Reading List

The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.

Are far-right politics just the new normal?

TORONTO — At a conference bookended by speeches from former President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, the leading lights of the global center-left gathered to consider their fate.  The Global Progress Action Summit was billed as a “progressive version of CPAC,” the right-wing conference that has become a premier gathering for populist […]

Flavored vapes doomed Trump’s FDA head

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: Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary is out of a job.  What happened? Makary, who led the federal agency in charge of regulating drugs, […]

Hantavirus will test if the world learned anything from Covid

Almost as soon as the hantavirus outbreak on the cruise ship MV Hondius became international news, public health experts rushed to assuage the public: This is not Covid-19. Don’t worry — this is a virus that requires “close contact” to spread. The risk of a pandemic is quite low. But if this apparent certainty from […]

What would J.R.R. Tolkien think of Palantir?

Peter Thiel and Alex Karp’s Palantir Technologies is one of the most powerful and mysterious tech companies in Silicon Valley. Its namesake is also one of the most powerful and mysterious magical objects in the lore of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy series The Lord of the Rings. The palantiri of The Lord of the Rings […]

Virginia Democrats’ irresponsible new plan to save their gerrymander

If you’re a Democrat, ask yourself a simple question: When was the last time something got better after Brett Kavanaugh put his hands on it? Unfortunately, Jay Jones, the Democratic attorney general of Virginia, does not appear to have considered this question before he asked the US Supreme Court to get involved in his state’s […]