Who Are We Now?

AMLO, Trump, and American Opportunities

On July 1, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, commonly called AMLO, won the presidency of Mexico. What does his election mean for relationships between the U.S. and Mexico? What should it mean? There is much agreement on the first question: the outlook is troubled at best. There is little agreement on ...
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Who Are We Now?

Feminist Economics Yoga

Political Interruptions, New Orientations & Collective Wishes for Bourgeois Hobby Time 

My work as an artist over the past decade has been defined by exploring the effects of financialization and debt on the imagination, in solidarity with anti-debt and anti-capitalist activist projects. I have, for instance, for many years been hypnotizing people to allow them to visualize their debt. This vision often becomes ...
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Feminist Economics Yoga

50 Years of Occupation

When will the Israel-Palestine conflict end?

It is now over 50 years since Israel seized Gaza and the West Bank during the war of June 1967, with no end in sight for the military occupation and colonization enforced upon the Palestinians since then. At the same time, it has been some four years since Mahmoud Abbas, ...
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50 Years of Occupation

Another Day, Another Step Towards Authoritarianism

Trump spins Russia’s potential interference in 2018 midterms in favor of Democrats

Yesterday I posted a column that sought to make sense of the current discussion of “Trump and treason.” The point, which I have reiterated repeatedly over the past two years: whatever might be true of the not-yet disclosed connections between Putin, Trump, and the Trump campaign, everything about Trump, including ...
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Another Day, Another Step Towards Authoritarianism

200 Years of Karl Marx

Some lessons on the politics of commemoration

This year marked the 200th anniversary of the birthday Karl Marx, a fierce critic of capitalism. In an effort to think through the legacy of—and the possible futures of—Marx’s influence, the Humanities Center at Carnegie Mellon University hosted Marx@200, a program of more than two dozen lectures, performances, panels, and ...
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200 Years of Karl Marx

Treason, Accents, and Outdoor Play

Past Present Episode 140

In this episode, Natalia, Neil, and Niki debate the definition of treason, the significance of linguistic accents, and a new practice of prescribing outdoor play. Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: President Trump’s behavior at his joint press conference with Vladimir Putin has earned him the epithet of ...
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Treason, Accents, and Outdoor Play

The Class of ’74: Congress after Watergate and the Roots of Partisanship

An excerpt from John A. Lawrence’s latest book

“A Different Kind of Congress” The Class [of ‘74] brought more than support for reform to archaic House [of Representatives] procedures: it brought generational change, a merging of the external activism of the streets -- the campus, civil rights, and anti-war movements, the battles for women’s rights and consumer protection, the ...
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The Class of ’74: Congress after Watergate and the Roots of Partisanship

Families Belong Together

2000 people gathered across from White House on June 30

On June 30, almost two thousand people gathered in Lafayette Park across from the White House to denounce President Trump’s "zero tolerance policy" for immigrants seeking to escape violence in Mexico and Central America. The policy led to children being taken away from their parents when families reached the border, ...
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Families Belong Together

A Democratic Tea Party?

An incoming wave of ideological hardliners

The surprise defeat of NY Rep. Joe Crowley by non-traditional, anti-establishment newcomer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has fueled extensive speculation about worrisome chasms opening within the Democratic Party as it struggles to reclaim a House majority. As with the victories of other newcomers in a number of races around the country, some speculate ...
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A Democratic Tea Party?

On Opposing Fascism with a Reality TV Face

“Politics as a vocation,” the social condition and Donald Trump

I am waiting, ever more impatiently, for my fellow citizens to wake up, to confront that it is happening here and now, that fascism with a reality TV face is upon us. Even though the situation appears ridiculous and often comic, it’s ominous. I am not ready to declare that “The ...
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On Opposing Fascism with a Reality TV Face

Playground Ambiguities

Unequal childhoods and imaginative play in an era of financialized capitalism

Rising up from a grassy knoll on the edge of the City of London, the naturalist wooden playground structure at Tower Hill Garden both blends into the park space and jolts the senses, lying as it does at the core of global finance. In dominant social imaginaries, nothing and no one could ...
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Playground Ambiguities

So You Want To Be POTUS?

Avoid the disasters that long presidential campaigns produce

Checking my Instagram a few evenings ago, I saw that Senator Elizabeth Warren was live. I clicked. In a grainy video, I saw her striding out onto a marble plaza talking to an aide, her blunt cut blond hair swinging slightly as she strode into the darkness. The sound of ...
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So You Want To Be POTUS?