Bolivia is in the midst of a brutal upheaval. Following weeks of protests, armed forces have compelled longtime, left-leaning president Evo Morales to step down after reports of “manipulations” in last October’s vote and Morales’s subsequent call for new elections . Morales has sought asylum in Mexico, as right-wing and in some cases neo-fascist elements […]
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The impeachment hearings got their first made-for-TV moment during ousted Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch’s testimony, thanks to a cameo from President Trump. Early in Yovanovitch’s testimony, the president lashed out in a tweet denigrating her service in Somalia and Ukraine. This was an opening for House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff, who asked for her […]
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Just as the potential candidacies of billionaires Howard Schultz and Michael Bloomberg have left us to wonder about who might be the constituency for such a transparent defense of the ruling class, today’s entrance of former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick into the presidential race makes alarmingly little sense—at least from the perspective of “winning votes.” […]
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On a blue-skied October Sunday morning in Rome, an 85-year-old cardinal of the Catholic Church named Cláudio Hummes celebrated mass at the stone altar of the Catacombs of Santa Domitilla, a crypt of early Christian martyrs beneath the city’s southern outskirts. Even by the standards of the Roman Church, the sepulchral ceremony ran thick with […]
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Republican lawmakers made a few interesting points while defending President Donald Trump during the House’s first day of public impeachment hearings. They noted that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has publicly asserted that he didn’t feel pressured by Trump to deliver on his end of a quid pro quo during the infamous July 25 call or […]
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Political bravery is not often the hallmark of a Democratic presidential primary. More often, this early part of a presidential campaign is the venue for incredibly cautious, patronizing position-staking, where candidates try to go just left enough to please a Democratic electorate while leaving room to veer right for the general election (the same in […]
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Not long before Margaret Thatcher’s intensely dramatic departure from office in November 1990, the veteran Conservative politician William Whitelaw was talking to Sir Robin Butler, recently appointed as Cabinet secretary, the most senior permanent official in the British government. As Charles Moore relates in Herself Alone, the third and final volume of his authorized biography […]
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Since it was reported last week that he would file paperwork to possibly run for president, Michael Bloomberg has been the most feverishly discussed candidate in the Democratic primary, as he likely intended. But much of that discussion has been negative. The Atlantic’s Peter Beinart argued that Bloomberg had been “seduced by his past political […]
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Article I In his conduct while President of the United States, Donald Trump, in violation of his constitutional oath to execute faithfully the Office of President of the United States, has abused the office of the presidency by employing the powers of the office to advance his own political interests, rather than the interests of […]
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The news that Michael Bloomberg is expected to file to be on the presidential ballot in Alabama was not greeted on Thursday night with explosions of public joy and gratitude. There were no street parties or flash mobs, no lines of cars honking cheerfully outside Bloomberg HQ. For some reason, the American public did not […]
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By the time Adam Neumann arrived in Brooklyn’s Dumbo neighborhood in 2008, most of the creatives who’d once lived and worked on the borough’s waterfront were gone. They’d been exiled years earlier, as successive mayors cracked down on code violations and landlords nursed visions of converting everything into luxury condos. The financial crisis had left […]
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In April, Great Hill Partners, a private equity firm, purchased Gizmodo Media Group, the collection of websites formerly known as Gawker Media, from Univision. Great Hill’s leaders also acquired The Onion, changed the parent company’s name to G/O Media, installed a bunch of the CEO’s washed-up cronies in executive positions, and spent most of the […]
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President Donald Trump has often flaunted the brawn of his supporters, adding a baseline of menace to his increasingly embattled presidency. “Law enforcement, military, construction workers, Bikers for Trump … These are tough people,” he said at a 2018 campaign event in St. Louis, Missouri. “These are great people. But they’re peaceful people, and antifa […]
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It’s a typically perfect day in Santa Barbara, endless blue sky above the mountains and warm sun on the skin. Ady Barkan’s house, set off one of those quaint California streets where the power lines weave themselves around the palm trees, looks like a perfect place for a young family to live. It radiates happiness, […]
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Before the smoke had cleared after the terrorist attacks of September 11, Americans were already asking, “Why do they hate us?” The question felt useless, even whiny. It was also unanswerable, since “our” specific attackers were dead. Yet it persisted. It persisted because of a sense that even with those particular haters gone, the hate […]
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The House’s vote to approve rules for the impeachment inquiry has not only taken us into a new stage of the House’s formal proceedings, but of impeachment politics themselves. Having gathered testimony and evidence from over a dozen witnesses, Democrats are now preparing to build the case for impeachment with public testimony before the House […]
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For the past four weeks, I’ve been monitoring the evolving defenses put forth by President Trump’s allies. They began with flat-out denials of wrongdoing that didn’t survive casual brushes with scrutiny. Some of Trump’s defenders then tried to muddy the waters by normalizing corrupt quid pro quos and claiming that Trump and the Democrats alike […]
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The fast-casual burrito-slinging behemoth Chipotle was awash in Halloween-themed promotions this month. Cheap “boorritos”! TikTok contests! But no haul of spooky goodies could hide the spirit of labor revolt lurking amid the other skeletons in the company’s closet. Chipotle’s continued labor violations and piss-poor treatment of its workers—who for years have reported that working conditions […]
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For most Americans, the 2019 political calendar has been overshadowed by next year’s presidential battle royale, which will feature an embattled incumbent, possible impeachment proceedings in Congress, and a Democratic primary race dominated by sweeping proposals like Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. In Virginia, however, another political battle has been raging, as […]
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It’s Pete Buttigieg’s moment. Again. His combative performance at the most recent debate, coupled with the release of a few polls suggesting he’s entered the top tier of candidates in Iowa, have allowed him to reclaim the national spotlight for the first time since his entry into the race. He now appears to be a […]
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