Wade Rathke:

Pearl River     With hardly two weeks before the election in the United States, it’s down to the wire.  It will be interesting and important to see the final strategy and tactics each campaign employs.  Biden will be trying to protect his polling lead.  Trump will be desperately trying to play catchup.  There are definitely some […]

Pearl River     These days the phrase “progressive Christianity” sounds like a contradiction in terms, opposites attracting in the same sentence or something like that, or perhaps the last of a dying breed.  Not so, says Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, a religious activist, organizer, and author of Just Faith:  Reclaiming Progressive Christianity, who I spoke to at length […]

New Orleans       We’re on the election countdown, but, frankly, that’s been the case for almost four years, so in some sense, what’s new?  The polls don’t look good for the president, either nationally or in many of the battleground states. Some Republicans, like Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse are even […]

New Orleans      Maybe I’m wrong? Maybe I just woke up with a manic pandemic depression about the current pandemic depression?  Maybe it’s always like this, and I haven’t noticed it as much until lately, but it seems like every time I pick up the papers in the morning, I’m reading about some major league […]

New Orleans      There’s a bitter irony to the current charade called a confirmation hearing for a new justice to join the United States Supreme Court.  All of the players, including the nominee, pretend their concern is for the rule of law and the bedrock of the Constitution, while proving with every action and word […]

New Orleans      My ears perked up as I was listening to a radio broadcaster in Austin relate a story about a novel and dangerous police crowd control tactic used to break up a demonstration.  In his telling, a mobile squad of police bicycle cops swooped down on the protestors at breakneck speed, sending protestors […]

New Orleans      I’ll admit when I find myself agreeing, almost point by point, with Ross Douthat, the conservative columnist for the New York Times, I have to put my head in my hands for a temperature check to make sure I’m still of sound mind and body.  Nonetheless, I’ll also admit that I read […]

Pearl River      The Grassroots Radio Coalition is a loose confederation of various progressive community radio stations around the country.  We got involved with them when, to our surprise, they had an annual gathering in Hot Springs, Arkansas, of all places a couple of years ago.  Then, more recently, they screened The Organizer at their […]

Pearl River     Talking to Victoria Law on Wade’s World about the book, Prison By Any Other Name:  The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms, that she co-authored with Maya Schenwar, it was hard to escape the sense that “prison culture” has lapped up on the beach of one major institution after another.  Of course, as she […]

New Orleans        Whoa, you crazy gunsels!  Y’all have absolutely crossed a line here!  Planning to kidnap a governor?  Are y’all out of your freaking minds? This was really the news of the day.  The FBI arrested six conspirators in Michigan who had seriously considered, discussed, and planned kidnapping Governor Gretchen Whitmer and putting her […]