As schoolkids learn in civics class, our government is made up of three separate branches. Your church is not one of them. Unless you live in Oklahoma. There, a fanatical Christian Nationalist named Ryan Walters is the appointed superintendent of schools. But he’s confused on the concept of “instruction,” viewing it not as teaching, but as a comman…

Photo by The Lacey Timberland Library on Flickr In high-school, my friend Charlie and I once poked into an abandoned Victorian house in our hometown. Up in the attic, we found a secret door to a space containing several boxes of books. One held 50 copies of The Age of Reason, Thomas Paine’s 1794 treatise ridiculing the myths of Christian theology a…

“Billionaire Tears” mug available in Elizabeth Warren’s campaign store. Corporate lobbyists and politicians recently jumped all over Kamala Harris for her proposal to outlaw price gouging by food giants and grocery chains. The partisans piled on Harris, sputtering like old Joe McCarthy that she was pushing “Soviet-style” government price-setting. O…

Meme courtesy LoveAndViscera on Reddit Oh, swell – here it comes again. It’s the “Great Man” theory of history, trotted out periodically by plutocrats, patricians, royalists, and assorted other proponents of an elitist social order. They insist that great progress does not come from political movements, unions, and other grassroots forces, but from…

NOTE: Hurricane Helene has wreaked horrific damage all across Appalachia and the Southeast. Some terrific rural organizers have put together this comprehensive document of resources for people affected, as well as ways to help. Give / Get Hurricane Helene Help Here Perhaps you’ve noticed from the shrinkage (or total elimination) of your local newsp…

Greetings, friends! Deanna the Sidekick here to report in on some great activities that have come across our path in the last few months. I’ve been participating in some remarkable discussions and actions that are lifting up the rural voices in this country, and that are engaging rural voters’ participation in a system that, frankly, hasn’t treated…

Hightower outside the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, OK Woody Guthrie’s prescription for inequality in America was straightforward: “Rich folks got your money with politics. You can get it back with politics.” For Guthrie, “politics” meant more than voting, since both parties routinely cough-up candidates who meekly accept the business-as-usual sys…

An iconic Texas band, the Austin Lounge Lizards, has a song that nails the absurd self-righteousness of Christian supremacists: “Jesus loves me… but he can’t stand you.” I think of this refrain when I behold today’s right-ring proselytizers wailing that the blessed rich should not be taxed to assure that everyone has the most basic human needs. See…

Since its inception in the 1980s, Farm Aid has always been much more than just a spectacular festival with incredible performers—it’s been a hub of farmer and rural advocacy. Each year before the concert, they host an annual Farmer Forum to convene everyday people and rural advocates in one place to take on the challenges that face us all. The year…

If you name your $4-billion food conglomerate “The Wonderful Company,” you probably should strive extra hard not to let it become the horrible company. This outfit spends a fortune painting itself as an environmentally sensitive purveyor of healthy products – like “POM,” its brand of pomegranate juice and its bottled “Fiji Water.” Moreover, its bil…

Photo courtesy wiscnews.com Baraboo, Wisconsin is known as home base for the Ringling Brothers Circus. But even that extravaganza of acrobats and clowns could not surpass the dazzling tent show playing out in Baraboo this month, starring the Sauk County Board of Supervisors. Only… you couldn’t have seen it, because the tent was zipped-tight to keep…

A farmer was asked what he’d do if he won a million-dollar lottery. “Well,” he said, “I guess I’d just keep farming ‘til the money runs out.” Trying to make a living as a farmer is not for the fainthearted. You have to take out high-interest loans from cold-eyed bankers to put in a crop and buy supplies. Then you’re also at the mercy of everything …

Photo by Ben Rosett on Unsplash It never ceases to amaze me that corporate, political, media, religious, and other power elites routinely speak and act in the name of the masses – without ever consulting us hoi polloi. This disconnect is the source of a lot of the arrogance, stupidity, and inequality afflicting our society. Consider the huge, very …

Every once in a great while, a major media celebrity comes along who puts his or her talent and – well, celebrity – to work for the Common Good. Many generous artistic souls support good causes – and bless them for that! But there are a few who put the public interest at the center of their professional calling, and it’s been my joy to know a coupl…

Seeing two bloated egos like Elon Musk and Donald Trump hug-up recently in their marriage of political convenience, made me think: “Boy, there’s two who really do deserve each other!” The only question is which one will betray the other first. Upgrade your subscription My money is on Musk. Yes, Trump has built his entire career on the art of high-p…

Just before Labor Day, FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan kicked off a momentous antitrust lawsuit, challenging the $24 billion monopolistic plan by grocery giant Kroger to take over the Albertson supermarket chain. The mega-merger would drastically shrivel competition, raise our grocery prices, eliminate thousands of jobs, and reduce bargaining power for un…

Hey y’all, Deanna, here! As someone who grew up in a rural area (where’re my Southern Tier of New York people at?!), it’s often frustrating to see how people who aren’t from the countryside react to rural politics. We make a lot of assumptions, and I’ve long felt like those assumptions have cost us in electoral votes and solid policy. But working w…

Right-wing ideologues are mounting a three-pronged fraud trying to delegitimize Social Security, slash its benefits, then – zzzzzt – kill it. First, they tried to demonize our public retirement program as a socialist horror. That hasn’t worked, since this pension literally works, allowing millions of workaday American families to escape old age pov…

“I’ve got those Payday-Friday Grocery store blues.” That working-class-lament is from an old bluegrass song, but millions of working stiffs are singing it today. While many workers have finally seen an uptick in their paychecks, they’ve been dismayed to see the increase quickly gobbled up by jacked-up grocery prices. What the hell? Kamala Harris ha…