🪱 RFK Jr. Brings Much-needed Sanity to Trump Campaign — Borowitz Report

More satire for our wonderful Sunday evening.

🍼 Larry David: My post-birth abortion — The Washington Post

“No way I’m taking him home. He’s embarrassing. Am I supposed to show that monster to my parents and my friends? I can’t even look at him without cringing.”

I love Larry David.

💬 The Fake Quotes in the ‘Megalopolis’ Trailer Were Likely AI-Generated — IndieWire

What a predictable trainwreck of a situation. Need some advice? Don’t use AI. This was such an obviously avoidable situation—it just doesn’t make sense to me how lazy some people are sometimes.

🤯 Trump will host an ‘awards gala’ for rioters who stormed the Capitol on January 6 — The Independent

If I tried super hard, I could see how some supporters might build distance between Trump and Jan 6th in their mind, but I don’t know how a reasonable person can see this and be okay with it.

🥽 My Life’s Work — New Yorker

Not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but I had fun with this one.

🏛️ The ubiquitous J.B. Pritzker, the man behind the Democrats’ party — The Economist

It’s been great to see JB get a bit more of a national spotlight via the DNC. I do think he’d make a great President, but it’s going to be some time before he even gets an opportunity to run at this point.

☎️ Flying Lotus Composed Two Apple Ringtones — Pitchfork

I don’t think I’ve even looked at the ringtones in years—everything I remember hearing before is hidden behind “Classics,” and there’s tons of great ones now. I switched to FL’s Chalet.

🧟 Lest We Forget the Horrors: A Catalog of Trump’s Worst Cruelties, Collusions, Corruptions, and Crimes: The Complete Listing: Atrocities 1–1,056 // McSweeney’s Internet Tendency

This is absolutely perfect and the true journalism we need at the moment.

🗳️ I’m Voting Postcards // Chris Glass

Love these!

🐻 Caleb Williams Made Some Throws // Defector

Arm strength, mobility, and vision are all individually important, but what matters now, more than it ever has before, is how well a quarterback can use them all at once. The guys who can do that can make throws, and the guys who can’t usually end up with clipboards in their hands.

🕷️ Sony Announces a New Spider-Man Villain Solo Movie Every Year Until Their Demands Are Met // Hard Drive

First of all, we want a billion dollars. Second, we want to be able to use Spider-Man again. Third, we want the U.S. nuclear codes. You give us that, and maybe we can think of taking the Bad Bunny El Muerto movie off of our release slate.

🥶 Blue Man Group Hears “Welcome To The Black Parade” For The First Time — Drumeo

I wish the mixing were a little better since the non-Blue Man overpowers everything a bit, but this was still a ton of fun.

🏛️ Trump tries to undermine Harris’ legitimacy as a candidate — POLITICO

“What happened to Biden? I was running against Biden and now I’m running against someone else,” Trump said. “I said, ‘Who am I running against, Harris?’ I said, ‘Who the hell is Harris?’”

Maybe it’s just me, but someone who doesn’t know who the current Vice President of the United States probably isn’t fit to be President.

💰 On hobbies, side projects, and money ❋ Manu

This resonated with me a lot given I’ve talked a bit about having aspirations of building foofaraw into something more than just a blog. I’m also launching a paid component of TIV…

♠️ ESPN Bet Is A Black Hole // Defector

I don’t have any problems with gambling, but the shoveling of shit down your throat a la Rot Economics is just tiresome.

🇺🇸 With Mauricio Pochettino, USMNT Aims High And Scores For Once // Defector

It’s by far the biggest name to ever coach for a US soccer team, but I struggle to see him being able to make that much of a difference. We have a lot of interesting players, but only Pulisic (and maybe McKennie) have proven to be high caliber players against high caliber opponents.

⚾️ MLB reportedly weighing six-inning requirement for starting pitchers: How mandatory outings could work // CBS Sports

I wonder how many pitchers actually leave a game before six innings happen without getting rocked, throwing a bunch of pitches, or getting hurt.

📺 FuboTV lawsuit: Court Blocks Disney, Fox, Warner JV in Antitrust Case // THR

This always seemed like a pretty clear open-and-shut case so I’m happy it’s going that way. I’ve talked about it before, but I really think we need to see the formation of what the new “cable bundle” can be in the streaming world.

🪪 Californians will be able to add their driver’s licenses to Apple Wallet // The Verge

Some exciting news for this newly minted California resident. (I’ve been here since October, but only went to the DMV for new plates and ID this month…)

🎸 ‎Delicate Steve Sings by Delicate Steve

A little preview of what’s to come in next weeks Sonic Vibrations.

🐍 Trump owns more than $1M in crypto and made $300K on branded Bibles, financial disclosure shows // Yahoo

I get having different political views and perspectives on how things should work and run, but how anyone can look at this man and not see a snake oil salesman is beyond me.

🧅 Print Membership // The Onion

The Onion back in print under its new ownership! I love it.

☂️ Why did the ending of The Umbrella Academy suck so much? — Polygon

I disagree with all of this. Without spoiling, I’ll just say the ending wasn’t abrupt, there wasn’t a failure to deal with trauma, and hell, there’s even a conversation between Hargreeves and Abigail about the how and why of it all. That doesn’t mean I don’t have a question or two about certain elements, but I thought the season was on-par with the rest of the show.

📧 Independent journalist era takes off on Substack — Axios

As much as I love these independent small shops setting up across various niches, where people get to write what they want to write and be supported by readers, I have two concerns. First, do things end up too bifurcated? It’s the same with streaming and TV, bundling is good economics for everyone. Second, how does this effect more deeply reported stories that tend to take a long time? My initial instinct is these smaller shops can’t support the same long form, deeply researched, investigative journalism that big newspapers can subsidize with other writers and sources of incomes…

Lastly, can we please all stop using Substack? Everything just looks the same!