#politics

Heading 3

"Do not seek to follow the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought."

Basho

Welcome to our neighborhood.

Established in 2005, Back on the Block is a progressive publication whose mission is to educate, enlighten, entertain and sometimes challenge. Often critical, sometimes cynical, sometimes irreverent – but always hopeful that what we say and the information that we provide touches the heart and mind.

Feel free to make our Block your Block. Please leave your comments and be sure to visit some of the hot spots in the neighborhood. Where you’ll find news, social commentary, music, politics, poetry and other stuff for grown folks.

Back on the Block – your place in cyber space for the most unique blend of music, news and conversation on issues and events that impact our community.

Peace,

Back on the Block is a publication of the

GLE Media Group.

News and Opinion Channel

Jay Murdock

Apr 11, 2019
17 min

White Nationalism’s Deep American Roots

A long-overdue excavation of the book that Hitler called his “bible,” and the man who wrote it By Adam Serwer | The Atlantic | April 2019 Robert bowers wanted everyone to know why he did it. “I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered,” he posted on the social-media network Gab shortly before allegedly entering the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on October 27 and gunning down 11 worshippers. He “wanted all Jews to die,” he declared while he was being treated fo

How to Build Community in an Era of Division

Jay Murdock

Apr 3, 2019
9 min

How to Build Community in an Era of Division

These local groups support individuals and families who are economically vulnerable and socially isolated. By Ronald Brownstein | The Atlantic Magazine | April 3, 2019 For some of the immigrants who take classes in English and citizenship from Welcoming the Stranger, a nonprofit organization in the Philadelphia suburbs that has served new arrivals from more than 100 countries, the past few years have clouded the sense of welcome they felt when they first came to America. “A l

How the Kochs and their Friends Engineered the Federal Shutdown, Part One

Jay Murdock

Oct 9, 2013
18 min

How the Kochs and their Friends Engineered the Federal Shutdown, Part One

Starting in 2002, the Koch brothers, David and Charles, re-directed their foundations’ money away from the libertarian Cato Institute, which they had founded in 1976 and still controlled, and they favored instead the extremist rightwing Heritage Foundation. Heritage had been set up by Joseph Coors and Richard Mellon Scaife also in the mid-1970s, but specifically to turn the Republican Party away from the too-liberal Richard Nixon, and toward the more hard-rightwing political

Jay Murdock

Sep 23, 2013
3 min

Compassionless Conservatives

Joe Peyronnin, Hofstra Journalism Professor Posted: 09/20/2013 9:19 am The Republican Party is vigorously pursing reductions in the federal budget that will severely impact those who most need help. What is worse, many in the party are willing to shut the government down and disrupt the global economy in order to make their point. Republicans in the House of Representatives, led by Speaker John Boehner, have scheduled a vote Friday on legislation to fund the government throug

Jay Murdock

Aug 29, 2013
4 min

At March on Washington, ALEC Is Exposed

by Brendan Fischer; August 26, 2013 – 9:10am – Topics: Democracy, Politics, Race / Ethnic Issue – Projects: ALEC Exposed “The task is not done, the journey is not complete,” said Martin Luther King III on Saturday’s 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington. “However, sadly, the tears of Trayvon Martin’s mother and father remind us that, far too frequently, the color of one’s skin remains a license to profile, to arrest and to even murder with no regard for the content of

Watchdogs Shed More Light on ALEC on Eve of Group’s DC Summit

Jay Murdock

Nov 28, 2012
4 min

Watchdogs Shed More Light on ALEC on Eve of Group’s DC Summit

by PRW Staff — November 27, 2012 – 1:43pm FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 27, 2012 CONTACT: Sara Jerving, Center for Media and Democracy, (608) 260-9713 Mary Boyle, Common Cause, (202) 736-5770 The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) convenes its annual policy summit this Wednesday in Washington, DC. The three day meeting at the Grand Hyatt Washington hotel caps a year of intense controversy surrounding the organization’s political agenda and tax-exempt status. The

CEO Council Demands Cuts To Poor, Elderly While Reaping Billions In Government Contracts, Tax Breaks

Jay Murdock

Nov 25, 2012
5 min

CEO Council Demands Cuts To Poor, Elderly While Reaping Billions In Government Contracts, Tax Breaks

Christina Wilkie and Ryan Grim – Huffington Post Posted 11/25/2012 10:11 am EST – Updated: 11/25/2012 10:312 am EST Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO of The Goldman Sachs Group waits before a meeting with French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici at the French economy ministry in Paris on Nov. 20, 2012. (ERIC PIERMONT/AFP/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — The corporate CEOs who have made a high-profile foray into deficit negotiations have themselves been substantially responsible for

Warren Buffett On Fiscal Cliff: GOP Needs To Put ‘Country Over Party’

Jay Murdock

Nov 23, 2012
1 min

Warren Buffett On Fiscal Cliff: GOP Needs To Put ‘Country Over Party’

By Harry Bradford, – The Huffington Post Posted: 11/14/2012 5:32 pm EST /Updated: 11/14/2012 5:32 pm EST Rest assured. Despite the fiscal cliff hysteria currently gripping the nation, an Oracle has spoken, and he says there’s nothing to fear. Billionaire philanthropist and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, nicknamed the Oracle of Omaha for his investing prowess, says that no matter what happens in the fiscal cliff debate, the Americans won’t “permanently cripple oursel

How President Obama Took Race off the Table — Again

Jay Murdock

Nov 15, 2012
4 min

How President Obama Took Race off the Table — Again

Earl Ofari Hutchinson: Author and political analyst – Posted: 11/12/2012 12:29 pm Much has been made that defeated GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney got more white votes than any other presidential candidate since George H.W. Bush’s presidential win in 1988. But the reason he did can’t be chalked up simplistically to racial fear, dislike and disgust with President Obama. An untold number of white Romney voters chose him based on party loyalty, political alliance, voting

Barack Obama Reelection Signals Rise Of New America

Jay Murdock

Nov 7, 2012
2 min

Barack Obama Reelection Signals Rise Of New America

Howard Fineman – Posted: 11/06/2012 11:38 pm EST Updated: 11/07/2012 2:13 am EST NEW YORK — President Barack Obama did not just win reelection tonight. His victory signaled the irreversible triumph of a new, 21st-century America: multiracial, multi-ethnic, global in outlook and moving beyond centuries of racial, sexual, marital and religious tradition. Obama, the mixed-race son of Hawaii by way of Kansas, Indonesia, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, won reelection in good