Wade Rathke:

New Orleans       It’s one thing to feel powerless in the face of government like the Chinese ophthalmologist who died of the coronavirus after being reprimanded for warning colleagues in his hospital.  Poignantly, he said, “every country needs more than one voice.”  This is why we build organizations to confront power and create change.  What […]

New Orleans   Foundations created by corporations and the superrich are multi-headed monster of tax havens and public relations that combine to whitewash a story for the people down below that makes us swallow rather than spit.  The latest examples have Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder and world’s richest man, claiming to make climate change his […]

New Orleans    With the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency leading the way to gut the Community Reinvestment Act along with some other federal regulators, the last thing we should be doing is having to remind everyone, including the government and its legions of politicians, about the importance of stopping redlining of neighborhoods based […]

Columbus        Twenty-five people made their way into the Vanderelli Room in Columbus.  The art, performance, and all-around community space in the Franklinton neighborhood of the city near downtown had been offered to TrustVote and the Columbus Free Press as the venue for a matinee meeting entitled “Protect Your Vote.”  The overstuffed diner-style benches that bordered […]

Columbus        As the Voter Purge Project moves forward, we are now analyzing the voter files on more than a dozen states on our way to double that number in coming weeks, many of them include the hotly contested “battleground” states like Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan, and North Carolina.  The VPP is processing these lists with our […]

Houston       Let me start by saying, I have mixed feelings about Senator Bernie Sanders as a candidate for President, not on ideological grounds and not personal to him.  I’m just not sure that I’ve seen the candidate arise yet that I feel confident can beat President Trump.  I’m certainly not horrified at the Democratic Socialist […]

New Orleans       Ok, I’ll admit right off the bat that it’s not a movement.  It might not even be a trend, but perhaps we could call it a tendency.  I’m talking about the fact that big-time CEOs, tech founders, and others responsible for huge consumer and citizen calamities might finally be forced to face […]

New Orleans       It’s Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, so what better time to talk about the still unresolved, raw issues around race that continue more than 150 years after his death.  Evidence abounds that you can’t run from issues around race, as we examine increased scrutiny of Democratic presidential candidates, and their forced confrontations with the […]

New Orleans       We were watching a show on Amazon Prime called Distrito Salvaje or Wild District the other day that originates in Columbia.  The through line on the series is a former super guerilla-killa with FARC had come back to Bogota as part of the peace agreement but was so notorious that he was […]

New Orleans       Home ownership rates are declining globally for the first time in one-hundred years, while tenancy is rising.  I have mixed feelings about these trends. On the one hand, I hope that greater numbers of tenants equals more power in the bargains with landlords, and look to Germany and the rent freezes in […]