For those who think wearing a mask during a pandemic is communism …

They have no clue of what freedom or communism looks like. It’s time for me to address this connection some of you are making between wearing a mask during this pandemic and communism. Communism is a system of production and distribution of goods and services. Socialism is a system of production and distribution of goods […]

Aural Dive: ‘Moving to the Light’ by Division X

It’s a war out there. Make this song part of your 2021 armor … With the first 12 days of 2021 shaping up to be a sequel to the perfect American maelstrom 2020 has proven to be for many of us — pandemic death spiral, mass unemployment, coup attempts, imminent threats of White terrorist violence […]

Album in the Crosshairs: Saoul — SuCcumb | 2020 | self-released

Get LIQ’d, y’all. It’s 2020 … At the start of 2019 — yeah, feels like a decade ago given the constant azz-whoopin’ 2020’s been handing to us — multi-instrumentalist Saoul gave us his made-for-the-party Seldom Oddity album that instantly made me think of how he can relate to writer James Baldwin’s admonition to “taste the […]

These so-called Coronavirus ‘stimulus’ talks — Congress proves it doesn’t want to see the big picture

Who cares about being strategic WHEN WE HAVE FOOD BANKS? 🙄 Almost exactly a month ago — while admitting that my tarot cards have failed like almost everyone else’s this year, but assuming President Trump still wants to be reelected — I maintained that another tranche of Congress-crafted coronavirus relief is certain. I still believe […]

Tobe Nwigwe strongly urges you to “Try Jesus” — but not him

“ʼCause I throw hands.” Houston-based rapper Tobe Nwigwe’s “Try Jesus” video had less than 400,000 Instagram views when mentalunrest reader Vee Cee hipped me to it yesterday. Easy to see why views tripled since then. I think the tense pandemic, economic, and injustice moments we’re living in became the perfect partners for birthing this tune […]

Turning from bad to worse: Trump wants US hospitals to send coronavirus cases and testing data directly to the White House, bypassing the CDC

Placing data in the hands of an erratic administration means more than politicizing science — it’s downright dangerous. Pardon the fucked-up language I’m using, but Team Trump’s demand for hospitals to send coronavirus data directly to the White House — while bypassing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a data collection point — […]

Irrational rationality: why Trump wants schools open during an out-of-control pandemic

The President will get more people killed before the coronavirus crisis is over In a first-world country that slept its way into an angry pandemic that has shut the doors to more than 60 percent of summer camps, found medical and other essential workers scrambling for a persistent shortage of personal protective equipment, and is […]

For the record: why I quickly called ‘B*st’ on Trump’s ‘increased testing, more coronavirus cases’ story

Trump’s lies during the pandemic point to a cruel endgame As fears rise about the recent spike in coronavirus cases and US health officials believe time is running out to get this disease under control, I think it’s time to address President Donald Trump’s sustained meme that coronavirus infections have increased in America because the […]

One more Prince post: former band members from The Revolution, New Power Generation and 3RDEYEGIRL released a version of ‘The Cross’ from Sign o’ the Times album

A message of hope, amidst a pandemic and the struggle to make Black Lives Matter across the world Within the past hour, Prince’s official Twitter account posted a cover of Prince’s “The Cross” song, performed by musicians from his former bands “The Revolution”, New Power Generation (NPG), and 3RDEYEGIRL. Bandmates that span all four decades […]

Will the pandemic cause commercial real estate to implode, or will bank fraud do the job first?

I attended a roundtable discussion a while back, where we discussed worldwide trends. A question about business came up: “What business functions will never go out of style?” My answer: “Debt, equity, and liquidity.” Seems simple and practical, right? You have a business idea or life aspiration, and someone rolls up to enable those goals […]