For Robert F. Kennedy Jr., “Make America healthy again” is far more than a nice slogan. His cosmic purpose in life, he has said, is to fix the country’s health woes. “The first thing I’ve done every morning for the past 20 years is to get on my knees and pray to God that he would put me in a position to end the chronic-disease epidemic,” Kennedy told senators during his confirmation hearing in January. As health secretary, he has continued to emphasize his commitment to that goal.

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Conventional housing wisdom dictates that if you can’t afford Los Angeles or New York City, try Austin or Atlanta. For years, astronomical prices, labyrinthine zoning laws, and dwindling square footage have driven renters and homeowners out of big coastal cities in droves.

Less than two years ago, the public image of Sean “Diddy” Combs started to shift from playboy to villain: to the raging boyfriend caught beating Cassie Ventura on a hotel camera; the alleged criminal kingpin facing federal prosecution; the mastermind of an elite sex cult, according to online conspiracy theorists. He was broadly painted as (and assiduously denied being) the sort of man who used money and power to pursue his desires no matter the harm to those around him.

At the Brookfield Zoo, near Chicago, sloshing inside bags of oxygen and water, thousands of tadpoles await their transformation into what the Chicago Tribune has already dubbed “celebrity amphibians.” A few months ago, the sapo concho was bound for extinction. The native Puerto Rican toad has long been endangered on the island thanks to habitat loss and invasive species.

Not long ago, I ran into an old friend, a well-regarded Democratic intellectual who recently has moved to my right, but who still holds liberal values and is not a Donald Trump supporter. After we commiserated about the excesses of the far left, I mentioned offhandedly that Trump’s maniacal authoritarianism makes the fact that Democrats can’t get their act together so much worse.
He reacted, to my surprise, with indignation.