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Waiting in Line at the DNC Barricades
July 26, 2016
Here is how the majority of marches taking place at the Democratic National Convention this week will go: Participants will mill around a predetermined meeting place while organizers figure out what they didn’t prepare for. They will practice some call-and-response. They will ...

Who’s Afraid of a Few Little Boos?
July 26, 2016
Chaos in Philadelphia! Unity shattered before the Democratic National Convention could begin! A fight brewing, a convention divided, a Revolt on the Convention Floor! Hot off a contentious weekend that saw Debbie Wasserman Schultz resign her position as DNC chairwoman, the ...

Daily Bafflements
July 25, 2016
• As the DNC kicks off in Philadelphia, Talia Lavin investigates the 2016 presidential race’s, uh, racier underbelly, the fan-fiction sites where you’re “likely to read about a romantic connection between Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz—a pairing popular ...

All Protests Look Alike, and Other DNC Myths
July 25, 2016
There is nobody else on the media sign-in sheet but two kids from a school paper. It’s Saturday, two days before the opening of the Democratic National Convention, and we are at Temple University in northern Philadelphia, where the PowerShift Network, part of the Energy Action ...

The Baffler’s Officially Unofficial DNC Reading List
July 25, 2016
Thirteen months ago, U.S. senator and self-described democratic socialist Bernie Sanders kicked off his campaign on the shore of Lake Champlain in his home state of Vermont. Sanders wasn’t expected to win—nor was he expected to get this far. And while he may have ...

A Cyborg Speaks of Fearness
There was a moment, late Monday night, as I read about Melania Trump’s convention speech—the passages lifted from Michelle Obama, the Rickroll some wily programmer pasted into her source code—when I wondered if I was dreaming. The catastrophe seemed too elegant ...

Daily Bafflements
July 20, 2016
• Despite Ben Carson’s best efforts to convince the Republican National Convention participants that Hillary Clinton is Lucifer, we know that if there’s one spiritual force involved in the 2016 presidential election it’s actually Loki, the Norse ...

Roger, Over and Out
It’s certainly not in character for the corporate chieftains at Fox News to keep mum during the marquee action at a Republican Nation Convention. It’s a bit like having ESPN’s Chris Berman contain himself during a home-run derby—or Bravo TV reality impresario Andy Cohen ...

Daily Bafflements
July 18, 2016
• The list of people who blame themselves for fueling Trump’s sense of self-pity, which no doubt will be on ample display in Cleveland, is ever growing. A Buzzfeed reporter, whose critical article he fears goaded Trump into running, offers a follow-up mea culpa: “Trump ...

Power Players
Just as Al Gore was once described (by Michael Kinsley) as “an old person’s idea of a young person” so is Mike Allen a corporate account executive’s idea of a politics reporter. Or, to put things in the argot to which both he and his power-elite ...

Daily Bafflements
July 13, 2016
• Over at Reason TV, Baffler editor Chris Lehmann talks The Money Cult with Nick Gillespie. On whether the prosperity gospel’s popularity is waining or not, Lehmann says: “This whole word of faith tradition is regarded with great ...