VOICES

COMMENTARY - I remember finding out I was about to become a mother. I felt the fear taking hold of me. My brain stopped. I remember crying but had no tears. I remember trying to run, but I couldn’t move.

WORDS ON WAR - A recent New York Times op-ed was perhaps the strangest, most awkward and tentative defense of the military-industrial complex — excuse me, the experiment in democracy called America — I’ve ever encountered, and begs to be addressed.

DC RALLY - You know what they say: “Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice ... well, you can’t get fooled again.”

SUPREME VIEW - When Clarence Thomas wasn’t working as a mute-ass puppet for former Justice Antonin Scalia, he literally was a real-life mute who was apparently attempting to break the Guinness record for being the Black man on the highest court who had absolutely nothing to say about anything.

COMMENTARY-If the leading cause of death among police is COVID and 20% of the LAPD workforce is requesting exemptions (so they can be more efficient incubators of future variants?), where does that leave the residents of Los Angeles? 

COMMON DREAMS - Too often climate change is reduced to quantification of greenhouse glasses or melting ice caps.

GUEST COMMENTARY-In an op-ed entitled “Why California liberals turn into raging conservatives over housing,”

MEDIA MONOPOLIES-We have faced tough times before. World wars, famines, pandemics, economic ruin.

LGBTQ POLITICS - Noted queer academic Judith Butler accused transphobic feminists of allying with fascists in a new interview with The Guardian.

THE SENATE RULES - You’ve probably been hearing a lot about the filibuster these days. But here’s one thing about this old Senate rule you might not know: the filibuster actually violates the Constitution. 

CONSTITUTION WATCH - Bruce Fein, constitutional law specialist who has testified before Congress approximately 200 times, calls Congress “an inkblot.” Let’s see if he is exaggerating.

WAR LOOSE ENDS - I was a college student on 9/11. The ensuing “War on Terror,” anchored by the bombing and U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, has been with us ever since — virtually my entire adult life.