Politics
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Gaza Roundup
There’s more violence in Gaza today. Emily Hauser asks a tough question about Israeli claims that its strikes are surgical and aimed at terrorists. The IDF used social media to announce and live-blog the attacks, and to celebrate the killing…
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A Meaningful Light: Open Letter to Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times
I’m writing to you, Kenneth, because your review and my behavior at the Rialto Cinema are integral parts of the problem in Israel/Palestine. It’s why we both felt so scared and embarrassed: Tears of Gaza implicates us.
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Election Day Roundup
It’s finally here, election day, and even if we don’t know who the winner is by the time the west coast polls close (and please, merciful gods, do not make that happen), we do know one thing will end tonight:…
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California Voting Guides
If you live in California, haven’t voted yet, and are still questioning those poorly-worded propositions, don’t fret: KQED has got your back. Compiled by KQED News and The California Report, the NPR affiliate presents voters with an immensely easy-to-understand ballot…
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Disasters are live-action infomercials for big government…
Comedian Nato Green writes about Hurricane Sandy, the NYU hospital evacuation, and the contrast between the merit of big government and the villainization of all things public.
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A Case for the Wasted Vote
Voting for a third party is the way I choose to voice my dissent. It’s a vote toward realignment, a recalibration, of our political system. The dominant parties are stricken with tunnel vision; their economic promises are distracting us from…
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Week in Greed #18: They Were Careless People
I remember that it was late at night and I was returning to my dorm, having just watched Ronald Reagan win re-election with an unprecedented 60 percent of the popular vote. Down the hall I could see a familiar figure…
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The Play Is Over, Let’s Go Home
Remember (if you can) how it felt, remember Cheney (“Dick”), remember his sneer. Remember what it did to that knot in your back every time you failed to turn away from the television in time and accidentally glanced at his…
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The Politics of Hurricane Sandy
In our earlier roundup about Hurricane Sandy, we linked to this piece from The Atlantic’s Garance Franke-Ruta which quotes Governor Mitt Romney in 2011 at a Republican debate. He was talking about government spending in the context of a concern…
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How We All Lose
Discussions about gender are often framed as either/or propositions. Men are from Mars and women are from Venus, or so we are told, as if this means we’re all so different it is nigh impossible to reach each other.
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Week in Greed #17: Conservatives Storm the Week in Greed!
I felt it was important for Rumpus readers to hear what conservatives have to say for themselves. So I spent the past month interviewing a bunch.
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The Little Tolls and Pitfalls of Modern American Racism
Abigail Fisher, a 22-year old white girl, a graduate of LSU, just pleaded to the Supreme court that the University of Texas rejected her four years ago because of affirmative action. UT says they’d have rejected her no matter her…