Can Biden’s Infrastructure Law Save Benton Harbor?
When the New York Times tweeted its first story in October about the elevated levels of lead in the drinking water of Benton Harbor, Michigan, it noted the similarities to “nearby Flint.” It was a...
View ArticleIf Republicans Want to Reform the Electoral Count Act, Democrats Should Take It
Many lawmakers in Congress appear to have made the same new year’s resolution: to rewrite the Electoral Count Act of 1887, or ECA. Democrats have floated reforms to the law that governs the quadrennial...
View ArticleThe End of America’s Kazakhstan Delusion
For many years, officials of the U.S. government, the paid-off lobbyists whispering in their ears, and their Western partners made some interesting claims about the country Kazakhstan. In their...
View ArticleHow the 737 Max Crashes Got Lost
In September 2021, The Wall Street Journal ran a short but disturbing story about an incident at a Boeing facility in San Antonio, where the company is developing new jets to serve as Air Force One—a...
View ArticleThere Are So Many Reasons Not to Trust Banks on Climate Change
On Wednesday, the nonprofit Risk Management Association announced it had corralled 19 banks into joining the RMA Climate Risk Consortium, with the goal of developing “standards for banks to integrate...
View ArticlePandemic School Closures Are an Indictment of America’s Covid Strategy
I’m one of the millions of parents struggling with ad hoc childcare challenges as a result of pandemic-related school closure.I’m also an epidemiologist and former city health director. I’ve spent my...
View ArticleBiden Is Shedding the Support of His Base—and That Could Be Bad for Democracy
The 2022 election is the most important one of our lifetimes. That is, if you believe in a democratic republic, given the GOP’s embrace of autocracy, as shown by a recent CBS poll that found that a...
View ArticleThe Filibuster Is a Plot Against Kamala Harris
Over the course of many years and many think pieces, the case against the filibuster has been laid out. Typically, critics of the Jim Crow relic invoke various historical facts (some of which have...
View ArticleBiden’s Shameful Silence on Saudi Arabia’s War in Yemen
Last February, in his first major foreign policy speech, President Biden declared, “The war in Yemen must end.” But nearly a year later, the U.S.-enabled death and destruction in Yemen continue...
View ArticleThe Satisfying Dourness of Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth
Not quite the shortest of all Shakespeare’s plays, but the shortest of his tragedies, Macbeth doesn’t run much past two hours, making it tempting for movie directors in search of a little blood and...
View ArticleDemocratic Governors May Be Democracy’s Last Line of Defense
When President Biden went to Georgia this week to deliver a major speech on passing a voting rights overhaul, Stacey Abrams, the all-but-certain Democratic nominee for governor, decided to side with...
View ArticleIn a 6–3 Ruling, the Supreme Court Upholds the Covid Pandemic
When the Supreme Court heard oral arguments last week on whether to block two federal Covid-19-related mandates, Justice Samuel Alito asked the Biden administration if it would accept a brief...
View ArticleVoting Rights Are Probably Doomed in the Senate
Congressional Democrats have pressed ahead with their efforts to pass voting rights legislation this week, but their goals went from merely quixotic to almost fantastical on Thursday as two Democratic...
View ArticleAre School-Closure Moms the New Soccer Moms?
At the very beginning of a midterm election year, as a handful of large school districts clash with teachers’ unions over in-person instruction, the Democrats’ perpetual preoccupation with the mom vote...
View ArticleOn Noncitizen Voting, New York City Blazes Another Trail
Noncitizen voting is not new, but it is a new frontier in the fight for democracy. Spurred by advocates, a progressive City Council in New York City passed a law to allow green card holders and...
View ArticleRosa DeLauro Hasn’t Given Up on the Democratic Agenda
Aside from Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Representative Rosa DeLauro may be one of the most instantly recognizable members of Congress. With her purple-streaked asymmetrical haircut and fashion style that...
View ArticleLet’s Cool It With the Bear Attack Stories
“I saw a big set of white teeth coming towards me,” read the headline of a Guardian report about “terrifying wild animal attacks” last week. Four days later, the New York Post interviewed an...
View ArticleLet the Presidential Debates Die
The Republican National Committee may have ended the presidential debate as we know it—or presidential debates altogether. In a letter sent Thursday by RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel to the Commission...
View ArticleMeet the MAGA Extremist Who Might Be Arizona’s Next Governor
When Donald Trump visits Arizona on Saturday he’ll be joined by some of the usual MAGA suspects—U.S. Representatives Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar, and Debbie Lesko. They’re an Arizona triumvirate known for...
View ArticleDemocrats Need to Make the Bad Guys Take Some Tough Votes
Five months ago, Democrats had a pretty simple plan for the midterm elections: “Here’s the good news,” said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee executive director Tim Persico, “Everything we...
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