Robert S. Becker
For over a decade, Robert S. Becker's independent, rebel-rousing essays on politics and culture analyze overall trends, history, implications, messaging and frameworks. He has been published widely, aside from Nation of Change and RSN, with extensive credits from OpEdNews (as senior editor), Alternet, Salon, Truthdig, Smirking Chimp, Dandelion Salad, Beyond Chron, and the SF Chronicle. Educated at Rutgers College, N.J. (B.A. English) and U.C. Berkeley (Ph.D. English), Becker left university teaching (Northwestern, then U. Chicago) for business, founding SOTA Industries, a top American high end audio company he ran from '80 to '92. From '92-02, he was an anti-gravel mining activist while doing marketing, business and writing consulting. Since then, he seeks out insight, even wit in the shadows, without ideology or righteousness across the current mayhem of American politics.
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Trump quietly expands corporate tax breaks while threatening states over food aid
Treasury guidance weakens corporate minimum tax as the Agriculture Department warns states to “undo” full November SNAP payments amid shutdown confusion.
Bill Gates gave $3.5M to think tank run by climate crisis denier Bjorn Lomborg
Tax records reveal that the billionaire’s foundation has donated for years to Lomborg’s Copenhagen Consensus Center.
Military moral injury, iolence, and the parable of the Guinea worm
An unexpected encounter with compassion.
Taxing the rich is key to challenging the far-right
There are many things that need to change in this world. But one thing is clear: anyone who claims to oppose the rise of the far right must, at the very least, support higher taxes on extreme wealth.
Utah’s 1,300-bed homelessness “accountability center” tests Trump-era crackdown
Planned for 16 acres on the edge of Salt Lake City, Utah’s new homelessness campus would combine mass shelter, court-ordered treatment, and “work-conditioned housing.” Supporters call it a model of reform, while advocates warn it mirrors forced labor and internment.