HELLO. I’m sorry, where were we? Howls of coyotes on the hill, signaling something dire. They usually howl like that after they’ve killed something, but that night they did it to drown out the emergency sirens in the valley. And it worked, for a bit. But then the sirens came back even louder, more of … Continue reading →

TONIGHT at dusk, we walked down the hill to the firehouse to vote. Our neighbors who live closest to the firehouse put huge Trump signs in their windows. Another neighbor stopped to talk. “It’s almost over!” she exalted. As we walked back up the hill, the coyotes in the back field began to ululate in … Continue reading →

IN a brief but substantive interview with Bill Maher broadcast on Real Time Friday night, President Obama reflected on the principal problem in our public life and discourse that has made it possible for Donald Trump to get this close to the American Presidency. “People have difficulty,” he said, “just sorting out what’s true and … Continue reading →

AS this election day, the most frightening hyperobject any of us has encountered in decades, looms, it is time to ask How in the world did we get to this point? Has our communications environment become so appallingly polluted that we must take emergency measures to stop what we’re doing and move in a different … Continue reading →