Iranian World Cup Team Refuses to Sing National Anthem
On Hunter Biden’s Laptop
With the ascent of the House Republicans, we are about to hear a lot about Hunter Biden’s laptop.
As Americans wrestle with long COVID, inflation, gas prices (which seem to be falling), a possible nuclear war with Russia, poverty and a broken immigration system, Republicans are unveiling investigations into the Bidens! Despite the fact that many people have seen the contents and as of posting time of this newsletter no criminality has ever been determined. Just lots of speculation and chatter in the right wing media ecosphere.
And Olivia Nuzzi and Andrew Rice looked through the laptop’s sad and embarrassing contents for New York magazine and described it thusly:
Now imagine that you are both the son of a man running for president and a lawyer and lobbyist accustomed to mixing with powerful people and doing business overseas premised on your proximity to those powerful people, and that you are in the throes of a divorce and a midlife catastrophe brought on by the early death of your older brother and that, in your distortion field of grief, on a hell-bent drug-and-alcohol binge, you have been making even more horrible choices, taking up with your brother’s widow and, while in considerable financial debt, hiring prostitutes and zoning out with camgirls and staying awake for days at a time on crack cocaine and generally hurting everyone in your life who is trying to help you with your cruel and idiotic behavior.
Still, there will be investigations costing millions of taxpayer dollars. From some of the same people that manufactured Benghazi into a political lattice of the right that led to nowhere, we are going to get slew of overblown and overwrought conspiracy stories about what is supposed to be game-changing on that laptop. Some of this Hunter Biden laptop “news” will come from obvious sources— like Fox News. But some of it will come from unusual sources, like Catherine Herridge, at CBS. The New York Post is already salivating at Hunter, its new star cover story.
But the investigations — like the ones over Benghazi — will lead to naught.
It’s the cruelty is all that matters.
“Away from the pandemic, Chapek had a short but bumpy tenure as the head of Disney. Chapek, who served as chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products before taking over for Iger, found himself dealing with issues regarding pay with Scarlett Johansson, one of the company’s biggest stars, as well as Disney’s battles with Florida, and its own employees, regarding the state’s controversial bill restricting certain LGBTQ topics in the classroom.” (Bloomberg)
“In the wake of the five alarm fire at Twitter, a small, quiet social media alternative has been quietly attracting the tweeting weary. Mastodon, named for the prehistoric elephant relatives, was originally created by a German programmer named Eugen Rochko in 2016.” (OnTheMedia)
“The Daily Show was never part of (Trevor) Noah’s plan, much less his dream. In fact, when Stewart first called, back in 2013, about him being an international correspondent on the show, Noah wasn’t interested. Not yet 30, he barely knew who Stewart was, and he certainly didn’t love the idea of derailing a lucrative stand-up career to join an American TV show.” (THR)
”In 2016, the Carters voted for Bernie Sanders and not Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, and they do not feel much warmth toward the Obamas. They were clearly disappointed that the Obamas had not sought their advice on leading effective post presidential lives, and Carter felt that Obama did not pay him the proper respect when he was president.” (VanityFair)
Christina Oxenberg’s Royal Revenge! (Spotify)
“At the Times, the internal debate has centered on the Athletic. Several journalists and podcasters at the sports-focused publication had been open about wagering on sports that they write about.” (SEMAFOR)