William G. Martin teaches at SUNY-Binghamton and is co-author of After Prisons? Freedom, Decarceration, and Justice Disinvestment (2016) and a founding member of Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier; he covers local justice matters at www.justtalk.blog
Once again, pundits have begun beating the drums for a presidential ticket split between a Democrat and a Republican in 2024. It’s a return to the elitist thinking that was still dominant in 2016 — and a recipe for disaster in the fight against the Right.
The New York Times suggests that Modern Monetary Theory had a real moment in the sun after the pandemic-induced economic contraction. But monetary and fiscal stimulus is just the normal way of responding to recessions.
As British political life exhibits ever more morbid symptoms, the reissue of Elizabeth Taylor’s 1971 novel Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont is well-timed. Its sharply observed and amusing portrait of England’s post-imperial decline speaks to us across the decades.
The Biden administration has quietly decided to continue a Trump administration scheme whose ultimate goal is the privatization of Medicare. Americans would be outraged — if anyone knew about it.
Throughout the country, transit workers have kept cities and towns moving despite unsafe working conditions, angry passengers refusing to wear masks, and over 200 dying. They deserve hazard pay — and much more.
The Marshall Islands was the site of a massive 1954 US nuclear bomb test and dozens more nearby. The tests absolutely devastated the small island nation, but the US — including President Joe Biden today — has steadfastly refused to make real amends for it.
South African scientists are nearly finished reverse engineering Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. They are forced to waste precious time and resources recreating a vaccine that already exists, because for-profit science protects industry profits over human life.
Under the leadership of Sukarno, postcolonial Indonesia was an optimistic country finding its place on the world stage. Suharto’s 1965 coup drowned that experiment in blood, with US politicians and media cheering on his campaign of mass killings.
The Snowpiercer franchise turns 40 this year. The struggles and defeats of the climate change era have emboldened and disheartened its creators by turns, but the sleeper hit’s key dilemma — whether to smash the system or seize control — still rings true.
Keir Starmer’s attacks on the Left show he’s desperate to reassert Labour’s role as America’s closest ally. But with events from Afghanistan to Ukraine showing the limits of US interventionism, British centrists are longing for a now-past age of neocon power.
The blockchain industry is coming under increasing scrutiny — but that isn’t stopping crypto interests from enlisting allies in Washington’s halls of power.
Centrist liberals want to bolster the Supreme Court’s political legitimacy. Conservatives want to use it to advance minority rule. But as a new appointment looms, there’s a better alternative: loosening the court’s undemocratic stranglehold on US government.
A billionaire literally dismantling public infrastructure to serve his most superficial whim — Jeff Bezos’s recent attempt to get the city of Rotterdam to dismantle its historic bridge to fit his gigantic yacht feels like a metaphor for our current stage of capitalism.
Socialists in the United States are stuck. How do we become masters of our own fate?
Eminent domain has long been used to displace working-class people of color in Los Angeles, as in many cities. In a twist, a group of LA tenants is campaigning to use eminent domain to save themselves from eviction.
Okinawans have long campaigned against the massive US military bases that dominate their island. But the Japanese state is pressing ahead with a new base against their will, placing the island on the front line in a region made more dangerous by US saber-rattling against China.
Our society is deeply invested in a rosy version of romance while offering little support for families to survive the challenges of marriage and child-rearing. We can’t survive those challenges without honest narratives about the maddening realities of love.
Die Linke was founded on the promise of unifying Germany’s left and rejuvenating what was once the world’s leading socialist movement. Fifteen years later, it’s struggling to survive.
The 1980s BBC series The History Man was a venomous takedown of academic pseudo-radicals. How does it stand up today?
Stuck in the middle with you.