Recent Accountability Commentaries

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What We Tolerate and Why
Twitter permanently suspended Georgia’s Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene from the social media website after she tweeted, falsely, “extremely high amounts of Covid vaccine deaths.” After a discussion on the sidelines during last Sunday’s game, Buccaneers football wide receiver, Antonio Brown took off his gear and left the field during a game. Happy New Year and welcome to disrespectful, reckless...
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January 4, 2022
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Just Don’t Look
Filmmaker Adam McKay has created a perfect metaphor for our times. A dark comedy that asks: what if science; politics; climate change; bouncy, mindless talk shows; willful ignorance; pop culture; social media and money, all intersected? The answer is “Don’t Look Up.” Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence star as two astronomers who discover a comet on a collision course with...
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December 31, 2021
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The Cliffs of Insanity
There’s a scene in the movie, The Princess Bride, where the undaunted hero—with all the kindness, smartness, and decency required of heroes—is doing what heroes do: saving his beloved Buttercup from kidnappers. At one point, he chases them to the Cliffs of Insanity, a rocky crag so high and so treacherous it makes Yosemite’s El Capitan look like a picnic....
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December 17, 2021
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What Happens When Enough People Are Fed Enough False Information?
In Michael Morell’s 2015 book, The Great War of Our Time, the former CIA deputy director begins with a stunning statement: “the threat of terrorism did not die with Bin Ladin in Abbottabad,” and, left unchecked, is the greatest threat to America. It’s an extraordinary book with details and insight that are both overwhelmingly thought-provoking and frightening. However, when misinformation...
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December 14, 2021
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Let’s Get After It!
CNN’s Chris Cuomo Prime Time offered a mix of news, interviews, and insights into politics and how those in power work the levers of power in Washington. He often reserved his harshest assessment of others for a segment called, “Let’s Get After It!” His approach throughout was straightforward as he fearlessly held political figures accountable, and on more than one...
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December 10, 2021
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Mandate of Heaven
These are the things . . . that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. — President Donald Trump, in a tweet posted on January 6, the day of the attack on Washington’s Capitol building. “The Mandate of Heaven was...
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December 7, 2021
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The Rittenhouse Effect
You have a right to defend yourself. Be armed, be dangerous, be moral. — Representative Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) How can you equate morality with a vigilante who killed two people, Mr. Cawthorn? Kyle Rittenhouse, the 18-year-old Illinois teen who shot and killed two men and wounded a third at a Kenosha Wisconsin riot that followed the shooting of a Black...
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December 3, 2021
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Are Vaccination Mandates Ethical?
To mandate, or not to mandate, that is the question. For 18 months, Americans have tolerated masks, travel, and event restrictions, and virtual home hibernation. “Overall in the United States, 74.1 percent of Americans over five years old have at least one coronavirus shot, and 62.8 percent are fully vaccinated.” However, just when you thought it was safe to step...
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November 30, 2021
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If I Spoke to the House
If I were a member of the House of Representatives, here’s what I would’ve said to my colleagues last week. A member of this body recklessly posted an animated video that depicted them killing another member. We all know the difference between right and wrong. We all know what action we would take if any of our sons or daughters...
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November 22, 2021
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Three Stories, Same Message
Three stories this week are linked by a common thread: Defiance. “I’m telling you right now,” Trump ally Steve Bannon told reporters outside an FBI field office in Washington, “this is going to be the misdemeanor from hell for Merrick Garland, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden.” We’re “going to go on the offense,” Bannon said even as he live-streamed a...
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November 19, 2021