Author: Joshua De Leon

James Tracy, the Florida Atlantic University professor that questioned the existence of the Sandy Hook shootings, has been making headlines all week with his commentary of the Boston Bombings, calling it a “mass casualty drill” on his personal blog.  The inflammatory and misguided, and perhaps insane, remarks of Tracy have once again put him under fire. Although Tracy is a crackpot, and that’s putting it lightly, this is a free speech issue to which every American has a right.  But rather than burn this man at the stake, which so many want to see happen, he should be held...

Hundreds of low-wage workers from the retail and restaurant industries took to the Chicago streets early this morning demanding higher, livable wages from their corporate employers, such as McDonald’s, Sears and Victoria’s Secret. In Illinois, minimum wage is $8.25 an hour, and living in a large city like Chicago, where the cost of living is higher compared to the rest of the state, employees need to work two turns of the clock just to turn on a light switch.  And with corporations paying the bare minimum, workers struggle just to keep on the heat.  To bring this issue to...

Private companies have been buying research from public universities, or have the public universities been selling research? Some universities, like Texas A&M, stand behind the decision to accept corporate money.  Just because the funding may be accepted open-palmed by universities doesn’t make corporate-funded university research a good idea.  Universities are making a deal with the devil. As federal funding for public university research steadily tapered off since 1970, corporate investment in research has shot upward 250 percent, bringing the tally to $2.4 billion since 1985. That’s not all. The federal government may possibly pull $8.6 billion right out from...

“Give him an inch and he takes a mile” is a common saying and this has been especially true for American corporations. But instead, these guys are given a dollar and want to steal the entire billfold.  And who’s the victim of this back-alley mugging?  It’s more than likely going to be the ever-growing lower class. Last year, over 80 corporations moved hundreds of billions of dollars to offshore bank accounts increasing the grand total to just shy of $1.5 trillion and, yet, they want more. Companies are now wanting to, not only decrease corporate tax rates to 25...

U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz is known for her rabid, often overdone, aggression toward defendants.  Of recent infamy for her overzealous treatment of the would-be prosecution of Reddit co-founder and suspected hacker Aaron Swartz, who was found hanging dead in his Brooklyn apartment earlier this year. Ortiz wanted to give Swartz up to 35 years of imprisonment for online pirating and distribution of academic journals. Ortiz not only wanted to throw the book at Swartz, she wanted to bludgeon him with it and shove it down his non-violent throat. Although the preceding gave Ortiz a savage reputation, her overzealous, almost...