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Secret Service Asked for $60 Million Extra for Trump-era Travel and Protection, Documents Show

By Drew Harwell and Amy Brittain Washington Post
Before taking office, Trump repeatedly criticized the cost of President Barack Obama’s travel, saying the fact that Obama’s trips were “costing taxpayers millions of dollars” was “unbelievable.” During the campaign, Trump pledged to save public money by working diligently in Washington and skipping out on expensive travel.

Playing Chicken: Discovering a Diverse Working Class in Trump Country

By Patrick Dixon Working Class Perspectives
Focusing on places like McDowell County, West Virginia, perpetuates the image of rural America as populated primarily by people of white Western European origins, a narrative that fit the media’s interest in white rural working-class voters. But while the economic suffering in McDowell might reflect the experiences of many working-class people outside of major metropolitan areas in the Trump era, McDowell’s whiteness is less representative.

Neil Gorsuch and the "Originalist" View of Workers' Rights

By Ai-jen Poo Medium
We have once again entered a phase in law-making, where discriminatory policies codifying exclusions based on race, religion, ability and immigration status have taken hold, emboldened by this Administration. With the appointment of Gorsuch, we risk losing the highest court in the land to partisan, ideologically-driven cruelty — masked as “originalist” readings of both statute and law — repeating history again.

Get Out: A Real American Horror Story

J. Hoberman New York Review of Books
Get Out opens with a familiar horror-movie trope. Someone walking alone down a dark street stalked by a mysterious force. That the setting is an idyllic suburb, the someone is a young, increasingly panicked black man, and the predator is driving a white car gives the scenario an unmistakable reality. The scene grows disturbing. You may flash on Trayvon Martin. That the black youth is not shot but rather abducted is a dreamlike condensation of the movie to come.

'There’s a Smell of Treason in the Air'

Michael Winship Common Dreams
Not only did Comey verify that the FBI was actively investigating Trump and his associates, he also flatly denied on behalf of his agency and the Justice Department that prior to January’s inauguration now-former President Obama had ordered eavesdropping on Trump Tower. As presidential historian Douglas Brinkley told The Washington Post, “There’s a smell of treason in the air."

Why Progressives Should Care About US Agricultural Policy

Mark Willsey Truthout
For the progressive movement to make inroads in communities like mine, it needs to put forward a serious plan for how the US government can stop subsidizing corporate farms and instead return the land to small family farmers who work the land. Farmers should not have to farm 20,000 acres of rented land just to make a living.

How Immigrants Became Criminals

Alan A. Aja and Alejandra Marchevsky Boston Review
By focusing on the mistreatment of “good” immigrants, advocates miss the bigger point that everyone should have the right to due process.

Will the Gig Economy Make the Office Obsolete?

Diane Mulcahy Harvard Business Review
Study after study after study demonstrate that independent, remote workers are more productive, satisfied, and engaged than their office-bound colleagues. Recent surveys find that workers, freed from the constraints of office life, report higher levels of satisfaction and greater productivity. These results aren’t surprising since remote work eliminates the wasted time of commuting and the stress of constant exposure to office politics, interruptions and meetings.

Towards Gender Liberation

Cecilia Gingerich The Next System Project
The following working paper focuses on gender-based oppression, since it is both one of the fundamental characteristics of the current system and one that must be eliminated from any desirable alternative future system.