On March 9, 1937, American radio listeners were treated to some of the most concentrated hogwash in the nation’s political history. It was the first “fireside chat” of Franklin Roosevelt’s second term, and the president was steaming over setbacks to his New Deal policies. He claimed that the Supreme Court—by striking down the Railroad Retirement […]

Read more

Patricia Bosworth met her future husband in a bar when he punched out a drunk who pinched her bottom. She was only 19, but they married with dizzying speed. He began to abuse her almost as quickly. One night they argued about money, in the back seat of a taxi, and he started hitting her. […]

Read more

Did President Barack Obama set Donald Trump up for four years of infighting with American intelligence agencies? Obama, in one of his final acts before leaving office, took a hard line regarding allegations of Russian involvement in the U.S. presidential campaign. In addition to calling upon the Office of the National Intelligence Director to produce […]

Read more

Nuclear weapons are back in vogue, including the idea that gearing up to fight a nuclear war might be a wonderfully stabilizing prospect. Ah, the fond memories: the 1983 TV movie The Day After, the nuclear freeze campaign, the B-1 bomber debate, the M-X missile fight. You don’t remember these seminal events and debates? In […]

Read more

Rick Perry might have been a safe pick as Energy Secretary, but it’s hard to argue that he was a smart one. There are valid reasons—beyond the fact that he once argued that the U.S. Department of Energy should be shut down—that would, in a healthy democracy, disqualify Perry as the CEO of a federal […]

Read more