The Many Sounds of Black Lives Matter
Since lockdown began, I have become essentially reliant on the This Is Janet Jackson playlist on Spotify for my emotional well-being. Early on, I decided to make this reclusive pop star, whose hits...
View ArticleOur Summer of Financial Ruin
The number of coronavirus cases in the United States has continued to climb in at least 23 states and reached record highs this week in Florida, Texas, and Oklahoma, among other places. By the end of...
View ArticleBill Barr Forgot How to Be an Attorney General
Attorney General Bill Barr had already left few doubts about his commitment—or lack thereof—to the American rule of law before this month, having spent the past year carving out a role as President...
View ArticleAmerica Has Failed the Existential-Crisis Test
In March and April, as a shell-shocked planet tried to deal with a deadly pandemic no one understood, some people in the climate community found a silver lining: At least the world was united in trying...
View ArticleAmerica’s Cop Problem Is Also a Gun Problem
On the evening of June 15, all hell broke loose in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Police were called to a protest, where a man had attacked several protesters, pulled a gun, and shot someone in the crowd....
View ArticleI Still Do Water Drops Because the Covid Crisis Hasn’t Ended the Border Crisis
In some ways, the pandemic has changed my work at No More Deaths. In other ways, it’s exactly the same: Every day we get up early and load up our trucks and go out to different places to leave water....
View ArticleTemping for the One Percent
It’s 7:00 p.m. The office is empty, silent. I’ve dimmed every lamp, neatly stacked the newspapers, closed every conference room door, and shut down the computer at the front desk—which is my desk. Fox...
View ArticleHow to Fix America’s Broken Guest-Worker System
There’s an understandably strong temptation to condemn President Donald Trump for suspending guest-worker visas through the end of 2020. His executive order is far too sweeping, it invites retaliation...
View ArticleA Dream of Lasting Solidarity at the Dyke March
The march began soaked in the thrill of being outdoors, near the water, in Brooklyn Bridge Park: Sun bounced off skin, and glances were exchanged over bicycle handlebars. Held annually since 1993 in...
View ArticleJamaal Bowman and the Democratic Insurgency That Could Help Save the Planet
Jamaal Bowman is going to Washington. The 44-year-old former public school principal with a Ph.D. in education—who ran to “complete the work of Reconstruction,” enact national rent control, and bring...
View ArticleJohn Bolton’s Accidentally Unflattering Self-Portrait
It is a remarkable thing that in our sharply divided political environment, John Bolton has emerged as a rare unifying figure: Almost no one approves of him. Bolton’s saga and that of his book, The...
View ArticleThe Democrats’ Future Depends on D.C. Statehood
The long debate around voting rights in Washington, D.C., which has been renewed this week ahead of Friday’s House vote on statehood for the capital, didn’t actually begin in that city. It predates the...
View ArticleStop Printing the R-Word
Last August, Washington Post columnist Theresa Vargas wrote about a third-party poll on public perception of the name and mascot of the Washington NFL team. I won’t print it here because it’s a slur....
View ArticleWhy Isn’t the Supreme Court on Twitter?
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court took an adventurous leap into the twentieth century. The coronavirus pandemic had made it impossible for the justices to safely hold their planned oral arguments in...
View ArticleThe Justice Department’s Fake Fight Against Sex Trafficking
When the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas announced it had seized another advertising website used by sex workers, QAnon followers loaded its Twitter feed down with patriotic...
View ArticleHow America Exports Police Violence Around the World
As the protest movement responding to the police killing of George Floyd has erupted across the country in recent weeks, my now habitual encounters with police clad in full riot gear in my usually calm...
View ArticleThe Trump Cult Is Loyal to an Ideology, Not the Man
As America heads toward a critical election, much of the world wonders whether Trump loyalists will have a change of heart. Adding to the list of national and international crises since Donald Trump...
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How the Confederates Conquered America’s “Home of the Infantry”
Few bases are as important to a military service’s identity as Fort Benning, the “home of the infantry,” is to the United States Army. It is there, along the Georgia-Alabama border, where young men...
View ArticleIs BlackRock the New Vampire Squid?
BlackRock is having a very good pandemic. The world’s largest asset manager has been tapped by the Federal Reserve to oversee three expansive government debt-buying programs meant to stave off economic...
View ArticleD.C. Statehood Is a Test of Biden’s Political Courage
On Friday, House Democrats are all but certain to pass a bill making the District of Columbia the nation’s fifty-first state, marking the first time in history a house of Congress has formally approved...
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