This Week and Next: Three Shots to the Face

The execution of Renee Goode marks the moment America crossed into authoritarianism. Between Kushner's shadow empire and Trump's dictator cosplay, we won't make it to the midterms…

Pay attention now, because we’re running out of time to ask the question that matters: How much damage can a democracy sustain before the word itself becomes merely decorative? Before the mechanics of self-governance are so thoroughly corrupted that repair becomes a fantasy we tell ourselves to sleep better at night? We’re not approaching that threshold. We’ve crossed it. And the truly terrifying part is how many people are still acting as though this is all somehow reversible, somehow normal, somehow survivable in any form we’d recognize.

Narco-terrorists, they said. Dangerous fishing vessels threatening American sovereignty. The narrative evaporated within days, revealing the skeletal truth underneath: the operation had been planned for months, executed without the congressional approval mandated by the War Powers Act, that increasingly quaint relic of constitutional governance. And of course - of course - it was about the oil. It’s always about the oil. The pattern is so established…