Fires Are Slowly Erasing America’s Great Forests

Towering woodlands in the West are being permanently replaced by tracts of spiky shrubs. Conditions “just aren’t normal anymore,” one researcher said

Israeli Genocidal Government Dissolving, Legacy Lingers

The 25th Knesset has now dissolved, bringing an end one of the most consequential and destructive political periods in Israel's history. As Israel heads toward elections, what has changed both in law and political culture? What can be reversed?

The Gaping Hole in El-Sayed’s Progressive Agenda

The Senate nominee has woefully undercooked ideas on Supreme Court reform—and that’s a problem.

Trump Asked SCOTUS To Let Him RIG the Midterms

Trump Asked SCOTUS to Let Him RIG the Midterms

Minnesota Unions: a Threat to Trump’s Authoritarianism

The Trump administration is attempting to criminalize union members for organizing against its immigration crackdown in Minnesota earlier this year. That’s because it correctly sees labor as a threat to its authoritarian designs.

Democratic “Moderates” Support Extreme Injustice

The label goes to candidates who back endless war and block Medicare for All, while a CNN poll now finds a third of Democrats calling themselves socialists. Scolding them as interlopers plays well with donors and nowhere else.

South Asian Americans Don't Need “Model Minority” Myth

Being a “model minority” isn’t a ticket out of experiencing racism. The “model minority myth” is a political tool to hide America’s systematic discrimination, maintain racial hierarchies, and mask the economic struggles South Asian communities face.

Gen Z Turns Against Capitalism As DSA Takes Off

Only 9 percent of Americans younger than 30 have a “very positive” view of capitalism.

Saving School From the Factory Setting

Why are our 2026 classrooms still stuck in a 1900 assembly line?

Women’s Lives Have Been Shattered in Lebanon

Women are not exempt in Israel’s eyes from being killed, from being assassinated, from being targeted. And in that sense they’re paying just as heavy a price in life as are the men.
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Culture

books

A Masterpiece of Criticism

Kathryn Hughes The Guardian
This joyous book takes readers on a literary adventure across 300 years of fiction, from Defoe to Zadie Smith.

food

What Does It Take to Work on a Cauliflower Crew?

David Bacon The Reality Check: Stories and Photographs by David Bacon
Today several hundred thousand Indigenous farmworkers from southern Mexico labor in fields, not just in California, but all over the U.S. Their culture, and their political and labor activism, are changing rural communities profoundly.

poetry

Road Sign on Interstate 5

Robert Peake
Poet Robert Peake asks us to consider what a road sign says about the lives and needs of migrants.

Labor

labor

Mississippi Transit Workers Strike for Better Protections and Service

Paul Prescod Labor Notes
Mississippi has the highest poverty rate in the U.S., and is a “right-to-work” state with only 4 percent of its workers in unions. But since July 13, Highway 80 near Jackson has been lined by chanting picketers. They’re on strike at JTRAN

labor

New Voices Gain Ground at Letter Carriers Convention

Alexandra Bradbury Labor Notes
The union will elect a new president this fall, from a field of four candidates. After months of speculation, Renfroe announced at the convention that he isn’t running again. Delegates cheered.

labor

The Labor Movement Is Divided Over How To Deal With AI

Michael Arria Truthout
It’s fine to say that [data centers will] be built with good-paying union jobs but what we’re also looking for on behalf of the working class is long-term sustainability of jobs. It doesn’t help if those jobs come at the cost of many long=term jobs.

labor

A Union of Unions: Revitalizing Labor Councils

Whitney Washington Convergence
Labor councils are important but often overlooked for building working-class power. This article takes us from Tennessee to Vermont to examine how these vital organizations are faring today, while honoring one of their champions, Vonda McDaniel.

Friday nite video

Was Mamdani's Mandarin AI? The Blooper Reel Reveals the Truth

Mamdani promoted free Broadway tickets for high-school students, speaking to them in Bengali, Mandarin, and Spanish. Critics accused Mamdani of using AI, so he released a blooper reel of his attempts to get each language right.

 

John Oliver: Trump & Crypto

How the Trump family’s cryptocurrency ventures have overshadowed their other businesses, they’ve created massive conflicts of interest, and what it all has to do with Fartcoin.
 

Donavan McKinney on his Primary Upset

Donavan McKinney, Democratic nominee to represent Detroit/Wayne County in Congress, on democratic socialism, corporate money, data centers and the need for Medicare for All