Bits & Pieces
Articles with unfiltered opinions
Happy Anniversary, HUSTLER!
HUSTLER Magazine is celebrating 48 wonderful years and the positive growth we’ve seen in the XXX industry through these years. Adult entertainment has matured to new heights of professionalism. Today’s performers take pride in their brand and control of their careers. They connect with fans and create and market their own content. We are...
Corporate Greed Is Exploiting Inflation
It’s long been a truism that Americans vote their pocketbooks over most other issues. That’s why recent polls show inflation as the number-one concern for a majority of us. At over 7%, inflation is eating into all of our budgets and making life especially hard for those on a limited income. There are many...
No Escalation to World War
With the exception of China and a few other outliers, the whole world has condemned Vladimir Putin’s horrific illegal invasion of Ukraine and imposed the most severe economic sanctions ever levied against a rogue nation. The Russian people, many of whom have protested against the war and been arrested, will surely suffer more than...
Big Brother’s Spying Eyes
Several senators have reintroduced a bill (defeated in 2020 after huge opposition) to turn the U.S. into a mass surveillance state like China. Ostensibly designed to fish out CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) on the internet, The EARN IT (Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies) Act, “doesn’t target Big Tech,” states Joe...
The War on Voting Rights Heats Up
President Biden is urging all Americans to support the Democrats’ new voting rights package before Congress, including the Freedom to Vote Act and John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. These measures are critical to counter the flood of voting suppression laws enacted by Republicans in 19 states this past year. One such law even...
Governor Newsom Turns the Tables
As we discussed in the December 2021 Publisher’s Statement, our ultraconservative Supreme Court recently upheld the draconian Texas law that outlaws most abortions after a “fetal heartbeat” is detected (at about six weeks). The law allows private citizens with no legal standing—meaning no personal interests involved—to sue any doctor or individual who participates in...
Another “Go Slow” at Glasgow
The latest attempt to do something serious about climate change at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow was a mixed success. Some progress was made, including nearly 200 countries adopting the Glasgow Climate Pact, but given the increasingly dire nature of the problem, it wasn’t nearly enough. On the positive side,...
The Terrible Waste of Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies are all the rage now, with investors large and small around the world playing the game. Some have made fortunes. The foresight to buy ten Bitcoins in 2009, when they were selling for $1 each, would yield the tidy sum of approximately $600,000 today. There are currently hundreds of...
The Worst Abortion Law Yet
Texas recently trumped other red states in the race to pass the most restrictive abortion law in the country. It’s a “fetal heartbeat” law, meaning that as soon as an ultrasound can detect cardiac activity in a human embryo (not yet a fetus), usually at around six weeks, it is illegal to abort in...
Biden Was Right on Afghanistan
Numerous politicians and pundits have loudly criticized the President’s withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. But even after seeing all of the chaotic scenes from Kabul, over 60% of Americans approve of the withdrawal and say the war was not worth the costs. After 20 stormy years of marriage, it was a messy divorce,...
A Civilian Climate Corps? Yes!
Progressive Democrats in Congress are pushing to include funding for a new Civilian Climate Corps (CCC) in the infrastructure bill being thrashed out by Congress as I write. A CCC could create 1.5 million new jobs over the next five years for people still suffering from unemployment and underemployment due to the COVID pandemic,...
It’s Time to Tackle the Tax Dodgers
The massive tax giveaway passed by the previous Republican Administration has turned out to be an even bigger gift to the ultrarich than expected. That bill lowered the corporate tax rate from 35% to a paltry 21%. Part of the argument for such a drastic reduction was that loopholes for tax evasion would be...
Fight for Your Rights!
Since Donald Trump lost the Presidential election—and America enjoyed its largest turnout of eligible voters in more than a century—Republicans have launched a nationwide campaign to suppress the vote. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, at least 389 new laws have been proposed in 48 states to limit mail-in voting, early in-person voting...
The Chauvin Verdict: A Milestone
When former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted in April for murdering George Floyd, it was a huge sea change in the “qualified immunity” usually granted cops in such trials. Witnesses for the prosecution included an unprecedented lineup of police officers, including the Minneapolis police chief. And though Chauvin wasn’t the first cop...
HUSTLER Will Carry On!
Our founder, guiding light and my dear husband Larry Flynt left us on February 10th. Larry could have taken it easy in his later years and enjoyed a well-earned retirement. Instead, he was at work every single day, helming his myriad HUSTLER businesses and making decisions for the magazine. He relished the work, the...
