In the popular imagination, 2020 gets all the bad press, but this year has been no sunny day at the beach, either. Sure, several effective COVID-19 vaccines emerged, but so did the the highly contagious Delta variant, as well as new, more virulent strains of anti-vax sentiment, tightly yoked to conservative political ideology. Worst of […]
Author: Tom Philpott
The Parable of the Average American and the $90 Bottle of Wine
It’s starting to feel a lot like the late 1970s, when rising prices hammered US households. At least, according to the financial press. “The highest annual US inflation rate in almost 31 years reverberated across financial markets and in the minds of Americans this week, damaging consumer sentiment, leaving many traders flummoxed, and causing one financial […]
Kyle Rittenhouse Goes to Washington?
As the jury deliberated in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial this week in Kenosha, Wisc., one pro-defense protester outside of the courthouse openly carried an AR-15 and “screamed obscenities about the Black Lives Matter movement,” The Washington Post reported. He turned out to be a former police officer in Ferguson, Mo., “where he joined the department […]
Biden to Americans in Afghanistan: “We Will Get You Home”
Amid images of a chaotic exit from Afghanistan—including one of an infant being passed to armed soldiers over barbed wire—President Joe Biden addressed the nation Friday about the inglorious end to America’s longest war. He projected calm as he made a claim also made by every US president since George W. Bush launched the conflict […]
I’ll Take “Quit in Disgrace” for $800
What’s…an iconic TV game show that has been plunged into chaos by corporate personnel decisions? If that’s the correct question, the clue must have been Jeopardy! Back in August, the long-running quiz show finally named a successor to beloved host Alex Trebeck, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2020. Many fans had rallied around actor […]
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Banned Mask Mandates. Schools Pushed Back—and Won, for Now.
While Texas Gov. Greg Abbott rides out a case COVID-19 in quarantine, one of his prized policies crumbled under the pressure of various legal challenges: his push to prevent schools from imposing mask mandates. Back in July, Abbott released an executive order banning any government agency, including school districts, from requiring masks to enter public […]
Meatpacking Giant Tyson Mandates Vaccines for All Workers
When COVID-19 infections began blitzing meatpacking plants last year, no company’s workers bore the brunt of the pandemic quite like those of Tyson Foods, the enormous purveyor of chicken, beef, and pork. Some 12,536 of the company’s 120,000 total US employees have tested positive for the virus, and 39 have died from it, according to […]
Here’s How Biden’s New Executive Order Could Shake Up Big Ag
Last Friday, President Joe Biden released a sweeping executive order on “Promoting Competition in the American Economy,” aimed at taking on massive corporations that dominate multiple marketplaces. Much of the focus of this trustbusting has been on tech. But as I wrote in March, the antitrust proponents Biden appointed have also been fierce critics of […]