Latest posts
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In response to prematurely blaming liberals for Charlie Kirk: Maybe Stop Acting Like Fascists If You Don’t Want to Be Called Fascists
There’s a game the American right has perfected. It goes like this: they say or do something horrifying—racist, misogynist, homophobic, authoritarian—then when people point it out, they act wounded, offended, persecuted. How dare you call us fascist? they cry, clutching their pearls with one hand while sharpening voter suppression laws with the other. It’s a
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Charlie Kirk’s Assassination by MAGA Gun Nut Tyler Robinson and the Myth of Martyrdom
It’s troubling—horrifying, really—that Charlie Kirk was assassinated. Political violence is never the answer, not when it’s directed at the left, not when it’s directed at the right, not when it’s directed at the loud, obnoxious pundits who thrive on outrage, and not when it’s directed at their most vulnerable targets. A functioning democracy cannot survive
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Big Little Lies Season 3: HBO’s Attempt at Resurrection Theater
The Prestige Necromancy Business HBO just announced what Hollywood does best: recycling. Big Little Lies—the Monterey mommy noir that gave us Nicole Kidman in silk blouses whisper-screaming about trauma and Reese Witherspoon perfecting the art of weaponized brunch—is being resurrected for a third season. Francesca Sloane, fresh off Mr. & Mrs. Smith, is tasked with
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The EU Declares Independence (From Us, Mostly)
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission and owner of Europe’s most determinedly practical haircut, took the stage in Strasbourg on September 10 to deliver her State of the Union. And let me tell you, it was not the milquetoast Euro-babble of years past. Instead, von der Leyen announced what she called Europe’s
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Paramount Skydance Wants to Eat Warner Bros. Discovery for Breakfast
Cue the Mergers and the Popcorn America loves a sequel, even when it’s corporate consolidation. This September, barely a month after Paramount Skydance finalized its $8.4 billion deal to absorb Paramount Global, the trades are abuzz with whispers: now they want Warner Bros. Discovery. Yes, the company that just finished moving its things into Paramount’s
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America’s New Age of Political Violence: Or, How to Lose Friends and Radicalize People
The Washington Post says we’ve entered “a new age of political violence.” How quaint of them to suggest there was ever an old age that ended. The difference, perhaps, is that now we livestream it, brand it with hashtags, and serve it to audiences like a Netflix series that never gets canceled. The latest episode
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Ceasefire, Interrupted: Israel Bombs the Meeting About Peace
There’s an old joke about Middle East negotiations: the closer the diplomats get to an agreement, the louder the bombs outside the hotel. On September 9, that punchline wrote itself when Israel decided the most efficient way to respond to Hamas’s leadership meeting in Doha—called to weigh a U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal—was to obliterate the venue
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When Drones Mistake Neighbors’ Airspace for Buffer Zone: NATO’s Midnight Wake-Up Call
Some stories write themselves; others are written at 3 a.m. by frantic air defense operators staring at radar screens while politicians rehearse their outrage in bathroom mirrors. The overnight drone incursion into Polish airspace belongs to the latter category, a saga of buzzing machinery, scrambled jets, and the uncomfortable realization that Article 4 of NATO
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107 Days of Recklessness: The Democrats Let Ego Write the Playbook
Kamala Harris has decided the best way to heal the wounds of 2024 is to re-open them in hardcover. 107 Days, her memoir about the hundred-odd days between Biden’s exit and her own defeat to Donald Trump, isn’t even out yet and already it has Democrats chewing the furniture. The headline excerpt: it was “recklessness”
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When Drones Mistake Neighbors’ Airspace for Buffer Zone: NATO’s Midnight Wake-Up Call
The Uninvited Nocturnal Ball Somewhere between the cosmic nudge of late evening and the brittle patience of dawn, something peculiar happened above Poland. Imagine a nocturne for air defense: an unexpected ballet of over 415 drones and more than 40 missiles gliding where they were neither invited nor expected. Just when Warsaw was narrowing its