CATEGORIES

President for Sale - A survey of today's political ads.

On a mid-October Sunday not long ago sun high, wind cool-I was in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for a book festival, and I took a stroll. There were few people on the streets-like the population of a lot of capital cities, Harrisburg's swells on weekdays with lawyers and lobbyists and legislative staffers, and dwindles on the weekends. But, on the façades of small businesses and in the doorways of private homes, I could see evidence of political activity. Across from the sparkling Susquehanna River, there was a row of Democratic lawn signs: Malcolm Kenyatta for auditor general, Bob Casey for U.S. Senate, and, most important, in white letters atop a periwinkle not unlike that of the sky, Kamala Harris for President.

The Petro State - Colombia's first leftist leader wants to end oil

Last year, Colombian president Gustavo Petro watched in dismay as a political and economic crisis unfolded on the other side of his country’s eastern border. Global powers had imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s oil exports after the country’s autocratic leader, Nicolás Maduro, allegedly A his re-election. As hyperinflation fueled turmoil, millions of refugees poured into Colombia to escape.

Fortress Democracy - Despite efforts at home and abroad to undermine faith in U.S. elections, this year's vote is set to be the most secure and reliable ever. Thank new laws, fail-safes, and courageous election officials

Despite efforts at home and abroad to undermine faith in U.S. elections, this year’s vote is set to be the most secure and reliable ever. Thank new laws, fail-safes, and courageous election officials

The Convert - The sudden rise of J. D. Vance has transfixed conservative élites. Is he the future of Trumpism?

Vance’s selection as Trump’s running mate had punctuated an astounding rise. Born in the small manufacturing city of Middletown, Ohio, he was raised by a drug-addicted mother and his beloved Appalachian-born grandmother, Mamaw. He worked his way up through storied American institutions: the Marine Corps, Yale Law School, Silicon Valley. “Hillbilly Elegy,” the best-selling memoir Vance published in 2016, made him famous, and his denunciations of Trump as “cultural heroin” for the white working class even more so. A few years later, he was a senator from Ohio, the Republican Party’s most effective spokesman for Trumpism as an ideology, and—both improbably and inevitably—the VicePresidential nominee. “If you think about where he came from and where he is, at forty years old,” the conservative analyst Yuval Levin, a Vance ally, said, “J.D. is the single most successful member of his generation in American politics.”

Washington's Nightmare - Donald Trump is the tyrant the first president feared.

Last November, during a symposium at Mount Vernon on democracy, John Kelly, the retired Marine Corps general who served as Donald Trump's second chief of staff, spoke about George Washington's historic accomplishments— his leadership and victory in the Revolutionary War, his vision of what an American president should be. And then Kelly offered a simple, three-word summary of Washington's most important contribution to the nation he liberated.

Early and Often: David Freedlander - Momentum vs. Machine The Trump and Harris campaigns battle it out for every last vote.

WIth two weeks left to go, the contours of the 2024 presidential election are clear: Both campaigns need voters who usually don’t vote, and Kamala Harris needs to bring the Democratic coalition, including its Trump-curious members, back home.While the Republican side plans to spend the remaining days of the contest trying to lure low-propensity voters to the polls, the Harris team will attempt to persuade voters of color to return to its side and will try to increase numbers among white voters in previously red suburbs.

Food + Health / Global Warning - Why Project 2025 is an environmental catastrophe in the making

When President Joe Biden took office, Democrats held a slim majority in the House of Representatives and a single-vote edge in the Senate. Despite the monumental odds, he has presided over the most productive presidential term for climate action in American history. Under Biden’s direction, the federal government took up the arduous task of incorporating climate considerations into scores of administrative operations and procedures. The epa cracked down on superpollutants and issued stricter emissions regulations for passenger vehicles. The Inflation Reduction Act, the biggest climate spending bill Congress has ever passed, brings the nation closer to its goal of slashing carbon emissions in half by 2030.

In the Name of the Mother - How Shyamala Gopalan Harris raised a presidential contender

Shyamala Gopalan Harris did not believe in coddling. Pay her daughters, Kamala and Maya, an allowance for doing chores? “If you do the dishes, you should get two dollars,” scoffed the woman who this past summer, almost two decades after we spoke, would launch a million coconut memes. “You ate from the damn dishes!” Reward the future vice president of the United States—and possible future president—for good grades? Ridiculous. “What does that tell you?” her mother chided. “It says, ‘You know, I really thought you were stupid. Oh, you surprised Mommy!’ No.”

