For decades, Alaska has operated under a fiscal and budgeting system unlike any other state, and some could argue any place in the world. It is a system at the mercy of volatility, political discretion, and short-term decision-making. The outcome has been entirely predictable. Chronic instability, endless political conflict, boom-and-bust budgeting, and leaders who struggle […]
Christmas, once a time to gather, reflect, and renew our obligations to one another, and the social rituals that once cultivated empathy and reinforced civic responsibility, have been reduced to a spectacle of distraction, dead trees, credit card receipts, and gift wrapping. When we think of Christmas today, what comes first to mind? Twinkling lights […]
Under Trump’s neofascist worldview, the only “legal” act is obedience, while defiance of his whims and illegal orders is a crime. I’ve been feeling something unusual these past few weeks: optimism. Not naïve optimism or the kind that ignores danger, but the real kind that arrives when you see people waking up, standing up, and […]
The power struggles that animate this shutdown are meant to outlast it, leveraging legal ambiguities, executive fiat, and congressional paralysis to redefine “essential” as that which survives unchallenged. What is it about an insidious, long-term plan that causes commercial media to ignore what’s lying in plain sight? With Congress at a standstill, the Republican-led House refusing to return […]