Month: May 2020

President Trump likes to refer to the coronavirus as the “Chinese virus,” and in so doing he’s popularizing an image of the pandemic as a foreign invasion. He’s not the only one.

Although we are (hopefully) not using a racist term to refer to this virus, many of us have unwittingly bought into a particular paradigm for understanding pandemics. Call it the paradigm of invasion: the idea that we’re being attacked by an onslaught of foreign pathogens that come from animals, and we’re just passive victims.

But what if we, the humans, are the ones staging the onslaught? What if …

Two weeks ago, I spoke with Alison Roman about how everything that people love on the internet is five seconds away from being destroyed. And today I’m writing about how that theory now applies to Roman herself.

Roman, the New York Times food columnist whose recipes have caught proverbial fire, found herself in the crosshairs of a social media backlash this weekend after an interview was published in which Roman dissed fellow famous domestic mavens Marie Kondo and Chrissy Teigen for selling out.

“[T]he idea that when Marie Kondo decided to capitalize on her fame and make stuff that you …

On Monday, a reporter exposed President Donald Trump for yet again peddling a nonsensical conspiracy theory about Barack Obama.

Hours after Trump posted a string of tweets and retweets about “Obamagate” — a new conspiracy theory that holds Obama responsible for masterminding the Russia investigation and railroading former Trump administration National Security Adviser Michael Flynn into a guilty plea for lying to the FBI (never mind that there’s no evidence of investigatory misconduct) — Philip Rucker of the Washington Post called Trump’s bluff.

“In one of your Mother’s Day tweets, you appeared to accuse President Obama of ‘the biggest …

As President Donald Trump spoke at the Rose Garden on Monday about coronavirus testing, a banner behind him made a bold claim: “AMERICA LEADS THE WORLD IN TESTING.”

That claim, however, is very misleading.

It’s true that the US leads the world in total number of tests, in large part because it’s a big country and has the most confirmed Covid-19 cases and deaths globally. But when controlling for population, America is behind several countries in terms of Covid-19 testing: As of May 9, the US testing rate is roughly 26 per 1,000 people, according to Our World in Data…

Joe Biden wants to make sure Democratic women know he has their back and that prominent women in the party have his.

In the past few weeks, Biden has held a town hall with Hillary Clinton about how the coronavirus disproportionately affects women. He’s appeared on Instagram Live with US women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe, a feminist hero who once said, if invited, “I’m not going to the fucking White House.” And then, on May 7, the campaign held an organizing call headlined by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), a longtime champion of the Me Too movement.

The campaign has ratcheted …

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear three cases that could upend one of the most basic assumptions that the Court has maintained since the Nixon years — that the president of the United States is not above scrutiny or immune from investigation. The Court will hear these cases, moreover, in an unusual remote argument — the Supreme Court’s building remains closed to the public due to the coronavirus.

Trump v. Mazars, Trump v. Deutsche Bank, and Trump v. Vance are maddening cases.

They are maddening because, in all three cases and especially in the first two, …

Top Trump administration economic advisers are arguing there is a dire need to reopen the economy quickly to reduce unemployment rates — which they say may be above 20 percent — and to ensure the coronavirus pandemic doesn’t lead to any “permanent economic damage.”

However, their arguments come as public health experts warn that reopening nonessential businesses will surely lead to more Covid-19 cases and deaths.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that the US lost 20.5 million jobs in April. This puts the US unemployment rate at 14.7 percent, a figure worse than any on record since the …

The federal government turned down an offer that would have allowed the United States to significantly ramp up domestic mask production in the earliest stages of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report by the Washington Post. The decision later forced the Trump administration to turn to expensive, untested third-party distributors and to use the Defense Production Act to compel companies to increase output.

It’s unclear exactly why top officials turned down the offer, but the decision to do so continues to have consequences for the many frontline workers who still lack the necessary equipment to protect themselves …

This weekend, Saturday Night Live celebrated the conclusion of its 45th season with a wistful goodbye and a hopeful see-you-later, in its season finale.

Perhaps no sketch embodied this theme as well as one featuring much of the cast titled “Dreams.”

Shot entirely “at home” because of New York City’s stay-at-home order, the sketch begins with Cecily Strong talking on the phone with her mom, discussing how much she wishes things would soon return to normal. The conversation — part reassurance that we’re okay, and part venting at the frustration of the situation — is one that many of …