Wade Rathke:

New Orleans     The New York Times print edition featured a two-page spread overlaying the map of the United States in a special Black Lives Matter section.  Across the map were the names of the 2000 cities and towns where there had been protests in a recent two-week period against racism and police brutality.  This […]

New Orleans     Whether it’s a moment or a movement, some things are different this time than they have been in the past.  One encouraging and crucial difference is the fact that the money is coming from the small donors interested in change rather than control.  This time it’s the public, not institutions, churches, the […]

New Orleans      Businesses are madly lobbying Congress for liability protection from lawsuits by their workers.  They are clear that they want their staff to return to work, but they do not want to have to vouch for their health on the job.  Business must be worried that if their boy doesn’t make it back […]

Pearl River      For years the tag line on my blogs and podcasts has been, “You take it from here to there.”  It’s time to raise up the names of some of the people who have done exactly that in trying to make sure there was justice when it came to police brutality and racism.  The […]

Pearl River      The coronavirus pandemic continues unabated as it rises and falls from state to state and country to country.  Healthcare institutions have been bent, but largely not broken in the United States.  Meanwhile experts are divided on whether by the end of the year we will have 180,000 or 200,000 deaths with the only […]

New Orleans     All around the world this is a familiar story, often marking the beginning of the end for dictators, autocrats, and even elected leaders that have outstayed their peoples’ welcome.  There’s a direct correlation, approaching an iron law, in so many countries that when popular support disappears, such leaders depend on the support […]

New Orleans      Ol’ Donald Trump dropping like a rock with no one to catch his fall.  He doesn’t want to talk about race, because he sounds even more the fool than usual.   Most recent example was his description of George Floyd, hardly in his grave after being killed by the police as “having a […]

Pearl River     It’s totally over now.  No way of pretending that sports and politics are not welded at the hip, peas in the same pod anymore.  Of course, this has been true forever, but the cultural and corporate presumption, when it served the interests of power, were to pretend they were separate and totally different.  […]

Little Rock      There have been ten days of protests now over the death of George Floyd, a black man, at the hands of the Minneapolis police.  The issues are clear:  police brutality that manifests the systemic, unresolved racism in America.  People are stirring.  The streets are full.  Rage and solidarity have replaced social distancing.  The […]

Little Rock      While America burns, Trump inflames and divides, Facebook vacillates and postures.  Mark Zuckerberg and his number two executive Sheryl Sandberg seem to have no moral compass at all. Facebook once was a semi-harmless tool that enabled social networks of family and friends to easily connect and share news, pictures, and information.  Those days […]