All posts tagged: American

Trump Abruptly Fires First African American Librarian of Congress

Trump Abruptly Fires First African American Librarian of Congress

Published by skeptic

This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. Trump Abruptly Fires First African American Librarian of Congress With seemingly no warning, the first woman and the first African American to be Librarian of Congress received an email from the White House’s Presidential Personnel Office notifying Carla Hayden that she was fired. AP News reported that Hayden had recently come under fire from conservative advocacy group American Accountability Foundation for “promoting children’s books with ‘radical’ content and literary material authored by Trump opponents.” AAF took to X to celebrate the termination hours before the news was made public. Democratic leaders have condemned the move and praised Hayden’s leadership, with New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich saying Donald Trump was “taking his assault on America’s libraries to a new level.” It is exhausting to be this horrified by the callous takeouts of good people doing good work, and I …

Leo XIV: An American Pope

Leo XIV: An American Pope

Published by skeptic

Until today, nearly every Vatican insider agreed on one thing: The United States would never produce a pope, at least not while the country remains a superpower. A citizen of the world’s dominant nation could not become the leader of the world’s largest religious organization without dramatically upsetting the global balance of geopolitical and cultural power. Or so the thinking went. And yet, the conclave that concluded today in Rome has chosen the first American pope in the history of the Catholic Church: Robert Francis Prevost. Making the milestone even more remarkable is that Prevost was chosen on just the second day of voting by the most geographically diverse body of papal electors in history. Perhaps most surprising of all is that the Church’s first-ever American pope was selected during Donald Trump’s presidency, as Washington assumes a more contentious stance toward the rest of the world. Read: This conclave will be different Prevost, who has taken the papal name Leo XIV, was born in Chicago (with the accent to prove it) and attended an American …

On Elites’ Batshit-Crazy Dedication To Ideas Bent On Destroying The American Republic…

On Elites’ Batshit-Crazy Dedication To Ideas Bent On Destroying The American Republic…

Published by skeptic

Authored by James Howard Kunstler, Now You Know “Being mean or telling the truth is indistinguishable to far too many people.”  – Mike Thompson on X Woke liberalism is exactly what Christopher Lasch predicted in The Revolt of the Elites, published in 1995 the year after his early death at 61. Lasch saw how the juvenile idealism of Boomer hippiedom would slide into the narcissistic, sado-masochistic degeneracy of open borders, drag queen story hours, Covid-19 despotism, DEI racism, showbiz Satanism, censorship, forever wars, and now, the legal insurrection of lawfare. In doing so, Lasch also predicted the “mass formation psychosis” described by Belgian psychologist Mattias Desmet, spawned by a crisis of meaning and purpose in the thinking classes of Western Civ. And now you know exactly how come a place like Boston, with its concentration of “elites” in universities, computer tech, and medical research displays a batshit-crazy dedication to ideas bent on destroying our political culture: the American republic. The word republic derives from the Latin, res publica: the public thing, the idea of a state dedicated …

The Enduring Joy of American Hitchhiking

The Enduring Joy of American Hitchhiking

Published by skeptic

Most summers since I was 17, I’ve gone hitchhiking. In California, at 19, I rode with a stuntman who estimated he’d sustained 50 concussions. A few years later, in Utah, a young man said God told him to pick me up; the next morning, a mother coming off a night shift told me she regretted her disinterest in the Church. In Wyoming, an oil-field geologist steamed about his divorce after months alone in a trailer. “You’re the first person I’ve talked to,” he said. The next year, around Tennessee, a bounty hunter argued to me that the Earth was flat, and a Mexican American man told me why he kept a “Make America great again” hat on his dashboard: In his town, he said, not showing support for Donald Trump could lead to your mailbox getting smashed. Near Pennsylvania, a young salt-factory worker showed off hands so callused, he couldn’t use gloves without developing blisters. He dreamed of driving a truck to Kansas. The freedom of the road beckoned to us both. The reason I …

What Porn Did to American Culture

What Porn Did to American Culture

Published by skeptic

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. The world we live in has been molded by the porn we watch—and you don’t have to look too hard to find it. Instagram models hawk their OnlyFans subscriptions, sex workers post “Day in My Life” vlogs, and the market for erotic romance novels is a gold mine. People’s interest in sex is a demand that has long been met with ready supply, but porn is not an inert product: As Americans feed the multibillion-dollar industry’s growth, it gives something back to American culture. Growing up as a teenager against the backdrop of the late 1990s, “what was obvious to my friends and to me was that power, for women, was sexual in nature,” my colleague Sophie Gilbert wrote in a recent article. “There was no other kind, or none worth having.” I interviewed her about her upcoming book …

The Extreme Life and Philosophy of Hunter S. Thompson: Gonzo Journalism and the American Condition

The Extreme Life and Philosophy of Hunter S. Thompson: Gonzo Journalism and the American Condition

