presidents of FIFA only do this when they're very distressed
George Pearkes@peark.es · 4h agooh it's getting real *INFANTINO OFFERS MOROCCO WORLD CUP FINAL FOR SUPPORT: TIMES
Alex Shephard
@alexshephard.bsky.social
senior editor at the new republic and box-to-box midfielder @goldengoalmag.bsky.social
George Pearkes@peark.es · 4h ago
Thrilled that @theguardian.com has run this fantastic profile of @gilduran.com and his intrepid reporting on the hard right turn coming out of Silicon Valley-- his forthcoming THE NERD REICH is as gripping and urgent as they come, a staggering piece of writing that puts the bigger picture together
‘If we don’t fight back, we don’t have a future’: the journalist taking on the ‘tech fascists’ of Silicon Valley
As Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and their peers have grown richer and more influential, Gil Durán argues they have all but abandoned democracy – and found the perfect government to enable them
theguardian.com
THE BUMS LOST! I SUGGEST YOU DO WHAT YOUR PARENTS DID. GET A JOB, SIR
Parker Molloy@parkermolloy.com · 2h agoKarl Rove's little whiteboard on Fox News, lol. Like... idk, man. I'm not sure that the strategy of expecting people to know a bunch of Hasan Piker lore AND them caring enough about it to the point that it affects who they vote for is going to work, but okay.
sheesh, man, this is some blog defector.com/how-do-i-tal...
How Do I Talk To My Kid About Death? | Defector
Welcome back to Minor Dilemmas, where a member of Defector’s Parents Council will answer your questions on surviving family life. Have a question? Email us at minordilemmas@defector.com. This week, Da...
defector.com
"Politics is a spiteful business. Theatrical. Occasionally bloody, which is surprising, since the job tends to attract the squeamish. But growing up inside the Beltway, politics was a bedtime story."
John DeVore@johndevore.bsky.social · 6h agoI wrote about Trump's latest grift and the larger question of how he keeps getting away with it newrepublic.com/article/2139...
This Is the Real Story of Trump’s Presidency—If Democrats Will Tell It
His Truth Social subscription scheme and IRS immunity are just the latest chapters in a massive, ever-growing book about his self-dealing and corruption.
newrepublic.com
seems pretty clear in retrospect that the decision by Third Way to polarize the Michigan senate race as pro/anti El Sayed was a humongous tactical blunder it was also predictable at the time -- polarizing the electorate in a three-way race is really dumb just in terms of arithmetic
I'd be singing the praises of What to Carry, What to Burn even if @blairbraverman.bsky.social wasn't a friend & fellow traveler. It's thrilling, moving, surprising--and of interest to me as a writer, a study in adaptation, knitting sources together into a new tale. podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/w...
What to Carry, What to Burn
True Crime Podcast · Edge-of-your-seat survival stories, as told by adventurer and dogsledder Blair Braverman. How did Ada Blackjack endure a brutal Arctic winter alone? Why did one shipwreck crew wor...
podcasts.apple.com
people are way too precious and defensive about this website
The Verge@theverge.com · 2d agoBluesky's new CEO Toni Schneider on the platform's reputation for being a liberal bubble: "Yes, we definitely want that to change. It is already changing. It certainly wasn’t designed to attract one specific group of people."
I understand on some level that the early success of Spotify's Discover Weekly was based on extensive human curation but it's incredible now that whenever I (rarely) look at mine it's like "have you heard the song 'Visions of Johanna' by Bob Dylan"
industry is absolutely reviled and its turning to its closers, kyrsten sinema and eric adams
Jessy Edwards@jessyedwards.bsky.social · 2d agoA video taken Saturday shows former NYC Mayor Eric Adams in sales pitch mode in Wisconsin Rapids, as he's heckled by residents opposed to the data center he's trying to sell them on. "My name is Eric Adams," he begins, as the boos begin to rain down. "You belong in prison!" one attendee shouts.
She was a fucking moron and obvious fraud when she started doing “poll modeling” for 2018 and it’s only gone downhill since then.
