🐂 Bulls sign former Proviso East guard, Jevon Carter, $20mil/3yr — @woj

Another Chicago native to run the point for the Bulls. Also bringing back Coby for $40mil/3yr. Still need some shooting but Carter should fill the PatBev spot decently.

📢 ESPN Lets Go of NBA Analyst Jeff Van Gundy — Sports Illustrated

Lots of layoffs at ESPN today, but this one is tough. Hopefully we get a three-man booth with the Van Gundy brothers on TNT.

🧑‍🎓 Biden announces new routes to offer some loan forgiveness after ruling — The Hill

Some potentially good news.

🤖 Rage Against the Machine Refuses to Play Venues with Facial Recognition — Futurism

Truly living up to their name.

🏦 Supreme Court rejects Biden student loan forgiveness plan — WaPo

Also trash.

🧑‍⚖️ US Supreme Court deals setback to LGBTQ+ rights in web designer case — Reuters

This is trash.

🤕 The End of Affirmative Action — The New Yorker

Yet “How long?” was always the wrong question. It presupposed that there was a standard speed at which groups whose disadvantages were the product of centuries of social engineering were meant to recover and achieve. The salient metric was progress, not time.

Diversity. Is. A. Good. Thing.

👨‍⚖️ The Roberts Court Draws a Line — The Atlantic

The Court’s decision today sends the message to the conservative legal movement that as conservative as the majority may be, their comrades cannot count on five guaranteed votes for whatever nonsense they come up with.

The decision was obviously better than the alternative, but the fact shit like this is making it this far is honestly scary.

🎙️ Two Podcasts Worth Listening To

Julia Ioffe discussing Prigozhin on The Powers That Be and Matt Stoller talks about breaking up Hollywood on The Town.

🪙 Can the White House sell Bidenomics? — Semafor

Can we stop using peoples names like this… No? Okay… Anyways, I think it’s pretty impressive unemployment has stayed low amidst the sky-rocketing inflation and the subsequent measures to bring it back down.

🐕 ‘Reservation Dogs’ To End With Season Three — Deadline

I respect it… but I hate it… Reservation Dogs is up there with the best shows on tv right now so it’ll be sad to say goodbye to this one.

🎥 silver-screen voyage vol. 002 — foofaraw

🦝 National Geographic lays off its last remaining staff writers — WaPo

Sucks to see Disney gut an institution like this. I get the struggles of print, but this is reminiscent of Sports Illustrated and a lack of respect for it’s readers.

📽️ Spielberg, Scorsese, PTA to curate films for TCM — CNBC

Not sure how to feel about this. On the one hand they’ve got heavy hitters curating and are investing 30% more in content. On the other, they just cut a bunch of people and those heavy hitters are unpaid…

☄️ The Missing Bill Murray Part from “Asteroid City” — The New Yorker

I actually assumed Bill Murray wasn’t in it for other reasons and that Tom Hanks was filling in the typical Murray role.

🏒 Set ‘to have an impact,’ Bedard drafted by Blackhawks at No. 1 — ESPN

I know diddly-squat about hockey so I tend to only watch when the Blackhawks are good (and it’s been awhile). Given the hype around Bedard, I’m pretty, pretty excited.

📺 grand theft aeroplane — streaming variability vol.031

🎧 I went on a silent retreat (lost my AirPods) — Embedded

Half of my aversion to spending time with my thoughts is probably due to the fact that I didn’t even remember what they sound like. Turns out, they’re boring! But I will say I’ve experienced almost no acute anxiety these past two weeks, and part of me wonders if it’s because I’ve been forced to confront any anxiety-inducing thoughts head-on before they take hold and fester in the background of my subconscious.

I think about this a lot. I go through various stages, from devouring podcasts, listening to only music, to getting through multiple audiobooks rapidly. I’ve never been able to find a good balance, especially with silence.

🥺 I don’t know how to write about all that hasn’t happened since the fall of Roe — WaPo

They would not do this to us if they thought that we were people. Yet in this year since discovering that I am something less than a person, I have felt the same as I ever did. I still see my reflection in shop windows. When I speak, I think I’m audible. I don’t know. I have been screaming.

📹 How Wes Anderson used miniatures — Vox

Love this stuff. I’m off to see Asteroid City in a few hours and it’s cool to see how Anderson and others still rely on the older technique of miniatures over CGI.

🥷 Wagner rebels turn against Putin’s army — The Economist

He announced a “march of justice” against Russia’s army, but was careful to say it was not a “coup”. He singled out Mr Shoigu, claiming he had ordered the alleged air strike on Wagner and then “ran away like a bitch to avoid explaining why he sent helicopters to destroy our boys”.

You love to see it. Any in-fighting in Russia is a huge positive for Ukraine at this point. Still seems far from a coup and more of a power struggle between Prigozhin, the head of Wagner, and Shoigi, the Defense Secretary, but hopefully Ukraine can take advantage of this moment.

🎬 silver-screen voyage vol.001 — foofaraw

Another new feature on the newsletter, that again, will not go to existing subscribers unless you add it. This one is focused on movies and trailers.

💽 sonic vibrations vol.001 — foofaraw

New feature on my newsletter. The goal is to pull out all the new album releases worth checking out every Friday. If you already subscribe to foofaraw, you’ll have to specifically add this if you are interested in receiving.

🏀 2023 NBA Draft Grades Live — The Ringer

Didn’t realize Danny Chau was back at The Ringer. He’s fantastic so it’s fun to see him doing live draft grades for them.