ArcaMax

The most aggressive and virulent right-wing attacks on women today involve eliminating women's reproductive rights. Again and again, we're seeing small, pious, tightly organized, male-dominated groups in our society insisting that they are the chosen ones, the autocrats ordained to rule over all women on the deeply personal, intrinsically ...Read more

The problem with our so-called "free market" is that it's not free for you and me. It's largely controlled by monopolies, which are free to inflate prices just because they can, without worrying that consumers will be able to flee to cheaper sellers. In turn, this market punch lets the noncompetitive gougers gleefully extract unwarranted ...Read more

It's not widely discussed, but market concentration is a devastating double-edged sword, cutting deeply not only into household budgets, but also into the financial heart of small businesses.

The same monopoly pricing power that abuses consumers can simultaneously exert "monopsony" power. While monopoly refers to a market with very few sellers,...Read more

For years, as ever-bigger corporate combines grabbed ever-bigger chunks of market power, America's political, media and academic establishment scoffed at critics, drowning them out with jolly rounds of "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah." But the concentration of corporate power can no longer be dismissed, for it's all too real. It wreaks real havoc on entire ...Read more

I think we can now say the obvious: The Republican Party has gone bull-goose bonkers. Its leaders have turned the once-proud GOP brand into an unprincipled gaggle of corporate profiteers, hatemongers and screwball conspiracy theorists. They're so far-out that the Hubble Space Telescope can't find them!

But where is my Democratic Party? Here's a...Read more

Barry Goldwater, considered a right-wing extremist and fringe candidate in 1964, won the 1964 Republican presidential nomination by declaring that "extremism in defense of liberty is no vice!" But the GOP is now way beyond the fringe, declaring that nuttiness in defense of extremism is no vice.

Consider Ginni Thomas. Her recent far-out...Read more

The recent traffic-clogging protests in Canada, Washington, D.C., Europe and elsewhere by long- and short-haul truck drivers were about them being angry over having to comply with COVID-19 vaccine mandates -- right?

Uh... no. That's the line being put out by right-wing extremists trying to use the legitimate gripes of truckers for their own ...Read more

Every company with a credit card, store card, website -- or even a clerk who asks for your email and phone number at the checkout counter -- is looking to peddle "data" about your buying habits. In many states, you have to hand over your fingerprints to renew your driver's license. Public and private spaces alike are constantly scanned by ever-...Read more

The central issue in health care can be summed up in one word: Control. And not just controlling costs, which is how the issue has been cast by the politicians and lobbyists in Washington. Indeed, if controlling cost is the primary goal, HMOs are miserable failures. We do need to control waste, fraud and excesses -- like more million-dollar MRI ...Read more

It seems like the price of everything from used cars to ground beef is up these days, and right-wing politicos and pundits are all over President Joe Biden for failing to stop the pain. But one wonders: What would these GOP squawkers do if they were in charge?

Just look back to 1974, when families were pummeled by a one-two punch of ...Read more

As you would expect, corporate leaders have responded to the idea of natural rights with the same calm consideration and civil respect they always give to any extension of democratic power: "Eeeeeekkk," they shriek in unison, "the sky is falling!" If nature has rights, businesses and humans will have none! "You can't do anything to the land," ...Read more

If an inanimate, self-serving, monopolistic behemoth like Amazon Inc. can be armed with the legally enforceable rights of a human being, how much more deserving is the Amazon River, which abounds with real life and serves the common good?

The Rights of Nature movement is ascending specifically because the existing system -- which regularly ...Read more

By far the top team performance in this year's Winter Olympics in Beijing has been corporate America's breathtaking double-twist ethical backflips.

This is a group of leading brand names that have so loudly been touting their code of ethics, pledging to stand against repressive regimes that abuse human rights. But here came the Olympic games in...Read more