Reading List

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

Want to quit your smartphone? Join this club.

For the past few months, a shadowy company called Dumb and Co. has been convincing people in Washington, DC, to ditch their smartphones for a month. It’s part of a project called Month Offline, where participants get a flip phone and access to a support group to talk about algorithms, doomscrolling, and why smartphones make […]

The end of free tax filing, 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 has killed a short-lived IRS program designed to make filing tax returns fast and free.  What happened? The fate of IRS Direct […]

Republicans may have a Latino problem (again)

Less than one year into President Donald Trump’s second term, we finally have solid evidence that the coalition that carried him to victory one year ago today is unraveling. The slate of Republican losses — and the magnitude of Democratic wins in New Jersey and Virginia, especially — suggest not just that the Democratic backlash to […]

This is how the Trump coalition unravels

The Republican Party has had better days. In Tuesday’s off-year elections, the GOP lost every major race by a mile. Democratic candidates won the Virginia governor’s race by around 15 points, the New Jersey gubernatorial election by 13, and Georgia’s statewide public commissioner elections by more than 25 points. In Pennsylvania, Democratic Supreme Court justices […]

How tariffs ate American foreign policy

President Donald Trump has described the ongoing Supreme Court case over the legality of his use of emergency powers to impose tariffs on more than 100 countries as a matter of “literally, LIFE OR DEATH for our Country.” Certainly the case, in which oral arguments were heard at the Court on Wednesday, has profound implications […]