Strange Sound

Some of the people lamenting the loss of Rep. John Lewis are the same folks who played an instrumental role in rolling back the achievement he bled for more than fifty years ago. This week I talk briefly about how to truly honor this great and good man. 

More:

When some of the biggest corporations on the planet start climbing onto the Black Lives Matter movement, it tells us something about what works in American politics. This week I talk about that and why these people are still total asshats. 

More stuff: 

In this episode of Strange Sound, I look at white privilege from a personal perspective as someone who grew up in a monochrome small town (a.k.a. Land of a Thousand Mulligans) and talk about how that bears on the current conversation about race. 

More Stuff: Book suggestions for white people

On a broad range of foreign policy issues, the opposition to Trump is as bad and in some cases even worse than Trump himself. This week I talk briefly about what progressives need to do to break with the broad front of #resistance imperialism and chart a new course. 

From a strictly political standpoint, white supremacy in America is kind of a four-legged stool. I take a brief look at the four legs and offer some thoughts on how we might move forward towards a more diverse, progressive nation. 

More:

This week I consider the age old question of which strategy progressives should pursue - direct action or elections. Hint: we need to do both, and the last three weeks of street protests have shown us why. 

Other Stuff:

For decades conservatives have tried to paint the left as wine-sipping elitists out of touch with the common man (and yes, I mean man). I look at the present-day manifestation of that familiar trope and attempt to trace its Nixonian provenance. 

More:

More than most of his predecessors, this president appears to have a very expansive notion of the powers of his office. In this episode I encourage my dear listeners not to feed the troll, so to speak, by suggesting that he can do shit that he ... well ... can't do. Like cancel election day. Or outstay his term. 

Learn More:

Unimpressed by Joe Biden's "bold ideas" on foreign policy? Hard question to answer, since he hasn't offered any. In this installment of Strange Sound, I ponder Biden's reluctance to go on the record about key issues of war and diplomacy and suggest some possible reasons for it. 

Learn more:

Go to https://joebiden.com/joes-vision to see how little Biden has to say on foreign policy. (Fair warning: If you follow this link, you will be asked to donate to the campaign multiple times. THIS IS NOT AN ENDORSEMENT.)  

America's health care dance is a kind of morbid two-step: step one is the trauma of the illness itself; step two is paying the bill for step one. In this episode I talk about the second trauma, my own experience with it, and what that suggests about the bankruptcy of our public health system. 

More on this topic:

National Nurses United Medicare for All site