It’s a bright spring day in New York, with sunlight dancing on the East River and robins singing Broadway tunes. I’m walking along the sea wall on the Lower East Side of Manhattan with Daniel Zarrilli, 41, the head of New York’s Office of Resilience and Recovery – basically Mayor…
Watch ‘Conan’ Unveil Snarky, Rapid-Fire Brexit Joke Robot
The late-night topic du jour is Brexit, Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. And Conan’s writing staff has cranked out so many zingers, they’ve wound up with a surplus – “way too many for me to actually do,” Conan O’Brien admitted during a recent monologue. “But I paid for them….
Roseanne Barr on POTUS Bid, America’s Greatness (or Lack Thereof)
As with anything Roseanne Barr talks about, the comedienne does not hold back when it comes to the way the United States handles presidential elections. “It’s almost impossible to get anything that helps this country or anybody in it on the ballot,” she says. “Real people are going to have…
In Response to Trump, Another Dangerous Movement Appears
The “too much democracy” train rolls on. Last week’s Brexit vote prompted pundits and social media mavens to wonder aloud if allowing dumb people to vote is a good thing. Now, the cover story in The Atlantic magazine features the most aggressive offering yet in an alarming series of intellectual-class jeremiads against…
Orlando Releases Police Logs From Night of Pulse Shooting
The City of Orlando made police logs from the night of the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub – including transcripts from hundreds of calls to 911 – available to the public on Tuesday, according to The New York Times. The documents show that a 911 caller first reported the shooting around 2:03 a.m. Then…
Hear U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron Paraphrase the Smiths in Parliament
U.K. Parliament took a strange detour on Wednesday as politicians invoked The Smiths during a debate about the fallout from the country’s recent vote to exit the European Union. According to NME, Prime Minister David Cameron took a rhetorical shot at Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn by purposefully distorting a lyric from The Smiths’…
RNC Protest Rule Change Touted as Victory for Homeless, Free Speech
Back in April, when Tim Selaty applied for a permit to protest during the upcoming Republican National Convention in Cleveland, he did so imagining himself and legions of Trump-faithful raging against a party that had betrayed them. “We thought the RNC was trying to steal the nomination from Mr. Trump,”…
How the Movies Are Preparing Us for 2016 Election
As the talking-head pundits tell it, Hollywood is a modern-day Sodom of left-wing Commie liberalism intent on poisoning our nation’s youth and providing national menaces like Lena Dunham with steady work. But a slightly more sober appraisal would reveal that most of the lessons imparted by this year’s crop of movies…
Gun Shop Raffles AR-15 to Raise Money for Orlando Shooting Victims
A gun store outside of Chicago has set up a raffle to raise money for victims of the recent mass shooting in Orlando, The Chicago Tribune reports. The prize? An AR-15 rifle, much like the one that Omar Mateen used to kill 49 people at the Pulse nightclub earlier this month. Though…
Did Exxon Lie About Global Warming?
At 9 a.m., ExxonMobil’s shareholders start to file into Dallas’ Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center for their annual meeting. Security personnel check IDs and confiscate phones. Uniformed police stand guard. Everyone passes through metal detectors. Outside is a crowd of protesters hoisting signs – “Exxon Lies, Seas Rise” – while…
Watch YG Flip ‘F–k Donald Trump’ Into Campaign Attack Ad
YG spit fire at the GOP presidential nominee in March with “FDT (Fuck Donald Trump),” a funky collaboration with Nipsey Hussle. Now, the rapper has escalated his anti-Trump platform with a mock attack ad released by Genius, reciting the song’s outraged lyrics from behind a podium. “I like white folks, but I don’t…
Things Are Even Worse for the GOP Than You Think
It has not been a slow news week. In the space of just two days: —The Supreme Court ruled 5-3 that Texas’ onerous abortion law were an undue burden on a woman’s constitutional right to the procedure. —The House Select Committee on Benghazi released its final report on the tragic 2012 attacks that…
Watch David Tennant Read Hilarious Tweets at Trump on ‘Samantha Bee’
Samantha Bee spoke about the U.K.’s decision to leave the European Union. The Full Frontal host had particularly sharp words for Nigel Farage, a champion of the Brexit cause who backpedaled on many of his party’s promises – especially a £350 million funding increase for the U.K.’s healthcare system, NHS – as soon…
