Latest posts
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Abilene LGBT Threat: When “Lock and Load” Becomes the Pride Parade Invitation
They say a threat is just a first draft of violence. Sometimes scribbled on social media, sometimes delivered with clicks and tags—but the message is the same: you are watched, you are vulnerable. In Abilene, Texas, one man apparently decided to turn that sentence into performance art, threatening LGBTQ+ parade participants only days before the…
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America’s H-1B Visa Paywall: $100,000 to Enter, Please Remove Your Shoes
The United States has many traditions: fireworks on the Fourth, pumpkin spice in the fall, and quietly re-engineering its immigration system with the grace of a demolition derby. This week’s entry comes courtesy of President Donald Trump, who signed a proclamation adding a $100,000 fee to accompany—or maybe supplement, or maybe just vaguely menace—every H-1B…
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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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COTALAND: Austin’s Roller Coaster to Nowhere (Yet)
A Park Delayed, but Dreams are Never Late The theme park industrial complex has a formula: announce early, overpromise wildly, and then pray nobody notices when the opening date slides into the next election cycle. COTALAND, Austin’s would-be roller coaster Mecca, is now on that exact track—ironically the only track they’ve managed to finish on…
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Texas Builds a Deportation Machine Because Governing Was Too Boring
Everything Is Bigger in Texas—Even the Loopholes Texas has decided that if the federal government won’t let it declare its own foreign policy, it will improvise. Governor Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star has now quietly metastasized from “border security theater” into “statewide deportation cosplay.” DPS strike teams, created at Abbott’s direction, have made more than…
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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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Texas TikToks Its Way to a Senate Race: James Talarico vs. the Methuselah Caucus
There are few constants in Texas politics: barbecue debates, heatstroke, and Democrats losing statewide races. The streak is so reliable it might as well be sponsored by Buc-ee’s. Every two years, the party tries again, strapping on boots of optimism only to be dragged face-first across a desert of gerrymanders, megachurches, and oil money. But…
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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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Texas Bans the Candy Clouds: SB 2024 and the War on Vapes (But Not Really)
Texas has a gift for declaring victory before the battle even begins. On September 1, 2025, the state flipped the switch on Senate Bill 2024, a law so sweeping, so meticulous in its micromanagement of vapor and smoke, that it reads less like public health policy and more like a paranoid parent’s diary. The law…
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Knock Knock, Who’s There? America’s Gun Obsession Killing Kids Over Doorbells
On late August 30 in east Houston, 11-year-old Jullian Guzman did what children have done for generations: ring a neighbor’s doorbell and run. It was mischief, not malice. A prank so old it predates TikTok “challenges,” one of those goofy rites of childhood designed to make kids laugh and adults groan. Instead, it got him…