Ain't that America

The Shacked Hoosier, Weekend Whats

Lately, the headlines have hurt. So let’s close out the week with a brief respite and focus instead on a story that hurts so good. It’s hard to explain to the non college football fan just how unlikely it is that Indiana would find itself as the undefeated favorite to win a national championship on Monday night against Miami. Before Curt Cignetti showed up at his first press conference as the new football coach at a basketball school in December of 2023, where he famously proclaimed, “I win. Google me,” things were bleak. “In 1976, then-coach Lee Corso called timeout in the second quarter to snap a photo of the scoreboard with Indiana leading Ohio State 7-6. They lost 47-7. In the 1990s and 2000s, some tailgaters never made it inside the stadium, which prompted coaches to rally students to show up.” No one needs any rallying to show up now. But Indiana’s unexpected rise to the top echelon of college football isn’t the only unusual part of this story. So is the identity of their number one, longtime backer. “The program that opened the season as the losingest team in Division I football history now stands one game away from its first championship—and it hasn’t gotten there via the pursestrings of one of the world’s richest people. In fact, the Hoosiers’ most prominent booster isn’t a tech genius or hedge fund titan. It’s the guy who wrote ‘Jack & Diane.’” These lyrics, Little ditty ‘bout Jack and Diane, two American kids growin’ up in the heartland. Jacky gon’ be a football star, Diane’s debutante backseat of Jacky’s car are about the only association the average person (or even some pretty good AI) can make between John Mellencamp and the gridiron. But it turns out that Mellencamp is a major backer of Indiana football. How major? Well, the team’s practice facility is named the John Mellencamp Sports Pavilion. WSJ (Gift Article): The Chain-Smoking Rock Star Who Made Indiana Football Hurt So Good (backup link). “In recent years, the school gifted the Rock and Roll Hall-of-Famer a wooden shack affixed to the top of the stadium. There, Mellencamp—a self-described ‘anti-social guy’ —could take in a game exactly the way he wanted to. ‘I set up there, nobody bothers me,’ Mellencamp said. ‘And I can smoke.’” Win or lose, Hoosiers and underdogs everywhere should enjoy these moments while they can. After all, life goes on, long after the thrill of livin’ is gone...

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The Carny and the Carnage

“President Trump’s sweeping effort to tamp down illegal immigration, using masked federal agents who film their interactions with cellphones and often question American citizens about their legal status, has set off a surge in confrontational activism fueled by both large liberal advocacy groups and hyperlocal neighborhood networks. In Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis, established groups representing labor and immigrant rights have provided funding and organized downtown rallies against the Trump administration. But fierce opposition to ICE and the Border Patrol has also sprung up through block clubs, neighborhood group chats, school Facebook groups and Catholic parishes, stretching beyond the typical Democratic voter base.” And with that, one of Trump’s more popular issues became one of his least popular. NYT (Gift Article): How ICE Crackdowns Set Off a Resistance in American Cities.

+ That’s not to say the resistance is bothering Trump. The chaos and violence have long been his aim. “The goal all along, it appears, was something like what’s happening today in Minnesota: a street-theatre carnival of violence, mostly instigated by the federal government itself, in an effort to create a genuine security crisis that Trump can then step in to resolve.” Susan B. Glasser in The New Yorker: The Minnesota War Zone Is Trump’s Most Trumpian Accomplishment. “Minnesota is his legacy. It is American carnage made real.”

+ People don’t seem to be as likely to buy the lies about the Minneapolis shooting as they were during past scandals. Even if the org formerly known as CBS News is trying to help. “Some CBS News employees expressed concern after the network cited two anonymous ‘US officials’ on Wednesday to report that the ICE officer who fatally shot Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis suffered internal bleeding to the torso after the incident.” (The only thing suffering from internal bleeding is the Constitution.)

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This is U.S.

If you’re susceptible to nausea, vomiting, or banging yourself on the head I could’ve had a V8 style, you might want to stop reading now. Venezuela’s opposition leader María Corina Machado gave Trump her Nobel Peace Prize. It’s hard to blame Machado. These are the obvious psych-ops on Trump, and this is how nations and individuals know they can curry favor with our dear leader. It’s sad, but this is us.

