Category Archives: Politics

Supreme Inequality: The Supreme Court’s Fifty-Year Battle for a More Unjust America

Posted on September 5, 2020 by

Supreme Inequality By Adam Cohen Penguin Press, New York, 2020 The Supreme Court is not your ally. The Supreme Court does not protect the weak, the poor, or the downtrodden. The Supreme Court will not save us from Donald Trump. … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Law and justice, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny

Posted on August 23, 2020 by

Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny By Kate Manne Oxford University Press, New York, 2018 On August 11, 2020, Joe Biden chose Senator Kamala Harris to be his 2020 running mate. Within minutes, Trump and other Republicans launched misogynist and … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Homeland Security Was Destined To Become A Secret Police Force

Posted on July 26, 2020 by

Masha Gessen, author of Surviving Autocracy (my review), writing about the Portland protests in The Nee Yorker on July 25, says, “… we are watching the perfect and perhaps inevitable combination of a domestic-security superagency and a President who rejects … Continue reading →

Posted in Law and justice, Politics | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Surviving Autocracy: Can American democracy survive Trump’s autocratic transformation?

Posted on July 17, 2020 by

Surviving Autocracy By Masha Gessen Riverhead Books, New York, 2020 Most people in the US today have never lived under a dictatorship. Maybe we’ve heard stories from our parents or grandparents who immigrated from such places, but we don’t have … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

White Fragility

Posted on July 11, 2020 by

White Fragility By Robin DiAngelo Beacon Press, Boston, 2018 “White Fragility” sounds like a paradox. How can whites be fragile when we’re supposed to be the largest and smost dominant segment of US society? As author Robin DiAngelo explains it, … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Law and justice, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

So you want to talk about race

Posted on June 28, 2020 by

So you want to talk about race By Ijeoma Oluo Seal Press, New York, 2018 In the wake of the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis, and the nation-wide protests that followed, many white people, … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Law and justice, Politics | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Gorsuch Surprises, Alito Spews, Scalia Haunts in Bostock v. Clayton County

Posted on June 21, 2020 by

On Monday, June 15, 2020, the United States Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects homosexual and transgender individuals from job discrimination. This decision has been hailed as a major victory for … Continue reading →

Posted in Law and justice, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Supreme Court Upholds Limits on Attendance at Church Services

Posted on May 30, 2020 by

At about midnight last night the United States Supreme Court, in a 5.4 decision, upheld California’s restrictions on the number of people who can attend church services during the coronavirus emergency.   Scotusblog has posted the written decision. The South Bay … Continue reading →

Posted in Law and justice, Politics | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Storm Before the Calm

Posted on May 10, 2020 by

The Storm Before the Calm By George Friedman Penguin Random House, New York, 2020 I can’t decide whether George Friedman is a genius or a crackpot. Friedman has made a career of geopolitical forecasting.  He’s founded a couple of consulting … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

How To Be An Antiracist

Posted on September 22, 2019 by

How To Be An Antiracist By Ibram X. Kendi One World, New York, 2019 Donald Trump says he’s not racist. In fact, he claims to be the “least racist person that you have ever met.” In his latest book, How … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Law and justice, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments