Tag Archives: New Jersey

Democrats make significant gains, as voters indicate an abandonment of Trumpism

By Mark | November 7, 2017

Had former Enron lobbyist Ed Gillespie won Virginia’s gubernatorial race today, you can be certain that prospective Republican candidates everywhere would have taken notice and done their best to follow the same script… recreating themselves, as Gillespie did, in the image of Trump, talking nonsensically about hispanic gangs, confederate monuments, kneeling football players and sanctuary […]

Posted in Politics, Uncategorized | Also tagged Archie Parnell, Christ Hurst, Danica Roem, Donald Trump, Ed Gillespie, ENRON, fear mongering, Georgia, Greg Gianforte, gun control, Jon Ossoff, Kim Guadagno, lobbying, Montana, Phil Murphy, prayer, Ralph Northam, Rob Quist, South Carolina, tax reform, transgender, Virginia | 62 Comments

Reconnecting with old friends over tropical fruit, cheap beer and embarrassing stories of youth

By Mark | August 3, 2014

I spent the last 48 hours in the tiny town of Newton, New Jersey, reconnecting with old high school friends. It was a plan hatched earlier this last spring, at the funeral of my friend Dan’s mother. A few of us, if I remember correctly, were lamenting the fact that we didn’t see more of […]

Posted in Mark's Life, OCD, Uncategorized | Also tagged cliques, Dan Richardson, high school, Newton, Newton High School, reunions, The Big Chill, things that make Mark happy, Tropical Fruit Day, young Mark | 6 Comments

Everything you ever wanted to know about the Emergency Manager takeover of Michigan, and how we allowed it to happen

By Mark | July 29, 2014

I had the good fortune a week or so ago to attend the Netroots Nation conference in Detroit. Among the people that I met while there was attorney Alec Gibbs, who, in recent years, has been keeping busy representing retired public employees left without adequate insurance in the wake of the Emergency Manager takeover of […]

Posted in Civil Liberties, Corporate Crime, Michigan, Politics, Uncategorized | Also tagged 1990, ACLU, Alec Gibbs, Ardesta, bankruptcy, big banks, busing, Chris Christie, corporate takeover of politics, David Koch, David Sirota, Dayne Walling, Democracy Defense League, Detroit, Detroit Public Schools, Ecorse, Elliott Management Corporation, Emergency Financial Control Board, Emergency Financial Manager, Emergency Manager, Flint, grand experiment, Greg Kaza, Headlee Amendment, Highland Park, Jennifer Granholm, John Engler, looming receivorship, Louis Schimmel, Mackinac Center, MEDC, MERS, MI Partners LLC, Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Michigan Municipal Employees Retirement System, Michigan's aging cities, Miliken v Bradley, money in politics, Municipal Assistance Corporation, Municipal Loan Board, Nayyirah Shariff, NERD fund, New York City, Oakland County, P.A. 72, PA 4, pensions, Pontiac, privatization, Public Act 4, Public Act 72, public pension crisis, race and poverty, revenue sharing, RGA Michigan 2010, Rich Baird, Richard Dunn, Rick Snyder, Robert Perry, SAC Capital Advisors, socializing loss and privatizing gains, steel, Steve Cohen, suburbs, The Plot against Pensions, Tom Zernick, unfunded mandates, union busting, venture capital, water, Wendy Baxter | 41 Comments

The Untold History of Zines…. Robert Helms on Guinea Pig Zero

By Mark | February 23, 2014

In an attempt to better document the American underground press, or at least the sharp, rusty sliver of it that infected me 20-some years ago, I’ve given myself the task of interviewing all of the zine folks that I respected back in the day, during the period which many of us still consider to be […]

Posted in Art and Culture, Special Projects, Uncategorized | Also tagged Abbott Labs, abortion, Agent 355, alcoholism, Alexis Buss, Alexis St. Martin, Alison Lewis, Ameoterone, American revolution, Anarchism and the Black Revolution, anarchists, anarchy, atheist, Auschwitz, Betsy Ross, Big Cheese, bioethics, bossicide, Brew Squat, Bruce Orr, cats, Centereach, cheese, cheese money, chocolate, clinical trials, death penalty, digestion, Dishwasher, documentary film, Donald McCabe, Donno Layton, drug development, Edgar Allan Poe, Eva Mozes Kor, experiments, France, Free Voice, freethinker, fuck, gene therapy, Guinea Pig Zero, Harper’s, health care, Hershey’s Kisses, human guinea pig, human test subjects, Indianapolis, International Workers of the World, IWW, James Bond, Jeff Kelly, Jesse Gelsinger, Johnson Space Center, Jonestown, Josef Mengele, Keffo, Kenosha, Kinko's, labor law, Lehigh Valley, liver, Long Island, lying, Mackinac Island, medical experimentation, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Nazis, Neptune, New York Times Magazine, Off Label, ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency, patient zero, Paul Gelsinger, Pennsylvania, Pete Jordan, pharmacokinetics, Phil Buchanan, Philadelphia, placebos, printing, Prozac, psych drugs, Randall Phillip, Ritalin, Robert Helms, scams, secret agents, sleep deprivation, SmithKline Beecham, squats, stomach, syphilis, Temp Slave, The Age of Reason, The Untold History of Zines, This American Life, Thomas Paine, Tuskegee syphilis experiment, twins, underground press, union organizing, unions, University of Pennsylvania, vasovagal syncope, William Beaumont, Wisconsin, Wobblies, Wooden Shoe Books, workplace violence, Wyeth-Ayerst, zines | 13 Comments

Ypsilanti Immigration Interview: Scott Straley

By Mark | July 14, 2013

Feeling as though I needed to post an awesome Ypsi Immigration Interview to counterbalance last week’s depressing Exit Interview with my friend Melissa, I started going through my email archive, looking for letters from people who had written to me over the past year, telling me that they were thinking of moving to Ypsilanti, hoping […]