Author Archives: oddmanout215

OK, I give up — why were we in Afghanistan?


America’s 20-year war and nation-building experiment in Afghanistan came to a predictably bad end over the weekend. Since then, foreign policy “experts” have been speculating what went wrong, but few are admitting the effort was a colossal mistake from the … Continue reading

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The Year of the Yahoo


“What exactly you mean by yahoo?” Swamp Rabbit said, sounding defensive. I’d just finished telling him that yahoo-ism is a syndrome that’s been trending for years in this country. That the yahoos among us became louder and more conspicuous when … Continue reading

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Wishful thinking, a.k.a. bipartisanship


I told Swamp Rabbit that the country is in a one-step-forward, two-steps-back historical loop, and there’s no reason to believe things will get better anytime soon. He didn’t want to believe this, so I summarized some news stories for him … Continue reading

Posted in climate change, history, humor, mainstream media | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Hey, let’s appoint Jeff Davis to investigate the Civil War


So Nancy Pelosi tells Kevin McCarthy no, you can’t appoint foes of the democratic process to a committee investigating an attack on the democratic process. She’s referring to Jan. 6, when an angry mob of Trumpers stormed the Capitol with … Continue reading

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Time’s running out, but Biden still won’t voice the f-word


The consensus was that Joe Biden gave a rousing speech Tuesday in Philadelphia that will do nothing to derail voter suppression efforts in red states around the country. So what was the point? I asked my neighbor Swamp Rabbit but … Continue reading

Posted in history, humor, mainstream media, Obama, voter suppression | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

A major court victory for the new Confederates (Happy 4th!)


Just in time for the holiday, the U.S. Supreme Court further divided the country with a 6-3 ruling that finished neutering the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. As a writer for The Atlantic put it: Republicans will understandably view … Continue reading

Posted in history, humor, mainstream media, voter suppression | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

For the People Act was dead on arrival. What now, Dems?


I was in a quandary, like other non-Trumpers who are watching the Republican Party’s full-scale effort to strip voting rights from as many Democrats as it takes to ensure future elections are won by extreme right-wingers. One might assume this … Continue reading

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To the moon with you, Bezos, and beyond!


I was reading about zillionaire Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon, the world’s largest Internet company. He arguably became the richest person in history during the Covid-19 pandemic thanks to a huge upsurge in online sales. He owns Whole Foods. He … Continue reading

Posted in humor, mainstream media, New York Times | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

AR-15, Swiss Army knife — good for both home and battle


I showed Swamp Rabbit a copy of the recent court ruling on assault weapons in California. He read the first paragraph out loud: Like the Swiss Army Knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon … Continue reading

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Not forgetting is hard work (a history lesson)


“When was the last time you thought about history?” I said to Swamp Rabbit, who was playing a video game on his phone. “Here, check this out.” I made him read the laughably creepy anecdote that starts Milan Kundera’s The … Continue reading

Posted in arts, fiction, history, humor, mainstream media | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments