You can write to the Rev. Jesse Jackson care of this newspaper or by e-mail at jjackson@rainbowpush.org.
Recent Stories
Pell Grants Needed for Low-income Students
Nuts. There may be fancier words to describe Donald Trump's latest lunacy -- but just plain "nuts" is most accurate. The president decided, overnight, that he wanted the United States to go "back to the Moon, then Mars." To help pay for it, he called on Congress to cut an additional $1.9 billion out of the funds designated to pay for Pell Grants -- the grants that help students from low-income families pay for college. For those children, for the country, for our future, this is just simply nuts.
Bluster Is Not Strength
For Donald Trump, America First is increasingly translating into America alone. He apparently believes that the United States is so dominant that it needs no friends. Trump prefers to act alone, often on impulse, in conflicts across the globe. He views allies as a burden, international law as an affront. He claims that America is back, more respected than ever. In fact, it is becoming more isolated than ever.
The Burden of College Loan Debt
The reaction -- shock, joy, disbelief, euphoria -- revealed the importance of Robert F. Smith's stunning gift, when he announced, unexpectedly, that he would pay off all the college debts of Morehouse College students graduating this year. His gift literally changed the prospects and the lives of the vast majority of those 396 graduates.
The GOP's Attack On Women
Alabama -- led by utterly clueless male legislators -- just passed the most restrictive ban on abortion in the country, with Georgia and Missouri piling on. Other states dominated by right-wing Republican politicians are jockeying to join in. Their aim is to get the courts, newly packed with right-wing judges appointed by Trump, to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark precedent that established a woman's right to choose in the early months of pregnancy.
65 Years After Brown v. Board of Education
This week marks the 65th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the unanimous Supreme Court decision that outlawed apartheid in America, declaring segregated schools "inherently unequal" and unconstitutional.
Trump's Insatiable Appetite for Regime Change
Push is coming to shove in Venezuela. Trump has decided that the government of Nicola Maduro must go. Senior officials -- led by John Bolton, Trump's super-hawk national security adviser, and Elliott Abrams, stained by his cover-up and lies about death squads in El Salvador and contras in Nicaragua in the 1980s -- boast publicly about their plots for regime change. They have recognized an obscure right-wing Venezuelan politician -- Juan Guaido -- as head of state. They've tightened sanctions again and again, adding directly to the dire suffering of the Venezuelan people. They've encouraged the military to revolt. And when the failure of Guaido's latest coup attempt embarrassed them last week, they've threatened direct military intervention.
GOP, Not Russia, the Greater Threat to Free Elections
We all have heard about WikiLeaks and Russian interference in the 2016 election. The report of Special Counsel Robert Mueller has once more put that on the front pages. Too often lost in the furor, however, is the far more damaging TrikiLeaks -- the tricks and laws used to suppress the vote by partisans, largely Republicans here at home.
Trump Plunges U.S. Deeper Into Forgotten Wars
While Washington is consumed with reactions to the Mueller Report and the potential impeachment of Donald Trump, America is descending deeper into largely forgotten wars. In the last month, the president has decided to sustain our involvement in the most unconscionable humanitarian crisis in the world in Yemen and fueled even more violence in the civil war in Libya.
Wall Street's Addiction to Crime
Last week, as Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) convened a House Financial Services Committee hearing, featuring the CEOs of Wall Street's biggest banks, the financial watchdog group released a stunning report on their criminal records: Wall Street's Six Biggest Bailed-Out Banks: Their RAP Sheets and Their Ongoing Crime Spree.
Trump's Border Threats Create Chaos
Donald Trump's flailings on immigration and the Mexican border continue to spiral into chaos. First, he threatened to close the border with Mexico. One week later, he walked that back. He declares a national emergency about the "invasion" of people seeking asylum from Central American countries, and then says he's stopped all aid to those countries, which can only worsen the conditions that cause people to leave.
