Public Health Fails for Youth At the Border by Emily Baumgaertner

Reporting for The New York Times, Emily Baumgaertner details the unconscionable abandonment of basic human decency when it comes to providing health care and other assistance to people who cross the southern border of the United States seeking help. This isn’t an issue of individual cruelty, but is instead the result of broad policy strokes and a starving of resources that has been orchestrated by governmental leadership, particularly those in power who find it particularly opportune to portray migrants as demonic villains. That the U.S. treats individuals in need with such vicious contempt completely eradicates any claim that this is a Christian nation. So, Happy Easter Weekend, everybody.

In MAGA world, there are no accidents by Noah Berlatsky

I try to remind myself that feeling exhausted by the idiocy is part of the point. When right-wingers flood the zone with absolutely nonsense after a disastrous event, they are not generally engaging with issues sincerely. Instead, they are just keeping their delusional voters — and easily duped small donors — in a perpetual state of fear and flailing anger that keeps the cash register dinging. In the aftermath of this week’s crash involving the Francis Scott Key Bridge, the moronic muckraking was truly next-level stuff. Noah Berlatsky writes about it for Public Notice.

Scents of Place by Molly Young

Amidst the grim and gloomy reading I did this week, I at least had the blessed relief of Molly Young doing her Molly Young thing. Writing for The New York Times Magazine, Young profiles an Italian “artist lady of smell and taste” who specializes in offbeat perfumes, some replicating precise combinations of feed and some evoking concepts. As always, Young approaches the writing assignment with a sharp wit and a cunning gift for assembling details.