Whatever happened to that big bombshell the National Enquirer was going to drop on the Ted Cruz campaign? Seth Stevenson looks into it, and finds that the staff responsible for the in-depth John Edwards–Rielle Hunter expose that ruined the senator’s campaign in 2008 has since left the publication. Stevenson doubts the Enquirer can pull off the same feat with Cruz. “Beyond the fact that the Enquirer’s Cruz reporting is barely sourced and presents no documented evidence of any kind, there are other compelling reasons not to put much stock in it,” he writes, pointing to Donald Trump’s coziness with the tabloid’s CEO and the publication’s long-dubious reputation.
Bernie Sanders, having previously decried the Democratic Party’s use of superdelegates, now seems to be meditating ways to persuade that group to support him at the Democratic Convention. “This creates a problem for the Clinton campaign,” Jim Newell writes. If Sanders tries to obstruct her nomination this way, it wouldn’t win him any friends (“Good lord, would the people who run the Democratic Party loathe him if he did this,” writes Newell), but Newell doesn’t think Sanders cares.
Climate scientist James Hansen, who has become a public advocate for action on climate change, seems radical to some—but, writes Eric Holthaus, radical tactics are what’s needed at a time of radical peril. “Why is Hansen’s claim that, for the health of the planet, we reduce our greenhouse gas emissions an unallowable example of advocacy,” Holthaus asks, “when we trust a doctor’s recommendation that we stop smoking cigarettes?”
The newfound popularity of Alexander “I Have My Own Musical” Hamilton has derailed the campaign to replace the Founding Father with a woman on the $10 bill, writes Christina Cauterucci. “[The show’s creator Lin-Manuel] Miranda might have approved of a Hamilton replacement when the show was still in development, but now that the show has blown up beyond all reasonable expectations, he’s changed his tune,” Cauterucci observes. So close! We were so close.
The Golden State Warriors are the greatest NBA team of all time, writes indefatigable Warriors booster Jack Hamilton. They’re also just so darn appealing: an incredibly hard feat to pull off, in a team so dominant.
“The thing that makes them likable is the thing that makes them great—the greatest, maybe,” writes Hamilton.
The Warriors really, really wanted this. They wanted it badly and unapologetically. They didn’t pantomime humility or serve up auto-replied banalities about how the regular season doesn’t matter in the end … The Warriors wanted to win 73 regular-season games because they wanted history, because winning 73 games is just awesome.
For fun: Intimate portraits of feathers, by photographer Robert Clark.
Don’t miss the king bird-of-paradise,
Rebecca
