I’ve just gotten off the phone with a pleasant but hapless young man named Nate, whose only crime is that he is trying to
Author: Gloria Shur Bilchik
Gloria Shur Bilchik is a freelance writer and community volunteer in St. Louis, Missouri. She is the editor of Occasional Planet. She views the preservation of democratic values and progressive programs as vital to making the US a humane, livable place for her children and grandchildren.
SuperPAC to end all SuperPACs raises $1 million in its first two weeks
If you can’t join them, beat them. That’s the strategy behind a new political SuperPAC launched in May 2014 by Harvard economics professor Lawrence
Republican voices, listening to themselves
What happens when Republicans get together to talk about current issues? Michael Bersin, of Missouri’s Show Me Progress blog, recently sat in on a
An idea for campaign finance reform: A small-donor matching system
The U.S. Supreme Courts’ 2010 Citizens United decision–combined with the more recent McCutcheon ruling– eviscerated the last vestiges of campaign-finance sanity and fairness. But those
This ad wrecked my morning
This full-page ad appeared in the New York Times Sunday Magazine this morning [May 11, 2014]. They’re kidding, right? They lifted this from The
Reckless tax cut threatens Missouri’s prized AAA rating, as “fiscal conservatives” rule
The Republican-dominated Missouri legislature, acting out an ugly combination of anti-tax ideology and pure selfishness, has enacted a drastic income-tax cut that could throw
Spanish island is about to be fully powered by solar and wind
Big ideas sometimes start small, and that’s exactly what’s happening on El Hierro, the smallest and southernmost of the Canary Islands. El Hierro, with
School cancels kindergarten play. It interferes with college prep!
Citing the need to “prepare children for college and career,” the interim principal of Harley Avenue Primary School in Elwood, NY has canceled the
Georgia’s new “guns everywhere” law: A new low
As reported by Think Progress: Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal (R) just signed a law former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ (D-AZ) organization described as “the most
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Poverty & powerlessness, up close and personal
I’ve just read–two years after everyone else–Katherine Boo’s powerful book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers. It won the 2012 National Book Award, and a blurb