Mid-Month Miscellany

• They talk about--and rightly so--big universities really being hedge funds (and money launderers for that matter) who happen to own a college. Something similar can be said for sports channels like ESPN: they have beccome gambling businesses that happen to show sporting events now and then.
• It's hard to fathom why Biden-Harris move so hard to the right on fracking and pursuing a cold war with China and going MAGA on the border in order to appeal to some imaginary Republican crossovers; and at the same time going out of their way to antagonize their actual voters by supporting genocide in Gaza and labeling those who protest it as antisemitic.
• It's worth noting that Israel--characterized by both Parties as our most important ally--has been at best a tepid supporter of American policy in Ukraine. Seems like this alliance is mostly a one-way deal.
• The brazenness of Trump's (and JD Vance's) racism vis-a-vis Haitian (legal) immigrants in Ohio is not surprising. The mainstream media's hohum-ness about it is more surprising (although less so than it should be).