Politics

In 2006, freelance journalist Josh Wolf spent 226 days in a federal prison. His crime? Refusing to turn over unpublished video footage and the names of confidential sources to a grand jury. Wolf believed in something larger than himself: the right of a free press to protect its sources. He didn’t take the Fifth. He took the heat. Now fast forward to 2025. President Biden’s longtime personal physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, was reportedly subpoenaed by Congress to answer questions about the president’s health and whether he’d ever been pressured to misrepresent it. Instead of testifying, or refusing on grounds of medical ethics, O’Connor invoked the Fifth Amendment. That’s not courage. That’s self-preservation wrapped in white-coat privilege.

When a Supreme Court justice warns that the decisions of her colleagues pose an “existential threat to the rule of law,” it’s not just a legal disagreement – it’s a performance. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s recent dissents, particularly in Trump v. Casa, show a troubling shift in the role of a justice. Instead of offering careful counterpoints rooted in constitutional reasoning, she delivers ideological monologues that sound tailor-made for MSNBC clips and Essence Fest applause lines. This isn’t a critique of dissent itself. Dissent is vital to the integrity of the Court. The late Antonin Scalia built an entire legacy on it – scorching in tone, yes, but always grounded in jurisprudence.

Kash Patel and Dan Bongino have this week found out the painful way that running the Federal Bureau of Investigation is a lot harder than podcasting. Having spent years on endless shows suggesting that the "Epstein Files" could reveal the Deep State’s darkest secrets, the now Director and Deputy Director of the FBI find themselves insisting that, contrary to what they may have said, Jeffrey Epstein did, in fact, kill himself; that he did not have a list of blackmailable clients; and that he sexually abused more than 1,000 girls pretty much all by himself.Nobody believes that, of course, and Donald Trump’s angry reaction on Tuesday to a reporter who dared to ask about the most famous sex offender of all time, has done nothing to put the conspiracy theories to rest.

Before Superman has to fight with kaiju, robots, metahumans and whatever other nonsense Lex Luthor throws at him, he first has to take on his greatest enemy of all – conservative media pundits. The director of the new Superman movie, James Gunn, said in a Sunday Times of London interview that “Superman is the story of America. An immigrant that came from other places and populated the country.” He also said that the movie is about how “basic human kindness is a value and is something we have lost.” To the right, this was tantamount to playing politics with God. Sports writer and pundit Clay Travis, the founder of Outkick, tweeted, “I’m going to skip seeing Superman now. Director is an absolute moron to say this publicly the week before release.

The death of the financier and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein at Manhattan’s notorious Metropolitan Correction Center has been ruled to be a suicide, and one that took place entirely by Epstein’s own hand, without any external interference. At least, that’s the story according to the Department of Justice and the FBI, who have also announced for good measure that the so-called Epstein Files, which supposedly contained the details of his high-profile clients, do not exist. After the disappointment of the decidedly low-profile release of the JFK-assassination files earlier this year, this is a second blow for conspiracy theorists who have been assured by the government that there is definitely, 100 percent nothing to see here. Will this be enough for them?

Elon Musk has set up a third party and pledged to contest next year’s midterms. But to find a third party that has performed well in a midterm election, we must journey far into the annals of American history. Minnesota and Wisconsin-based parties managed a handful of House representatives and a senator or two in 1934, but these were states-first campaigns that were anchored in a geographical power-base – something Musk does not have. We can discount the movements linked to Ross Perot in the 1990s and George Wallace in 1968, who both ran for president but did not have a viable wider party slate at their own elections or ensuing midterms.