2025-07-15 02:56:33
I tend to steer this newsletter away from the dark, growing world of conspiracy theories, in part because I want to focus on reality-based coverage (I know, quaint, right?), and in part because I want to avoid even dipping a toe (or any other appendage) into the slimy, swampy, grim, bleak world of the dark fantasies and crazy-making theories that drive these stories. I get nauseated enough covering the regular news. But we're going to have to go there. A Jeffrey Epstein conspiracy theory deployed and spread by the MAGA crowd has come back to divide the movement and haunt Donald Trump. MAGA and its alternate news universe has long been promised a list of Epstein's clients and connections that would supposedly prove some evil truth about democrats and elites. But in a very public U-Turn, they're being told the list won't be released, or there's not a list, or to stop worrying about the list, or list, what list? It's fair to wonder if Trump's name is on the list if one exists. It's also fair to be dubious that Trump’s name on some Epstein list would damage his standing with his base. But the debate over the list itself has become a raging war among Trump supporters who peddle in myths, many of whom currently occupy high positions in the administration. OK, I'm feeling that gross feeling building up. I'm going to step away and aggressively scrub myself with a bleach-dipped wire brush and let David French take over in the NYT (Gift Article): MAGA Is Tearing Itself Apart Over Jeffrey Epstein. "The Epstein story mattered so much in MAGA circles because it was a key element in their indictment of America’s so-called ruling class. Trump’s appeal to the Republican base isn’t just rooted in his supporters’ extraordinary affection for the man; it’s also rooted in their almost indescribably dark view of the American government. Why are they so keen to burn it all down? Well, if you believe your government is populated by people so depraved that they’d participate in and cover up the systematic sexual abuse of children, then you wouldn’t just want them out of office; you’d want them prosecuted, imprisoned and maybe even executed. And you’d want all the power you’d need to make that happen. And if you believe that the ruling elites would abuse children, then they’d certainly be the kind of people who’d gin up a Russia hoax or try to steal an election in 2020."
+ The Atlantic (Gift Article): Conspiracy Theorists Are Turning on the President. "This is undeniably a turning point for the highly online among Trump’s base. The story of the client list had effectively morphed into a more palatable and plausible version of the QAnon conspiracy theory. As does QAnon, it features a secret ring of evildoers, though it doesn’t have certain ostentatious elements of that conspiracy (no harvesting blood). But both theories encourage people to disbelieve everything the government tells them. Until now, Trump and his appointees were positioned as exceptions to that rule—the deal was that if they got back into power, they would reveal all."
+ Dan Pfeiffer (paywall) on why this controversy is different than all the other controversies, none of which seem to even make a dent. "The scandals that hurt aren’t the ones that make your opponents hate you more — they’re the ones that make your fans question why they love you."
+ All this comes with the usual caveat that it is a fool's errand to underestimate how much part of Trump's base loves him. WaPo: How the Trump shooting supercharged beliefs in a divine right of MAGA. "Trump has long claimed that God was on his movement’s side, and attendees at Trump rallies have routinely described the events in spiritual terms. But after the assassination attempt, many of his followers — and most notably Trump himself — more explicitly cast him as a divine instrument." (I wish I had a divine instrument to delete this story from my brain.)
"Alissa managed to keep both kids on the countertop, one hand on each, still trying to reassure them. As the house came undone, she grabbed one in each arm. This is the part that will forever haunt me. If I or anyone else had been closer to them, we would have helped her. We would have grabbed one of the kids. But we didn’t know that we were about to be plunged into the water. We simply didn’t know. Alissa remembers two things after she and her children hit the water. She heard Clay coughing. And she heard Rosemary saying 'Mama.'" An absolutely stunning first-person account of what it was like for a family to experience the ravaging Guadalupe flood. Texas Monthly: The River House Broke. We Rushed in the River.
I have a friend who occupied very high positions in the Pentagon, and I once asked him how long it would take for new technologies to begin to level the military playing field that has been dominated by the US for decades. He said, "Maybe 20 or 30 years." That was about 20 years ago. Dexter Filkins in The New Yorker: Is the U.S. Ready for the Next War? "While the future of warfare is being invented in places like Ukraine, U.S. officials are looking on with a growing sense of urgency. For decades, the American armed forces have relied on highly sophisticated, super-expensive weapons, like nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and stealth fighters, which take years to design and cost billions of dollars to produce. (The country’s failures in Iraq and Afghanistan were not for a lack of technical prowess.) Since the end of the Cold War, these munitions have given the U.S. near-total dominance on land, sea, and air. But now the technological shifts that have stymied the Russian invasion of Ukraine are threatening to undermine America’s global military preëminence."
With a remarkable turnaround from his devastating loss to Carlos Alcaraz in the French Open, Jannik Sinner won their rematch in the Wimbledon Championship, solidifying what is emerging as one of the great rivalries in sports. The rivalry is not just notable because the two of them have raised the level of tennis, it's notable because they're good friends and treat each other with extreme kindness and respect. It's not the first time this has happened in tennis, but Sinner and Alcaraz are proof that ferocious winners can also be incredibly gracious people. And we really need that reminder in today's cultural and political climate. After losing the match, Alcaraz said of the rivalry, "It’s becoming better and better. I think it’s great for us, and it is great for tennis." It's great beyond tennis, too.
