There is little I have in common with Cesar Sayoc, the man allegedly responsible for sending bombs to CNN and other prominent Democrats, or Robert Bowers, the terrorist who murdered 11 elderly Jews at the Synagogue of Life in Pittsburgh. But they are men who once had hopes, ...read more
The racism isn't new. This is who they are. This is who they've been since the Civil War and before. The party they infest changes every now and then (once upon a time they were, in fact, Democrats) but the racism is always there. They can't give it up because it defines them, ...read more
Over the past few days, two deeply damaged celebrities have injected themselves into the public discourse (again), pledging their support for another deeply damaged celebrity, who happens to be president of the United States. These appearances were not coordinated or even overtly ...read more
Over the past few weeks, I've been feeling completely overwhelmed with the sheer amount of information coming at me from every angle imaginable. Granted, I have just moved house (with a young child this is twice as stressful), but the non-stop scandals coming out of the White ...read more
The disgraceful nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court reinforced a notion I have come to understand about America for some time now. Beneath the exterior presented to Americans via the news, America is not a country with two political parties. It is not a country ...read more
1. Start young - Family traditions can happen by accident, of course. You all had so much fun at this one restaurant that you start making it an annual event. Or you find a new beach or park that you all fall in love with and it just becomes a "thing." But to build a family ...read more
Jordan Peterson has an amateurish understanding of evolutionary biology that he is unashamed to flaunt wherever he is asked to speak. Most famously, he compares lobster hierarchies to human ones -- two species that evolved separately over hundreds of millions of years. As an ...read more
If you've watched your paycheck diminish, education costs go up, and your health care costs spiral out of control, most rational people would probably think about not voting for Republicans. Why? Because Americans have been subjected to right wing economics for almost four ...read more
White people, particularly white men, have been sold the myth that if you work hard, you can have the American Dream. This dream is collapsing, exposing not only white fragility, but something far more frightening to Americans who overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump...To ...read more
For the last two weeks before school started this Tuesday, I've been in full Stay-at-Home Daddy mode. Jordan was done with summer school and summer camp was over both both Jordan and Anastasia. They would get up, I would make them breakfast, I would get some work done and by ...read more
In the wake of Facebook's news feed purge and the loss of a huge amount of our traffic here the Banter, we decided to leave SAY Media's Tempest platform for a custom Wordpress site. The idea was to combine our main site, The Daily Banter, with Banter M, our digital magazine for ...read more
In the dark days following the 2016 election, after the initial shockwave of fear, dread and more fear subsided, I began to spitball various ways the emerging Resistance could successfully slow or stop the worst of the damage from the then-forthcoming Trump presidency. Based on ...read more
Behind the scenes at the Banter, we've been working diligently to launch the new version of the site you are now seeing. It's simpler, cleaner, more intuitive design, crafted to make the reader experience more enjoyable and help us maintain our long stated objective of being ...read more
There's a quiet revolution happening in America's courtrooms that promises to radically change how brown skin is treated by our extremely racist criminal justice system. It's a small revolution but it's growing and once it gets large enough to threaten the status quo, the ...read more
Days like these, I often stare at my blank computer screen, unable to zero-in on a topic to cover. Clearly there are way too many tantalizing bombshells bursting forth from the ongoing fire-hose of news. As a political writer, I'll never complain about an overly abundant news ...read more
One of my favorite shows on television right now is "Adam Ruins Everything." If you haven't seen it yet, you are depriving yourself of 30 minutes a week of sheer delightfulness. The premise is simple: Adam Conover, the host, takes common misconceptions, like women have a ...read more
Donald Trump made perhaps his most fatal foreign policy blunder so far this week by signing a memorandum authorizing the U.S.'s resumption of sanctions against Iran, violating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known colloquially as the Iran Deal. Trump's ...read more
I've long been an admirer of Matt Taibbi's journalism and writing style -- so much so that it helped inspired me to become a writer myself. Early on as a writer, I would read as much of his work as I could, quote him at length in pieces I struggled to find the right words for, ...read more
Rarely do I ever complain about my work. Frankly, I feel quite lucky that I get to do what I love every day. However, sometimes it's a lonely job, observing American politics and reporting back to you about what I'm seeing. The specific downside is that I'll occasionally sift ...read more
by Justin RosarioWe've all read the stories about the creeps who have two families living in different cities. They live with one family for days or weeks at a time and then leave "for work" to go live with the other one. They raise their kids, love their wives, clean the garage, ...read more
There are some days when I think American style capitalism is the greatest economic system to have ever been created. When we've had a good week at the Banter, or my (admittedly rather small) stocks and shares portfolio gets a boost, I tell myself that the success I am ...read more