Mississippi Today's Molly Minta has done excellent reporting on the latest IHL efforts to crimp tenure in Mississippi universities, i.e., injecting new and subjective performance criteria, and vesting final decision-making authority in the hands of university presidents; see - https://mississippitoday.org/2022/05/20/ihl-commissioner-tenure-changes/ and related stories. Like most faculty, I'd like to think the IHL, composed exclusively of … Continue reading Attacks on tenure unlikely to stop

Social and economic justice organizers like to say, "When we fight, we win." Oh, if only that were so! In truth, there is, unfortunately, no guarantee of victory in any justice campaign - ever. The soil of human history is literally soaked and littered with the blood and bones of justice warriors who fought with … Continue reading We won’t win greater justice if we don’t fight for it

In the aftermath of the mass killing and carnage of World War I, Sigmund Freud endorsed the notion of a "death instinct," or "death drive." Under ordinary conditions of civilized existence, Freud suggested in Beyond the Pleasure Principle, the drive is either sublimated or expressed in individualized thoughts and acts of aggression or destruction aimed … Continue reading Is the globally hegemonic West, led by the U.S., becoming a death cult?

To be sure, no one needs a single extra thing to worry about these days. The frightful proxy-war faceoff between the US/NATO and Russia in Ukraine, and with it the escalating threat of nuclear war; the rapidly advancing climate emergency, with its relentlessly devastating worldwide consequences; the never-ending COVID pandemic and the likely probability of … Continue reading So scary, social workers! Senator Rick Scott would “rescue America” with an unbridled swing to the radical right

More than a few observers, while unequivocally condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine, have nonetheless noted that the US and NATO seem intent on fighting the war "until the last Ukrainian." Whatever the rationale underlying the drive to sustain, and indeed escalate, the war, here are six solid reasons social workers should call for diplomacy and … Continue reading Six reasons social workers should tell Biden and Congress to negotiate an end to Russia-Ukraine war

We live in extremely perilous times. The unjustifiable Russian invasion of the Ukraine - criminal, albeit instigated by decades of NATO's eastward expansion, threatening the perceived security interests of the Russian Federation - has empowered the bellicose neoconservative sector of the National Security State. These are the very warmongers that brought us the disastrous, murderous, … Continue reading Where are the social workers in the antiwar movement?

Please, someone convince me that the headline for this entry is wrong. I'd like nothing more than to conclude that Joe Biden is preparing to fight like hell for working people as we approach the critical midterm elections and the 2023 federal fiscal year. But the budgetary facts say otherwise. True enough, presidential budgets are … Continue reading Sadly, Biden’s budget is pro-war and anti-working people

These days, wearing a COVID-protective mask in South Mississippi will get you some strange looks, if not hostile glares. After all, case counts are down, as are hospitalizations, and, most importantly, deaths from the virus. Vaccination rates, if not what they should be, are relatively high, and the current consensus seems to be that the … Continue reading The pandemic is not done with us; let’s quit pretending otherwise

With talk of deploying "tactical" and "low-yield" nuclear weapons, American war planners have entered a new and surreal echo chamber of irrationality. The old Cold War logic of nuclear deterrence rested on the horrifying but comprehensible concept of "mutually assured destruction" (MAD). The Soviet Union would never dare strike the United States because it would … Continue reading Talk of using “tactical” nuclear weapons goes beyond prior MAD-ness

Both political and popular support appears to be growing for the U.S./NATO to declare a "no-fly" zone over Ukraine in response to the Russian invasion. This is madness, representing the most dangerous of escalations. Shock and horror at the invasion, clearly an egregious violation of international law, and like virtually all war a crime against … Continue reading Why social workers (and everyone else who cares for life) should oppose a Ukraine no-fly zone