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2016: A Liberal Odyssey
October 31, 2016
In a heart-wrenching letter published in the New York Times, U.S.-born journalist Michael Luo described his family’s recent encounter with the kind of bigoted outburst—culminating with the admonition that Luo’s family should “go back to China”—that, sadly, is quite ...

Flight or Fight
October 28, 2016
When I arrived in Athens in July, I sent an email to Delphina, an activist and blogger who was following the anarchist activities in the city. I was hoping she could show me around and fill me in on some of the nuance that I, as a non-Greek speaker, was missing in the political ...

Words Fail
While media goliaths continue to merge and recombine, one plucky upstart has lately captured the imagination of the infotainment world. I speak, naturally, of the Facebook-only nightly newscast now airing at the behest of the Donald Trump campaign, “Trump Tower ...

Daily Bafflements
October 26, 2016
• Today in “are you fucking kidding me?”: The Federalist helpfully proclaims that “The Senate Should Refuse to Confirm All of Hillary Clinton’s Judicial Nominees.” And since it’s not technically a column about the ...

Tom Hayden and the Vocation of Politics
October 26, 2016
There’s a revelatory scene in a hard-to-find documentary, Troublemakers, shot by Norm Fruchter and Bob Machover in 1965 in the poor wards of Newark, N.J. Tom Hayden and some 100 others had left their rather comfy college-kid lives when Students for a Democratic ...

Just Plain Nasty
October 25, 2016
“It wasn’t just Hillary Clinton you insulted,” they say, “it was me. I’m a nasty woman too.” This was inevitable. As soon as Donald Trump interrupted Clinton in Vegas, in the middle of a deeply boring section on “entitlement ...

Daily Bafflements
October 24, 2016
•  The Times recommends Jessa Crispin’s foray into the healthy linkage between politics and spiritualism, from the latest issue of the magazine: So do we. •  Remember Friday, when the Internet was hacked? Baffler contributing editor Jacob Silverman ...

Barren and Dangerous
October 24, 2016
In the thriller du jour The Girl on the Train, a kind of Rashômon for the bridge-and-tunnel crowd, three female perspectives compete for our attention and sympathy. At its core, Rachel (Emily Blunt) enacts her onscreen alcoholism via smudged eye makeup and artfully blurred ...

Cars Entering and Leaving Mosul
October 21, 2016
What they don’t tell you about the battle for Mosul is how boring it is, hour by hour, day by day. From my vantage point near the Iraqi village of Bartella, ISIS positions are visible in the smoke-filled distance, across the crinkled flatness of Nineveh; in front of me, gangs ...

Trump TV?
Until very recently, it seemed self-evident that Donald Trump was the biggest raging moron in American public life. But that was before CNN president Jeff Zucker’s star turn before the guardians of establishment wisdom at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. A full year ...

Daily Bafflements
October 19, 2016
• It’s that time again! Join us for our second presidential debate live blog this evening, featuring the likes of Amber A’Lee Frost, Natasha Vargas-Cooper, Chris Lehmann, and David Rees. Tune in to this space around 9 p.m. tonight. We promise it’ll help ...