Flickr/Tracy O There will be more money spent on the 2016 presidential election than any before in human history. OK, we don’t know that with absolute certainty, but let’s just say it would shocking if it didn’t turn out to be true. The Koch brothers alone have promised to raise and spend the awfully specific […]
Blog: Paul Waldman
Posted inPaul Waldman
Photo of the Day, Friendly Robot Edition
View image | gettyimages.com Titan the robot entertains onlookers at a convention center in Shenzen, China. Minutes later, their squeals of delight turned to screams of terror.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Vote Ted Cruz, Because Jesus
Here it is, the first television ad of the 2016 presidential campaign, courtesy of the first official presidential candidate, Ted Cruz. No beating around the bush here-we get a mention of Jesus in the very first sentence: “Were it not for the transformative love of Jesus Christ, I would have been raised by a single […]
Posted inAmerica and the World
The Insane Logic Underlying Republican Opposition to the Iran Deal
View image | gettyimages.com Republicans are, naturally, united in their opposition to the preliminary deal the Obama administration struck with Iran to restrain its nuclear program. And now, the presidential candidates in particular are going to compete with each other to see who can make their opposition more categorical. They’re all criticizing it, of course, […]
Posted inPaul Waldman
Photo of the Day, Colorful British Ferry Edition
View image | gettyimages.com Why? Does it really matter? No, it doesn’t. It’s a ferry, and it’s colorful.
Posted inLaw and Justice
Why Republicans Are Getting So Spooked On Gay Rights
As I wrote yesterday on some other magazine’s web site, the conservative argument on gay rights has gone from “It’s not you, it’s me” to “It’s not me, it’s them.” After abandoning moral condemnation of gayness, the opponents of gay rights insisted that the problem wasn’t gay people themselves, it was that straight people, confronted […]
Posted inLaw and Justice
Why the Newly Amended Indiana RFRA Is a Real—But Only Partial—Victory
View image | gettyimages.com Indiana Senate President Pro Tem David Long speaks as House Speaker Brian Bosma (R) looks on during a press conference about anti-discrimination safeguards added to the controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act at the State Capitol April 2, 2015, in Indianapolis, Indiana. They look pretty psyched, don’t they? The Republican leadership in […]
Posted inPaul Waldman
Photo of the Day, Drought Porn Edition
View image | gettyimages.com BIG WATER, UT – MARCH 29: People walk on a beach that used to be the bottom of Lake Powell at Lone Rock Camp on March 29, 2015 near Big Water, Utah. As severe drought grips parts of the Western United States, a below average flow of water is expected to […]
Posted inCivil Rights in America
Are America’s Corporations Now Pro-Gay?
View image | gettyimages.com Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson announced today that he won’t be signing the “religious freedom” bill passed by the state legislature, and it sure isn’t because of his deep concern for the welfare of gay Arkansans. You can reduce it to two factors: first, he surely wanted to avoid the PR disaster […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Get Ready For the Munich Analogies
Wikimedia Commons If the negotiators from the U.S. and other nations succeed in getting an agreement to restrain Iran’s nuclear program, Republicans will of course object that the deal is terrible and gives away the store to the Ayatollahs. We know this because they’ve been saying that for months, even though they don’t actually know […]
