The 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...
View ArticleYour Road Trip Is Not More Important Than Indian Country
In an article published last week by The Wall Street Journal, novelist and reporter Mark Childress wrote that he wanted to spend time traveling to “the parts of the country where nobody is.”...
View ArticleWhere Do Black Journalists Go From Here?
Talking about the whiteness of the media isn’t anything new but, this time, feels different. Earlier this month, Black New York Times staffers organized a public campaign to denounce a racist op-ed...
View ArticleTrump Is Terrorizing America
It is one of the oldest divisions of labor in politics. The presidential candidate points with pride at the past and waxes inspirational about the future. The running mate, in contrast, plays partisan...
View ArticleThis Is How Trump Plans to Beat Biden
There are few things the press and liberal commentators seem to enjoy more than tallying up the empty seats at a Trump rally. They can almost be forgiven for it—Trump’s boasts about crowd sizes...
View ArticleThe Myopic Fantasy of Returning to “Normal”
At the beginning of March, there were plenty of signs that normal life would soon be upended in the United States: The Chinese government had quarantined a city of 11 million; the Italian government...
View ArticleConservatives Might Want to Reconsider Their Love for Winston Churchill
In recent days, protests against racism in the United States have spread to the United Kingdom, where activists are advocating the removal of statues honoring Prime Minister Winston Churchill because...
View ArticleBehind the Conflicting Advice on Coronavirus Safety
The now-infamous event occurred on March 15: A choir gathered in Skagit County, Washington, for a socially distanced practice indoors. One choir member with coronavirus symptoms showed up to sing. Of...
View ArticleNo Money, No Lawyer, No Justice
In 1954, Kevin Green got his Social Security card and started picking cotton for $3 per hundred pounds in a tiny agricultural town in California’s Central Valley. He was five years old. One of seven...
View ArticleOttessa Moshfegh’s Pursuit of Disgust
The novel is a matter of seduction. Most novelists ply us with something we cannot resist—language, character, humor, story—to win our attention. Ottessa Moshfegh works by standoffishness, her language...
View ArticleThe 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 pm. 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...
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