SHARE        Saturday, October 27, 2018
Trump's Gender "Science" is Reductive, Mean and Wrong Trump is having a problem with sex, and it's not exactly what you might think. There are no Russian tapes, spankings with magazines, or confessions of grabbing anyone this time around. Specifically, it's a problem with sex and gender.

(6 comments) SHARE        Friday, April 6, 2018
This Popular Pro-Gun Argument Doesn't Make Any Sense The idea that because criminals, by their very nature, do not follow laws, we should not pass any laws limiting gun rights. The thought goes that if we, say, require universal background checks, good, law-abiding people will follow that law, but criminals will still buy illegal guns. Therefore, why bother with the background checks? This is ridiculous for several reasons.

(2 comments) SHARE        Saturday, August 4, 2018
The Organic Food Industry Thrives On Regulation The deregulatory zeal of the Trump administration has gone too far. The entire value of the organic label is in the stringency of organic standards. Without regulations, the organic label would become worthless. The Trump administration should leave well enough alone when it comes to organics. If both industry and consumers prefer the regulations, there's no reason whatsoever to get rid of them.

(1 comments) SHARE        Thursday, October 3, 2019
Why Does Trump Keep Doing This? Trump appears to believe you are either the winner or the loser, and he must be the winner. His only strategy has been brute force. And he doesn't seek out solutions in which all parties win. This approach has been very destructive on the policy front. But it's not clear whether it's going to work for him in the long term.

(1 comments) SHARE        Saturday, March 31, 2018
A Genuinely Scary Moment in Foreign Policy Whatever Donald Trump has done while in office -- however much he's taunted Kim Jong Un by calling him Little Rocket Man and threatening to bomb North Korea -- at least he had a team around him that seemed a bit cooler headed and diplomatic. Gone are those days.

(2 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, March 4, 2020
Mike Pence Is The Worst Person To Lead A Coronavirus Response The Trump administration seems to be dealing with COVID-19 more as a PR issue than a public health one. Like always, Trump is more interested in his approval ratings than the well-being of the American people.

(1 comments) SHARE        Saturday, July 15, 2017
Is This How the World Sees America Now? Trump "craves power because it burnishes his celebrity." Trump has shown little shame in making hateful remarks that would embarrass any other leader, from making fun of a disabled journalist to bragging about sexually assaulting women.

(1 comments) SHARE        Saturday, August 31, 2019
Questions to Ask Before "Calling Out" Fighting for justice is difficult, but remember that you aren't alone, and the fight won't be over tomorrow. Focus your energy on where you can make the most difference.

(4 comments) SHARE        Friday, December 20, 2019
The Education Department Is Ripping Off Defrauded Students Some students take out loans but don't finish their degree and they are left in debt with nothing to show for it. These are not lazy students. They are often working one or more jobs, sometimes raising children, and trying to go to college while living in poverty.

(2 comments) SHARE        Saturday, July 13, 2019
The Good News About Trump's Very Bad Environmental Speech It's unlikely that a zebra like Trump will change his stripes on climate at this point, but it is hopeful that the American people are demanding that leaders take action so much that Trump feels pressured to claim a successful environmental record.

SHARE        Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Why Do We Have School Lunch Debt At All? We live in a nation where food is plentiful but millions of children experience hunger and food insecurity. Feeding our kids shouldn't fall only to kind strangers and acts of charity.

SHARE        Saturday, June 8, 2019
Celebrating Pride, Mindfully Transgender people are fighting for inclusion and acceptance in a gender they weren't assigned at birth. Bisexual and pansexual people (who are attracted to others of all genders and orientations) have different challenges. They're often invisible, because people think they're straight if they date someone of the same sex.

(11 comments) SHARE        Friday, May 18, 2018
The Lesson I Learned Growing Up Jewish Many Israelis oppose their own government's treatment of the Palestinians. Left-leaning Israelis vote against Prime Minister Netanyahu, and they oppose Trump's inflammatory decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. The same is true of millions of Jews here in the United States.

(2 comments) SHARE        Thursday, May 30, 2019
Dealing With Climate Fear If it hurts you to think about the coming climate crisis, and you feel powerless, remember that the biggest change you can make is to support leaders who think our planet -- and the people who live on it -- are actually worth saving. We can't solve climate change on our own, but we can make our leaders answer to the people living with it, not the companies causing it.

