Terry H. Schwadron
June 25, 2021
Dear Gov. DeSantis,
You’ve been on quite a tear lately, slaying conservative-inspired dragons real and imagined, defending the rights of liberty and individualism on the one hand, and, curiously, trying to squash what you don’t like from individual expression on the other.
Actually, from outside Florida, we recognize that you are readying your post-Donald Trump robes to take his place as the lead Republican candidate for president when we get around to that in another year or so — — should He Himself find himself unable to return to glory. …
Terry H. Schwadron
June 24, 2021
Over multiple extended weeks, we’ve recognized the havoc and un-resolvedness of Congressional compromise-seeking on infrastructure, voting rights, changes to policing, even a commission to look at what was behind the Jan. 6 riot. There is reported movement on infrastructure, but only because the White House wants to score a win for bipartisanship, not for its full infrastructure goals.
Get ready for more of the same on rights bills affecting discrimination over gender orientation, gun controls and the ability of government to pay for itself beyond a deadline on July 31.
What has emerged is…
Terry H. Schwadron
June 23, 2021
No matter that all the hype made the outcome predictable, watching the Senate just turn its back on voters was an infuriating punch in the gut.
There were no tanks in the street, there was no announcements of a junta taking over. But the official Republican “minority” dictated that even a diluted bill protecting voters from state Republican efforts to suppress votes did not even deserve a debate. No 10 Republicans would support talk about a voting bill.
They weren’t budging — “moderate” Republicans, “conservative” Republicans, Donald Trump Republicans, all of them. How is…
Terry H. Schwadron
June 23, 2021
Hey, Good News that you may not have noticed: Republicans have a Plan to hold China accountable for the coronavirus pandemic.
The only thing they don’t have is actual evidence that China either accidentally or intentionally let the virus escape from a government research lab in Wuhan.
Apparently the crime doesn’t matter. The important thing is the punishment needed — and, as an added bonus, to sideswipe Joe Biden and Democrats along the way for trying to get people vaccinated rather than for caring enough about punishing China.
Fox News and Breitbart News headlined…
Terry H. Schwadron
June 22, 2021
When it comes to saber-rattling, the United States simply lags well behind its authoritarian targets, even well behind its allies.
There are differences in approach, of course, but almost regardless of party in the White House, we speak sternly, but with less clout than in the past, as if that tone should be enough to dissuade evil doers or international conflict.
We always make one repeated mistake — we think our expressed, controlled national opinion is what matters, rather than what the other guy is actually doing.
Iran has “elected” Ebrahim Raisi, a hard-line…
Terry H. Schwadron
June 21, 2021
We get another peek tomorrow at just what an upside-down world the U.S. Senate represents with a test vote on voter rights legislation that is being washed twice, rinsed and hung out on a bipartisan clothesline just in time for Republicans to knock it down.
For weeks, we have watched Sen. Joe Manchin, D-WVa., maneuver, delay, twist and turn to try to make the For the People Act appeal to a bipartisan coalition. …
Mitch McConnell, Democracy Killer
Terry H. Schwadron
June 20, 2021
There seems to be a contest underway to see who can deny democracy the most, the fastest or the most efficiently.
The flawed Arizona “audit” shows signs of metastasizing, but it is an inefficient and costly, possibly even illegal, way to go about trying to re-win a lost election, no matter how many states now take up the errant cause of Big Steal. …
Terry H. Schwadron
June 19, 2021
After the third U.S. Supreme Court decision to confirm the essential constitutionality of the substance of Obamacare, how about Republicans pledge allegiance to health care?
The Court skipped over the essential question that several Republican-majority states wanted nailed by conservative-leaning justices, with a seven-justice majority ruling that the plaintiffs had not suffered the sort of direct injury that gave them standing to sue. …
Terry H. Schwadron
June 18, 2021
We’ve had a week of practical Joe Biden either seeking to make friends, deliver personal warnings or re-insert America into world events.
As we’ve read a lot about Biden’s style, possible gaffes, personal relationship-building, and his ability to disagree while he and Russian President Vladimir Putin stared at one another and shook hands for the cameras. Overall, their talks did not show a lot of desire to improve the two countries’ standing with one another.
What did happen was incremental or foundational, not splashy.
Terry H. Schwadron
June 17, 2021
However the on-again, off-again attempts at an infrastructure and jobs bill work out, the Senate floor is littered with broken alliances and serious divergence on what problems we actually are trying to fix. Democrats were mobilizing this week for to abandon negotiations and push through on their own, a risky proposition.
Before the final boasting gets underway about whichever side or faction claims a victory for bipartisanship or beating back a step too far by The Other Side, it feels as if we have lost sight of why we’re having an infrastructure debate altogether…
Terry Schwadron
Journalist, musician, community volunteer
