The Nation January 27, 2020

Old Struggle, New Politics Thanks for your timely issue on the new politics of abortion [December 16/23]. I thought especially important was Katha Pollitt’s piece on the criminalization of pregnant women [“Personhood Is Punishment”]. I would add only that the phony tears that “pro-life” terrorists shed for the unborn are belied by the fact that these are many of the same people who want to deny support to single mothers struggling to raise their kids—from replacing the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program to cutting food stamps, child care funding, and everything else needed to cope with raising a child, especially on low wages. I know it will sound crass, but the demand should be made that if you’re going to force someone to have a baby, then you…

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or go to TheNation.com/StartMakingSense to listen today. STACEY ABRAMS MARGARET ATWOOD CHARLES M. BLOW NOAM CHOMSKY DAVID COLE MIKE DAVIS ELIZABETH DREW BARBARA EHRENREICH FRANCES FITZGERALD ERIC FONER THOMAS FRANK ALEX GIBNEY MICHELLE GOLDBERG AMY GOODMAN CHRIS HAYES SEYMOUR HERSH MARGO JEFFERSON DAVID CAY JOHNSTON NAOMI KLEIN RACHEL KUSHNER VIET THANH NGUYEN NORMAN LEAR GREIL MARCUS JANE MAYER BILL MCKIBBEN WALTER MOSLEY JOHN NICHOLS LAWRENCE O’DONNELL RICK PERLSTEIN LAURA POITRAS KATHA POLLITT ROBERT REICH JOY REID FRANK RICH BERNIE SANDERS ANNA DEAVERE SMITH EDWARD SNOWDEN REBECCA SOLNIT MARGARET TALBOT CALVIN TRILLIN KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL YANIS VAROUFAKIS JOAN WALSH AMY WILENTZ GARY YOUNGE DAVE ZIRIN…

The United States is now effectively at war with Iran. That the assassination of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani—not merely an escalation but an act of war—took place on Iraqi soil is no more relevant, or likely to keep the hostilities confined to that country, than the fact that the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand happened in Bosnia. When future historians debate the cause of this war, it will surely be relevant to note the hollowness of the Trump administration’s claim that the Iranian general—whose killing was considered and rejected by both George W. Bush and Barack Obama—posed an imminent threat to American lives or interests. Though far from an apostle of peace, Suleimani had no more blood on his hands than the Saudi tyrant Mohammed bin Salman or Philippine President…

For the last three months, Australia has burned. Across four states, unstoppable fires exacerbated by climate change ravaged millions of hectares. Some fire fronts stretched across 600 miles. Temperatures exceeded 115°F. Smoke choked Australia’s cities, and the Sydney Opera House disappeared behind a brown haze. Children wore face masks as the air quality deteriorated, leading to canceled sporting events and mail delivery in Canberra, Australia’s capital. At least 25 people died, and many remain missing, not to mention the more than a billion animals and plants incinerated. Thousands of people stood under blood-red skies on sandy beaches, awaiting rescue by Australia’s navy—the largest peacetime evacuation in the country’s history. Christmas neared, the fires worsened, and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who once flourished a lump of coal during a parliamentary…

Bill Greider, who joined The Nation as national affairs correspondent in 1999, died on Christmas. It was a joy to work with him. He never wavered in his belief that the greatest promise of American democracy was “plain people in rebellion, organizing themselves to go up against the reigning powers,” as he wrote in The Nation in 2015. Bill published books on globalization, capitalism, democracy (including the bible for small-d democrats, 1992’s Who Will Tell the People), and the role of Congress. Perhaps his most influential book, Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country (1987), challenged the conventional wisdom that the Fed should mercilessly fight inflation. At the time, it was lonely to be a Fed critic—but Bill’s insights have been amply vindicated. He was an…

Dear Liza, A few months after I graduated from high school, I got pregnant by my high school sweetheart. We’ve always had an on-and-off relationship, but I had a fantasy that we’d get married and raise a child together. He wanted to have the child as well; he had always wanted to be a father. And, of course, I thought he loved me. News flash! A month after I announced my pregnancy, he got a girlfriend. I thought we were dating, but apparently not. I spent the next six to seven months of pregnancy trying to get over him, but we kept living together for the sake of the baby. I realized that I had gotten into this whole mess because I knew he wanted to be a father and…