IMPORTANT READS

WORLD WATCH - As tensions began to rise over Ukraine, US media produced a stream of articles attempting to explain the situation with headlines like “Ukraine Explained” (New York Times, 12/8/21) and “What You Need to Know About Tensions Between Ukraine and Russia” (Washington Post, 11/26/21).

END OF CIVILIZATION - The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists unveiled the resetting of the Doomsday Clock on January 20^th 2022, electing to keep the clock’s setting at 100 seconds to midnight, same as 2021, which is not at all encouraging since that’s as bad as the setting has ever been. 

NATIONAL SECURITY - A relative of mine, who works for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) compiling data on foreigners entering the United States, recently posted a curious logo on his Facebook profile: a white Roman numeral three on a black background surrounded by 13 white stars.

WORLD WATCH - America’s national media typically pay little attention to the moves the nation’s state lawmakers make.

WORLD WATCH - Washington cares less about Ukrainian independence and sovereignty than Russia.

WOMEN’S RIGHTS - Late January marked the 49th anniversary of Roe. V. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide. It could very well be the last.

THE SUPREMES - Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, one of the three liberal justices on the Court, is retiring at the end of the current term in June, unleashing what promises to be an epic fight over his replacement.

ROE VS WADE POLITICS - Saturday 22 January marks 49 years since the US Supreme Court's landmark decision in Roe v Wade, the court case established a right to abortion across the US.

OVERDUE PROCESS - The U.S. prison at Guantánamo Bay reached its shameful 20th anniversary this January. Its legacy is the detention of nearly 800 Muslim men and boys, most without charge or trial. Many have been tortured.

LABOR POLITICS - Even as retail and hospitality workers see pay hikes, the wealthiest Americans got even bigger raises during the pandemic — widening income inequality even further.

CONFRONTING WHITE NATIONALISM - “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.” — Archbishop Desmond Tutu

VOTING RIGHTS LAW - President Joe Biden’s recent visit to Atlanta, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s hometown, focused national attention on a somber fact: the legacy of the civil rights movement is threatened by recent and ongoing attacks on voting rights.

EDUCATION WATCH - As critical race theory and school board meetings grab headlines, it’s easy to forget that we are all the product of the childhood education we received. 

ASSAULT ON DEMOCRACY - "Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women. When it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can do much to help it…The freedom to do as one likes leads straight to its overthrow." —Judge Learned Hand, 1944

DC WATCH - U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin came under fire Saturday after The Washington Post reported that the West Virginia Democrat "does not currently support" passing even his own recent $1.8 trillion counteroffer to President Joe Biden's Build Back Better agenda.

A VIEW FROM HERE - Although the country’s history with slavery is not the core problem facing the nation, there is the need to root out a strong anti-Black legal tradition. 

IMMIGRATION WATCH - One of the signal stories of 2021 was a narrative of unfulfilled promise:

WEALTH WATCH - A new analysis out Tuesday shows that the nearly 750 billionaires in the United States saw their combined wealth soar by $1 trillion in 2021, a 25% jump that—if taxed—would be enough to fully fund major priorities in Democrats' stalled Build Back Better package.

HOUSING WATCH - A few weeks ago, in November, activists in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, had done something momentous: in each of their cities, against the deep-pocketed landlord lobby, they managed to convince voters to pass pro-rent control ballot measures.

DC WATCH - The Biden administration’s foreign policy in its first year was mostly defined by an unwillingness to make major policy changes and to take significant political risks to follow through on the president’s campaign pledges.

DEMOCRACY CONFERENCE - The just-concluded Summit for Democracy was intended to be a rallying point for democratic and nearly-democratic states, with pep talks on confronting rising authoritarianism and building democratic institutions.