Archive
Omnibushed
At 8 p.m. on Monday January 13, there was no $1.1 trillion spending bill for fiscal year 2014. At least not one that the public or the vast majority of lawmakers had seen. Less than 70 hours later, large majorities in the House and Senate (332 to 94, and 72 to 26,...
Net Neutrality Is Dead. Here’s How to Get It Back
This piece originally appeared in the Huffington Post. Three judges in D.C. just killed Net Neutrality. This could be the end of the Internet as we know it. But it doesn't have to be. The big news: A federal appeals court struck down the Federal Communications...
This Week in OtherWords: January 15, 2014
This week in OtherWords, Sam Pizzigati explains how inequality weakens the government's capacity to ever win the War on Poverty and Bob Lord brings the racial wealth divide into focus. Donald Kaul is still on leave. Do you want to make sure you don't miss the latest...
Dr. King’s Nightmare
As we commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.’s 85th birthday, we’ve all come to know his dream. Above all else, he dreamed that one day this nation would rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created...
Making Out Like Bandits
It seems like almost every week brings news about Wall Street's latest sins. "JPMorgan Is Penalized $2 Billion Over Madoff," blared one recent New York Times headline, when the paper explained that Bernie Madoff, the infamous Ponzi scheme con artist, wheeled and...
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Progressive Promise
A new year brought a new mayor and new hope for progressive change to America's largest city. "We are called to put an end to economic and social inequalities that threaten to unravel the city we love," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said at his inauguration. "And so...
Why Beating Back Inequality Won’t Be Easy
Half a century ago, President Lyndon Johnson declared a "War on Poverty." That war would soon make a real difference. In the decade following its 1964 launch, our official poverty rate dropped from 19 to 11.2 percent. But that progress stalled in the 1970s, and a...
Re-Defining the Environment
When American aid worker-turned essayist William Powers went to Bolivia, he found the Chiquitano indigenous people didn't share our concept of "the environment." How could a people living in one of the most pristine tropical forests in the world fail to grasp this? To...
Breeding Superbugs
Can antibiotic medicines, long hailed as miracle drugs, be too much of a good thing? Yes. Two factors are at work here. First, bacteria (one of the earliest forms of life on Earth) are miracles in their own right, with a stunning ability to outsmart the antibiotic...
The Clear and Present Danger of Pentagon Contractors
Hollywood covets action movies, especially the kind where our nation faces mortal danger. Sticking with a longstanding tradition, these flicks often feature alien invaders. Another common strain portrays terrorist networks seeking to destroy or take over our...
