Before I get started, I’ll say what I have said during our weekly podcast: I do not think Green Party candidate Jill Stein is the reason that Hillary Clinton lost in Michigan. Despite the fact that if only a quarter of Stein voters hadn’t thrown their vote away on a candidate they KNEW would never come close to winning, the […]

Game. Set. Match. The news that Donald Trump has named Betsy DeVos as his choice for Secretary of Education is just another brick in the wall for Mr. Trump’s plan to turn the US into a giant flea market, selling off the bits and pieces of a once great nation for parts to the highest bidders. I had to laugh in […]

As many of you know, in addition to my blogging, I am also the Chair of the Washtenaw County Democratic Party. Washtenaw County, which is the home of Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti and University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, is a bit of a progressive bubble. In terms of local elections, our primaries are most often where the real […]

Most of you have likely seen this video but it’s important enough that I’m posting it here to make sure it’s seen by as many people as possible. The essayist is Tess Rafferty, a TV writer, comic and author. Most of the comments I’ve seen about are some version of, “It’s like she’s in my head, speaking with my voice […]

The following guest post is by my friend Ned Staebler. Today, Ned presents us with sage advice on how to move forward in the new America with a “man” like Donald Trump at the helm. It’s a good segue from the “PROCESSING TRUMP” series I have been running. You can follow Ned on Twitter at @NedStaebler and he’s a dynamite […]

Mike Pence is every principal or superintendent who has looked a teacher straight in the eye and told them that they were being terminated for low student test scores, even though most of the teacher’s students come to school every day hungry and tired. Mike Pence is every business owner who cuts his employees’ hours to avoid paying for their […]

This is my contribution to my ongoing series “PROCESSING TRUMP”. After the election of Barack Obama in 2008, white conservatives felt bereft and neglected and without a voice. Aided and abetted by the Koch brothers and their corporatist front groups, they created the tea party movement. As much as we all disparage the tea party, those folks showed the fuck […]

Two days after the election last week, a group of women artists – comedians, poets, singers, dancers, storytellers, and visual artists – gathered at the Pointless Brewery & Theatre in Ann Arbor for a performance art show called HERsay. The event, organized by friend of the blog Patti Smith, ended up being the perfect antidote for many of the attendees […]

Over the next few days, I’m going to share the thoughts of friends and acquaintances as they process the reality of a Donald Trump presidency. Some will be from people willing to share their identity. Others will be anonymous. All will help us to understand that we’re not alone in our grief and struggle to understand “what’s next.” Installment Five […]

For the last week, I’ve been trying to process the election, both as a political analyst who got a lot wrong, and a human being who believes this was a potentially disastrous outcome. Donald Trump’s move to install the owner of a white nationalist website as one of his chief advisers does not assuage the dread. But much of my […]

Over the next few days, I’m going to share the thoughts of friends and acquaintances as they process the reality of a Donald Trump presidency. Some will be from people willing to share their identity. Others will be anonymous. All will help us to understand that we’re not alone in our grief and struggle to understand “what’s next.” Installment Four […]