Month: September 2026
-
The Trump Loyalty Question
More than 140 years after the Pendleton Act began dismantling the spoils system, nurses and firefighters applying for federal jobs are facing “loyalty tests,” being asked how they will help advance the president’ priorities. On Friday, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to stop asking applicants for federal jobs a question that has so…
-
ICE Brings Batons to Suburbs
We are now watching where they go next. Friday night in Frederick, Maryland, federal immigration agents drove onto a sidewalk where community observers were standing and chanting. City Council President César Díaz says people had to move or risk getting run over. He says Council Vice President Katie Nash was nearly struck, and that he…
-
Armed Man Rushes Candidate
Political violence does not have to succeed to erode a democracy. It needs only become ever more ordinary. On Sunday, an armed man rushed toward Amy Acton, the Democratic candidate for governor of Ohio, as she campaigned at the Canfield Fair. Police say 38-year-old Patrick Havas pushed through the crowd toward Acton, knocking people down…
-
Sand in the Gears
You do not have to do everything. Pick one thing. Then do it. Be sand in the gears. “Be troublesome. Be sand, not oil, in the gears of the world.” The German poet Günter Eich wrote that in 1951, trying to jolt people out of complacency after the catastrophe of the Nazi era. I think…
-
Trump’s $5 Billion Threat
Authoritarianism does not always only silence the critic. Sometimes it teaches everyone else to lower their voice. Tuesday, President Donald Trump threatened to sue the Center for American Progress for five billion dollars over research it published about his deployment of the National Guard to American cities. The report found that violent crime was already…
-
Trump vs Ballot Envelope
Why, one wonders, does the administration want the Postal Service deciding which envelopes carry a vote? Today the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to let the Postal Service decide which ballot envelopes states are allowed to mail. Solicitor General John Sauer describes the rule as “only modest envelope-design and addressee-information requirements.” But here is…
Notes To My Future Self 