David Rosen Writes

on sex, politics & American life

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Publications – 2020-2016

2020

  • Insurgency Matters: Progressive DAs May Change Policing, CounterPunch, December 17, 2020.
  • Will Trump Break-Up the Republic Party?, CounterPunch, December 12, 2020.
  • Covid-19, Schools and the Digital Divide, CounterPunch, December 2, 2020.
  • White Fright: The Sexual Panic at the Heart of America’s Racist History by Jane Dailey, New York Journal of Books, November 24, 2020.
  • Will Biden’s FCC End the Digital Divide?, The Progressive, November 20, 2020.
  • Biden’s Victory: Is the Worst Yet to Come?, CounterPunch, November 12, 2020.
  • How the U.S. Became an Inferior Communications Nation, The Progressive, November 9, 2020.
  • Police Violence: a Crisis of Masculinity?, CounterPunch, November 5, 2020.
  • After Covid: Will the Recession Become a Depression?, CounterPunch, October 28, 2020.
  • Fundamentalist Christians, Sex & the Supreme Court, Medium, October 20, 2020.
  • How the Christian Right Won the Culture Wars, CounterPunch, October 15, 2020.
  • Kennedy, Sex & Prostitutes, Medium, October 12, 2020.
  • Protests & Provocateurs: Infiltrators are Disrupting BLM Protests, CounterPunch, October 8, 2020.
  • King of the Swamp: How Trump turned the federal government into a thieves paradise,” The Progressive, October 6, 2020.
  • Donald Trump, Sex & Prostitutes, Medium, October 4, 2020.
  • Police Violence: Institutionalized Violence, CounterPunch, October 2, 2020.
  • The Dildo: A Short History of a Long Story, Medium, September 26, 2020.
  • Does It Really Matter Who Wins the Election?, CounterPunch, September 25, 2020.
  • The Sex Industry in the Time of Covid-19, Medium, September 24, 2020.
  • The Riches of This Land: The Untold, True Story of America’s Middle Class by Jim Tankersley, a review,  New York Journal of Books, September 11, 2020.
  • From Hoovervilles to Trumpvilles, CounterPunch, September 11, 2020.
  • The Politics of Looting, CounterPunch, September 4, 2020.
  • In Defense of Looting: A Riotous History of Uncivil Action by Vicky Osterweil, a review, New York Journal of Books, September 2, 2020.
  • A Moment of Social Crisis: Recalling the 1970s, CounterPunch, August 14, 2020.
  • Easy Targets:  Trump’s Attack on Transgender People, CounterPunch, August 7, 2020.
  • Globalization & the End of the American Dream, CounterPunch, August 4, 2020.
  • Uprising: Mass Protests Rock the Nation, CounterPunch, July 24, 2020.
  • What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About #MeToo: Essays on Sex, Authority and the Mess of Life by JoAnn Wypijewski, a review, New York Journal of Books, July 9, 2020.
  • Inequality and the End of the America Dream, CounterPunch, July 10, 2020.
  • It’s Now Ghislaine Maxwell’s Turn, CounterPunch, July 8, 2020.
  • White Nationalists on the Attack, CounterPunch, July 3, 2020.
  • Class & Otherness: A Peculiar Dialectic, CounterPunch, June 26, 2020.
  • Riots: An All-American Tradition, CounterPunch, June 19, 2020.
  • Two Pandemics: COVID-19 and the 1918 Influenza, CounterPunch, June 12, 2020.
  • Trump’s  Election to Lose, CounterPunch, June 5, 2020.
  • Coronavirus & the Telecom Crisis, CounterPunch, May 29, 2020.
  • Silence=Death, Larry Kramer, RIP, CounterPunch, May 28, 2020.
  • “They Are Expendable”: Who’s Paying to Reopen Business?, CounterPunch, May 8, 2020.
  • “Coronavirus and the Increase in Domestic Violence, CounterPunch, May 1, 2020.
  • Sex Life in the Age of the 21st-Century Plague, CounterPunch, April 27, 2020.
  • Class, Caste and the End of the American Dream, CounterPunch, April 17, 2020.
  • Coronavirus and the State-of-Emergency Pandemic, CounterPunch, April 3, 2020.
  • God’s Vengeance: The Christian Right and the Coronavirus, CounterPunch, March 27, 2020.
  • The Great 5G Hype, CounterPunch, March 20, 2020.
  • The Power Worshippers by Katherine Stewart, New York Journal of Books, March 19, 2020.
  • Abortion & the 2020 Election, CounterPunch, March 11, 2020.
  • Sanders vs. the Establishment Democrats, CounterPunch, February 14, 2020.
  • Targeting Gender Nonconforming Youth, CounterPunch, February 7, 2020.
  • Irregulator v. FCC: the Trial Begins, CounterPunch, January 17, 2020.
  • Despair in America: The Unspoken Issue of the 2020 Election, CounterPunch, January 10, 2020.
  • “3 Strikes, You’re Out!”: Strike 2: Impeachment, CounterPunch, January 1, 2019.

