The Limits of Outrage Politics
Last Saturday proved to be less of a crescendo and more of a curtain call for France’s gilets jaunes, or Yellow Vests. “Acte XXX,” as organizers called the thirtieth iteration of their protest, made...
View ArticleNorway, If You’re Listening....
In 2016, for Donald Trump, it was “Russia, if you’re listening.…” In 2020, it’s “Anyone, if you’re listening….” Speaking to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Wednesday, the president was clear: Having...
View ArticleEnemy of the State
There’s a strange paradox in President Donald Trump’s approach to the truth. He’s willing to tell a vast and dizzying array of lies, half-truths, and fabrications to advance his goals. But he can also...
View ArticleThe Man Behind the State Department’s New “Natural Law” Focus
The State Department’s Commission on Unalienable Rights, a body of some 15 academics, legal scholars and nonprofit leaders advising Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about human rights, was announced in...
View ArticleQuillette’s “Antifa Journalists” List Could’ve Gotten Me Killed
On May 15, a man named Eoin Lenihan posted a Twitter thread that promised to reveal the results of a bombshell new study. Presenting himself as an “online extremism researcher,” he invoked two of the...
View ArticleA Journey With Naomi Wolf
If you’re looking for a page-turner, a good rule of thumb is to steer clear of books based on doctoral dissertations. But if and when an academic work is published for a general audience, even if the...
View ArticleHouse Leadership Is Looking Flakey
House Democrats—and just about everyone else—were rightfully disturbed by President Donald Trump’s admission earlier this week that he would once again accept “foreign dirt” in the 2020 presidential...
View Article“It’s High Time This Whole Matter Get Revisited”
Robert Mueller made a surprising assertion last month about the limits of his power. In his report on Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and President Trump’s potential obstruction of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Judge and the Three-Strikes Convict
On the night before Christmas, 1996, wearing a black felt cowboy hat and cowboy boots, Joseph Scott Wharton strode up to the cash register of a Walgreens in Kent, Washington, placed a Santa Claus hat...
View ArticleJoe Biden’s Wilted Rose Garden Strategy
By most all accounts, Joe Biden is cruising. Ostensibly the Democratic favorite, he has led—usually by large numbers—in almost every poll since he entered the 2020 race in April. He has seemed to...
View ArticleNo, the Buttigiegs Are Not Straight
The seriousness of Pete Buttigieg’s pursuit of the Democratic nomination for president is, in no uncertain terms, a stunning reflection of progress. It is remarkable that a gay man—one who lived...
View ArticleThe West’s Complicity in Sudan’s Massacres
Omar al-Bashir had just fallen as president of Sudan when I visited Sarah Abdelgalil at her home in England this April. Abdelgalil is a spokeswomen for the Sudanese Professionals Association, the...
View ArticleWho Is Actually Running the U.S. Military’s Iran Efforts?
The United States appears to be fast entering a war footing with Iran—blaming the country for an attack on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman last week, accusing it of testing the limits of their now-dead...
View ArticleClik here to view.
I’ve Climbed Everest 21 Times. It’s Not the Mountain It Used to Be.
I didn’t want to be a climber. My dream since I was young was to become a doctor. But I had to make a choice between my dream and my family. I chose my family.I was born in Thame, Nepal, around 1960....
View ArticleEx-President Trump on Trial
It’s March 2021, two months since President Kamala Harris was sworn in as the forty-sixth president of the United States. The Senate has just confirmed her nominee for attorney general in a mostly...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How Graffiti Became Gentrified
Graffiti artists learn early not to get too attached. Ephemera is as central to their medium as spray paint. Some works last months, others don’t make it through the night. Even the most famous pieces...
View ArticleTrump’s Kick-Off Rally Showcases What the President Does Best
Donald Trump has re-launched a presidential campaign that never really ever landed. (Remember, the president filed to run for re-election the same day he was inaugurated.) Speaking for 80 minutes at an...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hulu’s Das Boot Gets Lost at Sea
The submarine pen in La Rochelle, France was built in in 1941. Like the ones at Saint-Nazaire and Lorient, its colossal berths, titanic dimensions and worn concrete today give the structure the...
View ArticleAn Administration Run by Temp Workers
It’s been six months since the Department of Defense had a permanent leader. After Secretary of Defense James Mattis resigned in protest in December, President Donald Trump named Patrick Shanahan, the...
View ArticleThe Depressing Reality Behind Hong Kong’s Protests
The images from Hong Kong over the past two weeks were stunning. On Sunday, June 15, one million Hong Kong residents flooded the downtown streets, demanding that city authorities scrap a bill which...
View Article