Archive
America’s Huge Racial Wealth Gap Is No Accident
Party platforms are dense and often morosely boring documents filled with wonkish policy proposals and partisan jeers at the other side. At over 40 pages, this year’s Democratic Party platform lives up to its predecessors in length and ennui. However, it also includes...
The Problem with ‘Blue Lives Matter’
We're not long into summer, but already we're long on tragedy. Police shootings of black men in Minnesota, Louisiana, and beyond. A mass shooting of police officers in Dallas. Yet this surplus of tragedy seems to have created some confusion. So let's clear things up....
Reasonable Force
In OtherWords: July 6, 2016
This week in OtherWords, Daphne Wysham explains the terrifying reason environmental activists call oil trains "bomb trains" — and why she was willing to spend her honeymoon in jail to stop them. Elsewhere, Sam Pizzigati reports on the tricks big banks are using to...
To Stop ‘Bomb Trains,’ I Honeymooned in Jail
It was a few days after my wedding. I was supposed to be honeymooning at a nearby winery with my newly minted husband, celebrating our unlikely marriage at age 55. Instead, I was sitting on the railroad tracks in the pouring rain. Along with 20 other brave souls, some...
You’re Overdrafted, They’re Overpaid
Almost two-thirds of Americans today — 63 percent — don’t have enough savings to cover an unexpected $500 expense. Anything from an emergency brake job to a refrigerator on the fritz could zero out their bank accounts. Most American households, in other words, are...
It’s Not Just Trump Who’s Confused About Racism
Donald Trump, you might have heard, recently called Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren "racist" for claiming her Native American heritage. I believe the appropriate response to Trump can be expressed by a quote from The Princess Bride's Inigo Montoya: "You keep...
Banks Don’t Commit Crimes, Bankers Do
Hey, stop complaining that our government coddles Wall Street's big, money-grubbing banks. Sure, they went belly-up and crashed our economy with their greed. And, yes, Washington bailed them out, while ignoring the plight of workaday people who lost jobs, homes,...
Trump U’s Alumni Network
In OtherWords: June 29, 2016
Shortly before last week's shocking Brexit vote, a British member of parliament campaigning for the "remain" camp was brutally murdered. What you might not have heard was that the alleged killer was linked to neo-Nazi group here in the United States. And that, Jim...