The Periodic Table (of Lawyers)

I’ve spent my adult life in Big Law, but I’m not on this earth to help the rich get richer. I’m here for the wanna-be’s. I want to help the climbers, the strivers, the innovators, the world changers. That’s why I wrote Birth to Buyout and that’s why I’ve…

If this is America, I Don’t Want to Live Here. Thank God it’s Not.

When I saw this political cartoon it knocked the wind out of me. In this cartoon, put out by the conservative political cartoonist, David Eden, a beefy, angry caucasian Uncle Sam has a slight, fearful Barack Obama by the tie. Uncle Sam screams at President Obama, “Stop Trying To Change Me!!”…

Thoughts on the Repulsive Response of Torture Apologists

On the day the Senate report on torture came out, I stood at position A-1 in a Southwest boarding line listening to two 60ish year-old businessmen talk about the release of the report: “She’s doing it to show her moral superiority,” one said about the reasons why Senator Dianne…

I’ve Read the Government’s Arguments to Screw Amazon Workers and I’m Furious

There’s a monumental case at the Supreme Court that has got me obsessed, bewitched, enraged and mildly despondent. Technically, it’s called Integrity Staffing v. Busk. It actually is Amazon v. Amazon’s warehouse workers. (Integrity Staffing is the subcontractor stooge hired by Amazon to employ its warehouse workers). After Amazon…

Dispelling the ‘Moocher Myth’: Southern States Get More Than They Give

Southern Southern Southern The ‘Moocher Myth’ It’s become somewhat of a Right Wing rallying cry over the past few decades. Conservatives yell and scream about how the liberals want to raise taxes to prop up the lazy, incompetent scum that keeps stealing their hard-earned money through federal programs like…

The Northern Case for Southern Secession

The Case for Southern Secession My grandparents were married for 54 years. My grandfather could be lovely, and he could just as easily be disdainful or absent. On the eve of their 54th New Year’s Eve together, my grandmother refused to accompany my grandfather to their condo in Florida….

DEA Rescheduling Hydrocodone

The DEA is making codeine a harder drug to get, and a badder drug to deal. This makes me nostalgic for a simpler time, with simpler professionals. When I was a kid, my doctor was a white-haired sadist from Rockford, IL, named Languish. I used to get a lot…

The History of Labor Day

Before Peter McGuire came up with the idea for Labor Day most people worked 12 hours a day 7 days a week. Peter McGuire figured out that if you gave a day to celebrate the people who do the hard work, the country would better appreciate their efforts and…

3 Things Labor Needs to Do in Order to Thrive

Look, we need labor unions. You and I do better in every way when unions are strong. Take a look at this chart. When union membership goes down, your income shrinks. Why? Because unions push back. Unions force managers to train more, to pay more and to think more…

How Corporations Take Advantage of You and Why You Need to Stop Them

There is a growing problem in this country with the lack of accountability and the growing acceptance of a fuck-you-I-got-mine mentality among a certain class of men. It’s almost like the husband with a wife and kids at home who spends cash on booze, drugs and women, then blames his wife…