+ While the men's tennis game has two clear leaders, the women's side is refreshingly wide open. Iga Swiatek became the eighth consecutive first-time women's champion at Wimbledon. And she did it in decisive fashion, beating Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0.
+ In unrelated (in every way) sports news: Trump Steals Soccer Champions’ Spotlight, Gets Booed by Fans.
Surprise! In a continuation of his recent turnaround on the issue, Trump announces weapons for Ukraine and threatens Russia with tariffs. "We will send them Patriots, which they desperately need because Putin really surprised a lot of people," Trump said. "He talks nice and then he bombs everybody in the evening." (Editor's note: Putin surprised one person.)
+ Don't Jump to My Defense: "Many of these people came to work at Federal Programs to defend aspects of our constitutional system. How could they participate in the project of tearing it down?" Two-thirds of the DOJ unit defending Trump policies in court have quit.
+ Rosie Outlook: "Employers have long had response plans for extreme weather, active shooters, and other workplace emergencies. Now, some are quietly preparing for immigration raids, too — even if they believe everyone on their payroll is legally permitted to work in the US." Meanwhile, Trump Thinks He Can Take Away Citizenship From Anyone He Doesn’t Like. "Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship."
+ Hunger Aims: "Ms. Bialecki started as a volunteer [at the Easthampton Community Center and Food Pantry] 25 years ago and has managed the operation for the last 17. She’s the only paid employee; she works every day except Christmas and makes $32,400 a year. She had planned to retire, but has stayed on to help everyone through what now seems like the unraveling of the country’s defenses against unnecessary illness and hunger." The excellent Tracy Kidder in the NYT (Gift Article): A New Era of Hunger Has Begun. "Cutting SNAP will dramatically increase the pressure on food banks. Their pantries represent a model of decency, of coherent community efforts on behalf of people in need."
+ There's an Old Sheriff in Town: "Last year, 1,260 people were killed by law enforcement—the highest level since data-crunching organizations began keeping track a decade ago. A major factor driving the upward trend is surprising: Sheriff’s departments that generally patrol more rural slices of America are killing more civilians." WSJ (Gift Article): The Rapid Rise of Killings by Police in Rural America.
+ Grok Bottom: "On Friday, independent AI researcher Simon Willison documented that xAI's new Grok 4 model searches for Elon Musk's opinions on X (formerly Twitter) when asked about controversial topics." New Grok AI model surprises experts by checking Elon Musk’s views before answering.
+ Island Fever: "The reality-TV sensation has shattered viewership records and taken over sports bars—and defied conventional wisdom about who watches reality dating shows." GQ: The Boyfriends Who Love Love Island Tell All. (Let's not overthink-piece this. All the partipants are basically in swimsuits all the time.)
"The posts have since been deleted, but widely circulated screenshots show Elmo apparently calling for violence against Jews and calling for the release of files related to the Jeffrey Epstein case." Antisemitic posts appear on Elmo’s X account after hack. (Well, I hear Elon is looking for a new CEO of X...)
+ About 1,500 tarantulas found hidden in cake boxes at German airport. A customs spokesperson said they had been tipped off by a "noticeable smell" that did not resemble the expected aroma of confectionery treats.
2025-07-12 02:31:57
Low hanging fruit. Circling back. Let's take this offline. I don't have the bandwidth to list all the various buzzwords and aphorisms that emerged in the early days of the internet business. Catchy phrases of the moment have probably always been a part of human communication trends. Until now, our clichés have come from a tendency to imitate each other. But these days, we're imitating a machine. "Words frequently used by ChatGPT, including 'delve' and 'meticulous,' are getting more common in spoken language, according to an analysis of more than 700,000 hours of videos and podcasts." Scientific American: ChatGPT Is Changing the Words We Use in Conversation. Of course, ChatGPT developed its word patterns from imitating us. Now we're imitating it. Then it will imitate us imitating it. It seems inevitable that we're going to get down using to fewer and fewer words until we arrive at just one. My guess is that it will be Ugh.
"It was 5:44 p.m., according to minutes of the meeting. At that moment, the prime minister was forced to choose between the chance of a truce and his political survival — and Netanyahu opted for survival. There was no cease-fire plan, he promised Smotrich. 'No, no, there’s no such thing,' he said. And as the cabinet discussion moved on, Netanyahu quietly leaned over to his security advisers and whispered what must have by then become obvious to them: 'Don’t present the plan.'" NYT Mag(Gift Article) with a detailed look at How Netanyahu Prolonged the War in Gaza to Stay in Power. And placing his own political survival at the top of his post-Oct 7 to-do list means placing others things further down the list, like limiting unnecessary death and destruction in Gaza, negotiating the release of all the hostages, and establishing a regional peace. Meanwhile, the strategy has created more negative views of Israel around the world, and sadly, by extension, more energy for already rising tide of worldwide antisemitism. Of course, in 2025, the world doesn't exactly have a shortage of leaders who put their own political survival above the greater good.
In Moby Dick, Herman Melville wrote, "Two thirds of this terraqueous globe are the Nantucketer's. For the sea is his; he owns it, as Emperors own empires." These days, emperors own Nantucket, too. As you can tell by the number of visitors, Nantucket is unique in many ways, but it's also representative of an increasingly common storyline. The ever-expanding economic divide has made some places so expensive that people like teachers, police officers, firefighters can't afford to live there. NYT (Gift Article): Nantucket’s Workers Are Living on the Margins.
