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Originally published in the Tompkins Weekly, August 21, 2025 In July, when Congresswoman Greene introduced an amendment to strip $500 million of US military funding for the genocidal, apartheid state of Israel, only 6 members of the 435 members of Congress voted for the amendment. Our representative, Josh Riley, was among the 422 members of Congress who voted against. Thus has Josh Riley affirmatively and explicitly rendered support to a genocidal entity, along with 421 other members of the Democratic and Republican parties. [Read More]

Originally published in the Tompkins Weekly, May 21, 2025 It’s been great to see people becoming more politically active nowadays, with crowds out on the Commons and marching through the streets. A series of “Hands-off” activities were instigated by an organization called Indivisible. This group inspired people to hit the streets with the message “Hands Off __ {fill in the blank}!” It is in this spirit that I demand that Senators Gillibrand and Schumer, Representative Riley, and President Trump impose a cut-off of the bombs and other weaponry that our “ally” uses to devastate and besiege Palestine. [Read More]

This sentencing statement was delivered to the US Federal Court in Syracuse, NY, by Ellen Grady, who was arrested when demanding that her right to petition the government for a redress of grievances be honored by the Federal Police “Good afternoon, Judge Dancks. And good afternoon to all the people working in the court. I’m grateful for this moment to say a few remarks before my sentencing. 70,000 Palestinians have been murdered with US weapons and funding [Read More]

Originally published in the Tompkins Weekly on January 15, 2025 November’s election led to the welcome political demise of Republican Marc Molinaro, a representative not of the people of his district, but of the military-industrial complex, of the billionaire class, of the foreign governments of Israel and Ukraine. I am glad to see the back of this vile politician who also stoked the fires of xenophobia for attempted political gain. In his place, Democrat Josh Riley has taken office. [Read More]

On November 15, 2024, members of the Downtown Berrigan Collective, based in Ithaca, NY, and other upstate peace activists went to the Syracuse Federal Building to demand access to the offices of our US Senators Schumer and Gillibrand in order to exercise our right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. We wished to impress upon them the urgency of cutting off offensive weapons for Israel’s genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples. [Read More]

Originally published in The Tompkins Weekly, October 16, 2024 Shamefully, in New York it is the case that we are the only State, Commonwealth, or Territory of the United States to have only two candidates for President on the ballot. This is a result of changes to our electoral laws spearheaded by the so-called “Democratic” Party, in which ballot access for independent candidates was made nearly impossible by tripling the number of voters’ signatures that are required, and by establishing an unreasonably compressed time frame in which to collect these signatures. [Read More]

originally published in the Tompkins Weekly, May 15, 2024 The timeworn tactic of voting for the lesser of two evils has led us to unutterable evil, as exemplified by the arming of, and diplomatic cover for, Israel’s atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank. This war crime is only the latest in a very long series of moral outrages committed by successive Democrat and Republican regimes. The military-industrial complex requires enemies to thrive, and our bought-and-paid-for presidents are happy to oblige. [Read More]

Record high US oil production https://www.vox.com/climate/24098983/biden-oil-production-climate-fossil-fuel-renewables Record number of people living in poverty (12.4%!) https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/09/12/us-poverty-rate-2022-increase/70775443007/ 31% of Americans report a net worth of $0 or less https://www.creditkarma.com/about/commentary/americans-have-a-net-worth-problem-and-its-not-positive There are 653,100 homeless people (2023 figure) https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2023-AHAR-Part-1.pdf More than 25% of homeowners are ‘house poor’ https://www.chamberofcommerce.org/cities-with-the-most-house-poor-homeowners/ Housing costs are at record level of unaffordability https://www.habitat.org/costofhome/2023-state-nations-housing-report-lack-affordable-housing Utility costs have skyrocketed https://www.utilitydive.com/news/electricity-prices-inflation-consumer-price-index/640656/ Food costs have skyrocketed https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar_media_wire/3887742-how-expensive-are-groceries-in-2023-these-5-graphs-show-prices-skyrocket/ Credit card debt in the US is at a record $1. [Read More]

In Joe Biden’s America: -There are 582,500 homeless people (2022 figure) https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2022-AHAR-Part-1.pdf -More than 25% of homeowners are ‘house poor’ https://www.chamberofcommerce.org/cities-with-the-most-house-poor-homeowners/ -Housing costs are at record level of unaffordability This year’s State of the Nation’s Housing 2023 report from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies paints a stark picture of record unaffordability, near-record housing shortages and major barriers to first-time homeownership. The number of cost-burdened renters reached an all-time high: 21. [Read More]

As the 2024 presidential campaign is shaping up now in the summer of 2023, we are already hearing whining from Democrats about the “spoiler effect” of a potential Green Party candidate such as Cornel West. Yet in New York (and many other states) the Democrats have had ample time to eliminate the possibility of a spoiler effect by enacting Ranked Choice (Instant Runoff) Voting. In fact, the Democrats have had complete “Trifecta” control of the state government for 7 years out of the last 15 years! [Read More]