Happy Tuesday, September 15th!
FYSA, every Tuesday and Friday, I’ll be in your inbox with the latest in politics, tech & social media, culture, and other relevant topics – and I’ll share some notes and tips on what I’m keeping my eye on.
And finally, if you enjoy this newsletter and want to share it with your network (and/or your chronically online friends), or buy me a matcha, that would be so appreciated 🙏
AUTHOR’S NOTE: FIRST, I’m so sorry I missed a send last week! I will hopefully make it up with some fun things, see below…
SECOND, I am searching for examples of fun, maybe unexpected things people do during GOTV. Some examples:
Text-banking with XX org/organizer who has excellent music taste (there were many of you last cycle 🫶)
Making friendship bracelets with the voter help hotline on it and passing them out
Picking a specific Rock The Vote concert to volunteer at/see with your friends
If you have them, PLEASE SHARE YOUR IDEAS HERE! And share your handle(s) if you’re comfy with it, so I can give cred!
Supreme Court rejects Trump mail ballot restrictions ahead of midterms
It represented a stark defeat for Trump on an issue he consistently has emphasized as vital to ensuring election integrity even though there is virtually no evidence of fraud with mail ballots. The Supreme Court majority wrote that the administration’s push to implement the restrictions this year is likely to lose in court, though the brief emergency order didn’t detail its reasoning. Two justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, publicly dissented. (AP, 9/14)
Republicans’ time crunch: Data centers, sports, crypto
Some Republicans are hoping they can address voters’ affordability concerns before the election — potentially by passing a data center power bill to demonstrate the party is listening to souring popular sentiment surrounding AI infrastructure. The House is set to take up the bill, called the Ratepayer Protection Act, this week, which will help vulnerable incumbents answer voters’ concerns about data centers. (Semafor, 9/14)
The Census Bureau Is Overrun With Staffers From a MAGA Think Tank
The Census Bureau is home to vast troves of sensitive data on nearly every person living in the country, which is used for apportioning and drawing congressional districts as well as allocating federal funding based on population sizes. Experts and Census employees who spoke to WIRED worry that the noncitizen voting report is the first salvo in Census data possibly being used to undermine the results of the upcoming midterms or the 2028 presidential election. (WIRED, 9/15 – free version)
Lucy’s note: Like the piece notes, the Census Bureau has literally all the data about us and controls who gets money and who gets to elect who… so this is, unfortunately, yet again, a complete five-alarm fire
‘Pod Save America’ Is in the Wilderness Too
The show has maintained a particularly powerful platform, Litman said, not only because of the audience’s size, but because it’s chock-full of particularly eager and engaged Democrats. Sure, they might not represent a median voter, but their community — whose paid members are affectionately, parasocially referred to as “Friends of the Pod” — is activated by what they hear. On the other hand, progressives say the hosts still seem to be grappling with their centrist, politics-as-usual tendencies. (The Washington Sun, 9/14)
Your car is selling your data
Last December, a trio of House Republicans introduced the Data Rights for Information and Vehicle Electronics in Real-time, or DRIVER, Act. According to these lawmakers, the bill “reaffirms a basic principle: if you own the vehicle, you should own the data it generates.” But while the bill would give vehicle owners a bit more control over their data, it would also allow automakers to continue gathering and selling it to third-party data brokers, which makes it a nonstarter for privacy advocates. (The Verge, 9/13 – free version)
Influencers Have Lost Their Footing With Gen Z, Gen Alpha, Pacsun Report Says
The report identified a new cultural dynamic Pacsun called the “Drawbridge Generation,” which is defined by Gen Z and Gen Alpha turning to friends and family to navigate an increasingly noisy public world shaped by algorithms, news cycles and inauthentic messaging,” the company said. Influencers, however, are not trusted, with just 11 percent of respondents looking to them for financial advice or purchase decisions. Ditto for AI, where only 2 percent of young people turned to this channel for fashion advice. (WWD, 9/9 – Google Docs version)
What we’ve learned from the creator snafus at this year’s US Open
The US Open has a much different vibe than the World Cup, so brands and the creators they’re working with have to understand exactly how to show up. Expanding the fandom is crucial, especially for organizing bodies like the USTA or brands that are inherently tied to tennis, but steamrolling the existing enthusiasts could damage the sport’s reputation, experts say. (Digiday, 9/14)
Gen Z is turning hobbies into work — and missing the point
This desire to optimize is fueled by metrics and digital record-keeping. Letterboxd (for movies you’ve watched), Goodreads (books you’ve read), Backloggd (video games you’ve played) and Beli (restaurants you’ve visited) are just a few of many popular apps to track hobbies. “As soon as you put a metric to something, people want to maximize that metric, even if the metric is nonsensical or not real,” Inzlicht says. But these extrinsic measures also reduce the pleasure we derive from leisure over time. (WaPo, 9/13 – free version)
Worried About Your College Kid? Now You Can Hire a Local Mom.
Horwitz is in the business of playing a version of mom for local college students. Concierge companies offering student support have existed for decades. But in recent years, a new crop of upstarts — such as Horwitz’s company, MindyKnows; the Bama Mama in Alabama; the GA Mom in Georgia; and Campus Mom in Texas — have met additional demand from a new generation of worried parents. (NYT gift link, 9/13)
Lucy’s note: just reiterating something that everyone on the Internet has been (in this unique case, rightfully) screaming – you have to be allowed to be a mess in college! it’s how you learn to not be later!
The Dominican Baseball Factory
But in two and a half years, the $1.8 million Belfi was promised would be almost all gone. Carmona received $630,000, which represented his 35% commission. But more than $950,000 went to someone who had no hand in teaching Belfi how to play baseball. His name is Santo Caraballo, one of the most notorious moneylenders profiting from Dominican baseball. (ProPublica, 9/10)
No cities on the moon—there isn’t enough water, scientists say
The bad news is that, even assuming a generous 1 billion tons (910 million tonnes) of water to start with, without recycling, the answer to our question of sustainability is that the city would last only a few years. Even in the best-case scenario, with 98% efficient recycling of water—the same as achieved on the ISS—a city of 1 million people will run out of water in just over a century. (Phys.org, 9/14)
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Extra Credit 🤓
Substacks That Really Substacked This Week 🤌
Waist Deep, Love Island Drama & the Sociology of American Cheating with Josh Lora from Prose Society
I am such a Tell the Bees stan
COVID- not TikTok- is disabling young women from Julia Doubleday
Was Carrie Bradshaw the OG Influencer? from All The Cool Girls Read
YES imo
Sneaky Links
TL;DR I’ve inexplicably started receiving codes to stuff… here are the things I actually like :)
My BNTO code for September is 8Y8R4F for $20 off (if you know me IRL, you know my rant about the Nuulification of the 20-something city dweller)
I also have a code for CampSnap??? And I do love my CS8 camera from them, but I don’t think I said that online? Either way, it’s LUCYR7 for 7% off!
That’s all for now – I’ll see you on Friday!
Thank you for the shout! <3
Very nicely done! It’s always good to separate what is work from what is play, what you genuinely enjoy from what you feel you have to accomplish. Not everything needs to be measured, optimized, or turned into a metric. If everything were optimized all the time, I think we’d lose some of what makes us human.