Hunger for Justice

Three asylum seekers of South Asian origin remain on a 90+ day hunger strike at the LaSalle Detention Center, an ICE processing facility in Jena, Louisiana.

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Warren vs. Sanders: a Clash of Classes

Now comes Hillary Clinton, adding gravy to Elizabeth Warren’s beef with Bernie Sanders by suggesting that he has a pattern of disparaging female opponents. One of them, former Vermont governor Madelyn Kunin, says Sanders called himself a better feminist then she and “urged people not to vote for me just because I was a woman.” Ouch! On the other hand, NOW has a history of endorsing men over women who don’t support their issues, and Sanders’ record has been good enough to earn him a 100 percent rating from the group. So, should you cast your ballot on the basis of Clinton’s assertion? Four years ago, I did.

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Patriarchal Prerogative

Why don’t people get that the conversation is bigger than “Did Bernie say it or didn’t he,” and that pointing to videos where he said encouraging things about their political ambitions to school girls 30 years ago does not address or resolve the issue?

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Here’s to 2020: A Letter from Beto

Beto sent this note to people who’d contributed to his presidential campaign. He’s kept in touch with them since he dropped out of the race. There’s nothing extra-special about his modest messages, yet they testify to his character and his clarity democracy can’t be a me-first thing. His notes hint he still has something more to give the American organizing tradition (if we let him)…

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Surprise Medical Billing: Outrage and Betrayal (Thy Name is Schumer)

Congress can rarely ameliorate even patent outrages.  We know this.  One person’s outrage is another person’s profit, and the profiteer usually has more cash and more leverage than the outragee.  But, it looked like one medical outrage was actually about to be solved, at least partially, by this highly partisan Congress, and highly partisan administration.

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Sympathy for BeYelzebub

The best line from Jesus is King, Kanye’s new gospel album, comes halfway though its brief 28 minutes. “I thought the book of Job was a job.” It’s classic Ye—self-deprecating, stupid-corny (in a fun way), and a little sad. It’s honest about the cause of his recent hard times: himself. Five years ago he was claiming celebrities are the new slaves. I think processing that in good faith made us all a little stupider. His candor now is refreshing.

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