All of the random stuff swirling around in Rex's brain
Greetings, newsletter readers. It’s your Monday pilot Rex Huppke here to assure you America remains largely bonkers and generally overrun with news.
Let’s start with what matters: dragons. If you sunk your eye-teeth into the Sunday night premiere of HBO’s “House of the Dragon” — the first spinoff of the “Game of Thrones” series — you’ll know dragons are both bountiful and, as I and my colleague Austin Bogues discussed in this column, AWESOME.
In the real world, twice-impeached former President Donald Trump continues to wrestle with an FBI search of his home in Mar-a-Lago that uncovered boxes of top-secret government documents. Trump is throwing excuses at the wall like spaghetti, desperate for something to stick. On Monday, he filed a lawsuit seeking to halt investigators’ review of the classified documents, noting in the suit that he is “the leading voice in the Republican party.” Mmm-hmmm. You’ll be hearing more from me in the days ahead about that hot mess.
In other not-good news, we have Republican-led states attempting to ban books from school libraries, including, in Texas, a graphic-novel version of Anne Frank’s diary. Thus my earlier use of the word “bonkers".
Maybe America’s new motto should be: “Pardon us. We’re going through some things.”
As you buckle up for what lies ahead this week, check out some of the work my colleagues and I have done lately in trying to keep up with the madness.
What else has Rex been writing?
►Can we trust 'House of the Dragon' after that last season of 'Game of Thrones'?
►As Texas targets 'inappropriate' books, I say keep going: My list of what to ban next
►With Biden signing the Inflation Reduction Act on Tuesday, it’s a new day for Democrats. Dark Brandon is unleashed. This is his origin story.
Ideological mobs have us running scared. Time to stand up for ourselves.
By Scott Jennings
The woman who feels compelled to proclaim the usefulness of masks, despite her misgivings (and a significant amount of research). The congressman whose voters expect him to repeat things out loud he doesn’t believe to prove himself. The parent who wants to be more involved in a school but fears the social backlash of taking on the public education cabal.
A new study of American opinions – public and private – paints a dark picture of our daily lives that leaves me worried about where we're headed. Read more...
A few columns to catch up on
►'Forgiving' student loans isn't motivated by kindness. It's cold, hard politics.
►'What I learned from my father,' the first Black secretary of the Army
►Really Florida? A 16-year-old is mature enough to have a baby but not an abortion?
Real quick, sign up to get our alerts
Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the Paste BN app. Don't have the app? It's free and available in your app store.
Once you have the app, go to the settings and add "Commentary & Analysis" to make sure you don't miss out.