One Week: Three Lessons on the Exclusivity of Exceptionalism in America
In the week beginning April 20, 2015, the American people got three object lessons about equal treatment and the stratification of status in the twenty-first century. Three events in the week beginning...
View ArticleThe Cry of the Dispossessed in Baltimore
The reason the dispossessed turn to violence is because violence is the only thing power understands. Baltimore is burning, embroiled in riots and protest against the city’s horrifically racist and...
View ArticleAlthough Charges Have Been Brought Against the Police, the Justice System...
We should all welcome the news of charges being brought against the six police officers in Baltimore for the death of Freddie Gray. At the very least, the Baltimore Police Department’s culpability in...
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The Fetishization of Revenge
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has just been sentenced to death by a federal jury for his role in the Boston Marathon bombings. The sentence has been met with a lot of discomfort in Boston and the surrounding...
View ArticleThe Emblem of the Outlaw in America
The cultural trope of the young black man as a fearsome criminal is almost as reductive and misleading as the trope about biker gangs in the US being American Ronin. Both are. of course, highly...
View ArticleTrading Places
On Monday June 15, 2015, Rachel Dolezal stepped down as President of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP. Ms. Dolezal is the focus of media attention with the revelation that although she represents...
View ArticleJust Another Instance of White Terrorism
A white man guns down nine black people in a church in South Carolina. The state’s Confederate battle flag stays waving in the wind the next day. The white man is arrested. He is given a Kevlar jacket....
View ArticleThe Confederate Flag is Bad for Business
The call to take down the South Carolina capitol’s Confederate flag by the governor, Nikki Haley, has been met with a lot of praise for her political courage from the “left” and the right. But this...
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Changing the Electoral Culture in Olympia
In Olympia, Washington, Marco Rossaire Rossi is running for mayor, but he is running as much to change the culture of electoral politics in Olympia as he is for office. Rossi is running as an...
View ArticleSan Bernardino and the Monopoly Media
On December 4, the owner of the home that the alleged — alleged, innocent until guilt is proven is still the law — San Bernardino attackers, Syed Farook and his wife, was opened to the media. The scene...
View ArticleThey Laughed at Reagan, Too
Whatever happens with Donald Trump’s candidacy- whether he rides his durable poll numbers to the Republican nomination, runs as an independent, or withdraws from the race completely- the ideas he’s...
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What the Media Isn’t Telling You about the Context of the Iranian-US Naval...
A tense 24 hours followed the capture of ten US sailors in Iranian territorial waters. The situation was resolved quickly, though, with Iran releasing the sailors, apparently none the worse for wear,...
View ArticleWhat About Sierra Blanca, Bernie?
Is Bernie Sanders really calling for revolutionary change, or is he just telling his base what they want to hear? Bernie Sanders made a cold political calculation in 1998 that affected the lives of...
View ArticleLet’s Just Stop the George W Bush Image-Rehabilitation Tour Right Here, Guys
He’s just as bad as you tried to forget he was. When former president George W. Bush kicked things off on Monday with a typically smug, heh-heh performance at a Jeb (!) Bush rally in South Carolina, I...
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Rachel Corrie Remembered
Wednesday, March 16, 2016, will mark 13 years since American peace activist Rachel Corrie was killed by the Israeli military in the Palestinian city of Rafah. When Corrie stood in front of a...
View ArticleDrone War
What’s another 200 dead? That appears to be the logic behind the Obama administration’s recent drone strike in Yemen from March 22. The attack came on the heels of a strike the week before in Somalia...
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Reform to Revolution: The Ideological and Political Evolution of James Connolly
James Connolly is primarily remembered in Irish history as the Socialist revolutionary hero of the Rising of 1916, executed in Kilmainham Prison while strapped to a chair. Connolly’s place in Irish...
View ArticleCapitalism and an Increase in the Minimum Wage
Across the United States, the campaign for raising the minimum wage to 15 dollars is gaining momentum. From cities such as traditionally left wing Olympia, Washington, to more moderate Atlanta,...
View ArticleOne Week: Three Lessons on the Exclusivity of Exceptionalism in America
In the week beginning April 20, 2015, the American people got three object lessons about equal treatment and the stratification of status in the twenty-first century. Three events in the week beginning...
View ArticleThe Cry of the Dispossessed in Baltimore
The reason the dispossessed turn to violence is because violence is the only thing power understands. Baltimore is burning, embroiled in riots and protest against the city’s horrifically racist and...
View Article