Published by José

Hunter S. Thomp­son has been gone for two decades now. When he went out, as the new Pur­suit of Won­der video on his life and work reminds us, he did so in a high­ly Amer­i­can man­ner: with a gun, and at the moment of his own choos­ing. Even his long­time fans who respect­ed some­thing about the agency evi­dent in that choice nat­u­ral­ly regret­ted that he’d made it; many of us have wished aloud that we could read his judg­ments of the past twen­ty years’ devel­op­ments in U.S. pol­i­tics, cul­ture, and soci­ety, which would cer­tain­ly fit in well enough with the nar­ra­tive of decline he’d pur­sued since the late six­ties. At the same time, we rec­og­nize that Thomp­son’s man­ner of liv­ing would hard­ly have allowed him to live into his late eight­ies (the man him­self expressed sur­prise to have reached his six­ties), and that it was inex­tri­ca­ble from his man­ner of writ­ing. Which is not to call it the main ingre­di­ent: as gen­er­a­tions of imi­ta­tors have proven, inges­tion of con­trolled sub­stances and a dis­re­spect for tra­di­tion­al …

Trump Takes Aim at American Institutions

Trump Takes Aim at American Institutions

Published by skeptic

Washington Week With The Atlantic The president is exerting power and influence over what he thinks of as the country’s “elite” institutions. Courtesy of Washington Week With The Atlantic April 19, 2025, 9:54 AM ET Editor’s Note: Washington Week With The Atlantic is a partnership between NewsHour Productions, WETA, and The Atlantic airing every Friday on PBS stations nationwide. Check your local listings, watch full episodes here, or listen to the weekly podcast here. As Donald Trump nears the end of his first 100 days in office, his administration continues to take aim at many American institutions. Panelists joined Washington Week With The Atlantic last night to discuss the administration’s stance on the courts, universities, government agencies, and more. Meanwhile, this week Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told voters that “we are all afraid,” adding that she’s anxious about using her voice, “because retaliation is real.” “It is so pervasive, what she is talking about,” Mark Leibovich said last night. She’s not talking about “political intimidation like Elon Musk throwing a bunch of money at …

Legacies of Japanese American Incarceration | Francisco Cantú

Legacies of Japanese American Incarceration | Francisco Cantú

Published by skeptic

Every few months I visit a local graveyard to help tend to the headstones of unidentified migrants who lost their lives along Arizona’s border with Mexico. To reach it one must drive through Tucson’s Evergreen Cemetery, past large pines and manicured cedars that shade the grassy grave sites below. Beyond these well-cared-for plots is a patch of dry, unshaded earth known as Pauper’s Field. It is here that the Pima County Public Fiduciary, over many decades, has laid to rest those whose families cannot afford burial or cremation. Pauper’s Field is located on one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares, but I first learned of its existence only a few years ago, when I began to meet there with students visiting southern Arizona to learn about US immigration enforcement. The group that organizes these trips, the Kino Border Initiative, would start the visits by asking me to speak about the US Border Patrol’s deterrence practices, which for the past thirty years have forced migrants to make dangerous treks through the most remote parts of the desert. …

Trump and DOGE Defund Program That Boosted American Manufacturing for Decades

Trump and DOGE Defund Program That Boosted American Manufacturing for Decades

Published by skeptic

NIST spends under $200 million annually on the MEP program, with most of the money passed on to states and Puerto Rico in batches of payments. The congressional aides tell WIRED that they expect all remaining centers will lose their funding over the next year or so, as their next checks come due. Depending on the state, centers are operated by universities, government agencies, or independent nonprofits. States also help pay for the MEP program, but the congressional aides believe it would be difficult in many states—especially smaller ones—to make up for the loss of federal funding. Carrie Hines, president and CEO of the American Small Manufacturers Coalition, which represents all of the state help centers, says businesses pay market rates for the personalized consulting they offer. “This is not a handout,” she says. Traditional consulting firms may not be able to assist these small businesses or even exist in some regions, she adds. “We fill that unique void of technical assistance, with boots on the factory floor,” Hines says. Wyoming’s help center, known as …

African American History Museum Director on Leave

African American History Museum Director on Leave

Published by skeptic

Kevin Young, the director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., has been on personal leave since March 14, and will continue to be out of office indefinitely, according to the Washington Post, which first reported the news on Wednesday. The Post reported that a museum spokesperson said Young would be out for an “undetermined period.” Young has been director of the museum, one of many run by the Smithsonian Institution, since 2021. The institution is currently being led by Shanita Brackett, its associate director of operations. Per the Post, the announcement of Young’s indefinite leave was only made internally. Related Articles His leave began before President Donald Trump issued an executive order in which he targeted the Smithsonian Institution, whose museums also include the National Portrait Gallery, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, among other art museums. In that order, Trump denounced what a fact sheet described as “anti-American ideology” within the Smithsonian’s galleries. He specifically took aim at an exhibition about …