The Case for Public Option in Pharmaceutical Industry

shelves of prescriptions
...now is the time for bold long-term solutions that can help secure the future health and well being of our communities. Public pharmaceuticals can play an important role in constructing that future we so desperately need.

While the Amazon Burns, Cuba Increases Forested Areas

Sierra MAestra Mountains in Cuba
The socialist island Cuba is a rare example of large scale reforestation, whereas the rest of the world moves in the opposite direction.

The Legacy of Israel’s First Refuser

man sitting in chair outside home
Appearing in a Haifa court a few months after Israel was founded in 1948, the violinist made clear that he would play no part in the war Israel was then fighting against its neighbors. He regarded Arabs as his brothers, not his enemies.

A Green New Deal for Decarceration

people with picket signs
To save the planet, a Green New Deal has to transform our entire society. Part of that transformation must include the deconstruction of our system of mass incarceration.

ICE Steps Up Ruses and Surveillance

ICE agents raiding location
Amid the Trump administration’s threats to accelerate deportations, agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have increasingly been using deception and surveillance to make targeted arrests, according to immigrant rights groups...

Quantum Algorithm May Actually Be Property of Nature

An increasing body of evidence has emerged that quantum processes play an important role in a number of biological mechanisms.

Implement Right to Counsel in Eviction Court in Chicago

Most tenants don't understand their rights, whether they have a legal defense in an eviction case, and whether they can get a better deal in a settlement.

The Kikotan Massacre

In Virginia, English colonization sparked dramatic population declines among Native American communities. While Virginia Indians numbered about 50,000 in 1607, by the early twentieth century, only a little over 2,000 remained.

Nuclear Weapons Arms Race Is Here

Nuclear experts and disarmament advocates are warning that the world is witnessing a new arms race after the Pentagon tested a new missile

The Mines Shut Down, the Women Went to Work

The share of women in the work force rose substantially in places throughout Central Appalachia, as well as in parts of the industrial Midwest and the rural South.
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Culture

food

José Andrés Serving Free Meals In The Bahamas

Mikaela Lefrak WAMU American University Radio
Chef and restaurant owner José Andrés spoke at the National Book Festival in D.C. last month about his humanitarian work. Celebrity chef José Andrés and his nonprofit humanitarian relief organization, World Central Kitchen, have served more than 200,000 free meals in the Bahamas and distributed food in the Carolinas and Florida since Dorian hit.

books

Vietnam: Terror Was Absolute

Chris Mullin London Review of Books
Decades after the US retreat from Vietnam, the causes of the war and the outcome are still controversial if not murky, its lessons still not understood by US foreign policy makers. A comprehensive new book aims to clear away much of the detritus.

poetry

“Sitting Around Singing Kumbaya”

Arielle Greenberg Poetry Northwest
"Come by here": Listen as the Maine-based poet Arielle Greenberg takes you to the radical roots , the heritage and legacy of the oft-maligned song, Kumbaya.

books

Insurgent universality

Samir Gandesha Radical Philosophy
The argument that's usually framed as "identity politics" versus "class politics" is one of the animating features of today's insurgent left. Both this book and reviewer Gandesha seek to unpack this argument's complexities.

Labor

labor

GM Strikers Have One Chance: Vote No

Jane Slaughter Labor Notes
With top leaders discredited but refusing to step away, GM strikers have just one tool to use between their rock and their hard place: their right to vote no. Chrysler workers did it in 2015.

labor

The Human Cost of a Cheap Manicure

Kim Kelly Teen Vogue
Teen Vogue runs an op-ed column, No Class, dedicated to worker struggles and the American labor movement. This week's column focuses on the troubling working conditions at nail salons and the organizing efforts to change them.

Friday nite video

video

Filibuster

John Oliver explains why filibusters exist, why they shouldn't, and why it's stupid to drink coffee like a cat.

video

How Black Americans Were Robbed of Their Land

Over the course of the 20th century, black Americans have lost approximately 12 million acres of land. This mass land dispossession—a war waged by deed of title, which has affected 98 percent of black farmers—can only be called theft, says Atlantic writer Vann R. Newkirk II in a new documentary.

video

Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird | "Freedom Is A Verb"

It's a verb, it's a verb, freedom is a verb,
Something never finished, never done.
It's something you must make, 
It's something you must take,
It's something you must constantly become

video

Raise Hell: The Life & Times Of Molly Ivins

The story of media firebrand Molly Ivins, six feet of Texas trouble who took on the Good Old Boy corruption wherever she found it. Her razor sharp wit left both sides of the aisle laughing, and craving ink in her columns. She knew the Bill of Rights was in peril, and said "Polarizing people is a good way to win an election and a good way to wreck a country."