Latest posts

  • When Congress Governs by Split Screen

    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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  • Who Owns Your News (and Why It Keeps Tilting Right)

    Who Owns Your News (and Why It Keeps Tilting Right)

    Picture it: you turn on your “local” TV station, expecting weather updates, high school football scores, maybe a feel-good segment about a cat reunited with its owner. Instead, you’re greeted with a syndicated commentary package, an ominous chyron about “chaos in the classroom,” and a panel of people who look suspiciously like the ones you

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  • America’s Economy Is Being Weighed on a Broken Scale

    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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  • A Royal Circus, a Domestic Inquisition, and the Death of Late Night: Trump’s September Trifecta

    A Royal Circus, a Domestic Inquisition, and the Death of Late Night: Trump’s September Trifecta

    The Pageant in Windsor There’s no such thing as a small Trump visit. Not when the U.K. rolls out Windsor pomp for a man who treats Buckingham Palace like a casino floor. King Charles III, looking every bit the monarch who once had to weather tabloids about tampon fantasies, gamely escorted Donald Trump through ceremonial

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  • Late-Night Doesn’t Lose Its Backbone: Colbert, Fallon, and Meyers all respond to Jimmy Kimmel Being Silenced

    Late-Night Doesn’t Lose Its Backbone: Colbert, Fallon, and Meyers all respond to Jimmy Kimmel Being Silenced

    Free Speech Isn’t a Punchline—Until It Is When ABC yanked Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air “indefinitely,” the expectation was that the room would get quiet. Instead, the late-night hosts turned the mics up. Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert—they all responded, each with a different spin, but all with the same undercurrent: “This isn’t

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  • The Glitterball Hunger Games: Dancing With the Stars Season 34 Kicks Off by Breaking Its Own Math

    The Glitterball Hunger Games: Dancing With the Stars Season 34 Kicks Off by Breaking Its Own Math

    Opening Night, Chaos Optional “Dancing With the Stars” opened its 34th season like only an American reality juggernaut can: too many contestants, too much glitter, and not nearly enough functional technology. Fourteen couples poured onto the ballroom floor, the disco lights blinded half the audience, and the producers announced no eliminations this week—as if America

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  • Republicans Canceled Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert Because Free Speech Is Only for Them

    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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  • The Sundance Kid Rides Off: Robert Redford and the Indie Dream We Pretend Is Still Alive

    The Sundance Kid Rides Off: Robert Redford and the Indie Dream We Pretend Is Still Alive

    The Perfect Death for a Perfect Myth Robert Redford died in his sleep at 89. Publicist Cindi Berger said it happened at his home at Sundance, tucked in the Utah mountains near Provo Canyon. No cause given, no final scandal, no messy revelation about a burner phone and a crypto scam. Just a clean exit,

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  • Trump’s War on the Calendar: Why Four Quarters Are Just Too Many for Capitalism to Handle

    Trump’s War on the Calendar: Why Four Quarters Are Just Too Many for Capitalism to Handle

    Once again Donald J. Trump has logged on to Truth Social, thumb trembling with the divine power of an unpaid intern, to announce that America no longer needs quarterly earnings reports. Semiannual will do just fine, thank you. If this feels familiar, that’s because it is. Trump tried the same thing in 2018, after a

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  • The Eternal Gravity of Shit: Why Hierarchy Is Humanity’s Favorite Hobby

    The Eternal Gravity of Shit: Why Hierarchy Is Humanity’s Favorite Hobby

    We like to tell ourselves that human beings are noble, empathetic creatures. We write novels about kindness, sing songs about love, build religions around compassion. But spend thirty seconds in line at Starbucks or thirty minutes Doordashing lukewarm Chipotle to someone in yoga pants, and the truth hits you in the face like a soggy

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