Elizabeth Warren Retreats From Medicare for All
“Why would anyone go through all the trouble of running for president just to get up on stage and talk about what’s not possible?” This is the question Elizabeth Warren posed to thumb-faced millionaire...
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Climate Change’s Great Lithium Problem
Bolivia is in the midst of a brutal upheaval. Following weeks of protests, armed forces have compelled longtime, left-leaning President Evo Morales to step down after reports of “manipulations” in last...
View ArticleDonald Trump and the Absolute Power Presidency
Those who tuned in to last week’s congressional testimony from Marie Yovanovitch, the ousted U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, heard an awkward phrase over and over again: that political appointees “serve at...
View ArticleThe Climate Movement Needs More Creative Tactics
The United States’ climate movement emerged unexpectedly. Following a decade of Ronald Reagan and Gordon Gekko singing the praises of the free market, climate catastrophe joined the national...
View ArticleJoe Biden’s Frantic Defense of the Status Quo
With the entry of former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick into the Democratic primary race, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg exploring a bid, and Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend,...
View ArticleThe Fall of Nate Silver
Did he change, or did we? For weeks now, Nate Silver has been morphing before our eyes into exactly the kind of bloviator he made his name mocking. Tired perhaps of the slow and predictable business of...
View ArticleTrump Makes Japan an Offer It Can’t Refuse
NATO has faced plenty of existential scares in the era of President Donald Trump, but now the United States’ long-standing allies in East Asia have become victims of the president’s haphazard...
View ArticleTrump Enforces Omertà With Latest Round of Pardons
President Donald Trump closed out the first week of impeachment hearings with a self-inflicted wound. Marie Yovanovitch, the ousted U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, testified on Friday morning that she felt...
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How to Break Up Corporate Giants
Anyone who lived in New York City in the 1970s and ’80s is likely familiar with the discount electronics store chain Crazy Eddie. By 1987, there were over 40 stores spread across four states, which...
View ArticleWho Run the World? Charlie’s Angels!
The deeply silly late-1970s television show Charlie’s Angels is a camp artifact, the tale of three comely lasses jiggling their way to justice. It’s not exactly Shakespeare or the Ramayana, the sort of...
View ArticleDeval Patrick Was an Overrated Governor
When Deval Patrick was preparing to leave the job of Massachusetts governor five years ago, the state Democratic Party found itself in a unique bind—not through any fault of his, mind you. The local...
View ArticleThe War Criminals I Have Known
The lower-ranking accused war criminals I’ve known all struck me as really nice guys, right up until it seemed they weren’t. That’s war for you. Things are fine until they’re not, and then after that...
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Locking People Up: South Dakota’s On It
“Meth: We’re On It.” For the briefest of moments Monday evening, these words managed to drown out impeachment analysis as social media cocked a collective eyebrow in the direction of South Dakota.The...
View ArticleTrump’s Ukraine Defenders Are Caught in an Existential Crisis
In the White House’s telling of events, the two staffers who testified on Tuesday morning weren’t credible and also cleared the president of any wrongdoing. “We have learned nothing new in today’s...
View ArticleReturning to Wounded Knee
What you think of when you hear the phrase “Wounded Knee” depends largely on two factors: how old you are, and whether or not you are Native.Younger, non-Native individuals may remember Wounded Knee as...
View ArticleThere’s Only One Way the Patrick and Bloomberg Campaigns Make Sense
I’m going to write something annoying. I’m going to write some horse-race campaign analysis. I’m going to write very broadly and subjectively about trends in the race without using hard data or...
View ArticleWhy the Hell Did Democrats Just Extend the Patriot Act?
It may seem to many Americans that Washington is entirely consumed by the impeachment inquiry, and that no other important business is getting done on Capitol Hill. But on Tuesday, in a break from...
View ArticleGordon Sondland Rips Out the Heart of Trump’s Defense
What did President Donald Trump know, and when did he know it? According to Gordon Sondland, he knew everything about the Ukraine scheme, and he knew it all along. The U.S. ambassador to the European...
View ArticleHow Gordon Sondland Broke the Media’s Savior Complex
If Hollywood producers were to cast a foil to Donald Trump, they seemingly could not have done better than the witnesses who testified during the first three days of the House Intelligence Committee’s...
View ArticleTo Lock Up a President
“Lock him up?” It’s a question that Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden both addressed at the fifth Democratic primary debate (in Atlanta, hosted by MSNBC and The Washington Post). Moderator Rachel Maddow had...
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