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?
440 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.
Canada’s Far Right Is More of a Threat Than You Think
The good news is that Canada’s far-right party was shut out of Parliament in this week’s federal election. The bad news is that the People’s Party still tripled its vote and is now in a position to exert a dangerous influence on the political mainstream.
Canada’s Pointless Election Has Weakened Justin Trudeau
In what was supposed to be an easy victory, global liberalism’s would-be savior lost the popular vote for the second time in two years — and now enjoys the slimmest popular mandate of any prime minister in Canadian history.
You Really Can Fight Poverty With One Weird Trick: Giving People Money
New numbers from the Census Bureau show that even as the US economy collapsed last year, the poverty rate actually went down. There’s no mystery why: the government gave people money.
Justin Trudeau’s Election Promises Were Made to Be Broken
After pledging billions in new spending to salvage his electoral fortunes, Canada’s prime minister has decided to spend the final week of the current election campaign doing what he does best: defending the wealthy from tax hikes.
British Columbia’s NDP Needs to Mandate Paid Sick Days
In British Columbia, the social democratic NDP has disappointingly dragged its feet on legislating paid sick days. With a plan in the works for next year, the New Democratic Party needs to ignore the business lobby and side with workers.
The US Has Spent $21 Trillion on Militarization Since 9/11
The cost of the War on Terror and its catastrophic consequences at home and abroad are staggering: $21 trillion, according to a new report. Imagine what we could do with that money if we used it for human needs rather than killing people abroad.
While COVID Immiserated Millions, Canadian Corporate Executives Got Six-Figure Raises
As workers across Canada were laid off last year, corporations scrambled to ensure their executives received a whopping 17 percent pay increase.
America Has a Moral Obligation to Allow Afghan Refugees In
The United States has made Afghanistan its imperial football for decades. If American elites really care about alleviating human suffering, as they claim, they must open the door to refugees immediately.
The NDP Has a Chance to Radically Reshape the Coming Canadian Election
With an election formally called, all signs point to another dismal exercise in fake Conservative culture war pandering and equally fake Liberal gestures toward social democracy. The social-democratic NDP now has a chance to shake up the race with its ambitious populist plans to tax billionaires and excess corporate profits.
Canada’s Social Democrats Could Make Big Gains in a Snap Election
Justin Trudeau is widely expected to call a snap election. With the Tories and Greens in disarray, the NDP is well-positioned to make gains — if it runs an effective and unapologetically populist campaign.
Nina Turner’s Defeat Shows That Big Money Still Rules in US Politics
If there’s a lesson in the Ohio 11th race, it’s about the lengths to which the Democratic machine is willing to go to defeat its leading critics — and the lows to which it’s ultimately willing to stoop.
Jeff Bezos’s Vanity Space Flight Was a Uniquely American Disgrace
Only in a country whose ruling class has grown deeply deluded could a space joy ride like Jeff Bezos’s be seen as cause for public celebration rather than the symptom of moral rot and institutional decay that it so clearly is.
Americans Owe $140 Billion to Collections Agencies Because of Medical Debt
A newly published study finds that the amount of medical debt owed by Americans is even larger than previously thought. It’s just further proof of the moral abomination that is for-profit health care.
It’s Literally Impossible to Afford Rent on the Minimum Wage
Even modest rental housing is now out of reach for millions of full-time workers — and the pandemic has made an already bleak situation even worse.
James Carville Has Never Stopped Being Wrong
Like an aged one-hit wonder, James Carville has made a career of playing his favorite tune over and over: a warmed-over centrist jeremiad against the Left that has proved to be as wrong as it is stale.
The Billionaire Space Race Is the Ultimate Symbol of Capitalist Decadence
Billionaires like Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk are parasites, worse than socially useless. But they’ve got to justify their existence somehow, so, like five-year-olds, they’re now pretending to be astronauts.
The Pandemic Will Continue Until We Break Pharma’s Monopoly and End Vaccine Apartheid
Thanks to shortsighted nationalism and corporate power, it’s now expected to take until 2078 to achieve global vaccination. The lesson is clear: COVID can’t be overcome until we put human needs before private profit.
The Disingenuous Defense of For-Profit Health Care Hasn’t Changed in Decades
From Ronald Reagan’s notorious 1961 rant against the horrors of socialized medicine to present-day propaganda of the insurance industry, right-wing and corporate efforts to halt the expansion of public health care seem to strike the exact same notes again and again — and draw on the same bogus arguments.
Everyone Wants Health Care Reform. Industry Lobbying Won’t Let Them Have It.
It’s often said that politicians pander to polls. Not so for health care: despite repeated lopsided majorities in polls favoring a public system, leaders in both parties don’t seem to care.