( Tomdispatch.com ) – Warning: dangers in the mirror are often closer than they may appear. In other words, the next few paragraphs may seem to be hyperbole but are, in fact, expressions of reality (animated by a cold fury). On September 8, 2025, the Supreme Court did its best to murder what’s left of […]
From Gaza to Trump, Some of us Saw this Coming
( Tomdispatch.com ) – I spent the summer of 1965 arguing about the Vietnam War. I was 13, and my interlocutor was my 18-year-old camp counselor in Vermont. She was headed for U.C. Berkeley in the fall, where she would, as she later described it, “major in history and minor in rioting.” Meanwhile, I was […]
Trump Brings back Torture, Big Time
( Tomdispatch.com ) – I didn’t want to write this article. In fact, I had something relatively uplifting planned: an Independence Day piece about the rich implications for the present moment to be found in the Declaration of Independence. But other excellent writers beat me to that one. So instead, I reluctantly find myself once […]
How will Your Data be Used in an Age of Dark Enlightenment?
( Tomdispatch.com ) – Sometime in the late 1980s, I was talking with a friend on my landline (the only kind of telephone we had then). We were discussing logistics for an upcoming demonstration against the Reagan administration’s support for the Contras fighting the elected government of Nicaragua. We agreed that, when our call was […]
Trump isn’t even Trying to Hide the Racism Anymore
( Tomdispatch.com ) – On May 5th, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute held its annual fundraising gala. The event showcases the extraordinary imaginations of people who design exorbitant clothes and the gutsiness of those who dare (and can afford) to wear them. I’m dimly aware of this annual extravaganza because of […]
Trump Harvests Autocratic Powers Planted by Bush and Cheney
( Tomdispatch.com ) – In 2003, the Macedonian police arrested Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen vacationing in their country. They handed the unfortunate man over to the CIA, who shipped him off to one of their “black sites.” For those too young to remember (or who have quite understandably chosen to forget), “black sites” was […]
Trump rages to snuff out Democracy’s Candle: Will we Rage against the Dying of its Light?
( Tomdispatch.com ) – Allow me to stipulate that I do not wish to die. In fact, had anyone consulted me about the construction of the universe, I would have made my views on the subject quite clear: mortality is a terrible idea. I’m opposed to it in general. (In wiser moments, I know that […]
Facing the Rise of Fascism Like Fools for Freedom
( Tomdispatch.com ) – This past weekend my partner and I got together with a group of friends. We’ve been meeting every six weeks or so since 1982. Originally, this group of lesbians convened to talk about sex: what we were doing, what we wanted to do, what we fantasized about doing. But you know […]
Finding Hope in the Negative Spaces of the Trump Era
( Tomdispatch.com ) – The expression “punch-drunk,” Google informs me, means “stupefied by or as if by a series of heavy blows to the head.” Google’s Oxford Language entry then offers a not-terribly-illuminating example of the term’s use: “I feel a little punch-drunk today.” Right now, a better one might be something like: “After November […]
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