The Historical Amnesia of Joe Biden’s Candidacy
Recently, two Baby Boomers born in the mid-’50s said things that worried me. One expressed surprise when I alluded to Richard Nixon’s underhanded dealings at the Paris peace talks in 1968; he didn’t...
View ArticleConservatives: We’ll Spill Blood to Keep Our Guns
Last month, Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke proposed a modest solution to the relentless tide of mass shootings: a mandatory buyback program for every AR-15 in the country. The View...
View ArticleThe Best Way to Fight Fires in the Amazon
G-7 summits, gathering the world’s most powerful men and women around a table, have previously dealt with issues like North Korea, nuclear proliferation, Iran, Russia, trade deals, terrorism. At last...
View ArticleIs Joker Just a Movie?
Joker won’t come out in America until October 4, but after its Venice premiere this week, a critical maelstrom is already aswirl. Joaquin Phoenix plays Arthur Fleck—the Joker before he was the Joker—a...
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The Fall of the Meritocracy
In 1958, sociologist Michael Young wrote a dark satire called The Rise of the Meritocracy. The term “meritocracy” was Young’s own coining, and he chose it to denote a new aristocracy based on expertise...
View ArticleThe Grassroots Battle to Save Democracy
In the wake of another mass shooting at the hands of another AR-15-armed gunman and a powerful hurricane heralding the beginning of a dangerous storm season, the policy conversation in the Democratic...
View ArticleThe Political Overreaction to Walmart’s P.R. Strategy
Tuesday was a pivotal day in American history, judging from certain corners of the political commentariat. That morning, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon declared that “the status quo is unacceptable,”...
View ArticleThe Democratic Party’s Addiction to Dirty Money
After years of largely ignoring climate change, CNN’s seven-hour marathon forum poured a Gatorade bath of climate content all over America’s head. It was neither pretty, nor fun. And Joe Biden, the...
View ArticleBoris Johnson Goes for Broke
It’s been a week equal parts hellish and historic in the British Parliament. The Conservatives lost their majority in a dramatic mid-session defection, a “Rebel Alliance” of Conservative members of...
View ArticleWe’re Trapped in the Dystopian Aftermath of 9/11
The FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center was created in 2003 because, as a FAQ on its web site explains, “The 9/11 Commission report found that agencies did not share counterterrorism information in an...
View ArticleBreitbart News Is the Real Mustering of Digital Jacobins
Recent tragicomic events present a Bret Stephens or a David Brooks a wonderful opportunity to sound off on the excesses of the social media mob—the Politics of Certitude, the digital Jacobins and their...
View ArticleMy hair is falling out
So give it to the midnight crows and let them bring it toa little black girl should she set out seeds of a hungry sunflower. May they wrap it around a chip of bright amber or tuck it inside the nostril...
View ArticleHarvest
I have grown older without noticing like turning now the inter- section sleet slick in shining darkness and two...
View ArticleJames Mattis’s Bizarre Cult of “Lethality”
The dawn of industrialized killing in the trenches of World War I birthed a constellation of euphemisms to gloss over the horrors of mortality in modern war, from “clicking it” to “drawing your full...
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How Succession Skewers the Rich
The second season of Succession, HBO’s darkly funny drama about billionaire tycoon Logan Roy (Brian Cox) and his restive, grown-up children, opens with an episode called “The Summer Palace,” even...
View ArticlePramila Jayapal’s Vision of Power
In July, in the midst of messy negotiations to send billions in emergency funding to the border, a fight over the future of the Democratic Party bubbled into view. For months, Democrats had been...
View ArticleThe Also-Rans Hoping for a New Hampshire Miracle
Amy Klobuchar sat on a couch Saturday afternoon amid the used-paper-plate debris of her skybox in a hockey arena after a long day at the New Hampshire Democratic convention. The three-term Minnesota...
View ArticleThe Right Wing’s Cultural Civil War Is a Drag
A little over a week ago, seven people were killed during a shooting spree in Midland-Odessa, Texas. It was August’s third high-profile mass shooting—following attacks that killed 31 in Dayton, Ohio...
View ArticleThe Tragedy of Trump Diplomacy
After 18 years of war, the United States had a fighting chance at ending the longest continuous conflict in its history. A deal was within reach with the Afghan Taliban. Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S....
View ArticleTwo Dans, Two Elections, and No Winners
Meet Dan. Dan is in favor of increasing the ballooning military budget. He likes Medicaid expansion, but isn’t so hot on this Medicare-for-all deal. He’s a solar energy entrepreneur, so he’s in favor...
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