Spin - The Art of the Prank

March 2, 2026March 2, 2026

The US Department of Hate

George Orwell was right…

“The US Department of Hate” by Coco Fusco, Noah Fischer, Pablo Helguera, Hyperallergic, February 20, 2026.

The Siren is back for a fourth edition. Read, ponder, and rise up before it’s too late.

The editors of The Siren have been thinking about the parallels between our current political moment and the dystopian world of George Orwell’s novel 1984 for quite a while, but the escalating efforts by the Trump Administration to wage war against immigrants and silence critics compelled us to devote our latest issue to highlighting those connections. After witnessing the killing, torture, and forced expulsion of immigrants by federal agents, as well as the execution of US citizens and the criminalization of activists, we have no choice but to conclude that Orwell’s “Hate Week” has arrived.

We’ve done our best to bring the perspectives of those who are under attack, and who have survived totalitarian regimes, to the foreground. Writers Junot Diaz, Enrique Del Risco, and Pamela Sneed shed light on the ways that authoritarianism is taking over our world. Political cartoonists hailing from Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, the Philippines, and the Americas offer their perspectives on the impact of tyrannical forces in our lives. Read the whole article here.

September 19, 2025September 19, 2025

Investigating the Investigators of the Watergate Scandal

Uncovering the truth sometimes takes a while…

“Woodward and Bernstein didn’t bring down Nixon – but the myth that they did lives on,” by The Conversation, (on AlterNet), September 16, 2025.

In their dogged reporting of the Watergate scandal, Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncovered the crimes that forced Richard Nixon to resign the presidency in August 1974.

That version of Watergate has long dominated popular understanding of the scandal, which unfolded over 26 months beginning in June 1972.

It is, however, a simplistic trope that not even Watergate-era principals at the Post embraced.

Read the whole article here.

September 19, 2025September 19, 2025

Consumerism Posing as a Solution

An anti-road rage solution? Or another variation of angry birds? Promoting a concept that exploits road rage but probably adds to the problem.

“Car company creates hilarious tool to channel drivers’ anger — and avoid dangerous road rage incidents,” by Brooke Steinberg, New York Post, August 21, 2025.

A car company in China has a cartoonish approach to curing road rage.

XPeng has unveiled a quirky new feature designed to subdue angry drivers — though it may also prove to be a distraction.

Suppose you’ve ever thrown a digital banana peel at an opponent in Mario Kart. In that case, you might know the satisfaction that throwing something like a digital shoe or an angry face would illicit.

Read the whole article here.

August 20, 2025

Breaking News: The Solomon Project finds Elon Musk GUILTY

Here comes the judge… Again!

Elon Musk declares his AI, Grok, will be the new judge and jury once it has devoured all judicial case law. Says Musk on X, “With Grok 3, we are adding all court cases to the training set. It will render extremely compelling legal verdicts.”

Solomon says, “Wait a minute, Joey Skaggs created me 30 years ago as a distributed program running on a set of super computers that would deliberate on the facts and evidence of a case and deliver a definitive verdict.”

Appropriation isn’t appreciation, it’s exploitation. Give credit where credit is due. https://joeyskaggs.com/works/solomon-project/

Here’s an excerpt from “Joey Skaggs: The Solomon Project” oral history film:
Click here to play

Solomon asks, “What other creative concepts has Elon pilfered?”

August 20, 2025August 20, 2025

Is it a Bird, Is it a Plane, No! It’s Gavin Newsom to the Rescue

Maggie Reed, @mermaidmamamags, asks: Are We Doing This Right MAGA? And Adam Wren of Politico, ‘splains how Gavin Newsom is the new Trump troll.

Click this link to play the video:

“How Gavin Newsom trolled his way to the top of social media,” by Adam Wren, Politico, August 20, 2025.

With an inescapable, smashmouth, all-caps-laden and meme-filled X account, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is holding a mirror up to MAGA — and MAGA doesn’t like what it sees.

There’s Newsom on Mount Rushmore. There’s Newsom getting prayed over by Tucker Carlson, Kid Rock and an angelic, winged Hulk Hogan. There’s Newsom posting in all caps, saying his mid-cycle redistricting proposal has led “MANY” people to call him “GAVIN CHRISTOPHER ‘COLUMBUS’ NEWSOM (BECAUSE OF THE MAPS!). THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.”

If this genre of social media post provokes deja vu, there’s a good reason for that.

Read the whole article here.