2026-04-09 02:49:59
The rest of the world is playing checkers. Trump is playing fortnight. The president backed down from his threat to wipe out a civilization and announced a ceasefire and peace-talk process that would take place over his favorite period of time: two weeks. The news had many shouting Trump’s second-term nickname: TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out). Call me pro TACO. I have been in favor of most de-escalations since Trump de-escalated down the Trump Tower escalator and into the White House. The public markets seem to be sharing in my sigh of relief. If this precarious ceasefire holds, the big question will be whether Trump achieved anything by escalating in the first place. David Sanger in the NYT (Gift Article): “Without question, it was a down-to-the-wire tactical victory, one that should, at least temporarily, get oil, fertilizer and helium flowing again through the Strait of Hormuz, and calm markets that feared a global energy shock would lead to a global recession. But it resolved none of the fundamental issues that led to the war. It leaves a theocratic government, backed by the vicious Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in charge of a cowed population that has been pummeled by missiles and bombs, and finds itself still under the thumb of a familiar regime, even if under new management. It leaves Iran’s nuclear stockpile in place, including the 970 pounds of near-bomb-grade material that was, in theory, the casus belli of this war.”
+ How Trump went from threatening Iran’s annihilation to agreeing to a two-week ceasefire in a day. Well, it sure wasn’t because of any major concessions made by Iran. Iran Releases 10 Points It Says Are Basis for Cease-fire Talks. “Iran released its version of the proposal the morning after the United States and Iran agreed to a two-week cease-fire, and calls for American troops to leave the region, reasserts Iran’s control over the strategic Strait of Hormuz and maintains Iran’s right to nuclear enrichment.” (Iran is suggesting that they will charge $2 million per vessel that travels through the Strait.) Hegseth said Iran “begged” for a ceasefire, but these deal points sure don’t sound like total surrender. (FWIW, Trump called this ten point plan fraudulent and explained he is dealing with another set of points: “These are the POINTS that are the basis on which we agreed to a CEASEFIRE. It is something that is reasonable, and can easily be dispensed with.”)
+ Who could have predicted things would play out like this? Lots of people, including many inside the administration. And, as is always the case when things don’t go well, they’re more than happy to leak their opinions. “When Mr. Trump joined the meeting, Mr. Ratcliffe briefed him on the assessment. The C.I.A. director used one word to describe the Israeli prime minister’s regime change scenarios: ‘farcical.’ John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, cautioned against considering regime change an achievable objective in a Situation Room meeting the next day. At that point, Mr. Rubio cut in. ‘In other words, it’s bullshit,’ he said.” NYT (Gift Article): How Trump Took the U.S. to War With Iran.
+ Bibi, not ceasing: At least 254 killed after Israel hits Lebanon with massive wave of airstrikes.
+ For now, the Strait traffic is halted, Iran is still apparently attacking its neighbors, and the warring parties are disagreeing about what they agreed to ahead of the ceasefire. Here’s the latest from the NYT, NBC, and The Guardian.
However the peace negotiations play out, it’s hard to imagine America’s evolving place in the world will be better off than it was a couple months ago (when it was already suffering). The Atlantic (Gift Article): A New Geopolitical Reality Is Here. “The war has exposed the contradictions of the Trump administration’s geopolitical worldview. Under this president, the United States has rewarded Russia, ignored China, punished Europe, and abandoned its Asian allies and partners to an economic crisis that it helped set in motion.” (Is pulling out of NATO next?)
“The good news is that Anthropic discovered in the process of developing Claude Mythos that the A.I. could not only write software code more easily and with greater complexity than any model currently available, but as a byproduct of that capability, it could also find vulnerabilities in virtually all of the world’s most popular software systems more easily than before. The bad news is that if this tool falls into the hands of bad actors, they could hack pretty much every major software system in the world, including all those made by the companies in the consortium.” Tom Friedman: Anthropic’s Restraint Is a Terrifying Warning Sign.
+ Anthropic may have gotten to this point first. They won’t be the last. Casey Newton explains why Anthropic’s new model has cybersecurity experts rattled. “One of the world’s three frontier labs has now created a model it says is too dangerous to release to the general public. These dangers emerged not from any specialized cyber training but from the same general improvements that every other lab is currently pursuing. As a result, models with similar capabilities may soon be accessible to criminals, hackers, and nation states — or even more broadly via open source models.”
“In 1976, Chris Espinosa rode his Puch moped a mile and a half every Wednesday afternoon, parked it and went to work. Just 14 years old, he still had to go to school and didn’t have a driver’s license. But his employer, Apple Computer, had customers who wanted to try its earliest computer, and Mr. Espinosa was responsible for demonstrating it. Mr. Espinosa’s job has changed many times in the 50 years since. But he still works for Apple.” One of Apple’s First Employees Looks Back at 50 Years.