Trumpnesia - To get a second chance, Trump needs voters to forget his disastrous presidency.

One of the most oft-quoted sentences ever penned by a philosopher is George Santayana’s observation that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” In 2024, this aphorism is practically a campaign slogan. Donald Trump, seeking to become the first former president since Grover Cleveland to return to the White House after being voted out of the job, has waged war on remembrance. In fact, he’s depending on tens of millions of voters forgetting the recent past. This election is an experiment in how powerful a memory hole can be.

The Ascent - Can Kamala Harris defy her doubters—and end the Trump era?

When Joe Biden called Kamala Harris on the morning of Sunday, July 21st, she was in the kitchen at the Vice-President's residence, a turreted mansion on a hill in Northwest Washington. Harris was wearing sweatpants and a hoodie from her alma mater, Howard University. Her husband, Doug Emhoff, was in Los Angeles, but the house was bustling with relatives. She had just finished making bacon and pancakes for two grandnieces before sitting down with them to work on a jigsaw puzzle.

Inside the Patriot Wing - January 6 rioters are running their jail block like a gang. They're leaving more adicalized than ever

Early in the evening of July 13 in an isolated cell block of the D.C. Jail, about two miles east of the Capitol Building, a dozen detainees charged with some of the most violent crimes committed on January 6, 2021, were participating in a thousand-burpee challenge. The group made up roughly half of the inmates held in the block, a special unit sequestered from the jail’s other prisoners and known to its residents as “the Patriot Wing.” The challenge was in honor of a former resident of the unit, a fitness evangelist, who had recently been transferred out to serve a five-year prison sentence for attacking police officers with a floor lamp, a shoe, a nightstick, and a spiked club made from a broken table leg and nails.

The System: Zak Cheney-Rice - Kamala's Comedown How the Harris campaign became a grim slog.

After an exuberant summer, an autumn chill has descended on Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. The joyous rallies that were all over the news between mid-July, when Harris replaced Joe Biden atop the Democratic ticket, and the August convention, where she and Tim Walz accepted the party nomination, have quieted into more familiar spectacles. Her once-ascendant polling numbers have stalled and her campaign has become cautious, granting TV interviews mostly to a handful of local news channels in swing states. If the first month of her candidacy was an exhalation after the suffocating defeatism under Biden, the last weeks before Election Day have felt like a collective holding of breath.

The New Apprentice - J.D. Vance's juggling act

J.D. Vance looks annoyed. it's a tuesday afternoon in August, and we're sitting near the front of his campaign plane, flying from a rally in Michigan to a fundraiser in Tennessee. Across the aisle is his mother Bev, whose role in Vance's traumatic and disruptive childhood he chronicled in his best-selling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. As flight attendants serve Chick-fil-A, Vance gripes about the ongoing controversy over his three-year-old comments complaining that the U.S.is being run by Democrats, corporate oligarchs, and childless cat ladies who don't really have a direct stake in the country's future. As with his boss, Vance's instincts are to punch back. I think it's a ridiculous thing to focus on, he says, instead of the underlying argument I was trying to make.

Inside Ukraine's Troubled Outreach to Trump - Many nations keep a nervous eye on U.S.presidential races, but none have as much at stake this time as the Ukrainians.

Zelensky's first public event that day was a visit to an arms factory in Scranton, Pa., which he toured alongside the state's Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro. The visit allowed Zelensky to express his gratitude to all the American workers producing weapons for Ukraine. But the optics did not sit well with the Trump campaign. It seems he took offense, one member of Zelensky's entourage tells TIME.

The Etiquette of Dissent - What happens if your candidate loses the election? Fortunately, examples of civilized-and productiveways to handle it abound.

The etiquette of living in dissent thereafter, especially if it goes on for a long time, is another matter. In theory, we are supposed to learn how to be good losers as kids. Athletic leagues give out sportsmanship awards, and institutions like the Scouts try to coach their members toward grace in defeat. Both aim to teach us how to live on the outs, perhaps drawing upon the British public school attitude of let’s-all-pull-together-for-the-empire. (The out-of-power party in the UK is even known as “His Majesty’s Most Loyal Opposition.”) In the American ideal, we metaphorically line up and shake hands after the softball game, and then square off again on another day. In practice, what some people do is accuse the other team of cheating and try to get the umpire fired.

