The Presidency Is a Bad Job
I wanted to be president when I was younger, but grew out of it before middle school. Some people never do. If all goes according to plan, we will have a new president come Wednesday afternoon. The...
View ArticleThe Military Occupation of D.C. Is a National Disgrace
Four years after Donald Trump’s sparsely attended inauguration, Joe Biden is likely to be sworn in before a crowd of, well, almost no one. Some past presidents will attend—though not Trump—and a few...
View ArticleHow to Vaccinate a Country Amid Trump’s Wreckage
In retrospect, probably the last thing America’s bungled Covid-19 vaccine rollout needed was for the Trump administration to spend its final week in power promising the states extra vaccines that...
View ArticleFarewell to Trump’s Baby Sociopaths
Today we say goodbye and good riddance to Donald J. Trump, the worst, laziest, and most tangerine-hued of our 45 presidents. He left a path of destruction in his wake that included 400,000 dead...
View ArticleAccountability Is the Cure for an Ailing Democracy
In the early 2000s, Peruvians faced a difficult choice. Their outgoing president, Alberto Fujimori, had been democratically elected as a populist only to preside over a regime of corruption,...
View ArticleDonald Trump’s Dumb “1776 Project” Is a Perfect End to His Presidency
On Monday, two days before Donald Trump was set to exit the presidency, the White House released the names of 244 individuals who would be honored for their contributions to American society in a...
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This Is Us: Why the Trump Era Ended in Violence
The Trump era begins and ends with stories of capitol buildings and Confederate flags. On July 10, 2015, the emblem was taken down once and for all from its former proud perch over the statehouse in...
View ArticleCancel All the Pipelines
Some good news can’t wait. On Sunday, the CBC reported that canceling federally issued permits for the Keystone XL pipeline will be part of President-elect Joe Biden’s Day One agenda. In theory, the...
View ArticleThe Hard Truth About Joe Biden
In January 1973, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., a 30-year-old county councilman who won an upset election by just over 3,000 votes, was sworn in as one of the youngest senators in the nation’s history....
View ArticleTrump’s Final Act of Extraordinary Corruption
Donald Trump’s presidency died on Wednesday as it lived: in a last-minute torrent of corruption. His final batch of pardons doled out mercy to a motley crew of personal and political allies, rap...
View ArticleWe Mock QAnon at Our Own Risk
They called it the “Great Awakening.”Inauguration Day was supposed to be a climactic moment for believers of QAnon, the conspiracy theory that claims Donald Trump is leading a clandestine campaign...
View ArticleThe Uncertain Promise of Biden’s Presidency
Joe Biden’s inaugural address was studded with words and sentences that were hard to imagine any other president expressing at any other time. A white president, elected with an outpouring of Black...
View ArticleWhy Donald Trump Is Already Teasing a 2024 Campaign
Donald Trump’s final speech, at a kind of half-hearted miniature rally, ended on a fitting note. “Have a good life,” a dejected and petulant Trump said. “See you soon.” Then the Village People’s...
View ArticleWill Biden’s China Hawks Destroy His Climate Ambitions?
On Tuesday, an otherwise fairly boring confirmation hearing heralded a remarkable victory for climate policy. In response to several questions about climate, 74-year-old former Federal Reserve Chair...
View ArticleThe Beginning of the End of Meaningless Work
“When was the last time we really had terms with which or the occasion for questioning the quality of people’s work?” Kathi Weeks, professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke...
View ArticleYou Don’t Have to Love Your Job
“You don’t have to like it,” my late father would tell my siblings and me when we complained about our jobs. “That’s why it’s called work.” His career began in typewriter repair in the 1950s and, after...
View ArticleThe End of the 40-Year War on Government
Joe Biden’s inaugural speech was primarily about unity, an appropriate theme after the pathologically divisive presidency of you-know-who. But Biden also reaffirmed that government can address the...
View ArticleWe Regret to Inform You That Republicans Are Talking About Secession Again
A Democratic president just entered the White House, so it’s time for Republican state officials to start discussing secession once again. After Barack Obama’s reelection in 2012, disaffected...
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Sea Shanties and the Whale Oil Myth
With 400,000 dead from Covid-19 and the nation still reeling from the raid on the U.S. Capitol, an odd corner of the internet has emerged to provide temporary comfort and distraction in the past few...
View ArticleCan the White House Press Briefing Be Saved?
Just how low has the bar been set for the Biden administration? Look no further than the reaction to new press secretary Jen Psaki’s first day on the job. Psaki has held two briefings in her first 36...
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