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‘Both Sides’ and the Decline of Public Institutions
Yesterday I quoted a Foreign Service officer who is now on furlough. He described the current shutdown-induced emergency within the State Department and other agencies, but also the long-term decline...
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The Ripple Effects of the Shutdown Reach the GPS System (and Beyond)
As you read the accounts below, remember the point that Jon Tester, recently reelected Democratic senator from Montana, made this past week on the Senate floor: If one man, Senate Majority Leader Mitch...
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Trump Refuses to Soothe a Wounded Nation
Editor’s Note: This article is one of 50 in a series about Trump's first two years as president. There is one presidential duty that each incumbent must eventually bear, but whose timing no one can...
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‘God Is Not Done With Us Yet’: The Move Toward Local Renewal
The prospect for governance at the national level is dark. If you were in doubt, here is some recent grist.This makes it all the more important to notice, to connect, and to learn from the dispersed...
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The Mayor of Covington, Kentucky, Explains What His City Stands For
[Please see Updates at the end of this post.] I don’t know who the young man in the MAGA hat in this photo is. And I don’t care to know.His name, which the internet will inevitably turn up, really...
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The Confrontation on the Mall
I am familiar with the ambiguities of video evidence—for example, through this piece I wrote from Israel more than 15 years ago, “Who Shot Mohammed al-Dura,” about the battle over the meaning of an...
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‘Doing All, With Nothing’: The Coast Guard During the Shutdown
The U.S. Coast Guard is one of the five branches of the U.S. military—with the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps—but since 2003 it has been organizationally part of the Department of Homeland...
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America’s Air-Travel System Reaches Its Breaking Point
Back on January 7, when the government shutdown was a little over two weeks old, I wrote about its predictable effects on the nation’s commercial air-transport system.For a little while, things would...
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When the Top U.S. Tax Rate was 70 Percent—or Higher
This post has a simple purpose: to remind people of the historical realities of tax rates in the United States. It’s mainly setup for the chart you’ll see a few paragraphs below.At the World Economic...
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What 35 Days of Shutdown Accomplished: Nothing
On December 19 of last year, as reported here, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved a resolution to keep the government funded and avoid a shutdown, while postponing decisions about “the wall” until...
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‘The Shutdown Was the Price of Trump’s Tuition’
That the turmoil of the past five weeks was all for “nothing,” in policy terms, is what I argued in a post earlier today. After all the disruption to individual lives and collective services and...
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Who Is Paying Their ‘Fair Share’?
In a previous item, I included a table of U.S. “top bracket marginal income tax rates” over the past century. This is the tax rate you’d pay on the next dollar of taxable income, whenever you hit the...
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‘The Things I Remember Were Roads, Tall Buildings, Universities, and Research’
Two previous posts—“When the Top U.S. Tax Rate was 70 Percent—or Higher” and “Who Is Paying Their ‘Fair Share’?”—went into the endlessly complex and newly politically relevant question of the...
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Bill Burns: ‘Chaos Serves Putin’s Interest’
William J. Burns, now the head of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in Washington, D.C. is one of America’s most experienced and esteemed diplomats. During his three-decade career in the...
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Get Off My Lawn
Kati LackerFor a long time I thought the problem was all in my head. When I was growing up, I knew that a certain kind of noise was one I needed to avoid. Food blenders in the kitchen, hair dryers in...
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An Appalachian Saga That Is Different From Most You’ve Already Heard
At the end of February, Deb Fallows and I were at an event in Pittsburgh at Alphabet City, a bookstore connected to the wonderful City of Asylum, which we wrote about several years ago. While there, we...
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Is It Time to Worry About the Boeing 737 Max 8?
The first thing to say after an aviation disaster, such as the Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed all 157 people aboard over the weekend, is that it is an unspeakable tragedy for those who perished...
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A Shorter Guide to the Ethiopian Air Tragedy and the 737 Max 8
Today I posted a very long and detailed account of what is known and (mainly) unknown about this past weekend’s Ethiopian Airlines tragedy.Here is a much shorter Q and A guide.Q. Is this crash related...
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Here’s What Was on the Record About Problems With the 737 Max
As mentioned in two previous reports—a long one, and a short one—some things are known, and many are not, about the horrific crash this past weekend outside Addis Ababa, in which all 157 people aboard...
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‘Don’t Ground the Airplanes. Ground the Pilots.’
In the days since the horrific Ethiopian Airlines crash, I have received a lot of email from pilots, aircraft engineers, and others with experience in aviation. These have been in response to three...
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