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Author: Op Ed

Public accuses heavily armed Texas police of cowardice for doing nothing to stop Uvalde shootings

Public accuses heavily armed Texas police of cowardice for doing nothing to stop Uvalde shootings

Posted by | May 31, 2022

Turns out, tough Texans in Stetsons are not so tough. The excuses offered by police in Uvalde to excuse their cowardice only confirm their cowardice. Nineteen armed police stood in an elementary school hallway and did nothing for more than an hour while an armed teenager murdered 19 children pleading for help and the two teachers who perished trying to protect them. That, by any measure, is cowardice. It was not a “wrong decision.” It was cowardice. If only one of the 19 armed police – who apparently waited for 78 minutes for a key to charge into the...

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Maybe it is time to start doubting that the Democratic party can save America from rightwing machinations

Maybe it is time to start doubting that the Democratic party can save America from rightwing machinations

Posted by | May 29, 2022

When the floodwaters are at our shoulders, when the school boards require a fair hearing to be given to the Nazi position, when capitalism’s ecocide has Mad Max’d every temperate zone, depopulated every savannah, killed every polar bear and when war, disease and debt empty another truckload of disposable people into the abyss, there will be a Democrat on TV preaching that the next election is the most important one of our lives. In January, White House press secretary for the Biden administration Jen Psaki advised people who felt “emotions” about the failure of voting rights legislation to pass...

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Sociology of Evil: Why Ukraine’s new language of war uses Tolkien’s metaphor to express Russian brutality

Sociology of Evil: Why Ukraine’s new language of war uses Tolkien’s metaphor to express Russian brutality

Posted by | May 8, 2022

I am a big fan of J.R.R. Tolkien and his work. This admiration spans for almost a quarter of a century, however, this dedication is nothing more than a hobby without any academic aspirations. So when the Russians were starting to be called orcs after the invasion, a friend of mine half-jokingly asked me to explain the possible relevance of this metaphor in terms of Tolkien mythology. Back then, I laughed at this idea, any op-ed on this issue would be simply regarded as ‘trolling’ and not a serious analysis. However, the thought never truly left my mind as...

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When Wisconsin parents yell fire after ensuring their unsupervised children have matches and gasoline

When Wisconsin parents yell fire after ensuring their unsupervised children have matches and gasoline

Posted by | Apr 5, 2022

For any casual observer of Milwaukee’s 2022 election season, the biggest topic of debate between candidates for Mayor has been the issue of crime, and by extension handguns. The subject has been a dog whistle used by White people for targeting the Black community, and blaming them for the problems created by White society. It is basically a metaphorical house fire designed by White institutions so it cannot be extinguished, while also offering the incentive of adding gasoline to earn more rewards. Both candidates, Cavalier Johnson and Robert Donovan, have attended seemingly endless public forums where moderators or community...

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Suffering for art: What Mikhail Baryshnikov gets wrong about being punished for a nation’s sins

Suffering for art: What Mikhail Baryshnikov gets wrong about being punished for a nation’s sins

Posted by | Mar 22, 2022

The Creative Arts have always been a bridge in times of trauma. They can inspire a population struggling with the daily impact of trauma, and teach lessons to later generations who were not alive during such times. Music and dance have also helped bridge cultural divides, and were some of the most productive cultural exchanges between the United States and the Soviet Union during the long Cold War. But with Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine and an international backlash to all things Russian, the dynamics of neutrality for the Arts has changed. The sins of a government are not...

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For China’s own sake President Xi Jinping should pressure Putin to end his war against Ukraine

For China’s own sake President Xi Jinping should pressure Putin to end his war against Ukraine

Posted by | Mar 13, 2022

Apologists of Russian President Vladimir Putin around the world continue to hold that he is a “realist” and “a rational actor,” and blame his invasion of Ukraine on the West breaking its 1989 promise to not expand NATO eastward. Following this line of argument, the most logical solution to the current conflict, they argue, is to allow Russia to reabsorb Ukraine into its sphere of influence. True realists, including those in Beijing, need to abandon this outdated and meritless argument as soon as possible. Putin is clearly no longer the merciless but rational autocrat he once was. Justifying Putin’s...

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