(5 comments) SHARE        Saturday, July 25, 2020
Trump's Authoritarianism Is Ill-suited To A Pandemic The Trump administration is apparently undertaking its latest effort to make 2020 more of a Kafkaesque nightmare than it already is.

(3 comments) SHARE        Saturday, August 19, 2017
It's Not About "White Culture" America has never been a white country. It was once entirely populated with Native Americans. Then the first Europeans arrived, and they soon brought the first enslaved Africans. Don't believe the lies of white nationalists who say they simply want to celebrate white culture. There's no way to march with KKK members and Nazi flags in a non-hateful way.

SHARE        Saturday, August 3, 2019
You Don't Save Money By Forcing People To Go Hungry Food stamps are a huge stimulus to the economy. Families spend their SNAP benefits to buy food from local businesses like grocery stores, and that creates jobs from the store clerk stocking the shelves, to the truck driver transporting the food, to the farmers and ranchers producing the food.

(3 comments) SHARE        Saturday, May 18, 2019
Our Climate Emergency was no Accident: Big Oil knew Tobacco is deadly -- I've lost two grandparents to its ill effects but tobacco is most harmful to those who use it. The climate crisis is deadly to everyone, whether they are responsible for causing it or not. It will continue to hurt people for generations, even after humans stop polluting at such alarming levels as they do now.

(1 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, November 21, 2018
California Is On Fire. Trump's Solution -- Rakes? No president is an expert in all things. A good president is skilled at choosing the right advisers and knowing when to weigh on them for help. Trump isn't doing that. Thus far he's appeared to offer logging and raking as solutions to forest fires.

SHARE        Thursday, March 30, 2017
Gutting Climate Protections Won't Bring Back Coal Jobs Trump's killing of the Clean Power Plan is a handout to dirty industry with no regard for the well-being of coal miners. And it's putting us even further behind in our efforts to leave the next generation a habitable planet. A better leader would find a way to promote clean forms of energy while simultaneously creating good jobs for Americans.

(4 comments) SHARE        Saturday, January 12, 2019
Is Anyone Really Offended By That "F" Word? There are two alternatives, neither of them good. Either they're generating fake outrage to score cheap political points, or they're expressing actual outrage because they care more about a single swear word than corruption, crimes, and assaults on women combined.

(1 comments) SHARE        Saturday, June 9, 2018
"Pro-Family" Homophobia Rips Families Apart Within the LGBTQIA community, estrangement from parents and other relatives is common. Some parents kick their gay or trans teens out of the house for their sexual orientation or gender identity. Others cut their kids off as adults, or just behave so abusively to them that the children avoid their parents in adulthood.

SHARE        Wednesday, August 19, 2020
Colleges Are Still In Uncharted Territory There's no way to perfectly plan this semester beforehand, and we should plan in advance for flexibility and responsiveness to whatever unfolds.

(6 comments) SHARE        Saturday, June 23, 2018
Immigrant Kids Are Suffering Trauma That Will Last Years Trauma is often invisible to the person suffering it. Your body acts strangely, and you react emotionally to others in ways you can't understand -- and either you don't even know you are doing it, or you don't know why. You can't control it. You think it's your fault and so does everyone around you. This is what we're doing to these immigrant children.

(1 comments) SHARE        Friday, October 6, 2017
We're Failing the U.S. Citizens of Puerto Rico Wanting your legal rights as citizens in the form of federal government aid in a natural disaster isn't wanting "everything done for you." It's what we all expect, and should expect, as citizens of this nation. America shouldn't let down our citizens in Puerto Rico. We must help them in this crisis.

SHARE        Wednesday, April 1, 2020
Efficiency Vs. Resilience Hospitals have enough beds, medical personnel, and equipment to handle a normal volume of patients, but nothing like this. They'd been cutting them back for years in the name of profit and efficiency. Now there's talk of converting empty college dormitories into hospitals.

SHARE        Wednesday, July 1, 2020
Learning Not To Look Away Our emotional comfort isn't more important than racial justice. But unfortunately, many of us disengage when confronting the realities of racism becomes too painful.

