Let’s Revisit Robots and Minimum Wage Fast Food Workers

I’m not a fan of convenience stores. But I get the case for why so many of us visit them — familiar structures located within the familiarity of our neighborhood’s borders, and merchandised with a limited set of familiar choices to enable easy purchase decisions. The world is already difficult to navigate. We love “easy” […]

Trump and Russia vs. Political Elites

Now that the mainstream press has most of us conditioned to get hysterical about the expanding web of Trump Administration officials who spoke with THE RUSSIANS … … All caps used for dramatic branding purposes … Can we have a moment to make partial sense out of this? “Partial” is an important term here since […]

DNC Doesn’t Want to Be Saved

In another Democratic National Committee move that didn’t surprise me by any measure, unofficial Obama favorite, Clinton family ally and former Labor Secretary Thomas Perez was elected to serve as the imploded political party’s chairperson yesterday. Perez’s win over his more more Progressive opponent, Representative Keith Ellison, confirms a thought that’s been droning in my head for the past […]

THIS STUDY PROVES BIG MONEY WINS DAMN-NEAR ALL ELECTIONS

Wu-Tang is Right: “C.R.E.A.M.” Same goes for you and your neighbors. The Institute of New Economic Thinking’s recent and somber research (PDF) proves that money spent on political campaigns b***h-stomps the people’s will almost all the time. INET director Thomas Ferguson, along with researchers Paul Jorgensen and Jie Chen, examined more than three decades of […]

EXITING THE PIMPS’ HOUSE — AN ALLEGORY

If a pimp with no hos means nothing much more than a broke-azz, fancy dresser in need of a career counselor, how much better off do you think a large house full of pimps will fare? That’s why you shouldn’t be surprised about the house full of pimps in this story who collectively decided to […]

RICHARD SHERMAN IS RIGHT ABOUT GOVERNMENT-SUBSIDIZED SPORTS

I don’t think National Football League team owners and politicians are feeling Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman these days, after he appeared on a sports radio show and suggested a removal of the massive government subsidies used to fund the construction of pro sports facilities. I think Sherman’s statement is bold — considering that his […]

SUNDAY SMACK: PRESIDENT OBAMA — WAR MACHINE?

This week’s Sunday Smack explores President Barack Obama’s war record. As the New York Times notes, President Barack Obama is on track to have managed one or more overseas conflicts every single day of his two-term White House tenure, which will set a new record for the amount of time any US President has led […]

WAR ON CHRISTMAS GAME REVISITED

Some of you still think there’s a war on Christmas. I mean, didn’t Fox News — facetiously or otherwise — declare victory, and presumably an end to all hostilities? In case you need more assurance, here’s some good news: Donald Trump — assuming you can wait this long — promised to win The War if […]

US OMNIBUS SPENDING BILL — CHRISTMAS FOR OLIGARCHS

What should approving the second coming of the Patriot Act — known to others as the data privacy-shredding Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) — have to do with bipartisan passage of the 1.1 trillion-dollar omnibus federal spending bill? Did you know that oil tankers are parked at sea while brokers search for buyers in an […]

DONALD TRUMP—AMERICAN ‘HERO’ FOR THE TIMES

I find the mainstream media and politicians’ response to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and the recent widening of his lead (pdf) above his clown car of fellow Republican opponents odd. Well, sort of. It’s not surprising that Trump’s campaign was initially met with dismissal, before it was treated with forecasts of his ephemeral potency — […]