“Operation Varsity Blues,” the White Supremacy Terrorist Attack in New Zealand, and Beto O’Rourke

Past Present Episode 172

In this episode, Natalia, Niki, and Neil discuss the college admissions scandal, the white supremacy terrorist attack in New Zealand, and Beto O’Rourke’s bid for the presidency. Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: College admissions has long legally favored the wealthy, but “Operation Varsity Blues” has ...
Read More
“Operation Varsity Blues,” the White Supremacy Terrorist Attack in New Zealand, and Beto O’Rourke

Border Crisis?

How American Policies Have Produced a Generation of Refugees 

On October 18, 2018 President Donald J. Trump continued his detrimental practice of using Twitter to fuel the already hot immigration debate. He said, in part, “I am watching the Democrat Party led (because they want Open Borders and existing weak laws) assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, ...
Read More
Placeholder

Reflections of a Federal Judge from Jim Crow Mississippi

A Jo Freeman Review of ‘Won Over’

When I was working in Mississippi for SCLC in 1966, I would not have believed that any of the young white men I saw on the streets (mostly harassing us) would ever reject white supremacy. They appeared as dedicated to its domination as sports fans are to their clubs. William Alsup writes that ...
Read More
Reflections of a Federal Judge from Jim Crow Mississippi

Emergency Powers and Trump: Lessons from Carl Schmitt

Why Trump’s executive actions might be legal yet unconstitutional

The threat to the constitution that Donald Trump poses was apparent as soon as he entered the presidential primary race. Since his election, Trump has only confirmed that threat: he has abused emergency powers and other executive privileges to advance his private interests and illiberal, antidemocratic values. Despite incessantly broadcasting ...
Read More
Emergency Powers and Trump: Lessons from Carl Schmitt

The African American Poet as Historian

Poets do history — just not in the way that historians conceive of it

What is history? Not the past, but the creation of “history,” the writing of history, the teaching of history? Is it only something someone formally trained as a historian can do, even though scholars of literature and African American studies, and high school teachers and writers engage with the past, ...
Read More
The African American Poet as Historian

“Cancel Culture,” Hobbies, and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302

Past Present Episode 171

In this episode, Neil, Niki, and Natalia discuss “cancel culture,” the lost art of hobbies, and the tragic Ethiopian Air crash. Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Young Adult literature is the latest arena for controversies over “cancel culture.” Neil recommended Jennifer Senior’s New York Times article on the perils ...
Read More
“Cancel Culture,” Hobbies, and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302

Pulwama and the Battle of Optics

Political opportunism in the escalating standoff between India and Pakistan

“No universal history leads from savagery to humanitarianism, but there is one leading from the slingshot to the megaton bomb. It ends in the total menace which organized mankind poses to organized men...” Adorno’s caution against the possible realization of the barbaric principle of “mutually assured destruction” is not a triviality when ...
Read More
Pulwama and the Battle of Optics

Neither Debs Nor Brandeis, Or Why it is a Mistake Now to Exaggerate Differences on the Left

Defeating Trump Politically Part 8

In his recent Jacobin piece, “You Can Have Brandeis or You Can Have Debs,” Shawn Gude insists that it is important to be clear about who is a socialist and who is not. He maintains that Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders “draw their lineage from distinct political traditions,” and that “Warren’s ...
Read More
Neither Debs Nor Brandeis, Or Why it is a Mistake Now to Exaggerate Differences on the Left

Finding Franco’s Victims

Felipa Peinado, 89, is still searching for her murdered family

On a cold October morning last year, I stood in Casillas, a village in the forested hills outside of Madrid, and watched a truck methodically excavate a dirt footpath extending out from the road. A dozen people stood beside me, all of us gathered due to the efforts of one ...
Read More
Finding Franco’s Victims

The East in You Never Leaves

We self-censored. We followed the rules. We complied.

There is a certain type of post-Soviet anxiety that manifests itself in fear of state authorities, border controls or even doormen. The memory of 1989 may have largely faded, but the feeling of being ‘eastern’ has stayed with many – not least those who have built up lives and careers ...
Read More
The East in You Never Leaves

On Socialism / Against Ideology

Goodbye Gray Friday, joining Democracy Seminar 2.0

It’s frustrating. I see this clearly. I want you to see it. But you just can’t, or is it you won’t? I know my judgment goes against the grain of the prevailing social science and popular opinion. It requires a specific understanding of ideology that comes out of bitter experience, ...
Read More
On Socialism / Against Ideology

Nurturing Subversive Seeds

What The New School’s Mobilization taught me

Most folks at The New School today haven’t heard of “the Mobilization,” the series of protests over questions of diversity and inclusion which convulsed the campus between 1996 and 1998. But I learned about it on my first day as Eugene Lang College’s first Director of Civic Engagement and Social Justice. ...
Read More
Nurturing Subversive Seeds