Public Seminar Books Presents: A Conversation with Eric Alterman

Hosted by co-executive editor Claire Potter, the topic is politics and Alterman’s new book, “Lying in State: Why Presidents Lie -And Why Trump is Worse” (Basic Books, 2020)

If there’s one thing we know about Donald Trump, it’s that he lies. But he’s by no means the first president to do so. In Lying in State, Eric Alterman asks how we ended up with such a pathologically dishonest commander in chief, showing that, from early on, the United States ...
Read More
Public Seminar Books Presents: A Conversation with Eric Alterman

William Barr Will Follow Fake News with Fake Testimony

Settling into the role of Donald Trump’s fixer, the Attorney General takes his first walk up the Hill since confirmation

Attorney General William Barr will testify before the House Judiciary Committee today for the first time. Democrats tried to get him to appear to explain why he had misrepresented what was in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Report about Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. He refused to show up after ...
Read More
William Barr Will Follow Fake News with Fake Testimony

Are Americans Rethinking Who They Are?

“Consumers” and “taxpayers” can’t save a republic

This is bad policy and bad politics, as my friend Marty Longman wrote last week. Two hundred bucks weekly is better than a payroll tax cut. No one would see that (especially if they’re unemployed). But people would see less money coming in amid a pandemic, recession, and housing crisis just ...
Read More
Are Americans Rethinking Who They Are?

A Year of Boris Johnson

Only a handful of people would be mad enough to covet being prime minister at this particular point in British history, and one of them now inhabits Downing Street

Thursday saw the United Kingdom pass an important milestone: one year of life under the leadership of Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson. What was supposed to be a fascinating year of unpredictable political events has been rendered utterly dystopian through the COVID-19 crisis. Still, it’s worth looking back on what ...
Read More
A Year of Boris Johnson

Asian Americans Suffer From Trump’s Racist Attacks Too

The long history of America’s hostility toward immigrants from China, Japan, and Korea

We are all familiar with the racist tactics that vaulted Donald Trump into the Oval Office. He demonized Mexicans, he denounced Muslims, and he cozied up on Twitter to ardent White supremacists. In recent weeks, he’s relentlessly attacked the Black Lives Matter protests.  Amid all the vitriol, it’s easy to overlook ...
Read More
Asian Americans Suffer From Trump’s Racist Attacks Too

Poland Slouches On

After a noxious and underhanded campaign, Poland’s incumbent president, representing the country’s illiberal ruling party, has clinched a narrow re-election victory. That gives the government three more years to dismantle the country’s democracy.

WARSAW -- In the second round of Poland’s presidential election, incumbent Andrzej Duda narrowly defeated Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski. Though he carried just six provinces in eastern Poland, compared to Trzaskowski’s ten, and lost in medium and large cities, Duda’s support in villages and small towns was just enough to push him over the ...
Read More
Poland Slouches On

What Roger Stone’s Commuted Sentence Tells Us About Trump’s Commitment to Conspiracy

The president is covering up the cover-up of a crime

It’s hard to know where to begin discussing the president’s commutation of Roger Stone’s sentence. So let’s start with what it means. It’s not a pardon. Donald Trump’s goombah is still a felon convicted of witness tampering and lying to the U.S. Congress. He plans to appeal the guilty verdict. “Commutation” ...
Read More
What Roger Stone’s Commuted Sentence Tells Us About Trump’s Commitment to Conspiracy

Instead of Focusing on Russian Bounties to the Taliban, Why Doesn’t the U.S. End the Afghan War?

Lawmakers are outraged over a recent story alleging that Vladimir Putin may be paying off Taliban soldiers to kill U.S. troops. But why are those troops still in Afghanistan?

Unfortunately, this crucial point has been lost amidst the frenzied responses to the story about Russian bounties. Instead, the revelations have fed the tempting narrative that Trump is a stooge of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Republican Senator Mitt Romney of Utah -- who is now apparently a stalwart of the ...
Read More
Placeholder

The U.S. and UK Are a Wrecking Ball Crew Against the Pillars of Internationalism

They have undermined the sovereignty of nations and mutilated international law

Ambassador Kelly Craft, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, spoke at the same meeting. She praised the charter and called upon the member states of the UN to bring its values into the world. However, Ambassador Craft said, “On far too many occasions, we have seen nations that are parties ...
Read More
The U.S. and UK Are a Wrecking Ball Crew Against the Pillars of Internationalism

The Man Who Predicted Twitter Mobs

Gustave Le Bon and the mind of the crowd

In May, the New York Times published an opinion piece I wrote on the position taken by Democratic Socialists of America and Jacobin magazine on the presidential election. Both DSA and the magazine had expressed opposition to support for Joseph Biden, and the editor of Jacobin announced his intention to ...
Read More
The Man Who Predicted Twitter Mobs