😖 Get Ready Now: Republicans Will Refuse to Certify a Harris Win — Bulwark

While some of this might end up being hyperbole, there’s definitely a real risk that needs to be taken seriously so people aren’t caught off guard and we don’t end up with Jan 6th or worse on our hands…

🏇 The Race to Define Kamala Harris — Puck

As Smith acknowledged. “She’s talking about inflation,” he noted. “It’s in the campaign ads, this champion of working family stuff. It’s absolutely the right direction to go. But she has to acknowledge the pain that people are in. To say, ‘I do acknowledge our economy is not perfect, and I can tell you why. It’s these greedy A-holes who I have a history with. But I will be on your team again.’

I tend to agree with a lot of this. While there’s risk in defining herself too much in the trail an alienating certain segments, finding the right areas to hit hard and truly define the campaign before the GOP is able to get an attack to stick will be critical.

🥜 The World According to “Peanuts” — New Yorker

I’ve only just started to dig in, but this weeks issue of the magazine is a collection of pieces from the magazines history on comedy. This strip from Art Spiegelman about Charles Schultz and Peanuts was excellent.

💬 Front Porch Forum is the friendliest social network you’ve never heard of — WaPo

It has achieved critical mass in the Green Mountain State not by embracing the growth hacks, recommendation algorithms and dopamine-inducing features that power most social networks, but by eschewing them.

This is very cool and inspiring. I’ve been thinking a lot about adding comments to TIV and foofaraw as a place for slow, light conversation around media and the news, but a) I feel like it’d end up a barren wasteland and b) not sure about the best way to implement.

🧩 I made a new daily puzzle. It’s called Gisnep! — Ironic Sans

Played this the other day and really dug it. I never play any of these daily puzzles daily, but it’ll definitely stay in the rotation.

📧 Who We Are — Status

I feel like this might be one too many media newsletters, but I’m giving Status from Oliver Darcy, previously Reliable Sources, a go with a trial for its first week kicking off tomorrow.

🇺🇦 Ukraine confirms largest offensive deep inside Russia — Semafor

It’s also a sign of what Ukraine can achieve if it has “both the tools and the latitude to fight Russia,” primarily the ability to use foreign weapons on Russian soil after the US and Germany recently loosened restrictions.

Finally some positive news coming out of Eastern Europe.

🚲 Tim Walz Fixed Your Bicycle

This fun little page was making the rounds on Mastodon yesterday.

🏀 New Version of Roundball Rock debuted by John Tesh for NBA on NBC — THR

Ba ba ba-ba ba-basketball!

🍎 Disclaimer — Teaser

There isn’t much here to spoil anything, but this is a show you need to have on your radar. It was number one on my most anticipated shows of the year and we weren’t even sure if it’d make a 2024 release at the time. It’s basically a seven hour long movie from Alfonso Cuarón starring Cate Blanchett and it hits Apple on October 11.

🏃🏾‍♂️Noah Lyles Wins The 100-Meter Gold By A Skin Cell — Defector

It wasn’t obvious in real time, and the American sprinter later said that he thought Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson had won the race. But after reviewing the tape, a winning margin of five-thousandths of a second gave Lyles his first Olympic gold medal.

I still can’t get over how close this was. The 1500 today where American Cole Hocker stunned the favorites and set the Olympic record for gold was also superb.

🏛️ What Tim Walz Brings to Kamala Harris’s Campaign to Beat Donald Trump — New Yorker

Another piece on Walz, this time from Peter Slevin. It does a really good job at painting a picture of who Walz is, what he accomplished in Minnesota, and how he can help elevate the campaign to beat Trump/Vance.

🥇 Simone Biles’s Greatness Is About More Than Medals — Defector

They shattered one of the hallmark values of gymnastics itself—perfection—by mastering skills so difficult that stepping out of bounds didn’t mean the end of everything. They were loud. They had opinions. They weren’t flawless. They carved out space for female gymnasts, for all women, to be a little less perfect, to step outside our pretty boxes, to be human—and still be golden.

This whole piece was very, very good. The Olympics are a time to celebrate greatness and Biles exemplifies it.

📚 Another decade of Scalzi — Transfer Orbit

I’ve only read a few Scalzi books, but they always go down so easy. Great rut breakers if you ever find yourself falling out of the habit.

🏛️ The Supreme Court Needs Fixing, But How? — New Yorker

😵 X files antitrust lawsuit against ad industry group GARM — Axios

Idiots.

📺 Charles Barkley Cancels Retirement, Will Stay With TNT Sports — THR

I mean, this man is never going to actually stick to anything he says. So he could end up retired, working at TNT, or working elsewhere in a years time. No one, even Chuck, knows the answer.

🏛️ The Tim Walz Nod: Caving to the Left? No. Reaching Into the Heartland. — The New Republic

And what Harris has done here is not to cave to the left. She reached into the heartland, to a candidate with a long list of accomplishments and attributes. A daughter of Berkeley ought to be getting a lot of credit for that.

I thought they’d end up going with Shapiro, but I’m happy either way. I’m just happy to get this show on the road and am hopefully Walz can help make inroads in middle America.

🎧 NEW MUSIC - blink-182

Four quick teasers on YouTube for what I assume is an upcoming album. Overall, these four tracks feel like an improvement over ONE MORE TIME… but only time will tell.

🫛 ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Ended, But Larry David Isn’t Done — THR

We’re talking about talking about stuff.

The show is done in its current form, but Larry’s not done.

I’ve definitely been chatting with J.B., who has a million ideas. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Leon. I don’t know how or when, but Leon is going to get his.

As long as Larry is still being perturbed by his fellow man, there’s still a shot.

A lot of quotes from Jeff Schaffer that have me excited for what the future could hold.

💰 Berkshire Hathaway Sits on $280 Billion After Slashing Apple Stake — Business Insider

Berkshire as a company will continue to exist after Buffet so I think this is less a sign of estate planning and more thinking Apple may have finally reached their peak. Between the iPhone plateau, the push into services that is still a relatively unknown prospect, and the goggles, which in all honestly, feel a bit like AI in the sense they are a product in search of a purpose. Or they could continue to grow and if so, they still have a healthy amount of shares.

🤡 Trump calls off ABC debate, suggests Fox News face-off instead — Politico

We knew this was coming. I really hope the Harris campaign continues to push the idea that he’s too scared to debate her. Give him a taste of his own medicine.

🔠 When in doubt, use Roslindale — Robin Rendle

Roslindale was almost the font I went with for our print books and zines at foofaraw, but I ultimately decided on Swear from OHno instead. It’s a decision I’m happy with to give it a bit more character, but Roslindale is still quite a looker.