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Bending the moral arc of the universe, one achievement at a time
There are days, now more than ever in my life, when I don’t really know what direction “the arc of the moral universe” is bending. On March 31, 1968, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., quoting a 19th-century abolitionist and minister named Theodore Parker, used those words in what would regrettably be his final Sunday […]
The world’s latest wartime monument to human cruelty: Mariupol
Don’t look away. I know it’s hard to watch reports of the genocide unfolding in Ukraine. But the only thing worse would be to shrug and look away, to treat it all as just another tragic story about a distant and abstract horror that has little if anything to do with our everyday lives. Nothing […]
Only NATO can staunch the bloodbath in Ukraine — and it must
It’s time for NATO to do more than remain on the sidelines as Russian President Vladimir Putin slaughters the Ukrainian people. Putin has made clear he’s not going to end Russia’s unprovoked military invasion of Ukraine until the fledgling democracy is brought to its knees, even if that means wiping out Ukraine’s decisively outgunned defense […]
Here’s the real state of the union
Listening to President Biden Tuesday night, I wasn’t so much waiting to see if he’d make news as much as I was hoping he’d say something — anything — that wasn’t aimed at helping the Democrats win the November’s midterm elections. Without that win, the president’s agenda could be stopped in its tracks. It’s not […]
What do we care if Putin invades Ukraine? What if we don’t?
“War, children It’s just a shot away. It’s just a shot away.” — Rolling Stones The invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and the ensuing and needless slaughter of thousands of soldiers and civilians, seems all but inevitable now. “So, what do I care?” some of us may be asking ourselves. “It’s not our fight.” I […]
Census undercount and a biased redistricting process may curb AZ Latinos’ growing political clout
It wasn’t so long ago that Latino leaders in Arizona were predicting the community was poised to make major strides in growing its political influence across the state. Most observers thought the results of the 2020 Census would show the state’s Latino population wasn’t just growing fast, but also becoming a bigger share of Arizona’s […]
Sens. Sinema and Manchin, are these daggers I see before you?
Senate Democrats this week, 48 out of 50 of them at least, are set to vote on a bill aimed at crippling the Republicans’ now full-bore assault on voting rights in America. But the Democrats, 48 out of 50 of them, will almost certainly fail to rally the backing they need to pass the measure. […]
FDR’s back, and he’s got something to say about another ‘date which will live in infamy’
In a world of fantastical conspiracies and alternate political universes, the ghost of President Franklin D. Roosevelt returned today to mark the first anniversary of the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol with a fresh take on speech to Congress 80 years ago about the infamous attack on the Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor. Let’s […]
‘Redistricting’ may sound boring, but what if I told you the future of our democracy is at stake
The outcome of the so-called redistricting process well underway across the nation promises to have a profound effect on the lives of most Americans for at least the next 10 years.
Amid our country’s racial reckoning, Katie Hobbs’ apology may be too little, too late
I admit it. I’m disappointed that Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’ campaign to become Arizona’s next governor seems now to have all but imploded. Not that I had already decided to vote for her. I know better than to make a decision as important as that a year out from Election Day. The fate of […]
How what many labeled a quixotic recall movement led to the ouster of Arizona’s most powerful politician
One of the great stories in Arizona politics involves the recall 10 years ago this month of then-Republican Senate President Russell Pearce, the far-right author of the single most anti-immigrant bill in modern U.S. history, Senate Bill 1070. More commonly known as the “show us your papers” law, its passage wreaked terror in the immigrant […]
Meet ‘Paul Gosar the Titan slayer,’ Arizona’s white nationalist icon
Congressman Ruben Gallego got it right when he recently described his House colleague, Paul Gosar, as “Just an awful human being.” Gallego was commenting on the news that Gosar had posted an altered anime video of himself on Twitter, which he’s since removed, that depicted him executing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, by slashing the back […]