SHARE        Saturday, November 10, 2018
Getting Past Gingrich Under Gingrich, Republicans would oppose popular legislation they previously might have supported. Then Republicans would point a finger at the Democratic leadership and accuse Congress of doing nothing. They'd tell the voters that Democrats won't fix your problems so you need to elect Republicans. Never mind that Republicans caused the obstruction in the first place.

(1 comments) SHARE        Thursday, August 27, 2020
Where Have I Heard These Trump Lines Before? White nationalists from the Klan to Trump glorify a past in which white men had more power than everyone else, casting themselves as protectors of white America against inferior "others."

(7 comments) SHARE        Friday, May 25, 2018
Our Immigration Debate Needs a Lot More Humanity Few of us would defend or invite members of a violent gang into the United States. The problem here is that Trump has routinely tried to associate all immigrants -- and particularly those from Latin America -- with criminality. Immigrants have an intrinsic worth as human beings. Our immigration policy -- and our politics -- should recognize every person's common humanity.

(1 comments) SHARE        Saturday, May 5, 2018
Want to Attract Women? Try Not Hating Us Feminists said in the 1970s that being a woman is what each woman wants to make of it. If you want shopping and fashion and babies, you go girl! If you want to run for president, you go do that. More men need to embrace this message for themselves. They can be whoever they want and their "manhood" isn't at stake. It's cool.

SHARE        Saturday, June 6, 2020
Keep Your Eye On What's Important: Ending Police Brutality This has gone on for long enough, and the system that perpetuates it must change. Time after time, when the cop "involved" in the murder is charged with a crime, they are later acquitted almost without exception. Regardless of who peacefully protested and who "rioted," police violence against black bodies must end.

(4 comments) SHARE        Thursday, January 14, 2021
AddressThe Stagnation That Paved The Way For Trump Donald Trump won't be around forever. But the political crises his attacks on democracy have caused will outlive his one-term presidency.

SHARE        Sunday, June 17, 2018
Corruption Is Bad, But Sabotage Is Worse Who gets ousted when they're heading the Environmental Protection Agency but fail to protect the environment? Or they head the Department of Education but let down the nation's schools? The huge amounts these corrupt men spent on their own offices and flights is outrageous. But it's their willingness to sabotage the departments they're in charge of that's truly hurting the American people.

SHARE        Sunday, December 9, 2018
Republicans Don't Want Your Vote to Count Requiring photo IDs to vote fixes a problem that does not exist. Voter fraud is incredibly rare. What photo ID laws do very effectively is disenfranchise voters from demographics that mostly favor Democrats: the young, the poor, and people of color. Requiring photo IDs to vote fixes a problem that does not exist. Voter fraud is incredibly rare. What photo ID laws do very effectively is disenfranchise voters from voting.

(1 comments) SHARE        Sunday, October 4, 2020
The Great Irony Of Trump's Taxes We live in a deeply unequal society, and we are led by someone who benefits from that inequality. No executive order should gaslight us into thinking that's fair.

(2 comments) SHARE        Saturday, May 29, 2021
Making Vaccines More Accessible Many essential workers still aren't vaccinated. It's not because they don't want to be it's because they can't get time off work.

(3 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, May 30, 2018
Unlearning Racial Bias Takes Time, But It's Worth It Some racism is structural. It's baked into the fabric of society, in the form of segregated neighborhoods, unequal schools, and so on. It would continue even in the absence of prejudice and hate, and it will continue until we consciously change our society.

(15 comments) SHARE        Saturday, September 13, 2008
The Republicans' "Pro-Woman" Tactics are an Insult to Women Whether you like her or not, would Palin's election represent a barrier broken by women? I say no. I'm insulted by the choice of Palin purely for the Republican's political posturing.

SHARE        Friday, February 26, 2021
We Need Democracy, Not Billionaire Philanthropy Instead of funding only the projects that a single billionaire esteems worthy, democracy demands something different: input.

(2 comments) SHARE        Sunday, February 21, 2021
Education Won't Stop Conspiracy Theories Conspiracy theories like QAnon are outlandish, dangerous, and often absurd. So why do people believe them?