What to Book: "A teenage girl breaks free from her father’s world of isolation to discover that her whole life is a lie." She also learns a lot about what we got right and what we got terribly wrong during the early days of the internet. A new novel from Janelle Brown, What Kind of Paradise.
+ What to Watch: Idris Elba and John Cena star as a president and a prime minister who find themselves left to their own devices (with a lot of help from Priyanka Chopra Jonas) to fight for their survival and that of NATO. It's one of those action comedies that are so popular these days, but it's better than most of them. Heads of State on Prime.
+ What to Pocket: Many people have been bummed to learn that the popular read-it-later app Pocket has shut down. But there's a replacement. I've been testing it. It's off to an excellent start and it's being rapidly improved by some excellent product engineers and designers. Introducing Save with Folio.
A Taxing Endeavor: Trump announced another tariff on Canada. The market, used to these threats, had a ho hum reaction. But this chaos will not come without a cost. The Atlantic (Gift Article): Start Budgeting Now. "Traders have figured out how to make money from the short-lived dips that Trump periodically causes, calling it the 'TACO trade,' for 'Trump always chickens out.' But Trump is not doing nothing. Businesses are struggling to negotiate the uncertainty created by the White House. Trump’s tariffs are forcing up consumer costs and damaging firms. And the latest renewal of the trade war will make the economy worse." The latest move has been to send tariff letters to other countries. Most leaders are angry when they get them. But not everyone. Shunned Myanmar leader thrilled at US contact after Trump tariff letter. (Trump gives a gift to undemocratic regime. Shocker.)
+ Kash App: "Some senior officials who have taken the test have been asked whether they said anything negative about the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel." The F.B.I. Is Using Polygraphs to Test Officials’ Loyalty. (No one is asking if they're loyal to the country.)
+ Different Times: Can we still call them one in a thousand year storms when they come four times in a week?
+ Skating on Thin ICE: "DHS is urging law enforcement to treat even skateboarding and livestreaming as signs of violent intent during a protest, turning everyday behavior into a pretext for police action." Wired: DHS Tells Police That Common Protest Activities Are ‘Violent Tactics.'
+ She's Got My Sleep Number: Justice Jackson Says ‘the State of Our Democracy’ Keeps Her Up at Night. (She can always text me. I'm usually up for the same reason.)
+ Island Fever: "For much of this year, Cassidy Crosser made sure to answer all her spam phone calls. 'Hello? Love Island?' she would ask, hoping to hear that after applying three times, she had finally been cast on the hit reality dating TV show Love Island USA. 'Obviously I didn’t hear back. Because I’m not in Fiji.'" ‘Just Tan and Be Hot and Single’: The People Fighting to Be on Love Island. (I'm not tan, hot, or single. But I'm definitely gonna start answering spam calls with, "Hello? Love Island?")
"My father-in-law, Claude, did not live an opulent life. He lived in ways to which we all should truly aspire." An obituary with a broader message: A tribute to an uncommon man.
+ First malaria treatment for babies is approved.
+ Ukrainian doctor drives a child’s heart through Russian attack to perform a life-saving transplant.
+ Stella McCartney’s new plant-based sneakers can be composted. (And they sound like they'd probably taste pretty good, too.)
+ ‘One in a million’: teen surfer found on remote island 14km off Australian coast.
+ Tiny pet dog credited with helping to save hiker trapped in Swiss glacier. (I don't think my beagles would ever forgive me if I took them for a walk on a glacier.)
2025-07-11 02:52:50
Why settle for being the king of America when you can be king of the world? In his latest round of tariff whac-a-mole, Donald Trump has threatened to hit Brazil with a 50% tariff because he doesn't like that way that country's legal system is treating its former president. "I knew and dealt with former President Jair Bolsonaro, and respected him greatly, as did most other Leaders of Countries. The way that Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro, a Highly Respected Leader throughout the World during his Term, including by the United States, is an international disgrace. This Trial should not be taking place. It is a Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY!" If you're wondering what Trump sees in the former president of Brazil, consider that Bolsanaro is facing charges of a coup attempt that included a storming of the Brazilian capital. This isn't the first time Trump has inserted himself into the legal proceedings of another country. Just last month, he called on Israel to drop its "witch hunt" corruption charges against Bibi. Such a call is of course wildly inappropriate. But we've crossed an entirely different line when an American president deploys his pretty much non-existent tariff powers against a country with which we have a trade surplus because he finds he has so much in common with one of its criminal defendants. To the extent that any of them stick, these tariffs are ultimately a tax on the American people. The way they're being bandied about is taxing American democracy.
+ Bloomberg (Gift Article): "Trump has previously used tariff threats to accomplish other geopolitical goals. In January, he announced sweeping tariffs on Colombia before abruptly pulling the threat after reaching a deal on the return of deported migrants. He’s also put 20% tariffs on China for its alleged failure to stop the flow of fentanyl to the US, and threatened BRICS nations with higher duties for undermining the dollar. Still, it’s unprecedented for the US to add a tariff onto a foreign country to stop a judicial proceeding." Trump’s 50% Levy on Brazil Shows World Nothing Is Off Limits.
