Jason Colavito
@jasoncolavito.bsky.social
Author, researcher. Pop culture, science, & history. Bylines in Esquire, The New Republic, CNN, Slate, etc. My new book, "Jimmy," about James Dean out now!
For all the horrors of Victorian imperialism, they did at least make a great show of legalisms, treating indigenous authorities as partners, etc. They didn't mean any of it, and their actions belied their words, but they pretended better than the degraded neo-imperialists copying from action movies.
Prominent MAGA figures are making it 100% explicit that MAGA is a neo-imperialist movement that's all about pillage and plunder justified by assumed racial superiority:
January 5, 2026 at 2:18 PM
For all the horrors of Victorian imperialism, they did at least make a great show of legalisms, treating indigenous authorities as partners, etc. They didn't mean any of it, and their actions belied their words, but they pretended better than the degraded neo-imperialists copying from action movies.
The United States cannot legally "pick" the leader of another country, which has its own constitution, and the current leader was not installed by Donald Trump but by the country's Supreme Court.
WH sources say Venezuela's opposition leader committed the "ultimate sin": She accepted the Nobel Peace prize.
“If she had turned it down and said, ‘I can’t accept it because it’s Donald Trump’s,’ she’d be the president of Venezuela today,” one said.
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
“If she had turned it down and said, ‘I can’t accept it because it’s Donald Trump’s,’ she’d be the president of Venezuela today,” one said.
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
January 5, 2026 at 3:36 AM
The United States cannot legally "pick" the leader of another country, which has its own constitution, and the current leader was not installed by Donald Trump but by the country's Supreme Court.
What's better than pastry? Fish-filled pastry. From 1984: Sardine Filled Pastry Roll.
January 5, 2026 at 2:37 AM
What's better than pastry? Fish-filled pastry. From 1984: Sardine Filled Pastry Roll.
The United States was a colony and overthrew its colonial master because colonization was such a bad deal.
On X, a senior U.S. Justice Department official is promoting a post that praises colonization as “one of the greatest things that ever happened to the backwards parts of the world.”👇
January 5, 2026 at 2:32 AM
The United States was a colony and overthrew its colonial master because colonization was such a bad deal.
Since no one seems to know what the Monroe Doctrine actually was, it was the U.S. policy of preventing European colonization of the Americas and, more broadly, foreign interference in Latin American politics. Invading and colonizing Venezuela is *not* the Monroe Doctrine.
Trump: "All the way back it dated to the Monroe Doctrines. And the Monroe Doctrine is a big deal. But we've superseded it by a lot. By a real lot. They now call it the Donroe Document. I don't know. It's Monroe Doctrine. We sort of forgot about it."
January 4, 2026 at 1:43 AM
Since no one seems to know what the Monroe Doctrine actually was, it was the U.S. policy of preventing European colonization of the Americas and, more broadly, foreign interference in Latin American politics. Invading and colonizing Venezuela is *not* the Monroe Doctrine.
This lengthy WSJ article about the decline of Kraft Mac & Cheese doesn't address the elephant in the room: It just doesn't taste as good as it did decades ago. They supposedly "pumped up" the cheese last year, but it's not the same as years ago. www.wsj.com/business/ret...
How Kraft Heinz Lost Its Lock on Mac and Cheese—and American Shoppers
Buzzy upstarts and supermarket knockoffs have eaten into the market share of the leading brand. Years of cost cutting, underinvestment and corporate chaos preceded a planned company split.
www.wsj.com
January 4, 2026 at 1:05 AM
This lengthy WSJ article about the decline of Kraft Mac & Cheese doesn't address the elephant in the room: It just doesn't taste as good as it did decades ago. They supposedly "pumped up" the cheese last year, but it's not the same as years ago. www.wsj.com/business/ret...
Fish gelatin molded in the shape of a fish.
January 3, 2026 at 11:03 PM
Fish gelatin molded in the shape of a fish.
Every detail in this story is insane, as is the vast waste, but especially that Weiss is traveling to each on-location Evening News broadcast and dictating where they can do their live shots based on her fear of being assassinated during the show.
NEW from me:
Currently on tap for Tony Dokoupil on his first day as CBS Evening News anchor -- taking a private plane to Miami to so he can go jet skiing with DJ Khaled and play soccer with David Beckham.
Take that, elites!
