How blessed we Angelenos are: LA Opera’s Carmen is opera at its grandest, right here on Grand Avenue. I was immediately swept away by the opening strains of the “Prelude,” with Georges Bizet’s ebullient sounds as frothy as wave rolling ashore at Malibu or Makapuu in Oahu. When James Conlon strode up to conduct the 61-piece LA Opera Orchestra to launch his 10th year wielding the baton at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and LA Opera’s glorious new season, the sold out crowd erupted in applause, chanting: “Connie! Connie! Connie!” (Okay, so that’s a total lie about the shouts - but not the clapping, although I imagine many of us did indeed feel like calling out the maestro’s moniker in acclaim.)

Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017, 7-8:30pm
St. Stephan's Church, 30 W. Woodruff
Since the election of Donald Trump, the emboldened far-right has focused on university campuses as a key site of organizing -- to both recruit young people to their white supremacist, fascist movement, and to target oppressed students and workers fighting together for justice. 
The far-right's orientation on campus has forced students to ask a plethora of questions: Am I safe on campus? What can I do to stop far-right intimidation here? Is the university administration our friend in this fight? Why is this all happening in the first place?
At this meeting we will try to answer these pressing questions, distill the lessons of past and current student movements, and motivate how essential student organizing is today. 
Only a strong and organized left can stop the right-wing threat on our campuses. And combating the right will be an essential part of our common struggle for a better university, country, and world.

The U.S. proposal for a U.N. resolution allowing “all necessary measures” to forcibly halt and inspect North Korean ships and to cut off oil to North Korea may send our species out the door with a culminating act that echoes and builds on numerous historical precedents.

We know, if we don’t deny the science, that climate change threatens us all, that a single nuclear bomb could push climate change well past the point of no return (if we aren’t there already), that several nuclear bombs could starve us out of existence, and that a significant nuclear war could end our follies quite swiftly.

That alone ought to be enough reason to choose diplomacy over the foreign-policy equivalent of shooting guns at a hurricane.

But why is innocent harmless philanthropic inspecting of ships for the good of the Rule of Law a problem? If those people have nothing to hide, then what — insert clever grin here — do they have to worry about, huh?

It is not easy being number one. Columbus is the best in the nation at only one thing. When it comes to the killing of black people, the Columbus Police Department is the New York Yankees, a dynasty team of history. Although they end more black lives per capita than any other metropolis in the nation, this time they did not extend their Babe Ruth like record as well as they clearly intended.

Timothy Davis walked into a convenience store in his own neighborhood to get change. Undercover officers followed him in, attacked him, handcuffed him, and continued to beat him five on one. He was stripped naked and left in a coma. Four uniformed officers showed up to join in the beating. Video clearly shows cops screaming for him to put his arms behind his back while holding his arms forward. The video clearly one cop repeatedly stomping on his head. Another screams “Got that taser? Tase this motherfucker!” The scene rapidly spirals into an orgy of violence where 10 white policemen beat him, while one attempts to block the camera and the store owner tries to seize the camera. Clearly they are not proud of what they are doing.