The City Politic- The Other Eric Adams Scandal The NYPD shot a fare evader, a cop, and two bystanders. He defends it.

On Sunday, September 15, Derell Mickles hopped a turnstile, got asked to leave by cops, then entered the subway again ten minutes later through an emergency exit. This was at the Sutter Avenue L station, out by his mother's house, five stops from the end of the line. Police said they noticed he was holding a folded knife. They followed him up the stairs to the elevated train, asking him 38 times to drop the weapon.

Intelligencer - The National Interest: Jonathan Chait - Exploiting Violence Trump blames liberals for the attempts on his life. He doesn't care who gets hurt now.

Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. That was true before the first assassination attempt on the former president, on July 13, and it remains true now, after the second attempt, which was foiled at his golf course on September 15. Political violence in general, and assassinating presidential candidates specifically, also poses risks to democracy. There is no contradiction between these ideas whatsoever. Yet Trump’s supporters have responded to both attempts on his life by muddying the waters, exploiting the near tragedies with cynical efforts to redefine critiques of Trump’s authoritarian inclinations as violent provocation.

The D.C. Brief - When some of the biggest donors to conservative causes made explicit their electoral opposition to a second term for Donald Trump way back in February 2023, it came as something of a shock to the Republican orbit.

When some of the biggest donors to conservative causes made explicit their electoral opposition to a second term for Donald Trump way back in February 2023, it came as something of a shock to the Republican orbit. After all, the powerful network organized under the auspices of billionaire industrialist Charles Koch had officially remained neutral in Trump's 2016 and 2020 campaigns, a sign of how uncomfortable his allies were with the nominee whose positions were so far afield from their own.

Meet the Democracy Defenders - In the minds of many voters, nothing less than American democracy is on the line in 2024.

In the minds of many voters, nothing less than American democracy is on the line in 2024. Some see threats on multiple fronts: foreign interference, artificial intelligence, a polarized electorate. Others are most worried about candidates who have undermined faith in our voting systems. The 11 people on this list-Democrats and Republicans, public officials and private individuals, business leaders and civil rights crusaders-are working to boost voter participation, reverse disenfranchisement, and combat misinformation. Their efforts help not only defend democracy, but also strengthen it.

Party Planning - Putin wants Trump to win, of course, and he's got big ideas about a new world order. Think Yalta-on Fiji

I don’t know which moment in US history former president Donald Trump imagines when he says, “Make America great again.” He has never given a definitive answer in any speech or interview. But I know exactly which moment Vladimir Putin imagines in his own vision for Russian greatness. It is February 1945, when Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill divided the world in Crimea.

What Abortion Bans Do to Doctors - In Idaho and other states, draconian laws are forcing physicians to ignore their training and put patients' lives at risk.

Kylie Cooper has seen all the ways a pregnancy can go terrifyingly, perilously wrong. She is an obstetrician who manages high-risk patients, also known as a maternal-fetal-medicine specialist, or MFM. The awkward hyphenation highlights the duality of the role. Cooper must care for two patients at once: mother and fetus, mom and baby. On good days, she helps women with complicated pregnancies bring home healthy babies. On bad days, she has to tell families that this will not be possible. Sometimes, they ask her to end the pregnancy; prior to the summer of 2022, she was able to do so

US Companies See Record-Low Profits in China Amid Geopolitical Tensions and Slow Growth, Report Says - American companies in China are seeing record-low profits, with business confidence at an all-time low amid U.S.-China tensions and a slowing Chinese economy

American companies in China are seeing record-low profits, with business confidence at an all-time low amid U.S.-China tensions and a slowing Chinese economy, according to a report published Thursday by a U.S. business group.

The Dark Time. - On the Arctic border of Russia and Norway, an espionage war is emerging.

On the Arctic border of Russia and Norway, an espionage war is emerging. The point of contact between NATO and Russia's nuclear stronghold is the small town of Kirkenes. For years, Russia has treated the area as a laboratory, testing intelligence and influence operations before replicating them across Europe.

