The Anderson Files
Laugh, don’t fight
On April 15, a distinctly disturbing event took place in Berkeley, California. Several hundred proto-fascists gathered in a downtown park. They were armed and...
The Anderson file: Poetry on a mission
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the celebrated poet and publisher of Beat Generation writers, argued in an essay in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1999 that poetry...
The legacy of Joe McCarthy lives on
Donald Trump has been compared to earlier rightwing demagogues such as Hitler, Mussolini, George Wallace and Pat Buchanan. The name of witch-hunter Senator Joe...
The Queen and Australia’s 1975 rightwing coup
The wall-to-wall coverage of Queen Elizabeth’s death was a brightly colored spectacle, but it was a bit North Korean.
It is curious that the U.S....
Biden and a progressive future
Hope just means another world is possible, not promised, not guaranteed. Hope calls for action; action is impossible without hope. — Rebecca Solnit
For many...
Starting at the grassroots
Many on the Left approach the coming year with trepidation but also some hope. The Democratic victories in November were encouraging and the election...
You want it, you got it
Many Americans wanted big change this year. A majority of voters in a nationwide Election Day exit poll by Reuters/Ipsos agreed that “America needs...
Rage, despair, hopelessness… and the election
We are sick and tired of being sick and tired. — Mississippi civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hammer
In the 1960s, black people demanded to...
Manipulation… Venezuela style
Twenty years ago, Hugo Chávez proclaimed the dawn of a new era of social justice in Venezuela after his landslide presidential election. He spoke...
Triptych and Trump
The uproar over Russian meddling in the U.S. election diverts our attention from the larger phenomenon of Russia’s support for far right movements in...
Trump and the deep state
Trump and his defenders have claimed that he is the victim of a gigantic conspiracy by the CIA, the FBI, the NSA, President Obama...
Bernie-bashing Brock
As Bernie Sanders has become increasingly popular, the Hillary Clinton campaign has gone on the attack. That’s fine, but it would be nice if...
