Essays Archive - Page 46 of 131

Cicadas!

Past Present Podcast, Episode 282

June 1, 2021 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: After seventeen years underground, billions of cicadas are emerging on the east coast of the United States. Niki referred to this History article about Benjamin Banneker, who first classified the cicada in the eighteenth century. Natalia recommended historian Catherine McNeur’s ...

Democracy

The Decline of Colombia’s Centaur State

By launching a general strike, a broad coalition of Colombians has invited state violence—but united to demonstrate what real democracy looks like

June 1, 2021 • by Julián Gómez Delgado

_____ On April 28, 2021, thousands of Colombians took to the streets to protest a highly ill-timed and unpopular tax reform. The law implemented a 19 percent tax on goods and services, echoing previous tax, labor, and pension reforms of 2019 which had similarly fueled a general strike against austerity and ...

Middle East & North Africa

Israel on the Brink

We just had a warning, a taste of what the future looks like short of post-ethnic politics in our post-two-state era

May 27, 2021 • by Omri Boehm and Arvid Jurjaks

_____ Arvid Jurjaks: I want to start at the current political situation in Israel with Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett being asked to form a government. How much chance do they have to succeed on this, you think? Omri Boehm: I think it's pretty clear that Yair Lapid has no chance, because Bennett, ...

Politics

What Politicians Talk About When They Talk About Porn*

A Tableau™ Vivant

May 27, 2021 • by Martin Bernstein and Jane Kamensky

_____ In January 2018, when the intimate relationship between then-president Donald J. Trump and former adult film actress Stormy Daniels hit the headlines, it was easy to imagine that American society had reached Peak Porn, with privates and Public combining more vividly and directly than ever before. When the scandal broke, Jane ...

What Politicians Talk About When They Talk About Porn*

Columnists

Justice Moves Slowly–But It Moves

Will George Floyd’s murder lead to police reform–and can Donald Trump stay out of jail?

May 26, 2021 • by Heather Cox Richardson

_____ A year ago this week, 46-year-old George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis as then–police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds. While bystanders begged Chauvin to get up, a teenage girl walking by had the presence of mind to video what was happening. Thanks ...

Columnists

What Campus Police Really Do

Private university security forces do mostly deliver social services—and it’s a problem

May 26, 2021 • by Claire Potter

_____ This week marks a year since former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd. In the twelve months since a renewed Black Lives Matter movement brought lethal racism back to the forefront of white America’s consciousness, many of us who are white have learned to see policing, at its most ...

Politics

Punish the Voting Rights Villains

The second section of the 14th amendment was written to exact penalties for voting rights violations—why don’t we use it?

May 26, 2021 • by Marc Stein

_____ In April, pundits feasted on the U.S. Census Bureau’s announcement of state population figures for 2020 and the resulting reapportionment of seats in the House of Representatives prior to the 2022 elections. The winners? Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Colorado, Oregon, and Montana. The losers? California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, ...

Columnists

Let’s Call the Republican Party by its Proper Name—Fascist

A word that gets the side eye from main stream commentators should be part of the conversation

May 25, 2021 • by John Stoehr

_____ Journalist John Harwood had a piece in CNN Sunday reflecting on an essay published in 2012 that accurately predicted the coming of today’s GOP. “Let’s just say it: the Republicans are the problem” was written by Thomas Mann, who was at the time with the Brookings Institution, along with Norm ...

Let’s Call the Republican Party by its Proper Name—Fascist

Migration

Breaking the ‘Otherness’ Fixation

Diversity is held at the pinnacle of progressive thought, but full inclusion is far from becoming a reality

May 25, 2021 • by Halleh Ghorashi

_____ I arrived in the Netherlands as an asylum seeker in 1988. In Iran, I had been active in a revolution that later became an Islamic revolution. I felt connected to leftist movements all over the world, and the idea of international solidarity gave me strength and hope for the future. With ...

Columnists

The Curious Case of Andrew Yang

Running for New York City mayor turned a fiery corporate handout critic into something else

May 25, 2021 • by Pat Garofalo

_____ During the 2020 presidential campaign, it was businessman Andrew Yang who was the most explicitly anti-corporate tax incentive candidate in the field. He literally had a policy page on his website calling to “End Bidding Wars for Corporate Relocation.” His correct reasoning?: “These subsidies amount to money that could otherwise go to ...

Past Present

Critical Race Theory

Past Present Podcast, Episode 281

May 25, 2021 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: A series of legislative bills seek to ban the teaching of critical race theory in K-12 public institutions. At CNN, Niki looked at how the controversy over journalist Nikole Hannah-Smith’s appointment at the University of North Carolina is part of ...

Columnists

There’s Just One Reason to Oppose a Bipartisan Commission to Investigate the 1/6 Insurgency

Are the House Republicans afraid of what it will find?

May 19, 2021 • by John Stoehr

_____ Imagine if, after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the Republicans in the United States House of Representatives said let’s move on. The United States Congress need not investigate. Other agencies are already doing that work. There’s no sense in duplicating efforts. There’s no sense in being counterproductive. Anyway, ...

Essays

Cicadas!

Past Present Podcast, Episode 282

The Decline of Colombia’s Centaur State

By launching a general strike, a broad coalition of Colombians has invited state violence—but united to demonstrate what real democracy looks like

Israel on the Brink

We just had a warning, a taste of what the future looks like short of post-ethnic politics in our post-two-state era

What Politicians Talk About When They Talk About Porn*

A Tableau™ Vivant

Justice Moves Slowly–But It Moves

Will George Floyd’s murder lead to police reform–and can Donald Trump stay out of jail?

What Campus Police Really Do

Private university security forces do mostly deliver social services—and it’s a problem

Punish the Voting Rights Villains

The second section of the 14th amendment was written to exact penalties for voting rights violations—why don’t we use it?

Let’s Call the Republican Party by its Proper Name—Fascist

A word that gets the side eye from main stream commentators should be part of the conversation

Breaking the ‘Otherness’ Fixation

Diversity is held at the pinnacle of progressive thought, but full inclusion is far from becoming a reality

The Curious Case of Andrew Yang

Running for New York City mayor turned a fiery corporate handout critic into something else

Critical Race Theory

Past Present Podcast, Episode 281

There’s Just One Reason to Oppose a Bipartisan Commission to Investigate the 1/6 Insurgency

Are the House Republicans afraid of what it will find?

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