Progressive surges in Wisconsin governor race as top rival drops out
Progressive state Rep. Francesca Hong is now the clear front-runner in the Democratic primary for Wisconsin’s governorship, and her leading rival for the nomination announced on Thursday he is dropping out. The winner of that primary is expected to face Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany, who has President Donald Trump’s endorsement, though Trump’s net approval rating in the state is 25 percentage…
From Our Archives: Extra Help
Girl Scouts lend a hand keeping book shelves tidy at the hospital on Dec. 20, 1956.
What Susan Collins Just Did on Trump and ICE Should Worry All Dems
Last month, an ICE agent gunned down a 25-year-old immigrant father outside his house in Biddeford, Maine. The shooting was a horror. His three-year-old daughter was seen crying after the killing. The victim has been widely described as a good man. The shooting spawned outpourings of protest in the state.
Yet Senator Susan Collins, who recently voted to give ICE $70 billion in funding with zero reforms, is now trying to mitigate the issue as a liability or even turn it in her favor. And I fear this is something that Democrats—who almost certainly must defeat Collins to win the Senate—have to take seriously.
Collins told Semafor in an interview that she’s personally secured a new commitment from ICE to require all agents to wear bodycams going forward. “By the end of August, body-worn cameras will be deployed nationwide,” Collins said, emphasizing that this is “by my request.”
Collins’s effort to take credit for this is ridiculous. She voted for the aforementioned no-strings-attached $70 billion, which will supercharge ICE’s paramilitary operations in countless awful ways. She also voted against an amendment in early June that would have required bodycams. The commitment she’s secured from ICE is a joke in comparison to all she’s done to empower it.
But it’s absolutely possible that Collins’s bodycam gambit—and other tricks she might cook up—could nonetheless soften this issue’s impact on her reelection effort. Democrats cannot let that happen.
Here’s why this is a concern: It’s exactly the sort of tactic that has made Collins a wily, resilient survivor in the Democratic-leaning state of Maine. Gestures just like it have persuaded many Mainers that she’s independent of the national party and Donald Trump and, importantly, that she fights for the state.
Collins will say, in other words, that after this horrific ICE shooting, she aggressively represented Maine’s interests and directly took on the Trump administration to do so. Again, it’s preposterous. But note this: There are already examples of local press coverage crediting her with securing ICE bodycams. The headline from one Portland-based outlet reads: “Collins says ICE agents will start wearing body cameras by end of August.”
If you want to know how Collins keeps getting reelected in a state that Donald Trump lost by seven points in 2024, one that no Republican presidential candidate has carried since George H.W. Bush in 1988, take a gander at those press clippings for a clue.
To be fair, Maine Democrats are pushing back hard on Collins’s ploy. “Collins’s support handed ICE $70 billion with no guardrails,” the campaign of Democratic challenger Troy Jackson told me in a statement. “If she wants credit for a bodycam headline this week, she can start by explaining why she voted to fund ICE with a blank check and zero accountability attached.”
What’s more, Democrats assure me they take seriously the need to prevent Collins from turning the tables on ICE in any way. They say Collins is already in deep trouble on inflation and health care, issues that will drive the race. They doubt Collins can use ICE bodycams to establish her independence in the face of those other overwhelming problems. Even if she tries, they say, it will only remind people of her votes to empower ICE.
But the worry here is not that Collins can suddenly campaign aggressively to transform ICE into a uniformly winning issue for herself. She’ll still have to tiptoe around it. What can happen, however, is that she starts citing the securing of bodycams in a longer litany of things that demonstrate her willingness to take on Trump on Maine’s behalf.
Put it this way: It’s not hard to imagine ads from the Collins campaign addressing ICE appearing on Mainers’ televisions before Democratic ones do. Such an ad would not be all about ICE. But it might highlight her move on bodycams as a bullet point among others establishing her “independence.”
The problem is that preventing this might require Democrats to put real money into their own ads attacking her over ICE. They may still do this; earlier this year, the Democratic-aligned Senate Majority PAC launched $2 million in ads targeting Collins this way. But that was months ago, and the latest ICE shooting has galvanized Mainers anew. Top Democrats tell me no decision has been made on whether to run ads on this going forward.
