Baffler no. 79 is now available online and in print. “Player Haters” judges the state of American sportsmanship: the college ballers and bull riders, the GOATs and cheats of all kinds. Start reading now.

Mining industry heads say we need billions of tons of copper to meet decarbonization targets, which can only happen by opening new, large-scale mines. Just how feasible—and environmentally responsible—would that be?.

“At worst, federal agencies designed to protect us appear callous to suffering, and at best, they are feckless and impotent.”.

Fits everything, not a NYer tote bag. Get yours today.

RT @ken_crichlow: Copper—and lots of it—will be necessary for the energy transition. Getting it won’t be so easy. Source: The Baffler. htt….

Copper is supposed to be critical for securing a green future—but that’s not why Donald Trump is interested in mining more of the mineral.

To protect the right to medically transition, we don’t need legal and inventions like “transgender status.” For proof, Jules Gill-Peterson looks to history.

Eric Adams spends a lot of time getting beauty treatments. Sometimes, he takes press interviews from the chair, during which he goes mysteriously nonverbal, corpselike. What is going on here? It’s hard to say, but Aaron Timms has some ideas.

Aerophobia is having a moment. In the midst of an unceasing torrent of aviation disasters and close calls, @n_mateer writes on her attempts to get over her fear of flying with the help of Captain Ron’s FearlessFlight® Kit.

Conference consolidation and the near-collapse of Pac-12 has changed college sports as we know it. What will that mean for campus academics?.

RT @willinabucket: this piece goes hard.

“It is no coincidence that the battle over ‘transgender rights’ is being waged as a struggle over the meaning and force of the Fourteenth Amendment.”.

Alt has long since been absorbed by the mainstream. In 1993, we wrote about it. Now, we’ve made a T-shirt about it. Get yours today.

For better and for worse, the college athletic and academic programs need one another. Their fates are intertwined.

Way back in 2019, Eli Zeger described butt rock’s appeal to a certain kind of American male. “It soundtracks WWE pay-per-views,” he wrote. “It’s what plays over the loudspeakers in Six Flags food courts.” Now, it scores our deeper descent into madness.

“At last, after years of starchy public servants filling the top job, New York has found a mayor with the self-confidence to approach public office like it’s a bottomless brunch. And now that miraculous run is almost certainly coming to an end.”.

RT @alexarriaga__: I have long been fascinated by this

The real antagonism concealed within the movement for transgender rights is class-based. As Jules Gill-Peterson writes, the rise of “transgender liberalism” has erased the interests and worldview of working-class people.

Now that Trump has defanged the CFPB, it’s open season for financial scammers. Whitney Curry Wimbish lists their choicest targets: veterans, the elderly, people with little English, and the rural poor.

For better or worse, these are boom-times for UFO belief. Pentagon reports, internet sleuths, and outsider academics have ushered in a renaissance not seen since the days of Roswell. But with credibility comes cons vending mysticism and marketing ploys.

Big financial interests have wanted to hobble the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau since the moment it came into being. They have found their champion in the man Trump has appointed to lead it.