“Is the Government Still Collecting Inflation Data?”
“How a Nazi-Obsessed Amateur Historian Went From Obscurity to the Top of Substack”.
“A display at the Smithsonian Institute, focused on the extremely rare practice of presidential impeachment, has now been altered to make it seem just a little bit rarer. You’ll never guess which of America’s three impeached presidents has been removed!”
“Let us imagine a world where football is no longer the bullying juggernaut dictating every move in college sports. Instead, what if the central tenets that drive the enjoyability of a conference — local rivalries, historical animosity, recruiting battles — were the focus? Dream with me!”
Here is a report on the World Dog Surfing Championships, complete with several pictures of dogs surfing. You’re welcome.
RIP, Ann Harris, longtime book editor who worked on such bestsellers as “The Exorcist”, “The Thorn Birds”, “A Brief History of Time”, and many more.
RIP, Loni Anderson, two-time Emmy-nominated actor best known for WKRP in Cincinnati.
“On Wednesday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported that the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at a 3 percent annual rate in the second quarter. That sounds like good news, but the underlying data tell us that the U.S. economy is stumbling—and that’s before President Donald Trump doubled down last week on his destructive tariffs.”
Any time an event is compared to Fyre Fest, it’s bad news.
“The FBI Redacted Trump’s Name in the Epstein Files”.
“After years of decline, marriage rates are up. Divorce rates have continued to nosedive. More American children are being born into two-parent homes. The average age of first marriage in the US is a touch above 28 for women and a touch above 30 for men. With the youngest Millennials turning 30 next year and the oldest in our 40s, that means that this nationwide marriage resurgence is largely thanks to Millennials. And it’s not a coincidence that Millennials are the marriage generation, and also a generation that is more feminist, better educated, and less likely to be incarcerated than those that came before it. Gender equality and individual stability are the keys to getting and staying married.”
“I need the wolves to respond and know that, hey, humans are bad.”
“‘Star Wars’ has had a contentious relationship with artificial intelligences for a very long time—and now that we find ourselves staring down the barrel of generative AI, the galaxy far, far away has given us the surprising language to denigrate it.”
“A group of state attorneys general, led by New York, has filed a lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of mounting an unconstitutional pressure campaign against gender-affirming care for transgender youth.”
“[Thirty-nine large wildfires, including one at the Grand Canyon,] come as the National Park Service and other federal agencies face large cuts to their workforces, including among personnel who help fight wildfires. Multiple reports have suggested that cuts made by the Trump administration to U.S. Forest Service staffing have hampered the agency’s ability to fight fires.”
“And therefore never send to know for whom the AI slop tolls; It tolls for thee.”
“We are members of the Writers Guild of America who speak with one voice to decry the dangerous and escalating attacks on the First Amendment, independent media, and the free press”.
“Now to be clear, put me down as a decided skeptic on whether Chuck Schumer is the person who can lead Senate Democrats as they need to be led in the Trump era. But coming off the March budget showdown debacle, at a minimum, Schumer and his media advisors are now clear on the kind of legislative leader Democrats are demanding and are very focused on portraying him as that guy. Are they ready for what’s coming in September? I’m not really sure. But I think they have a pretty clear sense of what’s being demanded of them.”
RIP, Emily Cole, trailblazing principal at Houston ISD.
“A number of employees with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) were informed via email late on Tuesday that they have been reassigned, effective immediately, to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The workers had seven days to accept the reassignment, under threat of being removed from the civil service.”
“Jen Pawol is set to become the first woman to umpire in Major League Baseball when she works games this weekend between the Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves.” Major kudos to her for that.
“What compels someone to sneak a sex toy into a basketball game and throw it on the court at athletes is beyond my comprehension, but it’s telling that this is only happening right now at WNBA games.” There’s also somehow a cryptocurrency link in all this, and I just can’t.
“If only someone with a lot of money, a vested interest in protecting their image, and the desire to make the world safer for other women and girls would take Elon’s ass to court over this.”
RIP, Jim Lovell, NASA astronaut who commanded the Apollo 13 mission.
RIP, Billy Howton, All-American wide received for Rice University who was a two-time All Pro for the Packers in the NFL and went on to help start and be the first President of the NFL Players Association, where he got a pension plan started and got the players paid for the use of their likeness on trading cards.