In which we discuss Abe’s exciting new business opportunity, Trump’s bogus executive orders, this column, Michael Jordan’s The Last Dance, and reveal what’s crawling out of the Content Maw this month.

You can find Abe’s new podcast here, here, or here.

And here’s some found footage of Abe dealing with the consequences of his decision to strike out on his own.

Just kidding. Abe’s not going anywhere. But, if you really need more Abe in your earholes, here’s The Buffer on Twitter, and they should be searchable on all your preferred podcast-catching apps.

Here’s video of Trump being pulled out of the briefing room by the Secret Service following an officer-involved shooting outside the White House.

Here’s some related reading on Trump’s executive orders / Official Expressions of Presidential Feelings About Stuff.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/08/09/heres-what-is-actually-trumps-four-executive-orders/

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/11/trump-executive-order-evictions-coronavirus-393978

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/trumps-latest-executive-orders-are-a-political-stunt

Ted Cruz is suddenly rather concerned about the debt and deficit.

Whoopsie Boom. A good blog.

Here’s the new podcast—Secretly Incredibly Fascinating, with Alex Schmidt—with which Bob has a small bone to pick, with regard to a particularly silly little virtue signal.

And because you can never see it enough times, here’s Trump trying to pronounce “Yosemite.”

Here is some reading on the Mayor Alex Morse fella who is in some cancel-y hot water over his consensual relationships with other grown adult human beings.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/08/10/alex-morse-holyoke-mayor-college-democrats/

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/511521-bowman-puts-pause-on-his-endorsement-of-progressive-house-candidate-facing

https://taibbi.substack.com/p/the-new-puritans

Here’s the piece from Ranjan Roy that says Actual Sex is to Pornography as Actual Conversations are to Social Media. The relevant part:

For any of you that may have ever perused a pornography website, you may have noticed the scenarios getting increasingly preposterous over the years. Multiple partners and medically improbable appendages are the base case. I am cognizant that the situations presented are not representative of ‘real life’. They are not representative of typical sexual relations. I'm sure the scenarios presented on porn sites really do happen sometimes, but they're highly exaggerated outliers.

I’ve been a tech platform cassandra for my non media+tech friends for a few years now, but trying to explain how ad-based business models and algorithms combine to create a completely distorted understanding of reality has been difficult. The one thing that almost instantly breaks through is to equate the reality presented in a social feed to porn. Yes, the things you are presented with are real and do exist, but they are not representative of the mundane nature of everyday life. Again, highly exaggerated outliers.

In the same way none of us are going to pornhub and searching "suburban pudgy 40something couple missionary" (maybe you are and kudos to you) the algorithm does not promote the uninteresting and the unstimulating. If there is any censorship on these platforms, it’s of the tedious and routine elements of life.

To look at your Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter feed as representative of reality is to look at Pornhub and think "this is how most people have sex".

Bob’s short essay from May of 2016 called “How We Are Aggrieved.”

This is not politics. This is the insurmountable din of our uncountable individual voices shouting about how we have been victimized--this is humans. This country was founded and built by the aggrieved, under the banner of claimed victimhood, of persecution and unfair taxes and illegitimate rule--and in angry confrontation of the idea that somebody else was here first, and sovereign, and human too. This country was nearly torn apart by the aggrieved, under the banner of claimed victimhood, of states’ rights and economic autonomy and illegitimate rule--and in angry confrontation of the idea that somebody else was human, and sovereign, too. I imagine most countries were founded by the aggrieved. We are not unique, we are just humans.

Trump is a self-made straw man ablaze in a mirrored room, and we crowd in around the fire, tightly packed shoulder to shoulder within these glass rectangles, watching and being watched. We watch him burn, yes--but mostly we look away, we look to each other, to watch the fire tell us a story as the flames dance in our eyes and across our faces, the same story we always tell, the story of how we are aggrieved.

Everything is disgusting. Just check Twitter.

Anything resembling a college football season is looking increasingly unlikely, despite protestations from the President.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/can-college-football-teams-actually-switch-conferences-to-play-in-2020-with-their-leagues-shut-down/

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/29640222/sources-big-ten-pulls-plug-fall-football-season

https://thebulwark.com/donald-trump-and-clay-travis-together-at-last/

The Atlanta Braves disclosed just how disastrous the pandemic has been for the team’s finances. It hasn’t been good.

We’re watching 2001: A Space Odyssey in the Content Maw this month. You can find it on HBO MAX, almost certainly your local library, rent it from any of the streaming services, or I’ll just mail you my old copy on DVD if you ask extra nicely.

Oh, and here’s the inspiration / thing I ripped off for the silly audio at the end of the episode. It’s pronounced Frankensteen.”

That’s it! See you on the blog later in the week.