"Mr. Allred, a recruiter at a trucking company, does not like people who enter the country illegally. He believes they are 'an army of takers,' filling spots in emergency rooms and schools that American citizens have to pay for. He does not like President Trump, either, but one of the reasons he voted for him last year was that it seemed as though he would actually take action on immigration. 'We don’t have an industrial base anymore,' Mr. Allred told me over dinner at his apartment in Bentonville. 'We have trillions in national debt. It’s impossible. We can’t take on millions more people. It’s financially not possible.' But something has happened in Mr. Allred’s life that is bumping up against this view. He finally met, and married, the love of his life. And his wife is in the country illegally." NYT (Gift Article): Against Illegal Immigration, but Married to Someone Here Illegally.
"Less than a quarter-century ago, the United States had about 40 journalists per 100,000 residents on average. Now, the equivalent number is 8.2 Local Journalist Equivalents, about a 75% decline. This means that big chunks of the country have severe shortages. Stunningly, more than 1,000 counties — one out of three — do not have the equivalent of even one full-time local journalist." The lack of journalists covering local politics and news is bad. And it's made worse by the social media (and soon AI) garbage that's filling the void. Local Journalist Index 2025.
We're told stories of profitable ideas that were sketched on the back of a napkin. Well, they've got nothing on one sketched on the back of an air-sickness bag. The original Hermès bag made for Jane Birkin just sold at auction for 7 million euros. (Ironically, that's a price so high the purchaser may experience some nausea.) "The bag was born of a fortuitous encounter on a London-bound flight in the 1980s with the then-head of Hermès, Jean-Louis Dumas. Birkin recounted in subsequent interviews that the pair got talking after she spilled some of her things on the cabin floor. Birkin asked Dumas why Hermès didn’t make a bigger handbag and sketched out on an airplane vomit bag the sort of hold-all that she would like. He then had an example made for her and, flattered, she agreed when Hermès asked whether it could commercialize the bag in her name."
Whistle in the Dark: "If they can do this sort of thing to Abrego Garcia, to 238 people that nobody knows, and send them to CECOT forever with no due process, they can do that to anyone. It should be deeply, deeply worrisome to anyone who cares about their safety and their liberty, that the government can, without showing evidence to anyone of anything, spirit you away on a plane to wherever, forever." NYT: Justice Dept. Whistle-Blower Warns of Trump Administration’s Assault on the Law.
+ No Subtitles or Subtleties: "There was confusion and anger in Liberia on Thursday after U.S. President Donald Trump praised the English skills of President Joseph Boakai." (English is Liberia's official language. And we have become the world's official laughing stock.)
+ Class in Session: Federal judge pauses Trump's birthright citizenship order in class action suit. (Class action suits are the latest attempt to deal with recent SCOTUS rulings.)
+ Banana Jubilee: "Somewhere along the line, though, the Bananas broke containment. They graduated from minor-league parks to major-league venues, selling out legendary ballparks such as Fenway Park and Camden Yards. During a recent weekend in Los Angeles, Bananas tickets sold on the secondary market for more than tickets to an actual Dodgers-Yankees World Series rematch." Why the Savannah Bananas — not the Dallas Cowboys — are America's Team.
+ Young Blood: An estimated 1 in 3 teens and preteens, ages 12 to 17, have prediabetes.
+ Cereal Number: "Ferrero, the family-owned maker of Nutella, has agreed to buy the iconic American maker of Froot Loops and Frosted Flakes, combining two of the world's most storied sweet brands." Nutella-maker Ferrero to gobble up cereal giant Kellogg for $3.1 billion. (Which is probably a lower valuation than the average pre-launch AI company.)
+ Nick Knack: "The next time you rent a car, that ding on the door might not slip under the radar. Powerful new A.I.-driven tools are helping Hertz and other companies catch every little scratch, and puzzled renters are being asked to pay up." NYT(Gift Article): A.I. Is Making Sure You Pay for That Ding on Your Rental Car.
+ World War Tea: "Matcha’s meteoric rise in popularity, along with a proliferation of resellers who buy large quantities of the tea from the small number of Japanese vendors who produce it each year, has triggered a global shortage and a steep jump in prices. The market turmoil has spurred a fierce debate among the matcha faithful about who exactly is responsible for the dwindling supply—and who deserves to drink it." WSJ (Gift Article): Matcha Lovers Are Turning Against Each Other Over Global Shortage. Plus, Japan struggles to fend off a world without enough matcha.
"Even in an age where flying is a fairly regular occurrence, there are some things that you never forget about your first journey on an airplane.That visceral thrill of being pushed back into your seat as the plane accelerates toward take-off, the jitters that accompany your first bout of turbulence, and the SLUUUUURP sound in the lavatory." The engineering is surprisingly simple and remarkably clever.
+ Ozzy Osbourne collaborates with chimpanzees on abstract expressionist paintings. (Call me when they collaborate on realist paintings.)
+ Photos from this year's Running of the Bulls (an event that somehow explains much of human behavior).
