Michael Winship

Michael Winship

Michael Winship is the Schumann Senior Writing Fellow for Common Dreams. Previously, he was the Emmy Award-winning senior writer for Moyers & Company and BillMoyers.com, a past senior writing fellow at the policy and advocacy group Demos, and former president of the Writers Guild of America East. Follow him on Twitter: @MichaelWinship

Articles by this author

Icicles hang off the State Highway 195 sign on February 18, 2021 in Killeen, Texas. Winter storm Uri has brought historic cold weather and power outages to Texas as storms have swept across 26 states with a mix of freezing temperatures and precipitation. (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Views
Saturday, February 27, 2021
When Texas Froze Over, There Was Hell to Pay
I’ve been thinking a lot about water. And power. And Texas. You know from the news they’ve been grappling with a crisis there brought on by unexpectedly wicked winter weather. And made worse by an incompetent, ill-prepared Republican state government that, as LBJ used to say, couldn’t pour sand out...
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Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) delivers opening arguments in the Senate impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump on February 9, 2021. (Photo: Washington Post/YouTube screen grab) Views
Wednesday, February 17, 2021
The Truth on Trial at Trump’s Second Impeachment
While watching Saturday’s events in the U.S. Senate and the gamut of public reaction to them, I thought about the disconnect that takes place between the reality of events and the way they’re perceived from the outside looking in, especially by the media. Back in the fall of 2007, I was elected...
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Pro-Trump protesters gather in front of the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. A pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, breaking windows and clashing with police officers. Trump supporters gathered in the nation's capital today to protest the ratification of President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory over President Trump in the 2020 election. (Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images) Views
Friday, February 05, 2021
Republicans Don’t Know Much About History. But That Won’t Stop Them
Years ago, when I was back in Washington for a couple of years, writing a series for public television, I lived for a while on Capitol Hill, a couple of blocks behind the Supreme Court. In the morning when I went to work, I would walk to a nearby Metro subway station, look at the Capitol dome and...
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Screenwriter Walter Bernstein (1919-2021) attends The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences Presents "Spotlight On Screenwriting: Hollywood's Darkest Moment: An Evening With Blacklisted Screenwriter Walter Bernstein And A Special 40th Anniversary Screening Of The Front" on June 7, 2016 in New York City. (Photo: Robin Marchant/Getty Images for Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences) Views
Monday, January 25, 2021
Walter Bernstein Survived the Hollywood Blacklist – And Lived to Be 101
When the brilliant songwriter George Gershwin passed away, the writer John O'Hara famously declared that Gershwin had died on July 11, 1937, "but I don't have to believe it if I don't want to." My friend and colleague Walter Bernstein died over the weekend and I don't have to believe it either. You...
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Nuclear weapon test Romeo on Bikini Atoll on March 27, 1954. The test was part of the Operation Castle and was the first nuclear test conducted on a barge. (Photo: Wikicommons) Views
Wednesday, January 20, 2021
GOP Tickles the Dragon's Tail
From The Archive: The following piece was first published by Common Dreams on 01/14/16 and is reprinted here today to mark the final day of President Donald Trump's disastrous four years in office. On May 21, 1946, less than a year after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,...
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Workers put up "Biden-Harris" branded bunting on a press riser along the inaugural parade route near the White House on January 14, 2021 in Washington, DC. Thousands of National Guard troops have been activated to protect the nation's capital against threats surrounding President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration and to prevent a repeat of last weeks deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Views
Monday, January 18, 2021
When Trump's Out the Door, Biden Tackles the Winter of Our Discontent
A few weeks ago, I was contemplating writing a piece for right about now suggesting that as a symbolic gesture and public service, one of Joe Biden’s first orders should be to tear down much of that ugly hurricane fencing around the White House and the surrounding neighborhood. After four years of...
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U.S. Capitol police officers point their guns at a door that was vandalized in the House Chamber during a joint session of Congress on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. Congress held a joint session today to ratify President-elect Joe Biden's 306-232 Electoral College win over President Donald Trump. A group of Republican senators said they would reject the Electoral College votes of several states unless Congress appointed a commission to audit the election results. (Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Views
Thursday, January 07, 2021
The Capitol Invasion Must be the End of the Line for Trump
Resign, Donald Trump. There will now be a pause for gales of laughter. As if that will happen. Unless he bails a day or two before the inauguration so Pence can pardon him… So impeach him again and this time, convict. I know it's a longshot fantasy given the time frame, but it would be a pleasure...
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Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, right, and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., attend the Senate Judiciary Committee markup on judicial nominations and the Online Content Policy Modernization Act, in Dirksen Building on Thursday, December 10, 2020. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images) Views
Monday, January 04, 2021
Old Congress, New Congress: Profiles in Sore Losing
Ever since it first was published in 1956, there has been a joke about John F. Kennedy's book Profiles in Courage (largely ghosted by speechwriter and advisor Ted Sorensen), historical portraits of eight US senators who demonstrated bravery in the face of enormous political opposition. Kennedy...
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U.S. President Donald Trump climbs into golf cart number 45 as he golfs at Trump National Golf Club on December 13, 2020 in Sterling, Virginia. (Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images) Views
Tuesday, December 29, 2020
Donald John Trump's "Seditious Abuse"
And it came upon a midnight clear during this holiday season that after weeks and months alternating between negotiation and inertia, Congress finally reached agreement with the White House and passed a new $908 billion relief bill that provided a stimulus payment of $600 to each qualified citizen...
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A Marine stands guard outside the West Wing, signifying the president is in the Oval Office, as snow begins to fall at the White House on Wednesday, December 16, 2020 in Washington, D.C. Views
Sunday, December 20, 2020
The Final Days of Donald Trump, Absentee President
Pardon my silence these last few days, but the out-of-control firehose that is the Trump White House has upped the water pressure with increased insanity, mendacity and just plain idiotic behavior. It can overwhelm. The soaking seems to get worse every hour and day that remains before the swearing-...
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