Commentary
The victims weren’t a priority for their caretakers or the police
At every point in the story about migrant children being the victims of abuse at the hand of Southwest Key shelter employees, you see the same thing: People more concerned with covering their asses than actually protecting these vulnerable children.
Trump’s presidency is ‘the line beyond which’ we will not go
No matter how woke I thought I was, the 2016 election was a life-altering sucker punch I never saw coming. Like most Americans, I didn’t appreciate how fragile freedom could be.
AZ Dems need to stop supporting regressive taxes and fees
Not all taxes are created equal, and Democrats need to stop putting their stamp of approval on ones that harm Arizona’s most vulnerable residents.
With Kyl’s retirement, anonymous media posturing aims to persuade Ducey
And along with the public speculation come news articles, based largely (if not entirely) on anonymous sources, that are thinly veiled attempts to pressure Ducey to take a specific action. In the case of filling the soon-to-be vacant Senate seat, the warring camps within the Republican Party are fighting over Martha McSally.
Beyond the scandals, Trump’s enmity for immigrants is becoming institutionalized
One of the problems with Trump’s scandal-ridden administration, aside from the scandals themselves, is that the media frenzy about the scandals makes it harder to notice the long-term damage being done to vital government agencies. A case in point: the U.S. immigration system.
All it takes sometimes is a single voice to speak out
Are there no courageous House Republicans? One of their colleagues, Rep. David Stringer, has been caught on tape – not once, but twice – uttering racist sentiments and voicing his contempt for immigrants of all kinds, but particularly those who aren’t from European countries and have a darker complexion than the people Stringer thinks make […]
Three needed reforms to rein in charter school profiteering
We’ve been reading about it for months. Charter school CEOs, including a powerful Arizona legislator, are making millions off publicly funded charter schools. Oh, well, we shrug. They took a risk, invested money, and made a profit. That’s what businesses do. Except Arizona charter schools aren’t supposed to function like private sector businesses. Rather, they […]
Remind me again why not everyone is calling on this white nationalist to resign?
Stringer hasn’t yet publicly said he is a white nationalist, but it’s clear from his writings that he is, as he has written at length espousing views that have their roots in unabashedly racist organizations like Stormfront.
Make America Generous Again
We want to help our neighbors, but for some reason, the same individuals we gladly assist during the holidays are scorned and vilified when their assistance comes not from a charity or church, but instead from a government institution.
What Democrats need to do next
Democrats have pulled off a miracle – the most seats in the Arizona House in 50 years. They even eked out a U.S. Senate seat and a few statewide offices. There are thousands of progressive activists, first-time candidates and volunteers to thank. Democratic leaders need to be careful about what they do next.
Trumpism and the browning of Arizona’s blue wave
I believe Arizona’s political watershed is the product of two key underlying forces: outright GOP arrogance, fueled by strong strains of bigotry, greed and faux evangelicalism; and the explosive growth of the Latino population.
Republican ‘fraud’ strategy only works because people want to believe the lies
They want to believe, with as much sincerity as they’re able to trick themselves into faking, the fantasy that there is fraud, that there is a conspiracy to steal political power away from them, that their political opponents are evil and their time in positions of power will be nightmarish. Facts that refute the lie are instead used as evidence of the conspiracy, and truth-tellers become conspirators. Why?