Donald Trump is really quite good at one special skill: Branding. He has slapped his name on a ridiculous range of consumer merch – from teddy bears to a urine test. His policies and behavior, however, have... Read more...

Trump's White House seems to be both spooked... and spooky.

Once again, we enter the long season of winter darkness, and this year we are beset by back-to-back waves of spooks. First came the little costumed goblins on Halloween, seeking sweet treats from us. Cute!

Ideally, elections are about ideas, but these days policy discussions are being shoved aside by raw partisanship and vitriol. Not only are good ideas ignored, but very bad idea can become public policy without the public knowing it.

If you're wondering where Congress' next truly bad idea will come from, keep an eye on a secretive far-right-wing outfit called ALEC – the American Legislative Exchange Council.

Is it possible to get public policies out of our political system that benefit common people rather than moneyed elites?

If you despair that a mysterious plague of incurable political knuckleheadism has swept our country, turning previously progressive white working-class people into mindless Trump worshippers, check out this report: "The Promise of a Progressive Populist Movement."

Someone needs to buy a Grassroots USA tour package for the members of Donald Trump's Council of Economic Advisers, so they can at least visit the real world once in their lives.

Listen... can you hear it? Listen to the eerie "sound of silence" from the Trumpeteers and congressional Republicans who so loudly cheered themselves just a year ago for bestowing a trillion dollar tax giveaway on corporate elites.

If you think our government's war policy has become out-of-this world cuckoo – consider the spaciness being proposed by the cosmonauts on Spaceship Trump.

In June, our immigrant-bashing president ordered an end to his own warped policy of forcibly tearing terrified migrant children from the arms of their asylum-seeking parents. Trump declared "I didn't like the sight or the feeling of families being separated."

War is hell. We've learned that over and over from the hundreds of thousands of deaths, uncountable maimings, torturings, wastings, and other horrors our soldiers have experienced in the multitude of wars in this century alone.

What's in a name? By definition, the name of a person, place, or thing is its personal designation... a distinct way of being known to others. Unless, of course, it's the opposite – a label meant to disguise who or what a person or thing really is. In other words, a fake name.

In CorporateWorld, when trouble pops up and things get sticky, CEOs don't wring their hands and try to dodge the issue. No-sir-ee, the chief gets paid the big bucks to step forward confidently and seize control... by ringing up the company's PR consultants and having them try to dodge the issue.

How much are you paying Amazon? I don't mean how much you're shelling out for stuff you bought, but how much you and your neighbors are simply giving to this huge and uber-rich on-line retailer.

It's practically unanimous: Nine out of 10 establishment economists agree that America's solid job growth and the low unemployment rate truly mak- ours "The Land of Opportunity."

Workers of America, rejoice! As our nation celebrates Labor Day with backyard cookouts, fun at the beach, or simply kicking back in a La-Z-Boy and doing several rounds of 12-ounce elbow bends – we can all take comfort in the happy news that our economy is whizzing!

Monopolies are not merely un-American, they're virulently anti-American, suppressing our fundamental values of fairness and opportunity for all.

America's political history has been written in the fierce narrative of war. Not our country's many military clashes with foreign nations – but our own unending war for democracy in the USA.