Nathan Goldwag @goldwagnathan.bsky.social · 2d agoI first encountered Bitecofer in a election analysis Twitter feed in 2020, and assumed she was a crank based entirely off the fact that she kept asserting that she had a Grand Unified Theory of politics that could win all elections and accusing people of trying to steal credit for it.
I suspect this is not about saving his job as much as golden parachuting, and lol good luck Gianni.
Alex Shephard@alexshephard.bsky.social · 2d agoTrump hanging Infantino out to dry would be the perfect end to the long 2026 World Cup nypost.com/2026/08/03/b...
Trump hanging Infantino out to dry would be the perfect end to the long 2026 World Cup nypost.com/2026/08/03/b...
Exclusive | Under-fire FIFA boss Gianni Infantino begs Trump White House to save his job, set for talks with Marco Rubio: sources
Two sources familiar with the matter said the under-fire Swiss-Italian sports suit will hold a call with Donald Trump’s top diplomat just after 9am Eastern Time.
nypost.com
I think maybe if Gianni Infantino had simply made a few more appearances at World Cup games looking dour and serious in a fancy box wearing a suit he could’ve pulled this plan off
"Infantino decided that no one can lay a glove on him because he—not FIFA—owns the World Cup. He is behaving like a king, even more so than usual."
Alex Shephard@alexshephard.bsky.social · 6d agoI wrote about the latest idiocy from Gianni Infantino newrepublic.com/article/2137...
Like a lot of megalomaniacs and aspiring autocrats, Gianni Infantino looked at Donald Trump and thought "I could do that." It turns out it's harder than it looks. newrepublic.com/article/2137...
What Gianni Infantino Learned From Donald Trump
The FIFA president’s plan to sell off a stake of the World Cup suggests he’s emulating his hero.
newrepublic.com
Hopefully UEFA can throw around its weight and replace Infantino with a reformer like France great and former UEFA head Michel Platini
Alex Shephard@alexshephard.bsky.social · 6d agoI wrote about the latest idiocy from Gianni Infantino newrepublic.com/article/2137...
they dont tell you that you can just listen to McCoy Tyner whenever you want
The Trump administration sued Yale for its admissions policies (alleging too much diversity). Yale is negotiating with DOJ, whereas Harvard fought Trump. The former dean of Yale Law School thinks he knows the real reason why. slate.com/news-and-pol...
Harvard Fought Trump’s Abuses. Yale May Fold. I Think I Know Why.
Seeking to set a new course for the conservative movement, J.D. Vance in 2021 declared war on institutions of American higher education.
slate.com
"This idea of a human merger with machines has been a motif in Musk’s intellectual life, which has remained in many ways (and with many terrible results) that of an arrogant and cloistered adolescent boy." www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Space Oddity | Mark O’Connell
Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff’s Muskism examines how Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire, by selling a vision of the future that very few people would want to inhabit.
nybooks.com
you probably cannot expand the revenue generating opportunities of a Spain-Portugal-Morocco World Cup if two of the host countries don't host
Mike Goodman@themlg.bsky.social · 6d agoOn a functional level, for fifa, this plan cannot work at this price level without uefa. So we will see what’s next.
"Are they fearful of the socialists’ plans to ensure all Americans have health care and stop genocide, or are they not horrified by what Trump has done. Here’s what scares me: that Allen and VandeHei would say “yes” to both," writes @alexshephard.bsky.social. newrepublic.com/article/2136...
The New Red Scare Is Here—and It’s Dumber Than Ever
These Beltway pundits desperately want us to believe that there’s an equivalent of Trumpism on the left.
newrepublic.com
my general take on Nolan's films from Batman to The Odyssey is that they're really fun to see on a huge screen, but not particularly engaging to revisit on a small screen largely because they just don't reward engaged thought. Which is why my Odyssey take is "I had a good time"
At the top there's also a short update about our future plans for the magazine (which you can now purchase for just $15!) goldengoalmag.substack.com/p/goodbye-to...
Goodbye to the 2026 World Cup
The Golden Goal team pays tribute to the latest installment of the world’s greatest sporting event
goldengoalmag.substack.com