Six hours under martial law in Seoul by Sarah Jeong

When Yoon Suk Yeol, the president of South Korea, made the blundering decision to impose martial law earlier this week, Sarah Jeong, an editor with The Verge, happened to be in nation’s capital. When she couldn’t find an available freelancer to cover the story, Jeong took to the streets herself, despite having spent the evening enjoying the city’s active bar drinking culture. I saw many of her moment-by-moment recaps on Bluesky, and they were uniquely attuned to the absurdity of existing in that situation in a presumably free nation. This article features more fleshed out reporting from the scene, but the joint tone of wobbly unreality and clear-eyed assessment is the same. The piece is published by, of course, The Verge.

Inside the Supreme Court Ethics Debate: Who Judges the Justices? by Jodi Kantor and Abbie VanSickle

One might think that the officials directing a major institution buffeted by as much scandal as the Supreme Court of the United States might have developed some humility. Not the right-wing zealots in the highest platform of jurisprudence in the land, no siree. Jodi Kantor and Abbie VanSickle share the byline on this New York Times piece that goes behind the scenes of the high court’s recent, laughably feeble attempt to pretend they’ve imposed proper ethical standards. The most transparently corrupt of the justices are also the ones who are most imperious in their rejection of any reasonable code of conduct.

Trump’s Fans Are Suffering From Tony Soprano Syndrome by Adam Serwer

This article by Adam Serwer reminded me of New Yorker writer Emily Nussbaum’s observation while writing about the last few episodes of Breaking Bad that many of the the show’s most fervent fans were simply watching it wrong. This isn’t a matter of art inspiring different interpretations. When the dimwits in the incoming U.S. president’s circle of devoted miscreants hold up Judge Dredd, the fascistic law enforcement officer from British 2000 AD comics, as an ideal to strive for, they are demonstrating a fundamental misunderstanding of the work in question. That we are allowing men so culturally illiterate to set the direction of the nation is a travesty. This piece is published by The Atlantic.