Want to freak out about the election? Slate has you covered! Isaac Chotiner makes a sober, well-reasoned, and convincing argument that panic is a rational response to Donald Trump’s “almost incomprehensible rise from birther-conspiracist celebrity half-wit to presumptive nominee.” Meanwhile, Jamelle Bouie points out, Bernie Sanders has signaled his willingness to tear the Democratic Party in two. “In the past month, Sanders has switched gears, from a policy critique of Clinton to a process argument against the Democratic Party,” Bouie writes. “The argument? That any outcome short of full deference to his campaign is evidence of corruption and betrayal.”
Elsewhere in the total breakdown of the norms that hold our fragile polity together: The Supreme Court is broken. Dahlia Lithwick describes the court “careen[ing] between 4–4 splits, unanimous narrow orders, and variously styled ducks and punts, in an effort to communicate that it is serenely above partisan politics.”
A political story you might not have noticed amid the electoral pandemonium: The quiet rise of the Christian left. Ruth Graham’s Slate cover story finds the progressive Christian spirit “in those who use Jesus’ inspiration to advocate for criminal justice reform, in feminists who view him as a disrupter of the patriarchy, and in the everyday churchgoers who see their values better reflected by the economic and social agenda of the mainstream left. … And if they are ever going to reinsert themselves into the heartbeat of American culture, this just might be their moment.”
Willa Paskin’s review made me excited for Maria Bamford’s new Netflix series Lady Dynamite, which aims “to be strange, to be funny, to be like nothing else.” And Willa is reading the next selection in a Year of Great Books: My Ántonia by her namesake Willa Cather. Start reading now—Willa and Laura Miller will be discussing the book on the Year of Great Books podcast in late June.
Recommended From Around the Web
“Bill Clinton’s Big Moment: His Health, His Battle Plan for Trump, and What He’ll Do if Hillary Wins” by Jason Zengerle, GQ
Zengerle is one of my favorite political reporters and writers, and this was a piece I’d been dying to read: An account, from the trail, of Bill Clinton’s place in his wife’s campaign and an attempt to measure his present command of his once great political powers. Zengerle’s article did not disappoint; it’s a thoughtful, closely observed portrait of a liberal lion in winter. —John Swansburg, deputy editor
“Jeeves and a Man Called The Donald” by Ben Schott, the Spectator
Schott’s pitch-perfect replication of Bertie Wooster, P.G. Wodehouse’s immortal narrator, imagines what might have occurred if a certain presidential candidate appeared as a guest at one of the many country homes where Bertie squandered his existence, racist butler in tow. The scary thing is how closely reality resembles what once would have been farcical caricature. —Laura Miller, books and culture columnist
Musical interlude: I asked people on Twitter to recommend a song that most people don’t know. Then I put all the songs into a Spotify playlist. It’s great!
“Experts Fear Climate Change Will Lead to More Tiger Attacks in the Sundarbans” by Ari Shapiro, NPR
This vivid piece of radio features at its heart a man’s terrifying firsthand account of being attacked by one of the Bengal tigers he works to protect. With rich tape and writing, it puts listeners right in the Bangladeshi Sundarbans and demonstrates climate change’s impact on human, forest, and beast. —Seth Maxon, home page editor
Also: Phil Plait recommends this “really interesting but also horrifying” listicle about tapeworms. Via Felix Salmon, here’s what our bicycles would look like if they were built according to people’s attempts to draw them from memory. And ProPublica added another installment to its merciless, infuriating series of investigative reports on the Red Cross’s ineptitude.
Read anything great on the web lately? Write back telling us what and why, and we might run your email in next week’s newsletter.
Very Short Q-and-A
This week’s personal questions are addressed to Seth Stevenson.
Slate Plus: OK so, how did it feel to have your ass kicked at chess by a third-grader?
Seth Stevenson: I knew it was going to happen, so I had steeled myself for the eventuality. I also attach very little ego to my chess skills. (If he had written a better Slate column than me, which now that I’ve met him also seems quite possible, it would have been more demoralizing.)
One thing I was not prepared for was Nico’s healthy serving of sass. I knew from interviewing chess champs that psychology is a huge part of the game. But for a third-grader, Nico was a prodigious smacktalker. He also had an inscrutable poker face. And given the way he pulled off that jaunty signature hat he wears, it’s evident that he is much cooler than me. All in all, a very intimidating 9-year-old presence.
If I were to ask you to describe how he beat you on a chess level, rather than on a psychological level, do you understand the game well enough to describe it?
Sort of. I tried to begin with the Ruy Lopez opening, a classic and popular opening for white. But Nico almost immediately disrupted it by throwing a wrench in my works (adding, “I hate classical openings”). Once we got past the opening to the early middle game, I was pretty much at sea. I’d been counseled to play conservatively (perhaps out of fear he’d beat me in three minutes and we’d have to vamp the rest of the time), but he took advantage of my timidity by mounting an aggressive push into my turf. By the time I foolishly blundered away a piece (I’m blaming nerves and the distraction of the camera) it was all over but the taunting. Even me just summarily stealing his pieces midgame had zero effect on him. I noticed he had to actually pause and ponder for a second when it came time to devise an end sequence to mate me and put me out of my misery. Otherwise, I think he pretty much beat me on autopilot.
Thanks, Seth! Sorry for your loss.
And thank you for your Slate Plus membership, which makes our journalism possible. See you next week!
Gabriel Roth
Editorial director, Slate Plus