2025-07-10 02:40:46
After two years, X CEO Linda Yaccarino is stepping down from her role. The rest of humanity won't escape so easily. The move comes shortly after X's AI Grok spent a day going full Nazi, praising Hitler and attacking Jews. The Atlantic (Gift Article): Elon Musk’s Grok Is Calling for a New Holocaust. "The year is 2025, and an AI model belonging to the richest man in the world has turned into a neo-Nazi. Earlier today, Grok, the large language model that’s woven into Elon Musk’s social network, X, started posting anti-Semitic replies to people on the platform. Grok praised Hitler for his ability to 'deal with' anti-white hate." The outbursts came after the Grok model was tweaked to be less politically correct. (And, really, who isn't tired of the woke idea that Hitler was bad?) It's easy to write off the almost comically evil replies from a second-rate AI program as just another isolated story of internet ridiculousness. But AI programs are everywhere now, as they quickly become our primary interface with the internet. The way the internet and social media has been used to smash truth and destroy reality will seem like a quaint warm-up act compared to potential for AI to create, share, and indoctrinate the masses with misinformation. And the rise of this technology is only accelerating. Nvidia, the tech giant that makes the chips and hardware that powers much of our AI, just became the first company to reach $4 trillion in market value. From health advances to clean energy discoveries, many things about these new technologies will be beneficial. But as we learned with the old internet, the most powerful people and corporations don't always have our best interests at heart. I hope I'm misreading things, but it sure seems like the future of what people view as true and real will depend largely on how a few powerful people decide to tweak their code.
"Paul Yura, the long-serving meteorologist in charge of 'warning coordination' had recently taken an unplanned early retirement amid cuts pushed by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. He was not replaced. To a Washington bean counter, his loss might have looked like one tiny but welcome subtraction in a giant spreadsheet, but not in a region so prone to these perilous events that it’s known as Flash Flood Alley. Hundreds of kids at summer camps slept in cabins along the river. The plan was for folks at the upstream camps to send word to the downstream camps if floodwaters got scary. But if even the highest official in the county wasn’t on high alert, how were the camp counselors supposed to understand the danger — or, in an area without reliable cellphone coverage, to act on it?" Zeynep Tufekci in the NYT (Gift Article): As the Texas Floodwaters Rose, One Indispensable Voice Was Silent.
"There are lots of other technologies vying to replace fossil fuels or to reduce climate damage: nuclear power, hydrogen power, carbon capture and storage; along with renewables, all were boosted by spending provisions in Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and will be hampered to varying degrees by congressional rollbacks. Some may prove useful in the long run and others illusory, but for now they are statistically swamped by the sheer amount of renewable power coming online. Globally, roughly a third more power is being generated from the sun this spring than last. If this exponential rate of growth can continue, we will soon live in a very different world." Bill McKibben in The New Yorker: 4.6 Billion Years On, the Sun Is Having a Moment. (This gives me hope for the planet ... and that I may still have time to live up to my potential.)
"White House trade adviser Peter Navarro predicted '90 deals in 90 days.' Administration officials declared that other countries were desperate to make concessions to avoid the massive import taxes – tariffs -- that Trump was threatening to plaster on their products starting July 9. But the 90 days have come and gone. And the tally of trade deals stands at two." Trump’s trade blitz produces few deals but lots of uncertainty. It's notable that market is reacting less and less to financially damaging tariff announcements because the market doesn't believe the threats anymore. Either that, or the market is in denial.
+ None of this is to suggest that the tariffs aren't having very big impacts, especially on very small countries where citizens are on the receiving end of misinformation-fueled cruelty for cruelty's sake. Trump tariffs create national disaster for tiny Lesotho. "When Limpho Lefalatsa first learned she had lost her job at a Lesotho garment factory after 12 years due to U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to hit her tiny African homeland with a crippling tariff on its exports, she was in shock. 'I thought I was going insane. It made no sense.'" (We know the feeling.)
Throwing Off the Mask: "The new law allocates $75 billion for ICE through 2029 to order as many as 10,000 new agents and to build detention facilities for more than 100,000 additional people. 'It makes ICE a higher-funded law enforcement agency than the entire FBI, ATF, DEA, US Marshals Service and Bureau of Prisons combined.'" Meet the new national police force.
+ Try Sticks and Stones: "The Russian leader is convinced that Moscow’s battlefield superiority is growing, and that Ukraine’s defenses may collapse in the coming months." NYT: Putin, Undeterred by Trump’s Words, Escalates His War Against Ukraine. (It turns out words and social media posts don't win wars.) And more questions about who, if anyone, is in charge. "Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not inform President Donald Trump or the White House before authorizing a pause on the delivery of weapons to Ukraine last week, according to a report."
+ Make Measles Great Again: U.S. measles cases hit highest level in 33 years, CDC reports.
+ The Fire and the Flood: "At least three people were killed by historic flash floods that hit a New Mexico mountain community that suffered devastating wildfires last year." (This story includes shocking video of a house floating down the street.)
+ Profit of Doom: "As commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick oversees the U.S. government’s vast efforts to monitor and predict the weather. The billionaire also ran a financial firm, which he recently left in the control of his adult sons, that stands to benefit if President Donald Trump’s administration follows through on a decade-long Republican effort to privatize government weather forecasting." Trump appointees have ties to companies that stand to benefit from privatizing weather forecasts.
+ Kevin Can Wait: "In November, Margaret climbed into her Toyota Camry, left her husband of 10 years at their comfortable brick home in the rural South and drove an hour to a hotel where — she was sure — Kevin Costner was coming to meet her." “I Love You. Send Bitcoin.” Inside the Billion-Dollar Celebrity Impersonation Scam.
