Informed

Reading Time: < 1 minute Former President Barack Obama delivered a blistering account of his successor’s first four years in office in Philadelphia, arguing that President Donald Trump has proved he is “incapable of taking the job seriously” and has shown no interest in “helping anybody but himself and his friends.”

Reading Time: 8 minutes I occasionally hear Trump described as the “Teflon president.” Many liberals are agog at how many scandals, disasters, and offensive comments Trump has survived. It can seem like nothing sticks to him.

But Trump isn’t Teflon. It’s simply that whatever will stick to him has already stuck to him. Absorbing this much damage and provoking this much loathing has not been a successful strategy. Stable poll numbers in the low-40s are hardly a political triumph.

Reading Time: 6 minutes Protesters in Kenosha and across the country are still demanding systemic change. Michael Bell Sr., the father of shooting victim Michael Bell, told the New York Times following the shooting of Blake, “The system is broken. The system here is broken.”

Reading Time: 10 minutes Give an alternative coalition of residents and organizations a chance to play a central role in creating a safe community and give them the resources that we devote to law enforcement.

Reading Time: 3 minutes Two new studies, though from different parts of the world, have arrived at the same conclusion: that young children not only transmit SARS-CoV-2 efficiently, but may be major drivers of the pandemic as well.

Reading Time: 10 minutes For there to be progress, all leaders, especially those organizing across racial lines, must be on the same page about the movement’s objectives.

Reading Time: < 1 minute Hundreds of people have been wounded in a strong blast that ripped through Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, according to the country’s health minister.

Reading Time: 4 minutes Trump’s difficulty with push-back is often concealed when he answers questions beside a loud helicopter or in the friendly confines of Sean Hannity’s show. But the Swan interview, which came out just two weeks after Trump’s similarly disastrous performance on Chris Wallace’s show, highlighted the degree to which Trump is unable to defend his record in the face of even mildly challenging questions.

Reading Time: 4 minutes Portland may be a dumbshow for dummies, but it also looks like a dress rehearsal. This is not an “authoritarian impulse.” This is authoritarian government—straight, no chaser. And this administration has a powerful thirst for it. It will do anything if it thinks it can get away with it in order to benefit a president* who wants to bring the Republic down on his head.

Reading Time: 3 minutes This is sketchy stuff. And it’s not a good look for a country that’s supposed to be an open society. And it’s particularly distressing that the President is openly threatening cities based on the political affiliations of their leaders.