Firehose #104: Throwing Shade

Also: Stolen elections

As we await the announcement of Kamala Harris’s (male, defined-on-government-forms-as-Caucasian) vice presidential running mate, brace for Iran’s latest attack on Israel, and prepare for an evening recording session, a few weekendy links to tie you over.

* It was a few days before Donald Trump’s controversial NABJ performance (which we discussed on Episode #438), but Kmele went on NewsNation’s Dan Abrams Live to duke it out with Dr. Wendy Osefo over the state of identity politics in Campaign 2024:

* At the bottom of Mailbucket #7, in a digression about epistemically unhumble tech-bros, I referenced former GOP presidential candidate and Fifth interviewee (#411) Vivek Ramaswamy. Well, V.R. this week was on Reason’s Just Asking Questions podcast, talking with Liz Wolfe and Zach Weissmueller about his vision for a “libertarian-nationalist alliance”:

* Another past guest, our pal Mary Katharine Ham (#345 & #430), produced a timely interview this week Charlie Spiering, author of the January 2024 book, Amateur Hour: Kamala Harris in the White House.

* Quick hits from our universe: Andrew Sullivan (#139, #200 & #449) wrote about the “agonizing moment of truth” between the two lousy major-party candidates. Kat Rosenfield (#448) wrote a piece that speaks to some of us girl-dads of a certain vintage: “Teenage Girls Need Judy Blume More Than Ever.” And for those who enjoy sporting controversies involving chromosomes, Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em is there to answer what is a woman?

* Perhaps anticipating Trump’s latest idiocy in Georgia, Andy Mills and Matthew Boll (#457) have initiated a new three-part series over at Reflector, on the topic of “stolen elections” throughout American history, “in the hopes that understanding them in their context will help shed light on our current political moment—and where we might be headed next.” Part 1, covering 1960 and 2000, features Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle.

Mills has been making the podcast rounds, including stints last month on Ask a Jew and The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie:

* Upcoming events include … Andy Mills! Who is yet another Friend o’ Fif’ (along with Coleman Hughes [#121, #144, #181, #188, #201, #379, #412 & #442]) invited down under for the Aug. 24-25 Festival of Dangerous Ideas being organized in part by our favorite Aussie Josh Szeps (#25, #80, #103, #117, #196, #328, #423, #445). There’s also an Aug. 12 SoHo Forum debate in NYC between octogenarian economist Art Laffer and Libertarian presidential nominee Chase Oliver on the proposition that “Among the candidates actively running for President in November, Donald Trump is the best choice.” Oh — and I’m still up for a Pittsburgh meetup either Aug. 11 or 12, but I’m gonna need to hear some more enthusiasm/ideas, people! Then Aug. 16-17 in Chicago … well, you know what time it is.

* Comment of the Week comes from Wes Peterson:

Thanks for linking to Kmele’s Dispatches from the Well with Steve Albini. I know nothing of the music industry, so I had never heard of Steve Albini until you three reverently mentioned him. I thoroughly enjoyed not only the Dispatches from the Well episode with him in it, but especially, the long interview with him. It was a very thoughtful, wide-ranging, and at the end of the day, encouraging, conversation. It had me sad that the world lost this man I had never heard of. Thank you for taking the time to speak with him and share it with us. I hope you saved the conversation on analog!

You can watch all four days of the recent Steve Albini: The Gathering at this link.

Walkoff music is one of Steve Albini’s favorite songs: