By Chris Dick|2022-07-04T21:10:50-04:00July 3rd, 2022|Categories: Featured Society|Tags: abortion, law, politics, USA|
Well, they went and did it! By a five-to-four majority decision the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, kicking legislative responsibility for reproductive rights law back down to the state level. Why and what does it all mean? Will that much change and for how long? Time will decide much.
By Chris Dick|2020-08-20T19:01:51-04:00August 20th, 2020|Categories: Society|Tags: demographics, Donald Trump, GOP, politics, Republicans, USA|
Worse Problems than Trump Why a Changing Society is Republicans' Real Danger The American election draws closer; the hype is heightening, the pundits are predicting, anxiety amongst those desperate to see La Donald get gone ratchets ever upwards -- ah yes, The American Silly Season is upon us. Of course, given the antics of the Pinocchio in the Oval Office, one might suggest that the Silly Season started in 2016 and never ended. I think a plurality of Americans now know that DT will never be a real boy, will remain a [...]
By Chris Dick|2020-07-21T18:54:35-04:00July 13th, 2020|Categories: Society|Tags: COVID-19, health, healthcare, pandemic, politics|
COVID-19 Versus Influenza Just Plain Wrong Costs Lives What do we call people who think COVID is at worst a hoax, and at least over-hyped? They are not so much Corona deniers as they are diminishers. What’s the fuss? Nothing out of the ordinary here. The annual flu kills more people worldwide than COVID has so far. Governments are either acting like old ladies with the vapors or plotting to restrict our freedoms for a host of nefarious reasons -- please fill in the blank with your favorite conspiracy theory. To make [...]
By Chris Dick|2020-07-13T22:47:35-04:00June 25th, 2020|Categories: Society|Tags: leadership, MAGA, politics, Trump, USA|
Make America Great Again? What does that mean? What should it mean? I see the hats, and I see the tee-shirts. I see the eager faces, mostly white, not young -- ‘make America Great Again”, the logos read as the people gather, COVID defiant, at Trump rallies. I hear Paul Simon’s lines echoing in my head, “Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.” There should be tee-shirts that say ‘I want the 1950s back’. These Trumpers sense that America is in decline, -- 'the [...]
By Chris Dick|2022-07-03T21:56:36-04:00June 23rd, 2020|Categories: Society|Tags: politics, UBI, Universal Basic Income, work|
Yes, a Universal Basic Income. The welfare state, as currently constituted, can’t handle what’s coming, and hasn't handled what's happened in the past forty years. The fragility of the structure has been evident for a while to those with eyes to see. It is not dealing effectively with the decline in permanent, well-paying, benefit-providing, full-time jobs. It is not responding well to the steady rise in income inequality since the 1970s. It is also wholly unprepared for the tsunami of job losses that are coming courtesy of what Martin Ford calls in his eponymous book, The Rise [...]
By Chris Dick|2020-06-25T22:08:22-04:00June 19th, 2020|Categories: Society|Tags: Black Lives Matter, politics, protest|
'All Lives Matter'? Sigh. Bromides versus Calls-to-Action This back and forth between “Black Lives Matter” and “All Lives Matter” puzzles me. It is everywhere in comment threads all over the web, but these statements are not at all congruent. ‘All Lives Matter’ is a banal truism, a first-order motherhood statement, too broad to generate any action or advocacy. Can you seriously envision people marching in the streets carrying signs saying “murder is bad!” Who are we kidding here! Spectators would titter and yawn and go back to watching the Bachelorette. To broaden a problem [...]
