Category: 3-SometimeCommentary

We’re just a few weeks out from the very first state primary elections of the year. And President Donald Trump and the GOP are, at the moment, unpopular.

As people around the country prepare to head to the polls to decide who will run in this year’s midterms, the president is once again trying to undermine the most basic functions of elections. He’s still spreading lies about past elections he lost and is now sowing seeds of doubt in the local elections process. There is no evidence to support Trump’s repeated, false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

In late January, the FBI seized boxes of 2020 election ballots and other voting records in Fulton County, Georgia, which for years has been the focus of his baseless conspiracy theory that the election was rigged.

In this installment of our weekly politics series, “If You Can Keep It,” we explore what the president’s latest attacks on election integrity mean for the future of our democracy.

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The question of what to do about undocumented immigrants has long bonded President Trump and his supporters — and an overwhelming majority of them backed his all-out crackdown over the past year.

But then came the extraordinary events of the past few weeks in Minneapolis. Since then, some of Mr. Trump’s voters have begun to have misgivings about his agenda.

“The Daily” spoke with more than a dozen people who voted for him in the last election about how they are making sense of the recent events in Minneapolis.

Background reading: 

A conversation with the Minneapolis police chief on ICE and the killing of Renee Good.

Photo: David Guttenfelder / The New York Times

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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Games are supposed to be fun — so what happens when the logic of games, points and competition escapes the playground and starts reshaping everyday life? The novelist and games-writer Naomi Alderman and her guests explore how the joy of play collides with the pressures of a gamified society.

Philosopher C Thi Nguyen introduces The Score, his examination of how ranking systems and numerical targets can both sharpen and warp our values, revealing how life becomes less playful when everything is reduced to points.

Journalist and critic Keza MacDonald discusses Super Nintendo, her cultural history of the iconic console, tracing how its games, aesthetics and innovations transformed the medium and helped define what play means for generations of players.

The Financial Times' commentator Stephen Bush examines the growing role of games and game like incentives in public life, exploring how the techniques of play — from reward structures to competitive framing — are reshaping political behaviour and communication.

Producer: Katy Hickman

A weekend read of Washington's General Orders from Cambridge on Feb. 7, 1776. He is establishing pay for the Army's chaplains at $33.50 per month and advising officers how to create and distribute ammo. Washington also mentions Connecticut chaplain Abiel Leonard, who volunteered in 1775 to serve as one of a handful of chaplains before the army was even established as the Continental Army. Leonard was one of the first-ever chaplains to serve in the Army Corps of Chaplains, whcih was established in July 1775 and still exists today, boasting some 3,000 chaplains. Washington thought chaplains important to the morale and moral character of the troops, as well as in bolstering them for courage in the fight instead of desertion. Washington appreciated Leonard so much he once wrote to his home church asking if they could spare him for the Army some time longer and Gen. Israel Putnam (of Bunker Hill fame) petitioned Congress for backpay for his service in 1775.

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After U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement purchased a massive warehouse on the city’s East Side for a migrant detention center, San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones said she is looking into how the city can push back.array(3) { [0]=> string(38) "https://www.tpr.org/podcast/the-source" [1]=> string(0) "" [2]=> string(1) "0" }

Should San Antonio have a diversion center? It could allow people with mental illness or intellectual disabilities to avoid going to jail for low-level misdemeanors and instead get treatment. It would help with overcrowding at the Bexar County Jail and could help direct people away from the cycle of the criminal justice system and into getting the help they need.array(3) { [0]=> string(38) "https://www.tpr.org/podcast/the-source" [1]=> string(0) "" [2]=> string(1) "0" }

For football fans nationwide, this year’s Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks is inherently exciting. For non-football fans like the Daily host Michael Barbaro — not so much.

In this episode of “The Sunday Daily,” Natalie Kitroeff — who is a big Philadelphia Eagles fan — makes it her mission to draw Barbaro and other non-football fans into the excitement and drama of this year’s matchup through storytelling. She talks with two reporters who cover the teams for The Athletic: Chad Graff, a senior writer covering the Patriots; and Michael-Shawn Dugar, who covers the Seahawks.

On Today’s Episode:

Chad Graff is a senior writer for The Athletic, covering the New England Patriots.

Michael-Shawn Dugar is a staff writer for The Athletic, covering the Seattle Seahawks.

Photo Illustration by The New York Times; Images: Greg M. Cooper/AP; Steph Chambers/Getty

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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