Category Archives: Uncategorized

A demonstrator vapes during a rally outside of the White House to protest the proposed vaping flavor ban in Washington DC on November 9, 2019. | Photo by JOSE LUIS MAGANA/AFP via Getty Images Angry vapers and vaping companies convinced the president to kill his flavored vape ban. Back in September, the White House organizedContinue reading “Trump’s controversial vaping flavor ban is now dead”

Trump during an event at the White House on Friday. | Getty Images The White House’s credibility crisis fueled speculation about Trump’s seemingly unplanned trip to the hospital. President Donald Trump made a trip to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, as White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham put it, to “beginContinue reading “The questions surrounding Trump’s trip to Walter Reed hospital, briefly explained”

Dave Eggers attends the 2018 Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awards on September 20, 2018, in Louisville, Kentucky. | Stephen J. Cohen/Getty Images David Eggers and I discuss satire, the Trump presidency, and the importance of disconnecting on The Ezra Klein Show. I’ve wanted to have Dave Eggers on the show for a while now. Eggers hasContinue reading “Having a bad day? Dave Eggers can help. “

A physician’s assistant checks the heart rate of an immigrant farm worker from Mexico during mobile clinic visit to a farm on April 30, 2013, in Brighton, Colorado. | John Moore/Getty Images It pushes back on the idea that health insurance is a “welfare magnet” for immigrants. A new study finds that low-income, legal immigrantsContinue reading “A new study finds immigrants aren’t drawn to states that offer them health insurance”

Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, and Sven in Frozen 2. | Walt Disney Animation Studios How dresses of velvet and ice are animated. Plus, Anna gets a new hairstyle. When Brittney Lee first signed on to do animated work for Disney’s Frozen more than six years ago, our Queen of Arendelle sported a very different look. “ElsaContinue reading “Costume design for animated movies is ridiculously difficult. The team behind Frozen 2 explains why.”

Police and fire department vehicles at the scene of a shooting in Fresno, California. | Larry Valenzuela/Fresno Bee/Tribune News Service/Getty Images At least four people were killed, and at least six wounded, police said. A shooting in Fresno, California, on Sunday night has left at least four people dead and six people wounded. It occurredContinue reading “Fresno, California shooting: what we know”

Chris Malbon for Vox How a techno-capitalist philosophy morphed into a justification for murder. Blaze Bernstein, age 19 at the time of his murder, loved to cook. Before he traveled back to his home in California for the 2017-’18 winter break, the University of Pennsylvania sophomore had been elected managing editor of a campus cookingContinue reading “Accelerationism: the obscure idea inspiring white supremacist killers around the world”

Former special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker departs following a closed-door deposition led by the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill on October 3, 2019. | Zach Gibson/Getty Images Democrats are probing whether the former special envoy was directed by Trump to squash an investigation in Ukraine. Republicans have a plan to throw him underContinue reading “The wolves are coming for Kurt Volker”

Looking Glass in Watchmen | HBO Watchmen’s fifth episode is about gods, monsters, and a psychic squid. The fifth episode of Watchmen takes us back to the ’80s — the age of hairspray, leather jackets, Howard Jones’s hit “Things Can Only Get Better,” the Cold War, and, in this universe, a psychic squid attack. TheContinue reading “How Watchmen’s giant squid attack changes everything”

Looking Glass seems to have a very full life. | HBO The show delves into Looking Glass’s past — and revisits one of the most memorable moments from the comic. After playing footsie with the original Watchmen comic for four weeks, the new TV show’s fifth episode — “Little Fear of Lightning” — dumps usContinue reading “Watchmen wants us to know one thing: We’re all being used by those with power”