Twenty years ago, Katrina taught America devastating lessons. The administration’s policies against strategizing to protect society’s most vulnerable are a recipe for a repeat.
Hurricane Katrina
Posted inBooks, July/August 2020, Magazine
From Katrina to COVID-19: There Are Reasons Disasters Hurt the Poor the Most
A new book shows how policy choices have made some people more vulnerable than others.
Posted inPolitical Animal
And the Newest Member of Trump’s Fan Club Is…
So there was Kellyanne Conway making a fool of herself as usual on CNN this morning, smearing James Comey and feigning outrage when Dana Bash brought up the fact that Conway’s husband, attorney George Conway, doesn’t seem to like Trump all that much. Most rational-thinking Americans regard Conway as a joke. What about those who […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Trump’s Human-Rights Atrocity in Puerto Rico
If this were happening in a developing nation, it would be an international outrage. It’s happening in the United States, and not enough people seem to care. Eight months after Hurricane Maria assaulted Puerto Rico, its residents continue to endure indignity after indignity. These indignities are the direct result of Donald Trump and the Republican […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Don’t Let David Buckel’s Death Be in Vain
As they say, desperate times call for desperate measures—and when it comes to the climate crisis, we are indeed living in desperate times. It’s hard to overstate the passion and principle of pioneering attorney David Buckel, who died one week ago today at the age of 60. He did not pass away from a dreadful […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Obama-Trump Voters Need to Apologize to Puerto Rico
Remember Colin Powell’s “Pottery Barn doctrine” with regard to the Iraq War–”You break it, you own it”? That same rule should apply to the consequences of bad voting decisions. Those who voted for Donald Trump last November–especially the folks who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, only to take leave of their senses […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Hurricane Havoc and the Climate Conversation
Will they say this was the moment when America finally grew up on climate? After the multi-billion-dollar impact of Harvey, Irma, Jose and Maria, it’s safe to say that if the ideological barriers preventing Americans from working together to solve the climate crisis have not been knocked down yet, those barriers will never fall. It’s […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Hurricane Rush’s Downpour of Lies
I’d say the old man has lost it, but he never had it in the first place: Rush Limbaugh didn’t say the magic words, but on Tuesday he basically accused the media of creating fake news about Hurricane Irma, which is threatening Florida after hitting Barbuda and Antigua. The storm’s 185-mile-per-hour winds tied the record […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
After Hurricane Harvey, Republicans Have No Excuses for Inaction on Climate
How high’s the water, mama? Five feet high and rising How high’s the water, papa? She said it’s five feet high and rising Well the rails are washed out north of town We gotta head for higher ground We can’t come back till the water goes down Five feet high and rising… –Johnny Cash, “Five […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Hurricane Harvey and Trump’s Treachery
You can’t have limited government when there’s unlimited flooding. Surely, among the many residents of Texas and Louisiana impacted by Hurricane Harvey are Republicans who voted for Donald Trump because they wanted to “get the federal government out of their lives,” and because they didn’t want “liberal tree-hugging central-planning do-gooders” making decisions in Washington. Of […]
