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Samuel Vargo worked as a full-time reporter and editor for more than 20 years at a number of daily newspapers and business journals. He was also an adjunct English professor at colleges and universities in Ohio, West Virginia, Mississippi and Florida for about a decade. He holds a B.A. in Political Science and an M.A. in English (both degrees were awarded by Youngstown State University).
(1 comments) SHARE Monday, August 25, 2014 Yes, West Virginia, there is a Snallygaster
Destination America's "Mountain Monsters" series features the AIMS team - a group of West Virginia native sons who go after mysterious creatures that are said to inhabit the remote hills and forests of the Mountain State. And although this is an entertaining show, with a colorful cast, how much monster hunting in reality TV is too much. Or is this show, with its formula reality format, simply too much?
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, June 3, 2016 Family of slain member of the Omaha Tribe will not let the police get away with "murder"
The family of a slain Native American in Omaha, Neb., will be filing civil and criminal charges against the Omaha Police Department for killing their relative. American Indians are the biggest target of police violence in Nebraska and country wide, as well.
(10 comments) SHARE Saturday, October 4, 2014 Welcome to the Flesh Farm-- The Human Resources Involved With Just Being Human
While visiting a company recently, I saw a sign that read "Human Resources" and I tossed around the implication of this business buzzword. Are we only resources? Have we totally dehumanized our brothers and sisters as being nothing more or less than homo sapient machines? And historically, some groups of people have classed other groups into a "subhuman" class, which is a much more jarring and unsettling notion.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, March 29, 2014 What ever happened to good sportsmanship?
Bad sportsmanship is so prevalent these days that it's almost become acceptable. Athletes and fans act out not only with hostility, but sometimes even with violence. But should we now ask ourselves is it safe to attend an NFL game? Is Missy or Junior going to learn anti-social traits like bullying by playing midget league football or T-Ball?
(6 comments) SHARE Monday, June 23, 2014 Police brutality? Watch this YouTube video -- It's not meant for those with weak stomachs
The Long Beach, Calif., police are justifying the severe beating of a man, saying there's more to the story than meets the eye. But after watching this YouTube torture for five minutes, most would click off the video after less than a minute of this sadistic bludgeoning.
SHARE Saturday, August 29, 2015 Appalachia's heroin and opiate problem is insideous, sad, and seemingly unstoppable.
Appalachia's addiction to one of the most powerful and addictive drugs, heroin, is growing at an alarming rate. At one time, not too long ago, when people thought of a 'junkie', an image of an emaciated homeless guy in the heart of New York City or Los Angeles came to mind, not a disabled coal miner in West Virginia or Kentucky.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, July 30, 2018 The Fort Laramie Treaties are the backbone of law statutes governing High Plains Indian lands
Two treaties - the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 and the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 - are the backbone of law statutes mandating that fracking concerns should not be allowed to operate in Converse County, Wyo., if a consensus of Native American tribes do not want them to operate here.
SHARE Saturday, July 28, 2018 An Oglala Lakota Attorney is fighting big gas companies on public lands in Converse County, Wyo.
People are getting sick from flaring and other by-products of the rampant fracking operatives ongoing in Converse County, Wyo. An Oglala Lakota Sioux attorney and activist, Mario Gonzalez, is fighting to quell this monstrous project on public lands, but the tribes and the non-Native communities in the area must do a lot more to stave-off fracking on private lands if they want a better Wyoming.
(13 comments) SHARE Saturday, June 18, 2016 Hillary Clinton picks U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan as a potential running mate - Hey Hillary, who's Tim Ryan?
If Hillary Clinton wants a young, good-looking running mate who'll most likely do whatever she tells him to do, she has a winner in U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of the 13th Congressional District. Who is Tim Ryan anyhow? Well maybe if you read this little ditty, you'll discover a thing or two about him.
(13 comments) SHARE Friday, December 4, 2015 San Francisco Police Execution Squad-- Are Americans Being Conditioined to Accept Police Slaying Unarmed People?
San Francisco cops executed a 26-year-old city man Thursday in what can only be described as a firing squad. What's happening to America? Why do we even have cops if they act in such arrogant, tyrannous, despicable, violent ways?
Though I don't believe in conspiracy theories, I can't help but wonder if the powers-that-be are trying to condition and and harden the American public to the police slaying unarmed people.
