Following are a few email messages between Malaysia and Lowell this weekend. The story begins with Swagata Sinha Roy finding a poem of mine, “Deep in the Weave,” on the web, very likely in a post by my blogging colleague Marie, who shared on this blog a post from the…
I am surprised this topic is back in play. So, what’s the thinking by those who want to put a new high school on the South Common? Are they saying to themselves that it will be no problem to blow up that useless empty lot where there are not many…
Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris in 2002 captured businessman, now president-elect, Donald Trump talking about his favorite movie, “Citizen Kane.” Here’s an interview with Morris and a film clip. Thanks to lithub.com for the source material.
Economics scholar Bill Lazonick, who teaches at UMass Lowell, contributes to the global discussion about money, labor, and ownership. Here is his latest, co-written for the Korea Times. “Disappearing Act of the U.S. Middle Class.” While pressing for restructuring, value extractors and academics who justified this activity argued that…
I’m not insensitive to the condition of the White Working Class today, which as an identity politics category seems accepted by chin-stroking pundits in comparison to Environmentalists, now some kind of No Go Zone for political strategists if you listen to the opinion writers (Don’t pander to those Green people).…
This post was first heard as a radio essay on the Sunrise program of WUML, 92.5 FM, at UMass Lowell. Executive producer Chris Dunlap assembled writers in the area for the daily essay feature, a popular component of the morning public affairs show. I have shared this essay with rh.com readers…
Note from Henri Marchand: Like its subject this essay has been around, appearing first as a Sunrise radio essay on the former UMass Lowell-produced morning show, re-wrapped as a “Guest Column” piece in the Sun, and later posted on this blog. At Paul Marion’s request I re-gift it once more…
I knew a politician who used to say that he inflated the skill and strategy of an opponent whenever he ran for office, typically worried about his opponent locking up volunteers, endorsements, and donors before he himself would get to the sources of those advantages. Inevitably, though, he found that…
In company with our readers, I have been thinking about the election results and reading articles left-right-and-center for a week. How did Donald Trump manage one of the epic upsets in American political history? Why did so many people who analyze government and politics for a living miss what was…
Michael Moore had his finger on the Trump revolution months ago. He predicted the wins in Penn-Mich-Wisc-Ohio, as well as the Jesse Ventura Effect of voters making mischief because they can. Now he says get up off the mat if you were not for Trump and get to work. That’s…