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
Currently on tap for Tony Dokoupil on his first day as CBS Evening News anchor -- taking a private plane to Miami to so he can go jet skiing with DJ Khaled and play soccer with David Beckham.
Take that, elites!
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
Private jets and ‘Bari pitches’: Inside Weiss’ chaotic CBS Evening News reboot
EXCLUSIVE: The new CBS News editor-in-chief has chartered private flights for her armed security detail, made last-minute logistical changes and fired off ‘Bari Pitches.’ Weiss is once again accused o...
www.independent.co.uk
January 3, 2026 at 1:58 AM
Every detail in this story is insane, as is the vast waste, but especially that Weiss is traveling to each on-location Evening News broadcast and dictating where they can do their live shots based on her fear of being assassinated during the show.
Remember a few weeks ago, when Bari Weiss was all about making CBS unbiased? I guess that is talking point is “inoperative” as the Nixon folks used to say.
January 2, 2026 at 11:14 PM
Remember a few weeks ago, when Bari Weiss was all about making CBS unbiased? I guess that is talking point is “inoperative” as the Nixon folks used to say.
Over on X I expressed my displeasure with what the new CBS anchor said, but we shouldn't necessarily take the most negative possible reading. It seems like he was trying to say that the news should cover topics of interest and concern to the general public, not just elites.
This isn't about democratizing the news. It's about elevating "vibes" and "feelings" to be on par with lived experience and subject-matter expertise.
January 2, 2026 at 10:12 PM
Over on X I expressed my displeasure with what the new CBS anchor said, but we shouldn't necessarily take the most negative possible reading. It seems like he was trying to say that the news should cover topics of interest and concern to the general public, not just elites.
An innovative new use for fish: as a pocket for canned corn.
January 2, 2026 at 9:14 PM
An innovative new use for fish: as a pocket for canned corn.
I appreciate the point in this thread, but "Heated Rivalry" is intended as a romantic fantasy, not a documentary--aspirational or even inspirational, but not realistic. Reading it as a treatise on workplace relations is like reading "High Potential" as a treatise on police methodology.
my opinion on the gay hockey show (that i do not plan on watching) is best represented by this honestly
ew.com/first-out-ga...
ew.com/first-out-ga...
First out gay hockey pro thinks 'Heated Rivalry' will lead to more players staying in the closet
Brock McGillis, who in 2016 became the first professional hockey player to come out as gay, is dubious over claims that the viral romantic drama 'Heated Rivalry' will be good for the LGBTQ community.
ew.com
January 2, 2026 at 3:58 PM
I appreciate the point in this thread, but "Heated Rivalry" is intended as a romantic fantasy, not a documentary--aspirational or even inspirational, but not realistic. Reading it as a treatise on workplace relations is like reading "High Potential" as a treatise on police methodology.
How much would it have cost to hire a team of accountants and payroll managers instead?
The numbers here boggle the mind
January 2, 2026 at 12:53 PM
How much would it have cost to hire a team of accountants and payroll managers instead?
As we enter the new year, I've given my website a small refresh to mark my 25th anniversary writing online. I published my very first articles on my original Tripod website in 2001, nine years before launching my namesake site. www.jasoncolavito.com
JASON COLAVITO
Author website of Jason Colavito, covering archaeology, mythology, extraterrestrials and the connections between science and the supernatural
www.jasoncolavito.com
January 2, 2026 at 12:06 AM
As we enter the new year, I've given my website a small refresh to mark my 25th anniversary writing online. I published my very first articles on my original Tripod website in 2001, nine years before launching my namesake site. www.jasoncolavito.com
May 2026 be as "super" as a cube of Jell-O on lettuce.
December 31, 2025 at 10:27 PM
May 2026 be as "super" as a cube of Jell-O on lettuce.
I'm at the age where it feels like I just finished putting the Christmas decorations up, and it's already time to take them down. The house always looks disconcertingly bare and vacant after everything gets packed away for another year.
December 31, 2025 at 7:52 PM
I'm at the age where it feels like I just finished putting the Christmas decorations up, and it's already time to take them down. The house always looks disconcertingly bare and vacant after everything gets packed away for another year.
I'm pretty sure it's one of the most-read stories because Brooks is admitting to being a dim-bulb who failed his way to the top, not because of any high-minded philosophizing over the fate of conservatism's principles.
