Terry H. Schwadron
Sept. 16, 2021
We appear to have a new compromise proposal in the Senate to bolster voter rights, at least among Democrats, and a new challenge that comes with it.
Here’s the news, from The Washington Post, which obtained a summary of the would-be compromise: Democrats meeting by themselves are circling the wagons around a new Freedom to Vote Act that retains significant portions of what Democrats in the House backed, only to be blocked in the Senate, but that drops several more contentious elements.
No one is covering up the obvious here, that the compromise has…
Terry H. Schwadron
Sept. 15, 2021
Let’s help Sen. Joe Manchin decide just how much the government should spend to expand education, health care, childcare and invest in climate.
Manchin repeatedly seems unable to say what he will support, only what he will not — namely, the $3.5 trillion spending package that Joe Biden has advanced, and which progressive Democrats are pressing to present for a one-time push through the clogged Congressional pipeline through “reconciliation” rather than waiting for mountains to move to prompt 10 Republicans or more to defect from anti-Democrat glue to offer cross-party votes in favor.
All…
Terry H. Schwadron
Sept. 14, 2021
We all recognize that journalism has taken a hit in the culture wars.
Too much of our understanding is reflecting “news” reports that often are “opinion,” and too much selected information that tends to support the outlook of viewers or readers of a particular political persuasion. In other words, we’re increasingly only accepting of news that comports with our own political instincts.
As we know, that image about media accelerated under Donald Trump’s time in office, and we hear tons about how “right-wing media” or “the socialist New York Times” skewed the news to…
Terry H. Schwadron
Sept. 13, 2021
With all the to-do about Texas moving to virtually eliminate abortions without exception, it is a fair question whether Texas does a good job on helping children and moms once the child is born.
Generally, the answer is not so much. Texas lags other states in most measures of child welfare.
In broad terms, data over years shows that Texas does a less-than-average job in feeding and housing children, in baby wellness checks, per-student school spending, and, more generally, with food stamp eligibility. …
Terry H. Schwadron
Sept. 12, 2021
As we can see, the backlash over Joe Biden’s executive orders mandating vaccines — or weekly covid tests — as a public health stand to finally seek to end the conditions that allow for widespread pandemic promises itself to mandate resistance and public protest in the name of individual liberty.
We shouldn’t be facing mandates — whether for vaccines or masks. …
Terry H. Schwadron
Sept. 11, 2021
Continuing dismay over the Afghanistan withdrawal and confusing predictions about terrorism of all sorts are reflecting an odd, uncomfortable juxtaposition with the solemnity of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
Open questions remain whether we’ve just rewound the terrorism clock in an Afghanistan that surely will prove hostile to U.S. interests, and whether Americans are even capable of mustering the kind of united sense of purpose felt 20 years ago. …
Terry H. Schwadron
Sept. 10, 2021
Even as health statistics and hospitalizations show that it is the unvaccinated who are both getting sick and allowing the covid pandemic to linger and mutate, fighting over vaccines has become a national sport.
Much has been made both of the surprisingly fierce resistance both to the continuing spread of both vaccinations and masking requirements in business, schools, the military, and government and of the irony that the very same people who resist this vaccine are promoting alternative treatments that ignore medical science for social media-promoted home remedies — and lining up for treatment…
Terry H. Schwadron
Sept. 9, 2021
We expect that a political opposition party will generate arguments against the sitting administration, against their political foes. That’s why it seems predictable that a Sen. Mitch McConnell or Rep. Kevin McCarthy, leaders of the Republicans in Congress, to take stands against policies or proposals from Joe Biden and Democrats.
Still, what we don’t expect is that even in the name passionate politics, Republican leaders will suggest that they live on another planet altogether.
That’s why when Rep. Margorie Taylor Greene talked of “Jewish space lasers” and any number of her colleagues suggest that…
Terry H. Schwadron
Sept. 8, 2021
Amid the needs for simultaneous attention in a busy month on figuring out next steps for the Afghanistan withdrawal, to de-coding an ever-changing response to coronavirus, dealing with the economy, jobs and natural disasters, rebutting state abortion and voting rights restrictions and getting big spending bills through Congress, the Biden administration is still tagged with unraveling a significant immigration mess.
Despite all the words earlier this year, the rising immigration numbers are not going away, court decisionsare boxing Team Biden into continuing Donald Trump’s Remain-in-Mexico policies, and a pending influx of tens of thousands…
Terry H. Schwadron
Sept. 7, 2021
The new Texas abortion law has re-opened the debate not only about abortion and vigilantism, but also about privacy.
There also are other news developments of late pushing privacy into the forefront, from subpoenas for congressional phone calls and social media posts concerning planning for the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U. S. Capitol — and the threats from Republican leaders to telecoms to resist compliance, to misinformation being circulated towards covid vaccine compliance because of health information privacy.
These skirmishes either focus on privacy for its own sake or are being used as…
