But there’s a way for Chuck Schumer and Kamala Harris to neutralize the two heterodox senators
I spent my teenage years in Pine Bluff, a sleepy town in south-central Arkansas. Across the street from our house was the Pine Bluff Commercial, the town’s newspaper. Behind the paper’s brick building was a large grassy piece of land that the newspaper owners allowed the neighborhood kids to use for sandlot sporting events.
We always had plenty of players to field two teams, but we never seemed to have enough equipment to go around. Not everyone had a baseball glove, and we didn’t always have a decent baseball for our games.
Fortunately for us, there was Corey, a kid…
PANDEMIC RELIEF
The President-elect’s economic recovery advisor believes $2,000 checks will screw up the entire economy — and he’s not so sure you should get $600 checks either.
Every once in a while, I’m in the middle of writing my next piece or working on the book I’m allegedly writing when something out of left field stops me cold.
If that ‘something’ is wrong enough, I put aside whatever I’m working on and start rage-writing — very similar to rage-tweeting, it just takes longer. For the last four years, the ‘something out of left field’ that usually gets me going is something President Trump or one of his GOP sycophants said on television.
The last time this phenomenon happened was when Larry Kudlow, the National Economic Council director…
POLITICS
To protect businesses, Mitch McConnell is willing to let America’s economy go over the edge
For the last several months, Congress — especially the US Senate — has behaved like a person who, upon seeing their home ablaze, decides to watch the conflagration for a while, to see how bad it gets. Rather than contacting the fire department, they watch the fire grow larger, hoping the fire will go out on its own.
I’m referring, of course, to Washington’s COVID-19 negotiations or, more accurately, the lack of them. The last six months have been like watching a masterclass in governmental ineptitude. To say people are suffering is an understatement.
We’re headed for an economic cliff
By month’s end, millions will see…
POLITICS
Trump’s attempts to overturn his election loss are part wrestling grift, part coup attempt
In the late 60s, our family lived with my grandparents for a time. I was in elementary school; the youngest of my three younger brothers was practically a newborn. As if the four of us weren’t enough occupants for their small home, my grandmother’s cousin came to visit during the summer.
Cousin Ola was a cheerful, gray-haired lady, slightly younger than my grandmother— and she was crazy about wrestling. One weekend, she insisted we watch Championship Wrestling, a regional forerunner to Vince MacMahon’s WWE. …
THIS IS AMERICA
The ‘Democrats are Socialists’ trope has been a GOP talking point for decades. But who’s really more extreme?
During an appearance on This Week with George Stephanopoulos last weekend, Jason Miller, Trump campaign advisor, deadbeat dad, and all-around sleazy guy, made this comment:
“President Trump will be ahead on election night, probably getting 280 electoral somewhere in that range, and then they’re going to try to steal it back after the election.”
Why a veteran journalist like Stephanopoulos failed to push back on the ‘Democrats will try to steal back the election’ talking point is a mystery. We’ve known for months Trump wants to invalidate as many legitimate votes — in the right localities — as possible. …
Growing up, I thought the institution was an urban legend. The truth was worse.
History is fascinating. It is a work in progress. It evolves. Many times, the history we think we know is but a fable. But every so often, long-hidden history, not to be ignored, reaches out from the depths of obscurity, extending a hand from the distant past to tap us on the shoulder.
This is the story of one of those times.
My three brothers and I spent part of our childhood years in Little Rock, Arkansas. It was the 1960s. …
TRUE STORIES
The one summer job I’ll never forget
After my freshman year at the University of Arkansas, I landed a summer job at an older cousin’s car dealership. It was the 1970s, and my entrepreneurial relative was a big deal.
At the time, Bob Harrison Ford & Lincoln Mercury did well enough to rank 64th in the BE100s — Black Enterprise Magazine’s list of the country’s most successful Black-owned companies.
Since I was a member of the family, I had a place to live rent-free. My cousin had a beautiful home — he even had a swimming pool. …
TRUE STORIES
A brief tale of my first experience with hedge funds.
About a year after 9/11, I had a job interview for a sales-trading position at Burlington Capital, a trading firm in one of the Trump buildings on Wall Street. I’d never heard of them, but since I was relatively new to the City, that didn’t mean much.
I’d moved to New York in late 2000 to reinvent myself after closing the investment firm I’d started five years earlier in Little Rock, Arkansas. …
THIS IS AMERICA
The January 6th attack on the US Capitol was a stark reminder of America’s two systems of justice.
On May 15, 2010, 16-year-old Kalief Browder, a Black teenager from the Bronx section of New York, was arrested on suspicion of stealing a backpack containing $700 in cash, a digital camera, a credit card, a debit card, and an iPod Touch. New York City police did not find the allegedly stolen backpack or the other items in question on Browder during their search.
The alleged victim of the crime subsequently altered their story multiple times, changing the date the crime occurred and even suggesting that the robbery never actually took place. …
TRUMP IMPEACHMENT #2
Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats could use the 14th Amendment to disqualify Trump from ever holding elected office again
On January 13th of this year, President Donald Trump was impeached for the second time, becoming the first twice-impeached president. The House impeached Trump with a single article: “Incitement of Insurrection.”
House Democrats pushed forward with their plan to remove Trump with only days left in his presidency, approving a resolution urging Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to remove Trump with a Cabinet vote. The resolution passed by a 223–205 vote.
Democrats proceeded with their resolution even though Pence, who, after meeting with the President for the first time since the mob attack…
Marlon Weems
Raconteur. Recovering Capitalist. Writing about politics, the economy, race, and inequality. Connect with me everywhere: https://linktr.ee/thejourneyman
