Rights and Democracy
‘The Art of the Deal’ Was a Lie
Remember how Trump's one main virtue as a leader was excelling in "the art of the deal"? Alas, the story of Trump the brash dealmaker famously told in The Art of the Deal was — as the author has revealed — not entirely truthful. Although apparently Trump thinks that...
A Quiet Conspiracy of Billionaires
The Koch brothers are oil magnates and billionaire GOP funders. They believe that their great wealth entitles them to rule over the many. For decades, they've been running a surreptitious assault on the rules that protect the majority of us from their abuse. From...
Who Needs Sessions When You’ve Got Starbucks?
Five Tax Myths Debunked
Tax Day has come and gone. Maybe you have a big bill from Uncle Sam or maybe you got a fat refund. Either way, it’s easy to get lost in the noise from pundits and politicians who thrive on the tax code's complexity. This is made even harder by the right-wing groups...
Christian Nationalism: Good for Politicians, Bad for America and the World
White evangelical Christians voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump, despite his well-documented character flaws and moral failings. It turns out that their support wasn’t just about hatred of Hillary Clinton or Trump’s promise to give them the Supreme Court of their...
Another Counterproductive Assault on Food Stamps
Once again, Republicans are taking aim at poor people. What is it this time? Adding a stricter work requirement to receive what used to be known as food stamps. (Today it's known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, but that just doesn't have the same...
It’s Time to Cut the Contractors Loose
How much of your paycheck do you plan to hand over to corporate Pentagon contractors this year? The average American taxpayer will have paid $14,520 in federal income taxes in 2017. And that’s not even including the taxes that every working person pays to take care of...
Teacher Strikes Are About a Lot More Than Paychecks
Teachers across the United States are having a moment. Educators are building on the momentum from West Virginia, where striking teachers won a 5 percent pay raise for state employees. Now the protests have spread to Arizona, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and the nation’s...
Police Killed More People Last Year Than Mass Shooters
This spring, an estimated 800,000 Americans gathered in Washington, DC to participate in the "March for Our Lives" organized by the teenage survivors of the school massacre in Parkland, Florida. Thousands more attended 800 sister marches across the nation and around...
‘Modernization’ Is Media Code for Military Build-Up
One of the most effective rhetorical tools in normalizing massive military budgets is to treat spending billions — and sometimes trillions — of dollars as something one has to do in order to be "modern." "Modernization" is, after all, an attractive label. Who doesn’t...
