Latest posts

  • The Doha Detour: How Trump’s Foreign Policy Became a Jet Lagged Choose-Your-Own-Adventure

    The Doha Detour: How Trump’s Foreign Policy Became a Jet Lagged Choose-Your-Own-Adventure

    By now, America’s allies have learned to read the signs. The tweet that drops at 3 a.m. Doha time. The “unscheduled meeting” that doubles as a refueling stop. The grinning photo op that becomes a tariff threat before the plane lands. Donald Trump’s second-term foreign policy isn’t so much a doctrine as a recurring flight

    Read more

  • Gavin Newsom Has Entered The 2028 Presidential Chat

    Gavin Newsom Has Entered The 2028 Presidential Chat

    Some politicians run for president. Others just wait until the universe hands them a feud that doubles as an audition. Gavin Newsom appears to have found his in a televised spat about truck drivers, English proficiency, and the statistical miracle of California’s 40% lower fatal crash rate. During his CBS News Sunday Morning interview, Newsom

    Read more

  • Freedom, Firewalls, and Freefall: How Trump’s Week in Power Looked Like a Season Finale Written by Kafka

    Freedom, Firewalls, and Freefall: How Trump’s Week in Power Looked Like a Season Finale Written by Kafka

    There are weeks in American politics that feel like historical footnotes, and there are weeks that feel like the Constitution was left in a microwave. This one was the latter. By midweek, the Trump administration managed to detain a journalist, nationalize TikTok through a handshake with Xi, pay the military during a government shutdown, and

    Read more

  • Trump’s Biggest Win Isn’t in Court It’s in the Newsroom

    Trump’s Biggest Win Isn’t in Court It’s in the Newsroom

    As billionaire owners consolidate outlets and executives sand down the truth, America’s press swaps watchdog bite for brand-safe whispers while power tightens the faucet on facts. I keep a short list of American rituals that used to mean something: the Fourth of July, jury duty, and a headline that calls a thing what it is.

    Read more

  • The Dronefather: How Trump Turned the Sky into a Family Business

    The Dronefather: How Trump Turned the Sky into a Family Business

    It starts, as all American dystopias do, with a slogan and a waiver. On June 6, President Trump signed two executive orders declaring it was time to “unleash American drone dominance” and “restore airspace sovereignty.” Which sounds patriotic enough—until you realize it’s the bureaucratic equivalent of saying, “We’re going to fill the sky with surveillance

    Read more

  • The Great Denaturalization Reboot: When Patriotism Became a Costume Party For MAGA

    The Great Denaturalization Reboot: When Patriotism Became a Costume Party For MAGA

    It’s happening again. The right has discovered a thrilling new hobby: pretending the Fourteenth Amendment is optional. Apparently, “We the People” now comes with a disclaimer—“unless you’re Muslim, queer, left of Ronald Reagan, or pronounce your name with too many vowels.” Across talk radio, committee hearings, and influencer podcasts with the production value of a

    Read more

  • Trump’s Federal Eyes At Your Precinct Door, Brought To You By The People Who Keep Screaming Fraud

    Trump’s Federal Eyes At Your Precinct Door, Brought To You By The People Who Keep Screaming Fraud

    The first thing to understand is that the suit with the clipboard is not there for you. That’s the official line, of course. The Justice Department says the monitors are there to “protect voting rights,” “ensure transparency,” and “uphold the integrity of the process.” They’re being dispatched to six jurisdictions: Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Kern,

    Read more

  • Arctic Frostbite: How Trump’s DOJ Turned Revenge Into a Branch of Government

    Arctic Frostbite: How Trump’s DOJ Turned Revenge Into a Branch of Government

    Some scandals melt under scrutiny. Others freeze time itself—like Operation Arctic Frost, the FBI’s now-infamous 2022 election-interference investigation that asked a few telecom companies for call logs and somehow got rebranded as the new Watergate. The facts were simple enough: the Bureau, approved at senior levels by Merrick Garland, Christopher Wray, and Lisa Monaco, used

    Read more

  • Trump’s Meme Administration: When the Government’s Group Chat Took Over the Country

    Trump’s Meme Administration: When the Government’s Group Chat Took Over the Country

    Somewhere between the press briefing room and a Fortnite lobby, the machinery of American governance appears to have been replaced by a collection of preteens armed with official seals, a ring light, and an unhealthy relationship with social media validation. The official feeds of the White House, DOJ, Pentagon, and assorted Cabinet offices now read

    Read more

  • Let Them Eat Nothing: The SNAP Shutdown and the Epstein Ballroom

    Let Them Eat Nothing: The SNAP Shutdown and the Epstein Ballroom

    The White House East Wing is gone, ground to powder and carted off in dump trucks so that a privately funded, ninety-thousand-square-foot ballroom can rise in its place. Somewhere between the marble sketches and the gilded drapery orders, the president found time to cut off food aid for over forty million Americans. Marie Antoinette said

    Read more