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Author Archives: Joel Connelly
Joel Connelly is a Northwest Progressive Institute contributor who has reported on multiple presidential campaigns and from many national political conventions. During his career at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, he interviewed Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and George H.W. Bush. He has covered Canada from Trudeau to Trudeau, written about the fiscal meltdown of the nuclear energy obsessed WPPSS consortium (pronounced "Whoops") and public lands battles dating back to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.
Posted inParty Politics
Republicans remain paralyzed and speaker-less over a week after McCarthy’s ouster
The turmoil of House Republicans, divided by factions and feuds, shows a party unable to govern at a time when America’s commitments are vitally needed abroad while at home, another government shutdown looms in just five weeks.
Posted inElections
The “vanity candidacy” of Bobby Kennedy, Jr.: A very dangerous distraction
Progressives face a hard task turning back a MAGA movement built on conspiracy theories, lies, and demagoguery, all of which is broadcast on right-wing media and underwritten by wealthy donors. Nothing less than the freedom of our republic is at stake. This is no time to indulge Bobby’s lecture fees.
Posted inElections
A big week in Canadian politics: NDP wins watershed provincial election in Manitoba, House of Commons gets first Black Speaker
As U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was being deposed in Washington, D.C., amidst the ugly dysfunction of the Republican Party, progressives were scoring a pair of real and symbolic victories north of the border in Winnipeg and Ottawa… achievements in which all Canadians can take pride.
Posted inElections
Republican rivals bash Trump and each other in party’s second 2024 presidential debate
Multiple voices shouted over one another and genuine dislikes emerged as seven Republican presidential hopefuls held their second debate tonight on party-aligned FNC at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
Posted inMedia & Culture
Book Review: “What Are You Gonna Do About It?” presents the wisdom of Jolene Unsoeld
Read NPI contributor Joel Connelly’s review of “What Are You Gonna Do About It? Stories of a Hopeless Meddler,” from Jolene Unsoeld, completed after her death by her son Krag Unsoeld.
Posted inPolicy Topics
Canada’s TransMountain pipeline is turning into the WPPSS of the Great White North
The woolly mammoth went extinct in North America thousands of years ago, but a great white elephant is going to ground in British Columbia.
Posted inPolicy Topics
Amidst a record fire season, British Columbia tries to get ready for future climate damage
Eby is acting in a fire season in which 8,687 square miles have already burned, with one fire in northeast B.C. larger in size than the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island. The province, once nicknamed Canada’s “lotus land”, has been hit with a succession of climate calamities in recent years.
Posted inPolicy Topics
A reprieve for the Arctic Refuge: President Biden acts to protect lives and land alike
The Arctic Refuge is the largest single unit of public lands in the nation, spanning more than 19 million acres. The 1.5 million acres of the Coastal Plain, left open to development by Congress, is its heart and soul, calving ground for more than 100,000 animals of the Porcupine Caribou Herd.
Posted inElections
Right wing looking for a way to defeat Ohio reproductive rights constitutional amendment
The Buckeye State will vote November 7th on Issue 1, an amendment to the Ohio Constitution which proclaims: “Every individual has a right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive rights.” The decisions include contraception, fertility treatment, continuing one’s own pregnancy, miscarriage and abortion.”
Posted inMedia & Culture
Book Review: An assault on American democracy and our responsibility to stop it
Read NPI contributor Joel Connelly’s review of The Age of Insurrection: The Radical Right’s Assault on American Democracy, by renowned journalist David Neiwert.
Posted inElections
A night of militant extremism: Donald Trump’s Republican rivals clash in debate while he and Tucker Carlson gab and gripe
Read NPI’s recap of the first Republican presidential candidates debate, which took place August 23rd, 2023, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, sans Donald Trump.
Posted inPolicy Topics
From pariahs to cultural icons: The Pacific Northwest has thankfully come to love orcas
Though they have been considered relatives by the region’s Coast Salish peoples since time immemorial, it wasn’t that long ago that orcas were viewed negatively by many non-indigenous Pacific Northwesterners. NPI contributor Joel Connelly recounts how much has changed in the last half century.
Posted inPolicy Topics
Courageous young Montanans have just won an important legal victory for climate justice
“Plaintiffs have a fundamental constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment which includes climate as part of the environmental life support,” Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Kathy Seeley wrote in a groundbreaking opinion.