Somehow in my highly organized list of future posts,[1] my latest collection of articles to share got bumped out of sight. Which is a shame because two of these are some of the best pieces I’ve read this year and I shouldn’t be sitting on them for over a month before I recommend them.
I have no interest in Robert Kennedy Jr. I think many of his views are abhorrent. But there is the very real chance that he could effect who is elected as our next president in 14 months.
This is a terrific profile of him. I think it’s fair, explores why he has drawn interest from some people with similar politics to my own, and still shows that he’s a loon.
It was hard to pick pull quotes as there were so many passages I loved. These are a couple of my favorites.
That’s not to say Kennedy’s campaign is a joke. He is both an addled conspiracy theorist and an undeniable manifestation of our post-pandemic politics. He is an aging but handsome scion of America’s most storied political family, facing off against an incumbent who many in his own party worry is too old and too unpopular to win a second term. Far from an exile, he is an extremely well-connected person with unparalleled access to the centers of influence in New York, Hollywood, and Washington, D.C., who either has no idea what kind of fire he’s playing with, or does and is therefore an arsonist.
If he were your uncle, you also might try hard not to pick a fight with him at Thanksgiving, or maybe you would eagerly pick a fight with him at Thanksgiving. And maybe you would tussle lightly with your parents and siblings and cousins about whether you felt sorry for him or whether he was actually just an asshole.
But if he were your uncle, he would not be performing surprisingly well in a Democratic presidential primary and gobbling the attention of the national press with his every word. That he is tells us as much about this country’s broken systems as any of his diatribes do.
And then there is the bracing reality that, here in Trump’s America, another clearly damaged man, a man whose own close-knit family has waved red flags about his fitness for office, is getting this far in the anti-Trump party.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Inside Job
This is a wonderful piece about the nearly 50 year long friendship between Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. Sometimes sports is the best.
Bitter rivals. Beloved friends. Survivors.
My regular reminder that often The Onion has the best take on recent events.
Back in the year 1823, I decided to become a slave so one day my descendants could steal college admissions slots. It was a tough decision, but boy, did it pay off big-time!
I Decided To Become A Slave So One Day My Descendants Could Steal College Admissions Spots
This final piece is focused on the Tech Toddler, but it could very easily apply to our former president. And lots of other people in the public eye who seem to live from the rush of spouting constant bullshit and having it broadcast to the world without anyone ever calling them on it.
The issue is that these stories are often published without the skepticism that is appropriate to someone who the Securities and Exchange Commission once forced to pay $20 million for saying something that wasn’t true.
It’s time to change how we cover Elon Musk
- Not actually very organized at all, obviously. ↩