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Duterte vs. Washington’s Cold War System

Walden Bello Foreign Policy in Focus
Though better known for his brutal war on drugs at home, the Philippine leader's volatile, one-man diplomacy could up-end 70 years of U.S. dominance in East Asia.

Why Okinawa Matters: Japan, the United States and the Colonial Past

Richard Falk The Asia-Pacific Journal
Here is a critical discussion of Okinawa’s role in serving American and Japanese strategic interests. The interplay of overseas bases and U.S. foreign policy is a crucial dimension of the global projection of American power. This essay offers reflections on this reality, as well as the linkage between the network of foreign military bases and the emergence of the first global state in history, a new political phenomenon that distinguishes it from ‘empires' of the past.

Trash can to table: The rise of waste cafes

Kieron Monks CNN
The Real Junk Food Project (RJFP), which organizes networks of cafes and shops to sell ‘waste’ food recovered from supermarkets and restaurants, has launched over 120 eateries in seven countries from Israel to Australia, and the movement is gathering pace.

The Man Hoping to Counter President Trump

John Bresnahan and Daniel Strauss Politico
Ellison has pushed policies strongly backed by the left (some of which overlap with Trump's) — reworking major trade deals to benefit American workers, a $1 trillion infrastructure package, protecting entitlement programs, raising taxes on richer Americans, universal health care, stronger environmental protection, drastic cuts in defense spending, background checks for gun sales and a big boost in health and welfare programs.

Notes From a Very Close Election

Bill Fletcher, Jr. Dissent Magazine
In the Trump era it is the movement that Sanders was part of coalescing that becomes key in building a resistance with a positive vision. One of the weaknesses of the Sanders message was its failure to unify matters of class with race and gender. This is about telling the right story about the United States. It is also a matter of tapping into significant social movements—Occupy; immigrant rights; LGBT, environmental justice; Black Lives Matter. This is where hope lies.

Labor Leaders Deserve Their Share of the Blame for Donald Trump’s Victory

Micah Uetricht In These Times
Radicals have long argued that American labor leaders are not only isolated from their rank and file, but actually have a set of interests that are distinct from their members. If labor is going to avoid such astronomical blunders as Trump’s victory in the future, rank-and-file workers will have to lead the charge against their Clinton-backing leaders.

Jill Soloway on ‘Transparent’ Season 3, Future of Feminism and Confronting Privilege

Sonia Saraiya Variety
As the creator of a program that has become a vital example both of the transgender rights movement’s growing steam and of streaming television’s revolutionary power, “Transparent” creator, writer, and director Jill Soloway has become something of a lightning rod, too. As beloved as “Transparent” is, the show has also received criticism for the casting of a cisgender man (Jeffrey Tambor) as a transgender woman.

In Trump, Extremism Found Its Champion and Maybe Its Demise

Adam G. Klein The Conversation
Trump has empowered narratives that would otherwise have no place in electoral politics. Trump also forced America to see these threats in the light of day. That could be their undoing. Exposed, these guises of bigotry have been (or for progressives, must be) recognized, decoded and even classified – as the “alt-right” – by the press and public.