(92 comments) SHARE Thursday, September 8, 2016 Donald Trump's 'man crush' on Vladimir Putin isn't only disgusting, it's a harbinger of what may come
Donald Trump loves strong-arm leaders and in particular, Russian President Vladimir Putin. There is something very peculiar about a Presidential candidate for what is supposedly a democratic country being so enamored with a tyrannical President of an Eastern Bloc country that has always been an adversary to the USA.
(7 comments) SHARE Wednesday, April 1, 2015 Say hello to Nestle' and its top bottle man, the meanest corporate vampires in the world
Nestle' is the meanest corporation in the world. And despite his seemingly caring, "nice guy" approach, Nestle's Chairman and CEO has a mean-spirited business acumen, too. Yes, Nestle' is intent on making water not a free public resource, but a salable product, and the masses will spend an ever-increasing portion of their money on water. Face it, without water in your life, there is no life.
(6 comments) SHARE Monday, April 7, 2014 The politics of heroin: Trying to break the dangerous wild horse
Heroin has become a political monster in America. The arrival of April Fools' Day saw federal and state officials nationwide involved in many political acts - with consequences and intended remedies designed and created to thwart this epidemic horror. One thing's for sure - nobody's joking around about the stark realities involving heroin.
(6 comments) SHARE Friday, June 29, 2018 So, are your loyalties with Harley-Davidson or Donald Trump? Man, that's a dumb question!
Will Donald Trump's reaction in tweets to Harley-Davidson affect the loyal upholders of this All-American brand? No, not in this world. Harley-Davidson seems to enjoy inelastic demand and its buyers and riders will throw Trump under the bas before they turn their backs to that corporate name surrounded by flying wings.
SHARE Monday, May 14, 2018 South Dakota's Republican Primary Race is a Dogfight!
Neither of the Republican contenders for South Dakota's heated and tough gubernatorial race have an interest in what the state's American Indian populace believes in, or holds as important and salient. It's a tough sell, all this fighting over the old governor's mansion in Pierre', and many Lakota Natives are just shaking their heads with angst, disappointment, and even despair.
(17 comments) SHARE Tuesday, January 26, 2016 The St. Johns River, a pristine natural treasure, falls prey to the greed of the Koch Borthers and their powerful allies
David and Charles Koch, along with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, now running on the Republican ticket for President, and current Sunshine State Governor Rick Scott, are all part of a deal that allows Koch Industries' highly profitable paper and pulp company, Georgia-Pacific, to dump millions of gallons of toxic waste per day into the St. Johns River in Florida. But the final word is now in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court.
(2 comments) SHARE Sunday, June 15, 2014 Going with the Flo: The Longevity and Effectiveness of a Serialized Advertising Character
Televised advertisements are often meant to be funny. Some are, some aren't, but most would say the majority of ads are real duds. Oftentimes what's being advertised is overlooked or overshadowed by advertisers' attempts at humor. Are these ads effective? Instead of hiring teams of MBAs with marketing degrees, why not hire a few out-of-work or marginally employed stand-up comics and gag writers?
(14 comments) SHARE Tuesday, March 3, 2015 Wearing a badge today, is it a license to kill?
With the killing of a homeless man outside a Los Angeles homeless shelter, it seems that wearing a badge gives someone a license to kill. After looking over a video shot by a bystander of the incident, it's not a bias against the police to ask, "Is there something wrong with this picture?" No, it's just common sense to see that what happened on the southern California sidewalk was most likely murder in broad daylight.
(7 comments) SHARE Thursday, June 4, 2015 With 195 violations for emissions in four years, should things remain 'business as usual' for a smoky dragon?
With 195 emissions violations over the course of the last four years, Heritage Thermal Services Inc., the U.S. EPA is issuing a Finding of Violation for the Clean Air Act violations, yet the company has a cavalier attitude about this problem. Health statistics show that the poisons, including heavy metals, the company's stack burns are causing very high cancer rates here.
(14 comments) SHARE Friday, November 18, 2016 Donald Trump's unpredictability is his scariest trait
Among a long list of very negative attributes, what scares this writer, along with many other people in the world right now, is Donald Trump's unpredictability. He's liable to do and say just about anything.
