Essays

It’s over: Donald Trump will be the 45th president of the United States. The election that elevated him to this office has been brutal, ugly and bizarre. It has poisoned the well of American democracy, and the toxins it has introduced are unlikely to disperse anytime soon.

The historian Richard Hofstadter wrote a still widely read 1964 essay for Harper’s Magazine outlining what he called the “paranoid style” in American politics.

After using his presidential campaign to denigrate women, Latinos, Muslims, African Americans, war veterans and the disabled – among others – Donald Trump is rounding off the election by attacking some of the fundamental institutions of American democracy.

Throughout the US’s 2016 presidential election, the polls have consistently shown that Republican candidate Donald Trump lags well behind Democratic rival Hillary Clinton among the country’s ethnic minorities.

When Elizabeth Warren was campaigning with Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire last Monday, she expressed a wish that so many of us now share, when she promised Donald Trump that “on November 8th, we nasty women are gonna march our nasty feet to cast our nasty votes t

If you’re reading this in a comfortable chair, surrounded by tasteful soft furnishings and perhaps even a candle or two, that sense of cosiness you’re feeling might just be hygge.

In what may turn out to be a new genre in book publishing, 26 veteran American journalists have joined forces to produce a nostalgic look back at the good old days of newspapering that all went so suddenly “poof”.

We are engaged in asymmetrical warfare: telling a lie is easy, while disproving a false claim is difficult. But disprove we must.

Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, recently announced a $3 billion effo

As the madcap, ugly 2016 election nears its end, one thing is clear: most Americans don’t trust either of their main choices for president.

In an election mired in Trump’s filth, the most grotesque manipulation of truth appeared last night when Trump’s trolls attempted to equate Trump’s accusation of a rigged election to what Al Gore did in the 2000 election.  So let’s see.  Gore

With less than three weeks to go until Americans vote for their next president on November 8, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump rounded off perhaps the most contentious and rancorous presidential debate cycle in US history with a third and final bout in Las Vegas.

In Chronicles: Volume One, Bob Dylan wrote that he couldn’t remember when it occurred to him to write his own songs, but he did explain why he began:

This past week, I traveled to Dearborn, Michigan where I addressed a Hillary for America campaign event. Held at the Arab American National Museum, the gathering provided me with the opportunity to explain why I was endorsing Hillary Clinton for President.

If I hold a Red Delicious apple in my left hand, and in my right hand hold another Red Delicious apple, I can claim with confidence that I hold in my hands a total of two apples. This is not open to interpretation or opinion; I am gripping two apples.

Back in the 1960s when the James Bond craze hit the US and even President Jack Kennedy revealed that he liked Ian Fleming’s thrillers, I remember reading an interesting essay on the reason for the character’s popularity.

It is estimated that around one in ten people have dyslexia – a common learning difficulty which can cause problems with reading, writing and spelling.

“Weak”, “sick”, “immobile”, “decrepit”, “lonely”, “depressed”. If the prospect of growing old brings thoughts like these to mind, you are not alone.