Unlike Simone Biles, who stuck the landing on physics-defying aerial brilliance, leading the women’s gymnastics team to a gold medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics, J.D. Vance…
U.S. Politics
An Anticolonial Fight in the U.S. Heartland? No, But…
We focus on the fights. The left explodes in anger when someone from the right insults gender diversity or fails to criticize a racist statement. Understandably. The right stews in rage as the left scoffs at conservatives, speaking as if all are racist and homophobic....
“We Are Too Nice to Our Elected Officials”: Norman Solomon Delivers Second Annual Ellsberg Lecture
On November 16, the Ellsberg Initiative for Peace and Democracy at the University of Massachusetts hosted its second annual Ellsberg Lecture. This year’s lecture, which is named for legendary anti-war activist and Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, was...
From My Body to Yours, and Gaza to the World
A Meditation on Death, Killing, and Possibility I knew my body was healing from the surgery when I found myself ready to engage with the world and posted on Facebook: I am always anti-zionist. And never an antisemite. And always an anti-racist feminist against...
Why Republican Lawmakers Should Ban “The Federalist Papers” from America’s Classrooms
As everyone now knows, since 2021, Republican legislators in several dozen states have banned or attempted to ban consideration of so-called “divisive concepts” regarding race and gender within public university classrooms. Foes of what Pen America rightly labels...
The Rogue Court’s Reactionary Radicalism
This Is a Catastrophe. I am finishing the writing of this piece shortly after the July 4 holiday. This is significant — to wonder who this country is now, and before. I began writing it while riding the bus into NYC from Ithaca, NY, on Friday, June 30, while the last...
The Radical Restorative Justice of The People’s CDC
The Pandemic is Not Over Four days before the 2022 State of the Union address, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (the CDC) made a change to the risk-prevention pandemic map of the United States that changed the color of the map from red to green....
Artificial Intelligence, Natural Justice, and Tom Paine’s Unfinished Revolution
Among revolutionary thinkers, Thomas Paine (1737-1809) is one of the most famous. In the current era of robotic automation and artificial intelligence, Paine’s argument for ever-greater sharing of society’s riches is worth thinking about. How can Paine’s writings from...
Media Lingers on Biden Documents Story, ‘Both-Sidesing’ with Trump
Last week, the discovery of classified documents at Joe Biden’s former office and later his home sparked a flurry of news coverage, including comparisons to Donald Trump’s ongoing classified-records scandal. Critics called out false equivalency in mainstream media’s...
A Brief Political Travelogue of an American Abroad
Traveling outside of the country poses great privileges and special challenges for Americans, given the influence that the U.S. has over the global economic and political order. It comes with responsibilities, which all Americans should take seriously but,...