Five years ago today–and damn, does that seem like a lifetime ago–New York magazine writer Jonathan Chait declared that President Obama wasn’t getting enough credit from climate activists for his leadership on reducing emissions. Back then, Chait observed: The assumption that Obama’s climate-change record is essentially one of failure is mainly an artifact of environmentalists’ […]
climate change
Posted inPolitical Animal
Golden Slumbers: Trumpists Will Never Care About Sex, Lies or Videotape
It might as well not even exist in their minds. Let’s say that somehow, someway, The Tape hit the Internet. Explicit footage of Donald Trump in a Moscow hotel room in the fall of 2013, whooping it up as Russian escorts got their freak on in a most unsanitary manner. Imagine seeing Trump, the leader […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
And the Newest Member of Trump’s Fan Club Is…
So there was Kellyanne Conway making a fool of herself as usual on CNN this morning, smearing James Comey and feigning outrage when Dana Bash brought up the fact that Conway’s husband, attorney George Conway, doesn’t seem to like Trump all that much. Most rational-thinking Americans regard Conway as a joke. What about those who […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Strange Brew: The Right’s Pathetic Denial of Racism
Perhaps the most morbidly funny media story of the year is the spectacle of conservative crackpots falling all over themselves to attack the efforts by Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson to address implicit bias, after the horrifying incident in Philadelphia where a Starbucks employee decided that calling the cops on Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson, two […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Don’t Let David Buckel’s Death Be in Vain
As they say, desperate times call for desperate measures—and when it comes to the climate crisis, we are indeed living in desperate times. It’s hard to overstate the passion and principle of pioneering attorney David Buckel, who died one week ago today at the age of 60. He did not pass away from a dreadful […]
Posted inApril/May/June 2018, Magazine
JFK and the Paradox of Leadership
The president’s “wilderness tour” showed that even the greatest politicians can only bring the country forward when the public is willing to be led.
Posted inPolitical Animal
Do You Like Your Planet Regular, or Extra Crispy?
Fifteen years ago today, just weeks after George W. Bush invaded Iraq in a war for oil, Princeton University Professor Michael Oppenheimer wrote a column for the New York Times in which he observed: [T]he global warming issue, and particularly America’s handling of it, has become a central geopolitical concern. Speaking at a delicate moment […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Channeling Rage: Trump and Fox News
Here we stand Remote control buttons In our sweaty little hands As one man We’re lining up and waiting For someone’s command… TV rules– Pretty soon you won’t be able To turn it off at all! All you fools Then it will turn you off— Your back’s against the wall! —“T.V. Age,” Joe Jackson, 1982 […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Those Who Do Not Learn from History…
Now that ‘80s nostalgia is in vogue again by virtue of the box-office success of Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One, it’s as good a time as any to note that this July marks the 35th anniversary of the release of Madonna’s debut album. If Donald Trump loses the 2020 election, then one can envision a […]
Posted inFeatured, Political Animal
The Moral Depravity of the Right’s Defense of Scott Pruitt
The right’s commitment to environmental deregulation is trumping any concern about corruption.
