Latest posts
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The Strongman Starter Pack: From Manila to Mar-a-Lago
Rodrigo Duterte’s rise in the Philippines wasn’t an accident—it was a case study in how democracies willingly hand the keys to strongmen when fear, spectacle, and fatigue collide. Donald Trump is running the same script in America: cult of personality, demonization of enemies, attacks on the press, selective empathy, institutional erosion, and an endless blurring…
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When Congress Governs by Split Screen
Democracy has always been a little theatrical. The marble halls, the pomp, the roll calls delivered like Broadway overtures—it’s part politics, part melodrama, part daytime soap. But lately the Capitol has taken the metaphor too literally. On one screen: a government funding bill collapsing in the Senate. On the other: a resolution sanctifying Charlie Kirk,…
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The Prosecutor Who Wouldn’t Bend (and the President Who Couldn’t Tolerate It)
The American legal system prides itself on independence, impartiality, and the quaint notion that prosecutorial decisions are made in courtrooms, not at golf resorts. But on September 19, 2025, Washington delivered another episode of its long-running tragicomedy: Erik Siebert, interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, resigned. His crime? Not mortgage fraud, not…
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America’s H-1B Visa Paywall: $100,000 to Enter, Please Remove Your Shoes
The United States has many traditions: fireworks on the Fourth, pumpkin spice in the fall, and quietly re-engineering its immigration system with the grace of a demolition derby. This week’s entry comes courtesy of President Donald Trump, who signed a proclamation adding a $100,000 fee to accompany—or maybe supplement, or maybe just vaguely menace—every H-1B…
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America’s Economy Is Being Weighed on a Broken Scale
The Ghost in the Ledger Every empire has its rituals. Rome had the census, England had the coronation, and the United States has the Bureau of Labor Statistics dropping PDFs like they’re scripture. The Consumer Expenditure Survey—CE, to the faithful—was supposed to arrive September 23, like manna in spreadsheet form. Instead, it’s been postponed indefinitely.…
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When Science Meets Conspiracy: The CDC’s New Vaccine Variety Hour
If you ever wanted to watch the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reinvent itself as a cross between a daytime talk show and a flat-earth convention, congratulations: September 18, 2025 delivered. Picture it—a fluorescent-lit conference room in Atlanta, where a panel once devoted to quiet, data-heavy immunization schedules has been rebranded as the CDC’s…
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Merit, Excellence, and a Half-Billion Dollar Shuffle: The Education Department’s New Hunger Games
The Department of Education has always been a strange beast—part accountant, part social engineer, part referee for our endless cultural blood sports. On September 15, it decided to moonlight as a pit boss, shuffling chips from one table to another, all while insisting this was about “merit and excellence.” Translation: somebody’s walking out of the…
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Pam Bondi Declares War on the First Amendment—Then Googles What It Actually Says
You’d think the Attorney General of the United States would know the First Amendment. You’d think she’d have at least skimmed it once in law school, maybe while flipping through her notes on “How Not to Start a Constitutional Crisis.” And yet here we are. Pam Bondi—Donald Trump’s Attorney General—managed to light Washington on fire…
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Republicans Canceled Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert Because Free Speech Is Only for Them
The Blood in the Water Let’s get this out of the way: Jimmy Kimmel is off the air. Pulled by ABC. Indefinite hiatus. No return date. Disney—the big corporate mouse with the oversized ears and the even bigger fear of FCC regulatory hellfire—yanked “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” because he made jokes about Charlie Kirk after Kirk…
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COTALAND: Austin’s Roller Coaster to Nowhere (Yet)
A Park Delayed, but Dreams are Never Late The theme park industrial complex has a formula: announce early, overpromise wildly, and then pray nobody notices when the opening date slides into the next election cycle. COTALAND, Austin’s would-be roller coaster Mecca, is now on that exact track—ironically the only track they’ve managed to finish on…