With Trump’s Impeachment, American Democracy Is on Trial
Chief Justice John Roberts swears in senators for Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.Senate Television via AP The start of the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump is a reminder that the American political system does include safeguards and norms that are meant to protect the citizenry from corruption and misdeeds in the highest offices of the…
Impeachment Trial Will Start on Wednesday
C-SPAN Mitch McConnell has set out the ground rules for the impeachment trial of President Trump: McConnell’s organizing resolution, which he circulated late Monday afternoon, offers each side 24 hours to make their opening arguments starting on Wednesday but compressed into two session days. It is unclear whether Democrats would press to use all their…
FBI: Saudi Arabia Helps Criminals Flee American Justice
If you’re a Saudi Arabian citizen and you kill someone, no worries! The Kingdom will ferret you away from the clutches of the American judicial system: In a document declassified and released on Friday, the FBI said that officials of the Persian Gulf nation “almost certainly” help their citizens accused of committing crimes, including manslaughter,…
You Should Be Reading N.K. Jemisin
Orbit This is neither here nor there, but the New Yorker has a nice profile this week of N.K. Jemisin, who became my new favorite author a couple of years ago. Judging from the reception of her Broken Earth trilogy—which won three consecutive Hugo awards—she is everybody else’s favorite new author too. Broken Earth was…
Waiter, There’s a Climate Surcharge in My Soup
Mother Jones illustration; Getty American restaurant diners don’t usually blink before adding an extra 15-20 percent tip onto their bills. In recent years, San Francisco’s eaters have even (mostly) grown accustomed to paying up to six percent extra for dinner to offset the cost of the city’s mandated healthcare program. Starting in January, at a…
Trump Says the US Is Ready for War. Not All His Troops Are So Sure.
President Donald Trump joins West Point cadets during the the Army v. Navy American Football game.Afp/Lapresse/ZUMA This story was published originally by ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for ProPublica’s Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox as soon as they are published. Between the killing…