All of which has bearing on the interminable argument among Democrats over how hard to lean into ICE and immigration. Democrats should stick to kitchen table issues instead, we keep hearing, since voters care about them more (or worse, they should avoid immigration entirely because it automatically favors Trump). But the Maine race underscores why this sort of advice is mostly useless.
Look: Even if you accept that economic issues matter more to voters than ICE does, surely Collins shouldn’t be given free rein to cite ICE bodycams as a signifier of her fighting independence, with little or no Democratic paid media pushback. It would be perverse if Collins ads mention ICE before any Democratic ads do.
This issue is ripe for taking on aggressively. A new CNN poll finds that Americans say ICE makes our cities less safe by a 20-point margin. It finds that only 39 percent approve of Trump’s handling of immigration, versus 61 percent disapproving—a 22-point deficit. Among independents, that’s a staggering 34–66.
That’s not all. A recent Fox News poll finds Democrats essentially even with the GOP, 50–49, on which party would do a better job on immigration. And on the issue the new Strength in Numbers and Verasight poll also finds Democrats almost tied with the GOP. While other polls still put Republicans ahead, public opinion is plainly moving in Democrats’ direction.
Jackson, the Democratic challenger, is for abolishing ICE, and it’s unclear how that will play with moderates. But it’s good that he’s already willing to take ICE very aggressively. Midterms are referendums on the party in power. Trump and ICE are both hideously unpopular. Democrats should proceed as if that presents an opportunity—because it does.
Collins knows she’s on defense. After the recent shooting, she announced she’d privately gotten Trump to agree to end ICE vehicle stops—which he promptly upended by continuing them. Yet Collins—a resourceful politician—quickly came back with this new bodycam ruse. This time the administration may help her pull it off by delivering on bodycams—and letting her take credit for it.
It’s plausible—or even likely—that Democrats will figure out how to foil this scheme. Still, the problem is absolutely worth worrying about and thinking through right now. As we’ve already seen, Collins is very, very good at this sort of political alchemy. Democrats should think seriously about putting real money into thwarting it.
ALT Marvel Casts Samara Weaving as MCU’s Emma Frost
- Marvel head Kevin Feige and X-Men movie director Jake Schreier have agreed on Samara Weaving to play aristocratic telepath Emma Frost.
A few years ago, when people started talking about who would be good casting for the MCU’s version of the X-Men, I thought Vanessa Kirby would be perfect casting for Emma Frost. After her performance as the con artist the White Widow (!!), I thought her icy demeanor would make her an ideal choice for the mutants’ white-clad telepath. She’s a fine Sue Storm, but that meant who would be left to be Emma? Well, only the other perfect choice. As Deadline reports, Australian actress Samara Weaving will join the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the role of Emma Frost.
Searchlight/Marvel
Weaving has turned into one of Hollywood’s best offbeat leads with turns in the Ready Or Not films, Carolina Caroline, and Over Your Dead Body. According to the Deadline piece, Emma Frost was one of the roles director Jake Schreier took the most time trying to get right. Weaving’s audition was “too good to beat,” the piece said.
Emma is definitely a very specific kind of character. On the one hand a typical scantily clad ultra-b, on the other a powerful leader and devoted teacher (in more recent books anyway). First appearing in Uncanny X-Men #129 from 1980, Frost was at first the White Queen, one of the upper echelon of the secret society of mutants called the Hellfire Club. She would go on to start her own rival school to Xavier’s School where she’d train the next generation of evil mutants, the Hellions.
Paramount Pictures
However, beginning in 1994’s Generation X, Emma brought her aristocratic snark to train the new class of good guy mutants. Through the years, she’d even become a full-fledged member of the X-Men in the early 2000s. Always the messy bench who loves drama, Emma also tried to (often succeeding) drive a wedge between Cyclops and Jean Grey. Emma remains a fan favorite and, if written properly, is one of the most interesting characters in the X-Men canon.
