Fairness - The Commentary

Over and over again we must remind ourselves that the right-wing dominating the Republican Party, has a “logic” of its own. We have to stop asking questions like: “Don't they understand?” “Don't they see that this doesn't make any sense?” “Why do so many vote against their self-interest?” If we're stuck in the kind of analysis these questions represent, we don't understand what's going on in right-wing and, more broadly, conservative politics today. And we'll spend a lot of time trying to get them to “understand” while they work to effectively manipulate the means of power. “Don't they understand the importance of a good education?” Wrong question. They see education as a means of liberalizing people. “The facts,” as  Rachel Maddow paraphrased Stephen Colbert , “have a liberal bias.” So their goal is to control education at all levels by defunding it so it fails and then moving it under the control of corporate forces that have a profits-over...

2014 ended with another child's suicide in the news. This time, it was a twelve-year-old boy who couldn't take the bullying anymore. Yes, it was in California, where all the right laws and policies are in place. Still, death seemed better to Ronin Shimizu than enduring his community. And what was he doing to bring what's known as gay-bashing on? Well, it wasn't about sexual orientation - whom he was loving or having sex with. He was only twelve. But the taunts from bullies at Folsom Middle School seemed overwhelming. This little boy who killed himself on December 3 rd , was taunted because he was a cheerleader. A cheerleader – oh, the horror! Because of the bullying, his parents had switched him to home-schooling in the sixth grade. And how did the school district's spokesperson respond? “Well, we were aware of allegations of bulling. I can’t speak to specific allegations, but like all allegations, we investigate them fully.” That's it. And those...