News / political
-
1 min read
Tariff Refunds Are Coming. You're Not Getting a Dime.
Read more . . . →The government is about to start handing out tariff refunds on April 20th. Billions flowing back to the companies that “passed the costs on to consumers” — their words, not mine. So naturally those savings are coming back to us too, right? Of course not. CNBC surveyed a bunch of CFOs and not a single one plans to share the refund money with customers. Zero. Every penny stays at the top. This is the grift working exactly as designed. Trump slaps tariffs on everything, prices go up, companies jack their margins and blame “the tariffs,” and when the refunds come...
Subscribe →Weekly digestOne email per week with the tracks worth your time. No spam, no Coldplay. -
1 min read
Trump Posted Himself as Jesus and Even His Evangelicals Said No
Read more . . . →Donald Trump posted an image of himself as Jesus Christ — not a supporter’s fan art, not a meme someone else made, from his own account — and for the first time in a decade, his Evangelical and Catholic base actually flinched. Major allies publicly called it blasphemous. The post got deleted. That’s the rarest thing in American politics right now: Trump backing down because the people who built his coalition told him he went too far. Here’s what “too far” means for this crowd. Kids in cages? Fine. Tariffs cratering the economy? God’s plan. Bragging about grabbing women? Locker...
Subscribe →Weekly digestSundays. One email. Zero ballads from white guys in beanies. -
1 min read
ProPublica's Journalists Had to Strike Their Own Newsroom
Read more . . . →ProPublica’s entire thing is holding the powerful accountable. They’ve won Pulitzers doing it. So when 150 of their own journalists walked off the job last week — the first major U.S. newsroom strike partly over AI protections — the irony wasn’t subtle. The people who spend their careers investigating corporate abuse had to picket their own employer just to get basic contract negotiations moving after two years of management stalling. Two years. ProPublica sat across the table from the union representing the reporters who generate all the prestige and all the revenue and refused to budge on wages, AI guardrails,...
Subscribe →Weekly digestWhat you missed this week, minus the corporate emo. -
1 min read
Harvard Sits on $50 Billion While Grad Workers Beg for a Living Wage
Read more . . . →Harvard has a $50 billion endowment. Fifty. Billion. And they just told their graduate workers — the people who actually teach the classes and run the labs — that a 74% pay raise to equalize teaching fellows with research assistants is too much to ask. Their counter-offer? “Modest raises.” The strike vote passed with 96% support. April 21 is the deadline. One bargaining session left. This is the same playbook every corporation runs. Doesn’t matter if it’s a meatpacking plant in Colorado or the most prestigious university on the planet — the people at the top would rather blow the...
Get the tee →Support the blogSome shirts are statements. This one is a verdict. -
1 min read
34,000 NYC Building Workers Are About to Remind Manhattan Who Actually Runs It
Read more . . . →Thirty-four thousand NYC doormen, porters, and supers are gearing up to strike because the real estate industry — the one that made billions turning housing into a speculative asset — can’t stomach paying them a fair contract. These workers make about $62k a year in a city where rent on a shoebox is $4,000 a month. They keep your building running, accept your packages, fix your pipes, and somehow haven’t burned the whole thing down yet. The Realty Advisory Board’s counter-offer? Try to gut their healthcare and strip legal aid from immigrant members. Classic. If they walk out on April...
Get the tee →Support the blogMade for people who left the room during Yellow. -
1 min read
68,000 LA School Workers Are About to Shut It All Down
Read more . . . →Sixty-eight thousand education workers in Los Angeles — teachers, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, janitors, special ed assistants — are set to walk out on April 14th. Three separate unions, all at once. You know things are cooked when even the principals are joining the picket line. The district is offering a staggered 4% raise while teachers are pushing for 13% to starting salaries because rent in LA costs more than most people’s entire paycheck. The district is sitting on a billion-dollar reserve fund. They have the money. They just don’t want to spend it on the people who actually run...
Get the tee →Support the blogIf you wear this and someone hugs you, that's a real friend. -
1 min read
Poilievre Can't Even Keep His Own Caucus
Read more . . . →Pierre Poilievre has lost five MPs to the Liberals since the election. Five. Four of them were his own Conservatives. The latest, Marilyn Gladu, said her constituents want “serious leadership and a real plan” — which is Canadian politician for “my boss is a clown and everyone knows it.” Poilievre’s response was to whine about “backroom deals,” because when your own caucus can’t stand you, it’s obviously someone else’s fault. This is what happens when your entire political identity is being angry on YouTube. Eventually the people who have to work with you figure out the act isn’t an act...
Get the tee →Support the blogLooks like Helvetica. Sounds like a closing argument. -
1 min read
Mission Accomplished, Iran Edition
Read more . . . →Trump declared victory in Iran. Big speech, flag backdrop, the works. One problem — he didn’t accomplish a single thing he said the war was for. Iran can still attack its neighbors. The nuclear program is intact. And the regime is more entrenched than ever because nothing rallies a population like getting bombed by a foreign power. Zero for three, but the photo op looked presidential, so I guess that’s the bar now. This is Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” banner except dumber, because at least Bush waited a few weeks before the lie fell apart. Trump’s doing it live while the...
Get the tee →Support the blogThree words. One opinion. Cotton. -
1 min read
Oracle Made $6 Billion Last Quarter and Said Thanks by Firing 30,000 People at 6 AM
Read more . . . →Oracle made $6 billion in profit last quarter — a 95% increase — and then fired 30,000 people via email at 6 AM. A mass email signed “Oracle Leadership” that said “today is your last working day.” Thirty thousand people woke up, checked their inbox, and found out they’re unemployed so Larry Ellison can spend $156 billion building AI data centers. The man is worth more than most countries’ GDP and his company just posted its best quarter in years, and the thank-you note to the workforce was a pink slip at dawn. This is the part they don’t say...
Get the tee →Support the blogWhat if your laundry was also a personality? -
1 min read
'A Whole Civilization Will Die' Is Not a Foreign Policy
Read more . . . →“A whole civilization will die.” That’s a direct quote from the sitting president of the United States, on camera, about Iran. Not a warning — a promise. Iran froze nuclear talks this week and Trump’s response wasn’t to regroup or find another angle — it was to go on TV and threaten to erase a country from existence. This is what happens when your foreign policy is run by a guy who thinks diplomacy is losing. We went from “we’re open to a deal” to genocide cosplay in a single news cycle. Iran walked away from the table — which,...
Get the tee →Support the blogShips in 3–5 days. The outrage ships immediately.