MOTHER JONES DAILEY: It’s Not Too Late to Learn the Lessons We Didn’t Learn From 9/11, Inside the wild, Twitter-fueled race to airlift dogs from Afghanistan, Biden criticizes GOP governors for being "so cavalier" about COVID-19, Hurricane Ida left a huge water crisis in its wake, How the pandemic prepared Texas abortion networks for the worst, From the archives: Lie by lie—a timeline of how we got into Iraq, Take a Minute for 40 Things That Have Actually Gotten Better 10SEP21

 

 

September 10, 2021

As the country prepares to mark the 20th anniversary of September 11, David Corn is out with a must-read column on one of the most enduring tragedies of the attacks, one that still haunts US foreign policy and our general engagement with the rest of the world. It's a sobering read, to be sure. But a critical one as the United States considers its role on the international stage, particularly after the "America First" mantra that governed the last White House.

You also don't want to miss Nathalie Baptiste on the strange, almost unbelievable grip that American patriotism had on pop culture in the aftermath of the attacks. (Toby Keith, Lizzy McGuire, 24, yikes!) And be sure to read Tim Murphy's excellent examination of the 2010 ground-zero mosque fight—and how the ugly incident provides essential context for where American politics has landed.

"I’ll always think of the summer of 2010, and the weaponization of a construction project in Manhattan, as a flickering glimpse of things to come—not just the political potency of foaming prejudice against Muslims, but also the readiness with which those pushing the story were accommodated," Murphy writes.

—Inae Oh

Advertisement

 

It’s Not Too Late to Learn the Lessons We Didn’t Learn From 9/11

Remember when we were all going to care more about the rest of the world?

BY DAVID CORN

 

Inside the wild, Twitter-fueled race to airlift dogs from Afghanistan

BY DAN SPINELLI

Biden criticizes GOP governors for being "so cavalier" about COVID-19

BY DAVID CORN

Hurricane Ida left a huge water crisis in its wake

BY MARÍA PAULA RUBIANO A.

How the pandemic prepared Texas abortion networks for the worst

BY LIL KALISH

Advertisement

 

From the archives: Lie by lie—a timeline of how we got into Iraq

Mushroom clouds, duct tape, Judy Miller, Curveball. Recalling how Americans were sold a bogus case for invasion.

BY JONATHAN STEIN AND TIM DICKINSON

 

Support from readers allows Mother Jones to do journalism that doesn't just follow the pack.

Donate

SOME GOOD NEWS, FOR ONCE

Take a Minute for 40 Things That Have Actually Gotten Better

It’s Friday. I’m gonna wager that you won’t agree with everything on this list of what’s “gotten better” in the past 20 years. So, go ahead, order a la carte: On today’s menu is a seasonal assortment of purportedly good things crowdsourced by University of Virginia postdoctoral fellow David Walsh, who’d asked casually on Twitter: “What has gotten materially better in America in, say, the last twenty years?”

Answers rang in. So many that Reason magazine editor Elizabeth Nolan Brown compiled top entries, from “HIV care” to “better cannabis quality” to “home entertainment” to “information access.” Also in the winner’s circle: “bicycling infrastructure,” “digital reading experience,” “automobile efficiency and safety,” “acceptance of neurodiversity,” “restaurant food variety and quality [including vegetarian and vegan],” “cameras,” “digital video,” “smoking rates,” “getting dressed,” “hygiene products,” “being a nerd,” and, uh, an inappropriate one.

If you can access each.

As you were.

—Daniel King

Did you enjoy this newsletter? Help us out by forwarding it to a friend or sharing it on Facebook and Twitter.