Bits & Pieces
Articles with unfiltered opinions
America’s Shameful Criminal Justice System
There are many reasons to be proud of the United States, but our criminal justice system is not one of them. We have the highest incarceration rate in the world, with 2.2 million citizens in federal, state and county jails—a 500% increase since the mid-’70s. And the system is rife with gross disparities and...
Crippling the First Amendment
The First Amendment is the single most important keystone of our Constitution. Without the absolute guarantee of free speech, the Founding Fathers understood that no democracy could survive for long. Thomas Jefferson proclaimed, “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I...
Trump’s Obama Vendetta
On the campaign trail, Trump promised to reverse all of Obama’s “unconstitutional” executive orders. The right-wing labeled them abuses of power, but the truth is that Obama issued fewer average executive orders annually (35) than any President since Grover Cleveland in the late 1800s. (FDR holds the record at 307 per year, with Herbert...
High Time for Public Banks
There’s one thing the pirates on Wall Street fear above all else: public banking. Instead of funding the lordly lifestyles of Goldman Sachs bankers, ripping off consumers left and right with deceptive practices (like Wells Fargo), engaging in money laundering for criminals and other shady deals, public banks work for the public interest and...
A Hemp Revival Is on the Horizon
This may sound like a joke, but top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell is pushing for the federal legalization of hemp. He was enlightened by his farmer constituents in Kentucky. Hurt by the downturn in the tobacco market, they see salvation in hemp, a crop already legalized in several states and Canada. No wonder. Industrial...
Walk the Walk in November
It’s become a cliché that the election on the horizon is always “the most important of our lifetime.” But this time it’s no exaggeration. With Trump eager to appoint yet another conservative Justice to the Supreme Court, the only possible block to his regressive policies is Democratic control of the House and/or Senate. It...
Trump’s Judicial Buffoons
Someday, hopefully sooner than later, we will be spared the tragicomedy of Donald Trump in the White House. But the gross stupidity and ignorance of his administration will live on for decades and even lifetimes through his judicial appointments, a cast of unworthy buffoons and right-wing ideologues. Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has...
Today’s Activists Are Tomorrow’s Voters
Students in America keep getting slaughtered, and they’ve finally had enough, taking to the streets. In March tens of thousands of middle school and high school students nationwide walked out of their classes to protest the stubborn lack of gun reform by their supposedly wiser elders. Then later that same month, in Washington, D.C.,...
America Is Sick
This past flu season was one of the worst in decades, with thousands bedridden and a high number of fatalities. In January the CDC announced that 2017/2018 is the first season, since the agency began monitoring the flu 13 years ago, that every state in the continental 48 experienced widespread influenza activity. Although the...
Healthcare “Conscience” Office Is Unconscionable
With multiple reports of harassment against women and an alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, while married to Melania, Donald Trump is hardly a religious man. But that doesn’t stop him from pandering to his loyal holy-roller base. The latest gift is the newly formed Conscience and Religious Freedom Division in the Department...
Trump the Racist
Being a racist may not necessarily be an impeachable offense, but it should be. We’ve known that Trump is a racist from Day One, but it just seems to be getting worse. The evidence dates way back to 1973, when the Justice Department sued Trump Management, Trump and his father Fred for discrimination against...
Sexual Awakening
HUSTLER Magazine started in 1974, when the sexual revolution was in full swing. Landmark victories for real personal freedom were won back then—the right to pursue happiness of any flavor without stigma and persecution. Now in our 44th year, I am witnessing a different kind of sexual awakening. It started with comedy icon Bill...
Trump’s Tax-Cut Smoke and Mirrors
Trump and the Republicans are once again proposing massive new tax cuts to solve the nation’s many problems. They cite Reagan’s big tax cuts in 1986 as a model for spurring economic growth, but there’s a problem with that rationale: You see, the decade before Reagan’s tax cuts actually saw higher growth than the...
Trump vs. the Free Press
If there is one single thing that defines the American tradition and the success of our nation, it has to be the First Amendment, with its guarantee of free speech and freedom of the press. Thomas Jefferson expressed it best: “And were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government...
Trump’s Chainsaw Massacre
Donald Trump came into office spouting the usual Republican mantra that government is the source of all of our problems. “If there’s a new regulation, they have to knock out two,” he said. So he’s taken a chainsaw to more than 860 federal regulations since he’s been in office, ground all that paper to...
