The nation has been plunged into despair and mourning. A little more than a week after the slaughter of 10 people by a white supremacist in Buffalo, a gunman killed 19 children and 2 adults in Uvalde, Texas, as police stood by in what seems a glacial and incompetent response. The tragedies renewed calls for gun control. In […]
Author: Tom Philpott
Blame Big Oil for a Lot—But Not for Price Gouging at the Pump
A gallon of gas now costs nearly a dollar more than it did on January 1. Surging gas prices are generating loads of economic pain, especially for low- and middle-income Americans who rely on their cars to commute, shop for groceries, and pick up their kids from school. So it’s no wonder that when expenditures […]
US Politicians and Oil Execs See Opportunity in Ukraine’s Crisis
On Monday, the United Nations’ climate change assessment body, the IPCC, released a landmark report finding that 150 years of unchecked fossil fuel burning had left the planet with a “brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.” A day before, speaking at a virtual meeting of […]
Meet the Know-Nothing MAGA Stalwart About to Take Over Georgia’s Universities
Last year, fresh from serving a full term as the Secretary of Agriculture during the Trump administration, Sonny Perdue began angling for another plum post: leadership of the University System of Georgia. An agribusiness tycoon, Perdue is best known for his political work as a former two-term Georgia governor during which he urged on pay […]
The Grinch Has a New Name: Omicron
Last week, the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus swept across the United States just as millions of people were preparing to visit family for the holidays. The spike in Covid infections hit the airline industry hard, causing employees to call in sick at high rates during the busiest time of the year. Predictably enough, […]
“Implacable Champion of the Oppressed—and the Fervent Opponent of Tyranny” Desmond Tutu Has Died
Nearly a half-century ago, when apartheid, a racial caste system rooted in colonialism, ruled South Africa, a middle-aged cleric became the first Black dean of Johannesburg, which is an important position in the Anglican church. He could have wrangled a special permit to live in the city’s prosperous white quarter where the church was located, […]
An Animal Hoarder’s Son Dropped 500 Parakeets in 7 Cages at a Michigan Shelter
I lived nextdoor to a Cat Person once—you know, the kind who feeds and maintains dozens of feral or semi-feral kitties. As a lower-case cat person myself (the kind who loves sharing a house with maybe a couple), I didn’t mind it at all. During my work-at-home days, I could always count on being entertained […]
More People Have Died of COVID This Year Than Last
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 […]
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 […]