Archive
Outrage in Oregon
The armed men occupying an isolated federal building in a remote Oregon bird sanctuary say they won't leave until the federal government stops its "tyranny." Yet it's not clear what that tyranny is, exactly. One of the group’s leaders is Ammon Bundy, who, along with...
Our Toxic Failure
Now that it's already been phased out, the world can agree that a chemical used in Teflon — the famous coating on nonstick pots and pans — was toxic. A recent New York Times Magazine article told the story of the heroic victims who paid with their health and the...
Border Boondoggle
Good fences, wrote Robert Frost, make good neighbors. But an 18-foot high, 2,000-mile wall? That's another story. It just antagonizes your neighbor — and shows your own fear and weakness. Yet this is what self-described conservatives running for president propose to...
When College Athletes Do the Corporate Hustle
For thrilling sports action on television, it's hard to top the sheer excitement of bowling, isn't it? No, not that game with 10 pins. I’m talking about the passion and pageantry of college football's bowl season. America's elite, powerhouse teams are rewarded for...
This Global Ruling Is Just Not Cool
They say that if you get up in the morning and swallow a live toad, nothing worse will happen to you for the rest of the day. Well, we Americans have just been fed a live toad by the World Trade Organization. Last May, the WTO — an oligarchic, autocratic governing...
Why Isn’t the Media Feeling the Bern?
Let's go to the scoreboard to see who's winning the exciting presidential election media coverage game. The Tyndall Report, a non-partisan media monitoring firm that has been tracking the nightly news broadcasts of ABC, CBS, and NBC, found that Trump is tromp, tromp,...
In OtherWords: December 30, 2015
Before 2015, we never had the privilege of seeing Donald Trump — a man who goes to great lengths to never muss up his hair — hawking baseball caps and becoming the GOP front-runner. Or watching Martin Shkreli — the ultimate legal drug kingpin — get busted for fleecing...
The GOP’s Pro-Corporate Prescription
The conventional wisdom in Washington is that tax breaks for corporations lead to economic growth. Tax assistance for working families, on the other hand, may help them make ends meet, but it doesn’t have much impact on the economy. The conventional wisdom has it...
The Days of Lying to Protect Killer Cops Are Numbered
Right around Thanksgiving, the city of Chicago released a dash-cam video showing the cold-blooded murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald at the hands of a Chicago Police Department officer. The very next day, the Chicago Urban League — supported by my organization, the...
Broadband Rates Are Too Damn High
As the digital revolution hurtles ahead, low-income communities across the United States aren’t reaping many of its benefits. The less you make, the less likely it is that you’re hooked up at home. This is especially true if you lack a high school diploma. And the...
