Rich People Are Destroying the Planet
Rich people have a carbon footprint 25 times the size of even the typical American. To tackle climate change, we need to start with fossil capital and the most affluent.
490 Article(s) by: Luke Savage
Luke Savage is the author of The Dead Center: Reflections on Liberalism and Democracy After the End of History and a writer on Substack.
Democrats Can’t Be Losing Because They “Moved Too Far Left” When They Aren’t Moving Left
What accounts for the Democrats’ deepening electoral malaise? You can take your pick of reasons — but the one we can be sure is wrong is the absurd claim that Joe Biden has spent his first year in office pandering to the Left.
Members of the Squad Were Right to Vote Against the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill
Last week, six left-wing House Democrats refused to bow to party leaders to support the bipartisan infrastructure bill. More of their colleagues should have taken the same stand.
Two Cheers for The French Dispatch
Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch showcases both the director’s remarkable gifts as a stylist and his tendency to reduce history to pure aesthetics.
No, the Democrats’ Reconciliation Bill Is Not “Twice as Big” as the New Deal
Grasping for any available talking points to stave off progressive anger, Democrats are trying to depict Joe Biden’s Build Back Better bill as some sort of New Deal 2.0. The comparison is absurd.
“Multilevel Marketing” Companies Cheat and Exploit Ordinary People on a Vast Scale
Multilevel marketing is a scam. But thanks to protection by political elites and well-funded industry propaganda, it keeps growing. Cracking down on it would be as simple as enforcing the laws against fraud — if only the political will could be found.
Joe Biden Is Giving Us the Presidency the Left Always Predicted
Joe Biden ran for president as the “Stop Bernie” candidate who promised that “nothing would fundamentally change” under his watch. Now, with his ambitious policy agenda being whittled down to a fraction of a loaf, he’s returning to his centrist roots.
Obama’s Failures Birthed Trumpism
Many disasters followed the 2008 financial crisis. But possibly the worst was the mass popular disillusionment that resulted from Barack Obama’s failure to help the victims and punish the wrongdoers — a failure that led to Donald Trump.
Obama’s Failure to Adequately Respond to the 2008 Crisis Still Haunts American Politics
Meltdown, a new podcast from David Sirota and Alex Gibney, makes a compelling case that the failures of 2008 and 2009 — when Barack Obama had a chance to enact the visions of reform that swept him into office — are key to understanding American politics today.
Multilevel Marketing Scams Expose Capitalism’s Foundational Lie
Pyramid schemes aren’t a corruption of capitalism — they’re a microcosm of how the class system arbitrarily creates winners and losers while falsely promising opportunity for all.
Joe Biden Is Poised to Gut His Own Political Agenda — and the Democrats’ Electoral Prospects
Joe Biden’s whole agenda is being held for ransom by a handful of corrupt extortionists in the Senate — and Biden seems basically fine with it.
US Billionaires Got 70% More Wealth Under COVID. They Didn’t Deserve Any of It.
New data shows that Elon Musk’s fortune grew by 750% during the pandemic. It’s not because he worked 750% harder than the rest of us.
Bernie Sanders Is Showing the Democrats How to Take on Joe Manchin
For months, Bernie Sanders has been making a case for the multitrillion-dollar reform bill he’s spearheaded in the Senate. Now, he’s taken that case to Joe Manchin’s home turf in West Virginia — and is facing backlash from the mainstream media for breaching the norms of Beltway etiquette.
The Pentagon’s Bloated Budget Undermines American Democracy
The Pentagon’s bloated budget is a colossal waste of resources that could be better used elsewhere. But it’s also an outrage to democracy.
Gig Companies Are Taking Their War on Workers Beyond California
Just as it did in its campaign for California’s Prop 22, Big Tech is claiming rideshare drivers in Massachusetts will earn as much as $18 an hour if a new pro–gig company law is passed. But new analysis finds a majority will actually make less than $5 an hour.
Andrew Yang’s New Political Party Exposes the Farce of Radical Centrism
Andrew Yang’s new Forward Party is the latest in a long line of efforts that seek to shake up American politics by leaning into the status quo.
The Many Saints of Newark Sets Itself an Impossible Task — and Does Okay
The jumble of characters and subplots in the Sopranos prequel makes for a less-than-focused production that can’t stack up to the original series. But then, what can?
The Pandora Papers Have Exposed the Corrupt System that Lets the Rich Worldwide Avoid Paying Taxes
The Pandora Papers — 12 million files on the global 1 percent and the legal tricks they use to get out of paying taxes — are one of the biggest journalistic bombshells in years. They expose a system with one set of standards for the rich and another for everyone else.
It’s Not Just Billionaires – Local Elites Also Dominate Our Society
It’s not just millionaires and billionaires in big cities. What Patrick Wyman calls America’s “local gentry” exercise a massive influence on our day-to-day life — and their pernicious power is too often ignored.
Ryan Grim on the Budget Reconciliation Bill: “Progressives Have Leverage”
In the byzantine parliamentary politics surrounding the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, progressives have more cards to play than in past policy fights. But corporate-backed Democrats like Kyrsten Sinema are still standing in the way.