WCS 44: Kamala without saying Kamala

w/ Paris is buffering + Grows in Cali state parks + 45's firing of JD, imagined

It’s difficult for me now not to see something Presidential in every fit Black American woman I lay eyes on.

Forever cannabis martyr Sha'Carri Richardson has a 62 percent chance of winning the women’s gold medal in the 100-meter race at the Paris games. Photograph by Luis Alberto Rodriguez.

What a time to be alive.

As I am posting this, the expectation remains that athletes representing 206 nations will be boating up the Seine River today, as part of the most ambitious Opening Ceremonies in Olympics history. But Paris trains are down through Monday, on account of what appears to be a systemic attack by activists. Travel all over Paris is going to be screwed, and my gut says Seine boating will not be excepted.

If your life with urban trains is as an observer, what train dysfunction does to a place is an abstraction. Even in a medium-impact public transit town like Los Angeles, a sustained delay impacts worker flow, traffic, and—perhaps most importantly—public mood.

I’ve taken the train in Paris, and its interwovenness with people’s lives dwarfs that of LA. That said, I hope public transit is protected when the games start here in 2028; Los Angeles can be hard on discombobulated tourist masses.

This unexpected opening challenge is a sport that I know the IOC has zero interest in playing. It’s pre-attack plans for the games are the most compelling that I can remember. May every one of them work out. Like Lauren Yoshiko, I’m wondering whether commentator—and torch-bearer—Snoop Dogg will drop down-low Mary Jane references.

In these uncertain times, it’s critical to get ahead to the 10+ things as directly as possible. Go forth!

“The question is, why did he even have a job as a Sheriff’s Deputy.”—Attorney Ben Crump on Springfield, Illinois’ Sean Grayson, who shot Sonya Massey in her kitchen earlier this month.

10 Kershaw gets past Giants with sliders

Anyone who had been tracking Clayton Kershaw’s poor rehab performances and saw San Francisco’s big third inning yesterday—four straight hits, resulting in two Giants runs—figured the 36-year-old was not back from November shoulder surgery.

Anyone would have been wrong. With his fastball topping out at a pedestrian 91 mph, Kershaw craftily figured a way to otherwise shut out San Francisco hitters for four innings. A crew of other minor arms followed to give the Dodgers a 6-4 win and a 3-1 series win.
CBS Sports

• Diminished though he may be, Kershaw is badly needed by the decimated corps of starting pitchers. Shohei Ohtani’s not walking through that bullpen door. Not this year, at least.

• Kershaw slept at his surgeon’s house the night before his operation, because his own home was in moving upheaval.

• Losing the series put the Giants five-and-a-half games back in the National League wild card race.

Lil Hits

• The Portland Pickles recently revived the former Cleveland Indians’ notoriously bad idea that was 1974’s 10-Cent Beer Night. Chaos did not ensue.
  Portland Mercury

• Dial it back, election news addicts. Our election reportage maelstrom is not to be taken literally.
  The Weekly Podcast
  

9 Cali’s second-most prominent Harris to fete Vance on Wednesday

If you’ve ever bombed down to LA via Interstate 5, you’ve almost certainly seen the quarter-million future steaks and burgers grazing. Remember? You looked out the window to the left and saw beef in volume that you’d never seen before? This would have roughly been in the Fresno area, but Selma, California, if you need to be specific.

Unless he’s fired before the month’s end, JD Vance will be visiting this neck of the figurative woods, making to scoop up some conservative cash.