Blog

By Cliff Montgomery – Jan. 31st, 2017Trump’s first ten days in the White House have been quite a fascinating study in barely controlled chaos. But it appears that nothing has…

By Cliff Montgomery – Jan. 28th, 2017A billionaire now sits in the White House.Another billionaire – Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg – recently employed new algorithms on the social media site…

Cliff Montgomery – Jan. 18th, 2017President-elect Donald Trump has chosen retired Marine General James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis to be his Secretary of Defense, even though U.S. law forbids him to…

By Cliff Montgomery – Dec. 31st, 2016The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is empowered to act as one of America’s top corporate policemen. Among other things, it works to ensure…

Cliff Montgomery – Dec. 23rd, 2016“A politician divides mankind into two classes: tools and enemies.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche Everyone is out to destroy Hillary Clinton. Or that’s what she and…

By Cliff Montgomery – Dec. 6th, 2016Fidel Castro is dead.Whatever one’s view of the man, it’s clear that for more than half a century Castro had an undeniable impact on…

By Cliff Montgomery – Nov. 19th, 2016Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not…

By Cliff Montgomery – Nov. 8th, 2016To hear the 2016 presidential candidates tell it, one would think that they are polar opposites. For months both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton…

By Cliff Montgomery – Oct. 31st, 2016The Defense Department (DOD) hires private contractors to perform more of its duties than any other single federal entity. Yet the Pentagon often has…

By Cliff Montgomery – Oct. 26th, 2016In January of this year, Trump apparently declared he was so popular with his political base that he might attempt to commit murder in…

By Cliff Montgomery – Oct. 14th, 2016In all the talk about Donald Trump and the now-infamous ‘video’ first released by the Washington Post, it seems to us at the Spark…

By Cliff Montgomery – Sept. 30th, 2016To perform its oversight duties, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) routinely maintains “sensitive industry and public health data, including proprietary business information…

By Cliff Montgomery – Sept. 24th, 2016The current lack of transparency maintained by U.S. police forces – especially regarding its activities in and around American black communities – has come…

By Cliff Montgomery – Sept. 5th, 2016Even though U.S. officialshave long claimed that the National Security Agency (NSA) possesses onlya limited, minimal legal authority to collect data on Internetcommunications, a…

By Cliff Montgomery – Aug. 26th, 2016Although a number of federal agencies collect data on sexual violence, “differences across the data collection efforts … lead to varying estimates of sexual…

By Cliff Montgomery – Aug. 19th. 2016On Aug. 16th, the American Spark revealed the top individual contributors to the Clinton presidential campaign today, we look at Donald Trump’s leading donors.Trump…

By Cliff Montgomery – Aug. 16th, 2016In 2016, the American political system offers a real choice for the country’s next president: Voters may choose between a leading Washington insider who…

By Cliff Montgomery – July 28th, 2016WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has told Democracy Now that the U.S. presidential candidates for the 2016 election – Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton -…

By Cliff Montgomery – July 18th, 2016Most people have heard of Britain’s recently-released Iraq War inquiry report, and its damning verdict that the WMD-related case which served as the basis…

By Cliff Montgomery – June 30th, 2016“Since the enactment of the Help America Vote Act of 2002, there have been notable changes in how states and local election jurisdictions conduct…

By Cliff Montgomery – June 18th, 2016The U.S. Senate is quietly considering “legislation that would empower the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to obtain your Internet records without a warrant”…

By Cliff Montgomery – May 30th, 2016 Congress is considering two bills which might expand the ability of the public to discover what U.S. government officials are actually doing in…

By Cliff Montgomery – May 18th, 2016 The modern world’s trend toward greater human health and longevity has, in recent years, all but ceased for poorly-educated white Americans. The death…