David L.

I'm torn on Trump interfering with World Cup. On the one hand, if it feels like we're getting a special advantage, it defeats point of sports, which is supposed to be on merit. On the other hand, I like that Trump finally did something for us. And red card was BS in first place.

The most interesting part of the red card saga isn't the ruling. It's how differently Americans and Europeans process the idea that they might have been wronged. Europeans are fundamentally different from Americans in one particular way: they expect life to be aggravating and at times unfair. It's just a fact of moving through the world. I joke that in Europe, the customer is always wrong. You didn't read the fine print. The only pharmacy in town is closed every other Tuesday for three hours, and even if the times weren't posted, that's still your problem. Too bad if you want the bill, because the waiter's on his union-mandated half-hour smoke break, and you're just going to have to wait. To quote the great Mark Knopfler: sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug. There's something freeing in that. Things are less in your control, so there's less angst in managing your expectations. In America, things couldn't be more different. We simply can't accept a wrong left unrighted. The flight attendant sneezed handing you a drink on your one-hour flight? 15,000 frequent flyer miles. Didn't like your appetizer? A replacement is on the way, and the whole course comes off the bill. There's a reason our interstates are lined with trial lawyer billboards. Europeans have turned complaining into a continental pastime with no expectation that the universe owes them a remedy for their grief. You gripe about the train being late, your friends nod solemnly and everyone goes back to their apéro. In America, we launch a full-blown investigation of the train system, sue the government (and its contractors) that allowed for the tardiness and hold a Congressional hearing on the state of national infrastructure. So to an objective observer, the red card shouldn't have happened, and VAR was a travesty. To Americans, our star player shouldn't be unfairly banned from a match we couldn't afford to lose for a card he so obviously didn't deserve. Who cares that FIFA used a little-used reversal to fix it. Who cares that other people are mad about it. We. Were. Wronged. It was unjust. It must be corrected. We would accept nothing less. Europeans waxing poetic about the sanctity of the game are, of course, talking about a governing body whose last tournament host was decided via confirmed cash bribes — one that imposed dress codes on women, shrugged off widespread allegations of modern slavery and reconfigured the entire tournament calendar to suit the host country. Which is exactly the point. If you've made peace with all of that, at least enough to watch the tournament four years later, a probationary suspension isn't actually a scandal. Maybe that's the real divide. Over millennia, Europeans have made peace with being the bug. Americans have never once considered it, and apparently, we're not about to start now.

A Ford worker was fired after being accused of stealing a cookie, only for the company to later confirm he had paid for it The employee declined an offer to return after losing his job of 11 years

Trump says he can tell if immigrants are bad based on how they “look”: "You could look at some of them and you could say 'this is trouble.'"

The Trump administration approved three new “forever chemical”-based pesticides last week for use on food crops, including corn and soybeans — the most widely grown crops in the country — as well as wheat, kiwi, oats, peas, broccoli and coffee. These new chemicals — diflufenican, epyrifenacil, trifludimoxazin — have all been quietly approved without a standard press release. Trump approved other PFAS-based pesticides cyclobutrifluram and isocycloseram earlier this year, and the first food use of chlormequat — which is already found in 90% of Americans’ blood. An EPA scientist wrote in the approval documents that at least one of these new PFAS-based pesticides is “suggestive evidence of carcinogenic potential.” These approvals come just days after the Supreme Court sided with chemical maker Bayer and the Trump administration in limiting Americans’ ability to sue pesticide companies for harms linked to pesticides. Now, Americans will have a harder time holding companies accountable for the cancer-causing effects of their pesticides.

🚨 Colorado passes bill to ban AI child porn. 17 Republicans voted no.