On Tuesday, Tucker Carlson told his millions of viewers that public health officials were lying to them about the efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines. Noting that the rollout of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine had been paused due to a handful of instances of blood clots, Carlson suggested that the vaccines might not really work “and they’re simply not telling you that.”
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I first heard about the idea of a “reserve army of the unemployed” when I was in college. Advanced by Karl Marx in chapter 25 of Capital: Volume I, the theory is that it is in the interest of capitalists to maintain a relatively high rate of unemployment. This keeps workers under control and makes them fearful to ask for higher wages or unionize, lest they be replaced by machines or the unemployed or underemployed eager to take their jobs. “Relative surplus population,” Marx said, is the “pivot... Читать дальше...
In America today, the right has a monopoly on the word “freedom.” Conservatives talk about “freedom” at every opportunity, while liberals and leftists do so only with embarrassment, shielded with qualifying clauses. “First they came for our Free Speech, then they came for our Free Markets, next they’ll come for our Free Shipping on orders $50 or more with promo code: FREEDOM50,” Republican Representative Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina tweeted on January 28, 2021. Cawthorn’s tweet—which rewrites... Читать дальше...
Among the various ways President Donald Trump caused more Americans to die needlessly from Covid-19 was by failing to issue a legally enforceable “emergency temporary standard” to protect workers. The 1970 Occupational Safety and Health Act permits the Labor Department to impose such a standard without consulting Congress, a move that the AFL-CIO strenuously urged, but the Trump administration wouldn’t budge. Then-candidate Joe Biden attacked Trump mercilessly for this negligence, and on his first... Читать дальше...
Last week, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that the Southern Nevada Water Authority is officially proposing a ban on the continued maintenance of ornamental grass in the desert metropolis, and the entire state, by 2026. The authority estimates that by eliminating unused turf—grass spaces outside of businesses and housing developments or in medians that aren’t being used for recreation—the state could cut back its water usage by roughly 12 million gallons annually. The figure was significant enough that on Friday... Читать дальше...
Following a night of protest in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, after an officer shot and killed a young Black man, Daunte Wright, police raised a “thin blue line” flag, under the stars and stripes. Reporters stood there getting their live shots. A video of the scene was seen nearly two million times in one day. A century ago, the NAACP would hang a black flag out the window of their office on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, with stark white letters visible for blocks away, reading: “A Man Was Lynched Yesterday.” It was a memorial... Читать дальше...
