Here’s something we don’t get to say very often: “Way to go Mississippi!” This state has long been ranked dead last in important measurements like healthcare, workers’ wages, and rural opportunities. In recent years, though,...
In 1988, I was one of only two white elected Democratic officials in all of America to endorse Jesse Jackson to be our party’s nominee for President. (The other was Bernie Sanders, then the mayor...
How are monopolistic corporations able to gain their economic dominance? They get politicians to give it to them. Consider the old robber barons. They weren’t brilliant investors or managers, they were ruthless exploiters of government...
Except for Zorro and Batman, people who put on masks to hide their identity when going to work are rarely up to any good. And as Americans learned decades ago when Ku Klux Klanners covered...
George Orwell spoke bluntly about the nefarious nature of advertising, calling it “the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.” Even Orwell, though, would’ve been astonished by the cacophony of swill bucket advertising currently...
Years ago, when I announced that I was leaving my job as editor of The Texas Observer to run for political office, I had to admit that into politics is the only downward career move...
While the production of my Lowdown commentaries is high-tech, I confess that I’m antiquated. I still write each piece in longhand, applying my ballpoint to paper. This has caused bewildered glances from some who see...
There are industries that occasionally do something rotten. And there are industries like Big Oil, Big Pharma, and Big Tobacco – that persistently do rotten things. Then there is the nursing home industry – where...
The US military has long been an easy mark – for our own avaricious corporate contractors, that is. During the Civil War, for example, J.P. Morgan sold rifles to the Union army, that cost him...
If you’re ever asked to define the word oxymoron, just say, “Congressional ethics.” People instinctively burst out guffawing at the absurdity of linking Congress to upright behavior. But, surprisingly, Republican congressional leaders say they’re now...