+ Jimmy Kimmel offered the president his choice of several of his trophies (even his Webby) if he agrees to pull ICE out of Minneapolis. F-ck it, for that, I’m willing to throw in my award for Best Email Newsletter of 1999. And it’s a beaut.

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Weekend Whats

What to Watch: Between awards shows, talk shows, and a whole lot of marketing, you’re probably aware that The Pitt on HBO is back with its second season. It’s a really a good show. My teenage daughter and I both love it. That’s got to mean something.

+ What to Doc: The Stringer on Netflix is an interesting and controversial documentary in which investigators try to uncover the truth about who took an era-defining photo from the Vietnam War. In our snap-judgement era, when we’re constantly being lied to by those at the very top, it’s worth considering how much digging it takes to get one answer about one photo that’s still being debated after a half century.

+ What to Wear: The NextDraft Store, home of some of your favorite shirts and hoodies, is having a 20% off sale today. Enter the coupon code Flashsalefriday under Discounts during checkout.

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Extra, Extra

Uncle Scam Wants You: “The scam center, Shunda Park, opened for business in 2024 with more than 3,500 workers from nearly 30 nations, including Namibia, Russia, Zimbabwe and France. Some had been kidnapped and enslaved, but all had become skilled in the art of the online grift. When the scammers bilked $5,000 out of someone, they struck a Chinese gong. A $50,000 shakedown earned a celebratory pounding of a giant drum, then an offering to a Chinese deity resplendent in his golden altar.” An NYT (Gift Article) Photo Essay: At This Office Park, Scamming the World Was the Business. “While each nationality required a different approach — for Americans, one scammer told me, the preferred mark was ‘white old men’ — the general approach was the same: an online foray by a sympathetic and attractive person, followed by an invitation to participate in a select investment opportunity.”

+ See No Evil, Hear No Evil: “In my experience, many leaders harbor deep concerns about Mr. Trump’s lawlessness, weaponization of the government, and interference in markets. They refrain from public criticism not because they find nothing to criticize but because they’re intimidated. Such fear is understandable. Even so, when the business community and our leaders cease to speak out on matters of public concern, they turn their backs on the foundations of our country’s success.” Robert E. Rubin with a question we’ve all been asking: Why Have Business Leaders Gone Silent?

+ A Trump of Coal: “This time around, the Trump administration has gone much further to rescue coal, with more success. Last year, the amount of electricity produced by coal increased 13 percent, and retirements have slowed.” But it’s not cheap. It’s not clean. And it probably doesn’t make much sense, even for many in the coal business. Trump Wants to Halt Almost All Coal Plant Shutdowns. It Could Get Messy.

+ Managing Expectations: Trump says he may punish countries with tariffs if they don’t back the US controlling Greenland. Here’s a little history on the matter from a comedian based in Denmark: Dear America, We’d Like to Speak to the Manager. “You see, we know the Greenlanders. They’re a proud Indigenous people who are not interested in being Americans. You can’t just buy them off. So Trump is running wild. He’s kidnapping presidents. He’s invading other countries without congressional approval. And frankly, we don’t want that mess spilling into Greenland or Europe — or Legoland, for that matter.”

+ Doing Time and Again: Trump has issued so many pardons to so many undeserving recipients that he’s having to double up. “In 2021, a convicted fraudster named Adriana Camberos was freed from prison when President Trump commuted her sentence. Rather than taking advantage of that second chance, prosecutors said, Ms. Camberos returned to crime. She and her brother were convicted in 2024 in an unrelated fraud.” Trump pardons a convicted fraudster for the second time.

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Feel Good Friday

“Kids who never met me cared about me enough to put hard work into a vehicle to make sure myself and my kids were safe ... I got to meet all of them; it was breathtaking.” WaPo (Gift Article): High school students fix up cars, then hand the keys to single mothers.

+ Adrian Stubbs, a guard at Maryvale High School in Phoenix, enjoyed a historic game on Tuesday night, when he scored 100 points — in three quarters.

+ San Francisco to make childcare free for families earning up to $230,000.

+ Scientists Develop Spray-On Powder That Instantly Seals Life-Threatening Wounds. (I’ll believe it when I see it on The Pitt.)

+ Rescue dog found after 54 days in wilderness on Vancouver’s North Shore.