Against the Current

Who's in charge here?

THE SADISTIC SAVAGERY of the U.S.-enabled Israeli genocide, and Donald Trump’s executive coup-in-progress in the United States, intersect at Trump’s proclamation of intent to take over, “develop” and ethnically cleanse Gaza of its two million Palestinian residents.

Such pronouncements may have been previously unimaginable, but no longer. As divorced from reality as....

DURING THE SECOND weekend of Trump’s second term, demonstrators in more than 20 U.S. cities staged lively protests outside Chevron gas stations, plants, and offices. Their demand: an end to the oil giant’s lucrative partnership with the apartheid State of Israel....

AMONG THE REPUBLICIAN voters experiencing buyer’s remorse are more than a few military veterans who chose Trump over Harris by a margin of 65 to 34%, according to some exit polls.

Their shock and dismay surfaced in DC this month during the legislative conference of the reliably conservative and hawkish Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), which has 1.4 million members....

CONSTRUCTION CREWS SWOOPED in and began destroying Black Lives Matter Plaza Street mural in Washington, D.C. on March 10. The target, near the White House, was more than a powerful symbol and its wide support by the African American community....

Protest against Russian invasion of Ukraine on the date of first anniversary. Belgrade, City Center, February 24, 2023.

ON THE THIRD anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the United States under the Trump administration is now pushing negotiations for a “peace” settlement. The Ukraine Solidarity Network-U.S. (USN) opposes any attempt to impose a settlement that is not acceptable to the Ukrainian people.

Anyone with an ounce of compassion wants this war to end as soon as possible, but it is morally....

Ohio Education Association, opposing the state bill to abolish DEI and restrict collective bargaining rights in higher education.

The multi-front war on university students, faculty and academic programs is spearheaded by the notorious attack on pro-Palestinian activism, in the guise of “combating campus antisemitism." But this is just an opening wedge: everything from liberal arts and academic freedom to, of course, the horrors of “diversity” programs are in the crosshairs of the right wing.

The following article by Ohio State University professor emeritus Harvey J. Graff puts the current crisis into some historical perspective....

AS FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT Joe Biden left office on January 20, he commuted Leonard Peltier’s life sentence in prison to home incarceration. Peltier is a long-time leader of the American Indian Movement.

On February 18 Peltier walked out, standing strong at 80 years from a Florida prison. He served most of his time in maximum security.'''

THAT WASHINGTON AND Moscow have chosen the Saudi kingdom as the venue for a meeting between their delegations to discuss the prospects of the war that has been ongoing in Ukraine since Russian forces invaded that country three years ago, is evidence of the profound changes occurring in international affairs before our eyes. The manner of the meeting itself is entirely consistent with the venue: Donald Trump’s neofascist administration did not seek to promote peace between the warring parties within...

Boris Kagarlitsky is serving a five-year prison term in Russia.

THIS MATERIAL (INFORMATION) WAS PRODUCED, DISTRIBUTED AND (OR) SENT BY FOREIGN AGENT BORIS YULIEVICH KAGARLITSKY, OR CONCERNING THE ACTIVITIES OF FOREIGN AGENT BORIS YULIEVICH KAGARLITSKY.*

A NEW U.S. Administration is always a global-level event. The world anticipated George W. Bush’s arrival at the White House with fears that came to be confirmed, while Barack Obama’s election brought hopes that didn’t pay off. But this is for the first time ever that the new boss of the Oval office is seen with such perplexity and confusion. No one quite knows what to expect of Trump’s presidency. But that’s rather natural, because he doesn’t know it himself.

A NEW U.S. Administration is always a global-level event....

Donald Trump caricature by Donkey Hotey CC-BY-2.0

DONALD TRUMP’S SECOND victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential elections, with more social and legislative power and experience than his first presidency from 2017 to 2021, is a political milestone that has shaken the world because of what the arrival of such a reactionary, toxic and malignant character to the White House in Washington represents for the world -- and specifically....

Toomaj Salehi (Photo by Hosseinronaghi / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED)

UPDATE: AFter his death sentence was overturned in June 2024, Toomaj Salehi remained in prison but was finally released on December 1, 2024. He had been serving a sentence for propaganda against the state, according to the Iranian state-run press. Index on Censorship, which had been working to free the rapper, welcomed his release and according to the BBC stated that he "should never have been imprisoned to begin with." --The ATC Editors....

I Saw the TV Glow (2024)
written & directed by Jane Schoenbrun
produced and distributed by A24

"THE OLD WORLD is dying and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters," observed Antonio Gramsci (according to a 2010 translation by Slavoj Zizek).

Monster movies -- or more broadly, horror films -- are having a moment, and writer-director Jane Schoenbrun's I Saw the TV Glow is a horror film about, among other things, the meanings of horror media. It riffs on 1990s genre TV and the value of fan communities, nostalgia and changes in entertainment media, the perils of entertainment as escape, and the pain and promise of times of transition....

WOMEN START QUEUEING at 6AM at the courthouse in Mazan, France so they can support Gisèle Pelicot at the open trial she requested. This rape case has caught international attention because it so perfectly illustrates how many men feel they are entitled to women’s bodies. This continuous outpouring of support demonstrates the determination of women to publicize and end the dehumanization women face the world over.--The Editors....