Countdown to November

Countdown to November: New Times, New Opportunities

In the print edition...

• New Times, New Opportunities, by Sam Webb
• The Horror Behind the Horror, by Karin Coddon
• Financial Crisis and Class Struggle, by Paulo Nakatani and Rémy Herrera
• Surge Against the Occupation, by Joel Wendland
• Click here for the latest episode of Political Affairs radio

The political upsurge ricocheting across the country has no counterpart in recent decades. Its breadth and depth are remarkable. Its politics are progressive. It is framing the nation’s political conversation. It rejects the old racist and sexist stereotypes.

I often wonder if our popular-culture addiction to violence derives less from a desire to slake some inward void, or from the so-called “CSI effect” that primes us to expect pseudo-scientific explanations for all manners of cruelty, than from the logic of the market.

Marxists and non-Marxist economists have predicted the current financial crisis for some time. Its conditions have been in operation since the acceleration of the deregulation processes in the monetary and financial markets.

General Petraeus painted a rosy picture when he went back to Congress in early April requesting more cash and presenting a plan to extend the occupation. Petraeus recommended a “pause” in the withdrawal of “surge” troops mandated for this year, despite claims of “success.”