Essays Archive - Page 56 of 131

The Controversy over Dr. Seuss

Past Present Podcast, Episode 270

March 9, 2021 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Theodore Geisel’s estate has removed six of his Dr. Seuss books from circulation, causing ire among conservatives citing it as an example of “cancel culture.” Natalia referred to writer Michael Harriot’s Twitter thread, this 1945 Frank Sinatra short film, “The ...

Uncategorized

What’s the Greatest Story Dolly Parton Ever Wrote?

Beginning to understand a hero’s journey from Appalachia to pop-culture icon

March 9, 2021 • by Tressie McMillan Cottom

_____ I started the reading for my Dolly Parton passion project with Sarah Smarsh’s She Come By It Natural for no other reason than it was new and in stock at my local bookstore (Flyleaf Books). That is to say, for no good reason at all. I don’t intend to review these books, including ...

What’s the Greatest Story Dolly Parton Ever Wrote?

Politics

A Better Way to Do Corporate Giveaways

How legislation would put a stop to the most senseless of senseless state competitions

March 8, 2021 • by Pat Garofalo

_____ The debate around corporate tax breaks usually centers on a specific giveaway. Should Virginia have given hundreds of millions of dollars to Amazon for its so-called HQ2? Does Netflix really need $24 million, plus an undisclosed amount of property tax reductions, from New Mexico? But playing whack-a-mole and attempting to ...

Politics

Our Janus-Faced Political Culture

As the Biden administration moves into the future, conservatives are stuck in the past

March 4, 2021 • by Heather Cox Richardson

_____ We’re in this weird eddy where Republicans are trying to cling to past politics to gain advantage and the Biden administration is trying to move forward into the future. On top of this struggle are stories about how the previous administration pushed the boundaries of our laws or, worse, broke ...

Democracy

Guo Wengui

Trump and the war on truth

March 4, 2021 • by Teng Biao

1. On the morning of December 1, 2020, I was at home teaching an online class for Hunter College students. The subject was how the Chinese government extended its suppression of freedom abroad. Suddenly, outside on the sidewalk in front of my house, a dozen or so masked people appeared, each ...

Politics

Conservative Democrats Play Legislative Ball While Republicans Deliberately Fumble It

This is how the democratic process works

March 4, 2021 • by John Stoehr

_____ On Saturday, the US House of Representatives passed a Covid relief package totaling almost $2 trillion. The US Senate is taking up the bill this week. The upper chamber will probably send it to the president as-is, mostly, but for a major exception. It’s unlikely to contain provisions for raising the federal ...

Conservative Democrats Play Legislative Ball While Republicans Deliberately Fumble It

Economy

Why Adam Smith & Karl Marx Would Both Think $15 Isn’t Enough

Because the minimum wage is a subsistence wage, the left must aim higher

March 4, 2021 • by Peter J. Verovšek

_____ With the inauguration of the Biden administration, raising the federal minimum wage from its egregiously low level of $7.25 an hour is back on the political agenda in Washington, D.C. In recent years, activists across the county have convinced some cities and other jurisdictions to approve a higher minimum wage ...

Why Adam Smith & Karl Marx Would Both Think $15 Isn’t Enough

Uncategorized

Why Spit-Hoods Should Be Banned

A relic of slavery, they are inhumane and often deadly

March 4, 2021 • by Leslie Reagan

_____ In September, the world saw a video of Rochester, New York, police putting a spit hood over Daniel Prude’s head and face as he sat naked and handcuffed on a cold, wintry street. The mentally ill man was dead a week later. His death, the medical examiner declared, was homicide due to “complications ...

Higher Ed

The Campus After COVID-19

Infrastructures of “innovation” have produced new forms of surveillance and compliance that will refigure the post-pandemic campus

March 4, 2021 • by Bonnie Mak and Hallam Stevens

_____ Campuses around the world continue to engage in a dangerous experiment: welcoming students back to class even as Covid-19 and its more infectious variants spread. On campus, just as elsewhere, a successful and sustained reopening relies on those who are among the most vulnerable: custodial and maintenance staff and essential ...

Activism

Betty Friedan’s Radical Century

Because of this organizer, you can’t understand the twentieth century without talking about feminism

March 4, 2021 • by Peter Dreier

"A century after her birth, Betty Friedan’s radical ideas are common sense, and that’s a victory not just for feminists, but for everyone."...

Media

Ronald Reagan’s Worst Decision Created Rush Limbaugh

When the Fairness Doctrine was demolished in the name of free speech, a new conservative media rose up from the ashes

March 3, 2021 • by Robert Slayton

_____ When Rush Limbaugh died of lung cancer on February 17, 2021, all I could think of was Ronald Reagan’s worst decision. There are many contenders for that crown: his neglect as the AIDS crisis became an epidemic has to be a top pick. But another must go to his deregulation of ...

Ronald Reagan’s Worst Decision Created Rush Limbaugh

Art & Design

Broom Swept

Failure tells a tale about capitalism too

March 2, 2021 • by Mark Hage

_____ What closes and then darkness, what opens and then bright?Before the horn has risen,where hides the lord of light? —Tian Wen, A Chinese Book of Origins How you frame something is a moral decision. —Babette Mangolte On Mercer Street, on the island of Manhattan, and just before the city paused, walking in a southerly direction ...

Essays

The Controversy over Dr. Seuss

Past Present Podcast, Episode 270

What’s the Greatest Story Dolly Parton Ever Wrote?

Beginning to understand a hero’s journey from Appalachia to pop-culture icon

A Better Way to Do Corporate Giveaways

How legislation would put a stop to the most senseless of senseless state competitions

Our Janus-Faced Political Culture

As the Biden administration moves into the future, conservatives are stuck in the past

Guo Wengui

Trump and the war on truth

Conservative Democrats Play Legislative Ball While Republicans Deliberately Fumble It

This is how the democratic process works

Why Adam Smith & Karl Marx Would Both Think $15 Isn’t Enough

Because the minimum wage is a subsistence wage, the left must aim higher

Why Spit-Hoods Should Be Banned

A relic of slavery, they are inhumane and often deadly

Betty Friedan’s Radical Century

Because of this organizer, you can’t understand the twentieth century without talking about feminism

Ronald Reagan’s Worst Decision Created Rush Limbaugh

When the Fairness Doctrine was demolished in the name of free speech, a new conservative media rose up from the ashes

Broom Swept

Failure tells a tale about capitalism too

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