Although Maryland boasts having some of the toughest gun control laws in the country, the state is missing a critical loophole in its approach to public safety: stalking. Maryland is the only state that rules this crime a misdemeanor, which means stalkers can still buy a gun after conviction. And the state has intimate knowledge […]
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Posted inTAP
Will Democrats Snatch Defeat Out of the Jaws of Victory?
So let’s see. We have two old white guys, one of them still the darling of the party’s young left and the other standing for what remains of the party’s center. Elizabeth Warren, meanwhile, is in many ways a far more creative radical than Sanders, but if he has a lock on the hearts of […]
Posted inTAP
Just What the Democratic Presidential Field Needs: Two (2) Colorado Centrists
It was a bare two weeks ago that former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper announced he was seeking the Democratic nomination for president. Now comes Colorado Senator Michael Bennet, who told The Washington Post’s James Hohmann in an interview published today that, Hohmann writes, “he’s inclined to run for president and will decide in a matter […]
Posted inTAP
Truth Time for Trump’s Turtle
Senate Majority Mitch McConnell has been the most loyal of the Trump loyalists. But in his home state of Kentucky, where he is up for re-election in 2020, McConnell is running behind in the polls. About 33 percent of Kentucky voters approve of the job McConnell is doing, while some 56 percent disapprove. Lately, McConnell […]
Posted inTAP
Trump’s Very, Extremely, Seriously Bad Week
This was the week that Trump’s senate supporters began deserting him big time, on the Wall (12 Republican Senate defections), on support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen (7 defections) and most ominously, on Special Counsel Mueller’s report, which both parties want made public. This is how it works. Support is solid, until it starts […]
Posted inTAP
Beto: The Tabula-Rasa-for-President Candidate
Among the gazillion Democrats now running for president, former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke, who announced his candidacy today, is the most unformed. His brief tenure in the House gives few clues as to his politics, though he did support centrist Democrat Seth Moulton’s challenge to Nancy Pelosi for House Democratic leader in 2016. His relatively […]
Posted inTAP
This Just In: Rich People Game College Admissions for Their Kids (Stop the Presses!)
So 50 very wealthy people did everything from pay test takers to bribe coaches to fake athletic records to get their kids into college. Are we shocked—shocked? Anyone who has been paying attention knows that this scandal is just a grotesque extreme of business as usual. Rich kids get to attend better high schools, get […]
Posted inEnergy and the Environment
Inventor of the World Wide Web Speaks Out About Online Misinformation
No, we’re not talking about Al Gore. Thirty years ago, on March 12, 1989, Tim Berners-Lee, then a researcher at CERN, the European particle physics laboratory, sent a proposal to his boss for a protocol to access information on the internet. That protocol would become the World Wide Web, the near-universally adopted standard by which […]
Posted inEconomic Policy
Another Way to Police the Poor
On Monday, The New York Times reported that the federal government was exploring ways to use social media to crack down on instances of disability fraud, even as applications for disability benefits fall. This is not the first time that the government has looked to social media to investigate welfare fraud—in fact, such an intrusion […]
Posted inTAP
Wanted: A Few Great Young Journalists.
Since 1997, the Prospect has sponsored what’s been called “the best starter job in journalism.” It’s called The American ProspectWriting Fellows program—and we have two openings for the fall. Fellows get to spend two years with the magazine, work closely with our editors, and publish a wide range of articles, from print feature pieces to […]
