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    The Katie Miller Podcast: an aggressively vibeless curriculum for the Maga mom

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    The wife of the Trump adviser aims to entice conservative women into Maga – but like much of the rest of the movement, her sales pitch is fundamentally lackingWhen Katie Miller, the wife of Donald Trump’s powerful adviser Stephen Miller, interviewed Pete Hegseth on her podcast last week, she didn’t ask him about whether the war secretary had ordered the US military to kill the shipwrecked survivors of an airstrike. She didn’t ask him about the settlement he paid a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her. Nor did she ask about allegations of alcohol abuse, or the accusation that he had made his ex-wife so terrified that she hid in a closet.Instead, when Hegseth and his wife, Jennifer Rauchet, appeared on the Katie Miller Podcast, the titular host asked questions like: “If you could write one Hegseth family rule on that whiteboard, what is that?” Continue reading… More

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      The Trump administration keeps picking fights with pop stars. It’s a no-win situation | Adrian Horton

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      By using music from SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo in ICE videos, the government is playing a game of rage-baitLast week, as the Trump administration was engulfed in controversy over its illegal military strikes near Venezuela (among numerous other crises), a Department of Homeland Security employee – I picture the worst sniveling, self-satisfied, hateful loser – got to work on the official X account. The state-employed memelord posted a video depicting Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) officials arresting people in what appeared to be Chicago, celebrating the humiliation and incarceration of undocumented immigrants as some sort of patriotic achievement. The vile video borrowed, as they often do, from mainstream pop culture; in this case, a viral lyric from Sabrina Carpenter’s song Juno – “Have you ever tried this one?”, referring to sex positions – overlaid on clips of agents chasing, tackling and handcuffing people, cheekily nodding to all the methods in ICE’s terror toolbox.Carpenter, as a pre-eminent pop star, was caught in an impossible position. Say nothing, as her friend and collaborator Taylor Swift did weeks earlier when the White House used her music in a Trump hype video, and risk appearing as if you condone the administration’s use of your art for a domestic terror campaign (the administration hasn’t yet used Swift for an ICE video, but I’m sure it’s coming); or engage, even if to honestly express your utter disgust, and risk bringing more attention to objectionable propaganda designed to provoke a response. Continue reading… More

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      in World Politics

      Why the Indian Diaspora Must Find Its Civic Voice

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      The Indian diaspora has built remarkable success stories. It leads universities, global corporations and technology frontiers. Yet when it comes to public life, it often stays quiet, not from indifference, but from a familiar caution that weighs on every word. That silence may seem harmless, even rational in a polarized environment, but in truth, it… Continue reading Why the Indian Diaspora Must Find Its Civic Voice
      The post Why the Indian Diaspora Must Find Its Civic Voice appeared first on Fair Observer. More

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      in World Politics

      In the Marketplace for Saints, the Pickings are Slim

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      This Devil’s Advocate is worried. My professional activity requires the emergence of recognizable personalities who exhibit saintly behavior. Like a recruiter in a modern enterprise, my job is to weed out the weak candidates, note the flaws in their CV, and thereby permit the truly performing ones to become identified and vetted. The trend in… Continue reading In the Marketplace for Saints, the Pickings are Slim
      The post In the Marketplace for Saints, the Pickings are Slim appeared first on Fair Observer. More