Crypt Script: “Bitcoin’s creator has hidden behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto for 17 years. But a trail of clues buried deep in crypto lore led to a 55-year-old computer scientist named Adam Back.” John Carreyrou in the NYT (Gift Article): My Quest to Solve Bitcoin’s Great Mystery. (I still think Bitcoin’s greatest mystery is: what is it good for?)
+ Moon Shots: Here are some more excellent photos from the Artemis II crew. (If these go viral on Instagram, everyone’s gonna want to visit the far side of the moon.) And Kottke’s got you covered if you need some Stunning Artemis II Phone Wallpapers. (It’s gonna take a lot more than a lunar joy ride to get my beagles off my lock screen...)
+ Plea Change: Rex Heuermann admits to killing 8 women in Gilgo Beach serial killings.
+ Ketamine Time: “She also said she had sold ketamine to Cody McLaury, a 33-year-old who died in 2019 shortly after purchasing the drugs, as well as Perry, and continued dealing after learning of their deaths.” ‘Ketamine Queen’ sentenced to 15-year prison term for role in Matthew Perry’s death.
+ Generic Rolled: “The country has one of the largest diabetic populations in the world by sheer number — more than 100 million people are estimated to be living with some form of the disease. And 350 million people there live with obesity. Heart attacks and strokes, which are lumped together under cardiovascular disease, claim 2.8 million lives a year in India, and strike nearly a decade earlier on average than in high-income countries.” That’s why the generic versions of GLP-1s could be a massive game changer. Ozempic just got cheap enough to change the world.
+ New Management, Same Boss: “The decision [to target Cassidy Hutchinson] was in keeping with the administration’s bid to find new ways to use the powers of the federal government to target Mr. Trump’s political opponents.” Justice Dept.’s Civil Rights Division Is Investigating Star Witness Against Trump. (Remember, Pam Bondi was canned in part because she wasn’t terrible enough when it comes to targeting Trump’s enemies...)
+ The LLM Will See You Now: “Online communities focused on health anxiety—an umbrella term for excessive worrying about illness or bodily sensations—are filling up with conversations about ChatGPT and other AI tools. Some say it makes them spiral more than ever, while others who feel like it helps in the moment admit it’s morphed into a compulsion they struggle to resist.” The ChatGPT Symptom Spiral. (I tend to spread my symptoms across several LLMs so none of them get as irritated with me as my friends and family are...)
“The door slides open to reveal an interior in a lovely shade of peacock blue more akin to what I’ve seen in a fancy hotel powder room. After you do your business and exit the stall — you can wash your hands inside or at a little station on the exterior that includes a potable water spigot — the door closes and the cleaning process commences after each use. It looks a bit like a toilet theme park: the bowl is drawn back into the rear wall, where it’s sprayed down and disinfected.” A deep dive into self-cleaning public toilets in Paris. The best seat in town. (I’m thinking about getting one of these for my house.)
+ The latest fashion statement: 7-Eleven merch.
2026-04-08 02:26:47
In between posting that “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F-ckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH. Praise be to Allah” and announcing that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” the president of the most powerful country in the world stood next to the Easter Bunny and shared some thoughts about Iran. Donald Trump may not have yet been able to bomb open the Strait of Hormuz, but he has blown his strait jacket clean off. We are in uncharted territory, with an unhinged president repeatedly threatening war crimes and a cast of enablers unwilling to stand up to the monster they helped create. I’m no expert on mental illness, even though I’ve been forced to confront its symptoms plastered across the news since that fateful Trump Tower escalator ride. But I’d imagine that if you were a cornered, frustrated, attention-addicted malignant narcissist with flourishing sociopathic tendencies, you’d be getting off bigly right now as a whole civilization waits to see if you’ll destroy it. I hope this manifestation of unbridled symptoms proves to be bluster or leads to some kind of deal and that the civilization in question does not die. In the meantime, American civilization is dying a little more with each passing day.
+ “Whatever happens tonight, the president, by saying such things, has already changed the world for the worse, and made acts of mass violence more likely. If we are Americans, he has also changed our country. He has changed us, because he represents us; we voted for him, or we didn’t vote and allowed him to come to power, or we didn’t do enough to stop him. These words are America’s words, until and unless Americans reject them.” Timothy Snyder: The president speaks genocide.
