Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in The Swamp.
5 Movies Featuring the Most Virtuous U.S. Presidents. Top Story - March 2018.
In 2018, the frantic pace of political news cycles can make every week feel like a year. It can be difficult to keep an optimistic view of our national governing institutions, which ought always to be full of civil servants who put the good of the citizenry above their own.
By Christopher Royce8 years ago in The Swamp
The Quiet Battle To Return Pre-Existing Conditions to What It Was
There is a quiet war being waged on people with disabilities also known as a pre-existing condition. As a child, I knew about this war since getting covered for my type-1 diabetes was hard. Many people have pre-existing conditions. Heartless politicians want to make sure these people do not get coverage. The American Health Care Act is a step backwards even if they still cannot charge sick people more for insurance. The House has no idea what they are doing with regard to how this impacts people with pre-existing conditions. Insurers can stop covering, even for people with continuous coverage.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in The Swamp
2018 Will Be the Most Important Year in the History of Our Young Democratic Republic
A lot of America is hurting. Republican policies have shrunk the middle class, to the point where it really is almost nonexistent. It started with Ronald Reagan and "Trickle Down" economics, which America just fell for one more time, or rather, they will take the tax cut while things are going well. Deep down inside many are feeling uneasy about it. Sure, most of us will get a nice little tax cut, while really rich people and corporate America will get a HUGE tax cut, on the backs on hard working Americans. Trump argued during the campaign that the Obama economy was a "catastrophe" and now takes credit for every positive aspect of the now eight year long recovery, the one where President Obama was president for 7 years of. Heck, Trump took credit for the record stock market high a few days after he took office. Of course now as the markets are getting rocky and heading towards a Bear market, the man is silent. The man is a dangerous buffoon. The Republicans have dug in and are satisfied to try to control him as long as he keeps favorable poll numbers with the base, which he has, and as long as he doesn't become a complete political disaster, which he will be in the end. Hypocrisy knows no boundaries in the new Republican orthodoxy.
By Scott Bowen8 years ago in The Swamp
Why Do I Act 'Woke'?
I always get the question "Why are you so woke?" and I just cannot stand this question; it literally irritates so much. Just because of the fact that I don't let people tell me anything they want to while you just sit there and accept it does not mean I’m woke. I don't always say things to people when they are in the wrong but I know what I can handle. That's like when TheToday Show made a model of what they say Queen Nefertiti would have looked like and it was a tan white woman, even though everyone with sense would know that Egyptians were black. I mean, they were in Africa in the Archaic period. After that, Twitter went to town on The Today Show, making sure they knew that Egyptians were black. I would not call that woke, though. It's just that people love being ignorant so I mean why not just cut them off right at the start?
By Anaya Chambers8 years ago in The Swamp
Most Powerful Female Political Leaders Right Now
From Angela Merkel to Ivanka Trump, these women hold more political power than you can imagine. Named as Forbes' Most Powerful Women of 2017, each of these women have claimed their rightful spot for being some of the top game-changers of the world, on top of being successful, powerful, and intelligent.
By April Demarco8 years ago in The Swamp
Crisis Point
Thinking back to the financial crisis of 2008, one would think that another such economic catastrophe would somehow elude us. It was just ten years ago that the United States plunged the world into the worst financial disaster since the Great Depression. Yet here we are, a decade later, no wiser and even more foolish. You would have thought that we would have learned from our mistakes, but time and time again, history proves that we are still prone to repeat mistakes of the past. When will we ever learn? Today, what we have is déjà vu of the 2008 financial crisis. So what we have now are almost the same set of circumstances that are poised to unleash an economic debacle more sinister and more devastating than the one in 2008. To understand how this is happening, we first have to look at what transpired leading up to the 2008 crash.
By Dr. Williams8 years ago in The Swamp
Oakland Obstruction? Did Mayor Libby Schaaf Violate the Alien Harboring Act?
A recent tweet on twitter after Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf warned her Sanctuary City of upcoming Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) law enforcement action read: By alerting law breakers, any 'death by illegal' or even injury by same in @Oakland is on your Mayor. Best lawyer up, I would think. #ICE #Obstruction.
By Lourdes Josephina Vitas8 years ago in The Swamp
Ocean Pollution
Tons of plastic and other debris that are carelessly dumped into our oceans are swirling in currents, breaking into smaller components and never going away. The world's oceans are covered in trash that either degrades and sinks to the bottom or drifts onto our shores. Marine debris has a massive impact on not only wildlife, but humans as well. Sea turtles, seals, sea lions, seagulls, whales, and dolphins are only five of the marine animals dying from our plastic trash. These creatures depend on us—why are we being so shellfish?
By Sam Villemaire8 years ago in The Swamp
The Best Film Nobody Is Talking About
On March 14, 2014 the film Cesar Chavez was released into theaters. It told the story of the legendary farm-worker and civil rights leader Cesar Chavez during the 1960s and 1970s. On paper it seemed like a film critics would praise and audiences, particularly Latino audiences, would embrace. It had a great cast that featured Michael Pena as Chavez, America Ferrera as his wife Helen Chavez and Rosario Dawson as civil rights leader Dolores Huerta. It was a film co-produced by Participant Media, a production company with the mission statement of producing films with a story that revolves around social and civic change. Despite all of this, it was a film that came and went with almost no real buzz surrounding it, and no significant word of mouth to propel it. The film was panned by critics and made very little noise at the box office. I must admit, as excited I was to see that a film like this was being made, it took about two weeks after its initial release for me to actually see the film. When I saw it, I was disappointed. I was still happy that the story of arguably the most important civil rights leader in Latino-American history was made into a feature length film, but more importantly, I was saddened to see that the film itself didn’t live up to the standards that it should have. It was also disappointing to see a film like this not reach any kind of critical or fan success, because had it been successful it would have opened the door to so many other stories like it. People so easily forget that Latinos, specifically Mexican-Americans have been living in the United States for centuries. We didn’t start to suddenly immigrate here over the last twenty years, and we definitely are not guilty of doing the things that Fox News and the Trump regime accuse us of doing. I say all of this because the stories of our people and of our cultures are very deep and complex. Had the film Cesar Chavez become a success, it would have been a precedent to produce future films like it, but it wasn’t, and I along with many other Latino film fans had to wonder where our next story would come from.
By Carlos Navarrette8 years ago in The Swamp
Confederate Flags, Kneeling, and the USA: Part 2
One of the examples I can give is the Zoot Suit Riots in 1943. In the 1930s the US deported between 500,000 and two million people, including up to 1.2 million legal people of Mexican descent (illegally, I might add) so that they could ease the strain on the economy at the time. Many Latinos and Mexicans resided in historic areas. More recent immigrants joined them as they were segregated to part of the town which was the worst from housing to financially. In L.A., the newspapers ran articles using derogatory terms to describe the Hispanic and Latino communities, and urged that the teens were rampant troublemakers. Sound Familiar? This caused severe discord between the Caucasians and the minorities such as Mexicans and Latinos.
By James Howell8 years ago in The Swamp
