The Covington Catholic MAGA Teens Are a Symptom of a National Ailment

The world is getting meaner. The teens on the National Mall are symptoms of a larger ailment. If you have trouble reading this message, [view it in a browser](. [I Saw the Smirk With My Eyes, But Felt It in My Gut]( I have stared into that Magic Eye picture from last weekend. I have tried to relax my eye muscles just enough for the silently prayerful, tension-diffusing committed Catholic boy to emerge. He hasn’t. Instead, the smirk of privilege, framed by MAGA hats and mocking laughter, is all that’s there, despite what the kid in the picture—via the public relations firm his family had the means to retain—says. It is unmistakable, which is why the image was shared as widely as it was. It would not have gone viral if it didn’t resonate, if we hadn’t seen this particular strain of American smirk as long as we’ve had photography.[Read More]( [The Iconic Sneakers That Started a Movement]( Tracing the birth and evolution of modern sneaker culture is enough to fill a book (literally), but here's one place to start: the Nike Air Force 1. Originally released in high-top form in 1982—the low followed a year later—the shoe was almost discontinued in 1984. But enthusiastic fan support, plus a bevy of colorways pushed by local retailers in Baltimore, Maryland, helped save it from the discard pile. And while other models from the era certainly hold a hell of a lot of sway in the sneaker world (ahem, the Air Jordan 1), the AF1 not only predated them but also introduced, early on, an artistically iterative model that's become a staple of the culture.[Read More]( [The Artful Dealmaker Has No Leverage and Sinking Support. But He Does Have a New Slogan.]( He was always going to tweet through it. Donald Trump, American president, has worked himself into a corner, courtesy of some Artful Dealmaking in pursuit of his Big, Beautiful Middle Finger From White America Monument. But he has devised a new strategy this Wednesday morning, following the methods of Sun Tzu: Appear strong when you are weak, and think out loud on the Tweet Machine. Yes, we were treated to a miniature textual version of Trump's rally riffs, where he tries out the applause lines to see what gets the Red Hats whooping and hollering. The result was not a glowing advertisement for the notion the president's brain is firing on all cylinders.[Read More]( [Billy McFarland's Fyre Fraud Outfit Was (Almost) As Disastrous as Fyre Fest Itself]( ) Last week, Netflix and Hulu dropped something truly beautiful into this world: a pair of Fyre Festival documentaries examining, in exquisite detail, just how off the rails things went for the doomed Bahamian fantasy weekend. But that's not why we're here today. We're here today to talk about how much Billy McFarland's outfit sucks.[Read More]( ) [Comic Book Movies Were Long Considered Inferior Art. Black Panther's Best Picture Nomination Changes Everything.]( ) It's a surreal time to be a comic book fan. The single issues we flicked through in quarter bins in the back of our favorite comic shops have become the source material for the most profitable movies on the planet. In just a decade, superhero films have become a dominant force in the cultural conversation, with phenomenal critical and financial success, yet the highest honors from Hollywood have alluded these films. On Tuesday, Ryan Coogler's blockbuster masterpiece Black Panther changed all of that.[Read More]( ) ['That's Some Slave Sh*t': In a Rare Political Moment, Offset Talks Government Shutdown]( On the 31st day of the longest government shutdown in American history—and also Martin Luther King, Jr. Day—Offset sat in a dimly lit room in Midtown Manhattan grappling with the country's state of distress. He had shown up at Esquire's studio for a chat about his upcoming album—a profile that will be released in full in the coming weeks. During the conversation, his mind turned to the grim reality for the thousands of furloughed Americans who are left to provide for their families without resources.[Read More]( [Read More on Esquire.com]( Follow Us [Unsubscribe]( [Privacy Notice]( esquire.com ©2019 Hearst Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Email Privacy, 300 W 57th St., Fl. 19 (sta 1-1), New York, NY 10019