The Capitol building in Washington has become a revolutionary space over which to fight. On January 6th, the building, its doorways, hallways and tunnels became an arena for literal combat for or against a Trumpist insurgency. Who would take the rotunda? Who would barricade their office doors? Who would put on their gas masks correctly? On that day the twin causes—so often depicted as harmless swaths of reds and blues on a map—were concretized as the insurgents pushed forward and then were pushed back, the first battle lost…
To Be or Not, BLM
The most brilliance I have seen in a long while…
Colin Kaepernick Has the Historical Stature Of Mohammad Ali
Colin Kaepernick has lost three years of his prime career in a sport with a cripplingly short span. He now stands as a historic political sports figure of the stature of Mohammad Ali. Torn apart in his times, denounced, Kaepernick helped awaken a nation to the brutality of the American state. And his jersey, the shoes…
The Afghanistan Papers: A Reappraisal of an Appraisal
A little known agency, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), undertook the audit in 2014. The little-known government watchdog spent $11 million on the project, hired 600 staff. They recorded some 400 interviews. SIGAR’s mission: to assemble the Lessons Learned from the 18-year campaign in Afghanistan, 2,430 American soldiers dead,…
The Weakness of Demagoguery over Summer Rolls
From a dinner of pho and vermicelli, I was walking to my Hyundai with a friend when she posed again the question of the day, the month, the past three years. Daubing a bit fiercely at a spot of hoisin on a button of her shirt, she asked how a man like Donald Trump could…
Letter to the Editor: On Project 1619, New York Times
Dear editor, The objections to the 1619 Project by the prominent seemed granular, a poor example of wider held discomfort many historians hold with the project. The 1619 Project, for all its vital import in bringing light to dark spaces in American history, exchanges one master narrative for another. It seems a great shame not…
Why Julian Assange Is Unlikely to Find a Refuge in the Supreme Court
WASHINGTON POST: Julian Assange last month ended his seven-year stay at the Ecuadoran Embassy in London, where he had sought refuge from prosecution in Sweden and the United States. The British government has since ordered that he be extradited to the United States, where he may be charged under the U.S. Espionage Act. In his role as…
The Silly Hunt for an Impeachment Smoking Gun
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: The hunt is on for the definitive proof of President Trump’s election meddling by way of strong-arming Ukraine. Former White House Counsel John Dean declared that “we’ve already seen the smoking gun” in what Trump calls his “perfect” conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The news has saturated with…
