Friday Nite Videos | May 16, 2025

Maxwell Frost Wants Democrats to “Get Caught Fighting.” Andor | Season 2. Rep. Delia Ramirez Accuses Kristi Noem of Corrupt Acts and Demands Resignation. Fear of AIPAC and Elon Musk Intimidates Democrats and Republicans. Trump's Epic 'Weave.'

15,000 EPA Employees Refuse To Snitch on Colleagues

Trump asked Environmental Protection Agency employees to use a tip line to identify colleagues working on DEI programs to assist in slashing them. No employees, then more than 15,000 people strong, responded to that plea, ProPublica learned.

Syria After Assad

Hope has been restored for many Syrians. But vigilance will be needed to ensure that democratic institutions emerge and withstand autocratic impulses.

Ape Genomes Provide New Insights About Earliest Humans

We now have full genome sequences for six species of apes, helping us to pin down our last common ancestor – and potentially changing how we think of the earliest hominins

Attempt To Destroy Due Process Meets 7–2 SCOTUS Defeat

It is unclear whether Thomas and Alito would offer any restraint whatsoever on Trump exercising absolute power. The rest of the court, by contrast, is seemingly running out of patience for its tricks, misrepresentations, and defiance.

Trump Would Torch Magna Carta

For centuries, the writ of habeas corpus—a fundamental protection against unlawful imprisonment—has remained a core fixture of democratic governance. Suspending it would defy the Constitution, but Trump is weighing his options.

Trump Is Escalating His Rendition of Democracy

Despite repeated legal setbacks demanding an end to these autocratic practices, the Trump administration continues its assault on the rule of law. For some of those snatched off the streets, the ultimate destination is a foreign hellhole.

Trump, and the Lessons of U.S. Tariff History

Labor historians should be particularly concerned about Trump’s misuse of tariff history because his tariff policies remain popular with many working-class voters and labor union leaders despite the recent economic meltdown they have caused.

Why Israel Demand for Hamas to Disarm Is a Red Herring

Every blocked aid convoy, every broken truce, and every rejected peace offer underscores Israel’s true objective: erasing Palestinians from Gaza - part of a deliberate campaign of ethnic cleansing.

Reader Comments & Tidbits, May 15, 2025

Readers Comments: What's the Latest Grift, Foreign Gift, Emolument; Congress Silent on Gaza Nightmare; Year's Cost of Public Television or 6 Hours of Pentagon Bombs; U.S. Bandmember Arrested Before European Tour; Mass-Care Medicare for All Conference
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Culture

poetry

Poem

Muriel Rukeyser The Collected Poems of Muriel Rukeyser
Writing in 1968, poet and activist Muriel Rukeyser addresses the struggle to imagine and build a more humane world.

books

Mr. Lonely

Zoë Hu Dissent Magazine
Some have suggested that young men are drawn to Andrew Tate because they suffer from a dearth of social contact. Yet men go to Tate not to alleviate loneliness but to intensify it.

poetry

Day 570

Anita Barrows
California poet Anita Barrows writes: "When the genocide began I started writing daily notes. I felt the urgency to document these tragedies in a whole poem every day, and that is what I will do until the genocide ends. I intend to keep writing."

books

This Is More Than a Legal Read

Bill Fletcher, Jr. Portside
The focus of the book is on Dominic Ongwen, a former soldier in the cultish army known as the Lord’s Resistance Army in northern Uganda. Ongwen had been kidnapped by the LRA when he was nine years old and transformed into a soldier and criminal...

Labor

labor

UFCW President Stepping Down, Successor To Be Appointed This Week

Lisa Xu Labor Notes
United Food and Commercial Workers President Mark Perrone is expected to announce his retirement this week. The reform organization Essential Workers for Democracy (EW4D) is pushing for a transparent and democratic process to choose a successor.

labor

Democrats Learned To Love Class Dealignment

Neal Meyer Jacobin
The neoliberal economic program embraced by the Clinton-era Democratic Party alienated many working-class voters. Democrats responded by reorienting their electoral strategy toward professional-class voters, accelerating workers’ departure

labor

‘DOGE Already Happened in Chicago’

Michaela Brant The Progressive
The president of the Chicago Teachers Union spoke to The Progressive about the union’s new contract that will protect Chicago educators and students from the threats of the Trump Administration.

Friday nite video

video

Trump's Epic 'Weave'

Concluding his Mideast corruption tour in the United Arab Emirates, Trump engages in a 15 minute ramble about Sean Duffy and Pete Buttigieg’s bicycle