2019

  • A Warning by Anonymous, New York Journal of Books, December 23, 2019.
  •  Exonerated the Innocent, Incarcerate the Guilty, CounterPunch, December 23, 2019.
  • Mortality Rate: Trump & the Death of the American Dream, CounterPunch, December 13, 2019.
  • Dialects of Postmodern Sexual Identity, CounterPunch, December 3, 2019.
  • Impeachment and Trump’s 2020 Campaign Takes Shape, CounterPunch, November 22, 2019.
  • A Century of Prohibition, CounterPunch, November 15, 2019.
  • Epstein Story Continues to Unravel, CounterPunch, November 8, 2019.
  • American Radicals: How Nineteenth-Century Protest Shaped the Nation by Holly Jackson, New York Journal Books, October 7, 2019.
  • How the U.S. Military Undermines the American Economy, CounterPunch, October 4, 2019.
  • Evangelicals, Abstinence, Abortion & the Mainstreaming of Sex, CounterPunch, September 20, 2019.
  • The Likely End to Roe v. Wade?, CounterPunch, September 13, 2019.
  • Koch’s America: The Rule of the New Robber Barons, CounterPunch, September 6, 2019.
  • The End of Roe v. Wade: Inside the Right’s Plan to Destroy Legal Abortion by Robin Marty and Jessica Mason Pieklo, New York Journal of Books, August 31, 2019, 2019.
  • Sex Work & the Presidential Campaign, CounterPunch, August 30, 2019
  • The White-Nationalist Great Fear, CountPunch, August 23, 2019.
  • We’re Still Here: Pain and Politics in the Heart of Americaby Jennifer M. Silva, New York Journal of Books, August 15, 2019, 2019.
  • Postmodern Sexual Identity, CounterPunch, August 12, 2019.
  • ERA Back from the Grave?, CounterPunch, July 26, 2019.
  • Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in Americaby Christopher Leonard, New York Journal of Books, August 12, 2019, 2019.
  • Say Goodbye to MAD, But Remember the Fight for Free Expression, CounterPunch, July 19, 2019.
  • The Epstein Affair: Take #2, CounterPunch, July 10, 2019.
  • Sanctions: Failure of U.S. Foreign Policy, CounterPunch, July 5, 2019.
  • What Happened to Obscenity?, CounterPunch, June 28, 2019.
  • Sex Wars: How Sexual Pleasure Became a $50 Billion Industry and Subverted the Culture Wars, Sexuality, Gender & Policy (forthcoming).
  • Time to Break-Up the 21st Century Tech Trust, CounterPunch, June 14, 2019.
  • Taking on the FCC: Unraveling a $500 Billion Rip-Off, CounterPunch, June 7, 2019.
  • The Lost Art of Nude Fan Dancing, book reviews, Sexuality & Culture, May 22, 2019
  • Florida’s Sex Wars: The Battle to Decriminalize Sex Work, CounterPunch, May 17, 2019.
  • Suicide: An American Nightmare, CounterPunch, May 10, 2019.
  • Trump and False Consciousness, CounterPunch, April 26, 2019.
  • Trump’s One-Dimensional Gender Identity, CounterPunch, April 19, 2019.
  • Abortion Wars Get Meaner, CounterPunch, April 12, 2019.
  • Facebook Follies: Incompetence, Willful Blindness or the Profit Motive?, CounterPunch, April 5, 2019.
  • Where Do the Democratic Candidates Stand?, CounterPunch, March 29, 2019.
  • Trafficking or Commercial Sex?: What Recent Exposes Reveal, CounterPunch, March 22, 2019.
  • America’s Puppet: Meet Juan Guaido, CounterPunch, March 15, 2019.
  • “Death by Despair”: Trump and the White Working Class, CounterPunch, March 8, 2019.
  • Remember the Maine?: CIA Intervention in Venezuela, CounterPunch, March 3, 2019.
  • Will Venezuela Crisis Split Democrats?, CounterPunch, February 22, 2019.
  • Will Trump Resign Before the 2020 Election?, CounterPunch, February 12, 2019.
  • After the Rise and Stall of American Feminism: Taking Back a Revolution by Lynn Chancer, New York Journal of Books, February 5, 2019.
  • The Denier-in-Chief: Trump and the Legitimation of False Consciousness, CounterPunch, February 1, 2019.
  • Roe: Preparing for the Worst, CounterPunch, January 24, 2019.
  • Handbook for a Post-Roe America by Robin Marty, New York Journal of Books, January 21, 2019.
  • The Biden Band-Aid: Will Democrats Contain the Insurgency?, CounterPunch, January 18, 2018.
  • Sexual Predators in the Era of Trump, CounterPunch, January 11, 2019.
  • Nixon and Trump: Bookends to the Culture Wars, CounterPunch, January 2, 2019.

