After a caller said he loved his Medicare Advantage, I explained why it is a fraud, and everyone should stick with traditional Medicare if they can.
General News
SAD: Family finds out that America may be just as violent & dangerous as Gaza.
A West Bank family sent their kid to America, believing it was safer. A hate-filled gun touting Vermont resident did more harm with a gun than back in the Middle East.
Chris Hayes points out some economic truths about inflation and more. Ignore the GOP narrative.
While the design of our economic system is severely flawed and biased toward those with capital, compared to past economies and world economies, the U.S. is doing fine.
A good cop agrees that good cops must call out bad cops to fix America’s bad cop problem.
A cop called into PDR to complain that we painted all cops with one brush. After a back & forth, he agreed the good cop must also be held responsible for the bad cops they choose to appease.
Amy McGrath GOP elevating their most embarrassing, arrogant ignorants puts our security at risk.
Amy McGrath did not mince her words about the state of the Republican Party and its impact on our security. She said the GOP elevates their dumbest.
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 Mentioned In Media
The Tribune Article On The Firework Attack On My Home
The Tribune took up the story of my home being firebombed with fireworks in Kingwood, TX. This was a very frightening experience for my wife and daughter. As I told the reporter, if they try this again, we will be ready to protect our property. Act of delinquency in Kingwood casts shadow on New Year […]
Black student defends his Confederate flag – In America – CNN.com Blogs
Byron Thomas is 19, a freshman at the University of South Carolina Beaufort, an African-American and a proud Southerner. He hung a Confederate flag in his dorm room window until the university asked him to take it down because several people had complained about it. (The university later stepped back from the request, saying […]
Egberto On TV
Egberto & Other CNN iReporters Cooking A La Julia Child
LIKE My Facebook Page – Visit My Blog: EgbertoWillies.comFollow @EgbertoWillies
Egberto On HLN On North Korea Convicting US Journalists
LIKE My Facebook Page – Visit My Blog: EgbertoWillies.comFollow @EgbertoWillies
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 – A Sustainable Form Of The Occupy Movement (2012-11-03)
Occupy Kingwood VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL This is our 46th week of Occupy Kingwood. It is the week before the election and some folks are a bit nervous, some do not care, and some think it really does not matter who gets elected. I personally believe it does matter for inasmuch as both parties […]
Netroots Nation
Reaction by some Liberals at Netroots Nation to Black Lives Matter disappointing (VIDEO)
My disappointment with some Netroots Nation Liberal brothers and sisters was their willful inability to empathize. The post-mortem after many have reevaluated gives me great hope.
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.
Columnists
Palm Oil in Common Household Products Is Destroying the World’s ‘Orangutan Capital’: By Laurel Sutherlin
icture a rhinoceros in the rainforest. Add a herd of elephants, families of orangutans swinging through the treetops, and tigers prowling the understory, and there is only one place in the world you could be. Indonesia’s Leuser Ecosystem is one of Earth’s most ancient forest ecosystems, a laboratory of life’s potential where the alchemy of evolution has […]
Fast Fashion Is Antithetical to Workers’ Rights: By Sonali Kolhatkar
’Tis the season for holiday shopping, and as American consumers ready their spending dollars, few of us are likely to link our gift buying to the high cost of low prices on the other side of the planet. This is especially true for what has come to be known as “fast fashion,” the clothing equivalent […]
The GOP’s ‘Red Caesar’ New Political Order Plan Marches Forward: By Thom Hartmann
“Thirty years ago,” Damon Linker told The Guardian, “if I told you that a bunch of billionaires and intellectuals on the right are waiting in the wings to impose a dictatorship on the United States, you would have said that I was insane.”
Seeing Through the Economic Bait and Switch: By Sonali Kolhatkar
Olivier De Schutter, the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, recently issued a scathing statement about the shameful state of the United States economy.
How Right-Wing Brainchild ‘Universal School Vouchers’ Are Blowing Through State Budgets: By Jeff Bryant
In 2023, Republican state governors went to unprecedented lengths to enact universal school voucher programs in legislative sessions across the country and made support for these programs into rigid party ideology.
How the National Infrastructure Program Creates Jobs for Today and Tomorrow: By David McCall
Ryan Andreas helped his union push through legislation for a national infrastructure program in 2021, realizing that historic upgrades to America’s utilities, ports, and bridges portended brighter futures for him and his co-workers at Travis Pattern and Foundry.It turned out exactly as Andreas anticipated.
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
Brialle Ringer: Pleasure activism keeps people engaged
Young activist, Brialle Ringer, a Living Room Conversations, Communications Partner, made me think. Pleasure activism is where it is at.
Angeliina Lawson, a progressive on a conservative board ensuring transparency to her constituents
Angeliina Lawson is the sole progressive on the Johnson County Community College Board of Trustees trying to be fiscally accountable and transparent.
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
How is America’s outdated power grid inhibiting efforts to fight climate change?
Our outdated power grid is indeed a significant hindrance to efforts to combat climate change. One of the key issues is the grid’s limited capacity to integrate renewable energy sources (solar, wind, etc.), a needed step if we’re to make the transition to a clean energy economy.
Chris Rock used his new Netflix skit Selective Outrage to slam Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith.
I watched Chris Rock on Netflix this morning. It was clear that the Will Smith slap at the Oscars has affected Chris Rock’s comedy.
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.
Environment
What’s the connection between the onset of global warming & an increase in violent human behavior?
It’s not uncommon to hear talk about the dire consequences of global warming—rising-sea levels, extreme weather and ecological disruptions. But there’s another dimension to this crisis that doesn’t get much attention but is equally concerning: the link between global warming and increased violent behavior.
What’s the latest, greatest, and greenest today in countertop materials, flooring, paint, and appliances?
Kitchens have traditionally had one of the worst environmental footprints in the home. However, technological advancements have brought more eco-friendly materials and tools for greener kitchens.
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.