Columnists

"The First White President," an Atlantic essay by Ta-Nehisi Coates, is a must read for progressives. Coates argues that Donald Trump was elected for one reason: his unapologetic whiteness. "It is often said that Trump has no real ideology, which is not true—his ideology is white supremacy, in all its truculent and sanctimonious power." -more-

I remember the Watergate scandal in the early 1970s, which probably dates me.

Some have compared the Watergate scandal to today’s Russiangate — whether Donald Trump and/or his cohorts and/or his family members colluded with the Russians in cyberattacks on the U.S. electoral system or attempted to interfere in the FBI’s investigation of any potential links to and coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

Let’s look back at the Watergate scandal: -more-

Television watching is almost always a passive undertaking. It is not something that requires focus, like using a computer or playing a video game. It does not require that you do anything. You will not be tested afterward to see if you have learned the material.

An art instructor, a very long time ago, was complaining about budget cuts to his program, and said that art relaxes the mind. Television can also relax the mind, albeit it is often in a mostly idiotic way.

Everyone needs to rest their minds. Many people go to work every day, and I am not one of them, come home and need to obtain a little bit of escapism. If you are mentally ill, sometimes escapism and resting the mind are exactly the things you need to get off the track of worrying, being upset, and possibly having symptoms. -more-