2018

  • December 17th: International Day to End the Violence against Sex Workers, CounterPunch, December 17, 2018.
  • The Swamp Stinks: Trump & Washington’s Rot, CounterPunch, December 9, 2018.
  • Conversion Therapy is Fake Medicine, Progressive, November 30, 2018.
  • The Abortion Battle Continues, CounterPunch, November 30, 2018.
  • Amazon Deal: New York Taxpayers Fund World’s Biggest Sex-Toy Retailer, CounterPunch, November 19, 2018.
  • It’s Time to Decriminalize Sex Work, CounterPunch, November 9, 2018.
  • What Is To Be Done?:  Looking Past Trump’s Tyranny, CounterPunch, November 2, 2018.
  • Trump”s HHS & the Renewed Culture Wars, CounterPunch, October 26, 2018.
  • America’s Lost Souls: The New Lumpen-Proletariat?, CounterPunch, October 19, 2018.
  • Packing the Court in the 21st Century, CounterPunch, October 12, 2018.
  • Fake Abortion Clinics: “We’re Fighting Satan, CounterPunch, October, 5, 2018.
  • Is the U.S. in a Pre-Fascist Period?, CounterPunch, September 28, 2018.
  • Time to Decriminalize Prostitution, The Progressive, August 4, 2018.
  • The Value of Everything:Making and Taking in the Global Economy, by Mariana Mazzucato, a review, New York Journal of Books, September 25, 2018.
  • As the World Turns: From Empire to Imperialism to Globalization?, CounterPunch, September 21, 2018.
  • Why Stop at Roe: How “Settled Law” Can be Overturned, CounterPunch, September 21, 2018.
  • When a Kiss is Not a Kiss, CounterPunch, September 7, 2018.
  • Prostitution in the Age of Trump, CounterPunch, July 27, 2018.
  • Trump’s Fake Boom: Growing Despair Amidst Insecure Economic Recovery, Counterpunch, August 31, 2018.
  • Hate Gets it Done: Why America is Far Scarier Than Trump, CounterPunch, August 24, 2018.
  • It’s Time to Decriminalize Sex Work, The Progressive, August 14, 2018.
  • Trump’s Politics: Power, Powerlessness and the Perfect Target, CounterPunch, August 7, 2018,
  • Prostitution in the Age of Trump, CounterPunch, July 27, 2018.
  • Trump’s Supreme Pick Escalates America’s War on Sex, CounterPunch, July 20, 2018.
  • The New McCarthyism: Is the Electric Chair Next for the Left?, CounterPunch, July 13, 2018.
  • Lest We Forget: Recalling the Second Culture Wars, CounterPunch, June 29, 2018.
  • The Trials of Nina McCall: Sex, Surveillance, and the Decades-Long Government Plan to Imprison “Promiscuous” Women by Scott W. Stern, New York Journal of Books, June 26, 2018
  • Thin Red Line: Flirting v Harassment, CounterPunch, May 9, 2018.
  • The War on Sex Trafficking: A Culture Wars’ Racket, CounterPunch, April 27, 2018.
  • Trump v. Kennedy: Presidential Sex Scandals and the Transformation of Shame, CounterPunch, April 13, 2018.
  • Its Time to Radically Redistribute Social Wealth, CounterPunch, April 6, 2018.
  • The Future Adventures of the President and the Porn Star, CounterPunch, March 22, 2018.
  • The Most Dangerous Man in the World: Timothy Leary, Richard Nixon and the Hunt for the Fugitive Kind of LSD by  Bill Minutanglio and Steven L. Davis, New York Journal of Books, March 13, 2018.
  • Can Class Struggle and Identity Politics Be Reconciled?, CounterPunch, March 9, 2018.
  • Killing by the Number: How Many More to Follow?, CounterPunch, March 1, 2018.
  • For Some Reason, Being White Still Matter, CounterPunch, February, 23, 2018.
  • Donald Trump’s Pathetic Sex Life, CounterPunch, February 13, 2018.
  • Will Tump Make It Through Year Two, Counterpunch, February 8, 2018.
  • Why Trump’s Support is Slipping, CounterPunch, January 31, 2018.
  • From Moral Outrage to Moral Panic: the Limits of Public Rage, CounterPunch, January 29, 2018
  • The New Gilded Age: First Time Arrogance, the Second Time Vengeance, CounterPunch, January 9, 2018.

