Jeffrey Epstein
Fig. 1. “Donald Trump with his future wife Melania Knauss, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago in February 2000.” Photograph credited to Davidoff Studios Photography/Getty Images, February 2000,[1] fair use.
Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling, “Conservatives Are Having a Meltdown Over Trump and the Epstein List,” New Republic, January 3, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/177828/conservatives-meltdown-trump-epstein-list
Victoria Bekiempis, “Jeffrey Epstein: documents linking associates to sex offender unsealed,” Guardian, January 4, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/03/jeffrey-epstein-list-names-released
Victoria Bekiempis, “Second wave of court documents related to Jeffrey Epstein unsealed,” Guardian, January 4, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/04/jeffrey-epstein-second-round-documents-unsealed
Chas Danner, Benjamin Hart, and Matt Stieb, “Who Are the Newly Revealed Jeffrey Epstein Associates?” New York, January 4, 2024, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/who-are-the-newly-revealed-jeffrey-epstein-associates.html
Victoria Bekiempis, “Third batch of Jeffrey Epstein documents unsealed,” Guardian, January 5, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/05/jeffrey-epstein-documents-unsealed
Hannah Furness, “‘A fatal mix of arrogance and stupidity’: How do you solve a problem like Prince Andrew?” TelegraphK, January 5, 2024, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2024/01/05/prince-andrew-royal-family-problem-jeffrey-epstein-papers/
Imperialism
Israel
Fig. 2. John Bolton and Binyamin Netanyahu at a press conference. Office of U.S. National Security Advisor, August 20, 2018, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Republican Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey said recently that “Israel is the only state in the world whose fundamental right to exist, within any borders at all, is openly denied by other states.” But Israel is the only nation with a “right to exist,” as the phrase is not commonly attached to any other country. And that’s the tell: This is not a legal concept, but a political one, available for broad interpretation and rhetorical weaponization.
The “right to exist” as a nation is, as the Palestinian scholar Edward Said once wearily dismissed it, “a formula hitherto unknown in international or customary law.” Rights pertain to individuals, not countries. And universal rights can’t, by definition, belong to some peoples and not others. It’s one of the great ironies, then, of the Israel-Palestine conflict that Israel seems untouchable by international law as it actually exists—it suffers no sanctions for routine violations of Geneva Convention prohibitions against settlements in the occupied West Bank—but is so fulsomely protected by a statute of international law that is basically made up.[2]
John Patrick Leary, “Israel’s ‘Right to Exist’ Is a Rhetorical Trap,” New Republic, January 3, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/article/177768/israel-right-to-exist-rhetorical-trap
Lebanon
Fig. 3. “Sabra & Shatila Massacre 1982 Memorial in Sabra, South Beirut,” photograph by Bertramz, via Wikimedia Commons,
An awful lot of folks seem to be urging restraint.[3] I would say too many are feeling they have to, which is to say that these pleas are falling on deaf ears.
Manuel Altozano, “Hezbollah leader warns Israel against extending war to Lebanon: ‘We will fight without restraint, without rules, without limits,’” El Pais, January 4, 2024, https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-01-04/hezbollah-leader-warns-israel-against-extending-war-to-lebanon-we-will-fight-without-restraint-without-rules-without-limits.html
Amal Saad, “Israel is pushing Hezbollah to its limits. How it responds will define the future of this war,” Guardian, January 5, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/05/israel-hezbollah-war-hamas-saleh-arouri-lebanon
Palestine
Fig. 4. The ruins of a terminal at the Gaza airport. Image by Said Khatib (Agence France-Presse) on September 9, 2018, via the Times of Israel,[4] fair use.
Dion Nissenbaum et al., “Top Hamas Leader Killed in Suspected Israeli Strike in Beirut,” Wall Street Journal, January 2, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-fights-on-three-fronts-as-it-debates-how-to-end-gaza-war-1c74c512
Ron Kampeas, “Biden administration, Reform Jewish leader slam Smotrich and Ben Gvir for calling for Palestinians’ removal from Gaza,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, January 2, 2024, https://www.jta.org/2024/01/02/politics/biden-administration-reform-jewish-leader-slam-smotrich-and-ben-gvir-for-calling-for-palestinians-removal-from-gaza
Tori Otten, “Report: Israel in Talks With Third Country to Expel Palestinians Entirely,” New Republic, January 3, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/post/177837/report-israel-expel-palestinians-gaza-third-country-congo
Gabriel Gavin, Antonia Zimmermann, and Laura Kayali, “The Gaza war is escalating. How bad will the Middle East crisis get?” Politico, January 4, 2024, https://www.politico.eu/article/gaza-israel-palestina-middle-east-red-sea-crisis/
Steve Hendrix, Hajar Harb, and Claire Parker, “As Gazans return to destroyed homes, Israeli ministers push resettlement,” Washington Post, January 4, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/04/gaza-displaced-civilians-resettlement-israel/
Ron Kampeas, “Israel faces charges of genocide at the International Court of Justice. Here’s why, and how Israel will respond,” i>Jewish Telegraphic Agency, January 4, 2024, https://www.jta.org/2024/01/04/politics/israel-faces-charges-of-genocide-at-the-international-court-of-justice-heres-why-and-how-israel-will-respond
Ishaan Tharoor, “Israeli calls for Gaza’s ethnic cleansing are only getting louder,” Washington Post, January 5, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/05/wv-israel-hamas/
China
Fig. 5. “Map of Qing Empire filled with the flag.” Graphic by Daniel222potato [pseud.], via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Chun Han Wong, “China Doesn’t Want You to Say ‘Tibet’ Anymore,” Wall Street Journal, January 6, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/world/china-doesnt-want-you-to-say-tibet-anymore-dd41cbb9
Neoliberalism
Work
Fig. 6. The spectre of Death, in the form of a large skeleton, rises with the smoke and flames of the burning Asch Building during the Triangle fire, as people jump and fall to their death. Artist unknown, from International Ladies Garment Workers Union Photographs (1885-1985) at The Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
Charlie Wolfson, “Innamorato raises minimum wage for county employees, mirroring law Fitzgerald vetoed,” Pittsburgh Public Source, January 3, 2024, https://www.publicsource.org/sara-innamorato-rasies-allegheny-county-employees-executive/
Lizzy McLellan Ravitch, “22 states raised their minimum wage this week. Pennsylvania’s is still just $7.25,” Philadelphia Inquirer, January 4, 2024, https://www.inquirer.com/jobs/labor/minimum-wage-increases-pennsylvania-new-jersey-delaware-20240104.html
- [1]Martin Pengelly, “‘She say anything about me?’ Trump raised Ghislaine Maxwell link with aides,” Guardian, October 4, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/oct/04/trump-ghislaine-maxwell-epstein-maggie-haberman-book-confidence-man↩
- [2]John Patrick Leary, “Israel’s ‘Right to Exist’ Is a Rhetorical Trap,” New Republic, January 3, 2024, https://newrepublic.com/article/177768/israel-right-to-exist-rhetorical-trap↩
- [3]Manuel Altozano, “Hezbollah leader warns Israel against extending war to Lebanon: ‘We will fight without restraint, without rules, without limits,’” El Pais, January 4, 2024, https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-01-04/hezbollah-leader-warns-israel-against-extending-war-to-lebanon-we-will-fight-without-restraint-without-rules-without-limits.html↩
- [4]Agence France-Presse and Times of Israel, “20 years after its opening, destroyed Gaza airport embodies grounded peace hopes,” Times of Israel, September 12, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-after-its-opening-destroyed-gaza-airport-embodies-grounded-peace-hopes/↩