Archive
The White House Should Pay Its Interns. Here's Why
To Whom It May Concern at the White House: I have three little words for you: Pay Your Interns. It is unconscionable for the White House — as for so many other “public” sector organizations — to engage in a practice that structurally reinforces privilege, closing off...
9 Ways the Right's Cradle to Grave "Randian State" Is An Assault on Millennials
Conservatives keep claiming liberals want a "cradle-to-grave nanny state." That rhetoric has distracted us from the real social re-engineering taking place all around us. The right, along with its "centrist" collaborators, is transforming our nation into a bloodless...
Congress Turns Its Back on Rural America
Congress Turns Its Back on Rural America (via Moyers & Company) For fifteen years in Neodesha, Kansas (population 2,486) there were only two options for early childhood education services in town: a program for at-risk 4-year-olds operated by the school district, and...
On TV's "To The Contrary": Talking Immigration, Breadwinning Women, Surrogacy and the Single Dad
Today I had the honor of being one of few men to join the panel on WETA's "To The Contrary," with Bonnie Erbe, for a Father's Day edition of the normally all-female news analysis program. (The show will air later this evening, and the video will be available online...
Government Spending Improves Lives - In China
Have you heard that China is sending people into space? Have you heard about China's high-speed rail lines linking their major cities? Have you heard that China has built the fastest supercompouter in the world? These are results of the dreaded "government spending"...
North Carolina State Senator Calls 'Moral Monday' Protesters 'Moral Morons'
"The appeal for each Moral Monday has been the same: urging legislators to govern for the good of the whole, rather than for the wealthy." — Rev. William Barber. Since April, North Carolina citizens have been gathering at the state capital in Raleigh for "Moral...
Snapping at SNAP: Hunger In The Name of Austerity
Starting today, Massachusetts Rep. James McGovern is joining the state’s Health and Human Services Secretary John Polanowicz and other Massachusetts officials in the “SNAP challenge.” For the next seven days, they are going to be living off a food budget of $31.50,...
With The Closure of Its Public Broadcaster, Will Greece Fade to Black Under Austerity?
The IMF has "acknowledged major mistakes" in Greece's bailout, and admitted to seriously underestimating the severity of Greece's downturn. Yet the Greek government continues with draconian spending cuts, in order to comply with the austerity measures based upon those...
New "Pirates" Report On Corporate Tax Havens
The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) has just released a report on tax havens, Corporate Pirates of the Caribbean. The report shows that the corporations engaged in the "Fix the Debt" austerity push would gain up to $173 billion in tax breaks from their proposal for...
Fighting For Our Classrooms, and For the Human Beings Inside Them
It seems as if the same battle is being fought in every aspect of American society. On one side are the forces of egalitarianism, economic opportunity and self-determination. On the other is a well-funded and entrenched elite bent on hijacking our media, our political...