Robert Reich on What’s Next for Bernie — And His Supporters
Robert Reich has known Hillary (Rodham) Clinton since he was 19. Heads of their respective college classes, the pair met, at Reich’s suggestion, for a “president’s summit.” (She remembers it as a movie date.) They went on to become Yale Law School classmates, along with Bill Clinton. Reich would later serve as Clinton’s Secretary of Labor. So it…
What the Historic Abortion Decision Means for American Women
It’s almost impossible to overstate how terrible the past 12 months have been for abortion providers: They’ve seen maliciously edited videos intended to deceive people into thinking abortion clinics sell baby parts; a huge spike in harassment and threats directed at providers and medical researchers; the longest sustained terrorist shoot-out in American…
The Reaction to Brexit Is the Reason Brexit Happened
In 1934, at the dawn of the Stalinist Terror, the great Russian writer Isaac Babel offered a daring quip at the International Writers Conference in Moscow: “Everything is given to us by the party and the government. Only one right is taken away: the right to write badly.” A onetime Soviet loyalist…
Wendy Davis on Abortion-Rights Win and Why Women Should Fear Trump
Three years ago, almost to the day, Wendy Davis filibustered for 13 hours against a piece of Texas legislation designed to drastically reduce access to abortion in the state, especially for Texas’ most vulnerable individuals. Despite Davis’ efforts, and the national attention she brought to the issue, the bill ended up passing during a…
John Oliver on Brexit Fallout: ‘United Kingdom’ Now Sounds ‘Sarcastic’
Despite John Oliver’s convincing, hilarious arguments, Britain voted last week to leave the EU – a move known around the world as “Brexit.” On the latest Last Week Tonight, the host switched to damage control, calling the United Kingdom “a place whose very name, after this week’s events, is beginning…
Brexit Offers Lesson in the Danger of Protest Votes
Primary blame for the result of last Thursday’s EU referendum in Britain lies with the Fleet Street press, the Conservative Party fighting their internal civil war through a vote and a tidal wave of xenophobic isolationism that both they and the far-right UK Independence Party exploited with terrifying enthusiasm. But there…
Aziz Ansari Slams Donald Trump’s ‘Xenophobic Rhetoric’ in Scathing Op-Ed
Aziz Ansari has penned a scathing op-ed slamming Donald Trump’s “xenophobic rhetoric” throughout the mogul’s presidential campaign and especially in the aftermath of the tragic Orlando shooting. “Today, with the presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and others like him spewing hate speech, prejudice is reaching new levels,” Ansari wrote for the New…
Bernie Sanders’ Artful Slow Fade
“Never, ever lose your sense of outrage,” Bernie Sanders told a raucous crowd at Manhattan’s Town Hall theater Thursday evening. His “Where We Go From Here” speech, billed as a roadmap for sanguine Sanderistas still bullish on his candidacy and everything it represents, was partly about ginning up that sense…
Damon Albarn, Johnny Marr, Ellie Goulding Outraged Over Brexit
In a historic referendum, Britain voted to leave the European Union, leaving a wave of economic uncertainty that has left many musicians and entertainment industry members crestfallen and outraged. On Friday, British musicians like Blur’s Damon Albarn and British indie pop band Bastille used the stages of Glastonbury Festival as a platform. “Democracy failed…
Bernie Sanders: Crazy to Argue About ‘Sane Gun Control’
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders took aim at the House GOP Thursday on The Late Show, explaining the “embarrassing” need for Democrats to stage a sit-in. “It is so crazy that we have to argue about having sane gun control legislation, keeping guns away from terrorists,” he told Stephen Colbert. “We have Republicans who…
10 Powerful Moments From the Congressional Gun Sit-In
Shortly before 11:30 Wednesday morning, Democrats in the House of Representatives staged a revolt. There would be no more business in their chamber of Congress, they declared, until Republican leadership called for votes on two bills: one that would ban individuals on the government’s no-fly list from purchasing weapons, and a second that…
What the Supreme Court’s Latest Big Decisions Mean for the Country
With a bang and a whimper, the Supreme Court Thursday morning resolved two of the three big cases that had remained on its docket. And once again we see that what Justice Anthony Kennedy wants, the country gets. Going into this month, the big cases the Court had left to decide…