2017

    • What Happened to the 40-hr Workweek?, CounterPunch, December 29, 2017.
    • Is It Time to Decriminalize Prostitution?, CouterPunch, December 18, 2017.
    • The Second Coming of the KKK: The Klu Klux Klan of the 1920s and the American Political Tradition, by Linda Gordon, New York Journal of Book, December 17, 2017.
    • Politics Trumps Religion: The Immorality of the Republican “Christian” Morality, CounterPunch, December 12, 2017
    • Century of the National Security State: A New Subversives List?, CounterPunch, November 29, 2017.
    • Lone-Wolf Terrorism: A Symptom of the Deepening Social Crisis, New Politics, November 10, 2017.
    • Of Sex Abusers and Sex Offenders, CounterPunch, November 17, 2017.
    • Terrorism & White Men’s Murderous Rage, CounterPunch, November 7, 2017.
    • Paul Robeson v. Jackie Robinson: A Lost Moment in American History, Black Star News, November 7, 2017
    • Is God Finally Dead?: The Triumph of Halloween’s Sacrilegious Celebrations, Counterpunch November 3, 2017.
    • The Naughty Nineties: The Triumph of the American Libido by David Friend, New York Journal of Books, November 3, 2017.
    • Male Sexual Violence: As American as Cherry Pie, CounterPunch, October 20, 2017.
  • Trump & the 21st Century Family, CounterPunch, October 10, 2017.
  • True Sex: The Lives of Trans Men at the Turn of the Twentieth Century by Emily Skidmore, New York Journal of Books, October 2, 2017.
  • “Bag-the-Fag”: Entrapping Sex Offenders, CounterPunch, September 29, 2017.
  • Populist vs. Progressives: Are They Still Relevant?, CounterPunch, September 15, 2017.
  • What Gender?: The Evolving Definition of Sexual Identity, CounterPunch, September 15, 2017.
  • Reactionary Rage: The Wars Against Those Who Threaten Those in Power, CounterPunch, September 7, 2017.
  • Do Americans Have a Right to Sexual Pleasure?, CounterPunch, September 1, 2017.
  • No More Politics as Usual, American Herald Tribune, August 30, 2017.
  • When He Was King: Ali’s Come Back in Atlanta, Black Star News, August 29, 2017.
  • Sex Robots: The Sad Future of Sexual Fantasy, CounterPunch, August 25, 2017.
  • Would Trump Execute a False Terrorist Attack to Forestall Loss of Political Power, American Herald Tribune, August 23, 2017
  • Permanent War, Permanent Failure, CounterPunch, August 18, 2017.
  • Trump & Sex: From Up-Market Hedonist to Down-Market Moralists, CounterPunch, August 11, 2017.
