In the 240 years since America’s founding, no former president has been indicted for criminal conduct. This isn’t because they were angels—far from it. And it isn’t because post-term indictment is not legally allowed. Instead, it is because Americans don’t like the idea of criminalizing politics.
Is any capitalist endeavor more menacing than the control of nature itself? The conquest of occupied lands, the rerouting of rivers, the hoarding of purified air—the American elite has always maintained itself in part by manipulating the environment. The wealthy characters on The Undoing, a new HBO miniseries set in New York City that premiered Sunday, can’t harness the East River. They don’t set about planting flags in Central Park or claiming Fifth Avenue.
Every Tuesday morning, our lead climate reporter brings you the big ideas, expert analysis, and vital guidance that will help you flourish on a changing planet.
CreditPlease watch the first 60 seconds of the new Hummer EV ad, okay? (Yes, that is LeBron James doing the opening voice-over.)Now, to a lot of people—including, perhaps, some readers of this newsletter—a Hummer EV may seem like the last thing we need. But that instinct, I think, misses the context.
In her new book, “The Purpose of Power,” Black Lives Matter co-creator Alicia Garza lays out how people can build power and effect change. “Movements are not just about protests,” she says. “Movements are absolutely about how we get more power into the hands of more people.
This election season, Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza says President Trump is “stoking fires he has no intention of controlling” and inciting far-right extremists. She was recently approached by the FBI after agents found her name on a list in the home of a white supremacist in Idaho who was arrested on weapons charges. “Racial terror has always been used as a form of control, particularly during periods of people fighting for social change,” she says.
As right-wing judge Amy Coney Barrett is sworn in as the ninth justice to the Supreme Court of the United States, just 30 days after President Trump announced her nomination and eight days ahead of the November 3 election, we speak with Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza, who says the rushed confirmation shows that the Supreme Court “is not a neutral body — it is incredibly political.
I’ve been “cleansing” my life of all scented fragrances for a year, only to realize this is perhaps all in her head.
In his new book Paying the Land, Joe Sacco takes us through the painful history of the Northwestern Territory’s indigenous people.
His other work includes In the Heights, Dear Evan Hansen, and Bring it On: The Musical.
The latest surge comes ahead of what’s expected to be an especially dangerous winter for the virus, with hospitalizations already on the rise.
The updated guidance defines a “close contact” as anyone who spends at least 15 minutes within six feet of an infected individual over a 24-hour period.
Concerns about the tests’ reliability, how consumers might react to their results and how public health departments will track them have slowed development.
The settlement with the opioid manufacturer comes less than two weeks before Election Day.
What counts as “politics” is itself political.
Four teachers on the challenges and failures of the school year so far.
About 1 in 3 people were either working in a different job in September than they were in February or were unemployed, researchers say.
Covid isn’t just disproportionately killing people of color; it’s sticking them in a feedback loop that exacerbates economic and racial inequity, says Chicago economist Damon Jones.
Government spending exceeded more than $6.5 trillion in the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, up from $4.4 trillion in fiscal 2019.
Some 60 percent of all U.S. businesses that have closed during the pandemic have not reopened.
During the second and final presidential debate in Nashville, Tennessee, moderator Kristen Welker asked Trump and Biden about immigration and family separation. Trump deflected questions during the debate, repeatedly stating that the Obama-Biden administration “built the cages” and falsely claiming that kids seeking asylum in the U.S. are “well taken care of.
President Trump and Joe Biden sparred on their records over race and criminal justice in Thursday’s presidential debate. Trump simultaneously promoted his criminal justice reform efforts while continuing to lean on “tough on crime” rhetoric. Trump also criticized Biden for authoring the 1994 crime bill and supporting other laws that intensified mass incarceration in the U.S., which Biden acknowledged was “a mistake.
Republicans just shredded every democratic norm and rammed through arch-conservative Amy Coney Barrett to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, an extremist move that will take America in a very ugly direction.
Progressives have been promoting many ideas to fix this severe problem, like rebalancing the court by adding more seats, or instituting term limits for justices.
On Monday, Senate Republicans confirmed Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court and in doing so have officially brought minority rule to the highest court in the land: Five of the six conservative justices—a majority of the Supreme Court—have been confirmed by senates with Republican majorities that represented fewer Americans than their corresponding Democratic minorities.
How bad is the Republican Senate under Mitch McConnell? It’s so bad it just handed Donald Trump—Donald Trump—one-third of the Supreme Court. Amy “Superspreader” Barrett has been confirmed on a nearly purely party-line vote, 52-47. Sen. Susan Collins, in a completely transparent bid to scrape any Democratic or independent votes that might still be up for grabs in Maine, voted with Democrats against confirmation.
Night Owls, a themed open thread, appears at Daily Kos seven days a week
Tim Dickinson at Rolling Stone writes—How Trump Took the Middle Class to the Cleaners. He promised a return to shared prosperity, but the benefits of his economic policies only bubbled up to the richest.
As a candidate, Trump positioned himself as a different kind of Republican.
“My deepest and greatest sadness is for the American people,” Schumer said just before the Senate confirmed Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
