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

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  • 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

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  • 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

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  • 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.

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  • Eat the Rich, Not the Ramen: America’s Favorite Pastime of Blaming Hungry People on SNAP for Being Poor

    Eat the Rich, Not the Ramen: America’s Favorite Pastime of Blaming Hungry People on SNAP for Being Poor

    America has a long, proud tradition of punching down. We could have been the country that invented bullet trains or universal childcare, but instead we perfected the art of yelling “Get a job!” at someone carrying a bag of store-brand cereal and a SNAP card. Forty-two million people are on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,

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  • The Basket Was Too Small: America’s Deplorable MAGA Problem Is a Feature, Not a Bug

    The Basket Was Too Small: America’s Deplorable MAGA Problem Is a Feature, Not a Bug

    There was a time when Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” remark was treated as a political scandal, a supposed gaffe that confirmed her elitism. The pundits clutched pearls, the right performed outrage, and the press dissected it like a frog in biology class. But looking back, she wasn’t wrong; she was being polite. If anything,

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  • 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

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  • 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

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  • 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,

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  • Trump Is The Speaker of The House and Mike Johnson Forgot How to Speak

    Trump Is The Speaker of The House and Mike Johnson Forgot How to Speak

    Somewhere between the Capitol dome and Mar-a-Lago, the People’s House misplaced its voice. The New York Times tried to call it “a portrait,” but it read more like an autopsy. Speaker Mike Johnson, the man theoretically third in line to the presidency, has kept the House out of session for most of the shutdown, spending

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