Jesse Mechanic

Jesse Mechanic


Writer, artist, and commentator with work published in Huff Post, Mother Jones, In These Times, Bustle, Truthout, The World Post, Yahoo News and others. 

in-these-times •

Biden’s Marijuana Reform Plan Is a Good Start. He Can’t Stop There.

Last week, President Joe Biden — a driving force behind the 1994 crime bill which accelerated mass incarceration in America—announced a three-step plan for marijuana reform which began with a pardon for ​“all current United States citizens and lawful permanent residents who committed the offense of simple possession of marijuana.” The pardon is a welcome development for those invested in dismantling the carceral state. But a closer look at the limits of the plan’s impact reveals that much more s
Logical Radical •

We Could End Poverty Today. So Why Don't We?

Nearly 1 in 6 children live in poverty in the United States. That’s over 12.8 million kids. The United States also has 788 billionaires who hold a collective worth of over $3.4 trillion, which, as Vox pointed out, is a 14% increase over 2018. As rapper J-Live once said, Eradicating poverty is often posed as an impossible task, something noble but otherwise unrealistic—a pipe-dream of hippies and idealists. But the truth is, ending poverty would be rather simple. It just requires spending some
Logical Radical •

Instead of Fixing America, We Wait for Science to Bail Us Out

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted a litany of long-standing systemic failures in the United States: Our weak social safety net, our in-humane healthcare system, our paralyzed adherence to free-market capitalism at all times, our obsession with "freedom" over science, the stifling constraints of partisan federalism, the exploitation and abuse of the working class—and how all of these failures, individually and collectively, disproportionately impact people of color. It’s as if the virus was
Logical Radical •

Trump's Patriotic Education Initiative Is Just More White Supremacy

In the first presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the president was asked why he ended racial sensitivity training at federal agencies. Here’s his full response: He also calls the program “insane,” “radical,” and “revolutionary.” This is not new rhetoric by any means, labeling something that is inherently anti-racist as racist—nor is it a line of thinking that is exclusive to Donald Trump. Over the years I have spoken to many white Americans who are vehemently opposed to the
Logical Radical •

The Looming Mental Health Crisis

The Looming Mental Health Crisis We Are Not Prepared For The way in which the Coronavirus pandemic has unfolded in the United States has set the stage for a massive mental health crisis. When you combine the extended periods of isolation with a devastating economic downturn punctuated by 40 million people losing their jobs, mass casualties, health anxiety, intense political division and social unrest, you have the perfect recipe for a mental health catastrophe. Even if we just look at the impa
In These Times •

Are You Sick? Blame Poverty.

The link between stress and illness is not new information: The Greek physician and philosopher Galen wrote about the connection in 200 A.D. In his 2017 book The Death Gap: How Inequality Kills, physician, social activist and author David A. Ansell explains that in poverty-stricken regions, life expectancies are 10 to 16 years lower than in high-income regions. He cites examples in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, where neighborhoods within miles of each other can show life expectancy differences of decades.
In These Times •

The War on Drugs Is an Abject Failure. Jeff Sessions Just Ramped It Up.

Back in May, Sessions released a memo directing federal prosecutors to once again seek the harshest sentences possible under the law. The memo rescinded Obama-era directives that were designed to lighten sentences for low-level drug crimes by stepping away from mandatory minimum sentencing. Such directives comprised a key component of the Obama administration's efforts to reverse some of the severely punitive actions of his predecessors. In June, Jeff Sessions sent a letter to congressional leaders stating his opposition to the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, which was implemented to protect legalized medical marijuana programs.
Truthout •

The GOP Tax Bill Is a Backdoor Obamacare Repeal

On Friday, December 22, after receiving a "pay-go waiver," which enabled the GOP to put off immediate cuts to Medicare and a bevy of other programs required to offset the debt increase, President Trump signed the GOP tax bill into law. The anger surrounding this legislation is well warranted. It's another gift for the donor class. But this tax cut is far more than a bill designed to appease the 1 percent, it's more than supply-side economics on steroids, it's the first step in dismantling our current health care system.
HuffPost •

10 Statements That Should've Disqualified Roy Moore Long Before The Sex Abuse Allegations

Much of the recent coverage surrounding Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore has involved the numerous sexual abuse allegations waged against the twice-removed judge—and for good reason. There are currently nine allegations and nearly all of them involve underage women, one as young as 14.  Moore was banned from a local shopping mall for preying on young women; his behavior was well-known in the region.
Truthout •

How the ''Citizens United'' Ruling Paved the Way for This Abhorrent Tax Bill

This particular bill is more egregious than most, as the language is generally a bit more coded. Most politicians in the US on both sides of the aisle are beholden to the donors who helped them get to where they are. But it didn't have to be this way. In 2010, the Supreme Court had a chance, when it deliberated on Citizens United v. FEC, to stop corporate lobbying dead in its tracks and to make our political system more openly democratic. Instead, the court ruled: "Political spending is a form of protected speech under the First Amendment, and the government may not keep corporations or unions from spending money to support or denounce individual candidates in elections."
The Overgrown •

9 Million Children Set To Lose Health Insurance By March

Last month, Congress let the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) expire, and they have yet to allocate any funds to save it.  The program, which was instituted by the Clinton administration and passed with broad, bipartisan support in 1997, has subsequently dropped the uninsured rate for children and non-elderly adults dramatically.  In conjunction with the gains made under the Affordable Care Act, in 2016 the percentage of children insured in the U.S. reached 95.5%, an historic high.
HuffPost •

The '20-Armed Octopus': Deconstructing The Opioid Epidemic

Dr. Abigail Zavod, when speaking about the opioid crisis during a grand rounds presentation at Dartmouth, likened it to a “20-armed octopus covered in vaseline.” The metaphor is accurate; effectively tackling this epidemic requires a multi-pronged approach, and each prong needs to be properly balanced. There is no easy way to fix this. We are at a point now where the response needs to be meticulous and symphonic in its execution to be successful. Each measure has to be adaptive ― pushing or pulling too hard can leave a devastating impact.
HuffPost •

It's Terrorism If You're Brown And Mental Health If You're White

The location changes, the numbers of victims vary. Each time, different families are shattered; new, promising lives are cut short; and pulses of empathy are predictably followed by floods of thoughts and prayers and little else. If the shooter is white. If the attack is perpetrated by someone of the Islamic faith, the president immediately labels it terrorism and calls for new laws to be instituted and old ones abolished in order to make sure no more evil brown people worm their way into our pristine utopia.
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