SHARE Saturday, June 23, 2018 A lot of water (and money) has gone down the river since 1964 for the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe
Mario Gonzalez, attorney for the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe of California, is fighting a federal battle to get this tribe their due moneys from a 1965 legal guarantee that they have a lot of water that has gone down the river, or, more peculiarly, this water was used by a California municipal body in place of the Chemehuevi people.
SHARE Sunday, August 7, 2016 A Big Rebel Yell: The Deep South has more than its share of H2O woes
The Deep South, long associated with being business friendly and open to new business pursuits of many varieties, is getting litigious in fighting against companies that are destroying land and polluting water. Southern hospitality comes with a really mean redneck side. Southern communities and even states are seeing red over continued ecological destruction.
(7 comments) SHARE Thursday, July 7, 2016 It's the Hill and Bill Show - Welcome back to the hillbilly White House!
Welcome back to the hillbilly White House! We're in for the better part of a decade, probably, if Hillary Clinton becomes president. It will be filled with scandal, dishonesty, and treachery, just like the "good old days" when her country boy husband was our 42nd President.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, December 12, 2014 Sticking a sneaky swap of Apache land in a 1,600-page defense bill isn't a law, it's larcency!
A land-swap of 2,400-acres of Apache ceremonial and ancestral lands isn't a law, it's larceny. But U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.0 and other Arizona legislators are hell-bent for digging copper out of the ground there, stealing this land, and creating an environmental vampire in the process.
SHARE Wednesday, April 22, 2015 American Indian Mascots and Team Names Need to be Retired and Banned
American Indian team names and mascots from the high school to college and professional sports levels create a cultural insensitivity and racist attitude towards real aboriginal people. The proliferation of these Indian team names and mascots have an avalanche effect - from badly written articles and headlines by racist, hack sportswriters to throngs of drunken revelers wearing headdresses at parties.
(14 comments) SHARE Friday, August 17, 2018 What's Wrong With The News These Days? A Fake President Throwing A Lot Of Vitriol Around, Targeting The Media
Donald Trump's unrelenting attack on the media is scary and very much against everything America stands for -- this dim-witted wannabe autocrat's vitriol against the media will only leave "The Donald" with blood on his hands if something horrific occurs in a newsroom somewhere in America while he's in office.
(9 comments) SHARE Wednesday, July 27, 2016 Lies, lies, and more lies
Lies, lies, and more lies. It's what was thrown around a lot during Bill Clinton's speech. And although the overall biographical facts might have been right on the mark, the general theme of Hillary and Bill's storybook romance has been anything but this. In fact, it's been a romantic trainwreck!
(3 comments) SHARE Saturday, July 12, 2014 For Only Two Andrew Jackson Greenbacks, Any Diva Can Look Like an Indian War Chief
Culture Vulture celebrities are wearing the First Nation's headdress around with seeming impunity and are relishing in the attention they're getting by making this very important Indian icon a fashion ornament. But Native Americans aren't very happy with this, and they're being quite vocal in opposition to making the headpiece part of a woman's wardrobe.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, November 23, 2016 Why I write comedy, satire, and yes, even "fake" news
An attack on 'fake news' is an attack on the First Amendment. Slander and libel laws have been designed to punish those creating hard copy stories without any satiric or comedic value from misleading the public. Let these right-wingers take a slice at fake news and soon, they'll be after real, substantive, accurate news. Wait and see.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, May 11, 2018 Trump needs to take a 'hands off' approach when it comes to Robert Mueller
Donald Trump had better leave Robert Mueller alone if he plans to continue on his rocky and calamitous Presidency. If he continues to attack Mueller and eventually fires the man leading the special investigation into Trump's alleged criminal misdeeds, the Republican power elites will have to pull Trump from the political game.
(6 comments) SHARE Tuesday, July 7, 2015 Plastic pollution is an environmental horror story with a never-ending plot
Plastic is non-biodegradable. Every bit of plastic ever produced is still around, in some shape or form. In a consumer-driven society, much of this plastic ends up in the ocean, not in landfills. It's a threat to humankind's food supply, and also, to the habitat of the world's wildlife. It's an environmental nightmare that keeps getting creepier and creepier. Some plastic can be recycled into fuel, which is a good thing.
