Extractive Taxation and the French Revolution
What ought to be a cause for tariffs pause: unrepresentative and often high taxes were a major spur to the French Revolution.
Read more...Category Archives: Guest Post
Scholars Under Fire
An in-depth look at pressure campaigns against scholars.
Read more...As History Erasure Intensifies, Independent Internet Archives Are Helping Fortify the ‘Digital Preservation Infrastructure’
How internet archives are thwarting the reactionary campaign to rewrite history and censor inconvenient information and ideas.
Read more...One of UK’s Largest (and Oldest) High Street Retailers Suffers Week of Chaos After “Cyber Incident”
“Back to Normal”… Erm, Not Quite.
Read more...How the American Economy Is Rigged to Serve the Rich, and Why Tariffs Won’t Change That
The money to support well-paid American jobs exists—it’s just being hoarded by the rich.
Read more...Trump Wants World to Subsidise US Empire
A Trump advisor argues, in all seriousness, that other countries should help bear the cost of US empire because it confers so many benefits on them.
Read more...Climate Change: Where are We and Where are We Going, in Five Recent Books?
A few weeks ago, I repeated the drive of seventy miles along the north-south path of Hurricane Helene that I made two weeks after the storm . In the few wealthier sectors along this highway, downed trees have been removed and sawn for lumber (at a large loss) or chipped. I have heard hardwood and […]
Read more...China Sends Strong Message to “Global South” (and US) Via Its Embassy in Argentina
“[W]e urge the US side to detoxify its mind. Instead of devoting its time and energy to… attacking China, it would be much more productive to make real contributions to the development of the countries of the region.”
Read more...The Dangerous Illusion of Climate Resilience
The latest floods, wildfires, and other disasters reveal the flaws of adaptation as the main response to climate change.
Read more...What Science Says About Food Additives
RFK Jr. has said the U.S. should end the use of synthetic food additives. How would that affect public health?
Read more...Links 4/23/2025
Prevagen®: A Most Curious Dietary Supplement for Your Brain
Dietary supplements are a large part of the alternative medicine universe, with annual sales of more than $70B in the United states and much more than that in the rest of the world. I have followed the supplement business since tryptophan, a canonical amino acid marketed as a sleep aid, caused an outbreak of eosinophilia-myalgia […]
Read more...‘Making the West Great Again’
At her recent meeting with Trump, IItalian PM Giorgia Meloni declared her allegiance to “western nationalism.” What does such nonsense portend for Italy and Europe?
Read more...Coffee Break: Armed Madhouse – War with Iran
The 9/11 attack on the U.S. triggered a series of disastrous wars in the Mideast in which the U.S. pursued the goals of overthrowing despots, securing oil supplies, and removing any real or potential military threats to Israel. The result was a large expenditure of blood and treasure for very little geopolitical gain and the […]
Read more...As Appetite for War and Repression Rise in the New Western (Dis-)Order, Palantir Is Making a Killing
Silicon Valley’s darkest and most secretive unicorn “has finally made it big”. But at what cost to the rest of us?
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