

The gun debate: fear, sin, and human nature

March 14th, 2018

By Robert Drake
robert.drake2@gmail.com

Fear excites us. It gets us going. Our brains and our bodies are wired to react to fear. It’s part of the reason we survived as a species. Look! It’s a bear! Run!

But fear can also become a potent tool of manipulation.

During this intense period of public debate about gun control and school shootings, we must recognize when someone is pressing all the right emotional buttons to incite the primal reaction of fear in our brain and body.

We are wired…

The Lamoureux sisters

March 7th, 2018

Lamourex Forty-three North Dakotans have been honored with the rank of Colonel in the North Dakota Theodore Roosevelt Rough Riders since North Dakota began giving its highest award to its highest achievers in 1961. It’s time to make it forty-five.

The award was created by former Governor William L. Guy as part of North Dakota’s commemoration of the Dakota Territory Centennial, to recognize current or former North Dakotans “who have been influenced by our state in achieving national…

A confession (of sorts) and a radical’s lament

February 21st, 2018

By Gary Olson
olsong@moravian.edu

Radical: Derived from the Latin radix, which literally means the root or base. In political terms it means penetrating beyond conventional explanations and getting at the root cause of a problem.

In her book Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan Sontag puzzled over people who still express surprise about all the suffering in the world at human hands. She wrote, “No one after a certain age has the right to this kind of innocence, of superficiality, to this…

Determined dreamers and real indictments confront a counterfeit Moses

February 21st, 2018

“He (Abraham Lincoln) would have proven the best friend the South could have had and saved much of the wrangling and bitterness of feeling brought out by reconstruction under a President (Andrew Johnson) who at first wished to revenge himself upon southern men of better social standing than himself, but who sought their recognition, and in a short time conceived the idea…to become their Moses to led them triumphantly out of their difficulties.”
- Ulysses S. Grant, 1885

“(Kaiser)…

Why so little empathy and compassion within American culture?

February 14th, 2018

By Gary Olson
olsong@moravian.edu

The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas; the class which is the ruling material force in society is at the same time the ruling intellectual force.- Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

Setting aside the 3 to 4 percent of the U.S. population that can be classified as psychopaths (‘snakes in suits’ at the highest levels of government, business and the military), what can we say about an entire society that displays a culturally…

American politics: divided by a common language

February 14th, 2018

The Kremlin’s campaign to help Trump win the White House had a primary goal. That was to bring about an end to America’s economic embargo. (The secondary aim was to shove a finger in the United States’ preexisting social and ideological wounds. This had succeeded well enough.)…But it had backfired…Kremlin officials…had a poor understanding of U.S. institutional politics. They failed to appreciate the separation of powers or the constraints on a president—any president.
–…

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