Inside the Fight to Shape Biden’s Climate Policy
Once one of the weakest Democratic presidential hopefuls on climate, presumptive nominee Joe Biden won activists’ praise when his campaign announced it was bringing Bernie Sanders–aligned progressive...
View ArticleThe Gentlemanly Hater’s Guide to Gone With the Wind
Until this week, I had never seen Gone With the Wind. That neglect was one of the very few things keeping me feeling young at age 43. But then HBO temporarily pulled the movie from its streaming...
View ArticleLetting Jeffrey Epstein’s Pals Off the Hook
This we know: On August 10, 2019, Jeffrey Epstein, a prolific pedophile and the most high-profile prisoner in America, died early in the morning in his prison cell at the Metropolitan Correctional...
View ArticleThe Pandemic Welfare State for the One Percent
In addition to claiming the lives of over 110,000 people, throwing the economy into ruin, and putting more than 30 million people out of work, the pandemic has inconvenienced the rich. Forced to...
View ArticleTrump Is Losing His Hold on the Senior Vote
If you had any doubt that America is a gerontocracy, consider that we’ve been talking for three days now about the president’s uncertain gait as he descended a ramp at West Point on Saturday. On the...
View ArticleAbolish These Police Departments
As the Minneapolis City Council took its first steps toward dismantling its police department, and national commentators debated what it would mean to “defund the police,” I thought of two stories I...
View ArticleThe Police Can’t Shake Their Persecution Complex
By now, you may be familiar with the Fake Shake Shack Attack: Three NYPD officers fell sick after drinking milkshakes from Shake Shack, leading two different police unions to accuse the restaurant of...
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Florida Man Leads His State to the Morgue
To get a sense of Florida’s priorities amid a viral pandemic, economic ruin, and a campaign for black lives, just look to the letter I received from state Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis on...
View ArticleAt-Will Employment Is the Real Cancel Culture
On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled by a 6–3 vote that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects gay and trans people from being fired on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity. The...
View ArticleRepublican Phantasmagoria
With the end of the Cold War, and the victory of democratic market-capitalism over Marxist-Leninist socialism, Republicans were set free to concentrate their fire on dismantling the remaining legacies...
View ArticleJohn Bolton: American Coward
Long ago, in the distant mists of the Before Time, the House of Representatives impeached President Donald Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of justice. Both charges came in response to Trump’s...
View ArticleHow to Survive Supermax
This work is supported by a grant from the Solitary Confinement Reporting Project, managed by Solitary Watch with funding from the Vital Projects Fund. Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the...
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Lessons From the Long Movement to Defund the Military
Since the beginning of June, mass protests in over 750 towns and cities have decried the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis by police officer Derek Chauvin—and they have remade the possibilities...
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How Democracy Dies at the Ballot Box
On Saturday, April 4, Wisconsin Republican state lawmakers gaveled in a special legislative session. Seconds later, they gaveled the session to a close. With the Covid-19 pandemic rapidly spreading,...
View ArticleTrump’s Ineptitude Keeps Dream Alive for DACA Recipients
The Trump administration’s incompetence has once again undone one of its signature policy initiatives. The Supreme Court handed Trump a major defeat on Thursday in his campaign to end the Deferred...
View ArticleA Worker Uprising at Planned Parenthood
As Covid-19 hit New York, staff at a number of Planned Parenthood health centers found themselves facing two crises at once: keeping health services going and keeping their jobs. As some health centers...
View ArticleThe Government Can Afford Anything It Wants
If you’re like me, once or twice in your life you have jolted awake from the edge of sleep wondering, How exactly does the government pay for the military? As we all know, the military is an expensive...
View ArticleAmerica Owes More to Its “Essential” Immigrant Workers
Beatriz knows that the piece of paper she was given by her employer, certifying her as a critical worker, is not what makes her essential. “I know they say now we’re essential, but we always have been,...
View ArticleTurn Rikers Island Into a Solar Farm
The past and present of Rikers Island can tell you a lot about the United States. Richard Riker—the owner of the island, which had been in his slave-owning Dutch-German family since the 1660s—was an...
View ArticleIn Miss Juneteenth, a Mother’s Dream Deferred
Among the many schadenfreude-themed reality TV shows popular in America in the late 2000s, beauty pageants, particularly those involving children with capped smiles and unhinged mothers, form their own...
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