“The organizational and administrative bloat that has piled up around the semiquincentennial can be overwhelming to behold.” @hooks.bsky.social reports on the United States’ semiquincentennial celebration.

Christopher Hooks ( @hooks.bsky.social ), whose report on the United States’ 250th birthday celebration appeared in our July issue, spoke with Matthew Sherrill about “Dubya’s Texas,” the White House UFC fight, and his plans for the fourth. buff.ly/94krhKF

Every single paragraph of this 10,000 word piece is filled with stuff I wish I'd written. It's amazing. harpers.org/archive/2026...

This is the best fucking thing I’ve read all year

“The long-suppressed patriot in me started to experience a sinking sort of feeling. The main reminder I had in my own life that something was worth celebrating this year had been the American flag plastered across cans of Narragansett.” – @hooks.bsky.social

In our July issue: Christopher Hooks on America250, William T. Vollmann on a free people’s government, Ann Manov on civic centers, Meghan O’Gieblyn on willpower, Clare Bucknell on Vermeer, Rosanna Warren on John Berryman, and a story by Padgett Powell. harpers.org/archive/2026...

“The imperial capital has many beautiful buildings, and they are always kept tidy and clean. They have a quality that grates, though. The landscape is didactic, insistent. Somebody is always trying to teach you something.” — @hooks.bsky.social

For the July issue of Harper’s, I tried to work through my feelings about the United States at this particular moment by surveying the America 250/Freedom 250 industrial complex and otherwise driving around the Keystone State: harpers.org/archive/2026...

Christopher Hooks (@hooks.bsky.social) reports on the United States’ semiquincentennial festivities and searches for something worth celebrating. harpers.org/archive/2026...

Allegedly the banned-for-life list from the soon to shutter Parkview Tavern.

meet me at the Ghost of the First Piggly Wiggly in the next thirty minutes if you want an Ass Kicking

just a friendly reminder to everybody that gerrymandering does not play a role in the outcome of statewide elections

John Cornyn has been released from his waking nightmare. for Ken Paxton, poor devil, the trial continues

John Cornyn… welcome to The Resistance. www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

one thing that i think lets people like paxton and trump get away with so much is that they've had so many scandals that it really requires an attention to politics most people simply do not have anymore. when you're making an "indictment explainer" you've already lost

Just remembered this incredible chain by @hooks.bsky.social and friends.

“Paxton can make one charge that is more powerful than anything Cornyn can pin on Ken, and which may well push the attorney general over the line on May 26: John Cornyn was in office twenty years ago.” —great analysis on state of Texas Rs by @hooks.bsky.social www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

Since the headline is a bit confusing, the NYT is reporting that on the same day we hit the girl's school in Minab, we also sent a missile full of tungsten steel pellets at a girl's volleyball tournament hundreds of miles away in Lamerd. Twenty one dead. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/29/w...

Delighted to return from vacation to something I missed: a surprisingly comprehensive ranking of weird Texas political-battle music from @hooks.bsky.social www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

feels telling about American foreign policy punditry that while many decry the aimlessness of Trump’s monstrously wrong Iran war there were far more outraged columns over the harm done to US power and influence and standing and interests and example when Biden rightly withdrew from Afghanistan.

i talked to the folks at nyt opinion about the primary last night and what's next: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/04/o...

Senate's done. Elsewhere, some really weird stuff. Pretty shocking result in R AG: Roy was talking tough about avoiding a runoff and he's more than 12 points down with Mayes Middleton in a really comfortable position. Did not see this coming at all.

Cancel that: Some Williamson polls open till 10, now, and there's a legal fight about Dallas ballots.

I'm bad at math and can't responsibly call anything. But Talarico's gonna win, and I bet calls start coming soon after Dallas and Williamson end voting (in two minutes)

Talarico is winning several of south Texas counties that have been making Dems scared the last decade by about a 2-to-1 margin, something that Cornyn is likely to point to in his runoff. Up 15 in Bexar so far. Up 7 statewide.

I realized that after 12 years, I don't actually know who or where Ken Paxton's base is. When he did poorly in hometown DFW I was worried my strongest warrior had missed a step. But he's only 2.5 points shy now and I'm less impressed by Big John

Alright, lets do some downballot. Dan Crenshaw looks a lot like he's going to get turfed out by stalwart state rep. Steve Toth, one of the great That Guys we have on offer. One incumbent down.

Greg Abbott is perfectly safe in his primary, of course. but his handpicked comptroller won't even get a runoff. Dunked in the toilet. Abbott's pick for ag commissioner cleared the bar, though, most likely. RIP Sid Miller :(

Cornyn running a little bit stronger than I would have expected but doesn't seem realistic to hope for 50%. Middleton, though, maybe? Seems like the attacks on chip roy really hit home

Talarico putting up Bashar Assad numbers in central Texas—winning Travis, Hays, Williamson by 50 points. Expect San Antonio to be good for him. Feels like an early-ish call is coming.

That's the worst news Crockett's gotten all night. She probably had to keep his margin under 20% there

Talarico is winning early vote in majority Hispanic counties that contain Laredo and Corpus Christi almost 2 to 1, which if it holds generally across south Texas is a massive boost (Webb here)

Early vote filtering in on TT/NYT counter is disproportionately from DFW area, which seems to be benefiting Crockett and Cornyn/Middleton. gonna be a while before we get better picture from across the state

Can’t believe you withhold this insight from the folks here

not liveblogging the tx primary tonight but gonna try to post stuff here

“I have instructed a large language model trained on sixty years of the most florid and overwrought Texas political writing (which is to say, my brain) to produce a guide to the man and his times.” This is peak @hooks.bsky.social in the best way possible www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

BRISCOE AGONISTES

get an early look at the piece some are calling an early frontrunner for the Pulitzer Prize for Texas political blogging (junior division) www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

I’ve gotten a couple of messages from folks who are asking in a friendly way why I’m still active on Twitter more than I am here. Just for the record, the answer…

@hooks.bsky.social is maybe the best writer of Texas and its deep-set contradictions since Billy Lee Brammer— www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

stellar reporting and an object lesson on the higher ed playbook in other states

Certified Chris Hooks Classic, here. It is very detailed and humane in telling the story it tells, which concerns the damage that a small number of snitches, creeps, and dullards have done to this institution, but also about the long history and awful present of snitches/creeps/dullards doing that.

Tour de force on just exactly what has gone on at Texas A&M for so many years from Chris Hooks in @texasmonthly.bsky.social: www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

For two years, I've been investigating claims that Texas A&M University has been overtaken by the forces of gay race communism. The truth is a little more complicated: www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

Q: How do I unlock Sunglasses Macron? A: It's very difficult to unlock Sunglasses Macron in the course of a normal game because it requires a specific and unlikely sequence of events. While default Macron is ruler of France, the USA must choose the monarchy path and then lay claim to Greenland.

Because we could all use a little distraction: I wrote about all the drama that's been brewing in Loving County, a land of oilfields and family feuds and, most recently, a takeover attempt by an outside group www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...

I wrote last year about what MAGA actually sees in Greenland, an island we already basically quietly own, why its leader is too stupid to get what he wants, and what they see as a beneficial side-effect (destroying the post-war international order) newrepublic.com/article/1947...

"I think good writing—clear thinking—matters. Not much, but a little! This is a minority position, I am learning." Chris Hooks on Olivia Nuzzi, Joan Didion, and the self-delusions of our current moment newrepublic.com/article/2041...

I know you probably do not want to read another article about American Canto. I certainly didn't think I wanted to read another article about American Canto. But this is, in fact, the best article I've yet read about American Canto.