Weaving is incredible casting for this, and I’m hoping we get some more X-Men movie casting news in the near future. I mean, we now have two…
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.
The post Marvel Casts Samara Weaving as MCU’s Emma Frost appeared first on Nerdist.
Trump’s tariff corruption is appalling
While Americans suffer from the effects of his tariff policy, President Donald Trump has been handing out tariff exemptions for industries that offer him gifts and political donations. The New York Times reported on Thursday that in the latest round of Trump’s tariffs, he continued an ongoing exemption for natural diamonds. Conveniently, a few weeks before those tariffs were announced…
Sam Altman isn’t the only one who wants to pump the brakes on AI
Trump Blames Minnesota for Iranian Cyberattack Instigated by His War
President Donald Trump baselessly claimed Friday that Minnesota had committed a cyber attack against itself.
Speaking at a Cabinet meeting at Camp David, Trump dismissed officials’ concerns that a cyberattack on municipal water systems in Minnesota was the work of Iranian hackers.
“I don’t think so. I think I blame it on Minnesota, because they’re grossly incompetent,” Trump said.
“I would blame it on Minnesota and the governor, the corrupt governor of Minnesota,” Trump continued, referring to Governor Tim Walz. “They like to say, ‘Oh, it’s Iran!’ Iran should be so lucky. Iran’s got bigger problems than worrying about Minnesota.”
Trump: "We heard in Minnesota there was a cyberattack and they blame it on Iran. I don't think so. I blame it on Minnesota because they're grossly incompetent. Iran's got bigger problems than worrying about Minnesota." pic.twitter.com/y1Mr6jjgaY
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 31, 2026But Trump offered no evidence to support his claim, apparently motivated not by facts, but by sheer pettiness.
Federal and state officials said earlier this week that the cyberattack was probably the work of Iranian hackers, but they have not definitively determined who is responsible. They also cautioned that the hackers could simply be posing as Iranians in order to escalate the conflict between the two countries, though former intelligence officials said this was unlikely.
If the hackers were hoping to ratchet up the tensions between the U.S. and Iran, they failed by picking a state that Trump has designated as an outlet for his blatant islamophobia.
As reporters moved to exit the Cabinet meeting, Trump resumed his ranting about Minnesota.
“I think that Minnesota is behind it!” he declared.
“You know who’s behind it? Minnesota. Because they’re grossly incompetent. I think the governor’s behind it. I don’t think there was an Iranian cyberattack,” Trump continued. “I think that Minnesota ought to get its act together. It’s one of the worst-run states.”
The president teased that his administration was planning “massive future things having to do with corruption” in Minnesota. The Trump administration has continued to pursue fraud allegations against Minnesota officials in a transparent effort to punish Democrats and antagonize immigrants.
Snapchat no longer rewards fully AI-generated Spotlight content
DK6 Week 16: End of Week Update
Now that we’re through the bulk of the changeover, I’m going to be writing updates less frequently (transparently, we aren’t going to be changing things as much or as quickly anymore). I’ll try to write one at least monthly, though, so there’s a public place for feedback. Having a consolidated place to look has been very helpful for the tech team. July: What We Changed and…
DOJ Stuns Judge With Inability to Answer “Easy Question” in AI Lawsuit
The Trump administration is not making its case against Anthropic.
A federal judge flamed the government during a hearing Thursday, noting that Justice Department attorneys had failed to provide evidence “justifying” the Defense Department’s decision to class the AI company as a national security risk, or Donald Trump’s subsequent order barring federal agencies from utilizing the company’s services.
California-based U.S. District Judge Rita Lin literally spelled out the questions she would ask the government’s attorneys via a legal notice earlier this week, but the DOJ still failed to impress. Lin remarked at the outset of the hearing that, “if anything, it seems like the record in some ways has gotten worse for the government,” according to the Law & Crime network.
In May, Lin blasted the government for the “Orwellian” way that Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attempted to sever ties with the AI contractor after Anthropic refused to grant the Pentagon unrestricted use of its AI bot, Claude, for military purposes.
