ADDED 10/29/2018
FROM 10/17/2018 | Letters and Politics
BY Mitch Jeserich
A conversation with Professor of History Arthur Eckstein about how democracies and republics fell apart into chaos or despotism in the ancient western world. A history that recounts the current state of the rise of despotic demagogy in the White House. Guest: Arthur Eckstein is Distinguished Scholar at the University of Maryland, College Park. He specializes in the history of […]
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ADDED 10/29/2018
FROM 10/29/2018 | Mint Press
BY Rob Urie
With Jair Bolsonaro’s electoral victory in Sunday’s runoff election for president of Brazil, a global resurgence of the radical right is indisputable. Mr. Bolsonaro is a particularly ugly representative of this movement, both politically repressive and culturally intolerant. The question being asked in the bourgeois press is: what psychological malady is taking hold that could […]
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ADDED 10/27/2018
FROM 10/27/2018 | Common Dreams
BY William E. Connolly
Neoliberalism is not fascism. But the fact that many famous neoliberals have been moved to support fascism to protect a regime from social democracy or socialism does give one pause. Hayek, Friedman, von Mises, among others, took such a turn under duress. They also had highly expansive views of what counted as a “socialist” threat. […]
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ADDED 10/18/2018
FROM 10/18/2018 | Open Democracy
BY Tom Junes
A review of John Feffer’s Aftershock: A Journey into Eastern Europe’s Broken Dreams. On the eve of the 30th anniversary of 1989, one could be forgiven succumbing to pessimism following the news coming out of Eastern Europe. Apart from the alarmism about a resurgent and aggressive Russia, it is the “rise of illiberalism”, for instance, in […]
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ADDED 10/18/2018
FROM 10/18/2018 | Salon
BY Chauncey Devega
History can teach us many lessons about Donald Trump and his rise to power. As shown by his deeds, words and policies, Trump is an authoritarian and a demagogue who has, so far, been restrained by America’s weakened democratic institutions and norms. Trump has repeatedly shown contempt for America’s cosmopolitan, pluralistic multiracial democracy. He and […]
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ADDED 10/10/2018
FROM 10/10/2018 | Slate
BY Henry A. Giroux
Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation is not an isolated event, and in the current historical moment has dark meaning. Even in the darkest of times we have the right to some illumination. — Hannah Arendt The threads of a general political and ideological crisis run deep in American history, and with each tweet and policy decision Donald Trump pushes […]
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ADDED 10/09/2018
FROM 10/09/2018 | Observatorio Balcani
BY Elvira Krithari
The trial against the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn is currently underway in Greece. A case that is testing the ability of the Greek society to reject the drive of intolerance and hatred grown in the shadow of the economic crisis. At the dawn of September 18th, 2013, Golden Dawn, the Greek neo-Nazi party, in line […]
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ADDED 09/28/2018
FROM 09/27/2018 | The Conversation
BY Daphne Halikiopoulou
Far right parties and groups have been enjoying increasing support across Europe. Such parties have performed well in recent domestic elections, often occupying second or third place – and in some cases joining governing coalitions. Examples include the French Front National (FN, now Rassemblement National), the Dutch Freedom Party (PVV), the Austrian Party for Freedom (FPÖ), the […]
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ADDED 09/14/2018
FROM 09/13/2018 | The Guardian
BY Yanis Varoufakis
Our era will be remembered for the triumphant march of a globally unifying rightwing – a Nationalist International – that sprang out of the cesspool of financialised capitalism. Whether it will also be remembered for a successful humanist challenge to this menace depends on the willingness of progressives in the United States, the European Union, […]
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ADDED 09/06/2018
FROM | Hollywood Reporter
BY Gregg Kilday
He’s America’s most successful documentarian and one of the few on the left who predicted the 2016 election upset. Now, as Moore readies his anticipated polemic ‘Fahrenheit 11/9’ for its Toronto film festival debut, he takes aim at Trump (and Nancy Pelosi … and Harvey Weinstein …) and those actually responsible for the president’s rapid […]
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ADDED 09/06/2018
FROM 09/05/2018 | Truthout
BY Henry Giroux
Donald Trump’s increasingly dangerous, incendiary attacks on the media, his willingness to separate children from their parents at the southern border, his efforts to strip citizenship from naturalized citizens and deport US citizens on the groundless claim that they have fraudulent birth certificates, and his relentless attempts to pressure Attorney General Jeff Sessions and others to obstruct the rule of […]
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ADDED 08/30/2018
FROM 08/30/2018 | Esquire
BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
The Trump administration is now denying passports to American citizens. This sounds terrifying familiar. We begin Thursday on the general theme of What In The Unholy Fck Is Going On And What In The Unholy Fck Is Wrong With These People? From The Washington Post: His official American birth certificate shows he was delivered by a midwife in Brownsville, […]
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