VOICES

MILITARY COMPLEX - Although critics of the Biden administration’s Build Back Better plan to increase funding for U.S. education, healthcare, and action against climate catastrophe say the United States Can’t Afford It, there are no such qualms about ramping up funding for the U.S. military.

WORLD PERSPECTIVE - Respect for the United States has skyrocketed around the globe now that former president Donald Trump is out of office.

LGBTQ POLITICS - Republican Josh Mandel can’t stop obsessing about transgender people and pronouns.

HEALTH CARE POLITICS - The emergency room. You go there for help when you’re really in trouble or have no place else to turn.

PETCARE - Question: What does a packet of M&M’s and your local veterinarian have in common? Answer: Both are owned by Mars Inc., the global candy monopolist.

COMMENTARY - Over the past decade, the woke agenda has crested like a giant tsunami, covering virtually the entirety of academia, the media, the corporate world and even the military.

PERSPECTIVE - I still remember sitting at home with my parents and watching the news clips of Colonel Colin Powell presenting the U.S. case for war against Iraq.

MISINFORMATION - I remember hearing it all the time, it was half joking and half serious, my father was a pediatrician and he’d say: take two pills and call me in the morning.

DEAR CITYWATCH - Why is Metro allowing unauthorized activists to redesign Colorado Blvd.

VOICES--Following today’s introduction of a City Council motion to suspend Mark Ridley-Thomas from his official duties due to federal felony bribery and fraud charges, L.A. Controller Ron Galperin announced that he will stop paying Mr. Ridley-Thomas’s salary if the suspension is approved:

CITY HALL--I don’t come from the political class. I was not groomed to become anything but an honest person.

PEACE VOICE - A year ago, when I Examined the lessons of hatred and political violence in the US, I made note of the ugly role dehumanization and hate played in the alt-right’s support of Donald Trump.

SOUTH OF THE 10 - I urge the City Council to immediately suspend Councilmember Ridley-Thomas just as they did after the arrest of former Councilmember Jose Huizar last year.

GUEST WORDS - In country after country around the world, people are rising up to challenge entrenched, failing neoliberal political and economic systems, with mixed but sometimes promising results. 

ANTI-SOCIAL MEDIA - So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night

COMMENTARY - If Colin Powell’s life has meaning, it is as a cautionary tale about the perils of going along to get along.

WORK FORCE - On September 14, a young woman in Louisiana named Beth McGrath posted a selfie Facebook video of herself working at Walmart.

LABOR WATCH - Labor advocates are calling it “Striketober.”

SPYWARE IN THE CLASSROOM - Since spring 2020, Minneapolis schools have been using an online surveillance application called Gaggle to spy on students’ online activity.

COURTING CHANGE - Progressive lawmakers and advocacy groups on Friday urged President Joe Biden to disregard the advice of a bipartisan panel he convened earlier this year and embrace Democratic legislation that would add four justices to the U.S. Supreme Court,

POLITICS & HATE - In the weeks since the 20th anniversary of 9/11, sensory memories of that disastrous day -- things I haven’t thought about in years – came flooding back.