Tip of the iceberg: MAGA Republicans embrace the same toxic economic plans that forced Liz Truss to resign
British prime minister Liz Truss resigned on October 20, after just 44 days in office. Modeling herself on Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who pushed the same sorts of supply-side economic policies U.S. president Ronald Reagan did, Truss had taken office on...
A cycle of escalation: At some point the nuclear threats by Kim Jong Un will need to be taken seriously
By Sung-Yoon Lee, Professor in Korean Studies, Tufts University As the West frets over the possibility of Vladimir Putin turning to nuclear weapons in Ukraine, there is a risk that similar threats posed by another pariah leader are not being treated as seriously,...
Derek M. Williams: Can the Scales of Justice ever be fair for a Black man in Milwaukee?
Sometimes in life you hear a story that seems hard to believe. A number of years ago a woman named Rikki walked up to me after a presentation I had done and asked if she could share her husband Derek’s story. I said of course you can. She told me that her husband had...
Costs of incarceration: Wisconsin inmates and their families feel the financial squeeze of rising inflation
Across the nation, prison commissaries are raising prices on items that many consider basic necessities, from deodorant to fresh fruit, not provided by the state department of corrections. The markups come as decades-high inflation is also squeezing inmates’ families,...
Locked Away: Why the system of solitary confinement is dehumanizing and breeds racial resentment
By Angela Hattery, Professor of Women & Gender Studies/Co-Director, Center for the Study & Prevention of Gender-Based Violence, University of Delaware; Earl Smith, Professor of Women and Gender Studies, University of Delaware The United States leads the...
Retaining a Constitutional Right: Thousands of eligible Wisconsin voters face ballot barriers in jail
Within a few years of returning from two traumatic combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, David Carlson lost his voting rights. He spent about four years in prison on felony charges that in Wisconsin result in disenfranchisement. What Carlson did not realize is that...
Education behind a Wall: How college in prisons are challenging professors to rethink the way they teach
By Mneesha Gellman, Associate Professor of Political Science, Emerson College When it comes to education in prison, policy and research often focus on how it benefits society or improves the life circumstances of those who are serving time. But as I point out in my...
Barriers to benefits: When ex-prisoners go hungry from being denied access to social safety programs
By Margaret Lombe, Associate Professor of Social Work, Boston College; and Von Nebbitt, Associate Professor of Social Work, Washington University in St Louis Around 600,000 people are released annually from the sprawling prison network across the United States. Many...
Abandoning the rule of law: How authoritarianism creates a fictitious world through consistent lying
There is a moment in Representative Adam Schiff’s 2021 book “Midnight in Washington” that jumps out. The book centers around the first impeachment of former president Trump for withholding congressionally approved funds for Ukraine to fight off Russian...
Law and Order: Why the midterm message from the GOP is at odds with its support of criminal behavior
A campaign ad from Mehmet Oz, candidate for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, is vintage Republican strategy: casting a Democratic opponent as soft on crime. The party is zeroing in on fears over public safety ahead of November’s midterm elections in an effort to...
Coup in Wilmington: How a 1898 strategy to overthrow a legitimately elected government continues today
In an interview this morning with CNN’s Dana Bash, Arizona Republican nominee for governor Kari Lake refused to say that she would accept the results of the upcoming election – unless she wins. Former president Trump said the same in 2020, and now more than half...
A Toxic Oligarchy: Why Citizens United must be overturned to end the War on American Democracy
The strongman dictator of Russia used 28 “Kamikaze” drones supplied by the theocratic dictators of Iran to attack the democracy of Ukraine’s capitol, Kyiv on October 17. Some of my tragically misguided former colleagues and guests on the left are joining with the most...
