I finished reading Stuart Stevens’ book, It Was All A Lie. There’s so much to talk about with this book, I’ll have to do more than one blog post. This is Part I: The Making of the Modern GOP.  Spoiler: We already knew a lot of this. For example ⤵️ The power a small group […]

Information for this post is from Book 6 in my Making of America series, Thurgood Marshall. Marshall was born in Baltimore in 1908. His interest in law, and his awareness of racial injustice was awakened early (excerpts from my book)             Thurgood’s seat in one classroom was by a window giving him a view of the

The GOP believes that it is tyranny when a government takes steps to save lives, and good government when the wealthy get tax breaks. That’s because the GOP is the party of hierarchy. They don’t believe fairness and equality are possible. Hierarchy people think there’s a natural order. Some people belong on top. Others belong

Today is an important anniversary. 73 years ago, on April 23, 1951, in Farmville, VA, Barbara Johns led a walkout of her segregated high school to protest the unfair and deplorable conditions of her school. What?! You don’t know who Barbara Johns was? She led her walkout more than 4 years before Rosa Parks refused

The Zelensky-Trump phone call was released by the White House and is here. In his riveting testimony last February before the House Committee on Oversight, Cohen explained how Trump pulls people in and gets them to lie and cheat for him. Cohen quotations from here. Trump doesn’t order anyone to lie or commit crimes. He’s

Alternate title: California shows the way California used to be Republican. We gave the nation Nixon and Reagan. Republican candidates won CA in every presidential election between 1952 and 1988 except one: By 1990, CA demographics were changing, with growing Asian and Spanish-speaking communities. Then California’s “Latino and Asian populations boomed in the 1990s.” In

I’ve returned from Texas, after a stop in Santa Barbara for the Indivisible March. My detention center journal is now complete. Preliminary Remarks Raices needs Spanish speaking lawyers, or lawyers with translators. My husband is a native Spanish speaker, so we go as a team. The law: If asylum seekers arrive without documents, they can:

I was honored to be the guest speaker at yesterday’s Indivisible / Santa Barbara march. The video is here. Here is the text: We are here to make our voices heard. This is democracy at work. If you’re like me, perhaps, in the past, you took American democracy a little bit for granted. Some of

[View as a Twitter thread] Adding this note in 2024: I wrote that thread when the Twitter Outrage Machine was sure that Nancy Pelosi wasn’t moving fast enough. Sarah Kendzior driving the Twitter rage machine. My point here was the same as the point I made with the same people were screaming at Garland to

To read this page on the Harris School of Public Policy website, click here   Why are challenges to democracy so important to effectively address? Democracies can, and do, die.  “If it happens here,” says Prof. David Strauss, “it won’t happen all at once. A large, diverse society with democratic traditions and a strong civil

On Friday, January 4, I appeared on KVEC News/Talk 920 AM and 96.5 FM to talk about Ruth Bader Ginsburg. On Thursday, January 3, I did a Q&A on Ruth Bader Ginsburg as part of the SLO Jewish Film Festival. The radio show is here as a podcast. Here is a transcript of a four

[View here as a Twitter thread] Seems to me Trump had a 2-part plan. #1: [If he wins] shut down all investigations.  Winning would put him at the head the executive branch (DOJ, FBI, etc), so this must have seemed entirely doable. He always behaves as if he can run the US executive branch the way he

What’s up with all Trump’s lawbreaking? Spoiler: When you understand how the Trump family became wealthy, the meaning of MAGA becomes clear. I’ll explain. Sources in links and these (well researched books): The Making of Donald Trump by David Cay Johnston and The Truth About Trump, Michael D’Antonio. Friedrich, DJT’s grandfather, left Germany in 1885.

[View here as a Twitter thread] Some of you are worried there’s a case going to SCOTUS that may “get rid of double jeopardy” and “allow Trump to pardon state crimes.” It seems the case you’re all worrying about is Gamble v. US. 2/ And the article that seems to have you all worried is