Let’s face it, our democracy is a joke. It’s not even a good one. It’s the kind of joke a sleaze bag tells at a dive bar, hoping to get laid.

So, what happened this time?

Like a lot of politicians, the Attorney General of Texas isn’t even trying to hide it anymore. He recently appeared on Steve Bannon’s new podcast, War Room, bragging about how he kept Texas from going blue by blocking mail-in ballots. It’s truly something to see:

We have Ron Filipkowski and Heather Cox Richardson to thank for this little wake up call. They look…

We love stories about winners.

These stories follow a pattern, in case you didn’t know.

They all focus on an exceptional person, someone who beat the odds to achieve their dreams. They grew up dirt poor, maybe in a single parent household, and went to a school filled with drugs and burned out teachers. They used their brains or their looks or their charm to work their way up from nothing, and wound up filthy rich. If the story is always the same, then so is the stupidly obvious moral lesson:

So can you!

Dudes like Jeff Bezos have practically…

I used to be a big fan of books like Angela Duckworth’s Grit and Carol Dweck’s Mindset. And of course, who can forget Stephen Covey’s classic The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People? Now they feel like antiques.

Here’s why:

Until recently, teachers like me still clung to the hope that our students could succeed out there in the big bad world, even if it was riddled with unfairness, if they could cultivate the right mindset. The paint has pealed on that hope, revealing the cold steel truth. Not only is the world getting less fair, but the super rich…

I don’t have a problem with Tim Ferriss.

Well, never mind. I do have a problem with Tim Ferriss, just like I have a problem with anyone who touts the spiritual benefits of minimalism and simplicity, while holding a net worth that floats somewhere in the tens of millions of dollars.

There’s stories floating around the internet about a waterfront mansion he own in Florida. Ferriss has said he’s never owned property there. I’ll admit, a gaudy beach estate doesn’t really suit his persona. If you dive through his Instagram, you can find photos of what his actual place looks…

“I’m a good listener,” he said. “You’ll see.”

Of course, the date was awful. All he did was talk about himself, except when he asked his own series of narrow, self-serving questions about my friend’s attitudes toward sex, trying to figure out how “open” she was.

Finally, she told him she was a virgin.

He scoffed. “Seriously? Are you religious or something?”

“Not anymore,” she said. “It’s just that — ”

“So then, what is it?”

For the rest of the night, he kept circling back around to the same topic and trying to convince her to go back to…

Even the word “teacher” puts everyone right to sleep. You probably feel drowsy right now, don’t you? If so, we can fix that…

Wake up, motherfucker!

Look at this woman in a bathtub:

My brother just tested positive for Covid.

He can’t smell or taste anything.

He feels exhausted.

He got it from work. It’s the only place he’s gone for the last year— no friends, no dating, no social life.

They wouldn’t give him time off to get vaccinated. They’ve dumped overtime on him for the last month, and they never tell him his schedule more than a couple of days in advance. He works at a car dealership, and business has been booming. That’s what they care about, more than his health and safety. Right before coming down with symptoms, he…

Nine hours of sleep didn’t help.

This time I woke up feeling something that wasn’t fatigue or anxiety. It was a strange sensation, something Americans aren’t used to.

Despair.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t exactly hop out of bed feeling ready to conquer the world anymore, not lately. All that “seize the day” noise sounds hopelessly out of touch with our circumstances. Our dreams are riddled with life. We survived the hardest year of our lives, only to realize the years ahead are going to get harder for almost everyone. So much for that nice home. So…