Month: June 2019

The Unimaginable Reality of American Concentration Camps

Like many arguments, the fight over the term “concentration camp” is mostly an argument about something entirely different. It is not about terminology. Almost refreshingly, it is not an argument about facts. This argument is about imagination, and it may be a deeper, more important conversation than it seems. In a Monday-evening live stream, Representative…

By JohnValbyNation June 22, 2019 0

Here Comes Boris Johnson!

On Thursday, the British Conservative Party took another step toward making Boris Johnson, Member of Parliament and instrument of wreckage, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The race is now between Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, who nobody thinks can beat him. Not even Hunt seems to think so; his campaign is…

By JohnValbyNation June 21, 2019 0

Natasha Trethewey Reads Charles Wright

Listen with: iTunes WNYC Stitcher TuneIn Natasha Trethewey joins Kevin Young to read and discuss Charles Wright’s poem “Toadstools,” and her own poem “Repentance.” Trethewey, a former U.S. Poet Laureate, is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her most recent poetry collection…

By JohnValbyNation June 20, 2019 0

What Are the Chances of Trump Being Reëlected?

On Tuesday night, in Orlando, Donald Trump formally launched his 2020 reëlection effort with another big rally. After what happened in 2016, it behooves political analysts and commentators to approach the upcoming campaign with caution. So, I will put it no more strongly than this: with sixteen and a half months to go, the President…

By JohnValbyNation June 20, 2019 0