When I was a boy, I loved spending time with my Uncle Ernest and Aunt Eula on their small northeast Texas farm. They pulled a frugal living from their 50 acres, raising a little bit of everything. Doing a lot with little to make ends meet, Ernest and Eula operated on a principle of frugality […]
Editor’s Note
Posted inOpinion
Editor’s Note 8/10/17
If you had to choose politician-of-the-month between Donald Trump and Bruce Rauner, which would you pick? One threatens nuclear war, but then his secretary of state says ignore it, there’s nothing to worry about. The other plays Russian roulette with school funding days before school starts, and everyone says there’s plenty to worry about. If […]
Posted inOpinion
Do-It-Yourselfers unite
Chances are you’ve bought an Apple iPad, Chevy Malibu, Amazon Kindle, Samsung TV, GE Frigidaire or some other brand-name consumer product equipped with a dazzling array of digital doodads. And in doing so, you unwittingly consented to the corporation’s repair-prevention “gotcha” tucked into its license agreement. But in addition to deceiving and/or intimidating buyers into […]
Posted inOpinion
Editor’s note 8/3/17
Last week I strolled around the U.S. Capitol in the early evening, stopping for a while to watch an orderly protest rally against the Republican plan to obliterate Obamacare, at that hour being debated inside the building. Wouldn’t it be great, I thought, if we didn’t have to be always protesting something? I probably was […]
Posted inOpinion
Partisan use of preemption is surging
We the People are being burgled. Again. The latest hit is just the latest in a long string of political robberies, a nationwide crime wave being pulled off by moneyed elites and their political henchmen. With each heist, they haul off a little more of our democratic power. The elites are master thieves, often plucking […]
Posted inOpinion
Editor’s Note 7/27/17
Gov. Bruce Rauner has a plan for schools, but he won’t disclose it or verify his financial projections until the General Assembly sends him their bill so he can veto it. He has called the legislature back to Springfield, but he says there is “nothing to discuss.” That’s why they call this session “special.” – […]
Posted inOpinion
Dare we entrust our students to corporate profiteers?
While the Koch brothers have stayed out of the national limelight since the White House was acquired by Trump and Company, that doesn’t mean the two right-wing billionaire brats are any less active in trying to supplant American democracy with their little laissez-fairyland plutocracy. In fact, in late June, you could’ve found them in one […]
Posted inOpinion
Editor’s note 7/20/17
Peter Baker, the New York Times chief White House correspondent, was in Springfield the day Republican plans to dismantle Obamacare fell apart. It’s not easy for a president to dismantle a predecessor’s legacy, even though this president seems obsessed with doing so, said Baker, here to discuss his new book, Obama: The Call of History. […]
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Editor’s Note 7/13/17
It is a great relief that a reasonable state budget and a tax increase to pay for it have become law. This was accomplished by overriding the governor’s veto, with the help of some courageous House Republicans, including Springfield’s Sara Wojcicki Jimenez. There is more trouble ahead, however, because the governor is threatening to veto […]
Posted inOpinion
Amazon buys out Whole Foods Market
As an Associated Press article joyously put it, “The U.S. job market has settled into a sweet spot of steadily solid growth.” At long last, the American dream is back for working families, right? Well … in a word: No. Further down in the article, AP’s sweet news turns sour with this little admission: “About […]
Posted inOpinion
Editor’s note 7/6/17
Oh thank goodness. New Jersey finally resolved its budget impasse, while there were similar budget cliffhangers in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and North Carolina. In New Jersey, the stalemate had stretched into three full days and closed state parks before a budget deal was finally made July 4. Gov. Chris Christie, fresh from a relaxing day at […]
Posted inOpinion
Donald Trump’s puny approval rating
What’s the matter with these people? The Trumpsters in the White House and Congress, I mean. Start with The Donald himself, a guy who can’t pass a mirror without casting an adoring eye at his own reflection. What is it about him that requires the top officials of his government to humiliate themselves publicly in […]
