Latest posts
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The Mirage Economy: When the GDP Grows but Nobody Hires
It’s official: America is thriving—on paper. The GDP is glowing like a ring light on a politician’s livestream. The stock market is preening. The White House comms shop is drafting victory tweets about “resilience.” And yet, if you’re an actual human being with a pulse, a rent payment, and a résumé floating in the void,
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Watchdog? More Like Watchdogged: The Tanking of Trump’s “Nazi-Streak” Nominee
You’d think after a year of government face-plants, someone in Trump’s orbit might nominate a watchdog who didn’t actively bite democracy. Instead, the White House delivered Paul Ingrassia—a 30-year-old law school graduate with the résumé depth of a TikTok bio—to run the Office of Special Counsel, the federal agency designed to protect whistleblowers and keep
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Big Raid on Canal Street: When the Counterfeit Crackdown Looks More Like Occupation
There’s something disquieting about seeing dozens of federal agents—batons, rifles, zip-ties, armored vehicles—rolling onto a stretch of Manhattan known for knock-off handbags and street vendors, rather than insurgents. On October 21, 2025, in an operation that looked less like “intelligence-driven enforcement” and more like “military parade meets commerce,” ICE and a coalition of federal agencies
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The Commander in Brief: How Trump v. Illinois Might Create A Trump Army
It’s a strange moment in the American experiment when the question before the Supreme Court is whether the President can send troops to Chicago because someone held up a sign too close to an ICE office. But here we are: Trump v. Illinois, a case that could turn the National Guard into the president’s personal
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Law and Disorder Portland Edition: The Boots Are Coming From Inside The Country
There’s a subtle tremor in civil society when the uniformed hand that writes the citation also carries the deployment order. A divided panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has quietly given the green light to Donald J. Trump to federalize the Oregon National Guard—for now—and deploy it into downtown
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I Like My Dallas Neat, With No ICE
There’s an old saying in Texas politics: if you can’t fix a problem, create a new one that sounds expensive. Enter Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, a man so enamored with federal “partnerships” that he’s now trying to marry local policing to ICE, as if that’s the sequel anyone wanted. You’d think the recent ICE facility
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The Hunger Games: Trump’s SNAP Shutdown
There’s a moment every fall when America pretends to care about food. Usually it arrives in the form of syrupy commercials: laughing families in sweaters, grocery carts brimming with abundance, the phrase “holiday spirit” hovering over a table that looks sponsored by a butter manufacturer. This year, that tableau feels like parody. Because as the
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Fascism, ‘Woke,’ and $7 Lattes: How We Got Played While the Billionaires Cashed In
From immigration panics to crime bait, the outrage machine drowns out the boring policies that actually save you money. A love letter to boring policies in a country addicted to feelings “Kitchen table issues” sounds like a placemat you forgot to rinse. It lands in the brain like a PSA about flossing. Everyone nods at
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Trump the Wannabe King and the Sludge: A Royal Flush from the Sky of Delusion
Some men crave legacy. Others crave power. And then there are those who crave the cinematic experience of dumping digital sewage on protesters while “Danger Zone” blares in the background. Donald J. Trump, patron saint of grievance and green screen, has once again redefined leadership—not as the art of governance, but as a content genre.
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Soap Operas, Talk Show Thrones, and the Gospel According to Drew Barrymore
There’s a special kind of American optimism in handing out golden statues while the world burns. On October 17, the 52nd Daytime Emmy Awards beamed from the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, where a theater full of people in sequins and spray tans cheered for the institutions that have taught us to cry at noon, gossip at