Ilana Novick
AlterNet
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Past articles by Ilana:
Paul Krugman: Trump's Supporters Have Voted for Their Own Economic Ruin
Red states will be hit especially hard by Republican policies. The regions of America that elected Donald Trump voted for their own economic destruction. Sure, he campaigned on a promise that he would magically bring back long-closed factories and their long-gone jobs, but as we've learned many times over, that was a lie. → Read More
'It's Our Time and We Know What to Do': Activists Plan Next Steps After March For Our Lives
First, they marched. Now, they vote. Joaquin Oliver loved basketball. So much so, family friend Carol L. Chenkin told AlterNet, that his father, despite not being a huge sports fan, became his team’s coach as a way to bond with his son. On February 14, Joaquin was among the 17 people killed in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. He was buried in Dwyane… → Read More
5 Wild Revelations From Stormy Daniels' '60 Minutes' Interview
The adult film star details her alleged tryst with Trump and so much more. Stormy Daniels is not to be underestimated. A former candidate for Senate in Louisiana, the adult film star and director has proven one of Trump's most effective adversaries since first speaking out about their affair in 2006.Despite the president's best attempts to keep her off the air, Daniels sat down with 60 Minutes’… → Read More
Should We Really Be Allowing the Pentagon to Teach Target Practice to Teens on Campus?
One teacher is on a mission to prove there's no place for guns in schools. On Monday night, Pat Elder taught his usual GED class at Great Hills High School in Maryland. On Tuesday morning, he woke up to the news that his building had been the site of yet another school shooting; just before 8am, a male student with a handgun opened fire, injuring two fellow students and exchanging fire with… → Read More
'A Redneck Revolution': Takeaways From the West Virginia Teacher Strike
Could the success of the strike turn the political tide in West Virginia, where Trump won by 69 percent? West Virginia teachers returned to the classroom last Thursday after a 13-day strike over low pay and poor health benefits. Governor Jim Justice agreed to a 5 percent pay increase, a critical fix for the state that ranks 48 out of 50 states in teacher compensation. → Read More
Conservatives in D.C. Are Sad Because They Can't Get Dates
It's hard out there for a right-wing snowflake looking for love. Pity the single Republican in D.C. Not only do many of them have to work for a man who starts trade (though hopefully not nuclear) wars because he didn't get enough sleep, but as a few GOPers anonymously complained to the Washingtonian, they can't get a date, especially not across party lines. It turns out that as the opportunities… → Read More
How to Survive Prison: New Documentary Tackles Horrors of Wrongful Conviction
The film tells the wrenching stories of wrongly convicted men and women. "The criminal justice system is broken," Jeffrey Deskovic, an executive producer of the new documentary "Survivor's Guide to Prison," told AlterNet in a phone interview. He should know. At the age of 17, Deskovic was wrongfully convicted of the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl and sentenced to 15 years in… → Read More
Paul Krugman: The GOP Has No Moral Character to Speak Of
The Parkland school shooting marks a new low for the president and his party. Over the weekend, President Trump used the Parkland, Florida school shooting as an excuse to attack the FBI, and went on an extended rant about Russian meddling in the 2016 election. As Paul Krugman writes on Tuesday, this outburst after 17 children were murdered was hurtful even to those who have come to expect the… → Read More
Dems in Congress Demand Hearings for Trump's Sexual Harassment Accusers
This Presidents' Day, let's fight for the survivors. Donald Trump was elected president despite his history of sexual harassment. While in office, he's continued to staff his cabinet with men accused of sexual abuse, and continue to defend most of them, like former Staff Secretary Rob Porter, who was accused by two ex-wives of domestic abuse. → Read More
Could This App Help Fix the Tech Industry's Sexual Harassment Problem?
When workers can't trust HR, they turn to anonymous apps and whisper networks for justice. The exposure of Harvey Weinstein's decades of sexual predation opened the floodgates for women—and some men—to reveal their stories of abuse at the hands of powerful men. The #MeToo campaign, started by activist Tarana Burke a decade ago and reignited by actresses like Alyssa Milano and Rose McGowan,… → Read More
5 Activism Suggestions That Worked: When Your Representatives Don't Listen
One key to success: Keep your tent wide and your path narrow. Nearly every Friday since Trump took office, constituents of longtime Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) took time out of their busy lives to visit his Morristown, New Jersey office to encourage him to protect Obamacare, to vote no on a GOP tax plan, and most importantly, to hold a town hall meeting (which it seemed like he bent… → Read More
Predatory Lending Firms Have a Revolting New Scheme to Cash In on #MeToo
Where some see emotional trauma, others see an opportunity to make a quick buck. The #MeToo movement has been a strain on the bottom line of giant corporations scrambling to protect their profits in the wake of sexual harassment allegations. But where some companies see financial disaster, others see an opportunity. → Read More
Will Dems Do the Right Thing and Make the Dream Act a Red Line?
The party's entire base is behind it. After what seems like three million news cycles and hot takes on "sh*thole countries," Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the end of legal protections, commonly known as DACA, for nearly 800,000 Americans who came to the United States as children. Many of these people, known as the Dreamers, have gone to college, bought homes and worked in the U.S. for… → Read More
Oprah Will Not Save Us—We Have to Save Ourselves
The Golden Globes speech wasn't a campaign announcement; it was a call to arms. Despite the post-2016 surge of activism—the protests and the calls to Congress that have been the only silver lining in this cesspool of a presidency—the reaction to Oprah Winfrey's acceptance speech at the Golden Globes suggests liberals have yet to give up on their dream of an avenging angel. It was not a campaign… → Read More
Paul Krugman: We're Losing Two Critical Safeguards Against Despotism in Trump's White House
Without these, our democracy is seriously at risk. Donald Trump is not the first mediocre man to be president of the United States, Krugman reminds weary residents of Trump's America in his Tuesday column. → Read More
Charles Blow: The GOP Is Covering for an Obvious Madman
Republicans are violating their Constitutional oath to protect the country from harm. Donald Trump is mentally and emotionally unfit to hold the presidency of the United States, Charles Blow reminds his readers in his Monday column. This is neither an armchair diagnosis nor an op-ed columnist punching above his weight class, but a truth that even those closest to the president know. → Read More
One Woman's Crusade to Help Educate Female Prisoners About Drug Addiction
Deborah Jiang-Stein is helping incarcerated women prepare for life after prison. Deborah Jiang-Stein found inspiration for the unPrison Project in a pair of reading glasses. Jiang-Stein, the founder and CEO of the organization, which teaches literacy, mentoring and life skills for women and girls in prisons, was born in prison to a heroin-addicted mother. She struggled with addiction and brushes… → Read More
Is a Twitter Purge of the Alt-Right Underway?
The site just banned a prominent white supremacist, who could be the first of many. Finally bowing to public pressure, Twitter is enforcing a series of rules Monday that will potentially suspend accounts affiliated with hate groups, and lead to a long overdue crackdown on the so-called alt right, Recode reported on Sunday. → Read More
Paul Krugman: The GOP Went Off the Deep End Years Ago
Anyone who didn't see this monstrous tax bill coming wasn't paying attention. Steven Mnuchin's Treasury Department attempted to fool the public this week with a one-page document claiming to prove that the GOP's beloved tax cuts would pay for themselves. → Read More
JPMorgan Chase Is Funding and Profiting From Private Immigration Prisons
The giant bank stands to benefit from the Trump administration's mass incarceration of immigrants. One of America's largest banks, JPMorgan Chase, is quietly financing the immigration detention centers that have detained an average of 26,240 people per day through July 2017, according to a new report by the Center for Popular Democracy and Make the Road New York. → Read More