In the news today: Top labor leader and AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka has died at age 72. The Florida pandemic surge continues to hold national headlines. Conspiracy crank Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene continues to make violence-stoking statements, this time with a suggestion that southerners use their “Second Amendment rights” against anyone “showing up” at their homes to promote vaccinations.

I get that writing for a living can be hard sometimes. It can be difficult to find a voice. Or a platform. Or any reason at all to remain an ink-stained wretch instead of, say, trying one’s hand at perpetual lighthouse-sitting.

Unless you’re Stephen King or J.K. Rowling, the pay is frequently low, the laurels few and far between, and the indignities often serial.

Don’t look now, but … August is fully upon us.

Normally, this month (August of an off-off year) would be chill as heck, but because Republicans are so desperate to cling to political power, statehouse action persists.

You Can’t Count On Me: Let’s be real—I just can’t responsibly write this missive without catching up on the GOP’s so-called election “audit” in Arizona’s Maricopa County.

Families forcibly separated at the southern border by the previous administration have already experienced trauma on top of trauma. Being ripped apart without so much as a chance to say goodbye. The months—often years—of separation. The danger that caused them to flee their homes in the first place.

Back in 2019, Illinois became first in the nation to ban private immigration detention facilities. Now, Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker has signed into law further legislation that effectively ends immigration detention in the state. The Illinois Way Forward Act mandates local jails end their contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) by next year, and prohibits the renewal of any existing agreements.