As noted in last month’s issue, your Nov. 5 ballot will include 10 statewide measures ranging from repairs for public school buildings to increasing the minimum wage. Other issues, including rent [...] Continue Reading
Archives
Are the Districts Gerrymandered?
We are in the final stretch of the election season. Ballots will be mailed out to voters on Oct. 7. Even though Election Day isn’t until Nov. 5, once voters receive their ballots they can vote [...] Continue Reading
Local Congressional Races
Since at least October 1805, Americans have heard the phrase, “This election is the most important of our lifetimes.”1 This year, it is more true than ever. There are many electoral [...] Continue Reading
Trump: Immigrants Are Eating Pets and Stealing Jobs
Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump went full throttle on immigrants during the Sept. 10 Presidential debate, vowing to deport at least 15 million migrants immediately after taking [...] Continue Reading
Falling Out with Historical Allies
Recent events on the Fresno electoral scene clearly demonstrate that the goals of elected officials are not always 100% in alignment with the goals of their supporters or groups that have supported [...] Continue Reading
As Relevant as Ever: The BS Factor
Some authors just have a knack for finding an eye-catching title. One such writer was Harry G. Frankfurt, a philosophy professor whose pint-sized book On Bullshit created something of a furor when [...] Continue Reading
Mexico: Court Reform
Mexico has approved and initiated a process of court reform intended to fight corruption through participatory democracy. In Mexico, all judges will be democratically elected. It is the first country [...] Continue Reading
Miguel Arias for City Manager?
BY KEVIN HALLWhile all eyes are turned to the presidential election, local politicians are focused on their immediate prospects. With three Fresno City Council members due to term out in 2026 and only [...] Continue Reading
Trump’s Platform of Fear a Contagion of Violence
Fear is one’s anticipation of danger to oneself or the group you identify such as racial, economic, ethnic or religious. Political fear is among the oldest and has extended since the dawn of [...] Continue Reading
Trump Trumps Himself
When Donald Trump’s Supreme Court erased decades of precedent by overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, evangelicals and conservative Catholics (the “Religious Right”) cheered. However, their long fight [...] Continue Reading
Inferno Tactics
Lukashivka, a Ukrainian village in the Sumy region in northern Ukraine, located just 200 meters from the Russian border, was razed to the ground by guided aerial bombs in March 2024. Oleksandrivka, [...] Continue Reading
FOCAC: Modernization of the Global South
The primary multilateral coordination mechanism connecting China and African nations is the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). FOCAC was one of the first regional organizations established by [...] Continue Reading