Reading List
The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.
The Supreme Court case that could redefine “cruel and unusual,” explained
Nearly a quarter century ago, in Atkins v. Virginia (2002), the Supreme Court held that it is unconstitutional to execute offenders with an intellectual disability. Next Wednesday, however, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a new case, Hamm v. Smith, which tests whether the Court’s current Republican majority wishes to retain this limit on […]
Why politics is ruining how we watch movies
One Battle After Another is, perhaps, too on the nose. Paul Thomas Anderson’s epic depicts past and present revolutionaries fighting back against a heavily militarized, white-supremacist regime that seemed to mirror reality in the United States when the movie hit theaters in late 2025. Characters rescue immigrants from detention centers, bomb the office of an […]
Trump’s new immigration crackdown, briefly explained
This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here. Welcome to The Logoff: The Trump administration is stopping all immigration applications from 19 countries in response to last week’s deadly shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington, […]
Did Trump accidentally boost direct giving?
When billionaire Michael Dell was 8 years old, he opened his first savings account. Every time that young Michael forked a quarter over to the bank teller, he felt a rush from the “power of compound interest,” as he said from the White House on Tuesday, hours after he and his wife Susan gifted an […]
The twisted reason why Trump is bombing Venezuelan boats
In early September, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the US military to “kill everybody” aboard a speedboat in the Caribbean. A missile then shattered the vessel and set its fragments ablaze. When the smoke cleared, US surveillance drones showed two people clinging to the smoldering wreckage. An admiral then ordered a second strike against these […]