July 15 was the final day for FAO Schwarz’s iconic flagship retail store, a New York City fixture since 1870. What, exactly, closed the toy box? The immediate cause, increasing rent, was merely the last straw. The store’s approach was more and more out of step in an economy in which personalized service from Amazon.com-style warehouses is replacing brick-and-mortar retail…
Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant nationalism has positioned him far to the right of his fellow 2016 GOP hopefuls and has given him a serious boost in the polls. Such support for a man who made, and repeatedly defended, the patently racist claim that undocumented Mexican immigrants are “rapists” should serve as a clear indicator of the depth…
To the people of Greece. We at Center for a Stateless Society extend our sympathies for your recent disappointment from the Syriza government’s acceptance of the austerity regime imposed on you by the European Union. Unfortunately, movements that focus on capturing the state as the primary axis of struggle find themselves, not only not empowered,…
On July 13, President Obama announced that he will commute the sentences of 46 imprisoned individuals. Among them are several dozen drug offenders and a score of other nonviolent lawbreakers. Thirteen of them were serving life in prison. This is undeniably good news. Any victory, no matter how small, in the fight against the racist prison-industrial complex is worth celebrating. Obama’s…
The attacks on sex workers by paternalistic politicians and their armed enforcers at the local, state, and federal levels grow worse by the year. As of 2008, only two states — Nevada and Rhode Island — allowed individuals to buy and sell sex. In 2009, Rhode Island closed its legal loophole which allowed for paid…
If you watched Batman when you were growing up, chances are you saw him torture someone. If you watched Jack Bauer from the hit show 24, chances are even better that torture scenes were involved. And if you watched the Netflix show Daredevil, you probably saw it in almost every single episode. The problem with relying…
Every time I write a commentary on one of John Stossel’s godawful columns, I tell myself I’ll lay off him for a while. But good lord, this latest wretched little piece of pro-corporate apologetics (“Corporations Have Become Hollywood’s Go-To Villains,” Reason, July 1) is about the worst thing he’s ever done. The biggest challenge any…
Carly Fiorina’s main talking point throughout her time as 2016 Republican presidential candidate has been that she is an outsider. Posturing herself as Hilary Clinton’s real challenger, Fiorina takes every opportunity to accuse Clinton of being a career politician. On this, Fiorina is right. During a recent Fox News appearance, Fiorina cited a poll that…
Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez falls under that unfortunate class of persons the American state labels illegal immigrants. His immigration status is important because Lopez-Sanchez is accused of the June killing of a San Francisco woman, Kathyrn Steinle. Nationalists on the right and left of the American political class are aghast because Lopez-Sanchez was released from police…
As Americans celebrated Independence Day, the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries ruled that the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, A Portland area bakery, owes $135,000 in damages for refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding. This is insanity! There is absolutely no justification for the claimants in this matter to be awarded almost three…
On June 30th, New Zealand’s parliament passed a bill that attempts to outlaw cyber-bullying and other forms of inappropriate online behavior. The Harmful Digital Communications Bill’s maximum penalties include two years in jail or fines of up to $33,900 in American dollars. The law establishes a new agency to investigate damage caused by digital communications. Digital bullying is…
One of the more disturbing trends on the American Center-Left (which sees itself, entirely without justification, as “the Left”) is the increasing popularity of the right-wingers as “seditionists” or “traitors” meme. The most notable recent example, in the wake of the racially-motivated massacre in Charleston, is the identification of the Confederate battle flag with “treason.”…
I’ve written often about the systemic lack of police accountability, a problem which has cost the lives of hundreds of people in 2015 alone. But what tactics should be taken to combat police brutality? What do we do to counter this lack of accountability? Genevieve Huizar has protested peacefully for the last three years and…
Hanging upside-down, swinging like a pendulum and naked, the grimacing face of the female victim from Rihanna’s new (NSFW) “Bitch Better Have My Money” music video seems to be the face that has launched a thousand think-pieces. In seven disturbing minutes, Rihanna takes revenge on her dodgy (white) accountant by kidnapping his (white) wife, stripping her,…
Adam Smith, in The Wealth of Nations, listed the appropriation of most land and the “original accumulation of capital” as the two main things that altered the primitive state of affairs where the price of goods reflected the labor involved in production. Instead, returns on capital and land became major components of price alongside the…
The Export-Import Bank’s charter finally expired on June 30th. Ever since it was created during the New Deal, the Ex-Im Bank has supported exports by American corporations, all at taxpayer expense. The top recipients of Ex-Im Bank subsidies were big corporations, with the war-profiteers at Boeing receiving more Ex-Im largess than any other company. The…
As of June 22nd, the California state capital is home to an 800 pound, 8 foot tall replica of former US president and California governor Ronald Reagan. Until now, Reagan was the only president not to be immortalized with a statue in the state house of his home state. The statue was funded by private…
It’s about damn time. The rest of the United States finally caught up to the libertarians on June 26 when the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide. It only took 43 years but it looks like the authoritarian right is losing influence, as young people grow increasingly skeptical of power structures. Let’s…
John Adams believed Independence Day would become a great anniversary festival. He was right. July fourth is the central holiday of the summer. Post solstice, on this day folks celebrate with pomp parades, sports and games, the cracking of rifles, the blaze of bonfires and the pop, flash and fizzle of fireworks. It is a…
Harvey Molotch coined the term “growth machines” for the coalitions of real estate and other businesses that control local governments and use them as a vehicles to promote the interests of chambers of commerce — and particularly those of the real estate developers. The collusion between business and state and local government is more, not…
