Media

Evil Without Horns: Jeffrey Epstein, Steve Bannon, and a Calm Conversation With the Unrepentant

by

Epstein sits before the camera not as a man crushed by exposure, but as one still convinced the rules apply differently to him. He speaks in abstractions. He talks about systems, reputation, philanthropy, misunderstanding. The victims are nowhere to be found—not as people, not as faces, not as lives interrupted. They exist only as legal problems, public-relations complications, inconvenient footnotes to an otherwise impressive résumé. This is not the language of remorse. It is the language of a man who believes morality is negotiable if one is clever enough.

The Subscription Losses at The Washington Post Say More About the Subscribers Than the Newspaper Itself

by

As would be expected, the whole of the professional media have been reacting to the significant layoffs at The Washington Post. I do not normally read Frank Luntz, but, lazing in bed this frosty morning, and scrolling through Twitter — I still refuse to call it 𝕏 — I clicked on the linked article from …

Read more

Minneapolis: Watching a Color Revolution Come Home (Live, Local, and “Mostly Peaceful”)

by

Minneapolis isn’t “going through a moment.” Minneapolis is running a script.

And not the kind of script where everybody just hugs it out at the end and the credits roll over a lake with a canoe and a golden retriever. This is the other kind—the kind you used to see overseas, the kind cable news used to narrate like a nature documentary: Observe the fascinating uprising in its natural habitat. Note the coordinated chants. The symbolic signage. The sudden appearance of professionally printed banners that definitely came from someone’s garage printer.

Anus and Genital Rashes: Fox News, Big Pharma, and the Breakfast-Time

by

I turn on Fox News for the same reason a man checks the weather before he goes outside: I want to know what’s coming, and I’d prefer not to be blindsided by it. Is the world on fire? Are we at war? Did Congress accidentally pass something useful? Did somebody somewhere do something so insane it requires a full segment and a therapist?

Elon Musk helps get information out of Iran and to the rest of the world

by

As we have previously noted, the credentialed media have been publishing rather little on the popular uprisings in Iran. Slightly more has been coming out, but information has still been sparse. More information has been coming out over social media, though, interestingly enough, far less on Bluesky than on Twitter, at least as far as …

Read more

The Upside-Down Gospel: How Stranger Things Steals from the Bible, but Forgets the Cure

by

Stranger Things didn’t invent spiritual warfare—it just put it on a BMX bike and added synth music. The show works because it’s parasitic: it feeds on biblical ideas already baked into Western consciousness. Shadow realms. Invasive evil. Possession. Sacrifice. Redemption. None of this is new.

Running reporters ragged; Trump’s White House South gives him time to golf, talk to heads of state, and blow up ISIS encampments

by

In Trump’s second presidency, the nation marches on and the twits in the media have to work over the holidays. The poor silly saps have had to come up with their own lines because the DNC doesn’t have enough money to staff peddle their talking points, narratives and lies.