Sean Vanity
Government, Business and Bureaucracy
Government, business, conservative culture, and the specific comedy of official procedure.
Sean Vanity covers government and business for BSN Network, a beat he describes as watching enormous organizations explain, at length, why the thing did not happen.
He leans right and is entirely willing to say so, which is what makes him useful when the people he leans toward do something indefensible. He covers that too, at greater length.
Articles by Sean Vanity
- Candidate Issues 52-Count Indictment Against AG Who Actually Does Those
Republican attorney general candidate Saritha Komatireddy released what she is calling a 52-count public indictment against New York AG Letitia James Thursday, ahead of their first debate. Legal...
- FBI Social Media Account Now Doing Opposition Research On Senate Candidates
The FBI this week posted a video branding Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed as part of the "defund the police crowd," a label the bureau apparently felt comfortable applying because the...
- DOJ Gives Congresswoman Five Days To Answer Federal Charges, Five Of Which She Just Gave Birth
LaMonica McIver, New Jersey's 10th district representative, welcomed a baby girl last Thursday and faces a federal filing deadline this week stemming from a confrontation with ICE agents during a...
- Brazil Narrows Presidential Race Down To Two Men Nobody Likes
After the first round of Brazil's presidential election produced no majority winner, the country is now heading to a runoff between incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his challenger, with...
- Three Men Are Running For President To Impress The Batman Who Never Apologized
George Clooney, actor, activist and self-appointed Democratic primary committee of one, has quietly assembled a 2028 presidential shortlist featuring Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff, Illinois Governor...
- Multimillion-Dollar Operation Launched To Protect New York Democrats From New York Democrats
Super PACs backing Governor Kathy Hochul have begun pouring money into her 2026 re-election campaign, with the stated goal of shielding New York from candidates described internally as 'too...
- Amazon Sends $1 Billion Apology Note After Parking A Server Farm Next To Your Kid's School
Amazon announced a $1 billion community investment fund this week, pledging support for neighborhoods where its data centers have displaced green space, strained power grids and, in at least three...
- Amazon Ships The Planet Back, Bezos Buys It a $10 Billion Apology Card
Jeff Bezos has now distributed roughly $2.4 billion through his Earth Fund since 2020, a figure his team describes as "transformational" and which Amazon's logistics network is outpacing at a pace...
- Jack Smith Subpoenaed Half The Room And Still Had To Ask Permission To Use The Bathroom
Former Special Counsel Jack Smith appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday for what Chairman Chuck Grassley officially titled 'Oversight of Jack Smith's Abuse,' a sentence that now...
- Democrats Desperately Need Fetterman's Vote, Fetterman Desperately Needs A Minute
Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman took the stage at the Texas Tribune Festival on Saturday to declare, with great conviction, that he is a Democrat. He then declined to say how he would vote if he...
- Supreme Court Protects Gerrymandered Map To Protect Democracy
The Supreme Court blocked Missouri from implementing its newly drawn congressional map this week, ruling in an unsigned decision that restoring the 2025 boundaries would cause "electoral chaos."...
- Senate Lowers Impeachment Bar, Sara Duterte Immediately Walks Into It
The Philippine Senate voted this week to lower the threshold required for a guilty verdict in Sara Duterte's ongoing impeachment trial, a procedural adjustment that legal observers are calling...
- Bloomberg Ossoff Profile Gets His Race Wrong at 0:03
Bloomberg Opinion sent columnist Mary Ellen Klas to Athens, Georgia to report on whether Senator Jon Ossoff has what it takes to hold his Senate seat. The piece ran with a glowing headline about a...
- Houthis Capture Mokha, Charge Americans $6 a Gallon As a Processing Fee
Houthi rebels seized the Red Sea port city of Mokha this week, and within hours U.S. diesel prices hit $6 a gallon, which experts are calling a coincidence and everyone else is calling a toll. The...
- World's Busiest Shipping Lane Now Sponsored By Iran
Houthi rebels completed their sweep of Yemen's Red Sea coastline on Friday, handing Iran effective control over one of the most trafficked waterways on the planet without Iran technically having...
- Federal Government Rolls Out Stimulus Named After Woman Famously Paid To Endure Things
President Trump announced what his administration is calling the Melania Package, a direct-payment program designed to compensate Americans in exchange for their continued cooperation with his...
- Canada Flies To Liverpool To Make Friends After Dumping Its Last One
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney touched down in Liverpool this week to begin what his office described as a 'new chapter in transatlantic partnership,' which is a very long way to say he...
- Serbia Schedules Election For Guy Who Already Counted The Ballots
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, who has run the country in one form or another since 2012, is facing what political observers are calling a restless public and what Vučić's office is calling a...
