Skip to main content

Trump’s New (Non-Democratic) Normal

John Feffer TomDispatch
What happens when the adults in the room are scarier than the crying baby? Who’s responsible for the last 17 years of American wars that have convulsed the planet? Babies? Teenagers? Grown men acting like babies? Let’s face it: perfectly sober adults

Complicating the Narrative on Nicaragua

James Phillips NACLA
The current crisis is not simply the story of a brave opposition and a brutal Ortega. It is a long-simmering conflict among different groups that has been carefully manipulated to put Nicaragua firmly and securely back under U.S. hegemony.

US Military Document Reveals How the West Opposed a Democratic Syria

Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed Le Monde Diplomatique
US documents reveal that although wanting a Syrian regime change, officials thought it was highly unlikely to actually happen — and hoped that if President Bashar al-Assad was overthrown, he would not be replaced by an opposition-led Syrian democracy

It Ain't Over Till it's Over

Kathy Wilkes Isthmus
In May, the Supreme Court rejected a class action suit brought by Epic workers, effectively limiting the collective bargaining rights of 60 million workers. But the case — now back in district court — is far from dead.

Distant Early Warning of Worse to Come

Scott McLemee Inside Higher Ed
Masterpiece or not, William S. Burroughs' "The Revised Boy Scout Manual": An Electronic Revolution fills a puzzling lacuna in the Beat author's bibliography, and offers an foretaste of the viperous Age of Trump.

Nurses in Several Chinese Cities Strike over Low Pay and Benefits

Australia Asia Worker Links China Labour Bulletin
Despite a crackdown on labor activists there, Chinese workers continue to strike. The strike wave continues to grow, and strikes are not only in the private sector or in companies that manufacture for export. Last year saw a large wave of teacher strikes, and as this article shows, nurses in public hospitals are also striking.

Sustainability through local food

Rose Hayden-Smith UC Food Observer
A farmland mapping project by a UC Merced professor indicates that most areas of the country could feed between 80 percent and 100 percent of their populations with food grown or raised within 50 miles. The study immediately generated comment, including positive accolades from author and influencer Michael Pollan (also a UC professor). Many have noted the importance of the study in filling a research gap about local food.

What Sparked the Cambrian Explosion?

Douglas Fox Nature
An evolutionary burst 540 million years ago filled the seas with an astonishing diversity of animals. The trigger behind that revolution is finally coming into focus.