Inside Kentucky’s Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot
Last April I spent two days at the Knob Creek Gun Range in Kentucky for their twice-yearly Machine Gun Shoot. I’m Swiss, and have made the U.S. my project to photograph for a few years, so I felt that this needed to be seen and experienced. America has a relationship with…
Welcome to the First Presidential Election Since Voting Rights Act Gutted
As a young civil rights activist, Congressman John Lewis was brutally beaten marching for the right to vote in Selma, Alabama. Lewis’s heroism spurred the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the country’s most important civil rights law. But three years ago this week, in Shelby County v. Holder,…
The Godawful Bill at the Center of the Gun Sit-In
In the end, the Republicans cut and ran. Or they realized there was no point in being shouted down. If you’ve come away from this week’s events in Congress with something like certitude, you probably began the day that way. For everyone else, being ambivalent feels like the natural result…
The Political Convention Where Bernie’s Revolution Reigns
Weeks before party apparatchiks descend on Cleveland and Philadelphia, a key political convention — though one neither sanctioned by the major parties nor followed closely by Beltway journalists — has already taken place. The People’s Summit, held in Chicago this past weekend, brought together some 3,000 Bernie Sanders supporters, if not…
David Byrne: Gun Control Doesn’t Need to Be ‘All or Nothing’
David Byrne wrote a lengthy piece on gun control in the United States on his website. He clarified that gun control doesn’t necessitate wiping the Second Amendment. “It’s not about taking away everyone’s guns,” Byrne wrote. “It needn’t be all or nothing, in other words.” Byrne called America a “war zone,” noting that more people are victims…
Democrats Hold Sit-in on House Floor to Demand Action on Guns
Democratic lawmakers initiated a sit-in on the floor of the House of Representatives Wednesday to demand a vote on gun-control measures. As of 2:00 p.m. Eastern Wednesday, the occupation was still taking place. The effort has been led by Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, a storied civil rights leader who organized sit-ins to protest Nashville’s segregated lunch counters in…
Watch Tom Morello Liken Trump to ‘Frat-House Rapist’
This week, activist and folksinger Ryan Harvey released “Old Man Trump,” a new song featuring damning, eerily prescient lyrics that Woody Guthrie wrote more than 60 years ago about Donald Trump’s father, Fred. Tom Morello, who guests on the track along with Ani DiFranco, has filmed a strongly worded video introduction suggesting that Guthrie’s critique…
One Big Reason the Latest Gun Bills Failed
After filibustering for 15 hours last week, Senate Democrats finally got what they wanted Monday evening: a vote on measures designed to curb gun violence in America. And, as anticipated, the Republican-controlled Senate voted down all four pieces of legislation imposing limits on gun sales. Americans have come to expect exactly this sort…
Trump’s Bigotry Is a Drug to Texas Republicans
When Donald Trump’s stumbling campaign blew into Texas for a three-city tour last week, its literature described its second and last rally in the state as an event in Houston, one of the most diverse cities in the United States. But it wasn’t. Trump’s rally was held in The Woodlands,…
Frank Ocean on Orlando Shooting: Many Hate Us and Wish We Didn’t Exist
Elusive R&B singer Frank Ocean shared a personal letter on Tuesday addressing the Orlando mass shooting and other forms of bigotry faced by members of the LGBT community. Ocean, who revealed that his Channel Orange album was partially inspired by a relationship with a man in a Tumblr post in 2012, remembers his father…
Hear the Odd Advice Donald Trump Gave 11-Year-Old Daniel Radcliffe
As the young star of the Harry Potter movies, Daniel Radcliffe was thrown into some strange situations – including one where he encountered Donald Trump backstage before an interview on The Today Show. “It was my first time in New York,” Radcliffe said to Seth Meyers on Monday night. “I was really nervous,…
Samantha Bee Continues to Roast N.R.A. Over Role in Gun Control Debate
Samantha Bee brought her usual caustic humor to a discussion of the Senate’s recent debate over gun rights. Last Tuesday, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut led a 15-hour filibuster effort in the Senate to push the legislative body to take up gun control measures. Two of these measures were sponsored…
10 Things You Need to Know About Zika
