Nothing new from me at The Athletic this week as I was writing up my annual rankings of the best free agents, which will run on Monday. This year’s list is just 40 deep because the class is so bad. I’ll shoot to get a newsletter out that afternoon or evening, too.
I did post videos on Instagram and TikTok after each World Series game this week, and will try to find more topics for commentary (without resorting to hot takes, I promise) as we enter the dark night of the soul. I’m also still most active on Bluesky and occasionally trolling anti-vaxxers on Threads.
And now, the links…
- House Democrats released a new report on the Epstein files that included a fresh rape allegation against President Trump. The Miami-Herald’s Julie K. Brown, who won a Pulitzer for her work on Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, also wrote about the revelation, which has been wildly undercovered – or maybe suppressed – by a number of other major media outlets.
- The Guardian spoke to Israeli voters on the eve of the country’s elections. Some of the youngest voters had the most horrifying, hateful comments, saying that Gaza should have been “glassed” after Hamas’ attacks.
- Now, to some longreads: The New York Times has the horrifying and inexplicable story of a software engineer who asked ChatGPT to get her off a lifesaving anti-seizure medication. ChatGPT complied, telling her it was safe to do so and that she shouldn’t tell her doctors. She died shortly after at age 31.
- Citation Oil & Gas is one of the country’s largest privately owned oil companies. Despite racking up over 1000 pollution and other environmental violations, it has never been punished by Oklahoma regulators. This is a great example of why red states are cheaper to live in than blue states: To some degree, residents get what they pay for.
- The Atlantic looks at Cuba’s economic collapse, with the U.S. blockade causing substantial misery for its already impoverished people.
- The UAE sent $50 million to Jared Kushner to get Secretary of State Rex Tillerson fired, according to the New Republic. Kushner then took a payment from Qatar as well after that country was concerned about how the firing would affect their relations with the U.S.
- NPR music journalist Ann Powers writes about why music feels so fake right now and the history of the quest for ‘authenticity’ in popular music, with a quick detour into the hack Stella Lefty’s success and nods to the truly novel acts breaking out this year like Westside Cowboy, Twisted Teens, and Angine de Poitrine.
- Also in the Times, Amish families in New York have been fighting the state’s mandatory vaccination laws, even as measles sweeps through their community. The courts’ answer should be simple: Educate your kids elsewhere. You do not have the right to put other children at risk.
- The spam text messages and mailers sent to Texas voters claiming to offer resources for trans youth actually came from a Republican-backed PAC, supported by the Republican Women’s Caucus Fund, which denied involvement, and a Washington state senator running for Congress named John Braun. The trans panic is disgusting on many levels, but one is how inaccurate it all is.
- Scientific American was first published in 1845 and until fairly recently was the gold standard for science journalism. A recent sale and the corporate owners’ bending the knee to Trump has left the magazine’s future in doubt.
- You may have seen the clip of a man being interviewed on Fox News at a Trump rally, where he says he always wanted to see what a cult was like but was too young for Jonestown. Marisa Kabas found the guy, Tom Hoyle, and interviewed him about his comments and that awesome Death shirt.
- Republicans’ favorite streamer Hasan Piker is suing CNN talking head Scott Jennings for $72 million for Jennings’ use of a highly edited video to make it appear that Piker called for Black Americans to be lynched.
- A Christian media outlet dedicated to exposing scandals and controversies in churches writes that an Ohio megachurch pastor named Lonnie Snell has been fired for sexual misconduct, with parishioners told not to ask questions.
- The Cleveland Plain Dealer broke with its policy of avoiding endorsing candidates in major races to endorse Amy Acton in the wake of Republican Vivek Ramaswamy’s disgusting ad that used Acton’s stepfather sexually assaulting her to attack her credibility.
- Federal immigration judge Chadwick Dotson, who has a track record of rulings against asylum seekers, also writes about the Reds for Cincinnati Magazine. I haven’t seen any comment from the publication about their relationship with him.
- Brent Taylor (R) is running for Congress in Tennessee in a highly gerrymander district. He has a serious problem with sending unsolicited dick pics and other sexts to women. He’s 59 years old.
- Lynchburg, Virginia, City Countil member Marty Misjuns (R) said on social media that “Democrats, Christians, Jews, and gay Americans need to join the Republican Party or die!” and other hateful comments, but when asked about them he either ignored the questions or claimed there was “context.” He’s up for re-election next week in the nonpartisan competition for three seats.
- A town council candidate in Castle Rock, Colorado, was caught on camera stealing his opponent Tiffany Coyle’s fliers and replacing them with his own.
- Chris Rufo and company got what they wanted: Black enrollment at Harvard has fallen for three straight years.
- Opposition parties in the Bundestag have forced a debate on recognizing Germany’s genocide of the Herero people in 1904 in what is now Namibia.
- The Arizona Republic spoke to Testament lead singer Chuck Billy about his career and his battle with a rare cancer about 25 years ago.
- The Cleveland City Council did something very rare for any government body: They said no to a local sports team, refusing to pay for $1 million in repairs to the stadium the Browns are abandoning. They may lose in court, but even the idea of someone standing up to the billionaire owners is a rare positive sign.
- The excellent social deduction game Deception: Murder in Hong Kong is getting a new version, Deception: Heist in Hong Kong, that’s up on Kickstarter right now.