Under the Influence The legendary writer and public provocateur H.L. Mencken once wrote that a serious journalist had to do two things: Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. That has been one of the touchstones for Phillipe and Jorge since we have been writing this column continuously (albeit for a variety of media outlets) […]
Red Herrings Despite all the caterwauling over the atrocious, bought-and-paid-for decision to knock down Roe v. Wade by conservative Supreme Court Justices (pardon the oxymoron), Phillipe & Jorge are finding solace elsewhere. That is why we are comforted by the facts that show that there are more guns in America than people. This is helpful […]
Dear Motif Readers- Recently, we witnessed the rollback of the fundamental human right of bodily autonomy. I once believed that the Supreme Court, as designed, could remain above politics — but as is now clear, it is a victim of partisanship like all of our systems, and no right that we currently enjoy is sacred. […]
Hi Folks- We want to address a comment that was made by one of our team members to Josh from The American Band last week. It was completely inappropriate and not sanctioned by the magazine. We deeply apologize for that response – part of our mission is to celebrate the small and upcoming bands, and […]
Apocalypse Now? Little more can be said about the atrocities being carried out in Ukraine. They are being led by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump’s best pal, who has morphed into a Hitler for our age. Phillipe and Jorge have lived through plenty of what seemed to be scary moments in our own presidency, […]
Bilow’s Law of Twitter: “No worthwhile ideas can be expressed in 140 characters, and even fewer in 280.” My public journalist Twitter account (@MikeBilow) was created in 2015 by which time Twitter was fairly mature, although still long before the 2016 election and 2020 pandemic that saw social media sink into a swamp of misinformation […]
[Listen to a podcast about this article: motifri.com/home/episode-2-michael-bilow] A few months ago, a friend of mine was killed by government policy. This may seem an extreme claim, but my friend was attending a house party, like those which happen all the time. Someone offered him cannabis, and he accepted. Laced with fentanyl, it killed him. […]
To the Editor, Phillipe and Jorge, who are right about almost everything else, completely blew it by beating up on Representative David Bennett’s bill banning nips in the March 2nd “Phillipe & Jorge: Tips for nips and soup Nazis.” https://motifri.com/phillipe-jorge-tips-for-nips-and-soup-nazis/Banning nips is a good idea, and Rep Bennett is a hero for proposing his bill.Rhode […]
The People’s Choice There is an old RI adage that says there are a million people in the state, therefore a million different opinions on every subject you can bring up. Hence the incredibly important and critical issue of what our new license plates should look like, which is now being brought to Vo Dislunders […]
In the Nip of Time As observers of the current scene with the highest credentials, Phillipe & Jorge are well aware of today’s legislative priorities: climate change; racial (in)justice; childhood poverty; insider deals; and political corruption, to name just a few. But we must also remark that in our learned opinion, one of the key […]