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We Didn’t Stand a Chance Against Opioids
My ancestors had no written language, so they told their stories to the trees. Ten thousand years after the Tlingit people settled Alaska’s southeastern archipelago, these islands remain stippled with...
View ArticleHow to Stop Kleptocrats From Stashing Their Cash in America
Convicted Russian national Viktor Bout spent years perfecting the art of international arms smuggling. At the height of his powers, he boasted a clientele that ranged from Central African dictators and...
View ArticleGM Workers Strike to Get Back What the Recession Stole
The story by now is near-common knowledge: In the throes of the last recession, the nation’s Big Three automakers—General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford—accepted a $51 billion bailout from the federal...
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Crash Course
Nearly two decades before Boeing’s MCAS system crashed two of the plane-maker’s brand-new 737 MAX jets, Stan Sorscher knew his company’s increasingly toxic mode of operating would create a disaster of...
View ArticleRussian Trolls Love Targeting U.S. Veterans
The post popped up in select Instagram feeds shortly before the election in 2016. Its photo depicted an anonymous black-clad woman on an airport tarmac, crying over a metal casket covered in an...
View ArticleThe Kavanaugh Fight Left Wounds That Will Never Heal
It’s hard to see how The New York Times could have handled a new allegation against Justice Brett Kavanaugh any worse. Two of the Times’ reporters, Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly, wrote a book on last...
View ArticleThe Pragmatic Roots of Biden’s Incoherence
On Sunday, Miami real estate developer Craig Robins introduced Joe Biden at a fundraiser by telling prospective donors that Biden is a candidate seeking “a solution that could just make things normal...
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How Energy Companies Corrupt State Politics
In 2017, a coalition of Democratic activists and party leaders led a “Blue Wave” in Virginia, flipping 15 Republican-held House seats and becoming a vessel of hope for Democrats nationwide. This year,...
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A Critical Threat to Sex Discrimination Protections
Not long after the one-year anniversary of Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation as a Supreme Court justice, he and his eight associates will devote one entire day to three cases which will determine the...
View ArticlePaolo Sorrentino’s Loro Will Make You Feel Complicit
How a political film should aim to make you feel is a tricky question. There’s the Ken Loach approach, worthy and moving but, in this overcrowded landscape, arguably not fashioned to persuade (or even...
View ArticlePete Buttigieg’s Health Care Plan Is the Worst Yet
Rejoice, Democratic lovers of Plans, for your presidential field’s second-string wonk candidate Pete Buttigieg has produced details for his health care plan. (To be fair, this is more than can be said...
View Article“What About China?” Is a Bad Response to the Climate Crisis
Whenever the subject of climate policy comes up in the United States, someone in the room, sooner or later, is sure to point out that China today emits more carbon dioxide than the U.S. What is China...
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The MAGA Plot
Ben Lerner writes novels about Ben Lerner. This sentence might have once sounded like a criticism. But since writing that collapses the distance between fiction and author—so-called autofiction—is au...
View ArticleThe Case Against the Popular Vote
Two hundred years ago, the Founding Fathers made a mistake. They decided that the president of the United States should be elected by a popular vote held among the entire country’s citizens. The...
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How to Sneak Up on Area 51
Two Christmases ago, my friend Doug Laux asked me to drive with him on Nevada 375, the Extraterrestrial Highway, to stay in the haunted Clown Motel and then roll to the back gate of Area 51. Naturally,...
View ArticleDemocrats’ Drug Price Bill May Be Dead on Arrival
After nine months of negotiation, Nancy Pelosi has unveiled her proposal to reduce drug prices. The bill would allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate with drug companies on the...
View ArticleThe Argument Against D.C. Statehood Is Rooted in Racism
In February of 1873, James Shepherd Pike, a radical Republican journalist and longtime advocate for black suffrage, was assigned by the New York Tribune to cover a Deep South state legislature in the...
View ArticleKamala Harris Is Moving to Iowa
How do you break out of a funk? A change of scenery always helps. That, at least, will be Kamala Harris’s approach. After her notable performance in the June debate for Democratic presidential...
View ArticleThe “Cancel Culture” Con
On April 1, 1964, Herbert Ruhe, an ex-CIA agent formerly stationed in Vietnam, submitted a surveillance report to the office of the Manhattan District Attorney about a person of interest to city...
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Painting Over the Dirty Truth
In four minutes on Season 3, The Sopranos nails the ethical dilemma that has long mired the art world. Carmela Soprano’s consultation with the Jewish shrink is priceless: Facing the truth about Tony,...
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