At the time, the president and Hegseth claimed that Anthropic had gone “WOKE” for arguing that Claude could not safely or reliably be used for “autonomous lethal warfare and mass surveillance of Americans.”
“Having reviewed the record that the parties have submitted on the cross motions for summary judgment, it appears to me to be largely the same as the record that I assessed at the preliminary injunction stage,” Lin said Thursday. “I don’t see additional evidence from the government really justifying what it did.”
She added that she found it “really troubling” that the Trump administration was taking a position that “seems at odds to me with the First Amendment,” in “threatening to take away contracts from anyone who might do business with them” by “labeling them as subversive.”
Lin even posed a hypothetical question: whether it would be constitutional for the government to terminate “every defense contract with anyone who’s ever publicly criticized President Trump.”
When DOJ lawyers hedged, Lin said, “I’m surprised that you can’t give a yes to what seems to be an easy question.”
Trump Admin Finalizes Rule to Make Tourist Visas Expensive as Hell
The State Department has set a $20,000 bond for some tourists and business visitors who seek a visa to enter the U.S.
The finalized plan, published by the State Department on Friday, requires visitors from a select list of countries to put up a bond of $10,000, $15,000, or $20,000, which would be paid back when their B1 or B2 visa expires. The pilot program for the bonds was introduced last year, and affected 50 countries.
Most of the affected visas last about three months, but some of them are for 10 years, meaning that visa holders wouldn’t get their money back for a decade, American Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick noted. The move is guaranteed to further hurt the U.S. tourism industry at a time when it is already struggling thanks to Trump administration policies.
During the World Cup this summer, the Trump administration suspended the bonds for anyone who had a ticket to one of the games. But many fans still were unable to attend, including the relatives of some of the players, thanks to a separate travel ban and other visa restrictions.
Trump’s immigration policies have cost the country billions of dollars in tourism and also caused prices of goods and services to go up for Americans. U.S. visa policies have also hurt international student enrollment and in turn led to a big drop in revenue for universities and colleges. Now that this visa bond program is being finalized, the U.S. is set to only further suffer economically.
Why Fauci was once ‘on phone frequently’ with Stephen Miller
Conservatives were hyped to get their mitts on Dr. Anthony Fauci’s diary and release it to the world, certain it would show something nefarious, like how he personally talked to China’s president and they co-invented COVID-19 to hurt President Donald Trump. But it looks like, at least in the case of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and his wife, Katie, the diary pages were a bit…
Sony Sticking to Decision to Cease Physical Discs by 2028
- PlayStation will stop making physical game discs.
- New games made after January 2028 will not have a physical option.
- Digital downloads account for 80% of PlayStation game purchases.
At the beginning of July, Sony announced it would cease producing physical discs for PlayStation games entirely by 2028. That all but guarantees the PS6, whenever it arrives, will be a digital-only machine with no option for a disc drive. This led to an almost immediate backlash from players who, like me, understand that actual ownership of media can only occur through a physical object. Digital media can go away like a puff of smoke at the whim of licensing deals.
Well, Sony has heard the outcry. They understand that fans are upset. And they’ve decided to go ahead and just do what they were gonna do anyway. This came to light after a question about the backlash on a recent earnings call.
PlayStation
“There are various reasons we made this decision, the biggest being that the digitalization of content overall has been progressing, that’s the big factor,” Sony chief financial officer Lin Tao said through an interpreter during a Q&A on July 31. “It’s not just for PlayStation, but for all kinds of content, digitalization is progressing.”
She continued, ““And so, when we think about the future, we put in a lot of thought and time, and we cautiously considered this, and we came to this conclusion, and we’re going to cautiously move this forward.”
Sony
This doesn’t surprise me in the least. It’s always been about market share and cost cutting. If it saves Sony money not to make physical discs—and certainly more gamers just download games—that’s what they’ll do. Still, it feels a bit like a “we know best, sorry you’re mad,” response to aggrieved consumers. Ah well.
