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Black Lung Disease on the Rise

Anna Allen, Carl Werntz The Conversation
An article published Feb. 6, 2018 in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health had identified 416 cases of advanced black lung disease among coal miners in central Appalachia. New cases of black lung had been rare until recently, but this study suggests that the incidence is rising.

The Press Barons Are Back and They Are Going Wild

Alex Pareene Columbia Journalism Review
Demonstrators protest firing of DNAinfo and Gothamist writers.
The U.S. media landscape, like the rest of the country, is being reshaped by the whims of the ultra-rich. The Press Barons have returned and not since the Gilded Age have so many very wealthy individuals held so much power over the press.

Not a Matter of If, But When

Shawn Hattingh Monthly Review
The danger derives from the reactions of the ruling classes and their states to the crisis of 2008. The paths they chose to follow to save and even further their own wealth in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis have paved the way for a future crash that could dwarf the one of a decade ago.

fattest flies

Ronelda Kamfer New England Review
The South African poet Ronelda S. Kamfer pokes a sharp finger at trendy styles of race and color among women she deems “dumb as shit.”

There’s No ‘Red Scare.’ So What Is Right-Wing Violence About?

Michele Prospero il manifesto
The radical right is useful for the mainstream right to cover over the accumulation of wealth that would be difficult to defend, and to channel the resentment of the precarious classes who are rights-deprived against the “others,” against “alien cultures” invading “the homeland.”