New York State Is Lagging Far Behind on Its Climate Commitments
New York has a long history of setting climate goals to great fanfare — and then missing them. A new climate law makes more promises, but will Governor Andrew Cuomo deliver?
Blog
Chileans Finally Have a Chance to Scrap Pinochet’s Constitution
A year after mass protests erupted in Chile last October, a historic referendum on the Pinochet dictatorship’s 1980 constitution will take place on Sunday. Three decades after the transition to democracy, Chileans now have an opportunity to break with the legacy of violence and dispossession that the constitution has upheld.
A Decent Health Care System Was the Big Loser in Last Night’s Debate
Americans want a universal public health plan, but the idea has no champion in this presidential election. Instead, we have Donald Trump’s scorched-earth campaign against the ACA, and Joe Biden moving further and further away from even a universally available public option.
Talking About Auto Work — Or Any Work Under Capitalism — Means Talking About Constant, Brutal Violence
Auto work is typically remembered as one of the best industrial jobs a worker could get in postwar America. Less remembered, however, is how absolutely brutal and violent life on the auto factory floor was — and still is.
GOP Senators Are Trying To Pull a Bait and Switch on Preexisting Conditions
Vulnerable Republican senators say their proposed health care bill would protect people with preexisting conditions. But their legislation would actually hurt protections for such people — unsurprisingly, since those senators raked in more than $2.5 million from insurance industry donors.
Aaron Sorkin’s Chicago 7 Are Shockingly Sympathetic, but Lacking Radical Substance
The Trial of the Chicago 7 is surprisingly good for an Aaron Sorkin production. But the artistic liberties he takes with the historical facts, particularly around downplaying or leaving vague the protagonists’ radical politics, tell you a lot about Sorkin’s own blind spots.
At the Debate Last Night, Biden Finally Distanced Himself From the GOP’s Austerity Talking Points
After pushback, at the presidential debate last night, Biden thankfully dropped his deficit hawkery and made a strong statement in favor of public investment. Will he be held to his new position if he wins?
How Australia’s Rich Tried (and Failed) to Cancel Football
To drum up support for World War I, Australia’s ruling class tried to cancel the 1915–17 seasons of the Victorian Football League, labeling fans “truculent shirkers” and “hoodlums.” This did not go over well with the game’s working-class fans.
Trump Has Been Quietly Setting the Stage for an Authoritarian Second Term
Since Donald Trump’s election, hyperbolic warnings about a descent into fascism have been constant background noise, even as he has repeatedly shown his weakness. But that noise has made it harder to hear the alarming signals of the past several months, as the White House has prepared the ground for a major power grab in a second Trump term.
Neoliberal Education Reformers Have Found a New Way to Scapegoat Teachers
Liberal writers sympathetic to the corporate education reform movement are beating the drum about reopening schools, claiming to stand up for low-income students. But attacking teachers and their unions does nothing for poor and working-class students — it simply scapegoats the people who have dedicated their lives to actually helping those students.
David Harvey: Socialists Must Be the Champions of Freedom
Right-wing propaganda claims that socialism is the enemy of individual freedom. The exact opposite is true: socialists work to create the material conditions under which people can truly be free, without the rigid constraints capitalism imposes on their lives.
Aaron Sorkin Turned the Chicago 7’s Militancy and Defiance Into Bland Liberalism
Netflix’s new Aaron Sorkin movie on the Chicago Seven tries — and fails — to turn a travesty of justice and an attack on the Left into a defense of American institutions.