SHARE Sunday, January 25, 2015 Yellowstone River spill should be considered a harbinger
The Yellowstone River pipeline break on Jan. 17, which saw an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 gallons of crude oil seep into the public waterway, is only an example of more disaster to come. Stiffer criminal penalties need to be levied against those involved with such acts of what many environmentalists consider to be acts of eco-terrorism.
(2 comments) SHARE Sunday, August 18, 2019 Donald Trump Scores a Jackpot of Craziness with His Plans to Buy Greenland
With America's infrastructure crumbling, its stature on a global scale dwindling, racial and social tensions on the rise, it's hard to believe the president of the United States might have a serious notion to purchase Greenland, but it's been all over the news the past few days.
(2 comments) SHARE Monday, March 14, 2016 President Obama's decree may save sacred Apache ceremonial land from being made into a copper mine
Designating Oak Flat as a National Historic Place could nix plans for making this sacred Apache site into a copper mine owned by foreign interests. But there are no guarantees. Arizona federal legislators John McCain, Paul Gosar, Ann Kirkpatrick and Jim Flake did their best late last year - in December 2015 - to stealthily and sneakily stick legislation calling for this land swap of sacred Apache land into a defense bill.
SHARE Friday, April 29, 2016 Activism for James Magaska Swan goes back to his high school days
James Magaska Swan's activism goes all the way back to when he was a student at a charter high school in Seattle, Wash., that had an enrollment of only Native American children. Today, his United Urban Warrior Society, with more than 30 chapters throughout the USA and Canada, fights for the rights of American Indians, and other races, too, even Caucasians who really don't have a group to defend them.
SHARE Saturday, September 20, 2014 The RCMP, the Highway of Tears, and a Prime Minister Who Doesn't Care
With around 1,200 cases of missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada over the course of the last few decades, one would think the Canadian Prime Minister would want to take urgent and drastic action to find the root of the cause of this nightmare. But P.M. Stephen Harper has no such intention, and many Indian people feel the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are the primary culprits here.
SHARE Monday, April 21, 2014 Many Californians are Telling Big Oil & Gas to 'Frack Off!'
California isn't buying what Big Oil and Gas are selling. It will be interesting to see how well fracking succeeds in the Golden State, which has always been a trend-setter for the rest of the country.
(2 comments) SHARE Friday, July 22, 2016 Sorry, "I don't know...," isn't good enough
If you're a young or even a middle-aged black man, watch out, the police may have you in their rifle scopes. North Miami police shot a man who is a behavioral therapist, doing his job trying to get an autistic patient back to a group home for the emotionally disturbed, when he was gunned down by the cops. "I don't know...," was the reason the policeman said when asked why he shot Charles Kinsey.
(8 comments) SHARE Sunday, May 31, 2015 There's nothing patriotic about the PATRIOT Act, and there is no proof it's even working
The Patriot Act needs to go by the wayside and now's as good of a time to get rid of this thing as ever. It's just an excuse to eat away at our civil liberties, and if the federal government wants to begin securing the country from foreign threats, it had better begin with keeping these pasky gyrocopter drivers, drone enthusiasts, and fence jumpers off the White House lawn.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, June 8, 2018 Ivanka and Kim teaming up on prison reform will only lead to big losing, all around
What are Ivanka Trump and Kim Kardashian going to do about prison reform in America? Although their intent might be good, it's hard to believe in the reality show world of the current White House, the grand diva of the world's most famed reality show, "Keeping up with the Kardashaians," has taken on such a role. It's sad, but funny, too. Humorous enough to incite a lot of humor by late-night comics yet a tragedy, too.
(5 comments) SHARE Thursday, June 26, 2014 Is it John or Jane Law's Duty to Protect and Serve? Well, Not Always (Part One)
Vile and evil are these incidents associated with police misconduct and equivocated abuse of power. Killing unarmed citizens with no threat whatsoever to them, these police shouldn't be wearing badges. No, they should be behind bars. Even screaming and swearing at middle-school children on a school bus shouldn't be tolerated by the civil servants employed by the public's trust.
(7 comments) SHARE Thursday, December 1, 2016 Nancy Pelosi is renamed House Dem Leader, winning over Timmy What's His Name
In a time of crazy surprises at the federal government level, it's good to know that Nancy Pelosi was re-elected as the Democratic House Leader. She beat Tim Ryan of Ohio's 13th District, her sole challenger Wedmesdau.