+ Trailer Trash: Thanks to streaming and fast-forwarding, you may not see as many commercials on television these days. If you miss them, just go to a theater. "AMC is providing notice to their ticket buyers to 'Please allow 25-30 extra minutes for trailers and additional content before the movie starts.'"
+ Arm Candy: "Along with the insulin pump around her waist, the doll has a Continuous Glucose Monitor on her arm—held in place with 'Barbie pink' tape—and a phone displaying her blood sugar statistics." Mattel’s introduces the Type 1 Diabetes Barbie Doll.
"That’s right, Shakespeare was a stoner. I’m not making this up—they found the evidence in his backyard. Back in 2001, some anthropologists got permission from a museum to borrow twenty-four clay pipe fragments that had been dug up in the small town of Stratford-upon-Avon, where Shakespeare used to live. Using state-of-the-art forensic technology, the anthropologists discovered cannabis residue on eight of them—including several from Shakespeare’s backyard garden—that dated back to the late 1500s/early 1600s, around the time he actually lived there." Did Shakespeare Write Hamlet While He Was Stoned? (You think he managed iambic pentameter sober?)
Falstaff Sized Munchies Result From My Bong / To Be or Not to Be Like Cheech and Chong
2025-07-09 02:16:32
I always imagined it would be the almond that would bring the joy. Or maybe the little acorn would become the oak. Or perhaps chestnuts would stop merely roasting and finally catch fire. And who would bet against the mighty peanut, never one to shy away from coming out of its shell? I must be a total numbnuts, because I never imagined it would be the pistachio, the cashew's colorful cousin, that everyone would go nuts for. In today's marketplace of products and ideas, success seems to come down to going viral. From Dubai chocolate to TikTok videos to Pistachio Lattes, Bloomberg (gift article) with the nuts and bolts that explain why Pistachios Are Everywhere Right Now.
"Less than three months after he declared war on synthetic food dyes, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has already secured the cooperation of the makers of some of America’s most colorful culinary products. If they fulfill their promises, Jell-O snacks, Kool-Aid beverages, and Lucky Charms cereals, among a host of other foods, will be rid of synthetic dyes by the end of 2027." But it turns out these efforts that have showed promise still might melt in RFK Jr's hands. NYT (Gift Article): Kennedy’s Battle Against Food Dyes Hits a Roadblock: M&M’s. "Kirk Vashaw, the fourth-generation head of Spangler Candy, which makes Dum-Dums lollipops and candy canes, said that the company has made some products with natural flavors and colors since the 1980s ... "They have never sold well because the taste isn’t the same ... If people are celebrating and eating treats, they don’t want to be tasting beets." (RFK, I'm sure we can work out a compromise. How about you let us keep our life-saving vaccines and we agree to taste the beets?)
"Even without final answers about the cause of the Texas death toll, one longtime emergency manager said one fact is clear: 'That many people did not need to die,' said Michael Coen, who served as FEMA’s chief of staff during the Biden and Obama administrations." But the sad truth is that we're setting ourselves up to increase the death tolls of events like the Texas flash floods. The federal government is done with nature, but nature is just getting started with us. Politico: Why Texas’ floods are a warning for the rest of the country.
+ In the short term, potential victims of storms and fires will be at greater risk because of the cutting of government programs. But the attitude that is driving those cuts is part of a much broader long term risk. NYT (Gift Article): Trump Hires Scientists Who Doubt the Consensus on Climate Change.
+ As I mentioned yesterday, we dig into these analyses and try to figure out what went wrong, in part to get some answers before the story moves off the front pages and people stop asking questions, and in part because the science and the politics is easier to consider than the human tragedy, which, like the raging waters of the Guadalupe, is almost impossible to absorb. The River.
+ US Coast Guard rescue swimmer hailed as a hero after saving 165 kids from Texas flooding.
"BYD, which stands for 'Build Your Dreams,' is essentially banned from American roads by tariffs imposed to protect U.S. automakers that double the price of imported Chinese plug-ins. Erecting tariff walls may buy the domestic auto industry some time, but it ultimately won't insulate American manufacturers from BYD or the bigger threat that it represents. The company embodies a Chinese industrial model that is leaving America in the dust." NYT (Gift Article): Why Americans Can’t Buy the World’s Best Electric Car. "Earlier this year it unveiled an autonomous driving system that may be as good as Tesla’s, if not better, as well as technology that BYD says can charge cars in just five minutes — as quickly as filling a gas tank. Its top-end models include the YangWang U8, a luxury S.U.V. that can rotate 360 degrees in place and operate in water like a boat over short distances." (As an added bonus, with all this innovation, the BYD CEO doesn't have time to Tweet all day...)
What's Up, Doctrine? Our foreign policy seems to regularly change on a whim. Today, that whim is in a good direction. Trump says U.S. will resume sending weapons to Ukraine after pausing last week. From Tom Nichols in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Who’s Running American Defense Policy? "In such a system, no one is really in charge except Trump—which means that on most days, and regarding many issues, no one is in charge."
+ Marco Existence: "An impostor pretending to be Secretary of State Marco Rubio contacted foreign ministers, a U.S. governor and a member of Congress by sending them voice and text messages that mimic Rubio’s voice and writing style using artificial intelligence-powered software." WaPo: A Marco Rubio impostor is using AI voice to call high-level officials. (And it turns out the high-level officials prefer the imposter...)
