The Nation March 21, 2016

@thenation.com Beware the Clintons Michelle Alexander powerfully explains why black people should be wary of Bill and Hillary Clinton [“Black Lives Shattered,” Feb. 29]. Here are a few more reasons: • Both Clintons still support the death penalty, which disproportionately affects people of color. • Hundreds, if not thousands, of Haitians fled their homeland during the Clinton administration. They were either sent back to Haiti or inhumanely detained at Guantánamo. (Cuban refugees during the same period entered the United States easily.) • United Nations troops already in Rwanda might have prevented or lessened the horrendous genocide by shutting down hate-radio stations and confiscating major caches of machetes. The Clinton administration stymied such an intervention; 800,000 black people died. • When opposition arose to the nomination of distinguished lawyer Lani Guinier…

Super Tuesday was always going to be tough for Bernie Sanders. Devised and promoted by the Democratic Leadership Council as a counter to the party’s progressive tendencies, the “SEC Primary” took the nomination battle through a raft of large Southern states where Hillary Clinton was heavily favored. As expected, she had a very good night, stacking up big wins in Texas, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and Arkansas, and squeaking out a victory in Massachusetts. But Clinton was not just going for a very good night: She was going for a sweep that would marginalize Bernie Sanders’s insurgent candidacy and drive him out of the race. The Clinton campaign made an aggressive final push to win those states where Sanders was competitive, even trying to close the gap in his home…

Whether or not we have slid into a “new Cold War,” as claimed by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at the Munich Security Conference on February 13, we certainly have entered a period of escalating provocations, with China, Russia, the United States, and other major powers testing one another’s resolve through a series of military feints. While usually contained below the level of armed combat, these actions—deployment of bombers or warships in or near a rival’s territory, construction of new military bases in menacing locations, aggressive military maneuvers, and so on—naturally invite countermeasures of an increasingly belligerent sort and so increase the risk of war. COMMENT These provocations are occurring on multiple fronts simultaneously. In Asia, the United States, China, Japan, and other powers are engaged in an escalating contest…

When The New Republic was founded in 1914, The Nation was already almost 50 years old—and just emerging from its own near-death experience. Though started by radical abolitionists, The Nation had over several decades become the house organ of American conservatism, which left plenty of room for a brash, energetic weekly devoted to the ideals of the Progressive Era—and the imperial ambitions of Theodore Roosevelt. On another occasion, we might be tempted to talk about the different ways our two publications responded to the conflict between ideals and ambitions. Or even to rehash the story of how, under attack by Red-baiters in 1949, the two magazines nearly merged—and why we’re glad they didn’t. Right now, though, we’d rather welcome the acquisition of The New Republic by Win McCormack, a longtime…

President Obama’s proposed 2017 defense budget offers a glimpse into his administration’s priorities at a time when, as Michael Klare describes at left, the United States is seeking to bolster its military power to preserve its status as global hegemon. $582.7B Overall proposed Defense Department budget for fiscal year 2017 $71.8B Research and development into new weapon systems $58.8B Overseas contingency operations $19B Modernization of nuclearweapon systems $10.1B Sixty-three F-35 joint strike fighters $7.5B Operation Inherent Resolve, to combat ISIS in Syria and Iraq $5.2B Two nuclear submarines $3.4B The European Reassurance Initiative, which will increase the US military presence on the continent…

Dear Liza, I left the States many years ago and ended up having a child abroad, as one does. A few years back, after an ill-fated attempt to live in the US with my kid in the middle of a bitter custody battle, I returned to my adopted EU member state to exercise my visitation rights. Though I’d been a working resident alien here for years, the litigation’s aftermath left me without my child and extremely depressed—and thus disinclined to continue to bust ass for the state. Since then, I’ve been on and off the dole—with help from family at home and friends here. Now, I’m happy to report, my kid lives with me again. But I see no fantastic job in my near future, or at least not one…