The Alt-Right’s Favorite Meme Is 100 Years Old

‘Cultural Marxism’ might sound postmodern but it’s got a long, toxic history.

Amazon Is Everything That's Wrong With America

As the Times’ Badger has reported, the digital economy has been great for places like Seattle, New York, metropolitan Washington, and the other big talent hubs like San Francisco, Boston, and LA. But it’s left behind much of the rest of the country.

Why Co-ops and Community Farms Can’t Close the Gap

As much pride and empowerment as there is in community ownership of food-producing gardens and financial services such as credit unions, research shows those sorts of grassroots efforts cannot close the ever-growing racial wealth gap . . .

U.S. Rabbis to Lead 'Pilgrimage' to Border

"We are making this sacred journey to call on our government to stop the unacceptable practice of imprisoning immigrant minors, and ensure protection for those seeking refuge within our borders.” Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp

Media Bits and Bytes - November 13, 2018

Winners and Losers; Trump's Media War; Google Walkout; Cable News Myths; China's Great Firewall; AOC vs Fox News; Zuckerberg's Gift

Politics Is About Power: Assessing the 2018 Mid-Terms

newly elected Muslim Congresswomen
Politics is about Power. One of positive things this moment is that the question of power has moved central to discussion on the left. ..., we need to build our own organizations and strengthen alignment and cooperation between them.

Trump Calls on Military to Deploy to Southern Border

woman soldier with quote
DoD formally approves military-hosted immigrant concentration camps as non-military sites fill up. We need military service members to speak up and share with us what’s happening as plans develop.

Los Angeles Measure for a City-owned Bank -- A Valiant

front cover of Public Bank Solution
The recent Los Angeles ballot measure to approve a city-owned bank, unfortunately, did not pass, but it did get 42 percent of the vote.

Toward Racial Justice and a Third Reconstruction

cover of book Toward Racial Justife and a Third Reconstruction
This essay is excerpted from the introduction to Bob Wing's new book by the same title now available at www.lulu.com. Bob has also launched a website at www.bobwingracialjustice.org.

Mystery and History: A Winning Combination

front cover of the novel The Man Who Fell From the Sky
When one of my favorite political and historical analysts, Bill Fletcher Jr., announced the publication of a mystery, I could not wait to get my hands on the book. Bill Fletcher Jr, The Man Who Fell from the Sky, Hardball Press, Brooklyn NY, 2018
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Culture

food

Rice: a primer

Harvard T. H. Chan Harvard T. H. Chan newsletter
Rice is a main staple in more than 100 countries worldwide. Thousands of types of rice are cooked throughout the world in more than 100 countries.

tv

The Romanoffs Defends the Men of #MeToo

Sophie Gilbert The Atlantic
“Bearing false witness is the worst crime that you can commit,” says a character in the most recent episode of the Amazon series "The Romanoffs".

poetry

Selected Notes on Beauty

H.C. Palmer Feet of the Messenger
On this Veterans Day weekend, Kansas poet H.C. Palmer, a combat surgeon during the Vietnam war, offers the wisdom of a peacetime soldier.

books

Fighting to Vote

Michael Tomasky The New York Review of Books
As results from the recent midterm elections show and the book under review chronicles, restrictive voter identification laws, registration requirements, felon disenfranchisement and voter purges still deny millions access to the ballot box.

books

The Last Man to Know Everything

Troy Vettese Boston Review
This new collection of essays by a highly regarded radical intellectual receives a mixed, but engaging review.

Labor

labor

AFL-CIO President: How Working People Defined the Midterm Elections

Richard L. Trumka Yahoo Finance
AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka says the midterm elections showed how unions are dismantling a broken system that expects workers to work harder and longer and produce more wealth than ever before—but take home the same or even less.

labor

Remember When The Unions Could Take On A Dictator? These Three Do...

Kevin McKenna The Guardian
The documentary film Nae Pasaran pays tribute to the Scottish trade unionists working at the Rolls-Royce plant in East Kilbride in 1974 who refused to carry out repairs to Chilean air force jet engines, eventually rendering them obsolete.

labor

Working People Respond to Midterm Election Results

Kenneth Quinnell AFL-CIO
The best antidote to the politics of hate and fear promoted by the White House and The Republican Party is activism around genuine social reform. Labor leaders recap election results below.

Friday nite video

video

Team Trump Spreading Doctored Jim Acosta Video

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted a doctored video clip from Infowars in which they sped up Jim Acosta's hand movement in an effort to discredit a reputable journalist. She should be forced to resign for this.

video

Congo to the Mississippi | Playing For Change

Starting under the hot African sun in the village of Lukala in the Congo, we added musicians wherever we traveled for the past few years until we finally added the piece with Grandpa Elliott playing the harmonica solo in New Orleans.

video

Itzhak | Indie Movie

A look at the life, work and religious heritage of violinist Itzhak Perlman.

video

Biggest Midterm Blowout in 40 Years

In a Special Report, Ari Melber breaks down how Democrats had a decisive victory in the 2018 midterm elections, winning more House seats than they have in 40 years.