I want to thank everyone who came out to our D.C. happy hour tonight. Great turnout. It was wonderful seeing some old friends and meeting a bunch of readers who’ve been with us almost since the beginning but who I had never met before. We’re going to be doing more events going forward, not only in our home bases of New York and D.C. but in other cities around the country as well. We had a great podcast event in Chicago in the spring and we have another event coming in Boston in the early fall. Thanks to everyone who joined us.

I wanted to flag your attention to this piece by Jonathan Last at The Bulwark: The Washington Post is dying. I can tell you “how.” But not “why.” I’m not sure the central assertion is a big surprise to people. But Last does a good job at running through the details, the steps on the path of descent. He puts some focus on legacy systems — suboptimal arrangements, structures, compromises that any organization builds up over time. I first thought he was distracting from the decisions made under the ownership of Jeff Bezos. But I think he’s right to put some focus on them. These aren’t the reason the Post is dying. But this legacy debt — which most big and old organizations have — adds to the challenges that Bezos would have had even if he weren’t making terrible decisions.

You’ve blessed us with a very solid start to this year’s annual TPM Journalism Fund drive. The challenging part is the second half of our way toward our goal of raising $500,000 this year. We’re currently at $287,886, so just over $12,000 from hitting the 60% benchmark. We really need your help getting to $300,000 today. If you’ve been thinking about contributing, it would be a great help if you could do it today. I get delaying, keep meaning to — that’s my main pastime. So if you could just take a moment right now and click here, we’d truly appreciate it. If you’re a member, you don’t even have to take out your wallet. Just a couple clicks. Super easy. Thank you in advance.

I saw a headline today that UnitedHealthcare has acknowledged that its Medicare business is being investigated by the Department of Justice. In the old days, which is to say basically any time before January 2025, I would have assumed that UHC had probably been guilty of some kind of wrongdoing. Or let me state that more precisely: I would have assumed that there was evidence meriting an investigation, whether that was civil, criminal, perhaps over antitrust. I would assume merit. When I heard this news today my default assumption was that UHC was being punished by the Trump administration or had gotten crosswise in some way with the White House. It’s not even either/or. Let’s assume the probe starts for legitimate reasons. The fact that UHC couldn’t make an offering at the White House and have the probe killed must mean they’re on the outs, right?

It’s too much to say — I think, or I hope — that there’s no one left at the DOJ interested in simply enforcing the law. It’s also true that the gutting has been spread around unequally. Some divisions are more or less intact. But certainly the weight of crookdom and integrity has shifted significantly. Unfortunately, my shift in assumptions seems merited.

A friend asked me recently: how is it that MAGA is so over the top about finding out which rich and powerful men may have had sex with 16 or 17 year old girls when it’s apparently fine that the leader of their movement is a longtime sex abuser and serial predator? On the one hand, this person was saying, how is one thing so beyond the pale and the others are completely fine? On another level, this person was asking, is it really so hard to believe that a guy who appears to have routinely assaulting women just over 18 did the same with those just under?

There are a few different ways to answer this. At one level, in MAGA world, Donald Trump is different. No rules apply to him. It’s good to be the king. At another level, it’s a complicated question comparing the horror of different kinds of sexual predation, or whether a person who does one is likely do do another. But there is one level of MAGA’s hyper-focus on pedophilia and sex trafficking conspiracy theories which needs to be emphasized. Because at a basic level, that obsession has nothing to do with pedophilia as a thing in itself — not as most of us might understand it.