A very combative Chuck Todd annihilated Rep. Jim Jordan point by point on his well-rehearsed narrative for investigating the FBI and much more. It was a clinic he must continue and improve on now.
General News
My important rant on why Medicare Advantage must end. We must enhance Standard Medicare now.
Medicare Advantage and ACO REACH are privatization Right Wing schemes that will put Standard Medicare and, with that, the health and financial well-being of all Americans.
Elizabeth Warren calls out Republicans’ attempt to cut Social Security/Medicare and hike taxes.
Senator Elizabeth Warren appeared on All-In with Chris Hayes, where they called out debt ceiling hostage-taking Republicans for attempts to cut Social Security & Medicaid as they impose a national sales tax on everyone.
The Republican Party is dead. They don’t know it yet. Dowd explains they’re the know-nothing party
MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace articulated the inconvenient truth that the Republican Party is dead. Matthew Dowd broke down exactly why and how they got there.
GOP war on women’s reproductive rights: From a national ban to the absurdity equating women to cows
The continued attack on women’s reproductive rights is in full vogue as Republicans move to a national ban. Absurd is Idaho Republican state representative Jack Nelsen equating women to cows.
The Hartmann Report
“Free Trade” Has Put America & Democracy At the Mercy of China
Bringing our manufacturing back from overseas will reverse the 40-year-long slide of the American middle class and rebuild our nation’s security & economy. China is threatening the United States: this could get very ugly, very quickly. Here’s what’s happening. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is planning a trip to Taiwan, the first for a Speaker in […]
How Will Trump’s Deadly Sabotage Of America End?
use he has not been held to account, Trumpism has spread across the US landscape like metastasized cancer, with GOP politicians who aspire to corrupt strongman status emulating him in every state
The Abortion Firestorm is also a White Freak-out About the Browning of America
America is no longer all-white or all-under-white-control and white supremacists on the Court are bound and determined to do something about it
Support Independent Media
Guest Bloggers
10+ Things YOU Can Do to Fight Fascism Today – Individual and Collective Actions
As a five-decade social justice organizer, college educator of 32 years, and parent to two activist adult children, I was and am repeatedly asked, okay so you’ve defined a serious problem – in this case,
The Three Cornerstones of Fascism
Know thine enemy. The ongoing threat of full-blown Fascism triumphing here on, or shortly after, January 20, 2025, Presidential Inaugural Day, should deeply, deeply concern every pro-democratic, patriotic, thinking American.
League of Independent Voters of Texas
Imperial Governance and Constitutional Wreckage • LIV News, July 29, 2021
Are imperial governance and the related constitutional wreckage taking Texans down a dangerous path to a constitutional crisis?
The elephant in the Texas voting booth that neither party wants to talk about.
The elephant in the Texas voting booth that neither party wants to talk about is the suppression of a plurality of Texas voters. Surprise! There are more non-aligned and independent Texans than Democrats or Republicans.
Egberto On TV
Egberto Willies & Leyla Martinez interviewed after Bernie Nevada win
Most of the Las Vegas area activists and volunteers met at ReBar after the Nevada caucus to celebrate the expected Bernie win.
Egberto on CNN Rick Sanchez with Education & Teachers Tweet
Egberto’s Published Articles
Is Net Neutrality Really Necessary? You’re Damn Right!
by Egberto Willies and Keyan Bliss (Originally Published at Common Dreams) Three weeks after Christmas, the American judiciary gave telecommunications corporations a huge present. On January 14 a federal appeals court decided to weaken the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Internet Neutrality policy by striking down the rules it adopted in 2010 to regulate Internet service […]
Egberto Willies: Wendy Davis’ life story provides empathy necessary to be governor – Kingwood Observer
It seems like I chose just about the right time to write an article on Wendy Davis. She finds herself under attack not only by the entire Right Wing establishment, but from the traditional media as well. She happens to be the story to balance the myriad of bad acts by Republicans. There is a […]
Battleground Texas
Support continues to build for Judge William ‘Bill’ McLeod
Judge McLeod turned around his office in two months. McLeod and his staff accomplished more in 2 months than his predecessor did in two years.
Occupy Movement
Occupy Kingwood Weekly Rally Saturday Jan 14th, 2012 9:00 AM to 10:30 AM
The coalition of Kingwood Area residents (Kingwood, Atascocita, Humble, Montgomery County) that we collective call Occupy Kingwood have made three successful 90 minute informative, peaceful, and well received OCCUPY events at the intersection of Kingwood Drive and West Lake Houston Parkway(Rally1, Rally2, Rally3). Our intent is to do this weekly. It creates a necessary awareness […]
Netroots Nation
Netroots Nation Keynote Address By Minnesota Rep Keith Ellison #NN11
Minnesota Democratic Representative Keith Ellison gave a great keynote speech. He made a very important point to the Netroots that I hope resonated in the room and I hope it will resonate throughout the country. The “Yes We Can Movement” did not start with President Obama. It was in effect from the instantiation of Governor […]
Coffee Party Posts
Coffee Party USA Board of Directors 2016 Meeting in Blue Ridge, Georgia
The Coffee Party USA board of directors coalesced around a strong voter education and turnout strategy that we will be releasing in the forthcoming weeks.
Egberto Off The Record
This is why the Medicare Advantage scam will be difficult but very important to solve.
The Medicare Advantage façade is beautiful. But the destruction it progressively causes to healthcare for the elderly & disabled will be realized when it’s too late if we do not stop it now.
Biden’s partial Supreme Court neuter. Debt ceiling highlights tax fraud. Another mass shooting.
President Joe Biden is filling the lower courts vacancies quickly, ensuring they look like America. The debt ceiling debate should be a tax fraud debate. Another mass shooting seems so normal now.
