By Chris Lowe (June 13, 2017) (Photo: Flyer found in Eugene, Oregon near the University of Oregon campus) 1) Athena hates this. In the days of the greatness of her city, it was Mediterranean, brown was beautiful, and Europe was the domain of pasty faced barbarians reddened by shame, shyness or anger. In the words of the famous graffito “Wogs…
Read more
By Chris Lowe (May 30, 2017) I first ran across the term “neoliberal” in the context of being a scholar of Africa in the 1980s when neoliberal economists and policy makers took over the World Bank and IMF under Reagan and Thatcher, and began imposing what were known as “structural adjustment” policies on poor countries seeking to renew loans. For…
Read more
By Chris Lowe (May 17, 2017) We watch in awe and dismay Donald Trump’s amazing performance art piece Drunken Juggler President. We prepare to duck and dodge when the next plate in the plate spinning part caroms off toward us, and to groan: Noooo, don’t drop the globe! The details are endlessly fascinating, in that recurring monster movie dream time…
Read more
By Chris Lowe (May 13, 2017) Since Comey was fired as FBI director, an increasingly widespread meme has emerge in the commentariat, that the U.S. is in “the biggest political crisis since Watergate.” The question this raises is the nature of the crisis. Is it caused by the actions of Donald Trump? In that case, removing him would resolve it….
Read more
By Chris Lowe (April 9, 2017) A question for peace and anti-war and international law oriented friends: As I have been thinking about the recent episodes in Syria of the apparent sarin gas attack by the Syrian government and the U.S. bombing in response, I have started to wonder about the way we, or at least the media, talk about…
Read more
By Chris Lowe (September 22, 2016) Since last year I have toyed with the idea of pursuing a “safe state” strategy if Bernie Sanders did not get the Democratic nomination, i.e. finding ways to support Hillary Clinton in swing states with money or phone banking, while voting for Jill Stein in Oregon because the Green Party platform is basically social…
Read more
By Chris Lowe (January 7, 2016) Here is another comparison to think about regarding the group of armed trespassers on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. An 84 year old nun, Megan Rice, was given an almost three year sentence in federal prison for breaking into a US government nuclear facility in an act of civil disobedience. She eventually served…
Read more
By Chris Lowe (November 18, 2015)
By Chris Lowe (August 12, 2015) Bernie Sanders as Myth and Symbol. The etiquette of demonstrations at other people’s events. Meh.
By Chris Lowe (July 21, 2015) Boston, probably 1974. During conflict over school desegregation, supposedly, but mostly, not really over “busing.” At Government Center, near the New City Hall. I was in high school in a Boston suburb at the time.
By Chris Lowe (June 29,2015) This piece is dead wrong. Barack Obama is comparable to Grover Cleveland. We live in a time of narrow politics, and Obama has not had the juice to broaden them, nor the inclination.