Alex Shephard

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JE4...

thank you Leander!

I've backed Golden Goal, a new (print!) soccer magazine on the World Cup that promises lots of insight and great writing, like the newsletter below.

You should, too.

It doesn't seem like an accident that the administration keeps splicing footage from this war with stuff from video games and action movies because many of the people overseeing this war seem to think it is no different from a video game or an action movie

These people obviously speak like this because they're sociopathic cretins but I do also wonder if the specific conditions of contemporary warfare also insulate them from the consequences of their actions enough that they can simply choose to ignore the human toll if they want to

There’s More to Messi’s White House Visit Than Meets the Eye To really understand Inter Miami's awkward trip to Washington D.C. you have to look at the team's owner, Jorge Mas.

Why was Messi really at the White House? For this week's @goldengoalmag.bsky.social newsletter, I wrote about Trump, Cuba, Inter Miami president Jorge Mas and the legacy of his father, Jorge Mas Canosa, the godfather of Cuban American politicians. goldengoalmag.substack.com/p/theres-mor...

While most of the focus on Inter Miami's visit to the White House has understandably focused on Messi, the real story is the team's owner Jorge Mas, who is using his star player to help bring about his father's dream: goldengoalmag.substack.com/p/theres-mor...

this was exactly our response

One thing we learned while working on this story but did not include is that Jorge Mas's son appears to be dating Marco Rubio's daughter...

There’s More to Messi’s White House Visit Than Meets the Eye To really understand Inter Miami's awkward trip to Washington D.C. you have to look at the team's owner, Jorge Mas.

For this week's @goldengoalmag.bsky.social newsletter, @salazar.bsky.social wrote about Jorge Mas, the billionaire Inter Miami owner, who just used Lionel Messi to push the Trump administration toward regime change in Cuba goldengoalmag.substack.com/p/theres-mor...

The idea that Trump was an "isolationist," let alone "antiwar" was always absurd. He loves using American military power and has always been convinced that he can use it in "smart" ways—as opposed to the "stupid" Iraq War. That arrogance got us into this mess newrepublic.com/article/2077...

With the War in Iran, Trump Has Launched His Own Brand of Forever War A decade ago, Trump promised an end to military interventions like the disaster in Iraq. Instead, he’s merely reinventing them.

I wrote about Trump's aggressive, hubristic, increasingly chaotic foreign policy and a 2016 "antiwar" debate clip that has been misunderstood for a decade newrepublic.com/article/2077...

With the War in Iran, Trump Has Launched His Own Brand of Forever War A decade ago, Trump promised an end to military interventions like the disaster in Iraq. Instead, he’s merely reinventing them.

excellent @alexshephard.bsky.social piece looking back on Trump's headline "antiwar" moment in the 2016 campaign, the South Carolina primary debate

we should see the Iran fiasco as arising from the unilateralist, imperialist ideology he articulated on that stage newrepublic.com/article/2077...

if you peep the new issue of vanity fair you can see this chart I worked on mapping all the terrible people whose ideas trickle their way into the White House, along with their various beefs. You could call it the everyone is 12 chart

The Trump administration selecting for pure ideologues means no one in the room could read a map or do basic ballistic math and now everything's going to get more expensive as people keep dying to serve a war whose entire desire effect is making snuff films with military cameras for social media.

we've been emailing with him, a thrilling experience

also they reference Miguel's (great) Colombia jersey but for the record I was wearing a Salmon Rondon shirt, a futile attempt to keep the flame that @jonawils.bsky.social lit alive

If you would like to watch me try to explain @goldengoalmag.bsky.social, talk about my weird growing USMNT fandom, and awkwardly reference Absalom, Absalom! to two writers (and people) I admire very much, the interview is also on YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbTN...

The first @goldengoalmag.bsky.social trivia night was a huge success! We'll be hosting these monthly until the tournament begins. Follow along here for more updates: goldengoalmag.substack.com

this certainly seems like a threat!

but maybe the way to do it is to just fully commit to the bit and insist that all subsequent Tommaso "hoaxes" were done by a copycat and that the real Tommaso was dead (crashed his vespa into a cannoli stand while catcalling a woman)

realized recently that I could do a really good Tommaso Debenedetti death hoax but if I did it would only make him happy

So proud to be a part of this project, and to have worked with so many excellent writers. I hope you love it. Thanks, @sandyernestallen.bsky.social for having me.

Sara Yasin’s new digital magazine, The Key, will center Palestine. The Key launched with an essay by the new magazine’s editor in chief Sara Yasin called “It’s Not Complicated.” The essay is part reflection, part media criticism, part thesis statement for th…

At @literaryhub.bsky.social, I spoke with Sara Yasin about the new publication she’s editing, The Key

Barron? also this was a print piece so finished a while ago

my brain may just be telling me it wants beef jerky or I might be having a stroke... possibly both

IDK why but every time i scroll quickly by this photo I think Kash is speaking behind a lectern featuring the Buc-ee's logo

My Year as a Degenerate Sports Gambler Practically overnight, America made wagering on a game as frictionless as checking the weather. I was determined to understand the consequences—for my country, and for myself.

This is as good as everyone says it is, read it www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

We're just going to Wages of Fear/Sorcerer the global oil supply