“Like everyone, and I’d say especially like every parent, I am of course saddened and horrified by the latest mass shooting-murder. My sympathies to all,” James Fallows, a longtime correspondent for this magazine, wrote nearly a decade ago on July 20, 2012. That day, a gunman had opened fire on theater-goers in Aurora, Colorado. A dozen people were dead.
Thoughts and prayers. It began as a cliché. It became a joke. It has putrefied into a national shame.If tonight, Americans do turn heavenward in pain and grief for the lost children of Uvalde, Texas, they may hear the answer delivered in the Bible through the words of Isaiah:“And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
“White House Walks Back Biden Taiwan Defense Claim for Third Time in Nine Months” was the patronizing headline the New York Post applied to its report on President Joe Biden’s Taiwan comments at a regional summit in Tokyo. The story line was preset: semi-senile president blurts unscripted comment, is corrected by his staff minders.But if you reread Biden’s repeated comments on Taiwan, you see a policy that is clear, considered, and consistent.
I never attended Ranger School, the U.S. Army’s nine weeks of unadulterated misery in woodland, mountain, and swamp. But I know plenty of those who have, and they have all reported the same thing: The instruction they received in patrolling and minor tactics was insignificant compared with the lesson they learned in perseverance, to “complete the mission though I be the lone survivor,” in the words of the Ranger Creed.
Sign up for Molly’s newsletter, Wait, What?, here.The teenagers are not all right, but then again, neither are the adults. Pandemic life has been profoundly jarring, and every generation has felt it. I hear about people fighting on airplanes and an increase in violent crimes, then I attend my Alcoholics Anonymous meetings on Zoom and try to figure out why going back to “normal” is so hard.
President Biden is on his first trip to Asia as president to meet with other leaders from the “Quad” — Japan, India and Australia — as part of efforts to counter China’s growing power in the region. During the trip, Biden has contradicted longstanding U.S. policy of “strategic ambiguity” on Taiwan by vowing to defend it militarily if China attacks.
We look in depth at “The Ransom,” a new series in The New York Times that details how France devastated Haiti’s economy by forcing Haiti to pay massive reparations for the loss of slave labor after enslaved Haitians rebelled, founding the world’s first Black republic in 1804. We speak with historians Westenley Alcenat and Gerald Horne on the story of Haiti’s finances and how Haitian demands for reparations have been repeatedly shut down.
Ashish Jha said he doesn’t expect monkeypox will become a particularly big threat.
The findings come as a Louisiana judge issued a preliminary injunction on Friday blocking the administration from ending the order on Monday.
Telemedicine groups are looking to bolster privacy protections ahead of Roe decision.
Despite high inflation, the U.S. is “moving from the strongest economic recovery in modern history to what can be a period of more stable and resilient growth,” Brian Deese said.
On a month-to-month basis, prices rose 0.3% from March to April, a still-elevated rate but the smallest increase in eight months.
Rates this year could reach their highest levels since before the 2008 Wall Street crash if surging prices continue.
The government said gross domestic product shrank at a 1.4 percent annualized rate in the first quarter.
The steady spending suggested the economy could keep expanding this year even though the Federal Reserve plans to raise rates aggressively to fight the inflation surge.
During a meeting of the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Democratic Congressmember Lucy McBath of Georgia shared her personal story about accessing reproductive care after experiencing a stillbirth. In doing so, she pointed out how anti-abortion politicians and legislators fail to see the medical necessity of abortion in instances such as hers. “We can be the nation that rolls back the clock, that rolls back the rights of women, and that strips them of their very liberty.
After a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion revealed the intention to overturn Roe v. Wade, abortion has increasingly become a state issue, with conservative states criminalizing the procedure. Oklahoma approved a bill on Thursday that outlaws almost all abortions beginning at fertilization. The measure is modeled after a Texas ban that encourages private citizens to sue abortion providers and people who assist in abortions.
Georgia takes center stage as Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger try to fight back challengers endorsed by Trump.
“After two years of COVID-19 and more than 1 million precious lives lost, the people we all turn to to keep us safe, to comfort us and help us heal, they have been pushed to their limits.
“For some reason that upset Mr. Trump terribly,” Trump’s ex-attorney, Michael Cohen, reportedly said of Trump’s obsession with projectile pie.
David McCormick’s campaign is suing in a Pennsylvania court over his neck-and-neck Republican primary contest for the U.S. Senate against celebrity heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz.
After two days of futility, Russia finally picked up some new ground today.
Updates: 🇷🇺 advanced further South of Popasna and captured Myronivs’kyi. There is fighting ongoing in Lyman after 🇷🇺 forces entered the city’s outskirts. pic.twitter.com/AiS5Ys7cqT— Ukraine War Map (@War_Mapper) May 24, 2022
Lyman’s fate is sealed, on the wrong side of the Donets. Hopefully civilians have fully evacuated.
It’s been a day of Republican politicians being just gawdawful, even compared to the normal gawdawful. Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy’s defense of his state’s horrific maternal death rates—with a claim that the rate wouldn’t be as bad if you just excluded his state’s Black residents—might be one for the record books.
The GOP candidate for Georgia governor said Abrams should “go back to where she came from,” while campaigning ahead of Tuesday’s primary.
Pete Davidson bid an emotional farewell to Saturday Night Live this past weekend. He was the youngest cast member ever hired, arriving in 2014 at age 20. He joked, “Back then, I was just, like, a skinny kid and no one knew what race I was. And now everyone knows I’m white because I became hugely successful while barely showing up to work.
So we’re knee deep in potential recount territory in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. On one side we have a TV huckster named Mehmet Oz; on the other, a former hedge fund CEO named Dave McCormick. It seems that Republican voters despised both of these clowns about equally (even in spite of Trump’s endorsement of Oz, a fellow erstwhile Hollywood It-Boy) so much that both of them bled support to a right-wing, apparent bigot named Kathy Barnette.
Far-right conspiracy crank Dinesh D’Souza is back with yet another conspiracy theory to promote, and if you haven’t heard much about the Republican propagandist’s newest film, it’s because it is extremely, unfathomably stupid. 2000 Mules achieved a level of stupidity so stupid that D’Souza can’t even get Fox News to jump in with the usual publicity boost. It’s a train wreck.
The ACLU Has Lost Its Way“The ACLU now seems largely unable or unwilling to uphold its core values,” wrote Lara Bazelon earlier this month, arguing that the civil-liberties organization has neglected its central purpose of defending freedom of speech without partisanship in favor of a broad embrace of progressive causes.Lara Bazelon accuses the American Civil Liberties Union of having lost its way. We have not.
Kaitlyn: I need to be careful so you don’t think I’m speaking hyperbolically. These are my real feelings: Coney Island is heaven on earth. I think if “they” ever touched it—if they ever tore things down and put boring things in their place—that would be it for me. My heart would be broken.
This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf. On Wednesdays, he rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Every Monday, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.Last week, I asked readers what they’ve learned while traveling away from home. I was surprised so few of you responded, because there’s such a rich history of answers to this question.