+ “The bombings and threats have left many Iranians living in fear not only of their own government, which killed thousands of people in a crackdown on protesters early this year, but their would-be American rescuers, who pledged at the beginning of the war to create the conditions for their government to fall.” WSJ (Gift Article): Iranians Fear Trump’s Threatened Escalation.
+”Lili, the Tehran resident, said that as someone who long opposed her government and sympathized with the nationwide demonstrations that sought to topple it just months ago, Mr. Trump’s threats have shifted her feelings toward the United States and Israel. Both countries’ leaders have repeatedly voiced support for Iran’s opposition and encouraged Iranians to use the war to rise against their leaders. But their warplanes are now bombing not just military sites, she said, but critical industrial facilities, universities and schools. ‘So now, we are supporting Iran and whatever government is running it.’” NYT (Gift Article): Iranians Voice Shock and Defiance in Face of Trump’s Looming Deadline.
+ “What benefits the Iranian people—global economic reintegration, diplomatic recognition, investment, normalcy—threatens a regime that operates an extensive mafia and thrives in isolation. The carrots that America offers the nation are sticks to the men who rule it. And the sticks that America wields against the regime—isolation, conflict, and chaos—are carrots to men whose power depends on all three.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): Trump’s Fundamental Misunderstanding in Iran. Even if you take ethics out of the equation (which many have already done), you have to wonder how further harming the Iranian citizens harmed by this regime will lead to the regime doing a deal?
+ US-Israeli strikes hit Iran’s oil, rail and bridges, U.S. strikes Kharg Island, here’s the latest from NYT, NBC, The Guardian, and BBC.
At one point yesterday, the Artemis II team was on the other side of the moon and completely out of contact with Earth (making them the happiest humans in the universe). They traveled farther from the Earth than any humans had ever gone before, and they’ve got the photos to prove it. Moon Joy: Photos From Artemis II.
+ “As the astronauts of Artemis II traveled farther from Earth than any humans before them, they paused. Speaking solemnly, they called down to mission control to request that an unnamed crater on the moon be dedicated to Carroll Wiseman, the wife of mission commander Reid Wiseman, who died of cancer in 2020.”
+ Not satisfied ruining everything on Earth, Trump called the astronauts to ruin a little of their trip. (The next thing NASA needs to invent: Intergalactic voicemail.)
“He heaped praise on Mr. Orban as a ‘statesman’ who is ‘wise and smart’ and abuse on European Union ‘bureaucrats’ who he said ‘tried to destroy the Hungarian economy’ to sway Sunday’s result ‘because they hate this guy.’ Mr. Orban’s leadership, he added, “can provide a model to the Continent.’” Vance Visits Hungary to Boost Orban Before Election. Meanwhile, Russia supplies Iran with cyber support, spy imagery to hone attacks.
+ “Mr. Vance is responding as he always has whenever ambition calls: He’s humiliating himself. The vice president is scheduled to go to Hungary on Tuesday to campaign for the country’s authoritarian leader, Viktor Orban, a Kremlin-allied white nationalist who proclaims that Europeans ‘do not want to become peoples of mixed race.’” Dana Milbank in the NYT (Gift Article): How Much Humiliation Can Vance Take? (How much can wetake?)
Some crops are currently wasting away in fields because there aren’t enough workers to pick them. Wait, what gives? I thought the plan was to chase away immigrant labor and wait for Americans to come take the jobs that are rightfully theirs? Well, it went something like this: “High wage mandates have ‘not resulted in a meaningful increase in new entrants of U.S. workers to temporary or seasonal agricultural jobs.’ Farmers received applications from U.S. workers for only 182 of 415,000 positions advertised in the last fiscal year.” WSJ (Gift Article): The Farm Labor Shortfall Bites.
Close Only Counts in Horseshoes and AI: “A recent analysis of AI Overviews found that they were accurate approximately nine out of 10 times. But with Google processing more than five trillion searches a year, this means that it provides tens of millions of erroneous answers every hour (or hundreds of thousands of inaccuracies every minute) ... Whether a response rate that is almost — but not quite — accurate should be celebrated is part of a widespread debate in Silicon Valley.” (It’s just not as heated as the debate over who will make the most money from AI...) NYT: How Accurate Are Google’s A.I. Overviews?
+ Some Assembly Required: Michigan held off UConn to win the March Madness crown. It was the second win for Michigan, but the first of its kind. Dusty May “deployed a starting five this season made up entirely of transfers. It was the first time in NCAA basketball history that a team with an all-transfer starting five won the championship.” For anyone old enough to remember the old Gabe Kaplan movie Fast Break, the NIL era has basically turned it into a documentary.
