Surrogate Angels of Death. The minute you feel you have gotten to rock bottom, Trump shows up with an excavator, thumbs up and grin on his face. Imagine being made to pose with the very person who inspired your parents' murderer to drive across the state and execute them because they live in a town with brown people. But — remember that this baby couldn’t not have been in Melania’s hand without his family’s agreement. Trumpism is a cult.
Three Years of Misery inside Google. Nitasha Tiku takes us on a deep dive in into what happened at Google over the last three years: Damore’s manifesto, of course, but also the projects with China and the US government, as well as several examples of personal misconduct and harassment of women and trans folks. As an ex-Googler (I left in 2012), Tiku does a great job of capturing certain aspects of the company’s culture. Google thrives (thrived?) on an incredibly strong internal exchange of idea, all of which is predicated on confidentiality. The repeated leaks exposed employees to harassment from the alt-right — the internal trust didn’t just erode, it shattered. In the midst of this, the leadership was caught red-handed and helpless at the same time.
In God’s country. How backwards are the evangelicals ready to bend over to overturn Roe v. Wade? Trump is an all-out-for-money businessman, had three marriages, is credibly accused of rape by several women, separates families and calls people animals. This piece is not as inquisitive as I’d hoped — Bruenig is herself an outspoken Christian – but it does show that Trump can be divisive as far as the heart of the Bible belt. Though, as long as those people don’t actually get their high horses to steer away and vote him out, their doubts are no earthly use.