+ A Right-Wing and a Prayer: Another hole has been poked in the increasing porous separation of church and state. "The I.R.S. said on Monday that churches and other houses of worship can endorse political candidates to their congregations, carving out an exemption in a decades-old ban on political activity by tax-exempt nonprofits."
+ Shoe Removal Getting the Boot: "The rule came after Richard Reid tried — and failed — to ignite his homemade shoe explosives on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami on Dec. 22, 2001." TSA to end shoe removal policy at some airport security checkpoints.
+ Chemical Warfare: "In January 2021, after a nitrogen leak at a poultry plant in Georgia killed 6 workers and injured scores more, federal investigators arrived at the scene. The team, from a small federal agency called the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, traced the fatal leak to a freezer part that had been bent out of shape. A series of recommendations to improve safety followed." Sounds good, right? Well, it is. In fact, the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board is so good that even the industry it covers is in favor of it. But you know what happens to good programs that everyone supports. NYT (Gift Article): Trump Wants to Kill a Chemical Safety Board. Chemical Makers Object.
+ Ask Backwards: Elon Musk announced an improved version of his AI Grok. The latest version criticizes Democrats and Hollywood’s ‘Jewish executives.’
+ In a Bad Spot: "When Cleveland Guardians pitcher Luis Ortiz spiked a slider in the dirt to begin the third inning of his most recent outing, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Ortiz has thrown more than 1,500 pitches this season, and a third of them have been balls out of the strike zone. There was no reason to think twice about one that slipped. But within the gambling industry, alarms were blaring. A betting integrity firm had identified unusual wagering activity on that specific pitch being a ball—a pitch Ortiz had just hurled so wildly that it couldn’t have been hit with a tree branch." WSJ (GIft Article): The Scourge of ‘Spot-Fixing’ Is Coming for American Sports.
"Ulf Kristersson’s bodyguards appear to have inadvertently revealed his location, routes and movements – including details of hotels and his private addresses – by uploading their workouts to the app, making them publicly available." Swedish PM’s private address revealed by Strava data shared by bodyguards.
2025-07-08 03:53:57
The same question probably passed the lips of everyone who heard about the catastrophic flooding in central Texas that killed at least 88 people, including 27 children and counselors at a single camp. How could this have happened? How could a summer storm cause the Guadalupe River to surge 27 feet in an hour? In the era of supposedly all-powerful technology and AI, how could our warning systems fail so dramatically? How could we be cutting jobs related to weather prediction, warnings, and emergencies when we know that climate change is making things more dangerous? Even after you watch the timelapse videos and read the expert analyses on a perfect storm of natural disasters and human shortcomings, the question persists. So we dig into these evaluations and try to figure out what went wrong, in part to get some answers before the story moves off the front pages and people stop asking questions, and in part because the science and the politics are easier to consider than the human tragedy, which, like the raging waters of the Guadalupe, is almost impossible to absorb.
+ "He put his foot down on the floor of his cabin—and felt about 4 inches of water. RJ turned to his wife, who was lying in bed beside him, also awake. He told her, 'Annie, the cabin’s flooding.' RJ could see water rushing in through the front door. He tried to open the door, but couldn’t. He looked out the window and saw the water level was about two feet below the window. 'We need to get out right now,' RJ told Annie. They grabbed a few items—their cellphones and a bag they hadn’t unpacked. By the time they jumped out the window about two minutes later, the water had reached up to Annie’s neck.'" WSJ (Gift Article): A Texas Dad Tried to Kayak to His Daughters. The Girls Texted, ‘I Love You.’
+ "Eight years ago, in the aftermath of yet another river flood in the Texas Hill Country, officials in Kerr County debated whether more needed to be done to build a warning system along the banks of the Guadalupe River." NYT (Gift Article): Officials Feared Flood Risk to Youth Camps but Rejected Warning System. And from The Texas Tribune: Texas lawmakers failed to pass a bill to improve local disaster warning systems this year.
+ NYT (Gift Article): As Floods Hit, Key Roles Were Vacant at Weather Service Offices in Texas.
+ "While the National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings and the city of Kerrville’s Facebook paged warned to 'move to higher ground immediately,' the young campers at Camp Mystic likely wouldn’t have seen that since" no devices were allowed at camp.
+ Because of the scope of the human cost, I'm sure the losses are being felt in communities across the country. Here in Marin County, people gathered at a vigil for a family who was staying at their house in western Kerr County while their daughter, Ellie, attended a local camp. Ellie was safe. Her parents and brother haven't been heard from for days.
"It would be an understatement to say that I had not expected this. In fact, I was in the midst of preparing for a potential move to Washington, D.C. to take on a new position at FBI headquarters. But, it turned out, I had made a terrible mistake: I had remained friends with someone who had appeared on Kash Patel’s enemies list. How did Bongino find out about this private friendship? I honestly don’t know. What business was it of his? None at all. Was I accused of any sort of misconduct? No. It didn’t matter." Michael Feinberg on his resignation from the FBI. Goodbye to All That.
