I'm Rubber, You're Glue

I have been in a hole, a mental cave, an information chasm, for the past month. We are in the process of moving, and it has completely taken over my life. I am selling a bunch of furniture, buying other furniture, and trawling Facebook Marketplace like my life depends on it. The Olympics largely passed me by. I am constantly scrambling at work (or so it seems). My social life is near-comatose. BUT I have stayed abreast of the political news, because how could I not? It feels so novel to nurse hope(!) and have politics be weird in a fun way (instead of the usual what-is-happening-why-is-this-happening-WTF-WTF-WTF way). I appreciate Kamala Harris and Tim Walz’s “joyful-warrior” energy, and I’m thoroughly Walz-pilled right now even though I know the comedown from the high will be rough when I am inevitably let down. I listened to an Ezra Klein interview with Walz a couple of days before he became the VP pick, and I was astounded by what a great communicator he was. Usually I find listening to politicians pretty unbearable — case in point, Nancy Pelosi on her current book tour. Walz never felt like he was shoving talking points into my ear; he just sounded human. It takes a lot of skill to make it seem that easy.

Anyway, it’s kinda astounding how feebly the right has been attacking Harris and Walz. Trump spent the last year or two bloviating about how old Biden was; now he’s the dodderer in the race. His insults of Harris’s intelligence just don’t sound credible; his attempt to spin the Howard alum as “not Black until a few years ago” was just pathetic. The “Laffin' Kamala” nickname just underscores how unhappy Trump is, at all times. Walz is just Teflon at this point, in stark contrast to the many, many comments J.D. Vance is probably regretting voicing now. Trump and Vance’s criticisms are so weak that all they’re doing is making themselves look bad making them. And that’s a spectacle I’ve made time to enjoy.

-Inkoo

—“The Thrill of Taking a Huge Risk on Kamala Harris.” I guess this Rebecca Traister piece is a bit old now, but it really summed up a lot of my feelings when Harris became the presidential nominee.

—“Kim Yeji: The Paris Olympics’ coolest athlete and a South Korean superstar.” Good for her!

—“Why are so many female pop stars flopping?” A vibe shift in music.

—“Abercrombie is Back.” An interesting marketing story.

—“The Hollywood production collapse’s latest victim: Why the reality TV bubble finally burst.” A lot of different reasons!

—“In Lady in the Lake, Ambition Is Everything.” I think I liked this Natalie Portman show a lot more than other critics.

—“House of the Dragon Still Hasn’t Caught Fire.” My review of Season 2.