Politics

by Kevin Martin  On Monday, the Pentagon announced the US will soon begin training the Ukrainian military in using howitzer artillery in an unnamed country. Presumably this will be in a NATO member state. If Russian intelligence found out where, might it attack to stop the howitzers from being deployed against Russian forces in Ukraine? Almost assuredly not, as that would trigger a wider war, invoking NATO’s self-defense provision, which would be catastrophic for Russia. So, while the urgent focus should be on diplomatic negotiations to end this senseless war, arming Ukraine to defend itself in the meantime tacitly rests on conventional deterrence theory, assuming Russia will be deterred from certain aggressive actions, not wanting to risk a war with the NATO alliance. But do...

Three comrades on the life and legacy of a radical activist Laura Whitehorn, Roslyn D. Smith, and Bill Ayers Photo courtesy of Bill Ayers (This article originally appeared in the Jewish Currents email newsletter; subscribe here!) Eleven days ago, on May Day, Kathy Boudin died following a seven-year battle with cancer. Born in New York in 1943 to a leftist Jewish family, Boudin was an activist and organizer who dedicated her life to building a world where harm is transformed via processes of accountability rather than reiterated through punishment. If you know of Kathy Boudin, you likely know this story, which has been amplified widely in national headlines: In 1970, as a member of the Weather Underground, the radical splinter faction of the activist org...

BY PAUL STREET Photograph Source: mathiaswasik – CC BY 2.0 Trumptrocities Writing the third chapter of my latest book This Happened Here: Amerikaners, Neoliberals, and the Trumping of America, was an exhausting and soul-chilling experience. Titled “A Fascist in the White House, 2017-21,” this chapter attempted to catalogue, categorize, and cross-reference the transgressions of the malignant ogre Donald Trump as US president. It records more than 400 “Trumptrocities” filed and cross-listed across 8 different folders. Among the orange-brushed brute’s many offences: the caging and theft of migrant children; pardoning the sadistic war criminal Eddie Gallagher; the placement of open Camp of the Saints fascists like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller in top advisor...

BY JEFFREY ST. CLAIR Wall art, Portland. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair. Yes, I received your letter yesterday(About the time the door knob broke)When you asked how I was doingWas that some kind of joke?– Bob Dylan, Desolation Row + Alas, the most open of secrets is no more. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has finally thrown away the bag and let the cat run free. The aim of US policy in Ukraine is…(wait for it)…to “weaken Russia.” After returning from Kyiv, Austin told reporters, many of whom feigned shock at his lack of discretion, “We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.” The reporters were no doubt worried that Putin might order this quote read over loudspeakers to the Russian Army as motivational ...