Reading Time: 6 minutes Justice Anthony Kennedy has announced his retirement from the Supreme Court — and the consequences could be dire for a number of election reform efforts. Kennedy had a mixed record on the issue but his successor will likely be much worse.
Reading Time: 3 minutes Many US cable news pundits are saying that the Trump administration’s immigrant family separation policy is “not who we are.” It’s a nice thought, but unfortunately it doesn’t comport with history or reality.
Reading Time: 8 minutes Anyone who thinks people just brave the border hazards for the heck of it pays no attention to historical causation — in particular the role the US has played over the decades propping up right-wing dictators throughout South and Central America.
Reading Time: 5 minutes The Supreme Court has given the green light to a completely unnecessary voter purge in Ohio, supposedly implemented in the name of fighting voter fraud. But its effect and obvious real purpose is just more disenfranchisement — and now other red states will surely implement the same program.
Reading Time: 4 minutes If the Democrats want to win control of the House in the fall, they need to have a plan, a positive vision, and a focus on issues that directly affect Americans. Not surprisingly, they are failing on all fronts.
Reading Time: 4 minutes Ranked-choice voting — where voters rank all the candidates rather than opting for a single one — could lead to greater diversity and representation of views for both voters and candidates at the ballot box. New York joins a growing list of municipalities moving in this direction.
Reading Time: 27 minutes Everyone’s buzzing about the huge payment Trump pal Michael Cohen took to get the Ukrainian president in with the American president. But there’s more of a Ukraine connection to Michael Cohen than the media is telling us.
Reading Time: 6 minutes Wait: Isn’t the main Trump scandal about Russian influence? All of a sudden they’re talking about a bunch of other countries. Don’t worry. We’ll explain.
Reading Time: 8 minutes Maine will vote on an ambitious “universal home care” program this fall that passes on the costs to the rich. If it passes, it could have big implications for the rest of the country.
Reading Time: 6 minutes The impact of gerrymandered maps and voter suppression efforts can be devastating for a state — even after courts have stepped in to overturn them. North Carolina is a poster child for the way this assault on democracy leads to laws that should never have been enacted.
Reading Time: 10 minutes Today the Senate Intelligence Committee heard testimony from CIA director nominee Gina Haspel, notorious for her role in the CIA’s torture program. It’s worth remembering that the only person to go to jail over this program was whistleblower John Kiriakou. Here’s one of our interviews with him.
Reading Time: 4 minutes President Donald Trump’s avalanche of lies poses a challenge for his supporters and the media alike. For the benefit of us all, they must call him out in more definitive terms.
Reading Time: 2 minutes The Department of Housing and Urban Development wants to triple the rent of thousands of the poorest Americans — while helping multi-millionaire Sean Hannity obtain mortgages to build a real estate empire. A perfect metaphor for how this administration works — and for whom.
Reading Time: 4 minutes Constitutional expert Laurence Tribe settles the arguments on impeachment with context, background, history, and forecasting of the act of removing top civic officials.
Reading Time: 7 minutes Mick Mulvaney now heads the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency he once called a “sick, sad joke.” He’s made the bureau more industry-friendly, turning the consumer watchdog into more of a lapdog. Will his gambit work?
Reading Time: 3 minutes Having failed to fully gut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, House Speaker Paul Ryan is calling it quits. What’s next for one of Washington’s biggest hypocrites?
Reading Time: 6 minutes WhoWhatWhy editor Toni Johnson shares her experience of being a mass shooting survivor, and decries the failure to have an honest conversation about gun violence in America.
Reading Time: 9 minutes A privatization of healthcare services would not just mean sweeping changes to the Department of Veterans Affairs, it could also change how the government does business — one way or another.
Reading Time: 26 minutes With the FBI raid on Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s office, everyone is scrambling for explanations. But as WhoWhatWhy reported last year, Michael Cohen’s background has long demanded close scrutiny. He came out of nowhere, backed by Russia-connected figures, and bought his way into Donald Trump’s heart. Here’s the full story as it appeared on September 18, 2017.
Reading Time: 7 minutes A small group with ties to President Donald Trump’s opioid czar has just been awarded $24 million in federal grants.