Original Report BelowNow’s the time when Grandpa Kyle gives you a tale of the 1990s. Back then, if you were lucky enough to have a home video game console, you coveted your library of games. You’d have to keep them free of dust, you’d add new ones and make room on your shelf or cupboard. And renting a new game? Oh, it would make or break a weekend. If you didn’t have the game in your hands, you couldn’t play it. Cut to now when the rise of digital downloads has made owning a physical copy of a game rarer and rarer. Add the word “obsolete” when discussing physical games and that’s where we are now as PlayStation has announced it will no long produce physical game discs.
The news comes via a blog post on the PlayStation site. Physical copies will cease production beginning January 2028.
Sid Shuman, Senior Director of Sony Interactive said, in part:
In response to shifting trends in consumer preference, new games will be released on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only.
Shifting trends is right. Digital downloads of new games has completely overtaken physical, as a tweet from Daniel Ahmad illustrates. What started as roughly 10% of sales in the PS4 days has ballooned to 80% of total game sales, DLC not included.
It's no secret that digital captures a higher % of full game sales each year (no, this figure doesn't include DLC).
What started during the PS4 (less than 10% digital at the start), has evolved into 80% of full game sales being digital on an annual basis. pic.twitter.com/fn2bpDo5sB
Evidence and behind the scenes scuttle also indicates PlayStation 6 and Xbox’s Project Helix will not have a disc drive option. If you, like me, use your PlayStation has 4K disc player in addition to a way to play games, you’re SOL.
So, what does this all mean? If 80% of players already download their games rather than buy them physically, this doesn’t seem like that big of an issue, right? Well, it goes toward a growing trend of the ephemeral nature of media. Maybe not the huge, giant popular titles, but smaller games, indie games, or weird games might suddenly disappear from your library when Sony loses a license. This happens all the time. You can never actually own digital media. You merely rent it. A $70+ rental.
Originally published July 1, 2026.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.
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Fanning the flames
A cartoon by Clay Bennett. Related | Even Republicans are growing tired of Trump…
The most famous brand in physical security got pwned by ShinyHunters
Siri AI could come with a paywall for power users
BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADER Season 2: Gotham Is a Graveyard of Broken Dreams
- Batman: Caped Crusader season two paints a bleak portrait of Gotham as a graveyard of broken dreams and dejected people.
Gotham City has always been a place where tragedy feels inevitable, a metropolis built on systemic corruption, street violence, and the ghosts of those who never found peace. But what makes Batman: Caped Crusader stand apart is its fundamental understanding of the city’s true tragedy: Gotham is not simply overrun by villains. It is inhabited by broken people.
Season one introduced audiences to a darker, more grounded interpretation of Gotham. This was not a world where good cleanly triumphs or where antagonists are evil simply for the sake of it. Instead, the series explored betrayal, death, moral compromises, and a Dark Knight who was more flawed than ever. Caped Crusader presented one of the most realistic versions of Gotham yet—a place where trauma is passed down through generations, institutions fail the vulnerable, and justice almost always arrives too late.
Season two continues that exploration by placing a firm lens on grief, redemption, and the tragic circumstances that forge monsters. While the season introduces iconic figures like Solomon Grundy, Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, and the Spectre, it actively avoids traditional comic book tropes. These are not megalomaniacs bent on mindless destruction. They are deeply humanized figures shaped by loss, manipulation, financial desperation, mental health struggles, and circumstances far beyond their control.
For years, critics have argued that Bruce Wayne could accomplish far more good by deploying his vast fortune toward social infrastructure rather than beating up muggers in a suit. While there is truth to that argument, this season of Batman: Caped Crusader demonstrates why Gotham’s rot runs deeper than capital alone can repair. Gotham does not merely need buildings repaired or programs funded; it needs psychological healing. It needs a society capable of recognizing trauma before citizens reach a catastrophic breaking point.
The Trauma That Built Gotham CityDeath has always been the load-bearing pillar of Batman’s mythology. A young Bruce Wayne witnessing the murder of his parents in Crime Alley is the defining tragedy that transforms him into the Dark Knight. But Batman: Caped Crusader understands a crucial inverse truth. Death does not only create heroes. It can also create villains.
