In the early 1970s the UN spearheaded the progressive notion of a new world economic order, one that would try to level the playing field between the First World and the Third. The neoliberal onslaughts…
Posts published in “Essays”
The subject of the 4am hour of Pat Thurston's KGO Radio Show of Saturday, December 5, was excessive traffic fines. Ms. Thurston complained that it seemed like traffic fines in California had become unreasonable what…
I've gotten some interesting--though not unpredictable--responses to an essay I wrote a few weeks ago about how the term "mainstream media" is used as political code and sloganeering rather than as a smart critique of…
Marilyn Monroe once said, “I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle.” This easily would have qualified her for an ADHD diagnosis…
In the latest episode in the long, sordid saga of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's widely-contested Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) process, the California State Lands Commission (SLC) at its meeting in San Diego on December 17…
The legendary American abolitionist Frederick Douglass observed in the 1800s that "Power concedes nothing without demand. It never did and it never will." And thus the long legacy of conflict whenever the status quo is…
Vermont’s Senator Bernie Sanders spoke for months about his “historic” efforts to get a vote on a single-payer health care bill in the Senate. While we all knew the outcome was going to be a…
In my younger days I had a habit that I thought was amusing but which I imagine most people found very annoying. It consisted of making up stories — okay, you could be uncharitable and…
The state’s nearly $120 million plan to build a new Mendocino County Courthouse is shaping up to be the single biggest investment ever in Ukiah’s downtown. It presents an opportunity to rectify one of the…