Oct 9, 2015 | Class Issues, Economic Policy, mic, Plutocracy
Published: The Daily Dot (October 9, 2015) On Wednesday morning, Huffington Post employees sent out a letter to their colleagues calling for them to unionize. “We believe organizing is the best way both to preserve what’s already working and to bring about positive change,” they argued. “Simply, a union will give us a voice in our newsroom’s future.” The Huffington Post writers may be making...
Oct 6, 2015 | mic, Plutocracy, Science and Technology
Published: The Daily Dot (October 6, 2015) Since early 2012, the mobile company Uber—a ridesharing app that helps consumers request cabs and other transportation services with their smartphones—has employed a form of price gouging known as “surge pricing.” The controversial and often costly practice uses an algorithm to increase the price of service during peak hours—when there’s high demand and...
Sep 22, 2015 | Elections, Elections - Other, Elections - Presidential (2016), mic, Plutocracy
Published: The Daily Dot (September 22, 2015) On Tuesday morning, Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wisc.) announced what many had widely speculated, following a nationwide drop in support: He is dropping out of the presidential race. Walker emphasized in a Facebook post that he hopes his withdrawal will encourage a more “positive” race. That’s a nice message, but optimism isn’t entirely the reason for his...
Aug 11, 2015 | Elections, Plutocracy, Supreme Court and Other Judicial Issues
Published: Question of the Day (August 11, 2015) The United States election system may not be fatally flawed, but in many ways it’s on life support. Here are five reasons why that is the case: 1. We make it harder for people to vote. For one thing, as Eric Black explained in an article for MinnPost, most democratic nations don’t require citizens to register to vote — it happens automatically....
Jun 16, 2015 | Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), Plutocracy
Published: Daily Dot (June 16, 2015) Back in 2008, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) released an ad attacking Democratic nominee Barack Obama for being a “celebrity.” To illustrate his point, McCain’s commercial included a picture of so-called “celebutante” Paris Hilton. After all, what better way to make Obama’s bid for the Oval Office seem absurd than to compare his...
Jun 12, 2015 | Elections, Elections - Other, Plutocracy, Supreme Court and Other Judicial Issues
Published: Daily Dot (June 12, 2015) A new Iowa group wants to teach the Internet about the evils of money in politics. Called “Iowa Pays the Price,” the Washington Times reports that “the group plans to spend about $500,000 on an educational campaign that will include social media and online videos.” However, the Internet seems to already share the sentiment. Last week, a comprehensive survey...
May 19, 2015 | Class Issues, Climate Change and Other Environmental Issues, Economic Policy, Education, Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), Original Source Salon.com, Plutocracy
May 6, 2015 | Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), Plutocracy, Political Parties, Republicans, Scandals
Published: Daily Dot (May 6, 2015) Shortly after Mike Huckabee ended his campaign for president in 2008, he began another career—this time as the host of his very own show on Fox News. If you want to understand Huckabee’s reason for making a recent entry into the 2016 race, you must start by recognizing that being an Also Ran can be very, very profitable. After all, Huckabee’s chances of...
Nov 20, 2014 | Democrats, Economic Policy, Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), Foreign Policy, History, Liberalism, mic, Military-Industrial Complex/Security State, Plutocracy, Political Ideologies, Political Parties
Published: Daily Dot (November 20, 2014) As a progressive millennial who actively volunteered for and supported Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, I am ready to make public an opinion I’ve only expressed in private until now: In retrospect, I wish we’d nominated Hillary Clinton. This statement isn’t intended as a slight against Obama (who I actually ranked pretty highly...
Feb 14, 2014 | Class Issues, Conservativism, Elections, Elections - Other, Libertarianism, mic, Plutocracy, Political Ideologies
Published: mic (February 14, 2014) Billionaire Tom Perkins, who once compared the Occupy movement with Nazism, is again at the center of a storm of controversy. His comment? "The Tom Perkins system is: You don't get to vote unless you pay a dollar of taxes... You pay a million dollars in taxes, you get a million votes." There is something instructive in Perkins's ideas, albeit not in the way...