Friday Nite Videos | September 5, 2025

The Ballad of Big Balls. The Most Corrupt Stock Traders in Congress. Could the Epstein Vote Take Down Trump? Graham Platner for U.S. Senate | Launch Video. Chuck Schumer's Fantasy Couple | John Oliver.

A (Scientifically Based) Guide to Fall 2025 Vaccines

Vaccines are one of the best things you can do this fall and winter to stay healthy and minimize disruption. Here is the Who, What and When guide to vaccination against Covid-19, RSV and influenza in the upcoming "flu season."

Epstein Survivors Have Had Enough

Trump's DOJ shoved Epstein's survivors too many times, and now they are determined to push back and to demand justice. "We are here today, and we are speaking, and we are not going to stop speaking,” said one survivor.

The Cost of Children Is Too Damn High

Most so-called pronatalist policies seriously underestimate the costs and risks of raising children in today’s economic environment.

A Two-State Solution Is Still Possible

The E1 settlement bloc and ethnic cleansing are meant to foreclose Palestinian liberation. But if we revisit our assumptions about partition and reclaim the principle of equality, we can rethink what a two-state solution looks like.

Andrew Cuomo Has a Jeffrey Epstein Problem

A surprising number of Andrew Cuomo’s allies, donors, and friends have close ties to the late pedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Polls Showing Mamdani Leading with Jewish Voters

Polling shows mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani in a commanding lead with Jewish New Yorkers, but you won’t read about it in the paper of record.

Most Israelis Back Hostage Deal That Ends Gaza War

A new Israel Democracy Institute survey reveals 64.5 percent of Israelis, including half of the surveyed Likud voters, favor a cease-fire and hostage deal that includes IDF withdrawal from Gaza.

Economic Justice and Domestic Workers’ Rights Movement

“We, as feminists today, like domestic workers in the 1970s and in the early 2000s, need to think outside the box...We can’t think about domestic work as an individual issue within the household, but as a structural problem....”

Reader Comments & Tidbits, Sept 4, 2025

Readers Comments: Death of Voting Rights Act, Gerrymandering, Confederacy Worship, Gestapo Seizures and Camps; RFK Insanity; Zohran Mamdani; Martin Niemöller's real quote; Italian Dockworkers Threaten to Shut Down All of Europe; No Kings 2 - Oct 18;
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Culture

books

One Nation, Not Under God

Stephen Rohde Los Angeles Review of Books
This book was first published in 2019 and is a classic whose relevance has only grown over time. Reviewer Rohde offers a detailed tour of this important work.

film

Highest 2 Lowest Is a Cringeworthy Remake of a Classic

Eileen Jones Jacobin
Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest attempts to remake a beloved Akira Kurosawa film about the injustices of a class-stratified society all while sidestepping class. Even Denzel Washington can’t save this misfire.

tv

‘Alien: Earth’ Is One of the Best Shows So Far This Year

Eric Deggans NPR
'Alien: Earth' is one of the best shows so far this year. Many classic themes recur: A modern world corrupted by corporate exploitation of average people. The question of whether technological advancements are meant to serve humans or replace them.

poetry

In a Berlin Bar

Rafaella Del Bourgo
Poet Rafaella Del Bourgo offers a quick intro to sexual politics, reminding us that sex is "a tune both familiar and strange."

books

The New Samizdat

Lee Rossi Portside
These two anthologies showcase poets that are responding to the anxieties of our time.

Labor

labor

Labor: Turning the Corner? It Will Take More Than Mobilization

Michael Eisenscher Portside
We need to build a labor movement that recognizes, articulates, and practices values that are fundamentally different from those of the market, namely values of solidarity, equality, inclusivity, community, and democracy.

labor

Hawaii Workers Rally Over Trump Policies

Victoria Budiono Honolulu Star Advertiser
The Workers Not Billionaires rally in Honolulu mirrored actions across the nation, where workers marked Labor Day by demanding that their voices, not just the wealthiest Americans, shape the country’s future.

labor

Fred Ross Changed Community Organizing

Peter Dreier Jacobin
Community organizer Fred Ross Sr was a key figure in progressive activism during the 20th century. He started in the 1930s farmworker camps that inspired John Steinbeck’s novels and went on to pioneer methodical tactics that transformed American orga

labor

Kentucky Battery Plant Joins UAW in Close Vote

Luis Feliz Leon Labor Notes
The outcome of the election will ultimately hinge on the 41 challenged ballots. The union called those ballots “illegitimate,” and called on Ford to “drop their anti-democratic effort to undermine the outcome of the election.”

Friday nite video

video

The Most Corrupt Stock Traders in Congress

How do members of Congress get so rich? Hint: they're scoring record returns in the stock market, raising questions about their use of insider information.

video

Could the Epstein Vote Take Down Trump?

Epstein survivors are pushing back against Speaker Mike Johnson’s claim that withholding the files protects them, raising the question: who is really being shielded?