🤦‍♂️ Bloomberg’s Risky, Embargo-Breaking Evan Gershkovich Scoop — New York

Which means that Bloomberg’s story proclaiming Gershkovich was free was inaccurate, given that the Russian plane was still in the air at the time of publication. That plane could have just turned around and gone back to Moscow, which is why the Journal and other publications had agreed to hold off.

Another example of Bloomberg’s stellar journalistic standards…

💊 FIRST LOOK: Common Side Effects — adult swim

I’m into this. Feels like The Boondocks meets Burn After Reading?

🐌 The Mark On The Wall — Shortverse

A simple, but intruiging little short.

💍 Mark Zuckerberg’s New Image: Gold Chains and Gen-Z Curls — WSJ

As AI advances, Zuck becomes more human. Coincidence? I think not.

That’s the only quote from this article that matters. Pure gold.

🗳️ Sensitive Illinois Voter Data Exposed by Contractor’s Unsecured Databases — WIRED

“There’s definitely progress on basic data security, and I don’t see stuff like this very often anymore,” Fowler says. “But I used the open and public internet and no specialized tools to find this. And at the end of the day, this is critical infrastructure that was exposed.”

At least we get to end this piece on a slightly positive note…

🚰 Sparkling Water Blind Taste Test v4

1. Topo Chico
2. Saratoga
3. Sedona

🤡 Bigots Need Their Useful Idiots — Defector

In the absence of trans athletes competing at the Olympics, they can just invent one in order to whip up a trans panic.

Besides the obvious bigotry and hatefulness that seeps through these peoples pores, it’s just such a sad state of affairs that people will admit they no nothing and then go on a rant like they have a right to just make up bullshit—and we just continue to let it go.

🔖 Game Informer Has Been Shut Down — Aftermath

I haven’t paid attention to video games much at all let alone still get Game Informer, but Game Informer and Nintendo Power were such a pivotal piece of my childhood.

🤖 Colin Kaepernick’s AI-based comics company angers comics creators — The Beat

Yeah, this is not a good look for Kaepernick… if this was actually about helping tell “diverse and authentic” voices in storytelling, he could fund online courses that teach people to draw and tell stories. Instead, he seems to be taking the get-rich-quick path with AI.

💵 Elon Musk PAC data backs Trump over Harris in election — CNBC

The whole fake “register to vote” feels like it should definitely be illegal.

📢 ‘We choose freedom’: Kamala Harris campaign launches first ad — The Guardian

I do think this was a pretty great first ad. It’s both optimistic, powerful, and hits a lot of the major points that are on people’s minds.

🛬 Evan Gershkovich Is Finally Coming Home — New Yorker

He arrived in Russia with aspirations of becoming a foreign correspondent. He’s leaving as an example of dignity, bravery, and heroism.

Obviously it’s great to be able to bring people home. I can’t help but wonder how Putin views it all given the American political landscape. Was he truly pissed that Trump said he could bring them home for nothing in return?

📕 Riposte’s new collection of literary journals is the magazine’s “wiser, cooler older sibling” — It’s Nice That

Yup, this was an instant buy for me.

🤪 Why Trump Can’t Banish the Weirdos — The Atlantic

Well, yeah. Being obsessed with strangers’ personal lives, especially to the point where you’re trying to use the power of the state to force everyone else to live according to your values rather than their own, comes across as pretty weird. Even Trump understands that.

It’s interesting that “weird” is what sticks rather than “dangerous,” which has been the go-to descriptor for awhile. Is TikTok more prevalent now than the last election? Or are people just tired of hearing this is the “most important election” and that the opponent is “dangerous.” “Weird” is maybe, just easier to grab on to.

🏛️ Joe Biden: My plan to reform the Supreme Court and ensure no president is above the law — The Washington Post

I get the detractors who think as soon as reform gets passed here, it’ll become tit for tat every presidential cycle moving to change the court for their benefit. But term limits are a good thing. My original thought was a new justice gets selected every presidential election and the oldest drops off. This isn’t too far from that idea. And obviously the presidential immunity shit is bullshit and needs to be rectified.

🥤 J. D. Vance Has a Point About Mountain Dew — The Atlantic

Republicans always out here trying to ruin a good thing.

😈 Ryan Reynolds Is Cinema’s Antichrist — Defector

I mean, they aren’t wrong… While I enjoy Van Wilder, Wrexham, and the first Deadpool, I’m surprised he continues to be able to launch big budget movies given how plain and boring his whole schtick has become. Patrick Willems goes a lot deeper into his and the Rock’s careers becoming brands in and of themselves. And now apparently Deadpool is supposed to be a big part of the next wave of Avengers films…

🚗 United Auto Workers union endorses Harris’ bid for president — Reuters

Not really a surprise given they endorsed Biden, but I think it shows how a lot of blue collar workers often vote against their own interests.

📻 Why I Finally Quit Spotify — The New Yorker

I’ve been beating the drum on this one for awhile now. Spotify again falls into that Rot Economics where they consistently try to move the needle around pennies no matter what the user experience. Obviously there aren’t a lot of great options out there, but Apple Music via the Albums app continues to work wonders for me.

🏹 Kim Yeji, Korean Shooter, Is the 2024 Olympics’ Bond Villain — High Snobiety

Yeah, she’s a stone-cold killer. Love having a main character to remember the Olympics by, and outside of the US Olympians for me, she’s it.

🎮 Bungie Lays Off 220 People, 17% Of Staff — Aftermath

“We got spread too thin so we cut people” is some logic awfully reminiscent of Microsoft’s recent explanations for closing several Bethesda studios back in May.

This stuff always sucks, but is never a surprise. This goes back to the idea of Rot Economics and the fact we now have “business people” who only care about “business” and not the actual industries they are in. Numbers go up, numbers go down, it doesn’t matter how that happens to them.

🥇 We Went Ahead and Made an AI Olympian — McSweeney’s Internet Tendency

Soon, you’ll be thanking AI that you can finally wait on hold with your health insurance company to ask why you got a huge bill even though you’ve hit your deductible.

And the gold medal goes to…

💸 Warren Buffet’s net worth is not going to the Gates Foundation charity — Vox

Yeah, I don’t love this… Even if it’s all still going to go to charity, why put the burden on three people to manage and agree upon where it goes when there are foundations and groups of people established for this type of thing already.

🏛️ Schumer tees up child tax credit vote as summer parting gift to vulnerable Dems — Axios

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.):

If (Republicans) are pro-family, this is an opportunity for them to vote pro-family. If they don’t, it’s clear they’re being hypocritical.

This is good—even if it’s all for show, it’s good to remind people what the Democratic Party stands for. I honestly think we don’t make a big enough deal out of these things. Force the issue, stick to one topic, at a time, and make the media cover it with every interview.