Archive
Your Guide to the 2016 GOP Candidates
The Republicans have a big problem. Their presidential primary contest is beginning to resemble the New York marathon — hordes of contestants as far as the eye can see. How is a voter expected to choose among them, particularly since virtually all say pretty much the...
Faking It While the World Burns
Rex Tillerson, of all people, just did the climate movement a big favor. He didn’t hand the Sierra Club tens of millions of dollars to fight the coal industry like former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg. Nor did the chairman and CEO of Exxon Mobil follow former...
What’s the Matter with Saying ‘Middle Class’?
Presidential candidates are getting creative when it comes to describing the middle class, The New York Times reports. Why? Because the middle class in America is shrinking. As a result, the term no longer connotes aspirational, feel-good emotions. Long associated...
Re-entering Society — and the Voting Booth
Following the recent uprising in Baltimore, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan promised that he'd work to reduce crime in the state. He also affirmed that Marylanders who'd been convicted of felonies and done their time should be able to reenter society as free citizens....
This Spill Hits Close to Home
The recent oil spill in Santa Barbara, California hit home for me in a painful way. As a southern Californian for many years now, I take any excuse to head up the coast to Santa Barbara I can get. It's a particularly beautiful stretch of pristine coastline, populated...
The New Face of Noplace, USA
As everyone who travels a lot soon learns, it's easy to forget where you are. Those big chains uniformly offer all the charm of Noplace, USA. This disorienting sameness has become more dizzying in recent years as the chains have merged and conglomerated. Weary...
Iraqi Army: Then and Now
Shocking Schumer
Senator Chuck Schumer, a leader of the corporate wing of congressional Democrats and heir apparent to outgoing Minority Leader Harry Reid, never met a global trade deal too ugly to hug. So when he says, "This is really troubling," you know his eyes have been singed by...
In OtherWords: May 20, 2015
This week in OtherWords, Donald Kaul sizes up Jeb Bush's me-too presidential aspirations and Sam Pizzigati says that the richest Americans now have more money than they can prudently invest. Do you want to make sure you don’t miss the latest from OtherWords?...
The Latest Victim in the War on Whistleblowers
Jeffrey Sterling recently stood before a judge as his sentence was read. The former CIA officer, the judge declared, would spend 42 months — that's three and half years — behind bars. The feds had convicted Sterling on nine felony charges, including seven counts of...