Volume 269 | No. 7

Sun, Dec 15

2000—Sen. Phil Gramm gives Enron the energy futures deregulation it wants, hidden in an appropriations bill. One year later Enron is bankrupt. 1997—Paula Jones’ lawyers maneuver Bill Clinton into signing a legal document claiming he’d not had sex with government workers. 1986—Bill Casey, CIA director, suffers a handy seizure, preventing him from testifying about Iran/Contra. 1971—Philip Morris’s Board holds a luncheon at 21 for Lewis Powell, a Director who’s about to join SCOTUS. He’s given a judge’s robe with Philip Morris & Marlboro logos on it. 1969—The Mormon Church reaffirms its “no Black priests” policy. 1967—A 2.5 mm-deep defect in a part collapses the 39 …

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Essential Reading:
What Is Neoliberalism?

To the Editor: Donald Trump convincingly won the 2024 election by adding a substantial number of Black and Hispanic voters to his MAGA base. Polls indicate that these voters cast their ballot on pocketbook issues, believing that Trump was better suited to managing the economy than Harris. The mystery is how did a large segment of the working-class come to accept that an inept, arrogant plutocrat would manage the economy in their interest? To understand the issue, we need to go beyond the discussion of campaign strategies or individual characteristics to an analysis of the four-decade-long influence of the economic ideology known as neoliberalism. Neoliberalism …

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The Greatest Show on Earth

by W.D. Ehrhart Ever since November 6th, I’ve been doing my best to avoid reading, seeing, or hearing anything about the election. Pundits and prognosticators proclaiming who’s at fault for the utter failure of the Democratic Party, losers pointing fingers and hurling accusations at each other, Republicans grinning and gloating and enjoying the angst and agony of the millions of Americans who are not part of the even more millions of MAGAMobsters. But it’s hard to play ostrich forever. Last week, a friend sent me a recent poem titled “In Defense of Dogs,” by which I learned that Kristi Noem will be our next Secretary …

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Sympathy for the Devil

What a weird time to be alive. It’s Friday, the 13th of December. Forget about how many days ’till Christmas—we’re counting down to TrumpMania 2025. Just 38 days to go under the old regime, and after that? Nobody knows, apparently anything goes. Despite our editorial policy on superstitions—i.e., just ignore them—it seems a little extra caution might be prudent. So, we’re not going to re-hash European history from ninety years ago. Neither will we try to predict what this incoming administration might get up to. Trying to make sense of a single event from this fortnight will be challenge enough. When a person is shot …

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