Wednesday, February 04, 2026 |
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As a Pennsylvania native, I'm getting a little tired of governor Josh Shapiro's ambition. I watched his interview with Stephen Colbert the other day. There were some great soundbites. But I came away from it thinking, Okay, this guy really, really wants to be president. And he seems a little too willing to concede to Republicans to get there, as evidenced by a recent appearance on Fox News. In an article published earlier today, Esquire political columnist Charles P. Pierce cuts to the bone about the top Democratic presidential candidates. In order to undo the atrocities committed by the second Trump administration, Pierce believes that, "Any Democratic politician who is not prepared to be merciless is unworthy of support." Read his thoughts on what Shapiro and other top Dems need to do, below. – Chris Hatler, deputy editor |
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Unfortunately, rumored contenders like Josh Shapiro seem more concerned with their careers than the soul of America. |
It appears that there is a serious divide developing within the Democratic party at its upper levels. (And, as Toby Ziegler once put it, the oddsmakers take another beating.) At issue, believe it or not, is the ongoing pogrom being carried out by the administration in Minneapolis and elsewhere. The pols closest to the action—chiefs of police, mayors, some governors—seem better able to articulate the popular (and entirely justified) anger at the obvious authoritarianism unleashed on the streets. However, the people with aspirations for the presidency seem to be taking a, well, nuanced view of the whole thing. Which is what made recent remarks from Kentucky governor Andy Beshear so troubling. Beshear, who intrigues me as a national candidate more than does Shapiro, gave an interview to Jonathan Martin at Politico. A lot of it was standard I'm-running-before-I'm-running talk. But then Martin asked him about repairing the damage done since 2017. Beshear proceeded to dive into a vat of oatmeal. Assuming it even happens, the process of recovery is not going to be discreet. It's not going to be painless or easy. It is going to be loud and necessarily bloody. Arms will need to be twisted. Careers will need to be ended. Indictments ought to fly, thick and fast. The republic is going to need radical surgery because the malignancy is everywhere. That is the reality of the next several elections. Any Democratic politician who is not prepared to be merciless is unworthy of support. |
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February is always an interesting time in the retail world. Spring styles start to hit shelves, but you still need cold-weather gear to make it through the six weeks of winter Punxsutawney Phil said we have left. Luckily, with Presidents' Day approaching, retailers are already dropping some of the most impressive sales you'll find during the first half of the year. And, per usual, Amazon's slate of deals is perhaps the best we've found yet. Right now you can save up to 50 percent on everything from fashion-forward sneakers to the latest Apple tech, editor-approved home finds, and fitness essentials. Here are some of our favorites. |
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Some actors are born to play their parts. For Haley Lu Richardson, it's practically fate that she's become Twila, the vivacious working-class widow turned undercover spy in the comedy thriller Ponies on Peacock. "I have never felt so much like I was in the right place at the right time, doing exactly what I was supposed to do more," she tells me. Before Ponies, Richardson was known for portraying youths in revolt. She made her film debut at 17 in the camp-disaster flick Christmas Twister. She then played a pregnant coed in the 2014 rom-com The Young Kieslowski, the "best friend" in the 2016 teen comedy The Edge of Seventeen, an aimless architect obsessive in the acclaimed 2017 drama Columbus—which marked her first collaboration with director Kogonada—and a teen cystic-fibrosis patient in the 2019 sob fest Five Feet Apart. For the 2018 indie hit Support the Girls, Richardson donned Daisy Dukes to play a bubbly waitress at a roadside breastaurant. Richardson isn't a stranger to TV—she played Portia in season 2 of HBO's The White Lotus—but Ponies gave the star her biggest canvas yet. "I've never spent so much time with a character," she says. "I got to know Twila more than I've ever gotten to know a character. Honestly, if I'd ever been sent a spy thriller that didn't have these women's friendships and growth at the core, I wouldn't have done it. I wouldn't have been so inspired, connected, and excited about actually doing it." |
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 Tuesday, February 03, 2026 |
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For the unimaginable violence he has overseen in Minneapolis, Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino will live in infamy. Though he's now sidelined, the aftermath of his time leading immigration enforcement in the city continues to play out in courts, in homes, and in the streets, as people continue to protest. You can't help but wonder: How did he get this way? While reading The New York Times interview with Bovino from November, Anthony Breznican noticed a telling detail: Bovino admitted that a Jack Nicholson movie inspired him to pursue his chosen career. Below, Breznican will tell you exactly why—surprise, surprise—Bovino completely misunderstood the film.
– Brady Langmann, senior entertainment editor |
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The disgraced commander says 1982's The Border led him to pursue a career in border patrol. Like so many other things in his now-infamous career, he got it all wrong. |
He has now been dismissed in disgrace, but history will not soon forget Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino. The world will be haunted by images of him striding smugly through the snowy streets of Minneapolis and the crowded corridors of a Target department store as immigration officers ran roughshod over the city in reckless pursuit of the undocumented, killing two protesters and terrorizing the nation at large.
But who was this bizarre, malignant figure? His own interviews and comments from family members say his origin story involves, of all things … a movie. |
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- All the high-tech secrets hiding inside your sunglasses. From filters and coatings to tints and dyes, Tim Newcomb reveals how brands are continuously innovating your eyewear. >>
The DOJ is about to embark on Trump's vengeance safari. Pam Bondi has said that the "Weaponization Working Group" is going to meet every day to investigate, well, the people who previously investigated the president. Charles P. Pierce weighs in. >>
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This story was assigned to me as winter boot trends for 2026. I'm not really going to do that. Why? Because winter boots are, by definition, off trend. They're supremely functional. Sorel Caribous, L.L. Bean boots, and Blundstones are the best winter boots now, and they'll be the best tomorrow.
What I'm doing here is giving you fashion options. What boots should a man, a man who takes some amount of pride in how he looks, own? And sorry to be one-note, but I'm also going to tell you to avoid the "trends" here.
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The final Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, sounded like a bummer. The ghost of the festival's late founder, Robert Redford, loomed over every film premiere, and the story I heard from festivalgoers who attended in person was that it felt like the last Sundance ever. It isn't! The annual film festival will return next year in Boulder, Colorado. But for an event that usually showcases fiery new filmmakers to kick off the beginning of another year in film, Sundance 2026 was mostly a somber affair.
The slate of films this year is partially to blame. Sundance's best offerings and award winners—Josephine, Shame and Money, and American Doctor—featured heavy stories about seeking justice for rape victims, the struggles of displaced families, and the doctors on the front lines of the conflict in Gaza, respectively. Important viewing, no doubt, but difficult to sit through. They're not exactly the kinds of projects Hollywood is looking for to fill theaters this year, even if they say a lot about the state of independent filmmaking in 2026. |
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