Zika is full of surprises. The mosquito-borne virus has captured international attention since the outbreak in Brazil early in 2015, and is now active in 60 countries around the world. In the seven decades that we’ve known about Zika, it has always appeared to be relatively harmless, no more alarming…
The Return of Lesser Evilism
Jonathan Chait of New York magazine wrote a column about Ralph Nader this morning that uses some interesting language. Noting that it’s now been 16 years since Nader ran for president and garnered enough dissenting votes to help elect George W. Bush, he wrote (emphasis mine): “That is enough time for…
The Media Is Finally Calling Out Trump’s Toxic Demagoguery
Until recently, much of the mainstream media coverage of Donald Trump’s campaign had been largely positive. Yes, there was some early discussion about whether he’s a fascist, and plenty of stories about thuggery at his rallies — but there was also a lot of what we might call a fascination with…
Meet the Senator Who Filibustered for 15 Hours on Gun Control
Last Tuesday night, three days after 49 people were brutally gunned down at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Sen. Chris Murphy reached a breaking point. The Connecticut Democrat, who was elected to the Senate just a month before the Sandy Hook shooting, is one of Congress’ most vocal anti-gun-violence crusaders…
Watch John Oliver Urge Anti-‘Brexit’ Vote With Snarky Vocal Group
On June 23rd, the United Kingdom– “birthplace of the Beatles and yet very much the world’s Ringo” –will vote in a referendum on whether to leave the European Union. As a Brit, John Oliver understands that urge to leave, citing an “innate British desire to tell Europe to go fuck itself.” But…
The Stanford Rape Case Judge’s Controversial History
As he handed down a six-month sentence to Brock Turner for sexually assaulting a woman behind a dumpster, Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky acknowledged the former Stanford swimmer’s remorse — “remorse, which I think, subjectively, is genuine,” Persky said. As the victim in the case wrote in a widely read statement,…
Chuck D Talks ‘Mein Trump,’ ‘Keeping Seat Warm’ for Zack de la Rocha
It’s understandable to be skeptical of Prophets of Rage, the new supergroup comprised of Public Enemy’s Chuck D, Cypress Hill’s B-Real and Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, Brad Wilk and Tim Commerford, as they prepare for an upcoming tour beginning in August. On paper, the group’s three catalogs contain some of the most…
My Pride Is Bulletproof: A Queer Puerto Rican on Life After Orlando
It could have been me. I could have had my body riddled with bullets, my blood spilled, clothes drenched, crawling for my life on the dance floor of a gay bar. I had just returned from a Brooklyn gay bar, my queer friends and I dancing with drag queens to celebrate…
On Being Anti-Gun in Gun-Loving America
On Monday, I wrote an article for Rolling Stone advocating for the repeal of the Second Amendment. From my vantage point as a constitutional law professor, I argued that the amendment’s cost-benefit analysis is outdated, it’s a threat to liberty and it’s a suicide pact. I stand by all of…
Why Did Judge Aaron Persky’s Stanford Rape Decision Go Viral?
Earlier this month, after Stanford University freshman Brock Turner was found guilty of three felony counts of sexual assault, California judge Aaron Persky sentenced the swimmer to six months in jail, though he may be out in as few as three. “Absolutely shocked and appalled,” was the response of one anonymous juror…
How the NRA Paved the Way for the Orlando Shooting
The greatest threat to our homeland security today is the National Rifle Association, a front group for the firearms industry that derails gun-safety measures and perversely profits with each new mass shooting. Responding to Orlando — the deadliest attack by a gunman in our history — the NRA blamed the massacre on “the…
Zika: The Epidemic at America’s Door
Puerto Rico’s Martin Peña canal is a winding, heavily polluted waterway that snakes 3.7 miles through the center of San Juan. Eight small, deeply impoverished communities, all lacking an efficient sewage system, surround the channel, and have for generations dumped untreated waste directly into the mud-colored water. One Friday in…
5 Things That Are Harder to Get Than an Assault Rifle
Omar Mateen bought the assault rifle he used to kill 49 people at Pulse nightclub eight days before Sunday’s shooting. The owner of the store that sold him the gun, St. Lucie Shooting Center, said on Tuesday that Mateen passed a background check. (In Florida, a background check is essentially just…
Bill O’Reilly Responds to Orlando: ‘We Need a Declaration of War’
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