VOICES

VOICE IN THE CHEAP SEATS - I can't decide if Dick Platkin's latest “hit piece” (Why the Grove Mall cannot be scaled up to fix LA - 6/9/2022) is targeting the Grove or Rick Caruso or political corruption or just plain city planning that does not conform to his vision of an ideal city.

GUEST COMMENTARY - I am at a loss for words to express my horror as I watched the first segment of the public hearing of the Congressional committee investigating the January 6 insurrection.

GUEST COMMENTARY - Now that the verdict in the Depp-Heard trial is in, the media spectacle of the case may finally begin to die down.

DIVIDED POLITICS - As we look at the pictures from Uvalde, Buffalo, and other mass shootings, we’re having agonized conversation.

GUN VIOLENCE - Mass shootings are good for gun sales.

GUEST COMMENTARY - Usurping the fundamental rights of women to control their own bodies.

AMERICAN DICTATORSHIP - It's time to talk about what an American fascist government would look like.

ACCORDING TO LIZ - Did you vote? If you didn’t, you may be responsible for some of the unexpected consequences from Tuesday’s California primary election. 

THE VIEW FROM HERE - The US Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008) presents the nation with a constitutional nightmare.

GUN VIOLENCE - This year through June 8, 2022, there have been 18,971 gun violence deaths in the U.S., 8,477 homicides, murders, and unintentional deaths due to gun violence, and 10,494 deaths by suicide, according to the Gun Violence Archives.

GUEST COMMENTARY - Another terrorist slips into the classroom, into the news.

GUN LAWS - On Thursday morning, Democratic lawmakers gathered at the western steps of the state Capitol to commemorate victims of gun violence and orate on the need for tougher gun laws — both in California and nationally. 

GUN VIOLENCE - Every time there is news of a mass shooting in this country, we go through the same cycle.

GUEST COMMENTARY - Many UN agencies were created that have and continue to provide critically important assistance in many fields, saving the lives and wellbeing of millions of people.

GUEST COMMENTARY - I could barely look at the pictures of mothers crying in agony at the loss of their children to the gunman at Uvalde, Texas.

GUN VIOLENCE - In the days since the Uvalde shooting, media outlets have shared heartbreaking images of the small victims as they were cherished in life.

EQUAL RIGHTS - Three years ago, the U.S. women’s soccer team filed a $24 million gender discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation.

GUEST COMMENTARY - Today's six-member supermajority on the Supreme Court has surrendered all claim to being an impartial moral force for blind justice.

RUSSIA UKRAINE WAR - Peace advocates warned Tuesday that the Biden administration's newly unveiled decision to arm Ukraine with advanced missile systems further heightens the risk of a direct military conflict between the U.S. and Russia,

MY THOUGHTS - One has to be made of stone not to have been affected by the senseless mass shootings of the last three weeks.

LEGAL WOES - The irony was lost on no one last week when we learned that the parents of the mayor of Los Angeles have hired a professional lobbyist to make the case to the U.S. Senate that their son should be confirmed as ambassador to India (Los Angeles Times, May 24, 2022).