BOURGEOIS FEMINISTS

ERIK SCHREIBER—the movie minimizes the reactionary, warmongering politics of Fox News (and of its main characters) and fails to examine how these politics enable the disgusting behavior of Ailes and others. Bombshell obscures the class-based politics of its characters and promotes the politics of gender. The film’s depiction of Kelly as a champion of women’s rights rings false.

MARGO STILES—When you talk decadence in a world overrun by morally indifferent humans, Bravo’s shows, (an NBC property) nurtured by Andy Cohen, especially the Real Housewives franchises, take the cake. I admit watching them often: they CAN be entertaining. But what bothers me no end is how this bunch of mostly well-off people WASTE their celebrityhood in endless petty bickering punctuated by bouts of outrageous self-pampering. Their egos are so fragile, their vision of life so myopic, that the slightest real or imagined slight is cause for a feud that can last ages.

We speak to political commentator Jimmy Dore on the Mueller report’s summary showing no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, he says the media has no credibility and is bought by the people they’re supposed to be investigating, says the failure of the American neoliberal system led to Donald Trump and gives his take on US regime change attempts in Venezuela.

TERJE MALOY—There is nothing new about liberal social reformers falling into lockstep when the country goes to war. British Emmeline Pankhurst was the most prominent member in the Women’s Suffrage movement. She founded the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1902. After a remarkable and highly radical campaign for women’s rights, including hunger strikes, arson and window smashings, the group changed from a reformist program to a hard right reactionary nationalism as soon as the war broke out.

JASON HIRTHLER—As Chris Hedges remarks, we still have the “iconography and language” of democracy, but we are made to “kneel before the dictates of the marketplace” and “structure our society around the primacy of profit.” We are left with an institutional “facade.” Which is why it is so proper to treat with derision the reeling hysteria of politicians who claim, in comical hand-wringing interviews, that “our democracy” is under attack.