Grief is not experienced the same way by everyone. While some find acceptance and eventually move forward, others become permanently trapped in cycles of anger, guilt, and unresolved pain. In Gotham, grief takes many monstrous shapes, and Caped Crusader‘s second season demonstrates how the inability to process loss can fundamentally distort a person’s identity.
Psychological research strongly mirrors the series’ portrayal of childhood loss. A study published in the National Library of Medicine examining parental death during childhood found that losing a parent to sudden external causes—such as homicide or accidents—was heavily associated with elevated risks of psychiatric disorders later in life, with anxiety and depression ranking among the most common long-term outcomes.
Prime Video
The research does not suggest that tragedy automatically creates criminals. Millions of people experience devastating loss and continue to lead meaningful lives. However, it does highlight how unaddressed trauma severely impairs emotional regulation, decision-making, and interpersonal trust. Caped Crusader asks a haunting question: What happens when a population experiences profound pain without access to emotional support, mental health resources, or community safety nets?
Even Batman is not immune to this cycle. Bruce Wayne understands the pain driving these characters because he carries the same wound. But recognizing someone’s trauma does not mean you can pull them back from the ledge. Throughout season two, Batman identifies the human suffering behind the mask, often only after the collateral damage has already been done.
We see this tragedy unfold across every corner of Gotham. Harleen Quinzel’s journey is one of the clearest examples of how the city’s failures can transform even those dedicated to healing others. In the first season of Batman: Caped Crusader, Harleen is a brilliant, perceptive psychiatrist whose frustration with Gotham’s corrupt elite pushes her toward becoming Harley Quinn.
She isn’t driven by mindless chaos. Instead, she is someone who believes the system has failed the people it was supposed to protect. Her weapon is not brute force, but psychological manipulation—using her understanding of fear to expose the corruption around her. Season two expands that complexity by placing her alongside Batman, reminding us that the line between hero and villain in Gotham is rarely black and white.
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HOUSE OF THE DRAGON’s Matthew Needham to Voice Joker in BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADERThat same lingering trauma affects those fighting on the side of law and order. Barbara Gordon’s story in the first season reveals the steep civilian cost of living in a city consumed by violence. After nearly losing her life to Gotham’s dark underbelly, Barbara is forced to confront the emotional aftermath of a violent experience she never asked for. Like so many others, she becomes a survivor of a city where fear is always waiting around the corner. It is a reminder that surviving a moment of danger does not mean the damage simply disappears.
This dynamic prompts the core question of the series: What happens to a city when too many people are carrying wounds that were never allowed to heal?
Forgiveness Is the Only Way to Save GothamBehind Gotham’s supernatural threats and criminal masterminds are individuals who have lost something they can never recover: a loved one, a livelihood, a sense of justice, or the belief that someone would step in to save them. Caped Crusader season two embraces the classic thesis famously explored in The Killing Joke, that under the right pressure, a single devastating moment of total abandonment can set anyone down a dark path.
This is why forgiveness and empathy emerge as the season’s most vital thematic counterweights. While punitive justice can punish harm, only forgiveness and systemic empathy can break the cycle of it.
Batman inherently represents justice, apprehending criminals, protecting innocent lives, and demanding accountability. But Batman: Caped Crusader season two asks a deeper question: What happens after the sentence is served? What happens to the person left behind, still carrying the trauma that prompted the crime? Can justice alone heal a broken human being?
Forgiveness does not mean absolving harm or erasing accountability. Rather, it prevents pain from becoming a person’s entire identity. In Gotham, that distinction is a matter of life and death. Many of Batman’s greatest enemies were not born malicious. They simply allowed their unaddressed trauma to morph into their sole purpose.
One of the season’s most emotional storylines explores this idea in a way that longtime comic fans will deeply appreciate, proving that true redemption is not about ignoring someone’s actions—it is about recognizing the humanity that still exists beneath them.
