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Chicago Race Riots of 1919: violence that cemented the city’s segregation
Posted on July 10, 2019 Leave a Comment
On July 27, 1919, a hot summer Sunday 100 years ago, Chicago’s beaches were packed with people trying to beat the heat. Some black youths were playing on a makeshift raft launched from the 29th Street Beach, popular with the African-American community. As the raft drifted over an imposed “invisible line” that separated black swimmers […]
North Carolina election fraud case evokes a history of U.S. election scandals (UPDATE)
Posted on December 11, 2018 Leave a Comment
What looks more and more like blatant election fraud in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District is being seen as a case of how to steal an election. But that wouldn’t be the first time in American history that such outright election fraud had occurred. Despite the constant screeching by Donald Trump and other Republicans about […]
Is Steve Bannon Donald Trump’s Rasputin? Da!
Posted on February 6, 2017 1 Comment
It has become painfully obvious who is running the show at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And it ain’t the guy with the orange skin. The moniker “President Bannon” has become common when describing the white nationalist serving as Donald Trump’s alt-right-hand man: former Breitbart honcho Steve Bannon. But that description, while capturing the ultimate power grab, doesn’t accurately encompass the […]
Recalling election night 2008 in Grant Park: Thanks, Obama
Posted on October 10, 2016 Leave a Comment
As the Obama presidency winds down, we all have memories of times over the last eight years of how Barack Obama showed us what it means to be a successful president. These are my memories, starting at the very beginning. Election night 2008 was really a time of hope. Even Mother Nature cooperated; the temperature that […]
Women politicians owe a debt to … Phyllis Schlafly?
Posted on September 12, 2016 Leave a Comment
Phyllis Schlafly, the grande dame of the anti-feminist movement, has died. So she won’t be around to watch if and when Hillary Clinton is sworn in as the nation’s 45th president on Jan. 20, 2017. Schlafly is being remembered in many ways: as a fervent anti-Communist; as the self-published author of A Choice Not an […]
Splintered parties lose elections: Lessons from past presidential campaigns
Posted on April 4, 2016 Leave a Comment
We can all watch and enjoy the disarray, confusion, disgruntlement, and sheer terror on the Republican side during this presidential election season. Betting markets, according to a story on Huffington Post, now put the odds of a contested GOP convention as high as 61 percent. The GOP establishment shudders at the thought of real estate […]
Women voters: Their growing influence in politics and policy
Posted on March 21, 2016 Leave a Comment
In 2016, it’s hard to imagine a time when women in the United States weren’t allowed to vote. Yet it’s been less than a century in this country, and even less than that in other places around the globe, when women weren’t allowed to have a voice at the polls. Women (well, white women, anyway) […]
Presidents and cartoons: You think Obama gets dissed? Look what Abe Lincoln faced
Posted on February 15, 2016 Leave a Comment
Few would disagree that President Obama has faced an unprecedented amount of vitriol during his time in office. The Photoshopped images of his head on witch doctor bodies, the vicious anonymous attacks on social media, the hateful comments on websites, the death threats, the liberal use of the “n” word — we’ve all seen and […]
Political Murder 