From my catbird seat in Georgia just south of Chattanooga, Tenn., I watched agape on April 6, 2023, while racist Tennessee legislators kicked fellow elected officials out of their club. Democratic legislators Justin Jones, Gloria Johnson, and Justin Pearson sat through hours of “debate” about their offenses. What did they do to garner what may …
Continue reading “Expulsion Hearings for the Tennessee Three”
Daring Fireball: Fleets, We Hardly Knew Ye started with… I’ll resist dunking on Twitter for this, because I think it’s better for Twitter to try more new ideas — even if many wind up abandoned — than to find itself paralyzed by indecision over how to evolve the platform. …and pivoted to… Fear of letting the other side achieve …
Continue reading “Daring Fireball: Fleets, We Hardly Knew Ye”
Several weeks ago I signed up for journalist Dan Rather's free mailing list (there is a paid version too). As a recovering journalist, something he wrote recently touched on a topic I often consider; the endless and ever-expanding explosion of news content. For all the outlets, all the niches, all the competition, what does this …
History will remember the obvious horrors of 2020 including, hopefully, Trump’s reign of lunatic terror, pathological narcissm, and denial. It’s up to people like me and you to remember the effects of this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year. Bad News First I personally know people who suffered or died from a virus that …
During a communications conference I attended years ago, two comedians leading a session about improv introduced the concept of “Yes, and….” They explained it was always easier to take someone else’s idea and build on it in a positive way. Choosing “No, but…” is a negative path, they said, and can quickly suck the joy …
Scanning the audience who attend Trump's rallies, less-educated white voters seem to comprise his base. Could this lead to a political ouroboros of voters? An electorate that doesn't appear to understand their unrequited affinity for the president leads them on a doomed downward spiral as his economic policies swallow them whole to benefit the rich? …
Orson Welles Commentaries – Isaac Woodard Jr.: Orson Wells aired a powerful series of commentary broadcasts on ABC Radio from September 1945 through October 1946. Five of those episodes, which were dedicated to homebound veteran Isaac Woodard Jr., kicked off on July 28, 1946, with the reading of an affidavit that detailed the blinding of …
Anyone would benefit from this advice I hope members of the Democratic Party will keep a few things in mind after they retake control of whatever remains of our great American Republic. Don’t take on a holier-than-thou attitude. Never talk down to people. It makes you the lesser person. Don’t talk over people. It’s rude …
Watching the row of men toting long guns, marching shoulder-to-shoulder toward the capitol, sent a bead of cold sweat rolling down my back to meet the shivers crawling up my spine. This isn’t the opening of a new novella about the Civil War. It’s my recollection of watching spoiled middle-aged men threaten the government of …
Queen tells UK “we will succeed” against Coronavirus in rare address to the nation: Calm. Supportive. Encouraging. Hopeful. None of these words describe our lunatic president. If only a leader was here to provide such a message in the United States.
