In nineteen seventy-four, I reached three milestones in my life. In March of that year, I turned eighteen; ten days later, I registered with selective service—conscription ended in 1973, and naively I registered as an independent voter. I remember the sense of power I felt. I could join the military...
Income
Here’s the latest news out of Pennsylvania: The TV ad is no-holds-barred. It bluntly attacks a decision of the Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania Supreme Court. And on Saturday, the state Bar Association said the spot went too far. The ad says the Democratic contender, Superior Court Judge Maria McLaughlin, “chose...
This is the sixth set of notes for a reading group on Marx’s Capital, and includes a Volume I refresher for further reading of Volume II. There are links to earlier posts and texts that may be useful. Marx is probably too taken with a kind of scientism by proposing...
For Christmas (and Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa), Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders wants to give working-class West Virginians a child tax credit, child care assistance, free preschool, two free years of community college, lower health insurance premiums, expanded Medicare, home health care assistance for the elderly, an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit...
Why isn’t this guy in prison yet? Is it because he’s rich and white? Or because he behaves like a drug-addled mob boss? Getting to Donald Trump has always seemed a bit like nailing orange Jell-O to a wall. (Yes, I know that simile brutally defames orange Jell-O, which is...
A few years ago, I wrote the piece titled “Boomers Must Take Some Blame And Help Fix Generation Y Unhappy Problem” without any malintent. I was raked over the coals by my boomer friends who accused me of agism and much more. Some said I was pitting generations against each...
Here’s the big news today out of California: The campaign to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom has failed to gain momentum in recent months as significantly more California voters favor keeping him in office, and only anemic support has surfaced for reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner while other Republican candidates hoping...
There is a capitalist propaganda battle at work, with the Wall Street Journal claiming that “ Biden has sent a signal around the world that nobody’s intellectual property is safe in America.”. The National Review now claims that “Profit Margins Save Lives”. “The administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service...
From The Daily Beast: Josh Mandel—the far-right, former Ohio state representative now running for Senate—has recently joined the chorus of conservatives railing against Big Tech. But before he turned against Silicon Valley, Mandel was a Facebook stock investor who made tens of thousands of dollars. And even after he turned...
A little over a year ago, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham postured that helping out hungry Americans would make them lazy. “Very few people would choose work over unemployment benefits that provided moderately more money,” said Graham. Not only was this an attack on those in need but their work ethic...
Whether it’s soccer teams or sandwich shops, financialization was there before the pandemic, only making some of its supply-chain hijacking yet another example of an impending capitalist disaster. Re-regulation must remain important as crises loom in the post-pandemic recovery. A 2017 interview with UMass’s Gerald Epstein points to the need to...
Received this e-mail today from Finance Committee Chairman, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden’s (D. OR) re-election campaign: x It’s past time to end the federal prohibition of cannabis. @SenBooker @SenSchumer and I are working hard to get it done this year.— Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) April 21, 2021 I've been asked a...
I thought Schaden-Friday might slip away without a good dose of bad news for a bad, bad person. Ah, but it came through in the end to bite one of the most loathsome arses on God’s verdant vale of tears. Roger Stone may want to grab his blankie, because there...
Some big news today out of North Carolina: Former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory’s career in politics is not over. McCrory, a Republican who served one term as the state’s chief executive and 14 years as Charlotte’s mayor, has launched a campaign website announcing his run for North Carolina’s open U.S. Senate...
I know investigations take a long time but this man has caused so much damage with his enablers, I want to see some depositions, some results, and some accountability. With all the damage he has caused, I think this is long overdue. The Mueller report was squashed and now that...
The sponsors of campus speakers like Ann Coulter and Milo Yiannopoulos, Young America’s Foundation took on Pete Buttigieg, thinking that they were delivering trenchant criticism. Instead, they’ve revived the critical history of urban planning and design, now articulated by the Trump-jungend. Anyone who’s encountered urban elevated highways has experienced the social divisions...
“As in the Times Op-Ed from which the book originated, the title refers to the results of studies conducted in Germany from the mid-nineteen-eighties onward, which reported, among other intriguing findings, that eighty per cent of East German women always experienced orgasm during sex, compared to sixty-three per cent of...
