Lukashenko and Putin, Till Death Do You Part?
Alliances in the Russian-Ukraine War The moment Russian soldiers marched across the Ukrainian border, much of the world turned further against them. Anti-Russian rhetoric was already strong pre-Ukraine War, but with the US doing everything it could to blame the war on someone else, Russia was the perfect target of continued criticism. Though it was […]
What Americans Fail to Understand about Central American Immigration
Immigration at the United States-Mexico border has surged to record levels in recent years. Between October 2019 and March 2023, nationals of Central America made up one-third of the 5.8 million total immigrants who sought entrance to the United States. According to The Council on Foreign Relations, most Central American immigrants migrate from El Salvador, […]
From Extreme to Mainstream: Behind the Scenes of the Alt-Right
Thinkpieces on Donald Trump’s election and its underlying forces are like hard liquor. On November 8, 2016, as Trump’s victory shifted from implausible to unlikely to possible to probable to inevitable, Twitter responded in real time. It doesn’t take many words or much thought to tweet, so the takes were as close to instant as […]
Politics and Sports: A Long and Complicated Relationship
In recent years, as the American political sphere has become more polarized, news pundits, online commentators, and politicians have repeatedly declared that professional athletes are “out-of-touch-millionaires” who should “shut up and dribble.” Players such as Colin Kaepernick, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Richard Sherman have pushed back against the ‘whitelash’ to become more politicized. But […]
A Notorious Traffic: An Introduction
Few regimes in international law pack as much of an emotional punch as human trafficking. Whether through its portrayal in various media—including the Taken movies or in the music video for Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance”—or as championed by various human rights organizations on both the right and left, there is a definite consensus that human […]
Beyond “Point-of-Production” Organizing: Participatory Budgeting, Worker Cooperatives, and Left Praxis
An overview of PB and workers cooperatives: Participatory budgeting and workers cooperatives are some of the best institutions being used to build egalitarian, democratic political structures that can transcend national rightwing forces. Participatory budgeting (PB) humbly started in Porto Alegre and has since inspired Leftist political movements across the globe, unleashed political agency, and revolutionized […]
The Looming Danger for Democrats in Selective Enforcement of Rule XIX
Originally published March 2017 As the confirmation hearings for President Trump’s cabinet nominees continue, so does Democratic opposition to his candidates. During the debate on whether to confirm Jeff Sessions as Attorney General on Tuesday, February 7th, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren attempted to read a letter written in 1986 by Coretta Scott King, wife of […]
Trump and the Party Establishment
The 2016 election cycle is shaping up to be the most interesting in years. This is the result of a “revolution” brewing among both Democratic and Republican bases alike — where “outsider” candidates garner major support and their party establishments try to tear them down. The Democratic Party has had some success keeping Bernie Sanders […]
A Dereliction of Duty
February 13, 2016: Antonin Scalia is dead. The brilliant conservative jurist, beloved on the right and often demonized on the left, had for decades stood as a conservative titan and stalwart on the Supreme Court. Scalia, 79, was discovered dead in his room at a luxury resort, where he had been visiting for the weekend, […]
Why Donald Trump Needs to Have a Conversation with Amal Clooney
International lawyer Amal Clooney has taken on the case of imprisoned investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova, signaling hope for media freedom in Azerbaijan and striking fear in the hearts of repressive regimes everywhere. Khadija Ismayilova, 37, is an investigative journalist from the former-Soviet state of Azerbaijan. She dug into the regime of President Ilham Aliyev, whose […]