(9 comments) SHARE        Friday, July 6, 2018
Knowing When to Turn Off the News It's OK to turn the news off sometimes. It's OK to log out of Facebook, too. Taking action is important, and we all need to know what's going on and what needs to be done. But we don't need to marinate in the news all day long. Not when it hurts this badly.

(1 comments) SHARE        Saturday, June 30, 2018
Family Separation: One Fire Out, Several Others Started If you care about Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, or the environment, these are all issues that require immediate attention. Despite the headway Republicans made in the last week or so toward cutting the social safety net and eliminating environmental protections, it's not yet a lost cause.

(2 comments) SHARE        Friday, September 18, 2020
I'm Still Mad About COVID-19. We All Should Be. We needed a real pandemic response. Instead, we got lies, snake oil cures, and speculation on bleach injections.

(1 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, April 11, 2018
It's Up to Grown-ups to Stop Bullying, Not Kids Bullying's been in the news a bit lately, in part because of the Parkland shooting. In response, some people suggested that school children themselves should befriend kids who get bullied to prevent school shootings. Others say this is victim-blaming. It's the adults' jobs to stop bullying.

SHARE        Sunday, September 27, 2020
When Men Legally Controlled Women We have made progress allowing marriage to bring emotional and sexual satisfaction to both partners and allowing them to leave when it doesn't. Also, the increased equality for people of all races, genders, and sexual orientations we have gained in the century since women got the vote.

SHARE        Saturday, December 15, 2018
A War on Science, Morals, and Law A new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists accuses Trump's Interior Department of "relentless attacks on science ranging from suppressing and sidelining the work of the department's scientists to systematically refusing to act on climate change."

(5 comments) SHARE        Sunday, August 3, 2008
McCain is the Candidate Who Snubs Our Troops, Not Obama McCain says Obama snubbed the troops, but McCain is the candidate with the bad record for the troops.

SHARE        Wednesday, December 23, 2020
The Coming Battle Over Vaccines Natural scientists have done their part by creating vaccines. To get people to take them, we need social science.

SHARE        Friday, January 29, 2021
The GOP's Resentment Theater President Biden recently became the first president to condemn white supremacy by name in an inaugural address. Then some Republicans got mad because, they say, it's an attack on them.

(6 comments) SHARE        Monday, July 21, 2008
Al Gore Can Have His Meat and Eat It Too I asked Al Gore about the role of meat in global warming. His answer was honest, but it was only the start of a conversation that must continue about the role of sustainable agriculture in the fight against global warming.

SHARE        Saturday, January 23, 2021
The Time I Got Coffee With Hollywood Satanists Satanism is not very different from the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Neither one believes in Satan or in a flying spaghetti monster. They're jokes intended to troll Christians who try to impose their beliefs on others.

SHARE        Monday, December 14, 2020
Failing Students Need Support, Not Blame Students don't fail because they are lazy. They fail because something is wrong in their lives -- and right now, so much is wrong.

SHARE        Sunday, November 29, 2020
We Need a Safety Net for Parents The collapse of child care and traditional schooling is having a devastating effect on women in particular.

(1 comments) SHARE        Friday, November 20, 2020
We Need A Safety Net For Parents/ Most women put their children ahead of their careers. In the workforce, that makes it harder for women to compete with men for top positions, because they're seen as less committed to their jobs."

SHARE        Thursday, October 15, 2020
Voter Suppression In A Pandemic Election Our electoral system is riddled with policies that amount to little more than voter suppression. America should work to expand voting to all eligible citizens so we can live up to the democratic ideals on which our nation was founded.

(1 comments) SHARE        Thursday, April 11, 2019
Do Women Get To Be Experts? I know that people interpret my behavior in relation to their expectations of a woman's gender role. I'm expected to be nurturing. If I step out of line, I become "shrill" or "bossy." Womanhood becomes a real drag when I'm in roles I am qualified for and my expertise is questioned in ways it would not be if I were a man.

(4 comments) SHARE        Thursday, April 4, 2019
The Death Penalty Is Getting Crueler The Eighth Amendment bans cruel and unusual punishment. Capital punishment has been becoming more unusual over the past decade or so. Now, with the court's help, it's becoming more cruel. Our newly right wing-dominated Supreme Court recently made a move in the opposite direction.