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Daily Bafflements

• Hillary Clinton made history last night, becoming the first woman to secure a spot as the Democratic nominee. At the Brooklyn Navy Yard last night, she told a crowd of raucous supporters, “Tonight’s victory is not about one person. It belongs to generations of women and men who struggled and sacrificed and made this moment possible.” 

That means Baffler columnist Amber A’Lee Frost is probably going to have to heed a promise she made in “My Kind of Misogyny”: “If Hillary gets the nomination, I’ll happily cast my protest ballot for Jill Stein from the safety of my blue state.” 

• And, of course, Tom Frank has his own two cents on our dysfunctional democratic process.

Months of debates and primary contests have given us two of the most unpopular presidential candidates of all time. Both of them seem willing to say anything or change any position as necessity dictates. But of course there is also a reality beneath the rhetoric. Hillary Clinton may become the first female president, but she also stands for the responsible status quo and all of its complacent assumptions. Donald Trump, meanwhile, is a bullying bigot who can’t control his own mouth—a man whose main appeal is as a human middle finger raised to the complacent, responsible, status quo world.

• Jan Crouch, the eccentric, pink-haired cofounder of Trinity Broadcasting Network, passed away last week. TBN is, of course, the owner of the Christian-themed amusement park, the Holy Land Experience, which Jacob Silverman covered in issue no. 31.

• Meet the mysterious sound that’s plaguing a Canadian city.