About Mary Turck
News Day, written by Mary Turck, analyzes, summarizes, links to, and comments on reports from news media around the world, with particular attention to immigration, education, and journalism. Fragments, also written by Mary Turck, has fiction, poetry and some creative non-fiction.
Mary Turck edited TC Daily Planet, www.tcdailyplanet.net, from 2007-2014, and edited the award-winning Connection to the Americas and AMERICAS.ORG, in its pre-2008 version. She is also a recovering attorney and the author of many books for young people (and a few for adults), mostly focusing on historical and social issues.
November 14, 2016 · 2:37 pm
Four thousand people gathered in Minneapolis on November 9 to protest against Trump’s election. Photo by Fibonacci Blue, used under Creative Commons license.
Yeah, I get it. Wearing a safety pin is a quick-and-easy way to show that you support all the people getting slammed by the rising tide of racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, etc. When I grew up, safety pins were a very temporary and unsatisfactory fix when something badly needed mending. Right now, the whole fabric of our community and nation badly needs repair. So here are some things you can do, right now this week in Minnesota, that go beyond the safety pin: Continue reading →
November 9, 2016 · 7:58 am
(courtesy of Rini Templeton)
Trump’s win – and the magnitude of the Trump vote across the country and in Minnesota – is a triumph for ignorance. And hate. And fear.
But — we go on. So what next? Continue reading →
October 31, 2016 · 10:46 am
PolitiFact is a fact-checking website run by the Tampa Bay Times that focuses on political actors and statements. Politifact classifies statements as True, Mostly True, Half True, Mostly False, False, and Pants on Fire.
The Star Tribune published a commentary piece October 28 featuring “The Top 10 whoppers of both leading presidential candidates” as identified by Politifact.com. What’s wrong with that? Plenty.
The clear implication is that both candidates are equally liars. That’s wrong. Even worse, the “everybody is a liar” meme increases cynicism not only about the candidates but about the political system, voting, and the possibility of meaningful choice. Continue reading →
October 27, 2016 · 2:55 pm
UPDATE, 10 a.m. October 28: More than 100 people were arrested on October 27. Police fired beanbag rounds and teargas. Meanwhile, an Oregon jury said that the armed white men who forcibly occupied federal offices for 41 days are not guilty of anything. For more reports on October 27, see:
When I tune in to the live Facebook feed, less than an hour after it begins, some 4,000 people are watching police move in on protesters – water protectors – who have barricaded Highway 1806 in North Dakota. They are trying to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline, trying to protect the waters of the Missouri River from the oil pipeline that is planned to run under the river, trying to protect sacred sites of the Dakota Sioux people. This is the frontline camp, the north camp. Less than an hour later, the number is up to 16,000 people and climbing.
A young Native American man, E’esha Hoferer broadcasts live from the site, saying he is reporting for One Nation TV. We hear the police telling protesters to move south, to take their tents with them. We see people carrying straw bales and American flags. We hear the police broadcast loud, ululating noise to disrupt communications or to warn people to move back. We see the lines of law enforcement, like wings extending in both directions from their vehicles on the road. Continue reading →
October 27, 2016 · 2:14 pm
Some rights reserved by Free Press Pics
My dad liked to say that there are lies, damn lies and statistics. A Buzzfeed investigative report shows something a little different: lies, damn lies and Facebook’s phony news sites. Buzzfeed analyzed the Facebook pages of three left-wing, three right-wing and three mainstream news sites. They found lies in almost 20 percent of the left-wing pages’ posts and 38 percent of the right-wing pages’ posts. Even worse, they found that “the least accurate pages generated some of the highest numbers of shares, reactions, and comments on Facebook — far more than the three large mainstream political news pages analyzed for comparison.” Continue reading →
October 25, 2016 · 8:05 pm
Demonstration outside Minneapolis City Hall
More than 400 of us gathered outside Minneapolis City Hall October 25 to demand that Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek bring back county officers and equipment sent to North Dakota. Stanek sent the county forces to support North Dakota’s repressive police action against Standing Rock water protectors, aimed at stopping protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). Continue reading →
October 18, 2016 · 1:09 pm
Minnesota Congressional districts from Wikipedia
Down-ballot races make a huge difference in post-election life, which is to say, in all of our lives, every day of every year. These are the people who make the laws (U.S. and state legislators), who preside over the justice system (district, appellate and supreme court judges), and who run the schools. Down-ballot voting this year also includes referendums on a Minnesota constitutional amendment and on a Minneapolis school tax levy. Continue reading →
October 18, 2016 · 1:09 pm
A couple of people have asked me who I recommend voting for in down-ballot races. Down-ballot races make a huge difference in post-election life, which is to say, in all of our lives, every day of every year. So I’ve looked at my own sample ballot in St. Paul, and also at some Minneapolis races. For more on down-ballot races in general, see Voting down-ballot in Minnesota. For more on voting in general, see Vote – to answer the attack on democracy. Without further ado, here are my recommendations for St. Paul and Minneapolis voting:
Continue reading →
October 18, 2016 · 6:24 am
Every day, a new tweet, a new speech, a new lie Trump-ets failure, rigged elections, voter fraud.
These are lies. We know they are lies. Every study, every bit of evidence, says voter fraud is vanishingly small. Small like 31 likely voter fraud cases out of more than 1 billion votes cast from 2000 to 2014. Politifact puts it in perspective: more people are struck by lightning than accused of voter fraud. Continue reading →
October 14, 2016 · 6:52 pm
Photo from funeral bombing, posted on Facebook.
As the campaign circus goes on across the United States, U.S. bombs are killing civilians in Yemen, potentially making the United States complicit in war crimes. Last weekend’s bombing of a funeral is only the latest and most dramatic case. The funeral in Sana’a, Yemen’s capital, had been announced in advance. Saudi warplanes hit hard, twice. Then, after first responders arrived on the scene to help victims, the bombers returned to hit them two more times. The bombers killed at least 140 people and wounded 525 more. One rescuer described the scene as “a lake of blood.” Continue reading →
Mary Turck