If Bernie Sanders, Rand Paul, and John Kasich somehow got together to make a love child, would he look like... Steve Hilton? Steve Hilton seems to think so. My latest, in the Guardian. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
‘Of course I’m the underdog’: the British former spin doctor trying to turn California red
Steve Hilton’s long-shot campaign for governor is courting Golden state voters with unapologetically populist message
theguardian.com
They’re not just doing this for personal gratification. They want an audience to engage with it, and they want other men potentially to do it too." The disturbing rise of performative sex crimes at the dollar store chain Dollar Tree www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i... @us.theguardian.com
The disturbing rise of ‘gooner’ assaults at Dollar Tree stores: ‘They find it funny to degrade women’
In dark corners of the internet, men are goading each other to masturbate in public – and on female shoppers – and post the footage
theguardian.com
"It should be obvious by now that Trump destroys almost everyone and everything he touches, and there’s no mileage in trying to finesse a relationship with him and hoping to survive it." Thoughts on the fortunes of Starmer and Meloni, in a pivotal week. andrewgumbel.substack.com/p/no-more-ha...
No More Half-Measures
The lesson in the age of Trump is clear. Better to go down swinging than to try to appease the man – and most likely go down anyway.
andrewgumbel.substack.com
More than 50 years after MLK Jr. proclaimed the arc of history was bending toward justice, the country's highest legal authorities are working overtime to bend it back in the other direction. Who needs an autocrat to kill democracy when we have the Supreme Court? open.substack.com/pub/andrewgu...
Revise, Reformulate, Destroy
Who needs an autocrat to undermine democracy when we have the U.S. Supreme Court?
open.substack.com
'“I have seen corruption boil and bubble till it o’errun the stew,” the duke says at the end of Shakespeare’s play, and we are seeing signs of a similar overload now.' What Measure for Measure can teach us about this political moment. open.substack.com/pub/andrewgu...
Shakespeare on the Potomac
What the Bard can teach us about Trump's increasingly clumsy attempts to bend reality to his will
open.substack.com
There's something really wrong with a world in which Alex Jones can condemn Trump's genocidal ravings but the US Holocaust Memorial and Museum cannot. The breathtaking situational ethics of an institution that says "never forget" but remembers only selectively. open.substack.com/pub/andrewgu...
Never Forget (Except Maybe Now)
If the US Holocaust Museum can't denounce the president's genocidal ravings, what is it even for?
open.substack.com
Billionaires argue that raising their taxes will just spur them to move their money elsewhere, but evidence from WA, which has a trail-blazing new wealth tax, shows otherwise. "The arguments," one expert says, "are not so powerful, but powerful people like them." www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Washington state’s ‘historic’ millionaire tax takes aim at super-rich – will it succeed?
As living costs rise, the state where Gates and Bezos made billions is targeting top earners – could other states follow?
theguardian.com
Trump isn't just lying about the ICE killings in Minnesota. He using lies as a projection of strength, seeking to convince us that reality itself no longer matters. And we don't have long to talk him down. open.substack.com/pub/andrewgu...
Me or your lyin' eyes
Trump is betting that, in Minnesota, reality no longer matters. The future of the country depends on our refusal to accept this, but with tensions rising daily we don't have the luxury of time.
open.substack.com
Donald Trump is doing something the fascists of the 1930s couldn't: using his power and our digital interconnectedness to compromise an institution outside his own borders. My take on his startling campaign to bring the once-mighty BBC to its knees. andrewgumbel.substack.com/p/its-our-as...
"It's Our Asses"
Autocrats don’t generally get to pressure people in other countries, but Trump is taking advantage of a more interconnected world and England’s notoriously strict libel laws to cow the once-mighty BBC
andrewgumbel.substack.com
The Trump admin may not be articulating a Fascist-era master race ideology, but its policies targeting int'l aid, global health, the poor and the weak nevertheless evoke a bygone era of eugenics and racial supremacy. My latest Substack, with iconography courtesy of the Labor Dept. lnkd.in/gCMNYXpN
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
lnkd.in
The Trump administration is taking a whole-of-government approach to undermining next year's midterm elections and eroding voting rights. My best attempt to make sense of this -- and Trump's chances of success on his terms -- today in the Guardian. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Trump’s assault on voting intensifies as midterms loom:‘a wholesale attack on free and fair elections’
White House is manipulating voting system, from redistricting to rule changes, to affect midterms
theguardian.com
Gavin Newsom's Prop. 50 looks set to achieve its goal of kicking Donald Trump where it hurts, but it's a move born of weakness, not strength. For all the talk of "protecting democracy", it will do no such thing. If you haven't subscribed to my Substack yet, please do!
California goes mud-wrestling with a mud-wrestling champ
Gavin Newsom's initiative to push back against Donald Trump's out-of-control gerrymandering looks set to pass handily, but it's a move born of weakness, not strength
open.substack.com
How the Trump administration has turned the legal system on its head in pursuit of its immigration deportation goals -- a blow-by-blow account of the summer that has taken a sledgehammer to the rule of law, for immigrants and everyone else. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
How Trump has turned the legal system ‘on its head’ to meet deportation goals
Cuban asylum seeker EC and others saw hard-won victories vanish as new rules upended immigration courts
theguardian.com
The president says tariffs will help American businesses. California’s wine growers and retailers beg to disagree. www.theguardian.com/food/2025/au...
When Trump tariffs hit French barrels and corks, California’s winemakers feel the squeeze
Small California producers say Trump’s EU levies are driving up costs and threatening family businesses
theguardian.com
The week the anti-Trump resistance found its voice and its purpose. My take in the Observer. observer.co.uk/news/interna...
observer.co.uk
It’s not just Angelenos who do not want the US military patrolling their streets. The National Guard and Marines are telling friends and family they don’t want to be there either. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Troops and marines deeply troubled by LA deployment: ‘Morale is not great’
Several service members told advocacy groups they felt like pawns in a political game and assignment was not necessary
theguardian.com
i am not being pollyannish when i insist that the people who sign up do not sign up to advance a president’s domestic political agenda www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Troops and marines deeply troubled by LA deployment: ‘Morale is not great’
Several service members told advocacy groups they felt like pawns in a political game and assignment was not necessary
theguardian.com
Could Steve Hilton's low-key charm and British accent be the answer to the Republicans' long losing streak in California? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Could a British Fox News personality fix Republicans’ losing streak in California?
Steve Hilton, once an adviser to David Cameron, sees signs of Democrats’ grip on the state slackening – but the Trump factor could prove tricky
theguardian.com
How Columbia University tore itself apart over the Middle East, making it ripe for the picking by Trump and the ideologues who want to destroy higher ed. observer.co.uk/news/interna...
How Columbia University is tearing itself apart to please Trump
Students in detention, free speech threatened, a paranoid campus divided. JD Vance called for attacks on American universities… and now New York truly is a battleground
observer.co.uk
It's Timothy McVeigh's world now. How, in 30 years , the unspeakable became mainstream. In the Observer. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
‘The bomber’s words sound mainstream. Like he won!’ Oklahoma City’s tragedy in the time of Trump
Revulsion at deadly Oklahoma City explosion in 1995 has faded. But echoes of the blast, and its perpetrator, Timothy McVeigh, are heard today as far-right ideas storm the US
theguardian.com