Sarah Jeong

Features Editor

The year politics became brainrot

Political violence has become illegible, and increasingly, politics and language have too.

Sarah JeongDec 31, 2025

Sarah JeongDec 3, 2025

A “snatch van” from the Portland van abductions.

While browsing government auction websites, someone spotted a Dodge Grand Caravan that matched one used in 2020 to grab protesters off the streets. They successfully crowdfunded to purchase it. The new owner intends to use it for mutual aid activities.

“I would like to just take the night off from having festivities of my own and, like, change my Signal username to ‘Call-a-Cab’ and just be the designated driver and drive everyone home.” Or maybe “Call ACAB,” Riley added.

You can read more about what happened in 2020 in The Portland Van Abductions. The Verge published the feature three years ago, but the parallels to 2025 are uncanny.

This van was snatching protesters. Now it hands out zines.

[Left Coast Right Watch]

$Influencers have fractured reality in Portland$

Influencers have fractured reality in Portland

As the Oregon National Guard lawsuit proceeds, it’s become clear that right-wing content creators have a direct line to the federal government and are shaping national policy itself.

Sarah JeongNov 4, 2025

Remembering Dick Cheney.

The late vice president was a fierce champion of the Patriot Act and a powerful proponent of mass surveillance. In his obituary for Cheney, Spencer Ackerman recounts the many achievements of George W. Bush’s VP, including a legal justification for NSA bulk collection, which “established a warrantless digital dragnet of phone and internet metadata generated by the communications of practically every American.”

Bulk collection of telephone call metadata ended in 2015, but Cheney’s work ushered in an era of government surveillance, an unforgettable legacy that continues to define the present.

His Works Completed, Dick Cheney, Mass Murderer of Iraqis and American Democracy, Dies

[The Nation]

How Silicon Valley enshittified the internet

Enshittification author Cory Doctorow on why things get worse, and how to fight back.

Sarah JeongOct 30, 2025

Sarah JeongOct 23, 2025

Sue or sue not.

Sam O’Hara protested the deployment of the National Guard into DC by following soldiers around playing the Star Wars Imperial March on a bluetooth speaker, posting the videos he recorded of himself to TikTok. One guardsman was not amused and called the cops on O’Hara, who was handcuffed and (briefly) detained; the ACLU of DC is now suing.

The lawsuit opens with this sentence:

In the Star Wars franchise, The Imperial March is the music that plays when Darth Vader or other dark forces enter a scene or succeed in their dastardly plans.

You can read the rest below.

Complaint: O'Hara v. Beck

[ACLU-DC]

Sarah JeongOct 22, 2025

Lululemon secures a trademark registration for “Lululemon Dupe.”

Since a dupe is an unaffiliated similar product (or even unauthorized copy), this registration — first reported by The Fashion Law — is a real doozy. Is this a legal innovation in shutting down dupes of Lululemon’s products, or is it a recursive marketing stunt?

It’s a great time to reread Mia Sato on the wild world of dupes and the increasingly tangled intellectual property regime around them.