“Madam Speaker, the President of the United States!” “My fellow Americans, I’ve come to talk about rebuilding America …” POLITICS Partisan gridlock threatens democracy. America “did not flinch” when faced with insurrection. But democracy is being “tested” and “we have to prove[...]
Archive for the ‘America’ Category
“Greater Idaho” movement wants to redraw state lines
Idaho legislators are “intrigued but skeptical” about a scheme “to lop off about three-fourths of Oregon,” plus some northern California counties, and add those areas to Idaho to create “the nation’s third-largest state” by moving existing state boundaries, a Lo[...]
U.K. is sending an aircraft carrier to the South China Sea
A British fleet that includes an aircraft carrier will sail in May to make port calls in 40 Asian-Pacific countries, CNN reported on Tuesday, April 27, 2021 (read story here). It’s a classic “show the flag” voyage designed to glad-hand friends, display military power, and test capa[...]
Why doesn’t Canada have our gun problem?
In an essay published on CNN (read it here), an American college professor in Toronto writes: “You can’t read these news stories [about mass shootings] and believe that US gun laws are working.” Uh, duh. You don’t need a Ph.D. to see that. Canada isn’t violence-free, b[...]
Biden’s border strategy
While Republicans fulminate about the flood of refugees besieging the southern border, Biden — with Harris acting as his point person — wants to tackle the crises driving them to the border. “Harris and other administration officials on Thursday laid out a new approach to the regio[...]
The GOP’s goofy arguments against D.C. statehood
The House passed a D.C. statehood bill (again) on Thursday, April 22, 2021, without a single Republican vote (read story here), but there’s no way it’ll pass in the Senate unless the filibuster is done away with (and even then, it’s not clear every Democratic senator is on board), [...]
Biden to recognize Armenian genocide
Biden “is expected to formally recognize the massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during and after World War I as an act of genocide,” Reuters reported on Wednesday, April 21, 2021 (read story here), noting this is “likely to infuriate Turkey and further strain already fraye[...]
How to reform police
More selective hiring, better training and supervision, for starters. And weeding out bad cops. Former Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson told CNBC, “I think we need to look at the whole system. Create a network where bad officers, if they’re put in this network, they can’t conti[...]
America’s “rare earths” problem
So-called “rare earths” are naturally-occurring metals with unique applications for electronics, magnets, lasers, glass, and industrial processes, which are increasingly in demand because of the proliferation of electric vehicles, smartphones, and other emerging technologies. (Read detai[...]
Negotiation and compromise (cartoon)
This cartoon is meant as humor, but contains a truism: Despite Biden’s bipartisan aspirations, realistically Democrats can’t negotiate with Republicans because they stonewall and their positions are unreasonable. Nor do Republicans represent America; their 50 senators were elected with 4[...]