Blue Monday Archives - Page 4 of 6

Blue Monday

Why I Play the Blues

A Very Brief Reflection on the Meaning of Politics and its Limits

October 22, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

The “Blue Monday” column began as a way of integrating the two passions of my life: politics and music and especially jazz. Readers will have noted that lately I have strayed from this purpose, and my columns have become political commentaries pure and simple. My obsession with politics is in part an ...

Blue Monday

Getting Millennials to the Polls

An Extra-Credit Assignment on Voting and Citizenship

October 15, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

As commentators across the political spectrum agree, the upcoming U.S. elections on Election Day, November 6, are very important in determining the future of American democracy. Readers of this column know that the only filter on my political opinions is the filter of language itself. I say what I think. I ...

Blue Monday

Courts, Kavanaugh, and Constitutional Hardball

October 8, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

On November 22, 1895 Eugene V. Debs stepped outside of the Woodstock Jail in Chicago, where he had been imprisoned for six months. Debs, the President of the American Railway Union, had been one of the leaders of the Pullman Strike of 1894, considered by many to be the first ...

Courts, Kavanaugh, and Constitutional Hardball

Blue Monday

Beyond the Three Faces of Power?

What we can learn from the recent Kavanaugh hearings

October 1, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Politics is about power. And power is everywhere. To locate it is to locate the social agents who have the ability to shape our lives and the processes by which they can do so. Social and political theorists have debated about the concept of power, and the sources and locations ...

Blue Monday

With Outrage and Injustice for All

Itinerary of a thought about the Kavanaugh controversy and the public significance of a fair hearing

September 24, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

“I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and I wrote some blues.” -Duke Ellington As readers of this column know, I believe that Trumpism -- the Trump administration, the Republican Congress, and the Trumpist Republican party -- represents a profound threat to liberal democracy, human rights, social justice, and public decency. ...

Blue Monday

Twisted

Thoughts on the insanity in the White House

September 10, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

"I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and I wrote some blues." -Duke Ellington This past week we have been vividly reminded of what we long have known: that the man currently occupying the office of President of the United States, the Chief Executive and Commander in Chief of ...

Blue Monday

Evil Ways

Reflections on sometimes supporting politicians who make us sick, and on politicians and musicians who raise us up

August 27, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

"I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and I wrote some blues." -Duke Ellington Last Thursday night, while watching MSNBC, I was taken aback to see a new TV ad from the re-election campaign of Senator Joe Donnelly (D-Indiana). Donnelly, along with West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, has long positioned ...

Blue Monday

The Whole World Is Watching?

Thoughts on police violence in the streets of Bucharest and the streets of Portland, Charlottesville, Ferguson, and Chicago 1968

August 13, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

“I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and I wrote some blues.” -Duke Ellington This past Friday night, August 10, a major demonstration was held at Piata Victorei in downtown Bucharest to protest the widespread corruption of the SPD government, led by Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă, and by the ...

Blue Monday

Compared to What? A Very Dark Thought about November

(and an electrifying and enduring song of resistance)

August 6, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

"I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and I wrote some blues." -Duke Ellington Last Thursday, August 2, the daily Lie Fest otherwise known as the Sarah Huckabee Sanders White House press briefing featured the country’s five top intelligence officials, who individually and collectively announced to the world that ...

Compared to What? A Very Dark Thought about November

Blue Monday

Of Summits, Blowhards, and Hard Blowing

Thoughts on Trump, treason, and defending democracy

July 23, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

"I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and I wrote some blues." -Duke Ellington In the wake of Donald Trump’s recent Helsinki “summit” with Vladimir Putin, which followed quickly on the heels of Trump’s disastrous meeting with EU leaders in Brussels, talk of “treason” is in the air. To ...

Blue Monday

Confirmation

Timing is everything in politics – and the fight against Trump’s SCOTUS nominee is political

July 16, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

"I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and I wrote some blues." -Duke Ellington In the coming weeks and perhaps months much political contention in the U.S. will center on the Senate confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump’s nominee to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme ...

Blue Monday

Both Directions Together

Improvising the greatness we need in these dark times

July 9, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

"I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and I wrote some blues." -Duke Ellington I’ve been writing the “Blue Monday” column for around six months now. Each week is a new situation, a new political experience to endure and a new writing challenge to surmount. In recent weeks I ...