Trumpism has replaced conservatism’s core values with just one: the raw pursuit of power, David Brooks argued in April. He reported on how the conservative movement dies.
Spend time with one of The Atlantic’s most-read stories of 2025:
Spend time with one of The Atlantic’s most-read stories of 2025:
I Should Have Seen This Coming
When I joined the conservative movement in the 1980s, there were two types of people: those who cared earnestly about ideas, and those who wanted only to shock the left. The reactionary fringe has won.
bit.ly
December 31, 2025 at 12:37 PM
I'm pretty sure it's one of the most-read stories because Brooks is admitting to being a dim-bulb who failed his way to the top, not because of any high-minded philosophizing over the fate of conservatism's principles.
This year, 707 million books were sold in the U.S., or roughly 2 books per person. For comparison, each American buys around 7 pairs of shoes each year.
over 400 new bookstores opened in the USA in 2025, which is 100 more than opened in 2024. bookstores are thriving:
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/30/b...
Dragons, Sex and the Bible: What Drove the Book Business This Year
www.nytimes.com
December 30, 2025 at 6:35 PM
This year, 707 million books were sold in the U.S., or roughly 2 books per person. For comparison, each American buys around 7 pairs of shoes each year.
"It's time they took the spotlight," the promo copy I received for next spring's release of Mara Gold's "Ancient Myths & Legends without Men" says of women in Greek myth. I hate to break it to Gold, but this is something like the 10th feminist retelling of Greek myths in a year.
December 29, 2025 at 4:00 PM
"It's time they took the spotlight," the promo copy I received for next spring's release of Mara Gold's "Ancient Myths & Legends without Men" says of women in Greek myth. I hate to break it to Gold, but this is something like the 10th feminist retelling of Greek myths in a year.
This model kit sold in 1969 has to be one of the wildest and most tasteless toys I have ever seen.
December 29, 2025 at 2:59 AM
This model kit sold in 1969 has to be one of the wildest and most tasteless toys I have ever seen.
Not to mention that our space program that got us to the moon was led by immigrant German rocket scientists who were literal Nazis but in Miller's telling are white and therefore good.
Immigrant-hating Stephen Miller talks about Americans being "first to harness the atom." But the first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was conducted by a team led by Italian immigrant Enrico Fermi, who didn't become a U.S. citizen until a year and a half later.
December 29, 2025 at 1:06 AM
Not to mention that our space program that got us to the moon was led by immigrant German rocket scientists who were literal Nazis but in Miller's telling are white and therefore good.
If we take to its logical conclusion the notion that immigrants sap the strength of the land, then Miller should, by rights, argue that we should all get out and return the country to the Native peoples who suffered through the first dirty, diseased, extremist immigrants.
Who among us will ever forget where we were and what we were doing when we learned that undocumented migrants to the United States were taking all the atom-splitting jobs
December 28, 2025 at 7:07 PM
If we take to its logical conclusion the notion that immigrants sap the strength of the land, then Miller should, by rights, argue that we should all get out and return the country to the Native peoples who suffered through the first dirty, diseased, extremist immigrants.
I wasn't quite this excited this morning when I had to go out and shovel a foot of it.
December 27, 2025 at 3:45 PM
I wasn't quite this excited this morning when I had to go out and shovel a foot of it.
My annual year in review column is up. Take a look back at the disturbing and profoundly stupid events of 2025 in ufology, pseudoarchaeology, and the weird. www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/a-dark-...
A Dark Carnival: 2025 in Review
I am an author and researcher focusing on pop culture, science, and history . Bylines: New Republic , Esquire , Slate , etc. There's more about me in the About Jason tab.
www.jasoncolavito.com
December 27, 2025 at 3:42 PM
My annual year in review column is up. Take a look back at the disturbing and profoundly stupid events of 2025 in ufology, pseudoarchaeology, and the weird. www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/a-dark-...
The 20th century immigration laws Miller praises were designed to prevent Italians like the families of Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, from immigrating to America because southern Europe was considered an undesirable, impoverished land of insufficiently white people.
Simply incredible. Stephen Miller is so far down the ideological rabbit hole that he doesn't even realize this badly undermines his case against immigrants.
December 27, 2025 at 2:52 AM
The 20th century immigration laws Miller praises were designed to prevent Italians like the families of Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, from immigrating to America because southern Europe was considered an undesirable, impoverished land of insufficiently white people.