Archive
Short-Circuiting the Future
Will our fossil-fueled economy make humans go the way of the dinosaurs? There are plenty of reasons to think so. Coal, oil, and gas continue to account for 87 percent of global energy consumption despite scientific consensus that drastic change is essential for...
The Magic of De-Regulation
The People’s Rebuttal
The State of our Union is strong, He says. Extreme Inequality is wrong, He says. The poor feel like they don't belong, He says. We need a new Seeger song, He says. America needs a raise, He says. We've yet to see our best days, He says. We can defeat our malaise, He...
Remembering Pete Seeger
One of our great heroes died last night. At 94, I suppose it wasn't a tragedy for him, especially since his wife Toshi died last summer after a life of love and shared work, and 70 years of marriage, but what a huge loss. For all of us. Pete gave us everything —...
Three Boos for Cheerleader Abuse
Let's turn now to the wide, wide and cruel world of sports. The big story at this time of year, of course, is the Super Bowl — that multi-multi-million-dollar showcase of super-paid superstars, billionaire owners, taxpayer-financed sports palaces, extravagant...
Getting Trade Right Instead of Fast
Many hundreds of thousands of Americans saw their good working-class jobs disappear once NAFTA took effect. And millions of Mexicans lost their ability to live off the land after cheap factory farmed corn from the United States displaced their crops in local markets....
How to End the Syrian Bloodshed
The international negotiations to end the brutal civil war in Syria were never going to be easy. Getting all sides to the table was itself a huge challenge. On the eve of the talks it looked, for a moment, like at least that first step might be possible. To prevent...
This Week in OtherWords: January 22, 2014
This week in OtherWords, Sarah Anderson, William A. Collins, and I preview what President Obama is likely to say about inequality and taxes during his State of the Union address. Jill Richardson weighs in on the West Virginia chemical spill. Be sure to visit our blog...
The State of Our Union’s Inequality
There's no doubt that President Barack Obama will make inequality a major theme of his State of the Union address, just as Franklin Delano Roosevelt did in 1935. "We have not weeded out the overprivileged and we have not effectively lifted up the underprivileged," FDR...
First Things First
In the four years since the Supreme Court's infamous Citizens United v. FEC ruling, two things have become abundantly clear. First, we have a major democracy problem. Citizens United paved the way for unlimited corporate spending to distort our elections. Staggering...
