The Baffler

4 days ago | thebaffler.com | Matthew Goodman |Abe Beame

“America first does not mean America alone,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on April 23, seeking to reassure the market three weeks after the president declared Liberation Day and tariffed the world. Spooked by turbulence in the bond market—or eager to discard the pretense that this wasn’t primarily about a Sino-American decoupling—the White House had already announced a ninety-day pause exempting all countries besides the Middle Kingdom from the new import levies.

4 days ago | thebaffler.com | Dave Denison |Abe Beame

I told myself it was a matter of gaining “tournament experience.” The bowling coach in my head was barking encouragement. Get out there and compete. You miss every shot you don’t take. You think you’re a good bowler? How well can you bowl when there’s money on the line? But by now, after a couple decades of trying, I have low expectations. I’m an underachiever under pressure. I’ve bowled poorly in every tournament I’ve ever entered. This one would be the same.

4 days ago | thebaffler.com | Meg Bernhard |Abe Beame

The tour guide for ASARCO’s open-pit copper mine in Sahuarita, Arizona, was a stooping man with a salt-and-pepper beard and a monotone voice. His name was Dave. He addressed us from the front of a bus, where our group sat wearing branded hard hats and orange safety vests. “Mines,” the tour website had warned, “are inherently risky places.” By visiting an active copper mine, we assumed the risk of injury or death, but thankfully we could mitigate that risk by wearing closed-toed shoes.

5 days ago | thebaffler.com | Jess McAllen |Athena Sofides |Sydney Calkin |Abe Beame

Cole Schmidtknecht was among the hundreds of workers employed by Kriete Truck Center in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The twenty-two-year-old, along with 54 percent of Americans, had health insurance through his job: Kriete Truck Center contracted with UnitedHealthcare and its pharmacy benefit manager, OptumRx. Like other PBMs, OptumRx works with insurers and large employers to manage their prescription drug benefits. This arrangement had worked well for Schmidtknecht up until January of last year.

5 days ago | thebaffler.com | Sean Nam |David Hill |Abe Beame

In the pre-dawn hours one Monday morning following the 2007 NBA All-Star Game, a fight broke out at Minxx Gentleman’s Club & Lounge on Wynn Road in Las Vegas. A patron had been throwing cash all over the club from a garbage bag full of bills. A brawl ensued, and the man with the bag of money was tossed from the club by two men, a bouncer and club manager Tommy Urbanski. Outside of the club, shots rang out. Hit four times, Urbanski survived but was paralyzed from the waist down.