+ Hook, Lines, and Linker: “’It’s not like he was just holed up in his room 24-7,’ Freudenberg says. ‘He ran track. He played soccer. He was a great student.’ Until he dropped out of college at age 19. That’s when his mom found out that he had been gambling for nearly half his life.” More teens are getting hooked on gambling. Parents say it often goes undetected.
+ Lithium Valley: “In Imperial County, Calif., half of the roads are unpaved and the unemployment rate is sky-high. The shimmering water at a once-thriving lakeshore is toxic. Perhaps nowhere in California needs a lifeline more than this arid borderlands region in the southeastern corner of the state. And a mile underground, there might just be one.” NYT (Gift Article): The California Lake Billed as the Saudi Arabia of Lithium. (Not everyone is so sure the locals would benefit...)
+ Ye Nods: “Kanye West was barred Tuesday from entering the U.K., where he was scheduled to headline the Wireless Festival in July, after a backlash over [his] history of antisemitic remarks.” Sadly, the reaction of the public to his return isn’t quite the same. He was just joined by a bunch of famous guests during a couple sold out shows at SOFI in LA.
+ An International Terminal Case: “New Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin wants to punish ‘sanctuary cities’ for refusing to cooperate with Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda by stripping them of customs and immigration services.” New DHS Secretary Threatens to Sabotage America’s Biggest Airports.
+ To Recede or Reseed:“Ansell, the dermatologist, said she has had parents come in asking about finasteride for their teenage sons, looking to make sure they get ‘all the best they can have in order to succeed in life.’ Young men are also coming in on their own for help keeping their hair. ‘More of them are really anxious about it,’ Ansell said. ‘There’s no new epidemic of hair loss, but there is an epidemic of men freaking out about it.’” NYT (Gift Article): The Hair-Loss Drug Rewriting the Rules of Masculinity. (What about tradition? I made fun of my dad for being bald. And now I’m going bald. This is the way.)
“American families are leaning in to the low-tech life for their kids, installing home phones to stave off smartphone use. It’s creating some hiccups. For weeks after getting her phone, Elsie would call friends only to sit in agonizing silence, not knowing what to say.” WSJ (Gift Article): Kids Are Discovering the Joys—and Pains—of the Landline.
2026-04-07 01:44:04
In a continued move toward the reunification of church and state, the Trump administration celebrated Easter by going full resurrection in a series of religious posts from various departments. But an Easter morning they hoped would commemorate a rising, served instead as a stark reminder of the depths of our descent. In his own unhinged, religion-charged post, the president of the United States threatened war crimes. “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH. Praise be to Allah.” (Anyone remember when Trump told Iranian protesters HELP IS ON ITS WAY?) What’s the big deal? It’s just Trump being Trump. It will all get lost in the news cycle anyway. Well, it is a big deal for several reasons. It’s yet another crazy, terrible hit on American leadership, in which most of our allies have already lost faith. It’s a signal to our enemies that the rules of war are no longer in play. It’s a message that could potentially galvanize the Iranian people against American efforts, even those predisposed to support efforts to rid their country of a terrible regime. It’s a detriment to American service personnel who are being associated with, and potentially being ordered to commit, war crimes. And it’s a reminder that the most powerful country on Earth is being run by a lunatic, and no matter how offensive he is or how serious a threat he poses, his enablers will continue to enable him. NYT(Gift Article): Trump Revels in Threats to Commit War Crimes in Iran. “The American president has been unambiguous in his disdain for international law. In a two-hour Oval Office interview in January with The New York Times, Mr. Trump declared, ‘I don’t need international law.’ When asked whether there was any limit on his global powers, he said, ‘Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality.’” Let’s hope America can resurrect itself from that.
+ “As former uniformed military lawyers who advised targeting operations, we know the president’s words run counter to decades of legal training of military personnel and risk placing our warfighters on a path of no return.” Just Security: When War Crimes Rhetoric Becomes Battlefield Reality.
+ NYT (Gift Article): On Iran, Trump Keeps World Off Balance With Ever-Changing Threats. (Off balance. I guess that’s one way to put it.)
+ Iran rejects latest ceasefire proposal, calling instead for permanent end to the war. Here’s the latest from AP, The Guardian, and NBC.
“Iran had launched several search parties, one of which had assembled at the base of the mountain where the weapons officer was hiding. For the Iranians, the downed Air Force colonel was a powerful asset they could use as leverage in high-stakes negotiations with the United States. For the U.S. military, which lives by the mantra of ‘no man left behind,’ finding the downed officer was a moral imperative. Battered by the force from his ejection, the weapons officer waited. He knew that both U.S. and Iranian forces were racing to find him.” A Harrowing Race Against Time to Find a Downed U.S. Airman in Iran.