Previous guy and the GQP continue to be weird and entirely predictable. Weird and even entirely predictable — Kim Mangone (@KimMangone) April 4, 2021 Mike Huckabee doubled down on the usual RW hate, timing it for his evangelical Easter program shown on some shopping channels, because there’s no such thing...
Received this e-mail today from Governor Tony Evers’ (D. WI) re-election campaign: As someone who believes in science and keeping Wisconsin safe, I have trusted public health experts to guide our decision-making since the beginning of COVID-19. As a result, we’re leading the nation in vaccine distribution and next week...
Remember Infrastructure Week? It’s coming back—this time without an infrastructure weakling deflating the promise of a newly rebuilt America. Joe Biden is set to unveil his sweeping $3 trillion infrastructure plan, and according to Axios, top economists are simply “giddy” about its prospects. Of course, Republicans understand Keynesian economics as...
Not about authoritarian horseshoes or even close hand grenades. The “environmental” claims of RWNjs or even wise use advocates is also about corporate land use, private property NIMBYism/sovereignty, and constraining minority populations via immigration. Even the New Zealand terrorist’s manifesto proclaimed a ecofascist threat was largely about fearing indigenous people because of...
Is it sinking in for Republicans yet just how much they’ve fucked up? In the eyes of millions of Americans, they’re now the party of COVID-19, election theft, voter suppression, sedition, and smaller checks for fewer people. Meanwhile, Joe Biden is outsmarting them at every turn, having recently brushed back the GOP’s insincere overtures...
Here’s the latest news on the recall effort in California: The effort to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has gathered over 2 million signatures — a number of signatures, if validated, that could force a measure on a ballot. The leaders of RecallGavin2020 announced this week that their effort reached over 2,060,000 signatures...
US vaccinations for Covid-19 have exceeded 101 million since December 14, according to numbers released for yesterday by the Center for Disease Control. This leaves the country less than 19 million vaccine jabs short of the goal set by Joe Biden for his first 100 days. About 19.9 million were vaccinated before...
Marjorie Taylor Green, unburdened by House committee work, should put a bit more time into her trolling banter. Sadly, this was no different than the previous guy’s issues with thinking the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico weren’t part of the US, and his minions’ interest in giving Alaska back to Russia....
Received this e-mail today from former presidential candidate, Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D. TX), on behalf of his organization, Powered By People: An update on our recent work: – For the last six weeks we’ve been knocking on doors in 17 of the lowest-income zip codes in Texas to help register...
Like Chicago gangsters a century ago prosecuted for tax evasion, the Chicago way may catch up to Trump. As Elliot Ness is purported to have said, “no deals”. Cy Vance and Leticia James continue an untouchable investigation into only one aspect of Biglygate. Except, as Mother Jones confirmed, the loan wasn’t sold to Trump,...
I still remember when Donald Trump got up in front of a throng of masochistic fools and said, of his plutocrat-friendly 2017 tax cut bill, “This is going to cost me a fortune, this thing, believe me. This is not good for me. … I think my accountants are going crazy...
Received this e-mail today from U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen’s (D. MD) re-election campaign: Wealth and income inequality in America have been increasing dramatically for decades and Trump’s 2017 billionaire tax-cut made this situation even worse. We are now experiencing the extreme inequality levels that existed just prior to the...
The sparse number of actual carbon capture and sequestration projects plus weak carbon markets amplify the problems of the climate crisis yet to be revisited, post-Trump. Two heartland examples in North Dakota and Texas show how there are several interlocking problems addressing the climate crisis that must be included in future environmental policy. More specifically...
Darn those class commitments, aligning us to our political choices in a democracy, made worse by all those folks who knew they were in that Gilded Age. “If the future of the Democratic Party is in the rich suburbs, the future of American politics is another long Gilded Age.” Matt...
Laurie Garrett makes the case for the greatest crime perpetrated by Trump for which he may never be prosecuted. In March 2020, Trump said he wanted the nation “opened up and just raring to go by Easter”, and his enablers still believe the Big Lie. A vast swath of evidence for...