Surprise! The Senate Tax Bill Kills the Middle Class, But It’s Great For the Rich
A few days ago the Joint Committee on Taxation released its analysis of the Senate tax bill, which I wrote about here. My conclusion was that the bill was “batshit crazy,” but Republicans cried foul. The JCT analysis included the effects of eliminating Obamacare’s individual mandate, and while that seems fair to me, it didn’t…
This Isn’t Over Yet. The Keystone Pipeline Can Still Be Stopped.
Oliver Contreras/ZUMA The Nebraska Public Service Commission removed a major regulatory roadblock to the construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline on Monday. Though that might seem like the final judgement in the nine-year battle waged by the US environmental movement against it, nothing about the fate of the once-dead, then-revived pipeline has ever been certain. Even though the commission…
Flashbacks, Nightmares, Panic Attacks—Las Vegas Survivors Describe the Emotional Toll
Darla Christensen and her son Royce at a candlelit vigil on October 3, 2017.Al Kamalizad/Mother Jones When the bullets started flying on that October evening, some hit Las Vegas’ Route 91 concert stage so close to Royce Christenson that shards of aluminum landed in his hair. He saw a man go down, and the man…
2017 Was the Deadliest Year For Trans People In At Least a Decade
People attend a Transgender Day of Remembrance vigil in Pittsfield, Mass., Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017.Gillian Jones/The Berkshire Eagle/AP At least 25 transgender people have been violently killed in 2017, more than during any other recorded year in the past decade, according to a new report from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). The report notes that 84 percent of the victims were…
Pour a Cocktail and Enjoy the Smooth Lounge Pop of Ranny Sinclair
Ranny Sinclair Another Autumn Modern Harmonic Like a soft summer breeze, the hazy mid-‘60s lounge pop of New Yorker Ranny Sinclair offers a soothing respite from the modern world. Collecting her four singles plus four previously unreleased tracks, Another Autumn evokes a melancholy cool similar to Astrid Gilberto’s “The Girl from Ipanema,” with Sinclair’s breathy,…
Searching for My Missing Family in Puerto Rico
Floodwaters persist in some streets in the Santurce neighborhood of San Juan on Wednesday, a week after Hurricane Maria descended on Puerto Rico. Victor J. BlueIdeologically, Nimia Vicens and her brother José Juan Vicens Huertas, my grandfather, were polar opposites. In a family of 12 children, they represented extremes in the spectrum of Puerto Rican…