Mike Mayer

who could have seen this coming www.nytimes.com/2025/08/07/b...

I will say that the Sydney Sweeney thing ended up being perfectly timed because they were desperate to talk about anything other than Epstein. Great stroke of luck for American Eagle.

That's the skeleton key to understanding this whole episode: there was no lib backlash to the Sweeney ad. There were a few random online comments. That's it. But they ginned that up into a full-fledged, media-dominating news cycle that has been running for *weeks* now.

Democrats: We must only speak of kitchen table issues. Nothing else.

Republicans:

Late to this but what a cowardly answer. The only interpretation is that he agrees.

Also… he was on a “winning streak”? He’s at like 37% approval and dealing with a genuine scandal in re Epstein. How would any other president be covered in that scenario?

With the willing participation of the right wing media apparatus looking to distract people from the fact that the president is in the Epstein files

It seems quite obvious that the “backlash” to the Sydney Sweeney/American Eagle thing is being driven by American Eagle to get attention for their advertisement

The fact that they care about the basic rule of law and functioning of the republic?

Not a remotely new phenomenon. I vividly remember “fear of crime rising while actual crime is dropping” was a thesis of Bowling for Columbine back in like 1999. But the media at large is incapable of any sort of introspection about anything.

The fact that literally zero outlets ever cover crime decline as a story is a huge reason. (And before you yell at me, we do!)

Once you start to notice, it is striking how much of the NY Times’ supposed journalism is actually full of nonsense analysis. Basically “just asking questions” disguised as journalism.

So a targeted assassin who drove cross-country with a gun bought in Vegas and went into one building with intent is relevant to "public" safety now? And even though his first victim was a police officer in the building, he would somehow magically be stopped by more cops on the street? Okay. Okay.

Screenshot of text: [Highlighting begins] But the shooting may put concerns over gun violence back on voters’ minds, and may lead some to further scrutinize Mr. Mamdani, [Highlighting ends] who has relatively limited experience in government and has not handled a high-profile crisis while in office.

One fascinating thing about the most self-serious newspaper in America with its staff of the winning journalistic meritocrats is that it routinely, institutionally publishes completely made-up bullshit speculation about pure abstractions, based on zero reporting, written as if it were plain facts

So uh this is shaping up to be the biggest sports betting scandal of recent times?

I KNEW they were going to flip that rat

Partially because they are all 80 years old and do not consume information the way everyone else does

Why are you not capable of doing both? “He’s lying about healthcare just like he lied about being in the Epstein files.”

Pathetic, contemptible failure of US elites, everywhere you look.

The @wsj.com this summer

Things are going great when the deputy FBI director is concerned about the effects of the bureau's actions on his podcast audience www.wsj.com/politics/jus...

I’ve seen people do the galaxy brain thing where they say that the Epstein stuff is meant to distract us from XYZ. But actually I think it is pretty obvious that the reason he’s talking about the Washington football and Cleveland baseball teams is that he wants to distract us from the Epstein story.

i hate this but

There is a long history of people putting on capes to argue that athletes should not make more money. I sort of get it at a visceral level. But the thing they don’t grapple with is that the athletes making less money means the billionaires who own the teams just make more.

*Pulls up a chair* Let’s have a little talk about startup valuation and accounting…..

Once again: "Who was president in 2020?" Is a question so many politicians, pundits and even mainstream media have a hard time answering correctly.

Love that there are logos for both TNT and Dazn while watching a game on TBS. Very clear and useful branding by all involved.

So this guy will spend a bunch of money to get embarrassed in a pro tennis match and will probably dump a billion into Eric Adams’s campaign. But god forbid he should have to pay a slightly higher marginal tax rate

Judkins was maybe the one thing I could almost get excited about for the Browns seasons, so of course

This is a confession