There is a peculiar kind of American theater that plays out whenever a rich person convinces enough people that they are, in fact, one of the little guys, and nowhere has that theater been performed with more success in the last decade than in the cases of Donald Trump and Luigi Mangione. On the surfaceContinue reading “The Populist Costume: How Luigi Mangione and Donald Trump Wear the Same Disguise”
Author Archives: jaimedavid327
Luigi Mangione and the Livestream Stunt: Why I Still Don’t Trust Him
I have written about Luigi Mangione before on this blog, more than once, and every single time I come back to the same conclusion, which is that I do not trust this man, not even a little bit. This week gave me yet another reason to feel that way, because his legal team has filedContinue reading “Luigi Mangione and the Livestream Stunt: Why I Still Don’t Trust Him”
On Radical Empathy, Accountability, and Why No One Should Have the Power to Unalive Anyone
A few days ago, a claim started making the rounds online that Kim Jong Un had announced North Korea would execute anyone named in the Epstein files, presumably by firing squad, if they were handed over. It spread fast, the way these things do, shared and reshared with a kind of grim satisfaction, as ifContinue reading “On Radical Empathy, Accountability, and Why No One Should Have the Power to Unalive Anyone”
The Charlatans Are Coming, And They’ll Call Themselves Peacemakers
I have one more prediction to add to the last two, and this one might be the most important of the three, because it’s not really a prediction about the war itself, it’s a prediction about the language people are going to use to lie about their relationship to the war. Here it is. AsContinue reading “The Charlatans Are Coming, And They’ll Call Themselves Peacemakers”
The Script Is About To Flip, And Both Sides Are About To Be Wrong Again
I have another prediction, and I want to write it down now, in public, before it happens, so that when it does happen, and I think it will, there’s a record of someone calling it in advance instead of just nodding along after the fact like everyone always does. Here’s the prediction. If this trajectoryContinue reading “The Script Is About To Flip, And Both Sides Are About To Be Wrong Again”
The Wars Have Merged, And Now We Have To Choose What Happens Next
There’s a moment that happens sometimes in history where two separate fires that everyone assumed were contained finally touch, and instead of two fires you have one fire, bigger than either one alone, burning in a direction nobody fully controls. That moment happened this weekend. Ukraine struck an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea, aContinue reading “The Wars Have Merged, And Now We Have To Choose What Happens Next”
Pickaxe Mountain and the Question of What Happens When You Bomb a Bomb Factory
As of July 24, 2026, the United States finds itself once again on the edge of a decision that could reshape the Middle East, and this time the target has a name that sounds almost cartoonish for something so serious. Pickaxe Mountain. It is the informal nickname given to a fortified underground facility that IranContinue reading “Pickaxe Mountain and the Question of What Happens When You Bomb a Bomb Factory”
Selective Outrage: Mamdani’s Loud Netanyahu Campaign and His Very Quiet Maduro Silence
There’s a pattern emerging with Zohran Mamdani that’s hard to ignore once you actually line the two situations up side by side, and it has nothing to do with legal nuance or jurisdictional technicalities, even though those things are real and do matter. It has to do with volume. Right now, this week, Mamdani isContinue reading “Selective Outrage: Mamdani’s Loud Netanyahu Campaign and His Very Quiet Maduro Silence”
The Prophecy Fulfilled: How Mamdani’s Netanyahu Dance Played Out Exactly as Predicted
I said it back when this whole saga first flared up, when Zohran Mamdani was still riding the momentum of his mayoral campaign and delighting his base with the kind of righteous, uncompromising language that wins primaries but rarely survives contact with the actual machinery of governance, that he would eventually find a way toContinue reading “The Prophecy Fulfilled: How Mamdani’s Netanyahu Dance Played Out Exactly as Predicted”
WTF Is Actually Going On With The Iran War (July 2026 Update)
Alright, I said I’d come back to this, and here I am, because the situation somehow got worse instead of better, and I think a lot of people have quietly stopped paying attention even though this thing is still very much happening. So let’s just walk through where we actually are right now, as ofContinue reading “WTF Is Actually Going On With The Iran War (July 2026 Update)”