Rafi Schwartz

Bio

Rafi Schwartz is a contributing writer to Mic, where he focuses on politics, protest movements, and the weirder parts of the internet's underbelly. He was previously a senior writer with Splinter News, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine. His work has appeared in GOOD, Rolling Stone, The Forward, and elsewhere. He is a co-owner of Discourse Blog, where he frequently complains about food and politics, and sends a weekly newsletter with whatever is on his mind that day. Rafi currently lives in the Twin Cities, where he does not bike, run, or take part in any team sports. He does have a variety of interests, hobbies, and passions, however. You can ask him about them at @TheJewishDream on Twitter, if you'd like. Or not. When in doubt, he'll have the soup.
The FBI thinks QAnon believers are about to get more violent
By Rafi Schwartz
It's hard to see how a cult of conspiracy theorists who believe the world is controlled by a secret cabal of Satan-worshiping child murderers could get any worse than it already is. But according to a recently obtained FBI memo to Congress, that's…
At least Mitch McConnell is honest about being terrible
By Rafi Schwartz
Mitch McConnell is perhaps the single most consequential politician to play the complex levers of power in the United States Senate since Lyndon Johnson created the majority leader position as we know it today. Whether or not the Republicans are in…
Lara Trump's border solution is for people to "arm up and get guns and be ready"
By Rafi Schwartz
Lara Trump may not have been born into her husband's infamous family, but she sure fits in well. Not only is she an overblown media personality who's teased aspirations for elected office, just like her father-in-law, but she seems to have fully…
Conservative group wants teachers to wear bodycams so they won't teach Critical Race Theory
By Rafi Schwartz
Critical Race Theory has become the latest shibboleth to be stripped of all context and meaning to serve, instead, as a catch-all term for any sort of educational framework that conservatives don't like. The fact that it is, in actuality, a very…
Marjorie Taylor Greene rejects the "so-called science" of evolution
By Rafi Schwartz
I suppose it shouldn't come as that much of a shock that Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene would declare herself a proud anti-evolutionary disbeliever. This is, after all, a person who has essentially declared war on our baseline…
Here's a chilling peek into just how close Trump got to running a police state
By Rafi Schwartz
It's been a while since we had ourselves a good ol' fashioned "what the hell????" sort of Trumpian scandal — the kind of peek into the chaotic lawlessness and astonishing selfishness that came to define Donald Trump's time in office. So when The New…
Marco Rubio wants to give survivors of domestic terrorism … one year of student loan relief?
By Rafi Schwartz
You've almost got to hand it to Marco Rubio. It takes a very special kind of politics-addled brain to correctly identify two uniquely American abominations — obscene student loan debt, and domestic terrorist mass shootings — and think, "Hm, but what…
Democrats' attacks on Ilhan Omar are embarrassing for everyone
By Rafi Schwartz
Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar issued a straightforward statement Thursday, pushing back on a bizarre effort by members of her own party to single her out for having the gall to ask where — if anywhere — victims of wartime atrocities can take…
Behold, the McConnell-Manchin bromance that truly no one needed
By Rafi Schwartz
At this point, West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin's unrepentant refusal to recognize — or at least acknowledge — his role in tanking his own party's legislative agenda is a fairly established fact. Manchin has displayed no interest in working…
GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert has some truly appalling questions about outer space
By Rafi Schwartz
Let's be very clear here: Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert is not a serious person. He's a powerful person, sure, in the "I'm a well-known member of Congress" sort of way. But serious? No. He believes in the sort of idiotic conspiracy theories…
One thing Republicans and Democrats agree on: Capitol Police shit the bed on Jan. 6
By Rafi Schwartz
We're now five months out from the insurrection attempt of Jan. 6, and authorities have still only just begun to breach the depths of what happened that day. This week, we got a few more pieces of the puzzle, when the Senate Homeland Security and…
Take a wild guess how many Republicans think Trump will be restored to the White House this year
By Rafi Schwartz
By all indications, former President Donald Trump has a busy summer ahead of him. He's launching a speaking tour with fellow sexual predator Bill O'Reilly, he's staring down the barrel of a seemingly inevitable criminal indictment, and, at least by…
Joe Manchin is tanking the Democratic agenda from the inside
By Rafi Schwartz
The conventional (which is to say, unexamined and deeply uninspiring) wisdom is largely as follows: Sen. Joe Manchin may be among the more conservative voices in the Senate, and easily the most conservative among the Democrats, but that's just the…
Congrats to GOP Rep. Mo Brooks for tweeting his own passwords out to 100k followers
By Rafi Schwartz
Even before this week began, there was strong evidence to suggest that Alabama Republican Rep. Mo Brooks was the dimmest member of the United States Congress. He quoted Hitler on the House floor; he said climate change was caused by rocks falling…
Donald Trump, king of scams, says Bitcoin is a scam
By Rafi Schwartz
"Game," as the saying goes, "recognize game." It is for this reason that when Donald Trump calls the cryptocurrency Bitcoin a "scam," we have to entertain the notion that perhaps, in a rare instance of lucidity, the lifelong grifter and former…
Facebook might let Trump back just in time for the 2024 election
By Rafi Schwartz
Just days after pulling the plug on his hilariously under-appreciated performance art exhibition masquerading as a "blog," former President Donald Trump received a bit of conditionally good news on Friday, with a surprise announcement from Facebook…
A Minnesota college professor raised $200k in Philando Castile's name. Where did the money go?
By Rafi Schwartz
The state of Minnesota has filed a civil complaint against a Twin Cities-area college professor, alleging a host of financial misdeeds after more than $100,000 of donations intended for St. Paul Public Schools given in the wake of the 2016 police…
There are already 19 QAnon candidates running for Congress in 2022
By Rafi Schwartz
For the time being, congresswomen Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert have effectively cornered the market of QAnon conspiracy loons in this year's congressional class. But their monopoly on the "we believe there's a secret cabal of satanist,…
Watch this Texas teen's valedictorian speech blasting her state's new anti-abortion law
By Rafi Schwartz
Teenage rebellion is nothing new. People have been singing songs and telling stories and generally being very annoyed by those rowdy teens since long before you and I were born, and they'll be doing so long after we're gone from this Earth. With…
“A.I. is actually the fastest path to communism,” and other thoughts from Grimes that make no sense
By Rafi Schwartz
Canadian singer Grimes is the sort of person who brings a very specific sort of energy to whatever it is she's doing. That energy is basically making grand, sweeping proclamations and plans without actually knowing what the hell she's talking about.…