Новости за 07.02.2022

Europe is once again on the edge of war. The unthinkable is all too thinkable: a major conflict on European soil with the unpredictability, the combustibility, and the ultimate futility of an extended military clash. Should Russia attack Ukraine in the coming weeks or months, the war might be contained within the territory of Ukraine. Even so, it would destabilize Ukraine’s European neighbors—Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland. Each is a NATO member to which the United States has given an “Article 5” commitment... Читать дальше...

A lot of people think the gig economy is what ails the labor market, but that isn’t quite right. Granted, there’s ample potential for corporations to abuse workers by misclassifying them as independent contractors. It’s pretty easy. You congratulate your plucky recruits for their entrepreneurship and then you pay them less than the minimum wage (and no benefits). I explained how that works in my last piece (“Republicans Are Attacking a Biden Nominee Over His Stance on the Gig Economy”). But as best anyone can tell... Читать дальше...

Todd Gitlin was an extraordinary man.

A sociologist, cultural critic, journalist, a poet and novelist, an activist and intellectual, Todd lived a truly world historical life, and he was respected, admired, and loved by many. And now he is missed by many. 

Todd was my friend. 

I first learned of him in the mid-1970s as a Queens College undergraduate assigned to read Kirkpatrick Sales’s classic 1973 book SDS, one of the first accounts of the U.S. student movement of the 1960s. Long before I met Todd in person... Читать дальше...

I wrote earlier this week about the credentials and experiences that presidents usually seek out in Supreme Court nominees. Some of the names reportedly on Biden’s shortlist match the generic profile of would-be justices over the past few decades: They have Ivy League educations, they clerked for Supreme Court justices, they held high positions in government or legal academia, and they serve on major appeals courts.

It’s now official: The Republican Party is no longer a political party in any known American sense. Honestly, it hasn’t been for a quite some time, but with last week’s resolution condemning Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the party made it official. We don’t always grasp the historic importance of events in real time, but rest assured that future historians, assuming the United States remains enough of a democracy to have honest ones, will point to Friday, February 4 as a pivotal day in the party’s war on democracy. Читать дальше...

What are masks doing to our children? In recent months, as frustration with the ongoing pandemic increases, this question has felt particularly relevant.