All results / Stories / Joe Atkins
National
A Cold War Mentality
Back in the summer of 1992, just months after the failed coup that led to the fall of communism and Boris Yeltsin's rise to leadership in a new post-Soviet Russia, …
National
Political Homelessness
It's hard not to feel a little politically homeless these days. I'm thinking of that old folk song, "Sometimes I feel like a motherless child."
Economy
OPINION: The Business of Us All
I settled comfortably into my favorite chair one recent night and began watching the best Christmas movie ever: the 1951 version of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol."
Immigration
OPINION: Reform for a Broken System
The Salas family is one of many in Mississippi and the U.S. caught in the madness of the immigration debate and politicians' failure to pass real and meaningful reform to …
Economy
OPINION: Art and Politics in Mississippi
This is a state justly proud of its contributions to the nation's musical, literary and artistic heritage.
Politics
OPINION: The End of the Eastland Machine
Like his mentor, Eastland, whose long stretch of power included a statewide network of lieutenants, cronies, operatives and ward-heelers who could make or break an upcoming politician’s career, Brad Dye …
Immigration
OPINION: Huddled Masses Yearning to Break Free
The world's largest gulag today is in the United States, where a quarter of the world's prison population is behind bars, and Mississippi is at the heart of that gulag …
Education
OPINION: Tickled to See Teenagers Restarting the Revolution
Writer and champion of social justice Dorothy Day once said that "fighting for a cause is part of the zest of life. ... What we need is a revolution. Each …
Civil Rights
OPINION: Immigration and the First Amendment
My late friend Marty Fishgold, a longtime labor writer in New York City, liked to say that "good journalism is a subversive activity" because it tells truth to power.
OPINION: New Orleans, A Good Idea
A different kind of musician, Bob Dylan, says New Orleans is a city where the ghosts of the dead and the laughter of the living are never far apart.
Character Acting With Harry Dean Stanton
Harry Dean Stanton, who died this month at the age of 91, was a "character actor," a term he didn't particularly like, one of those working stiffs of the Big …
Business
OPINION: Reflections After the Union Loss
In These Times writer Joe Allen says the Nissan-Canton election loss "is nothing less than a knockout punch ending for the foreseeable future any efforts by the UAW to organize …
Education
OPINION: The Trojan Horse of Education
My high school had one, and maybe yours did, too—the toughest teacher in the school.
Labor Rights, Civil Rights
A group of workers, preachers and activists traveled from Mississippi to Detroit recently to proclaim what should be a core issue of 2014. "Labor rights are civil rights," Open Door …
A Quantum Leap
Johnny McPhail and Lana Turner have something in common. The six-feet-four-inch, 215-pound, longhaired, mustachioed north Mississippi farm boy-turned-actor and the Hollywood sex siren of yesteryear both got discovered in a …
Business
A French Government Official Weighs in on Nissan
A top deputy in the French National Assembly is calling on the French government to weigh in on behalf of workers at the giant Nissan plant in Canton who want …
State
Told You So About #MSLeg
In the poorest, most woe-begotten state in the United States, the Mississippi Troika and their loyal minions have managed to cut even deeper into woefully underfunded state education, health care, …
Rebelling Against the Rebellion
Newt Knight is described as a "deserter, renegade and assassin" on the website of the local Sons of the Confederate Veterans chapter in Jones County, but Lew Smith in nearby …
Business
Nissan: At the Union Crossroads
Poor ol' Mississippi, so poor it can't even keep its roads paved and bridges repaired, has thus far spent $1.3 billion on taxpayer subsidies to keep Nissan in Canton. Nissan …
Civil Rights
Fighting an Old War
While Russia and Confederate statues deserve media coverage, they are also easy targets that don't challenge the corporate state.
