Latest posts
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SNL at 51: Reinventing Reinvention Until It’s Just a Costume Change
Here’s the thing about Saturday Night Live: it is always dying and always about to be reborn. That’s the premise, the pitch, the myth. Every time someone leaves, the show is declared finished; every time someone arrives, it’s hailed as reborn. By now, SNL has spent 50 years on its deathbed and 50 years being
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Welcome to Visa Purgatory: Where Degrees Expire Before You Do
In late August 2025, while half the country was still coughing on wildfire smoke and the other half was adjusting to troops parked in their capitals, the Trump administration slipped in a bureaucratic bombshell. The Department of Homeland Security quietly proposed new rules that would gut the long-standing “duration of status” system for international students
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Katrina at 20: America Remembers, Forgets, and Repackages
Twenty years later, America still doesn’t know how to talk about Hurricane Katrina. Not because there’s nothing left to say, but because the event itself was already so saturated in meaning that everything since feels like a remix. The anniversary observances in New Orleans this August were equal parts solemnity and stagecraft—brass-band second lines echoing
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The CDC Purge: When Science Got Fired by Press Release
In the latest American remake of Night of the Long Knives, the White House traded soldiers for scientists and staged the firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez like it was an HR issue instead of a constitutional one. On August 27, 2025, less than a month into her tenure, Monarez was dismissed for the crime
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Chicago Doesn’t Need an Occupation, but Trump Wants a Backdrop
On August 28, 2025, while most of the country was still digesting the last “crime emergency” episode in Washington, the Trump administration quietly started drafting a sequel. This time, the stage is Chicago. The proposal: turn Naval Station Great Lakes—a training hub for sailors just north of the city—into a makeshift operations center for ICE
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“Law and Order” or Martial Theater? Trump’s Crime Emergency in D.C.
On August 11, 2025, Donald J. Trump declared a “crime emergency” in Washington, D.C., and like every pageant he has ever hosted, it was less about substance than spectacle. With the flourish of a reality TV host in his twilight season, he seized control of the Metropolitan Police Department, flooded the streets with National Guard
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White House Chaos: CDC Director Fired After 27 Days as Top Scientists Resign in Protest
On August 27, 2025, a seismic crack split the already fragile floorboards of American public health. Susan Monarez, freshly sworn in as CDC director less than a month earlier, was abruptly ousted by the White House. Within hours, four of her top deputies—Debra Houry, Daniel Jernigan, Demetre Daskalakis, and Jennifer Layden—submitted their resignations, citing irreconcilable
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FEMA’s Katrina Declaration: When Disaster Response Becomes Highest National Performance Art
On August 26, 2025, something seismic occurred—not an earthquake, not a storm, but a different kind of tremor. Over 180 current and former FEMA employees—many anonymous—signed an Open Katrina Declaration, warning Congress and the FEMA Review Council that the Trump administration is unravelling decades of post-Katrina reforms. It wasn’t just a letter; it was a
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Trump vs. Seth Meyers: Late Night, Last Nerve
The 2 a.m. Truth Social Serenade On August 27, 2025, Donald Trump—our forever midnight bard—logged onto Truth Social at the ungodly hour of 2 a.m. to fight the real battle of our times: Seth Meyers’ job security. Forget Ukraine, forget inflation, forget that the Colorado River is turning into a trickle—the real crisis is NBC
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Bill Maher: The Liberal Bulwark Who Fell in Love with His Own Contrarianism
Bill Maher: The Liberal Bulwark Who Fell in Love with His Own Contrarianism For a long time, Bill Maher was the voice I wanted in the room. He was brash, unapologetic, smarter than most of his guests, and willing to say the things the polite class of liberal pundits wouldn’t touch. In the Bush years,