“The firm was established as a nonprofit, whose board had a duty to prioritize the safety of humanity over the company’s success, or even its survival.” Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz in The New Yorker: Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted? “Altman has a relentless will to power that, even among industrialists who put their names on spaceships, sets him apart. ‘He’s unconstrained by truth,’ the board member told us. ‘He has two traits that are almost never seen in the same person. The first is a strong desire to please people, to be liked in any given interaction. The second is almost a sociopathic lack of concern for the consequences that may come from deceiving someone.’” (Sound like the kind of guy you want in charge of making decisions about the future of AI?)
“The incident caught my eye because I sometimes attend wrestling shows, and because of a pet theory that’s gained momentum among pundits over the past decade: that the style of pro wrestling actually explains a lot about modern politics. The way that politicians stretch the truth for their audience, and quickly swap stances, and lean into a blustering, exaggerated persona—all of that’s wrestling.” Jeremy Gordon in The Atlantic(Gift Article): Wrestling’s Newest Star Is Massive, Bearded, and Ready to Piledrive Ice. “Politics may creep into any sport, but it can feel closer to the surface in wrestling, which made me think their anti-ICE chants were less a momentary gesture of support for the character King is cultivating and more an authentic expression of feeling at a particularly charged and violent moment in American life.”
+ Why is ICE losing favor in places where you might not expect it? Because the notion that they’re going after the worst and most dangerous criminals has been body slammed by reality. These are just a few of the headlines I came across today. MoJo: She Helped the Authorities Deport Her Abuser. Then They Deported Her Back to Him. NYT (Gift Article): ICE Agents Detain Newlywed Spouse of Soldier Training to Deploy. The Atlantic(Gift Article): She Testified About Being Raped. Then ICE Showed Up. NBC: Some Marines graduate without their parents present amid ICE fears.
Close Enough to Moon the Moon: “The astronauts woke up to the voice of Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell, who recorded the message just two months before his death last August. “Welcome to my old neighborhood. It’s a historic day and I know how busy you’ll be, but don’t forget to enjoy the view.” Artemis II astronauts race to set a new distance record from Earth and behold the moon’s far side. Ars Technica: Artemis II is going so well that all we’re left to talk about is frozen urine.
+ America Upside Down: “Vice President JD Vance is heading to Hungary this week with a lofty goal: to try and boost Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in the country’s looming election.”
+ Something Big Was Bruin: “UCLA stymied South Carolina, 79-51, on Sunday in the national title game to secure the program’s first NCAA championship. It was a dominant UCLA effort from the opening tip that turned into a runaway in the second half.” UCLA locks down South Carolina for dominant win, program’s first Women’s NCAA championship.
+ Island Fever: Trump Seeks $152 Million to Begin to Turn Alcatraz Back Into a Prison. (Time to close the Strait of the Golden Gate.)
+ Angel in the Outfield: ‘Greatest defensive game I’ve ever seen’: Jo Adell robs 3 home runs in dramatic Angels win. Wow.
+ I-Hopping to Waffle House: No One at Waffle House Remembers FEMA Official Who Says He Teleported In. “Gregg Phillips, who is in charge of responding to fires and floods, says the hand of God suddenly and mysteriously moved him to a 24-hour breakfast spot in Rome, Ga.” (If I ever have a religious experience like this, I can only hope it involves breakfast foods...)
“A woman who had sex with identical twins within four days of each other is unable to ensure one of them takes parental responsibility because it is ‘not possible‘ to know which is the father, the court of appeal has said.” (Someday, we’re gonna get back to a world where this is the top news of the day. You have to believe...)
2026-04-04 01:46:16
Pete Hegseth finally found straits he could protect: White male ones. While the military he oversees is attempting to remove the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, Hegseth is managing a military blockade of personnel within his department. And somehow, this is happening in a time of war. But, apparently, no battle matters as much to Hegseth as the one against diversity. “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired Gen. Randy George, the Army’s chief of staff, on Thursday, a move that reflects growing hostility between Mr. Hegseth and the Army’s leadership ... The tension with Mr. Hegseth was not rooted in substantive differences over the direction of the Army, military officials said. Rather it is the product of Mr. Hegseth’s long-running grievances with the Army, battles over personnel and his troubled relationship with Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll ... Mr. Hegseth has also clashed in recent months with General George and Mr. Driscoll over the defense secretary’s decision to block the promotion of four Army officers to be one-star generals. Two of the officers targeted by Mr. Hegseth are Black and two are women on a promotion list that consisted of 29 other officers, most of whom are white men.” This is not the headline you want to see in a time of war: Hegseth Fires Army Chief Amid Battle With Its Leaders. The Pentagon chief, who has earned the nickname Dumb McNamara, is now firing wildly qualified military leaders for their insistence on promoting other wildly qualified military leaders. Maybe it makes sense Hegseth changed his agency’s name to the Dept of War, because there’s no defense for the way he’s running it.
