Contrary to its public reputation, Tony Platt says the campus where he became an anti-war activist in the 1960s has always been one of academia’s premier beneficiaries of militarism.
Oppenheimer, Berkeley & the Bomb
Category: Until This Day–Historical Perspectives on the News
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Bad Faith & Blank Checks
All mainstream journalism is “embedded journalism” now, for the battlefield is everywhere, writes Patrick Lawrence in this excerpt from his new book, Journalists and Their Shadows.
US LABOR DAY: The Minimum Wage at Age 85
Without any mechanisms to adjust for rising prices, the real value of the federal minimum wage hit a 66-year low in 2023, say the authors. It’s now worth 42 percent less than its highest point in 1968.
The Bongo Family’s 56-Year Rule Over Gabon
Elections in the country during the dynasty’s decades in power were followed by protests, then security force crackdowns and ultimately silence, writes Douglas Yates. Until Wednesday, when the Bongo regime was finally overthrown.
Choosing to Evolve
A paper on multilevel cultural evolution shows how looking to our origins might help us improve society at many levels, writes April M. Short.
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Biden’s Pointless Asian Summit
Let us consider the grist of the talks the U.S. president hosted at the presidential retreat in Maryland last week. This will not take long.
BRICS & World Balance
The entire BRICS project is centred around the question of whether countries at the nether end of the neo-colonial system can break free through mutual trade and cooperation, writes Vijay Prashad.
The Dependency of Poor Nations
Countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia emerged in the post-World War II era as appendages of a world system that they were unable to define or control, writes Vijay Prashad.
Patrick Lawrence: Africa for Africans
The animosities toward the French abroad among Nigeriens have been widely reported. But history is only part of the story, and not the largest part. Those who led the coup in Niger are facing forward, not backwards.
The Taliban’s Opium Eradication
Afghanistan’s transformation into a preeminent narco-state owes a significant debt to Washington, writes Alan McLeod. Now, with a heroin shortage threatening to increase fentanyl abuse, the U.S. faces possible blowback.