Reading List

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

Voters signed up to deport criminals, not grandmas

When President Donald Trump won the 2024 election, many American voters wanted immigration reduced, and Trump quickly complied. He boosted funding for immigration enforcement, opened new detention centers, and pushed more Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as Customs and Border Patrol troops, into US cities. While American disapproval of immigration was key to Trump […]

The Democrats’ big election revealed a hidden constraint on Trump

So far, the biggest successes against President Donald Trump’s second-term assault on democracy have come not from Congress and the Supreme Court, but more unusual sources: lower-court judges, “No Kings” protests, a Disney+ subscriber boycott, and Trump’s own indiscipline and incompetence. After the 2025 elections, we can add the states to the list. And in […]

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 […]