The Afterlife of Donald Trump - The presidential hopeful contemplates his campaign, his formidable new opponent, and the miracle of his continued existence.

Donald Trump raised his right hand and grabbed hold of it. He bent it backward and forward. I asked if I could take a closer look. These days, the former president and current triple threat-convicted felon, Republican presidential nominee, and recent survivor of an assassination attempt-comes from a place of yes. He waved me over to where he sat on this August afternoon, in a low-to-the-ground chair upholstered in cream brocade fabric in the grand living room at Mar-a-Lago.

This Fall, Hollywood Tries to Balance Box Office With the Ballot Box - Three weeks after the U.S. presidential election in November, Ridley Scott will present his latest big-screen opus.

Three weeks after the U.S. presidential election in November, Ridley Scott will present his latest big-screen opus. “Gladiator II” returns the prodigious filmmaker to ancient Rome for a story about a power, the survival of Rome and the fate of democracy.“Hopefully,” Scott says, “it will be a good omen.” This fall, Hollywood will be trying — with everything from swaggering historical epics like “Gladiator II” to the high-seas adventure of “Moana 2” — to capture the nation’s attention at a time when much of it will be directed at the polls.

A Wonk in Full- Ezra Klein, glowed-up and post-coup, was almost a celebrity at the convention.

Ezra Klein, glowed-up and post-coup, was almost a celebrity at the convention. Ezra Klein, who is known to keep his passions in check, did not have the right credentials to get into the arena. The Secret Service didn't recognize the New York Times' star "Opinion" writer and podcaster, but eventually he was able to figure out how to get in to where he belonged. This was, after all, as much his convention as any journalist's, since its high-energy optimism turned on the fact that President Joe Biden was no longer leading the ticket and, starting early this year, Klein had led the coup drumbeat.

Kamala's Party - Producing Chicago The DNC covered nearly impossible ground to raise up Harris as the new hero.

Producing Chicago The DNC covered nearly impossible ground to raise up Harris as the new hero. At a political convention, power is rendered as geography. The rank and file are stuck in the rafters of the arena; the delegates jostle on the floor. Donors and VIPs are positioned up in a ring of luxury suites, their status-conferring badges and passes flapping from their many lanyards. The staffers toil down in the bowels, harried and molelike, their eyes on their phones. But at last week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago, maybe the most important piece of real estate was a narrow space up metal gangway stairs at the back of the United Center, where Ricky Kirshner worked in front of a bank of a half-dozen flat-screens. The Democrats in the hall were extras in a televised event, and Kirshner was producing the show.

Vote or Die - I'm a Black man in Arizona participating in the most consequential election of my lifetime whether certain white men want me to or not.

You knew some vote-or-die, do-it-to-honor the-sacrifices-of-the-ancestors, you-can't-complain-if-youdon't-participate Black folks. But you also knew scores who didn't trouble themselves with participating at all. Into your 30s you felt somewhere between those philosophical poles, among those who, each election cycle, needed convincing that their vote mattered a good gotdamn.

This Guy Stood Up to Trump - Georgia's Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, rebuffed Donald Trump's demand to find” votes for him in 2020—and received death threats. Now Trump is back on the ballot, and the pressure is mounting from all sides. Can he once again deliver a fair election?

Georgia's Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, rebuffed Donald Trump's demand to find” votes for him in 2020—and received death threats. Now Trump is back on the ballot, and the pressure is mounting from all sides. Can he once again deliver a fair election?Brad Raffensperger is rattling off statistics while we wait. It's just after 4:00 P.M. on Tuesday, May 21, and the Georgia secretary of state is standing outside a small conference room in an underground bunker on the east side of Atlanta, where he and his staff gather on election days. A couple dozen workers are spread around an open seating area, quietly fielding phone calls and staring at their computer monitors. With its fluorescent lights and gray carpet, the place has the muted feel of a regional sales office. The secretary, though, is energized. As the official in charge of overseeing elections in his state, Raffensperger is always ready to dive into the details.

'Lord, Help Us Make America Great Again' - A close reading of Trump-rally prayers

A week before Christmas, an evangelical minister named Paul Terry stood before thousands of Christians, their heads bowed, in Durham, New Hampshire, and pleaded with God for deliverance. Th e nation was in crisis, he told the Lord— racked with death and addiction, led by wicked men who “rule with imperial disdain.”