+ As we lose the decent people, the least decent rise to positions of extreme power. NYT (Gift Article): The Ruthless Ambition of Stephen Miller. "Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, who reportedly accompanied Mr. Miller on his visit to ICE headquarters, seems to defer to him. 'It’s really Stephen running D.H.S.,' a Trump adviser said. The attorney general, Pam Bondi, is so focused on preparing for and appearing on Fox News that she has essentially ceded control of the Department of Justice to Mr. Miller, making him, according to the conservative legal scholar Edward Whelan, 'the de facto attorney general.' And in a White House where the chief of staff, Susie Wiles, is not well versed or terribly interested in policy — 'She’s producing a reality TV show every day,' another Trump adviser said, 'and it’s pretty amazing, right?' — Mr. Miller is typically the final word."
"The Eaton Fire started at the location of my first kiss. We used to park on the shaded lane across from the mountains and sneak past a cliffside house, through a fence, and between some brush to perch on a concrete slab that overlooked the canyon. There, above the narrow watershed, we drank peach schnapps, listening to the Cure, or Prince, or Erik B. & Rakim, and fooled around." The LA fires burned more than just houses. They burned an entire community; schools, synagogues, playgrounds, storefronts, and the sites of so many memories, including a first kiss. In this excellent piece, Josh Bearman captures what was lost when a hometown burned down. NY Mag: Mark’s House Is Gone. Heather’s House Is Gone. Eddie’s House Is Gone. (Here's a web-archive version if you're blocked.) "The symbolic loss of Altadena feels even more acute now, as we see the failed promise of America being channeled into a cynical, populist nightmare. Because Altadena was a place where that promise had been fulfilled. What we lost in the fire wasn’t just a town; it was a historical arrangement — living evidence of the postwar American compact, that brief window between the Great Depression and Reagan, when there was a shared national project, and the story behind it felt true because there was the sense that, someday, that story could include anyone. Altadena embodied that durable civic optimism. A place where middle-class America was not a fantasy, where a teacher’s salary really could get you your own yard and a lemon tree. Our childhood was exploratory, not preparatory. We were not brands-in-progress. We were just kids. The world was porous. Altadena was how things were supposed to be. And suddenly, it was all smoldering debris."
If my Netflix stream is any indication, people are obsessed with murder mysteries. But unlike the ones featured in episodic dramas, a lot murders remain mysteries forever. Nearly Half of America’s Murderers Get Away With It. "A murderer’s chance of getting caught within a year essentially comes down to a coin flip. For other crimes, clearance rates are even lower. Only 8 percent of car thefts result in an arrest."
Nose Candy: "Swarms are injected into the sinus cavity via a duct threaded through the nostril and guided to their target by electromagnetism, where they can be made to heat up and catalyse chemical reactions to wipe out bacterial infections. There are hopes the precisely targeted technology could eventually reduce reliance on antibiotics and other generalised medicines." Swarms of tiny nose robots could clear infected sinuses, researchers say. People are going to let tiny robots into their bodies when they won't even take the vaccines that have saved millions? U.S. measles cases reach 33-year record high as outbreaks spread.
+ Pardoner in Crime: "A Tennessee man pardoned by President Trump for taking part in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has been sentenced to life in prison for hatching a separate plot to assassinate the law enforcement officers who investigated his role in the riot."
+ There's a New Tariff in Town: "The letters were not the final word from Trump on tariffs, so much as another episode in a global economic drama in which the U.S. president has placed himself at the center." Trump to put 25% tariffs on Japan and South Korea, new import taxes on five other nations. And from WaPo (Gift Article): Trump’s $5 million ‘gold card’ visa might never happen. "The president and his aides have exaggerated the likelihood that such a program can be legally implemented and have made no effort to introduce legislation that would be needed." (One wonders if demand is particularly high at the moment.)
+ A Third in the Punchbowl: Elon Musk wants to start a third political party because he hates the spending bill. (Someone should tell him that there’s already a political party that voted unanimously against it.)
+ Putin Place: "'I feel like I’ve been put on an ark of safety for my family,' 61-year-old Leo Hare said at the time. 'I want to thank President [Vladimir] Putin for allowing Russia to become a good place for families in this world climate." There's crazy, and there's 'I'm moving to Russia because it's less woke' crazy. WaPo: Russia’s ‘anti-woke’ visa lures those fearing a moral decline in the West.
+ A Scarlett Number: "Her lead project career gross of $14.8 billion passes the totals of fellow Marvel alums Robert Downey Jr. and Samuel L. Jackson." Scarlett Johansson Becomes Hollywood’s Highest Grossing Lead Actor With ‘Jurassic World Rebirth.'
+ Dropping Like Flies: "The U.S. government is preparing to breed billions of flies and dump them out of airplanes over Mexico and southern Texas to fight a flesh-eating maggot."
+ Your Kiss is on My List: "French Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus was cleared of a doping allegation Monday because the judges accepted she was contaminated by kissing her American partner over a period of nine days." (Nine days? That's a hell of a lot of foreplay...)
"When you’re handing out £53.5 million in prize money, you wouldn’t have thought there was any incentive for Wimbledon players to steal one of the championship’s £40 towels. You’d be wrong." The net gains of Wimbledon stars — stealing 500 towels a day.
+ "The surgery giving men cartoonish six-packs doesn’t technically provide fake abs, but it can lead to jarring visuals." How Can You Tell If Someone Has ‘Fake’ Abs? (In my experience, they tend not to emerge naturally between love handles...)