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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