Bits & Pieces
Articles with unfiltered opinions
Democrats Must Move Wisely
Donald Trump has insulted and alienated so many Americans—women, Hispanics, Muslims, immigrants and even a large faction of his own party—that it’s possible Democrats will control the entire federal government, with Hillary Clinton in the White House and majorities in both the House and Senate. That happened for the first two years of the...
Masters of Disaster: GOP Governors
In 2010 Republican Sam Brownback rode a Tea Party wave into the Kansas governor’s mansion, announcing, “My focus is to create a red-state model that allows the Republican ticket to say, ‘See, we’ve got a different way, and it works.’” With Republicans dominating the legislature, Brownback passed massive tax breaks for the wealthy, eliminated...
Diplomacy Wins!
The nuclear deal with Iran crafted by President Obama and John Kerry has reaped big dividends in the first Iranian election to be held after sanctions were lifted. Reformist President Hassan Rouhani’s allies—moderates and reformers—won all of Tehran’s 30 seats in Parliament, then went on to win 42% of the total seats in April....
Shut Down Our Devil’s Island
Future historians will look back on the Guantanamo prison camp as one of the darkest chapters in American history, along with slavery, lynchings in the South, internment of Japanese-American citizens in WWII and the McCarthy Red Scare. That we have allowed this abomination to exist at all, let alone continue for 14 years, is...
Cruel And Unusual Punishment
In January President Obama announced that federal prisons would no longer use solitary confinement to punish juvenile offenders and adults who have committed minor offenses. The practice leads to “devastating, lasting psychological consequences,” declared the President, after a Justice Department study concluded that the practice reduces the chances of successful rehabilitation upon an inmate’s...
Is Mass Media Choosing Our President?
When backing a candidate for high office, whether you’re a Democrat, Republican or third party, it often comes down to a difficult choice: the candidate who most reflects your values and positions or the candidate who stands the best chance of winning. In the long, drawn-out horse race of the modern American Presidential campaign,...
America: The Killing Field
In the last year we have been horrified by an endless stream of mass murders and questionable police shootings, to the point that it’s almost the new normal—tune in for Shooting Tragedy of the Week. While American homicide rates had been falling steadily since the 1990s, the trend is now starting to reverse. The...
The True State of the Union
President Obama is delivering his last State of the Union address this month, signaling the final laps of the long Presidential campaign marathon. It’s been mandatory for all candidates to extol the greatness of America and promise to keep the USA on top of the world. But some statistics belie our extreme patriotism: Out...
Paralysis In Washington
There is no question that Washington, D.C., has become one big dysfunctional family. Rated by legislation passed, the current Congress is on track to be the least productive since World War II. A poll in 2013 judged cockroaches and hemorrhoids more popular than Congress. The partisan gridlock tightens as urgent problems go unaddressed, snowballing...
Alive and Well!
This issue marks HUSTLER’s 42nd anniversary of continuous publication—something of a miracle, because in the beginning, virtually nobody thought we could be successful against the titans of the industry. And by the late ’70s, nobody thought we could survive the oppression unleashed by publishing and political prudes offended by HUSTLER’s naked truth—whether of the...
Larry’s Statement
Last year the Republicans launched a preemptive sneak attack on the Paris climate summit, sending a special ops team of diplomatic saboteurs abroad to warn that any agreement made by Obama will likely be repealed or undercut by Republicans in control of Congress, and maybe by the White House after the next election. It’s...
Take Back Our Democracy
There are many challenging issues confronting this nation—climate change, financial instability, the erosion of Constitutional rights, foreign policy insanity—but as Doug Hughes, the “gyrocopter guy” who landed on the Capitol lawn last April, said, “Those won’t get addressed until we fix campaign finance reform.” The obscene level of money flooding current campaigns—the Koch Brothers...
GOP Clown Parade
Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart have given up their shows, but lovers of comedy need not despair—the Republican Presidential circus is in full swing. Every four years the clown parade swells—now it’s become a virtual Mister America pageant of slick talking heads all parroting the most banal clichés and bromides. Any halfwit capable of...
Prosecute Our War Criminals
Most Americans believe that the United States is still the brightest beacon of human rights in the world. But that reputation has been severely undermined by the Bush Administration’s deliberate torture of detainees (officially revealed by the Senate Intelligence Report) and the Obama Administration’s refusal to prosecute the offenders. This past June, the ACLU,...
Just Say No To Death Row
Twenty years ago, 42 nations practiced the death penalty. Today that number has dwindled to 22. China remains the world’s leader, but the exact number of executions there is a state secret. Following China are those bastions of enlightenment—Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and, in fifth place, the United States. That’s shameful company. Although the...
