Newsletter 11.5.19

Hi all! 

Here's this week's newsletter. Thanks to anyone who came out for our live show last week, we will be posting that soon. 

       --Adam, Marco, Nima, and Florence

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Ben Rhodes’ False Atonement for the Yemen War Sarah Lazare, In These Times (October 23, 2019)

Ben Rhodes, a deputy U.S. national security adviser under President Obama, has fashioned himself as a progressive foreign policy expert critical of Pres. Trump’s handling of Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen. However, during his time in the Obama Administration, Rhodes publicly defended the U.S.’ support for Saudi Arabia’s bombing campaign. 

Chicago Teachers Didn’t Win Everything, But They’ve Transformed the City—And the Labor Movement Rebecca Burns, In These Times (November 1, 2019)

The contract negotiated by the Chicago Teacher Union and the city does not contain every goal that the CTU sought out when it began it two-week strike. However, the strike shed light on how the city diverts funds from education to law enforcement and to slush funds for developers. 

A New Era in Tech Nationalism JS Chen, Jacobin (November 3, 2019)

Microsoft’s $10 billion contract to transform the U.S. military’s digital infrastructure shows how the tech industry is further entrenching itself with U.S. imperialism. While the U.S. government criticizes Chinese companies for abiding by the country’s censorship laws, the relationship between big tech and the military is left largely unexamined. 

Centrist Democrats have a new idea to win reelection: Ignore labor and give Trump a major trade deal Ryan Grim, The Intercept (October 29, 2019)

Rep. Cheri Bustos, the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is internally advocating for Democrats to accept the house-negotiated USMCA trade deal that will replace NAFTA. The deal could lock in low wages for workers, expand drug monopolies and lack necessary environmental regulations. 

A group of progressive women just launched a working-class version of EMILY's List Aída Chávez, The Intercept (November 3, 2019)

Over a dozen women with experience running campaigns or working in labor launches a group called Matriarch that plans to give financial assistance to progressive women candidates from marginalized backgrounds. The group is intended to be an alternative to groups like EMILY’s List which base their endorsements of women candidates on their ability to fundraise off of wealthy donors.

How Staples Center Kicked LA Gentrification Into Overdrive Jonny Coleman and Jacob Woocher, The Nation (October 31, 2019)

The Staples Center’s 20th anniversary brought largely breathless coverage reminiscing about the stadium’s history. However, the stadium was a major step in Los Angeles’ war on the homeless. The stadium replaced affordable housing for a Latino community and kickstarted a trend of developers replacing housing with fancy stadiums across the U.S.

Nazi-Normalizing Barf Journalism: A Brief History Dorothee Benz, FAIR (November 1, 2019) 

The New York Times has published several articles attempting to report on white supremacy both in local communities and within the White House. However, these stories wrapped in the language of traditional reporting and serve to make white supremacy seem like a normal element of American politics without ever challenging it.   

The Revolution Isn’t Being Televised Alan MacLeod, FAIR (October 26, 2019)

Protests have broken out in Chile, Ecuador, and Haiti among other places against neoliberal policy. While these protests have led to citizens putting their lives on the line, the western media has given much more focus and have written more favorably on the Hong Kong protests, which are protesting against a country that the U.S. considers an enemy.  

Who Gets To Proclaim The Progressive Prosecutor Mantle? Patrisse Cullors, The Appeal (November 1, 2019)

The term “progressive prosecutor” has become a popular label for candidates running in district attorney elections. Interim San Francisco D.A. Suzy Loftus has branded herself as a progressive in her race for a full term as D.A., however the actions she has taken as a D.A. so far, her work during Kamala Harris’ tenure as D.A. and attorney general as well as her close ties to law enforcement put her commitment to progressive politics into doubt.