+ DEI Another Day: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has taken steps to block or delay promotions for more than a dozen Black and female senior officers across all four branches of the military, some of whom are seen as having been targeted because of their race, gender or perceived affiliation with Biden administration policies or officials, according to nine U.S. officials familiar with the process.” NBC: Hegseth has intervened in military promotions for more than a dozen senior officers.
+ “Hegseth began his tenure by acting against what he sees as a Pentagon infested with DEI hires. He pushed for the removal of the then–chairman of the Joint Chiefs, C. Q. Brown, who is Black, and he fired a raft of female military leaders, replacing them all with men. But dumping the Army chief of staff in the middle of a war, without explanation, is a reckless move even by Hegseth’s standards ... Trump and Hegseth have been on a clear mission to politicize the U.S. military, and to turn it into an armed extension of the MAGA movement. Hegseth regularly proselytizes, both for Trump and for his right-wing evangelical beliefs, from the Pentagon podium.” Tom Nichols: Hegseth’s War on America’s Military.
+ This would all be bad in a time of peace. It’s much worse during a war, a point hammered home by the latest news from the Gulf. “Iran shot down a U.S. fighter jet over the country, the first time that has occurred in five weeks of war, and American forces were rushing to find and rescue its two crew members. The loss of the F-15E jet and the rescue efforts, reported by Iranian media and confirmed by U.S. and Israeli officials, create a military and diplomatic challenge for the United States. President Trump has threatened in recent days to bombard Iran ‘back to the Stone Ages,’ and over the past 24 hours, the United States and Iran have been trading attacks on military and civilian infrastructure in the region.” As I’m writing, one of the American fighter pilots has been rescued. Here’s the latest from the NYT and NBC.
People with chronic illnesses are as aware as the rest of us that chatbots sometimes get it wrong. But they’re also comparing the act of using them to their experiences with the medical system. “The medical system really failed me. Is it a good thing to be depending on A.I. for medical advice? I don’t think so. But it’s the option that’s available.” Doctors Couldn’t Help Them. They Rolled the Dice With A.I. “Some women with complex chronic illnesses are using chatbots to search for diagnoses or relief from their symptoms.” (The answers may not always be satisfying, but at least the doctor will always see you now...)
+ The Verge (Gift Article): Chatbots are now prescribing psychiatric drugs. (It’s just for renewals ... for now.)
“In 2019, Mark Mongiardo, then a high school athletic director, was pulled over in Sullivan County, N.Y., after a dinner with the boys’ golf team. He’d eaten a hot dog and some fries, washed down with a soda. He hadn’t had a sip of alcohol, but the officer who stopped Mr. Mongiardo for using his phone while driving smelled it anyway. A breathalyzer test showed Mr. Mongiardo’s blood alcohol content was .18 percent, more than twice the legal driving limit. It was his second drunken driving offense in two years, but these episodes of unexplained intoxication had begun decades earlier.” It turns out that some people can get drunk from the inside. Their bodies essentially make ethanol. And though that might sound fun, it’s anything but. It’s a brewing storm. “D.W.I.s, relationship problems, accusations of secret drinking: Auto-brewery syndrome can wreak havoc on people’s lives and reputations.” NYT (Gift Article): The Mystifying Syndrome That Makes People Spontaneously Drunk.
What to Read: Longtime readers have followed along with Robbi Behr and Matthew Swanson and their excellent Busload of Books program. They are also a very accomplished author and illustrator team, and their latest book couldn’t be better timed (or better reviewed). Take Lemony Snicket’s word for it: “Is there anything more exciting than a trip to the moon? Yes: This book.” Order Life on the Moon today. This one is going to be huge.
+ What to Movie: I’m still catching up on all the Oscar-nominated movies. I’ve got to say, my favorite one so far, by quite a bit, is Sentimental Value, now streaming on Hulu.
+ What to Banana: The Roastmaster General takes to Broadway and gets heartfelt in a funny, meaningful look at life, family, death, and, well, bananas. On Netflix, Jeff Ross: Take a Banana for the Ride.
