Archive
In OtherWords: March 16, 2016
This week in OtherWords, John Kiriakou explains why it's important to take Donald Trump's vitriol seriously, I point out that the GOP's front-runner will probably wind up being a huge loser, and Lindsay Suter tells his personal fossil fuel divestment story. If you...
A Curbside Crisis
Do you cross the street to put your soda can in the recycling bin or avidly pluck plastics and paper from your neighbor's trash cans? The current state of recycling in the United States may surprise you. It’s in trouble for many reasons, including two straightforward...
Hillary Clinton’s Grim Legacy in Honduras
Who murdered Honduran environmental activist Berta Cáceres? While the identities of the killers remain unknown, activists, media observers, and members of the Cáceres family are blaming the increasingly reactionary and violent Honduran government. The authorities had...
My Oily Heirloom
I'll feel empowered when ExxonMobil convenes its upcoming annual shareholders meeting. Oddly, that’s because I’ve sold all my stock in the company. Shareholders like me and some major institutions, including New York State’s $178 billion pension fund, have urged the...
What Would Nancy Say?
I was late to the Nancy Reagan Admiration Society. She had arrived on the political scene, after all, on the arm of Ronald Reagan, a man I neither liked nor admired. I thought he was a phony — a B-movie star who seemed either unwilling or unable to differentiate...
The Humpty Dumpty Party
Is Donald Trump’s presidential bid terrifying you? Try to relax. The bullying billionaire probably can’t make it to the White House. He needs to win a majority of all voters, not just Republicans. That will be tough when nearly two out of three of Americans already...
An American Mussolini
As you probably heard, Donald Trump canceled a rally in Chicago after scuffles broke out between Trump supporters and opponents around the arena where the candidate was supposed to speak. True to form, Trump blamed everybody but himself for this debacle. He eventually...
Eating in the Dark
I'm sick of writing about labeling genetically engineered foods. I'm sick of it because there's really one thing to say, and I've said it before: Americans have a right to know how their food is produced. Period. The fact is that most processed food in the supermarket...
Scalia’s “Conflict-of-Interest Airlines” Frequent Flyer Status
How curious that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died, of all places, in an exclusive West Texas hunting lodge. Yet more curious, all expenses for hizzonor's February stay were paid by the resort's owner, John Poindexter. He's a Houston manufacturing mogul who...
Caught in the Corporate Feeding Frenzy
The “human resources” departments of huge corporations are known for issuing helpful bulletins to employees, such as this old joke: “The beatings will continue until morale improves.” Beatings of workers these days take the form of slashing wages and benefits,...