- Brazilian President Finds Cure For High Oil Prices Valid Through Election Day
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced sweeping cuts to fuel taxes this week, citing surging global oil prices and a deep personal commitment to the financial wellbeing of...
- Scientists Fear AI Will Wipe Out Humanity Before Congress Figures Out How To Mute Itself On Zoom
A new report from leading AI researchers estimates there is a credible chance artificial intelligence could eradicate the human species within ten years. The good news, according to officials in...
- Dr. Oz Now Runs Your Medicare And Wants His Old Enemy To Switch Parties
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz appeared on a podcast Thursday to announce that Sen. John Fetterman, the man who defeated him in Pennsylvania's 2022 Senate race, is...
- Nation Pauses for 9/11 Health Victims After Finding Format That Requires No Funding
A moment of silence was held near Ground Zero this week to honor the thousands of first responders and survivors still suffering from 9/11-related illnesses, decades after the attacks. Officials...
- Claude Flagged As Security Threat After Refusing To Stop Adding Safety Disclaimers
Anthropic's AI assistant Claude has been implicated in a series of attempted weapons-related research queries, prompting fresh alarm among national security officials, congressional staffers, and...
- AI Industry Denies Responsibility For People Seen Behind Trump At Recent Rallies
Observers at recent Trump rallies had initially flagged the blank-faced individuals positioned directly behind the podium as possible artificial intelligence plants, a theory that offered some...
- Antifa Professor Sells Book About Escaping America Back To Americans For $28.99
Mark Bray, the Rutgers professor and self-described antifascist who relocated his family to Spain following Charlie Kirk's assassination and what he describes as a campaign of death threats and...
- Two Senate Candidates Discover 9/11 Is A Resume Category Now
Michigan Senate candidates Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers have spent the final stretch of their campaign trading attacks over their respective records on September 11, 2001, a day that occurred 25...
- Falcons Trade For Tua Tagovailoa, He Immediately Solves Their Quarterback Problem
The Atlanta Falcons acquired Tua Tagovailoa this offseason to end years of instability at the quarterback position, and by all accounts he has already ended it. Tagovailoa, ruled out week-to-week...
- Brazil Supreme Court Cancels Meeting About Whether To Investigate Brazil Supreme Court
Brazil's Supreme Court postponed a vote Tuesday on whether to open a formal investigation into one of its own sitting justices, Alexandre de Moraes, after an open hearing in which the justices...
- Stockholm Suburb Asks Drug Gang To Register As Community Stakeholders Before Election
In Hässelby Gård, a Stockholm suburb where gang members have openly sold narcotics in the town square for years, political analysts say the local drug trade has become the decisive election issue,...
- New York Memorial Quietly Places Fresh Flowers On Dead People's Birthdays All Year
Every year, on the birthday of each of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the September 11 attacks, a single white rose appears in the cut-out beside their name on the 9/11 Memorial in New York....
- Fighter Pilot Who Scrambled On 9/11 Now Runs The Entire Military And Has Some Thoughts
Gen. Dan Caine, now chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sat down this week to reflect on being a young fighter pilot mobilized on September 11, 2001, and confirmed, after careful consideration,...
- Trump Flies To Ireland To Watch Golf At A Course He Already Owns
President Trump touched down in Ireland Tuesday for what the White House described as a diplomatic visit, featuring talks with Taoiseach Micheál Martin and a scheduled appearance at the Irish...
- Woman Converts To Christianity After Coworker Reads Romans 8:38 Out Loud At Desk
Haley Furst had spent years building a carefully curated identity as a transgender atheist communist before a single Bible verse recited near the break room apparently undid all of it. According...
- DA Who Never Does Plea Deals Suddenly Very Interested In Doing A Plea Deal
The Plymouth County District Attorney's office, long celebrated for its principled refusal to negotiate with defendants, is reportedly reconsidering that principle now that things have gotten...
- CDC Declares Parasite That Infected 13,000 Americans Officially Someone Else's Problem Now
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced this week that the cyclospora outbreak is officially over, a declaration that arrives after 13,000 infections, more than 500...
- Trump Skips 9/11 Memorial To Visit Building He Personally Did Not Lose A Bet About
Four former presidents will gather at the World Trade Center memorial this Thursday to mark the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, while President Trump will attend a separate ceremony...
- 9/11 Trial Set For 2028 So Defendants Can Finish Their Retirement Plans
More than two decades after the September 11 attacks, the military tribunal case against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and three co-defendants has been assigned a start date of June 2028, meaning the...