Commentary
To protect the right to vote, kill or change the filibuster
Democrats in the U.S. Senate recently introduced a new piece of legislation, the Freedom to Vote Act. This proposal represents the latest efforts by members of the Senate to pass comprehensive voting rights and pro-democracy legislation. Earlier legislation on these issues failed to advance in the Senate, in part because there was no clear path for […]
The big question for 2022: Just how badly will Democrats blow it?
Are you eagerly awaiting Joe Lombardo’s plan to mitigate impacts of the climate crisis in the nation’s fastest-warming state? Or Joey Gilbert’s five-point proposal to improve Nevada’s infamously inadequate mental health services? Or how about — that old salt– Dean Heller’s stance on health care reforms? Sorry. A Republican primary for Nevada governor in 2022 […]
Political orientation predicts science denial
Vaccine refusal is a major reason COVID-19 infections continue to surge in the U.S. Safe and effective vaccines have been available for months, but as of mid-September 2021, only 65% of eligible American adults are fully vaccinated. In many areas, a majority of eligible adults haven’t taken advantage of the opportunity to get vaccinated. […]
There he goes, into the wild red yonder
A couple weeks ago conspiracy-monger and putative Republican U.S. Senate nominee Adam Laxalt all but promised he’ll file lawsuits to discredit the 2022 election before it happens, and then sue some more after he loses. Just as his idol and endorser Donald Trump did for months prior to the 2020 election and continues to do […]
Why didn’t COVID make us question what the ‘pro-life’ movement is about?
Last week, my almost 19-year-old daughter stepped foot on her college campus to take classes for the first time (a year late thanks to the loud, selfish minority’s continual refusal to take COVID seriously). As I hugged her goodbye, it occurred to me that she now has fewer rights as a woman than I did […]
Slavery was the ultimate labor distortion – empowering workers would be a form of reparations
The conversation about reparations for slavery entered a new stage earlier in 2021, with the U.S. House Judiciary Committee voting for the creation of a commission to address the matter. The bill, H.R. 40, has been introduced every Congress since 1989 by Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee and John Conyers, until his death in 2019. But […]
Where Cortez Masto could end up to the right of Manchin: Mining
Unlike producers of coal, oil and natural gas on public lands, corporations that mine gold and other so-called hardrock minerals in Nevada and elsewhere in the U.S. have never had to pay federal royalties. Now there’s a bill for that. Actually there have been several bills for that, over several decades, but none have succeeded, […]
Vaccines for kids are coming but they can’t be rushed
For weeks, questions from concerned parents have poured in: Why isn’t the COVID-19 vaccine approved for children under age 12 yet? When will a vaccine for children be available? Can the vaccine be given off-label? These are all good questions, and the answers aren’t easy. After the SARS-CoV-2 virus was identified in late 2019, clinical […]
Republicans who would be a better U.S. senator than Adam Laxalt include…
Politics are polarized and elections are nationalized, to the point that qualifications, merits, or flaws of people seeking House and Senate seats have become incidental to party affiliation. If one party is going to win, it’ll win, it seems, whether that party’s candidate is a competent and accomplished public servant or a grifting carnival barker. […]
Is it a crime to forge a vaccine card?
Schools, businesses, the military and local governments are requiring proof of vaccination. Yet, unlike the European Union and Australia, which have secure digital proof of vaccination, the United States has not created a systematic way to track vaccinations around the nation. Most places in the U.S. instead rely on paper cards with handwritten notes, which […]
Caring for animals doesn’t only mean adopting one
“Out of the mouths of babes” has special meaning for my family. My kids and I started volunteering at a shelter where my daughter Kendall created a special bond with a dog named Athens. While we couldn’t take him home because our house was already full, Kendall wanted to do everything in her power to […]
Hey, GOP: There’s a museum in Montgomery y’all really ought to see
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — You walk out of the fierce summer sun into a shadowy forest of rectangular steel columns, row upon row of them, six or seven feet tall, covered in rust the color of dried blood. It takes a minute to adjust to the dim light. Then you begin to see the names inscribed […]