Month: July 2019

The Audio App That’s Transforming Erotica

Not long ago, my co-worker Josh Rothman and I each listened to several hours of audio erotica—a broad swath of podcasts and such—as research for a proposed story about “sexy self-care.” Erotic podcasts, like many genres of podcast, have been booming in recent years, and, in theory, it was a fun story idea. Josh likes…

By JohnValbyNation July 22, 2019 0

Conservative Nationalism Is Trumpism for Intellectuals

On the final night of this past week’s National Conservatism Conference, Senator Josh Hawley—a graduate of Stanford and Yale and a former instructor at an English private school—warned the attendees gathered in the ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton in downtown Washington, D.C., about the threat of élite cosmopolitanism. “The politics of those left and right have…

By JohnValbyNation July 22, 2019 0

Between the Moon and Woodstock

Anyone old enough to remember the moon landing, fifty years ago today, is also old enough to remember what was said about the moon landing while it was happening. At the time—the very height of the Vietnam War, when the establishment that had sent up the rocket faced a kind of daily full-court-press rebellion, from…

By JohnValbyNation July 21, 2019 0

Why Mark Sanford Might Challenge Donald Trump

In 2009, Mark Sanford, a South Carolina Republican, was probably the best-known governor in America. Sanford, who served in the House of Representatives before winning the governorship, was in his second term when his staff couldn’t reach him or determine his whereabouts for several days. Sanford had said that he would be hiking the Appalachian…

By JohnValbyNation July 21, 2019 0

There Is Nothing Strategic About Trump’s Racism

White House reporters have been looking into the circumstances surrounding Donald Trump’s hateful tweetstorm from last weekend, which targeted four Democratic congresswomen, and their findings are clear: “This wasn’t a planned strike, according to one person familiar with the matter,” the Wall Street Journal’s Michael C. Bender reported. “The President posted his message a few…

By JohnValbyNation July 21, 2019 0

Trump Denies Being at North Carolina Rally

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Donald J. Trump attempted to further distance himself from a racist chant shouted at a North Carolina campaign rally earlier this week by denying that he had attended the rally. “I wasn’t there,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday. “If I had been there, you can be sure I…

By JohnValbyNation July 20, 2019 0

The Pelosi-Versus-Squad Paradigm

After President Trump said that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her allies in the House, all women of color, should “go back” to where they came from, the conflict between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Ocasio-Cortez’s “Squad” was suspended. But the underlying rift between the progressive insurgents and the establishment of the Democratic Party remains, on issues…

By JohnValbyNation July 19, 2019 0