If You Read This Book, It’ll Make You a Radical: A Conversation with Thomas Frank
Thomas Frank on what’s the matter with America.
Read more...Category Archives: Politics
Gaius Publius: Big Oil Seeks Billions from U.S. Government to Protect It From…Climate Change
Big oil seeks yet another handout.
Read more...UK Consumers Sour on Plastic Packaging
Surveys indicate that consumers are souring on the ubiquitous use of plastic packaging– at least in the UK. Yet these shifts alone won’t be sufficient to address the problem. Governments must up their regulatory game, and global action is necessary.
Read more...Pigs Want To Feed at the Trough Again: Bernanke, Geithner and Paulson Use Crisis Anniversary to Ask for More Bailout Powers
The chief architects of the exercise in looting otherwise known as the post-crisis rescues are back promoting more of the same.
Read more...Why Is CalPERS Aggressively Promoting Internet Voting Despite Experts Like the National Institute of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Saying “Hell No”?
More proof that CalPERS has no shame.
Read more...Prisoners Strike Across America & Canada to End Penal Enslavement
Prison strike that began on August 21 is scheduled to end today, the forty-fifth anniversary of the Attica uprising and rebellion took place in the New York state prison, with prisoners protesting slave labor conditions and other injustices.
Read more...Dengue on My Mind: Spending on ‘Diseases of Poverty’ Not Enough to Create Effective Vaccines
A drop-off in funding for vaccines for ‘diseases of poverty’ is another consequence of the financial crisis. A recent study laments bleak prospects for breakthroughs on malaria, tuberculosis, dengue, and other diseases. Climate change is expanding the range where these diseases may be contracted.
Read more...Marshall Auerback: Central Bankers as ‘Dealers of Last Resort’
In their 21st-century role as counterparty/dealer/insurer of last resort, central bankers must not simply use their balance sheets indiscriminately to provide a liquidity backstop during the downturns. They must embrace this counterparty role as an umpire, rather than an enabler.
Read more...The Divided Psyche of Privilege
In the Invisible Knapsack, Peggy McIntosh describes the process by which she began theorizing white privilege. We look at her narrative in depth, and try to see what it tells us about how privilege concepts were first constructed and what this means for us today.
Read more...How Supreme Court Pick Brett Kavanaugh Could Return US Policy to the Era of Robber Barons
Understanding Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s potential impact on corporate regulation and the climate means looking back all the way to 1890, to the era of Lochner v. New York and the robber barons.
Read more...Democrats Can Block the Kavanaugh Nomination If They Want To
By Gaius Publius, a professional writer living on the West Coast of the United States and frequent contributor to DownWithTyranny, digby, Truthout, and Naked Capitalism. Follow him on Twitter @Gaius_Publius, Tumblr and Facebook. GP article archive here. Originally published at Common Dreams If Democratic votes put Kavanaugh on the Court, the nation will be harmed […]
Read more...Before Privilege: Cats, Spaghetti, and Ice Cream
Discussions of privilege have become ubiquitous, and Peggy McIntosh’s 1988 talk has something to do with this. But there are strange contradictions in the chronology of her account of how her views changed. What did she believe earlier? We look at the evidence.
Read more...Revisiting Privatization’s Claims
Advocates exaggerate claims that privatization would reduce governments’ fiscal problems while ensuring more efficient, productive, and competitive economies by promoting private entrepreneurship, innovation, and investments.
Read more...The Victory of Privilege
Privilege has gone from an idea discussed by a few activists to an entirely mainstream concept enjoying great respect. How does the idea actually work out in practice? What is its history? The focus is on the seminal work of Peggy McIntosh.
Read more...Nick Turse: The U.S. Military is Winning. No, Really, It Is!
The US military disproves the notion “the conventional army loses if it does not win,” and now wins simply by not losing.
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