Gotham: The Graveyard of Broken Dreams
Prime Video
The world of Gotham may be fictional, but its core conflicts—poverty, inadequate mental healthcare, institutional corruption, and unchecked power—are intensely real. Batman: Caped Crusader season two serves as a warning of what happens when the wealthy and powerful choose to look away while their surrounding community rots.
A city does not collapse overnight. It erodes slowly as resources disappear, social programs are gutted, and vulnerable populations are ignored. When people lose hope, desperation fills the void. Someone who feels abandoned grows bitter; someone who feels powerless grasps for control; someone wronged demands vengeance over justice.
That desperation is where Caped Crusader finds the tragic humanity within its rogues. Solomon Grundy is not merely a hulking brute, but a physical manifestation of overwhelming, unspoken pain. Poison Ivy reflects the wrath of someone who believes society has utterly failed to protect what matters most. The Spectre embodies the terrifying reality of allowing blind vengeance to swallow mercy whole.
These characters may exist within animation, but their emotional wounds feel real. They represent what happens when people are pushed to the absolute edge and no one reaches out a hand before it is too late.
Ultimately, Batman: Caped Crusader season two shifts the fundamental conflict away from Batman simply fighting his rogues. The real struggle is whether Gotham’s forgotten citizens can still be convinced that they are worth saving. Even the Joker represents the darkest extreme of that equation, a reminder of what happens when a human being completely severs their connection to empathy, hope, and connection.
Saving Gotham has never been purely about capturing the monsters hiding in the shadows. It is about understanding the pain, trauma, and systemic failures that create them, long before they cross the point of no return.
The post BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADER Season 2: Gotham Is a Graveyard of Broken Dreams appeared first on Nerdist.
GM and Ford are talking less and less about EVs
Mitch McConnell Still MIA Days Before Key August 3 Deadline
Senator Mitch McConnell has yet to show his face in the halls of Congress, and the deadline for Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear to call a special election is fast approaching.
The 84-year-old Republican senator has not made a public appearance in weeks, ever since he was rushed to the hospital after being found unconscious at his Washington, D.C., home on June 14. Since then, McConnell’s office has refused to provide any meaningful updates on the exact state of the senator’s health, the reason for his extended hospitalization, or if and when he plans to return to Capitol Hill.
Beshear has until this Monday, August 3, to call a special election so Kentucky voters can choose a new senator in time for the midterms. Under Section 152 of the Kentucky state Constitution, a special election to fill a vacant seat must be called at least three months ahead of the vote—and since the midterm elections are set for November 3, Monday is exactly that three-month cutoff.
Kentucky’s law on Senate vacancies, House Bill 622, which was passed in 2024, is still legally untested. It eliminated the governor’s ability to appoint interim replacements for vacant U.S. Senate seats and mandated that any vacancy be filled by a special election, but as there are several competing legal provisions, it’s not yet clear what would happen in the courts.
Although Kentucky traditionally votes Republican at the federal level, Beshear, a Democrat, has been elected twice as the state’s top dog. A special election might just give Democrats a chance to send another one of their own to the Senate.
Beshear has repeatedly called on McConnell to justify his absence from Congress or to step down in time for Kentucky voters to choose a replacement. If the senator does not retire earlier, he will leave the Senate at the end of his term in December.
“I am addressing this letter to Senator McConnell under the assumption that he is capable of reading and responding verbally, and not incapacitated by means of consciousness or cognition. If the Senator is unable to respond for either of those or other conditions, consider this letter a demand for his Senate staff to be honest and transparent with the people of Kentucky,” Beshear wrote Monday in a letter to McConnell obtained by CNN.
McConnell’s office has only released two unconvincing photos of the senator alongside his wife, Elaine Chao, since his hospitalization. The latest statement from the senator’s office, released on July 27, said that McConnell would not yet be returning to his legislative duties in Congress, but he was “looking forward to getting back to the Senate and to Kentucky.”
McConnell’s ongoing absence has caused a stir among D.C. lawmakers and political commentators alike—from rumors that the Kentucky senator was brain-dead to pointed questions from MAGA-aligned allies, to a missing-person poster taped outside the Russell Senate Office Building.
