In New York City, it’s fall, the time of year when some days are bright and crisp, the sun still shining warmly in the cool air. On other days, the rain comes down steadily, making us thankful that it isn’t too cold yet. In Texas last weekend there were tornados; western Florida got slammed with another tropical storm and there are fires burning somewhere in southern California.
But we are all one country, aren’t we? Because everywhere in the United States it’s impeachment season.
Half the time at Public Seminar, we’ll believe it when we see it, but as of today, it looks like Donald Trump is finally on the ropes and taking a beating. Click here to read about why senior editor Jeff Isaac wants Congress to wrap in all of Trump’s alleged crimes and misdemeanors. If you are a real Trump watcher, click here for Joe Lowndes’ report on a rally in Minneapolis and here for an analysis of the deal that went down between Trump and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that has resulted in the withdrawal of U.S. troops from northern Syria, and over 100,000 Syrian Kurds becoming refugees as the Turkish military occupies their homeland. We will be publishing ore on all these issues in coming weeks.
This week’s issue features Capitalism again, but because of impeachment we want to entertain you a little before we get serious. We are leading off with Andrew McKevitt’s analysis about why Americans’ obsession with Marie Kondo reveals the circuit of consumer capitalism between United States and Japan; and A.T. Kingsmith helps us think about the anxiety economy. Finally, economist Michael Dawson offers a powerful analysis of racial capitalism
Sex and Gender is back: our theme this week is bodies and change. We have an excerpt from memoirist and novelist Darcy Steinke, writing about hot flashes; McKenzie Wark’s review of T. Fleischmann’s book-length essay about queer and trans world-making, Time is a thing the body moves through; and a conversation about contemporary transgender culture between sociologists Arlene Stein and Tey Meadow.
Finally, Democracy 2.0 Seminar offers a collection of essays by Kian Tajbakhsh, Public Seminar’s publisher Jeffrey Goldfarb, and Majia Spurina, topped off by a review of Michael Walzer’s Political Action: A Practical Guide to Movement Politics, originally published in 1971 and now in a new edition. “If any book could help left-wing activists figure out how not to burn out,” he writes, “it would probably be this one.”
Enjoy: it’s impeachment season, and you’ll need something to do in between the hearings.
Claire Potter is co-Executive Editor at Public Seminar and Professor of History at The New School for Social Research. You can tweet with her @TenuredRadical
