Mike Pence, a heartbeat away from the presidency? Now that’s frightening
Published: Salon (September 22, 2016) Why isn’t Mike Pence a major issue in this campaign? In any other election, Pence would be to a Republican presidential nominee what Sarah Palin was to John McCain back in 2008 — that is, an extreme right-winger whose presence on the ticket is widely regarded as a liability. Of course, this is the year in which the GOP tapped Donald Trump to be its...
Back When I Thought the GOP Would Nominate Rand Paul…
Published: The Good Men Project (September 20, 2016) Roughly one year ago, I participated in the group conference call for one of the publications where I freelance. Both I and the other writers were asked to figure out which Republican presidential candidate we thought would be nominated in 2016, under the presumption that we could then cover that individuals campaign if he or she was indeed...
Hillary’s health and history: She’s not the first candidate to face major medical questions
Published: Salon (September 16, 2016) After Hillary Clinton nearly collapsed at a 9/11 ceremony earlier this week, allegedly due to pneumonia and overheating, the American public is naturally concerned. On the one hand, people wonder whether Clinton is healthy enough to assume the presidency. On the other, they face the fact that ruling Clinton out for health reasons may lead to the election of...
Jews must speak out against Islamophobia: Standing with our Muslim brothers and sisters is critical
Published: Salon (September 14, 2016) When news first broke earlier this week that a mosque in Orlando had been set on fire, presumably because it had been attended by Omar Mateen, the man who in June shot 49 people to death at the nightclub Pulse, I immediately thought of Alaa Basatneh. Three weeks earlier I’d interviewed the Syrian-American journalist and activist and had been struck by her...
We must defeat Trump regardless of Clinton’s health problems
Published: The Good Men Project (September 13, 2016) It seems gauche to say this, but the argument has to be made: Even if the worst rumors about Hillary Clinton's health are true, she still needs to win this election. This is a critically important observation, and yet it seems to have been lost amidst the conjectures as to the deeper meaning of her health scare at a 9/11 commemoration earlier...
A deep dive into the alt-right’s greatest YouTube hits
Published: The Daily Dot (September 7, 2016) When Hillary Clinton pointed out the connection between Donald Trump and the alt-right, she wasn’t talking about an ordinary political movement. As the Daily Dot's Amrita Khalid notes, the alt-right is a "younger, ballsier rejection of the GOP establishment and political correctness as a whole—think the Tea Party meets Pepe the Frog." But it's also...
My Tribute to “Leprechaun 4: In Space”
Published: The Good Men Project (September 6, 2016) If I’m ever asked to name my favorite movie, I’ll usually select Paddy Chayefsky’s brilliant 1976 satire “Network.” Certainly that movie has shaped me as much as any film I’ve watched; it is a sharply insightful look at how corporations and corporatist logic govern our modern world, although it’s best remembered today for prophesying the...
How the “Sausage Party” gets made: Why Seth Rogen’s talking-food cartoon’s labor controversy matters
Published: Salon (September 2, 2016) “Sausage Party” is a surprisingly smart, visually creative comedy that has been rightfully praised for its satirical take on organized religion. This makes it all the more unfortunate that the movie is currently wrapped up in a labor controversy that, if it is grounded in fact, could convince potential viewers to pause before spending their money on the film....
The Age of Tangents
Published: The Good Men Project (August 30, 2016) When I wrote this article on my personal blog almost six years ago, I had no idea that it would remain so prescient today. There is very little that I would change from that post, so I’m publishing it unchanged here. John Kenneth Galbraith, an influential liberal economist who served under four Democratic presidents, once made this observation...
The online trial of Nate Parker
Published: The Daily Dot (August 25, 2016) Is it OK to separate the moral flaws of an artist from the quality of their art? The answer is yes—so long as you understand the consequences. It’s become an American trending topic that we can’t ignore across our Facebook feeds. When we find out that Mel Gibson said anti-Semitic things, and Michael Richards used the N-word, or that Johnny Depp is...
Interview on Third Party Candidates
Interview on The Brad Blog (August 24, 2016) My section begins around the 18:00 mark. http://bradblog.com/?p=11818
Tired of Democrats vs. Republicans? Here’s how to fix it
Published: Salon (August 23, 2016) I’ve been second to none among progressive pundits urging the sane world to unify behind Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump. I’m not going to repeat those arguments here. (If you’re reading this article, the chances are you know them anyway.) But it’s time to acknowledge the major logical flaw in any lesser-of-two-evils position: If we progressives want...
Review for “Hell or High Water”
Published: The Good Men Project (August 23, 2016) co-author Liskula Cohen 2016 has been an especially political year when it comes to the movies. It seems like each of the major presidential candidates has had a major cinematic release to accompany the themes of their campaign: The unapologetically feminist“Ghostbusters” is linked to the same cultural zeitgeist fueling Hillary Clinton’s...
Generation Trump
Published: Salon (August 17, 2016) To understand precisely how Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has changed America, one need only look at a new pair of surveys. In April the Southern Poverty Law Center discovered that the Trump campaign has triggered an unprecedented wave of bigoted bullying in American schools: More than two-thirds of the teachers surveyed have had immigrant, Latino and...
About my positive review for “Suicide Squad”
Published: The Daily Dot (August 16, 2016) It’s a strange feeling, having written one of the few positive articles about Suicide Squad. If the Internet community can learn anything from “Suicide Squad,” it is that online culture breeds a specific kind of overly-informed and excessively quantifying approach to the art of criticism. This has become apparent in several ways just with the Internet’s...
Kevin Smith is right about online bullies
Published: The Good Men Project (August 16, 2016) Simply put, cyber bullies deserve to be ridiculed because they are cowards. I suppose I can exclude the rare troll or hater who actually attaches his or her real name to their verbal bile. There are even a handful of individuals who make their careers out of trolling (Perez Hilton and Milo Yiannapoulos come to mind). That said, the vast majority...
Why Trump’s “Second Amendment” insinuation was an abhorrent stunt straight out of the NRA’s playbook
Published: Salon (August 11, 2016) It was reprehensible for Donald Trump to insinuate that his pro-gun followers use violence to thwart Hillary Clinton. That said, was he really out of lockstep with what the NRA and other pro-gun groups have been saying for years? Just to be clear, this is what Trump said: “If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks. Although the Second Amendment...