SHARE Sunday, July 3, 2016 Oh Hillary!
The writer of this op-ed did a "hatchet job" of the Canadian national anthem, "O Hillary" in celebration of America's 2016 Fourth of July extravaganza. Not to leave out that little email problem that Hillary has. And now the F.B.I.'s involved. My my my!
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, July 18, 2014 This Texas Sheriff Says He's Not Any Lone Ranger in His Quest to Bring a Fracking Waste Polluter to Justice
A Texas sheriff is not acting alone in going after a trucking company that allegedly dumped fracking waste onto two roadways. Although the media has reported Karnes County Sheriff Dwayne Villanueva as a 'lone ranger' in bringing criminal charges against a trucking company allegedly responsible for a fracking-waste spill, Sheriff Villanueva says two state agencies may file criminal charges, not his department.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, May 23, 2018 All are sick with this "Carpenter, you have spilled the whiskey" news
Santa Fe Texas this past Friday was a tragedy and a travesty, but there will surely be more school shootings on the horizon. The equivocating debauchery of our federal leaders and a blind obedience to the NRA will make it so. And Donald Trump's tough talk, his rhetoric of vitriol and violence, and his disdain for law and order certainly are not helping matters in this volatile corner of the American scene.
SHARE Wednesday, June 4, 2014 Why is the stylus stuck on 1994, then it skips back to 1979?
Classic Rock has taken over the airwaves, but where is all the new talent hiding - all the up-and-coming Rock & Rollers?
Is Cyberspace Communism somehow to blame? Can and will the music industry take some bold moves to prevent Internet piracy of Copyrights?
A lot more action is required. And this very important, influential and powerful industry must become much bolder and tougher if this criminality is to end.
SHARE Wednesday, July 9, 2014 Is it John or Jane Law's Duty to Protect and Serve? Well, Not Always (Part Two)
The second part of a two-part combo on transgressions by those employed to protect and serve the public is more of the same sort of hard-copy horrors that make police chiefs and mayors cringe, not liking this type of PR. These articles were taken from big and small newspapers, alternative online mags, and some TV news websites. It's 98% hard-copy, with little editorializing. It's circumstantial.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, March 25, 2014 Controversy Sparked by L. Brooks Patterson
A longtime politician in an affluent Detroit suburban county has created fury for comments he made about Native Americans and the Motor City in a January issue of "The New Yorker".
(7 comments) SHARE Monday, November 3, 2014 Ohio's Top Democratic Ticket Implodes, Republicans Expected to Win Big on Nov. 4
With two top candidates on Ohio's Democratic ticket succumbing to outrageous and embarrassing scandals, Republicans are expected to have a grand day on Nov. 4, not only on the state level, but the city and even the village levels.
(1 comments) SHARE Saturday, December 6, 2014 "Rolling Stone" has some big stones hurled their way
"Rolling Stone" magazine didn't do the rising social concern of rape on university campuses any justice with Sabrina Rubin Erdely's article: "A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA;" no, it set this issue back to the Dark Ages. . . ."Rolling Stone" needs to focus on musicians, TV stars, and glitterati, and keep clear of the heavy atomic issues like rape.
(5 comments) SHARE Monday, September 14, 2015 Some thoughts on Canada's upcoming federal election on Oct. 19
Canada's federal election, which includes voting for Prime Minister, is a little more than a month away, on Monday, Oct. 19. In the overall scope of things, right now this election is of much more importance than next November's U.S. presidential election, yet most Americans don't know or seem to care about this upcoming event. This is scary that America has become so myopic.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, May 21, 2014 How's the weather?
Climate change is upon us, but, according to experts, it isn't too late yet, if everyone does some drastic lifestyle changing. Even as bad as it seems, with the polar ice caps melting, the tipping point won't be until it starts getting unlivable at the equator. That's when the tipping point will be upon us all.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, July 29, 2014 Is it John or Jane Law's Duty to Protect and Serve? Well, Not Always (Part Three)
Was Eric Garner's case of police brutality and his subsequent murder at the hands of the NYPD an oddity? Well, if you tune into cop-watch websites regularly, as egregious and hideous as this "illegal" cigarette vendor's murder was, it is anything but extraordinary. There is a pattern, and also, a sordid culture, of such transgressions. Cop-watch Internet sites are never at a loss to find new material to post daily.