Fill ‘Er Up: “Roughly half of global food production depends on synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. Without it, crop yields would tumble, pushing up prices of household staples including bread, rice, potatoes and pasta, and would also make animal feed more expensive. Some of the world’s poorest countries are among the most vulnerable to fertilizer price rises.” For some of those affected by the Iran war, filling up is not optional. ‘Food security timebomb’: a visual guide to the Gulf fertilizer blockade. (Whether we like it or not, we’re all interconnected.)
+ Bondi Voyage: “Bondi, a former attorney general of Florida, has presided over a department that has eagerly subordinated itself to President Donald Trump’s whims. That submission, made manifest by the banner of a glowering Trump that now hangs from the Department of Justice building, included seeking to bring baseless cases against Trump’s perceived political enemies, ordered up by the President himself; purging the department of career lawyers and F.B.I. agents deemed insufficiently loyal; and launching a belligerent campaign against ‘rogue judges’ who dared to challenge Administration actions.” The New Yorker: Pam Bondi’s Legacy of Flattery and Destruction. It still wasn’t enough. That’s why “her successor could be even more dangerous.” As I wrote yesterday: All that corruption, all that damage to the department and her own reputation in the name of loyalty—and what did it get her? A one-way ticket to eternal Pamnation. (Meanwhile, Trump’s personal defense attorney has taken over as Attorney General. He recently Shut Down Enforcement Against Crypto Companies While Holding More Than $150,000 in Crypto Investments. In other words, he’s perfectly qualified.)
+ Back At the Other War... “Ukrainian counteroffensives were one reason, as well as technological issues that have hindered battlefield communication: Starlink has cut Russia’s access to its satellite internet, and the Kremlin prevented its own troops from using the messaging app Telegram in favor of a state-run option.” Russia’s battlefield progress stalls entirely.
+ Who Would Have Predicted? The Trump administration to states: You can’t regulate prediction markets. (And this has nothing to do with Don Jr’s roles at Kalshi and Polymarket.)
+ Watch This Space: “SpaceX boosted its target IPO valuation above $2 trillion, according to people familiar with the matter, as the world’s most valuable startup gears up to pitch potentially the biggest-ever market debut.” That’s up from a valuation of $1.25 trillion way back in ... February. And I’m just a Humanities major, but that’s about 100 times 2026 projected revenue.
+ Sounds About Par for the Course: “Bodycam footage of Tiger Woods’s arrest for DUI shows the golfer looking surprised when he was handcuffed by police officers at the scene of a vehicle crash last week and telling a deputy he had spoken to ‘the president’ on the phone after the incident.”
“Doctors believed that Woody Brown would never be able to speak or process language. He went to graduate school and is publishing his debut novel.” ‘I Thought I Would Be Caged My Whole Life.’
+ “Rounding a little-used pier with a hulking century-old building, he found an open garage door and peered inside. The building was cavernous, seemingly in good shape, and entirely empty. That’s all it took for Eggers, the Pulitzer finalist and conjurer of offbeat endeavors, to spin his way into another.” A Free Home for San Francisco Artists. (And another great program from the excellent, and indefatigable, Dave Eggers.)
+ NASA’s Artemis II has left Earth’s orbit, and 4 astronauts now head to the moon. (And they got a pretty nice shot of us.)
+ The economy added more jobs than expected in March.
+ Molly the border collie rescued after a week waiting for injured owner in New Zealand’s remote backcountry.
+ There’s a New Place to Store Greenhouse Gases: In Your Beer. (It’s gonna have to be a pretty large beer.)
+ Unsuspecting windsurfer collides with gray whale in San Francisco Bay. (Both escaped without injury...though this is not being covered as feel good news in the whale press.)
2026-04-03 03:35:49
Pam Bondi degraded, dismantled, and demoralized the Justice Department, securing her spot (until her replacement gets rolling) as the worst attorney general in recent memory. But, alas, she wasn’t bad enough. So the president is bailing on Bondi and has told Pam to scram. Is there no justice? All that corruption, all that damage to the department and her own reputation in the name of loyalty—and what did it get her? A one-way ticket to eternal Pamnation. What were her faults? In the eyes of the president, even after using up enough black redacting ink to fill the Capitol Reflecting Pool, she wasn’t protective enough of Trump when it came to the Epstein files, she wasn’t effective enough when it came to securing “indictments of people he referred to as ‘scum’ during a speech in the department’s Great Hall about a year ago,” and she wasn’t very good at communicating on TV (and we can’t have the greatest crime of all being committed by the nation’s top lawyer). NYT (Gift Article): Trump Fires Pam Bondi as Attorney General. Like many before her, Pam Bondi soiled her reputation and sold her soul for the promise of a payment to be made later by a guy famous for never paying his bills. Todd Blanche will temporarily take over for Bondi until Trump appoints a replacement. The only thing we can be more sure of than loyalty to Trump being unrequited is replacements being worse than their predecessors. After all, in 2026, the only law that really has any standing is Murphy’s Law.
