Lots of Slate links and fewer not-from-Slate links this week. It’s probably unconscious bias or me not paying as much attention to Twitter for some reason, but I also think it’s because we published most of the best stuff on the Internet this week. Sorry, haters, or perhaps that should be “Sorry not sorry, haters”—or is that combining two idioms, both out of date but by different degrees, in a way that instantly marks me as a dad? (Rhetorical question.)

From Slate

• This takedown of David Brooks is polite, precise, and absolutely devastating.
• “So now we have it: the smoking gun in the Trump-Russia scandal.”
• Jim Newell’s reporting made me very nervous that Trumpcare is going to pass the Senate.
• Sen. Ben Sasse appears to be a genuinely smart, earnest Republican; it’s too bad that doesn’t make any difference.
• Why do we keep joking about Trump’s “bromances”?
• How long will the GOP pretend Russian interference in the election is no big deal—and how much damage will the pretense do?
• Sometimes a movie gets assigned to the wrong critic.
• The economy is growing. Unemployment is low. Employers are hiring. So why can’t American workers get a raise?
• Trump’s election “integrity” commission has been a chaotic mess—exactly as intended.
• This post is hard to sum up but if you’re interested in technology and cognition and maps you’ll find it very interesting.
• We may be entering an era dominated by the G-19—the major world economies not overseen by a reactionary nihilist.
• Comparing Donald Trump Jr. to Fredo Corleone is profoundly unfair to Fredo Corleone.

Not from Slate

• A Hollywood behind-the-scenes story I’d never seen before: What’s it like to film a rape scene, and how does it affect actors and directors?
• A restaurant-industry behind-the-scenes storyI’d never seen before: Writing a cookbook, even a successful one, can ruin a chef’s life.
• The Senate health care bill would be a rejection of “the principle that society is made up of people with mutual obligations.”
• The Trump administration is an instance of a familiar debacle: The family-run business destroyed by nepotism.

From the archive

This is a year old and has held up pretty well.

Thank you for your Slate Plus membership, which makes our journalism possible. See you next week!

Gabriel Roth
Editorial director, Slate Plus

P.S. 1: This week we launched Slate Voice—a daily spoken edition of the magazine, only for Slate Plus members. Find out all about it, and subscribe in your podcast player!

P.S. 2: You may enjoy this week’s episode of Studio 360, on which Slate editor Sam Adams discusses our Conspiracy Thrillers Movie Club with host Kurt Andersen.