Latest posts
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The Man Who Shot Down Shots: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Public Health Hunger Games
The curtain was finally pulled back on the chaos at the heart of American public health. And behind it wasn’t a wizard, or even a bureaucrat in a lab coat. It was Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—HHS Secretary, anti-vaccine crusader turned federal kingpin of medicine, and proof that if you complain loudly enough about mercury in
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The VMAs Tried on Broadcast TV and Accidentally Staged a Pop Census
The MTV Video Music Awards are not an award show so much as an annual group therapy session where pop culture confronts its contradictions under a disco ball. For decades, it was a cable-era ritual: eyeliner, explosions, maybe a snake or two. But on September 7, 2025, the VMAs tried on broadcast television for the
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We Are All D.C. (Except the People Running It)
The nation’s capital looked less like the seat of democracy and more like the set of a dystopian reboot of COPS. Thousands of residents packed Meridian Hill—also known as Malcolm X—Park, then marched down 16th Street to Freedom Plaza for the “We Are All D.C.” rally. The name was both poetic and desperate: a reminder
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The Million-Dollar Letter: Austin’s “A” and the Art of Public Branding
On September 4–5, 2025, Austin unveiled its first-ever unified city logo: a wavy blue-green “A” allegedly inspired by the hills, rivers, bridges, and violet-crown skies that define the Texas capital. It is, in the words of the city, a “strategic modernization.” In the words of the internet, it’s “Dallas-adjacent,” “corporate clipart,” and “the most expensive
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The Billion-Dollar Curse (or How to Win Powerball and Lose Your Soul)
The Powerball jackpot is back in the headlines, bloated to an eye-watering $1.8 billion—the second-largest in U.S. history. Cable anchors are giddy, bodega clerks are rolling their eyes, and somewhere in the distance you can hear Dave Ramsey prepping a sermon about why you should’ve invested that $2 instead. But let’s say you buy the
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Trump’s Bruised Hand, Swollen Ankles, and the Press That Forgot How to Ask Questions
On September 5, 2025, media critic Margaret Sullivan delivered what should’ve been obvious but somehow wasn’t: the mainstream press is tiptoeing around President Donald J. Trump’s health. Days have gone by without a sighting. When he does appear, the ankles look like someone stuffed dinner rolls into his socks, his hand is bruised like a
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The Antichrist With a Red Tie
I am not religious. I have never mistaken a casserole for communion or believed that a televangelist’s sweaty forehead could save me. But if you flip through the Book of Revelation—an acid-trip fever dream of beasts, trumpets, and plagues—it feels like a spoiler alert for American cable news. Specifically, it reads like a casting call
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Trump the Informant? Mike Johnson’s Improv History Lesson
On September 5, 2025, House Speaker Mike Johnson stood before reporters and unleashed a claim so improbable it deserves its own Netflix docudrama: Donald J. Trump, former president, serial golf cheat, and part-time beauty pageant impresario, was an FBI informant against Jeffrey Epstein. The defense was as brazen as it was bizarre. Johnson, cornered by
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The EV Jobs Miracle That Ended in Handcuffs
On September 5, 2025, the largest worksite immigration raid in DHS history turned Hyundai’s much-hyped “Metaplant” electric vehicle complex in Ellabell, Georgia, into a live broadcast of American contradiction. About 475 workers were detained—most of them South Korean nationals—during a sweep that hit not just Hyundai’s $12.6 billion EV complex but especially the adjacent Hyundai–LG
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Giorgio Armani Dies at 91: Quiet Luxury’s Loud Goodbye
Giorgio Armani died on September 4, 2025, in Milan at the age of 91, closing a half-century reign that reshaped fashion by making power look soft. For most of his career, Armani lived as a contradiction: a designer who whispered while others shouted, a businessman who rejected takeover after takeover while building an empire so