Political Commentary

Since January 1st, there have been 160 shootings in which four or more people were injured or killed. In the same period to start 2020, there were just 90. This rate is almost double the beginning-of-the-year average since 2014. The stretch from March 16th to April 15th was especially gruesome, …

January 6th, 2021, marked the saddest day in the history of American democracy since April 12th, 1861, the day South Carolina secessionists fired on Fort Sumter and commenced the Civil War. Assassinations, military atrocities, enacting horrific laws, all are shameful and wrenching, and forever stain the nation’s history. But deliberate …

When Joe Biden declared in March during a debate with Bernie Sanders that “there are a number of women who are qualified to be president tomorrow” and that he “would pick a woman to be my vice-president,” many celebrated it as a feminist victory. Sadly, as became evident within the …

Wade Davis holds the Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at the University of British Columbia. His award-winning books include “Into the Silence” and “The Wayfinders.” His new book, “Magdalena: River of Dreams,” is published by Knopf. Never in our lives have we experienced such a global phenomenon. …

The latest act in the comedy began Friday, just before voting opened in the Nevada Democratic caucus. The Washington Post ran a story — sourced, I’m not joking, to “people familiar with the matter” — explaining that Bernie Sanders had been briefed that “Russia is attempting to help his presidential …

A judge last week ruled the federal government’s Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB), which secretly categorized more than 1 million people as “known or suspected terrorists,” is unconstitutional. Like a number of “War on Terror” reforms instituted in the Bush years, the TSDB’s unconstitutionality was obvious from its inception. Indeed, the …

I don’t need to send droplets of my blood in an envelope to some corporation to know that, for the most part, my forebears were not immigrants to this land. Yet I also know that unlike even our parents, my sister and I were fortunate to be born here with …