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This Lawyer Helped Reagan Bust the Air Traffic Controllers Union. Now Trump Wants Him on the NLRB

Michael Arria In These Times
As anticipated, President Donald Trump has nominated the management-side labor attorney Peter Robb, of Downs Rachlin Martin in Vermont, to serve as general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Thirty-six years after the PATCO strike, Reagan’s lead attorney in the air traffic controllers case is poised to make decisions about thousands of unfair labor practices throughout the country.

Report from Germany -- Merkel Clobbered While Rightists Threaten

Victor Grossman Portside
The results of the German elections: Merkel and CDU/CSU clobbered, Social Democrats, clobbered, and although Merkel's party will form a coalition and remain in power, the third key story, and the truly alarming one, is that one eighth of the voters, almost 13 percent, vented their anger in an extremely dangerous direction - for the young Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, whose leaders are loosely divided between far right racists and extreme right racists.

Ideology As History: A Critical Commentary on Burns and Novick’s “The Vietnam War”

Chuck O"Connell CounterPunch
Burns and Novick avoid confronting the question of imperialism – the notion that U.S. foreign policy is deliberately committed to the exploitation of peasants and workers around the world, that it is on the wrong side of the class struggle. Without the concepts of class struggle and imperialism, Burns and Novick will not be able to get at the roots of the political divide over Vietnam.

Steve Scalise's Problem Is the Republican Party's Problem

John Nichols The Nation
The Republican rising star struggled for two days to get clarity with regard to his appearance at a "white pride" - Ku Klux Klan event in 2002. Initially, his office tried to keep things vague, suggesting it was "likely" Scalise attended. He was a veteran state legislator then, elected from the same precincts where David Duke once ran strong. When it became clear he was not just present but a presenter, Scalise started spinning scenarios that might explain it all away.

Social Democracy in America?

Rich Yeselson Dissent Magazine
Kenworthy thinks that capitalism working at its best—an Americanized version of the Nordic model—would be worth fighting for. I agree.

Police Unions and the Challenge of Solidarity

Roger Toussaint The Chief
When unions serve the interests of the few, they lose their way and their ability to be forward-looking. But one of the better-kept secrets is that invariably, they also quietly become alienated from their own members. Inevitably, if the leadership of the PBA continues to ignore and fail on this challenge, new leadership will be destined to take it up.

The Tragedy of the American Military

James Fallows The Atlantic
The American public and its political leadership will do anything for the military except take it seriously. The result is a chickenhawk nation in which careless spending and strategic folly combine to lure America into endless wars it can’t win.