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Braun campaign ad begs the question: What is he running for?
I was watching the IU men’s team play its first Big Ten game against Maryland with a friend on Friday night when I saw it. During the game’s first time out, Mike Braun’s newest commercial in his campaign for Governor of Indiana ran. When it was done, we turned and looked at each other for […]
The resurgence of union power is bigger than money
The Portland Public Schools (PPS) and the Portland Association of Teachers (PAT) reached a tentative agreement to their labor dispute on Sunday. The impasse had led to a three-week strike, cancelling eleven instructional days in Oregon’s largest school district. Students returned to the classroom Monday. The highlights of the dispute weren’t novel. Teacher pay was […]
Giving like Carters and Corums is worthy of thanks
It’s that time of year again. The emotions, expectations and traditional series of events converge for six weeks to make up what we refer to as “the holidays.” Viewing the goings on around us this opening week of the season might lead one to believe that we all kind of approach Round One the same […]
Like an island, Indiana is surrounded, and it’s gonna cost us
With a few vital exceptions across America, the 2023 election was scheduled to deal with local government. Tip O’Neill famously coined the phrase, “all politics is local.” Oh, if the former Speaker of the House, who held the gavel for virtually all of the 1980’s, could see the America we are living in today. O’Neill’s […]
Republican treasurers pander to Israel with retirees’ money
This one surprised even me. Indiana State Treasurer Daniel Elliott announced last week the state would purchase $35 million of additional Israel Bonds, a 55% increase of the $65 million Indiana already held. Not announcing the purchase would have been suspicious. A quiet announcement with no additional commentary would be equally so. Either of these […]
Pence exits presidential race and confirms the end of conservatism
Las Vegas specializes in making money off of people who just can’t walk away. But on Saturday in Sin City, that’s exactly what former Vice President Mike Pence did. An ironic place for the most pious politician I’ve covered to announce what will likely be the end of his political career. It was a long […]
Unprecedented chaos in Congress grew from a familiar fever
“A Fever in the Heartland” vividly explains many things about our past. It makes our present feel like a predictable continuum of the same awfulness. The book’s subtitle, “The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and The Woman Who Stopped Them,” gives context to the story for those who haven’t read it yet. […]
Foreign wars are no justification for racism in the homeland
It occurred on February 19, 1942, following the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan two months earlier. President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, “with the stated intention of preventing espionage on American shores.” What the order actually did was one of the greatest atrocities committed by the United States in its history: the […]
War in Israel further highlights dysfunction in U.S. Congress
As news of the horrific attacks in Israel by Hamas began reaching us on Saturday morning, I wondered how long it would take for the political machines in America to begin making it all about us. The clarity to my wonder came quickly. It was almost immediate. At 11:03 a.m. on Saturday is when I […]
‘Dumb Money’ is wasted on governor’s ads about nothing
I saw the new movie, “Dumb Money,” on Friday night. The movie tells the stories of several people, whose only connection to one another was their varied roles in the meteoric ride GameStop took on the stock exchange in 2021. Combined, these stories convey how complicated the concepts of value and values can be. The […]
The rules of decorum include a dress code but go further than hoodies and shorts
It was initially a quiet move made by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer last week. As reported by Axios on September 17th, the senate leader had apparently directed the Senate Sergeant at Arms to no longer enforce the chamber’s long standing dress code. The code was not changed, modified or modernized. It was, in […]
Don’t like your state’s politics? Just move the state line
Oh, to have the fantastical enthusiasm of a group of people in eastern Oregon! Yes, I meant “fantastical,” not fantastic. A group of Oregonians have decided that the best remedy to solve their disagreements with their home state is to have their Oregon turf be ceded to Idaho. That’s right. Citizens for Greater Idaho is […]