  • America’s Five Sex Panics, CounterPunch, July 21, 2017.
  • Trump & the Commodity of Self, CounterPunch, July 14, 2017.
  • Has the “Working Class” Lost Its Meaning?, CounterPunch, June 30, 2017.
  • The Sex Offender: The 21st Century Witch, CounterPunch, June 23, 2017.
  • An End to Conversion Therapy?, CounterPunch, June 12, 2017.
  • The War on Sex, David M. Halperin and Trevor Hoppe, editors, New York Journal of Book, June 5, 2017.
  • What’s Going on in New York?, CounterPunch, June 2, 2017.
  • Fear City: New York’s Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics by Kim Phillips-Fein, New York Journal of Book, May 26, 2017.
  • Politics and the Agent of Social Change, CounterPunch, May 12, 2017.
  • The Sexual State of the Nation: Less Sex, Higher Anxiety, CounterPunch, May 12, 2017.
  • Melania Trump: Another First Lady as Good Wife?, CounterPunch, May 5, 2017.
  • Inequality: Trump’s Challenge, Trump’s Failure, CounterPunch, May 1, 2017.
  • Fiction, Fake News and Trump’s Sexual Politics, CounterPunch, April 21, 2017.
  • Sex and the Constitution: Sex, Religion, and Law from America’s Origins to the Twenty-First Century, by Geoffrey R.   New York Journal of Books, April 11, 2017.
  • Countdown to Disaster: Trump’s Looning Afghan Crisis, CounterPunch, March 31, 2017.
  • Why Did Trump Target Transgender Youth?, CounterPunch, March 24, 2017.
  • Popular Insurgency: Reshaping the Politican Landscape, CounterPunch, March 21, 2017.
  • Respectability on Trial: Sex Crimes in New York City, 1900–1918,by Brian Donovan, New York Journal of Books, March 20, 2017.  
  • Clueless in the Face of Crisis: Democrats Continue to Flounder, CounterPunch, March 10, 2017.
  • Sexual Violence: Who Perpetrates It & Who Suffers, CounterPunch, March 3, 2017.
  • Suspect Feedoms: The Racial and Sexual Politics of Cubanidad in New York, 1823-1957, by Nancy Raquel Mirabel, book review, New York Review of Books, February 13, 2017.
  • Pigs at the Trough: Privatization of the Public Good, CounterPunch, February 3, 2017.
  • The New Censorship Wars Begin: Porn, Sex Trafficking & Backpage, CounterPunch, January 27, 2017.
  • Globalization vs Empire: Can Trump Contain the Growing Split?, CounterPunch, January 20, 2017.
  • Return of the Repressed: Trump & the Renewal of the Culture Wars, CounterPunch, January 13, 2017.
  • Secrets of the Bible Belt: Trump, Porn & the Making of the New South, CounterPunch, January 6, 2017.

2016

  • Could It Have Been Different?, CounterPunch, December 30, 2016.
  • What Happens When the Trump Bubble Bursts?, CounterPunch, December 20, 2106.
  • State Power & Terror: From Wounded Knee to Standing Rock, CounterPunch, December 6,, 2016.
  • Return of HUAC?, CounterPunch, December 2, 2016.
  • Perversions of Power: Trump’s Hedonism vs. Pence’s Puritanism, CounterPunch, November 25, 2016.
  • A New Conception of Sexual Violence, CounterPunch, November 11, 2016.
  • 16 And Not Pregnant: A Shift in the Culture War Unearthed by This Election, AlterNet, November 7, 2016.
  • The War on Drugs is a Racket, CounterPunch, October 21, 2016.
  • Was Bill Clinton the Most Sexist President?, CounterPunch, October 20, 2016.
  • What Happened to the Culture War?  CounterPunch, October 7, 2016.
  • The Great Fear:  Miscegenation, Race “Pollution” and the 2016 Election.  CounterPunch. August 19, 2016.
  • The Crack-Up: Is the Two-Party System Splintering?, CounterPunch, August 12, 2016.
  • Meet Ela Darling: The 21st Century’s First VR Porn Star, AlterNet, August 8, 2016.
  • Culture War & 2016 Election, CounterPunch, August 5, 2016.
  • Lone-Wolf Terrorism: The Chickens Are Coming Home to Roost, CounterPunch, July 15, 2016.
  • Are We Entering an Era of Postmodern Serfdom?, CounterPunch, July 8, 2016.
  • What Happened to Utopia?, CounterPunch, July 1, 2016.
  • Birth-Control Wars: Two Centuries of Struggle, CounterPunch, June 29, 2016.
  • Americans Work to Long for Too Little, CounterPunch, June 24-26, 2016.
  • The 1% Have Always Ruled America, Truthout, June 20, 2016.
  • Privatization of the Public Sphere, CounterPunch, May 20, 2016.
  • Verizon Strike Exposes Broader Shifts in Telecom Labor Conditions, TruthOut, May 13, 2016.
  • VR Sex: The Future of Porn?, CounterPunch,  May 13, 2016.
  • Job Satisfaction Under Perpetual Stagnation, CounterPunch, April 29-31, 2016.
  • Crime & Public Shaming, CounterPunch, April 15-17, 2016.
  • Culture War Zombies: The Latest Anti-Gay Campaign, CounterPunch, April 8-10, 2016.
  • Will America Ever Be Great Again?, CounterPunch, March 25, 2016.
  • Illegal Drugs, Race & the 2016 Election, CounterPunch, March 18-20, 2016.
  • An American Nightmare: Pres. Donald Trump Faces a National Security Crisis, CounterPunch, March 16, 2016.
  • Corruption, USA, CounterPunch, March 11-13, 2016.
  • Trump & the Crisis of Masculinity, CounterPunch, February 26-28, 2016.
  • 21st Century Public Shaming, CounterPunch, February 19-21, 2016.
  • When Trump Confronted a Transsexual Beauty, CounterPunch, February 12-14, 2016.
  • New Dogs, Old Barks: The Culture Wars Recalibrated, CounterPunch, January 29-31, 2016.
  • The Brooklyn Thrill-Kill Gang and the Great Comic Book Scare of the 1950s, Mariah Adlin (review), Sexuality and Culture, #20, v. 1, pp. 192-94 (January 2016).
  • Trump and GOP Promise to Maintain Diminishing “White Skin” Privilege, Black Star News, January 11, 2016.

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DAVID ROSEN is a widely published author whose books include
Sex, Sin & Subversion: The Transformation of 1950s New York’s Forbidden into America’s New Normal (2016); Sex Scandal America: Politics & the Ritual of Public Shaming (2009); Off-Hollywood: The Making & Marketing of Independent Films (1991), originally commissioned by the Sundance Institute and the Independent Feature Project. He is author of many scholarly articles, book reviews and popular pieces on media-tech, telecom, politics, sex and American life.

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