Author: YES!

After several years of troop drawdowns, the country is back to waging rather than ending war. True to precedent, the enemy was unknown to most Americans mere weeks before the conflict began. Only on February 11 did the World Health Organization name the COVID-19 virus now on everybody’s figurative lips. Five weeks later, President Donald J. Trump proclaimed himself a “wartime president.” Soon after came the U.S. Surgeon General’s warning declaring the COVID-19 outbreak a modern Pearl Harbor moment, or a new 9/11. Democrats, too, have rallied around the metaphor of war. As Susan E. Rice, Barack Obama’s national...

As the United States loosens coronavirus-related restrictions, some of us are beginning to look up from where we are, to look ahead. We have undoubtedly entered a new era of looming unknowns and new normals, from record unemployment to face masks—an era to be further shaped by our youngest generation. As such, we’d be wise to consider what today’s children can tell us about the future. I’m a Gen Xer with a 7-year-old. Since March, I’ve been a stay-at-home-working-mum-home-schooler and have spent unprecedented time with my (occasional) bundle of joy. Accordingly, I’ve learned that I’m a terrible math teacher,...

Global oil markets are in turmoil, with crude prices at their lowest level in years, even going negative at one point in April. When the U.S. economy is in trouble, the default option for political leadership is to rescue big business. The current coronavirus-induced crisis is no exception. Even as health care workers and other front-line workers get sick and die amid a shortage of basic protective equipment, and the unemployment rate rises above 12%, the government appears to be more keen to bail out the oil and gas industry than to assist regular people. People’s movements are not...

The World Health Organization recently declared that the world isn’t just fighting a pandemic, but also an “infodemic” as people search for trustworthy information to help protect themselves and their loved ones against the coronavirus. But the truth is losing out, as lies proliferate about alleged cures and preventive measures. Much of the U.S. media system thrives on divisiveness, with TV and radio stations exploiting controversies for profit and failing to perform the essential media function of holding the powerful accountable. Not least among this dereliction of duty is the uncritical broadcast of President Trump’s racist rhetoric and false...