VOICES

COMMON DREAMS-When the Palestinian Olympic delegation of five athletes -- adorned in traditional Palestinian attire and carrying the Palestinian flag -- crossed into the Tokyo's Olympic Stadium during the inauguration ceremony on July 23, I was overcome with pride and nostalgia.

WILDFIRE POLITICS-Northern California is on fire. Indeed, the entire U.S. West is suffering from a serve drought.

VOTING RIGHTS - Georgia has become the epicenter of the voting rights fight in the United States.

COMMENTARY - A recent poll came out from Emerson on the recall of Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, showing a statistically tied race among registered voters, 48 no, 46 yes.

This summer, it seemed as if we Americans couldn’t wait to return to our traditional July 4th festivities.

California’s great reformer, former Gov. Hiram Johnson, envisioned that “direct democracy” would be an effective curb on special interest influence.

The British social hierarchy of the Middle Ages and beyond was divided into “three estates of the realm”:the king, the clergy, and the commoners. 

VOICES - With an ugly, abject lack of empathy constituting what now feels like another deadly epidemic  - of not illness but ill will -

LGBTQ NATION - Quinn, a non-binary Canadian soccer player, has become the first out transgender person to win a medal at the Olympics. Quinn uses they/them pronouns.

ISRAEL MELTDOWN - Ben & Jerry’s decision to suspend its operations in the occupied Palestinian West Bank is an event that is proving critical to Palestinian efforts, which ultimately aim at holding Israel accountable for its military occupation, apartheid and war crimes. 

COMMENTARY - The press is predictably singing the praises of Simone Biles, Olympic women’s gymnastics team captain, for her shocking withdrawal from competition.

MY THOUGHTS - By now, George W Bush should have completed volumes one and two of his prison letters.