Portside

The great linguist and political critic remains hopeful that we can overcome global warming and other threats

Brazil Election: Landless Workers, Chomsky Meets Lula, French Left Leader, El Salvador Left vs Right, Transforming the UK, South Asia Women's Movements, Weekly Protest in Austria

Workplace Safety: Gun Edition. What Is the Tragedy of the Commons? Movie | Won't You Be My Neighbor? Exposed: Betsy DeVos’s Record Of Dismantling Student Protections. Noam Chomsky: From Geopolitical Conflict to Nuclear Abolition.

RIP Edward Herman, who co-wrote a book with Noam Chomsky that's now more important than ever

Over the past few months, as the disturbing prospect of a Trump administration became a disturbing reality, I decided to reach out to Noam Chomsky, the philosopher whose writing, speaking and activism has for more than 50 years provided unparalleled insight and challenges to the American and global political systems. Our conversation, as it appears here, took place as a series of email exchanges over the past two months. - George Yancy

Are Donald Trump's selections for his cabinet and other top administration positions indicative of a man who is ready to "drain the swamp?" Is the president-elect bent on putting China on the defensive? What does he have in mind for the Middle East? And why did Barack Obama choose at this juncture -- that is, toward the end of his presidency -- to have the US abstain from a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements?

This piece, the first of two parts, is excerpted from Noam Chomsky’s new book, Who Rules the World? (Metropolitan Books). Part 2 will be posted on May 10, 2016. Noam Chomsky is still writing with the same chilling eloquence about the updated war-on-terror version of this American nightmare. At a moment when the Vietnam bomber of choice, the B-52, is being sent back into action in the war against the Islamic State, Chomsky, too, is back in action.