Silver Or Lead, Pledge?
Drink a handle of Fireball, but first, go cut and bag the coke.
This week, 14 individuals were charged in an elaborate cocaine trafficking ring involving 13 Penn State students alongside one devoted father, Pittsburgh attorney Paul Robinson.
The operation was tied to two fraternities, Sigma Chi and Delta Upsilon, where pledges were reportedly tasked with cutting and packaging cocaine as part of their initiation.
The alleged ringleaders were Agostino Abbatiello and Thomas Robinson, Paul Robinson’s son. One fraternity brother reportedly spent around $30,000 buying drugs from Abbatiello, later dubbed “Pablo Pledgescobar.”
Coke dealers? Yes. Masterminds? Not so much.
Deals were arranged on Snapchat using usernames linked to the suspects’ real names, while payments were made electronically over Venmo. Robinson allegedly thought his arrest was a fraternity prank.
Anyway, here’s what you may have missed this week in State of the Day:
Racism Kills
Illegal Immigrant Murders Coworker In Virginia Park
Who’s Watching The Sleepy Sunday Broadcasts
They’re Shredding Books To Train AI
From political analysis to cultural insight, we focus on what’s shaping the state of the day. Readers like you make our work possible. Subscribing is the best way to support us and get full access to all of our content.
STATE OF THE DAY:
Racism Killed Jason Arday
Disgraced Cambridge professor Jason Arday’s suicide is a tragic loss. Every human is precious and every one deserves a chance at redemption. Once you get past the grief of direct family, the worst part of suicide is that it etches the lack of redemption into eternity.
Arday’s redemption is now solely in the hands of the public, and the public isn’t doing a great job so far.
His colleagues and supporters insist it was racism that killed Arday. Of course they do, and they’re right, but not for the reasons they think.
Continue reading →
***A big congratulations to Geoff Ingersoll on the birth of his third: a baby girl named June, born in August. And a big congrats to our readers: he’s already back to work.
UNFIT TO PRINT:
I Knew It Was An Illegal
Monday morning, news began spreading around that a woman had been found stabbed to death near her car at Difficult Run Park in Great Falls. A jogger discovered her body near one of the most popular hiking trails in one of the wealthiest, safest corners of Northern Virginia.
Police hadn’t released her name or a suspect.
And yet, almost immediately, I thought: I bet the killer is an illegal immigrant.
I hate to say that because it sounds crass. But it’s true.
I knew it.
THE DRAIN PIPE:
Meet The Press: A Journalism Pantomime
If some journalism organizations draw the bounds of allowable discourse at the 40-yard line, the broadcast “Sunday Shows” draw them at the 10.
Whether anyone outside the Beltway actually tunes into This Week or Face The Nation is sorta beside the real point: to pantomime tough questions while avoiding meaningful ones, limiting DC conventional wisdom to that narrow stretch of turf.
Take anchor Kristen Welker’s very first question to newly confirmed Attorney General Todd Blanche on Meet The Press on Sunday: “Can you pledge that the Justice Department will always act independently of the White House?”
Blanche refused to pledge allegiance to the principle that Welker made up.
Nonsensical as her line of questioning was, Welker prompted a slew of headlines smearing Blanche as a political hack.
***The Drain Pipe is a new addition to the SOTD publication. This newsletter is the normal person’s guide to this week in Washington. Put your hazmat suit on—it’s time to take a ride down The Drain Pipe (every Monday).
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MR. RIGHT
They’re Shredding History To Feed The Machines
Because books today not only face declining irrelevance from the usual suspects — TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, video games, smartphones, podcasts, the internet in general — some books are being destroyed, right now, by AI companies that wish to train their models on long-form, high-quality texts that predate the internet.
What would be a better way to train the model?
Feeding it slapdash Reddit posts, or feeding it a rare, lengthy, expertly-written book stuffed with primary and secondary sources, and a raft of citations.
And what is easier than directly dealing with authors over copyright infringements, or using pirated copies and risking more lawsuits from creators?
Buying the books and then destroying them.
Continue reading →
EXTRAS
Modern Surveillance State Grows Into Dystopian Band-Aid For Much Deeper Wound
We live in an era of technological totalitarianism.
Regardless of whether we are criminals, potential threats to others, or just unwitting customers who signed up for something that we do not fully understand, we are monitored by private tech companies, 24/7.
George Orwell did not even predict this world in his dystopian classic, 1984.
VIDEO
Pablo Pledgescobar
Pennsylvania authorities just busted an alleged cocaine trafficking ring operating out of two Penn State fraternity houses — and 14 people are facing charges.
Members and pledges were allegedly selling to fellow students, packaging product as part of initiation, and moving large quantities from Philly and New York.
But the wildest twist isn’t the frats… it’s the managing attorney who got charged alongside his own son. The details are almost too crazy to believe.
Question of the Day
Every Friday, we’ll ask a question. Reply to this email to answer. We’ll share our favorite responses—and respond to them—each week.
What’s an appropriate Venmo caption for $30,000 worth of cocaine?