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‘The Snake’: How Trump Appropriated a Radical Black Singer’s Lyrics for Immigration Fearmongering

Eli Rosenberg Washington Post
The lyrics have a far more complex origin than Trump’s use might imply. The poem originated in the 1960s from a soul singer and social activist in Chicago, Oscar Brown Jr. Its appropriation as a tool to drum up fear about immigrants has turned heads; some of Brown’s family are asking Trump to stop using it. And now, people are reading deeper into the president’s fixation with the parable.

Labor and the Long Seventies

Lane Windham interview by Chris Brooks Jacobin
In the tumultuous 1970s, women and people of color streamed into unions, strikes swept the country — and employers launched a fierce counter-attack.

US Lawmakers Predictably Take Aim at Petro

Telesur
Iran, Russia Consider Following Venezuela's Lead. Russia and Iran have expressed interest in developing their own digital currencies to help combat U.S.-imposed sanctions.

The Current Landscape & Our Key Strategic Questions

Organizing Upgrade Editorial Team Organizing Upgrade
More than that, we hope to be a force for building greater strategic alignment and operational unity on a number of different levels: unity of the broadest possible coalition of forces against the Trumpist GOP; unity among the social justice forces that are striving to establish a durable progressive pole in mass politics; and unity between the sectors of the anti-capitalist left are engaged in these efforts and are working to rebuild a durable and fully inclusive working class movement for systemic change.

Sex, Drugs and Self-Control: How the Teen Brain Navigates Risk

Kerri Smith Nature
Teenagers leaps between buildings
In more ways than one, there is a lot going on in a teenager’s head. “In fact, it’s just beautiful,” says B. J. Casey, a neuroscientist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. “It’s amazing that it unfolds correctly most of the time.”