Opinion

Since Halloween is a holiday devoted to celebrating the scary, you might think that every type of fright would be welcome: Decomposing zombies and slimy aliens, ferocious werewolves and bloodthirsty vampires. Yet not so long ago in a galaxy a lot like this one, an outraged right-wing mob decided that a fictional killer in a Santa Claus costume was morally unacceptable. What happened after that might seem silly or completely irrelevant, but it's connected to real-world 21st-century problems that should frighten us all.

The selling of "Silent Night, Deadly Night": Accused of "blood money"

As you give trick-or-treaters candy this weekend let's not forget the devil inside the candy wrapper. The chocolate business profits from child slaves in Africa and the United States has the power to put an end to this evil, just not the political will to act.

Seven big food makers — Hershey, Mars, Mondelēz, Nestlé, Cargill, Barry Callebaut, and Olam – make most of the profits off the labor of enslaved children.

Imagine a world in which two things are true. One, you can make piles of cash as a direct result of breaking federal law. Think of it as theft by other means. Two, you won't ever get caught or be punished. Think of it as a veto on the rule of law. I'm not talking about illicit drug cartels. I'm talking about the respectable world of the very obscenely rich.

In fact, according to Businessweek, the heads of the country's biggest corporate firms almost never face investigation and prosecution by the federal government for using insider information on the stock market. That's despite their portfolios almost always beating the markets.

This past week has seen: antisemitic incidents in Austin, Texas; Sunrise DC, a climate activism group, refusing to be on a coalition with Jewish organizations with any connection to Israel; and the third anniversary of the Tree of Life massacre. This comes after a year of bizarrely comparing vaccine mandates to the Holocaust and four years after the Charlottesville rally where people chanted "Jews will not replace us."

Yet many still see these as aberrations in an otherwise accepting history of Jews in the US. In reality, the history of Jews in the US is one of marginalization, systemic violence and discrimination.

With great fanfare on Thursday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced his company's much-anticipated name change. While he sidestepped some of the more obvious possibilities — "The Borg" or "The Matrix" come to mind — the name that was eventually settled on, Meta, proved to be no less ominous. That was doubly so because Zuckerberg's vision for the company's future was to create a "metaverse," which he has described as an "embodied internet" and "a persistent, synchronous environment." Casey Newton at The Verge described it as "a more maximalist version of Facebook, spanning social presence, office work, and entertainment." One does get the strong impression that Zuckerberg envisions a future where people never unplug from his metaverse, putting them under very non-stop corporate surveillance for profit.

It's an especially sinister move at the current moment, as the company is under international scrutiny for its already overpowering presence in people's lives. A former Facebook employee named Frances Haugen has been releasing a steady stream of leaked documents showing that Facebook knew its social media networks were being used to spread misinformation, stoke often genocidal levels of conflict, and undermine people's mental health — but did little to nothing about it.

More than anything, Doug Ducey wants his legacy to be the massive tax cuts that he has given wealthy Arizonians. It's an issue he campaigned on in his first gubernatorial campaign, and in whatever the next phase of his political career brings, he will surely point to it as a victory.

But his true legacy will be the thousands of Arizonians who have died needlessly on his watch, as he repeatedly and stubbornly and maliciously mismanaged the COVID-19 pandemic.

I know you want to know if I know what US Senator Joe Manchin wants. I do not. I do know, however, that our national discourse over taxing and spending is so warped he opposes a so-called billionaire's tax while favoring a tax on billionaires not called a billionaire's tax. Such word games conceal the truth.

Taxes pay for a full and equal democracy.

For the first time in years, American workers have enough bargaining leverage to demand better working conditions and higher wages – and are refusing to work until they get them.

Here's where that leverage comes from. After a year and a half of the pandemic, consumers have pent-up demand for all sorts of goods and services. But employers are finding it hard to fill positions to meet that demand.

With Halloween a few days away, Capitol Hill is getting spooky.

On Thursday, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney tweeted photos of him and Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema dressed as fan-favorite characters Ted Lasso and Rebecca Welton from the Apple TV+ hit "Ted Lasso." Ted is played by Jason Sudeikis with an iconic mustache, and Rebecca is played by Hannah Waddingham, who often dons stylish, fitted dresses and high heels.

The wildest thing about Donald Trump's Big Lie is that his own supporters don't actually believe it.

Oh, they say they do to any pollster who will ask them. A recent Morning Consult poll, like so many before it, shows nearly "7 in 10 GOP voters don't believe the 2020 election was free and fair and/or have little to no trust in the U.S. election system, while 49 percent doubt that next year's midterms will be free and fair."

New York is not a place where confederate battle flags should be flying. And yet there are more here now than ever before. I saw dozens of them while driving on country roads through upstate counties this year. They fly from private homes, mainly in rural areas, and I even saw one hanging from a run-down house in the middle of my hometown of Oneida, just around the corner from the Post Office.

Upstate New York State was once the most pro-Lincoln and anti-slavery part of the Union. Rebel flags fly on the same streets and rural roads from which men left their families to fight and die in the Civil War. The flag is not only an indecent symbol. In New York, it's an assault on history and a sign of disrespect to our forefathers. Those who fly it are seeking attention. But ignoring it is also a dishonor.

As a student making the hard transition back to in-person learning, I'm wondering what's going to strike first: a COVID outbreak or a school shooting. I'm worried for my school community and for the trauma, the “what ifs" around gun violence are causing.

According to research by Everytown For Gun Safety, from Aug.1 to Sept. 30 of this year, there were 56 incidents of gunfire on school grounds. In 2019, there were 22 incidents in the same time period.

Former Sen. David Perdue of Georgia -- one of the earliest promoters of the Big Lie while trying in vain to win reelection in 2020 -- has let it be known that he might launch a primary challenge to Gov. Brian Kemp in 2022.

A Perdue candidacy would center the race right where Donald Trump wants it: on continuing to hustle the Big Lie that the election was stolen in 2020. Kemp is one of Trump's major targets for having not sufficiently supported Trump's insurrection by overturning President Joe Biden's victory in Georgia.