Wade Rathke:

Columbus        It’s hard to call Ohio a battleground state once you look out the window and see Columbus in the rearview mirror.  Trump-Pence signs dominate the roadways and car bumpers.  Few Biden-Harris signs can be seen until you traverse some of the towns along the way.  Dublin, Ohio, not far out from the state capitol […]

Washington, DC         In politics there is always tomorrow, not necessarily for the same candidate or party, but the people will be served after a fashion, and the positions will be filled. In this election, the peoples’ favorite wasn’t the reconstruction of the “blue wall” of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, not matter how fragile or temporary, […]

Pearl River     As part of the 50th anniversary of ACORN, we’ve talked to various leaders and organizers of ACORN over the years about their reflections on the organization and their time.  In that vein we talked to Steuart Pittman on Wade’s World. Steuart recounted his path with ACORN.  He had hired on in Chicago after […]

New Orleans        The election news and the lessons buried underneath the votes will continue to emerge, likely with better focus in coming weeks and months, but there are some voter verdicts that speak to some doors closing and some opening.  Trigger warning:  it’s a mixed bag of good and bad news. For the more […]

New Orleans       I’ve been a fan of Moxie Marlinspike since I first became acquainted with his encryption work years ago.  Ok, I admit, I also liked his name and his general thumb to the nose to the tech world, the military-industrial complex (remember them), and of course the police and governmental forces that want […]

New Orleans   An economist has won the Nobel Prize in no small part for identifying the problem of “confirmation bias.”  Simply put, we tend to find evidence that confirms our bias, and are often unable to sort out the facts from our predilections.  We all do it, and that may be part of the problem […]

New Orleans      This is Election Day in the USA.  Polls are open.  I’m calling this election decisively for former Vice-President Joe Biden, making President Donald Trump the loser.  I’ve worked and worried about this election for months and years, but all the signs I see, and many that have concerned me in the past, […]

New Orleans      It isn’t news that America has been increasingly divided with the wounds pushed open wider and wider by the president.  As the hours’ count down to the election, we have to wonder if Humpty-Dumpty can be put together, and, if so, what it might take to do so. The signs aren’t encouraging.  […]

New Orleans   I’ve read a shelf of books about populism over the years from my heroes with the Texas Alliance to the embarrassment of Tom Watson’s racism in Georgia.  As an organizer, I thought there was plenty to learn, and I’ve appreciated the lessons buried in the books.  Only later in life did I learn […]

New Orleans      We’re at Halloween, there’s a blue moon, and it’s a super-scary time with the election only days and hours away.  What me worry?  Hell, yes! I’m still fretting and fuming over various voter registration campaigns having, until very, very recently, ceded the work in the field to become zoombies, tele-workers, texters, and […]