Trump’s IRS Pick Promised Tax Benefits to Finance CEO
Trump’s pick to head the IRS, Billy Long, was invited to attend Donald Trump’s inauguration as the guest of an executive who said Long promised him benefits for his financial services company.
Blog
Pavement Made Music About Selling Out Without Selling Out
Pavement, one of the most celebrated indie rock bands of the 1990s, grappled with the challenge of making a living from music without slotting into the corporate machine. A new documentary recreates the group’s spirit for a very different cultural age.
How Social Reactionaries Exploit Economic Nostalgia
Conservatives think we need to resurrect traditional hierarchies to reverse social decline. But what Americans miss about mid-century America isn’t the chauvinistic cultural values — it’s the economic equality created by strong unions and worker power.
When South African Unionists Struck for US Workers
In 1986, black workers in apartheid South Africa walked off the job in support of unionists in New Jersey. Their strike marked a rare moment of international labor solidarity at the height of deindustrialization and apartheid.
Republicanism Was Central to Karl Marx’s Thought
The republican tradition is an oft-overlooked strain of 19th-century politics, at odds with liberalism and many currents of socialism. It was key to Karl Marx’s thinking — and he himself drove it forward.
Israel Acts With Impunity, Europe Does Nothing
If a designated enemy country attacked shipping just outside the coastal waters of a European Union member state, Western leaders would be outraged. When Israel did it off Malta this month, they said nothing.
Materialism Is Essential for Socialist Politics
The socialist tradition was long associated with materialism, a view that has come under fire in recent decades. But materialism is both a legitimate and necessary foundation for left-wing politics.
The Right Has Embraced the Cancel Culture It Claimed to Hate
NYU’s decision to withhold Logan Rozos’s degree for denouncing genocide in Gaza in his graduation speech is the latest example of right-wing cancel culture. After criticizing it on the Left, conservatives have learned to rally “woke” mobs of their own.
The Portuguese Election Marks a Shift to the Right
In the decades after Portugal’s Carnation Revolution, many considered the country immunized from the far right. This has been challenged by the rise of Chega, the anti-immigrant party that won almost a quarter of the vote in Sunday’s election.
Corporations Are Working to Kneecap State Regulators
As Elon Musk and DOGE take a sledgehammer to federal agencies, corporate interests are mounting a coordinated effort to dismantle state-level rules and regulations, from environmental and consumer protections to worker safeguards.
Making Expensive Cities Into Union Towns
California boasts some of the most expensive cities in the country. Union organizing can help workers afford to live in those cities.
Trump’s Social Security Head Is Getting a Massive Tax Break
As Donald Trump works to undermine the Social Security Administration, his ultrarich Social Security commissioner, Frank Bisignano, was just approved for a giant tax break on a $484 million capital gains sale.