Z Magazine (May 2014). According to a recent much-discussed online essay by the former long-time top Republican and Congressional staffer, Mike Lofgren, for the liberal talk show host and political commentator Bill Moyers, popular governance is a myth in the United States. There are, Lofgren writes, two U.S. governments in and around Washington DC. The [...]
Transcript of a talk delivered at a book signing event for Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA, edited by Frances Goldin, Debby Smith, and Michael Steven Smith (New York: HarperCollins, 2014). The event took place before a full house on Tuesday, April 22 (Earth Day) at Prairie Lights Books in downtown Iowa City, Iowa. For [...]
First published on ZNet, April 17, 2014 “We Cannot Afford to Lose Another Decade” According to the latest report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released last Sunday, the problem of anthropogenic global warning (AGW) is at a critical stage thanks to years of relative inaction by the governments of [...]
First published on ZNet, April 12, 2014. The French economist Thomas Piketty’s magisterial, marvelously cross-disciplinary, and audaciously titled volume Capital in the Twenty-First Century (New York: Harvard University Press, 2014) contains an interesting statement on its very first page. “Modern economic growth and the diffusion of knowledge,” Piketty writes, “have made it possible to avoid [...]
First published on ZNet, April 5, 2014. The reluctance of many white liberals and progressives to engage in serious criticism of U.S. President Barack Obama no matter how coldly corporate-neoliberal [1] and imperial [2] he shows himself to be, has been quite pronounced. Among the factors that explain that reluctance, one that deserves mention is certainly the fact that many [...]
First published on ZNet, April 2, 2014 Some Truly Nauseating Remarks in Brussels Many liberals and progressives were shaken into anger, disgust, dismay, and disappointment when Barack Obama said the following to U.S. NATO and European Union allies in Brussels one week ago today: “Russia has pointed to America’s decision to go into Iraq as [...]
Do some members of the American elite fantasize that they can – like the alien corporate colonizers of Earth portrayed in John Carpenter’s classic left sci-fi horror film They Live (1987) – shoot off to another planet once they have ruined Earth, having baked the planet’s climate along the way? [1] Last week, the Editorial Board of the [...]
Originally published on ZNet, March 22, 2014 “The Good News” Last weekend I happened to glance at CNN long enough to hear a beautiful newscaster ask an airline industry expert if the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 with 239 people aboard would hurt that airline’s profitability. “I hope not,” the industry analyst answered. “The [...]
Published on ZNet, Marcch 17, 2014. Violations of free speech rights in U.S. “higher education” are a bit like police violence against minorities in at least one key way. There are many relatively unknown cases of the problem beyond the few that have gained notoriety. Chances are you’ve heard of the prolific left authors, scholars, and [...]
Black Agenda Report, March 12, 2014. Frederick C. Harris, The Price of the Ticket: Barack Obama and the Rise and Decline of Black Politics (New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 2014 [2012]) Academic specialization can be a harsh mistress. Look at the recently re-issued and paperback version of ColumbiaUniversity political scientist Frederick C. Harris’ important and engaging [...]