When lives feel hollow, dopamine comes cheap: riskier thrills, faster rewards. The state’s fix? More cops, more drones—not solutions. Peak America. Happy birthday, indeed.

When we have money to fund tax credits for powerful film studios, but no money to invest in tax credits for our keiki, the lines between fictional exploitation and the dismal reality of life start to feel blurred. Are we not, in fact, living The White Lotus?

Between President Trump’s tariff chaos, haphazard cuts to government functionality via Elon Musk’s rogue agency DOGE, and Congress advancing $5.1 trillion in tax cuts for the rich on the backs of the rest of us, it’s looking like the U.S. economy and the empire that supports it are headed for a painful, stupid end.

State lawmakers want to redevelop Aloha Stadium—predictably, for as little money as possible. The developer wants double the amount the state wants to spend in order to add all the bells and whistles to the project needed to make it profitable.

A reaction to news that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is on track to be confirmed as the Trump Administration’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, despite his utter lack of qualifications and dangerous, conspiratorial thinking around health and healthcare.