The time has come to put people before procedure.

I think everyone has heard this about President Joe Biden. He spent more than 30 years in the Senate and has a great deal of respect for that institution and its traditions. That may be true but he needs to move past that. The time has come to look at those traditions and jettison those that are hampering things from being done to make the country better.

1. The filibuster needs to be reformed. Note: I did not say “abolished.” Way back in 2013, I wrote a piece for The Daily Banter, “In defense of the filibuster.” In that article, I…

More needs to be done but wages seem to be going up

Like many progressives, I was disappointed when the Senate failed to include an increase to the minimum wage in March. Unlike many progressives, it wasn’t a “make or break” moment for me because a, that amendment didn’t go far enough (raising the minimum wage to $15/hour by 2025 is too little, too late), b. it can still be done and maybe the bill will be better — like $22/hour sooner than 2025, and c. that’s not the only way to raise wages.

There were things that were included in the Covid Relief Bill that have helped people. (Side note: Another…

No, I don’t care for Donald Trump but I am not going to lie. I find all things Qanon to be fascinating. I think Michael Flynn’s recent statements strange but strangely, like a car wreck on the road, I cannot look away.

Before Flynn fell in with Qanon and Trumpworld, he had a long and respectable career. He served in the military for years — and gets a pension of more than $100,000 every year. He served as the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) under President Obama. During that time he also served as the commander of the Joint Functional…

If you follow tennis or sports, you probably know that tennis superstar Naomi Osaka dropped out of the French Open yesterday. She had run afoul of the tennis authorities when she said she wasn’t going to do any of the mandatory press conferences. She cited her mental health.

The response to Osaka’s decision was swift. She was fined $15,000 and threatened with being forced out of the French Open and denied access to other Grand Slam events. So yesterday, she took to Twitter:

Osaka wanted out. She said she needs time away from the court. I find it an…

When I was growing up when a woman was raped people would ask, “what was she wearing? What was she doing?” As if, wearing the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing made raping her ok. That has changed (a little) but we do that when Black and Brown people are killed by the police. We expect the victims of a system they did not develop or maintain to be able to fix it. That is ridiculous and it has to stop.

When the verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial came out, I cried out with relief that he was…

Wow! I cannot wait to read your novel!

Twenty-seven years ago today, President Juvénal Habyarimana’s plane was shot down as he returned from peace talks in Tanzania with the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). This event sparked the genocide where at least 800,000 people were butchered by people they had known all of their lives. People picked up machetes and killed friends, family, and coworkers.

Paul Rusesabagina was a hotel manager for the Sabine Hotel franchise and worked at the Hotel des Milles Collines. He didn’t set out to be a hero. He has said that the question shouldn’t be why he acted the way he did but why…

It’s never fun to say “I told you so” but we told you so.

At the beginning of the trial in the iconic film, A Few Good Men, Kevin Bacon’s character starts his opening statement by saying, “These are the facts of the case and they are undisputed.” He is referring to how the character William Santiago died. In the case of Rwanda vs. Paul Rusesabagina, there are also facts that are not in dispute. The facts in question here are that Rusesabagina was kidnapped and taken to Rwanda.

Everyone working on Rusesabagina’s behalf has been making this argument since he was kidnapped last August. You can only imagine how happy I was when…