Trump. "Demon Sex." Putin. Tigers.

[View in browser]( [Mother Jones Daily Newsletter]( July 29, 2020 "It was a glorious time. And wiseguys were all over the place. It was before Apalachin and before Crazy Joe decided to take on a boss and start a war. It was when I met the world." —Goodfellas Remember the Before Time? Not just before the pandemic, but before Trump came down the escalator in 2015? It really wasn't that long ago but it sort of feels like a lifetime ago. Today is International Tiger Day. In 2014, when my hair was more brown and my mind was less ravaged, I blogged some cute photos of tigers to commemorate this sacred holiday. If you would like to take a brief mental vacation to those salad days, that post is [here](. If, however, it's the pure uncut chaos of 2020 you're after, can I interest you in "[Donald Trump defends 'demon sex' doctor]("? Too spicy? How about Bill Barr and [the lies he told Congress]( yesterday? The top law enforcement official in the country [sure does love to help Vladimir Putin](. Protestors are seeking justice for Breonna Taylor. They're running up [against a Mitch McConnell–trained wall](. Europe is bracing for a ["second wave" of the coronavirus](, while [rich Americans are preparing for a COVID bailout](. See? I told you you should have clicked on the tigers thing. —Ben Dreyfuss [House Donations Ad]( [Top Story] [Top Story]( [How Bill Barr Is Helping Vladimir Putin]( He's no useful idiot for Moscow. He's just useful. BY DAVID CORN [Trending] ["An important voice": Trump defends a doctor who once claimed diseases are caused by demon sex]( BY ABIGAIL WEINBERG [Will America's elite get a hidden COVID bailout?]( BY MICHAEL MECHANIC [Protesters seeking justice for Breonna Taylor have to convince a Mitch McConnell protege]( BY PEMA LEVY [Europe is worried about a "second wave" of COVID-19]( BY KEVIN DRUM [House Subscriptions Ad]( [The Mother Jones Podcast] [Special Feature]( [Samantha Bee on What That C-Word Controversy Taught Her About Trump-Era Comedy]( “I do have a lot to say in this climate, so I’m going to say it, as long as I have a show and breath in my body.” BY DAVID CORN [Fiercely Independent] Support from readers allows Mother Jones to do journalism that doesn't just follow the pack. [Donate]( [Recharge] SOME GOOD NEWS, FOR ONCE ["Never Have I Ever" Let My Guard Down While Watching TV]( The coronavirus pandemic has given me so many opportunities to experience new things: worrying that my face mask might fall into the toilet; making (and burning) multiple loaves of bread; and binge-watching television shows with total delight. My deep dive into TV has produced amazing finds, including The Great British Bakeoff, Fleabag, Unorthodox, MasterChef Junior, Dave Chapelle’s [8:46](, The Good Fight, and, possibly my favorite, Never Have I Ever, produced by Mindy Kaling of The Office and The Mindy Project. Forty million households [watched]( Never Have I Ever in its first four weeks, and this probably includes you, so I won’t go into great detail, but the basic premise is that Devi, a nerdy Indian American teenager in a Los Angeles suburb, is determined to have sex—and a boyfriend, in that order. Devi is played by Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, who landed the part after an open audition with [15,000]( other submissions, and she is brilliant. Devi, her mother, and their family and friends are a panoply of neuroses, awkwardness, humor, pain, and love. I’ve been a fan of Kaling’s work for a long time, but NHIE is different—and not just because I was a nerdy Indian American girl living in American suburbia, who, incidentally, was too scared of my parents and myself to think about having a boyfriend or sex in high school. NHIE captivated me because, by the end of the first episode, I knew I could let my guard down. Some of you will know the “guard” of which I speak. It’s a protection, but really it’s a nuisance. Anytime I go anywhere—a restaurant, theater, concert, classroom—or watch anything, part of me is always keeping track of how many BIPOC there are, and how, onstage or on TV, they are being portrayed. My attention to it is not conscious anymore: Once my internal security system is on, unless and until my subconscious feels comfortable with the representation, I’m holding my breath. Before I started watching NHIE, I’d heard enough about the show to expect several Indian and Indian American characters, but that alone isn’t usually enough to disarm my security system. The first few scenes have brown and white characters, and the next few have Black, Asian, Latino, Indian American, and Indian immigrant characters, plus multiracial characters and people who live across or outside the limited shorthand labels of race. About 15 minutes in, I realized there is deep inclusion, and not just racial; there are characters across religious identities and sexual orientations and abilities and disabilities. That’s when it happened: The part of me that holds my breath—constantly counting and surveying—released. I felt it happen, and it was glorious. In each episode, there are progressively more people meeting, mixing, interacting, and scrambling our familiar concepts of representation. We get to meet who we are. I am glad NHIE is in the world. It posits that it is possible to be anti-racist—and for a super nerdy Indian American girl to have a boyfriend in high school—at least in Mindy Kaling’s imagination. Deep breath. —Venu Gupta Did you enjoy this newsletter? Help us out by [forwarding]( it to a friend or sharing it on [Facebook]( and [Twitter](. [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? [Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today.]( [www.MotherJones.com]( PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755