Essays Archive - Page 52 of 131

Why Weimar is an Imperfect Mirror

Its polarized culture reinforced the destructive energy of an increasingly polarized politics

April 8, 2021 • by Helmut W. Smith

"It would be too much to say that the Weimar Republic fell to Nazism because of its bifurcated culture. But the high culture of Weimar was not a supporting pillar of democracy either. Instead, Weimar’s polarized culture reinforced the destructive energy of its increasingly polarized politics. " - Helmut W. ...

Economy

How States Can Rein in Big Tech and Encourage Entrepreneurs

When it comes to the App store, Apple and Google need to be reined in

April 8, 2021 • by Pat Garofalo

_____ Apple and Google own pretty much 100 percent of the market when it comes to app distribution, and they use that control to take hefty fees — up to 30 percent — from dollars you spend on app downloads and in-app purchases through Apple’s App Store and Google’s Google Play. ...

How States Can Rein in Big Tech and Encourage Entrepreneurs

Politics

Biden Must Fire IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig

Trump cronies have no place in the new administration

April 8, 2021 • by Sion Bell

_____ Like many of former President Trump’s appointees, Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Charles Rettig made a name for himself combatting the very agency he would later lead. Before getting appointed to the position in 2018, Rettig worked for over 30 years as a tax attorney in Beverly Hills representing some of ...

Biden Must Fire IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig

Politics

Don’t Dismiss Mitch McConnell’s ‘Warning’ to Corporations

It reflects larger, historical forces at work

April 7, 2021 • by John Stoehr

_____ As you know, the Republican Party is the party of business. It has been that way since the late 19th century. What you may not know is that some Republicans have always taken a dim view of corporate power, depending on their brand of conservatism. Prior to Ronald Reagan’s ascent, ...

Don’t Dismiss Mitch McConnell’s ‘Warning’ to Corporations

Capitalism

Bass Pro Shop’s Bait and Switch

How weak anti-trust laws enable a retail behemoth’s predatory behavior and fails communities

April 7, 2021 • by Pat Garofalo

_____Back in 2004, Independence, Missouri issued more than $70 million in bonds in order to finance a new retail development anchored by a Bass Pro Shops, one of those mega-sized outdoors goods stores where you can buy everything from guns and tents to winter coats and hiking boots. But as ...

Politics

Is Corporate America Rebuking the Republican Party?

Georgia’s voting rights laws are forcing unlikely alliances between the Democrats and Big Business

April 6, 2021 • by Heather Cox Richardson

_____ The Republican outrage over Major League Baseball moving the All-Star game out of Georgia after the passage of the state’s new voter suppression law reveals a bigger crisis in American democracy: the mechanics of our current system do not reflect the will of the majority. Consumer-driven corporate America is increasingly throwing ...

Is Corporate America Rebuking the Republican Party?

Uncategorized

Why Phillip Roth is a Great Jewish and a Great American Novelist

A new biography captures the whole man: his kindnesses, his pettiness and his prickeries

April 6, 2021 • by Mitchell Abidor

_____ There will undoubtedly be eye-rolling in some quarters over Blake Bailey’s 800-page biography of Philip Roth, that self-hating Jew/misogynist/self-absorbed relic of an era of history that America has (perhaps) outgrown. And yet, Philip Roth: The Biography – not a biography, the biography – is a book as sensibly, sensitively, and insightfully ...

Why Phillip Roth is a Great Jewish <em>and</em> a Great American Novelist

Capitalism

The World the Suez Canal Made

When the container ship Ever Given became wedged in this Egyptian passage, it highlighted global capitalism but hid its uneven origins and benefits

April 2, 2021 • by Aaron Jakes

_____On Monday afternoon, the Ever Given was floating again. After six days of excavation, dredging, and mounting international panic, the massive container ship finally came unstuck from where it was wedged in the banks of the Suez Canal. Last week, as the number of vessels waiting at either end of ...

Economy

Infrastructure Is the Gift That Keeps on Giving

But the GOP will oppose this important jobs bill and the taxes one billionaires that could redistribute wealth to millions of Americans

April 1, 2021 • by Heather Cox Richardson

_____ This week, President Joe Biden unveiled a new $2 trillion infrastructure proposal titled The American Jobs Plan. The statement introducing the plan notes that the United States currently ranks 13th in the world for the quality of our infrastructure, and that our public domestic investment as a share of the ...

Infrastructure Is the Gift That Keeps on Giving

North America

The Case for Creating a National Lustration Commission for the United States

It’s a way to stabilize fragile democratic institutions

April 1, 2021 • by Monika Nalepa and Colleen Murphy

_____ The storming of the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob on January 6 has made it clear that a surprising number of police and military veterans are currently affiliated with armed right wing militias. But suspending and firing a few police officers and soldiers in response likely won’t suffice. And any mass ...

The Case for Creating a National Lustration Commission for the United States

History

When Welfare Was a Route to Community Empowerment in Las Vegas

In 1971, Black women workers seized control of their own destiny—and won

April 1, 2021 • by Annelise Orleck

_____ This month, Congress passed, and President Joe Biden signed, a bill that seeks to address longstanding economic, educational, local government and health care needs that have become desperate during the pandemic. Even though it was missing key elements – a $15 federal minimum wage, and a lower cutoff for eligibility ...

When Welfare Was a Route to Community Empowerment in Las Vegas

East Asia & Pacific

China’s Return to Global Dominance

What it means for America — and for the future of democracy around the world

April 1, 2021 • by John Keane

_____ When future historians look back on our discordant times, they will surely report an epochal shift of global importance: a transition from failed attempts to restore America’s greatness to China’s return, after two centuries of subjugation, to world pre-eminence. The writing is already on the wall, but strange prejudices, bitter ...

Essays

Why Weimar is an Imperfect Mirror

Its polarized culture reinforced the destructive energy of an increasingly polarized politics

How States Can Rein in Big Tech and Encourage Entrepreneurs

When it comes to the App store, Apple and Google need to be reined in

Biden Must Fire IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig

Trump cronies have no place in the new administration

Don’t Dismiss Mitch McConnell’s ‘Warning’ to Corporations

It reflects larger, historical forces at work

Bass Pro Shop’s Bait and Switch

How weak anti-trust laws enable a retail behemoth’s predatory behavior and fails communities

Is Corporate America Rebuking the Republican Party?

Georgia’s voting rights laws are forcing unlikely alliances between the Democrats and Big Business

Why Phillip Roth is a Great Jewish and a Great American Novelist

A new biography captures the whole man: his kindnesses, his pettiness and his prickeries

The World the Suez Canal Made

When the container ship Ever Given became wedged in this Egyptian passage, it highlighted global capitalism but hid its uneven origins and benefits

Infrastructure Is the Gift That Keeps on Giving

But the GOP will oppose this important jobs bill and the taxes one billionaires that could redistribute wealth to millions of Americans

The Case for Creating a National Lustration Commission for the United States

It’s a way to stabilize fragile democratic institutions

When Welfare Was a Route to Community Empowerment in Las Vegas

In 1971, Black women workers seized control of their own destiny—and won

China’s Return to Global Dominance

What it means for America — and for the future of democracy around the world

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