Corporations win irrespective of party: Prosecutions for malfeasance down. Unionization down
What does it say when irrespective of which party is in power, corporations increase their power, malfeasance, unionization, and profits? Is there an answer? YES!
Columnists
Americans Want Government-Run Health Care—What’s Standing in the Way?
It’s true that the number of uninsured Americans has dropped to an all-time low. But that fact obscures the failures of our patchwork, profit-driven health care system.
Google’s Stock Climbed After It Fired 12,000 Employees—But What Did They Get Out of It?
The tech sector is laying off tens of thousands of workers, making it clear that economic growth is currently valued above all else.
An Ancient Recipe for Social Success
New evidence and understandings about the structure of successful early societies across Asia, Africa, and the Western Hemisphere are sweeping away the popular assumption that early societies tended toward autocracy and despotism.
Our Planet Versus Plastic Bags—A Tale of Two Cities
Americans discard 100 billion plastic bags annually, the equivalent of 12 million barrels of oil.
Police Violence Reached an All-Time High Last Year—Are We Ready to Shrink Police Budgets?
The year 2022 was the deadliest year on record in the United States for fatalities at the hands of law enforcement. According to the Washington Post’s police shootings database, law enforcement officers shot and killed 1,096 people last year. In comparison, there were 1,048 shooting fatalities at the hands of police the year before, 1,019 the year before that, 997 the year before that, and so on.
Young column: ‘Equity’ is not a four-letter word
Listen closely at a school board meeting or to the rantings of GOP wannabe front-runner Ron DeSantis, and know that this political strain has chosen “equity” and “inclusion” as central targets.
A Few Takes
Barbara Walters, a First Among TV Newswomen, Is Dead at 93 – The New York Times
In fact, she was a trailblazer that feared no one. Women like her laid out the path for all the subsequent journalists. She was so good in so many aspects of journalism.
Elon Musk Twitter poll results say CEO should step down – The Washington Post
Well, this may be Elon Musk’s landing path to leave Twitter to someone less biased. Otherwise the platform is dead. The good thing that came out of this is likely the search for social media decentralization.
From Twitter to Mastodon: What Happens When Journalists Flock Platforms – The New York Times
It is time that we decentralize social media. Mastodon may be the platform to start the transition.
People Making a difference
Ashley Mosley, staying in her community to make a difference
Our communities would do well having more people like Ashley Mosley. She stayed in community where many have left intentionally.
Savannah Smith details her experience in Cameroon & early exit due to COVID-19
Savannah Smith had experiences in Cameroon cut short by COVID-19. This is an important story for several reasons as explored in the interview.
Local News
This foul-mouthed attendant at Houston’s Abilities Expo was a disservice to all disabled attendees.
This weekend I took my daughter, who’s had two strokes and is compromised on her left side, to Houston’s Abilities Expo. We encountered a rude, insensitive, foul-mouthed attendant.
Judge Hidalgo issues mask mandate for Harris County schools, joining the chorus defying Gov. Abbott
This is what leadership looks like; unlike the Humble Independent School Board, whose lack of science-based serious care for our most precious resources, our kids, have already endangered many of their lives, our county leaders are acting responsibly.
Mike Collier is not wasting any time in defeating Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. At Last!
Our local Kingwood Texas friend, Mike Collier (@CollierForTexas), is ready to kick the failed Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick out of office. Finally, someone who instead of giving away the store to corporate friends will do the bidding for Texas citizens.
Racism overtly exposed in my Donald Trump / Ted Cruz / Dan Crenshaw Kingwood, TX district. Why?
A friend/neighbor was walking through the trails in our Kingwood, Texas neighborhood and came across an epithet that clarifies Trumpism & Racism are alive & well in our town.
Entertainment
The movie “Honk For Jesus” brought back memories of a CNN iReport I did on Bishop Eddie Long.
Just got back from the movie “Honk for Jesus.” It felt familiar. A woman told my wife, “That’s the Eddie Long story.” Yes, it is similar to the iReport I did in 2010.
Message To Garth Brooks: Took this superfan lots of money & attempts to finally see you in Houston.
Garth Brooks super fan Debra Willey finally got to see you in Houston, TX, after several attempts and several thousand dollars — a shoutout maybe to her?
Oops! Will Smith slaps Chris Rock on stage at the Oscars for a Jada Pinkett joke. Really?
It seems Will Smith clocked Chris Rock pretty good at the #Oscars2022 for a bad Jada Pinkett Smith joke. Was this staged? Nope. He apologized while accepting his best actor speech.
Environment
EarthTalk Q&A: May 8, 2022: Cargo Ships & Sail Power
“This rewiring of sailing matters because of the immense emissions that cargo ships produce. Because they consume fossil fuels, much of our supply chain is riddled with emissions problems.”
EarthTalk Q&A: May 1, 2022—Too Late To Turn Back Sea Level Rise?
Dear EarthTalk: What are the most recent projections about sea level rise around the world as a result of climate change? And is there any hope of turning back the tide if we rein in emissions as planned under the current iteration of the Paris agreement? –
Sports
Texans Win. But why do it the hard way?
The Texans vs Bills game was exciting but it should have ended in regulation. Bill O’Brien is lucky to have stellar players.
Simone Biles named female athlete of the year | khou.com
Simone Biles continues to make Houston proud as she wins female athlete of the year. Congratulations! COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Gymnastics powerhouse Simone Biles has been named the 2019 Team USA Female Olympic Athlete of the Year after another record-setting performance in competition this year. Biles topped a list of award-winners of the honors presented […]
Move To Amend
Move to Amend’s Daniel Lee: Transcending political parties at the People’s Convention (VIDEO)
Many grassroots organizations have converged on Philadelphia, PA using the Democratic National Convention as the catalyst to organize for a better America.