All stories by
Rafael Tomlin
Rafael Tomlin writes about current politics from a fiercely populist perspective: pro-worker, pro-renter, anti-billionaire capture, anti-authoritarian, and deeply hostile to the machinery that turns public life into cruelty for profit. His work focuses on power, policy, class, democracy, corruption, and who actually pays when political theater becomes law.
What Your Pastor Can Legally Say From the Pulpit in 2026—And Why the IRS Just Changed the Rules
The IRS quietly broke with seven decades of precedent on church political endorsements, a court blocked the move, and new guidance is still coming—here's what the law actually says right now.
Three Secret Determinations Reveal How Trump Turned an Emergency Declaration into a Fossil Fuel Subsidy Machine
Three quiet determinations signed on the same April day reveal how an emergency declaration from Day One of Trump's second term is being converted into an open-ended industrial subsidy machine for oil, gas, and grid infrastructure.
30 Years for Moving a Box: What the Estrada Case Reveals About Protest and Power
The Daniel Sanchez Estrada case isn't about what he did with a box of zines — it's about what prosecutors needed those zines to mean.
The Quiet Way Rigged Maps Convince People Democracy Is Pointless
A new study finds that rigged district maps don't just distort who wins — they drain the public's belief that showing up matters at all.
E. Jean Carroll Waited Decades. The Supreme Court Just Made It Final.
After three years of appeals, delay tactics, and a DOJ weaponized against his accuser, the Supreme Court just shut the last door Trump had left.
Every Lebanon Ceasefire Gets the Same Treatment: Israel Bombs Through It
Israel struck Lebanon again today, killing dozens more — and Iran answered by closing the Strait of Hormuz, threatening to unravel the fragile U.S.-Iran accord before the ink was dry.
When Forecasters Lose Their Tools: How Budget Cuts Are Colliding with Record Hurricanes
The Trump administration cut hundreds of the people who warn you about killer storms — right as scientists project the hottest, most extreme years in recorded history are almost certainly ahead.
America's Political Violence Early Warning System Is Being Dismantled Before the Midterms
Political violence is measurably rising, the early-warning infrastructure built to catch it is being stripped for parts — and the same administration doing the stripping is generating the flashpoints.
The Supreme Court Just Removed the Judiciary's Last Guardrail Against Presidential Power
Trump v. CASA was framed as a boring procedural dispute — it was actually a structural transfer of power from the courts to the executive branch, and it will outlast this presidency.
The Surveillance State Didn't Come for You. It Came for the Protesters First.
Across three countries with very different governments, AI-powered facial recognition is being deployed against protesters first — and the political science research on why that sequence matters should scare you.
Strongman Voters Aren't Fooled. They Know Exactly What They're Voting For.
A landmark 2025 study broke authoritarian populism apart from the anti-establishment kind — and what it found destroys the polite theory that strongman voters are just frustrated democrats who got lost.
Institutional Collapse Doesn't Look Like a Coup. It Looks Like Everyone Deciding Not to Fight.
Political scientists have a name for the pattern where courts, corporations, universities, and legislators each decide individually that resistance isn't worth it — and the math of those private surrenders adds up to the end of accountability itself.