From the Editors Archives - Page 65 of 171

Feature

Rise for the Climate

Shouting marchers took to lower Manhattan on 9/6 to protest Climate Change

September 15, 2018 • by Jo Freeman

Roughly a thousand people marched in lower Manhattan on Thursday, September 6 demanding that the world pay attention to climate change. This was the earliest in a series of climate marches around the globe to draw attention to a summit in San Francisco the following week. When people gathered in Battery ...

Democracy

The Powerlessness of the Powerful

Living in post – truth, seeking alternatives, examining Nicolae Ceausescu and Donald Trump

September 14, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

This was most dramatically revealed in the fall of Nicolae Ceausescu on December 21, 1989. As this video documents. A mass rally in support of the leader morphed into a demonstration against the regime, apparently in a flash, though this was not as spontaneous as it appeared at first. In private, ...

Feature

The Illusion of Non-Capitalist Spaces

Capitalism requires zones that appear to be withdrawn from the circuitry of capital so that workers can cultivate their bodies and minds

September 14, 2018 • by Victor Lund Shammas

Why hasn’t capital swallowed up the entire world yet? If we accept the machinic, all-encompassing vision of Capital, why hasn’t the Earth’s surface been totally blanketed by it? Why hasn’t everything been chewed up, guzzled down, and spit out again by capital? One of the first things to strike the ...

Feature

Heroes but Not Saints

How should we judge reformers and radicals who were also racists?

September 13, 2018 • by Peter Dreier

In 2020, America will be commemorating the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. Feminists and others are starting to plan the celebrations, which will include conferences, books, postage stamps, and new monuments honoring the women who fought and won that major battle. In anticipation, New York ...

Feature

Jews and Poles

Together for 800 Years But Not Together

September 13, 2018 • by Isaac Bashevis Singer

Why is this? – Alienation rather than hatred. – A time when Jews were virtually the only intellectuals in Poland. – Why assimilation was impossible. – The modern Jew and the modern Pole. Several weeks ago, Stanisław Mikołajczyk – Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile – stated that there were still ...

Feature

Judge Kavanaugh’s Cynical Appeal to Precedent

Why resisting Kavanaugh’s appointment is crucial for the future of SCOTUS

September 12, 2018 • by Peter Alexander Meyers

Our hearings in the Senate prove that Brett Kavanaugh has a prodigious memory. Is that why precedent is such an important category for him? Precedent is a special type of memory. For this Judge to call forward precedent as he does, however, is dangerously misleading. Those who decide the future of the Supreme Court ...

Judge Kavanaugh’s Cynical Appeal to Precedent

Feature

Some Thoughts About a Looming Hurricane and the Catastrophe in the White House

The disaster relief we really need

September 12, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Hurricane Florence approaches the eastern seaboard of the United States. Significant parts of South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia have been under mandatory evacuation. And millions of citizens brace for the coming storm, with its storm surges and destructive winds, and its possible tornadoes, and the deluges of rain and ...

Some Thoughts About a Looming Hurricane and the Catastrophe in the White House

Feature

Explosive Objects

How the murder of Trayvon Martin made everyday items extraordinary

September 12, 2018 • by Robyn Autry

Watching Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story this summer, I was struck by how much our memories of the tragic encounter between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin is shaped by objects. The gun. The hoodie. The Skittles wrapper. There were other objects too, some from that night -- the cell phone ...

Feature

His Body Shop

Issues around the market of self-care

September 11, 2018 • by Paula Landerreche Cardillo

In the past few weeks a new advertisement campaign has invaded the New York City subway. A brand that claims to solve “men’s issues” called hims covers the walls and advertising panels of subway stations and trains. Hims is a brand that sells products to address “men’s issues” such as hair loss, skin imperfections ...

Feature

Nike’s Colin Kaepernick Ad, the Anonymous New York Times Op-Ed, and Robin Leach

Past Present Episode 145

September 11, 2018 • by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Nicole Hemmer and Neil J. Young

In this episode, Natalia, Neil, and Niki discuss Nike’s controversial signing of Colin Kaepernick as the face of their Just Do It campaign, the anonymous New York Times op-ed written by a senior Trump administration official, and the recent death of Robin Leach. Here are some links and references mentioned during ...

Nike’s Colin Kaepernick Ad, the Anonymous New York Times Op-Ed, and Robin Leach

Blue Monday

Twisted

Thoughts on the insanity in the White House

September 10, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

"I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and I wrote some blues." -Duke Ellington This past week we have been vividly reminded of what we long have known: that the man currently occupying the office of President of the United States, the Chief Executive and Commander in Chief of ...