Cool Way to Cover a Knicks Game
Eyes on Jalen Brunson: Observing the New York Knicks’ star in Miami for a night - The Athletic
Despite a rough shooting night, Brunson, who finished with 22 points, nine assists and just one turnover, did what the top players in this league do and close out games. He didn’t shy away from the moment because his shots weren’t going in. Brunson stepped into each shot in the fourth quarter like he hadn’t missed any previously. He kept his head on a swivel in the process, finding teammates and helping Towns, who scored 44 points, have a vintage Towns night in his new uniform.
Superstars always find a way to leave an impact on a game, and Brunson’s fingerprints were all over this win, most notably because of the unselfishness with which he played. That’s what separates the great from the good.
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Given how many games a beat writer has to cover, I thought this was a cool little project from The Athletic. It was evident after Monday night’s loss the Knicks knew they had to get Karl-Anthony Towns going, and they did just that. It will take 10-15 games for the team to gel with the new parts, but Brunson not having all the pressure on him to always the guy will help him and the team come playoff time.
Trump, The Court, and Texas Killed a Woman
Josseli Barnica Died in Texas After Waiting 40 Hours for Miscarriage Care — ProPublica
The fetus was on the verge of coming out, its head pressed against her dilated cervix; she was 17 weeks pregnant and a miscarriage was “in progress,” doctors noted in hospital records. At that point, they should have offered to speed up the delivery or empty her uterus to stave off a deadly infection, more than a dozen medical experts told ProPublica.
But when Barnica’s husband rushed to her side from his job on a construction site, she relayed what she said the medical team had told her: “They had to wait until there was no heartbeat,” he told ProPublica in Spanish. “It would be a crime to give her an abortion.”
For 40 hours, the anguished 28-year-old mother prayed for doctors to help her get home to her daughter; all the while, her uterus remained exposed to bacteria.
Three days after she delivered, Barnica died of an infection.
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There are no words. Anyone who supports these laws and policies are monsters. It’s time to call them out for who they are and what they are currently doing to the people of America.
🔗 The Verge Harris endorsement
A vote for Donald Trump is a vote for school shootings and measles - The Verge
the radical founding principle of the United States of America is the idea that the government’s authority to make laws and solve collective action problems comes from the consent of the governed. A clean rewrite, replacing centuries of architectural debt with what was, at the time, a cutting-edge foundation mostly unproven at scale. We vote for our leaders, they are given the power to tell us all what to do so that we might help each other reach better outcomes and be happier, and if they are bad at their jobs, we can simply throw the bums out. We open-sourced the authority, in other words. It was a big bet, and so far, it’s paid off.
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This might be the smartest and well written endorsement I have ever read. The Verge, led by Nilay Patel, does such good work on tech and more importantly tech policy and to see this made me smile. It’s nice when a publication does not treat their readers as morons and that is where The Verge thrives.
Bezos on Endorsements
Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos defends endorsement decision - The Washington Post
Bezos — who did not block presidential endorsements in the two campaigns since he bought The Post in 2013 — called his move to halt presidential endorsements “a principled decision” and also cast doubt on their usefulness. Bezos said his decision is aimed at restoring public trust in the news media.
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I have always thought that papers endorsing candidates was weird. That said the issue here is not the decision, it’s the timing. If after the 2020 election or the 2022 midterms Bezos made this decision many people would have applauded him because they feel as I do. Deciding ten days before the election while executives from another company Bezos owns met with Trump officials gives away the game. This is not about doing what is right for the paper, it’s about kissing Trump’s ring.
I have seen many people say you should not cancel because the Post still does great reporting and that it would hurt the reporters not Bezos. The problem with that is that you have to believe that Bezos won’t block other things if they are negative toward Trump. Maybe that is the case, but this week makes it hard for me to believe that.
Marc Maron Says the Obvious
The Democratic Idea. — WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
The anti-woke flank of the new fascism is being driven almost exclusively by comics, my peers. Whether or not they are self-serving or true believers in the new fascism is unimportant. They are of the movement. Whether they see themselves as acolytes or just comics doesn’t matter. Whether they are driven by the idea that what they are fighting for is a free speech issue or whether they are truly morally bankrupt racists doesn’t matter. They are part of the public face of a fascist political movement that seeks to destroy the democratic idea.
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This should not be that hard, but Marc Maron feels like he is out on an island with this take. Of course he is right.
The Knicks Did It!
They made a 2024 version of Go NY Go NY Go! Start sizing the rings.
As the saying goes… Hit the music!