Chicago in the 1880s was a deadly place. In an era before modern medicine or sanitation, the large immigrant populations sustained themselves by working the most dangerous jobs. Workplace accidents were exceedingly common, and death at work a regular possibility. People started work young; wages were pitifully low, and hours brutally long. In no small […]
Archives for April 2021
Vee & Me Up In Here
DMX is dead. Admittedly, when he blew up in late 1990s, he wasn’t my go to for hip hop, although I did appreciate him. He was unapologetically rough. He was uncompromisingly raw, despite slick production. That man embraced hell and darkness on his first release and you’re like WTF. When that Ruff Ryders Anthem and […]
Recurring Dreams
My friend and fellow Hard Crackers editor Chris Alexander is largely responsible for this one. Chris is a medical technologist in the emergency room of a busy downtown hospital in Detroit. He performs CT scans (what they used to call CAT Scans, which are just big X-Ray machines). If you’ve ever been wheeled into the […]
Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory – Two Short Essays
More Confusion – No Wonder! By Mike Morgan If there was a board game in which the winner would reveal the official historic and current U.S. position towards most of the Far East peoples and their various nation states, what would it be called: Duplicity; Carrots and Sticks; Topsy Turvy; or Leapfrog? Perhaps War or […]
Special Issue: A Tribute to Noel Ignatiev
Noel Ignatiev started the Hard Crackers project in early 2016. It was his brainchild. Noel steadfastly maintained that the so-called ordinary people of our world hold in their grasp the potential to be extraordinary in all endeavors, including the pursuit of revolutionary change to form a new liberated society. As Marx wrote, so Noel insisted: […]