+ “She took steps that his first-term attorneys general had refused to take, including attempting to prosecute his perceived enemies and hunting for evidence that he beat former President Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Bondi oversaw the firings and forced departures of scores of prosecutors and other employees who investigated Trump and his allies in recent years. She even placed a large banner of Trump’s face on the outside of the Justice Department.” WSJ (Gift Article): At Justice Department, Bondi tried to deliver on president’s priorities but ultimately failed to appease him. In other words, at this point, you’d have to be crazy to take this job. And that’s exactly what we should all be worried about.
+ Trump polled advisers about replacing Tulsi Gabbard as intelligence chief. (Gabbard almost let out some of her actual core beliefs during her recent testimony on the Iran war).
“His address did not come across as a wartime speech but instead was a disjointed series of complaints, brags, and exaggerations (along with a few outright lies) delivered by a man who looked and sounded tired. After his 19 minutes on the air—brisk by Trump’s standards—Americans could be forgiven for being even more concerned now than they were only a few days ago.” Tom Nichols: Maybe Trump Should Not Have Given This Speech.
+ NYT (Gift Article): 5 Takeaways From Trump’s Address on Iran. With no new information and no clear exit plan, the speech seemed like a re-run of the press conferences and Truth Social posts we’ve been seeing for a while. So why give the prime time address? My theory: He just couldn’t let the rocket get all the attention.
+ “When we’re serious, we don’t say the opposite of what we said the day before every day, and maybe one shouldn’t speak every day.” Macron faults Trump for shifting U.S. goals and for hollowing out NATO with his attacks (and for comments about his marriage). Meanwhile Trump announces the bombing of major bridge near Tehran on his social media account. Here’s the latest from the NYT and The Guardian.
+ NYT (Gift Article): Every Trump Threat to Abandon NATO Hollows It Out. (One factor I haven’t seen mentioned is that the hollowing out of NATO will result in big-time weapons spending by allies who once thought they could count on us. Not that we’d ever alter a policy or take advantage of a crisis for financial gain. In other news: Company backed by Trump sons looks to sell drone interceptors to Gulf states being attacked by Iran.)
“When they prayed on the Sunday after Valentine’s Day, as on other Sundays, most of the women at King’s Way Reformed Church in the old mining town of Prescott, Ariz., wore dainty kerchiefs knotted over their hair to show devotion to God. Marybelle East, 36, wore hers all the time, she said — seven days a week — ‘for him to see that I submit to his authority.’ Her husband’s authority, that is. Her head scarf is a physical reminder of biblical patriarchy, the kind of marriage the church preaches. ‘It keeps me from running my mouth,’ she said. To her and the other women, patriarchy also means ceding their political voices to their husbands. They believe America would be better off if women could not vote.” NYT (Gift Article): The Women Who Believe Women Should Lose the Right to Vote. “If a decade ago the idea was just another extreme provocation, today it is gaining adherents beyond the fringe.”
+ “You were betrayed and arrested and falsely accused. It’s a familiar pattern that our lord and savior showed us. But it didn’t end there for him, and it didn’t end there for you.” Trump’s Spiritual Adviser Faces Backlash After Comparing Him to Jesus.
“Smoking in the United States, at least according to official surveys, has plummeted to an historic low. Just 9.8 percent of Americans smoked in 2024, according to a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, down from 10.8 percent the year before.” But you wouldn’t know that cigarettes were losing their cool by watching TV and movies. And you probably wouldn’t know it by hanging around in Hollywood. The Ankler: Cigarettes Get a Sequel: Hollywood’s ‘Cool’ Bad Habit Is Back.
In Fact It’s a Blast: “A towering orange-and-white NASA rocket blasted off from Florida on Wednesday evening, lifting four astronauts toward space and transporting spectators’ imaginations to a future in which Americans may again set foot on the moon ... ‘We have a beautiful moonrise and we’re headed right at it,” said Reid Wiseman, the NASA astronaut who is the commander of the mission.’” Artemis II Successfully Kicks Off 10-Day Lunar Mission. Here’s a look at the launch in photos, and from a pretty enthusiastic group watching from nearby. To follow along, you can watch NASA’s Artemis II Live Mission Coverage.
+ Muscular Build: “Hitler passed hours in the bunker complex studying table-size models of his future construction projects. Speer recalls sitting with Hitler as late as April 1945, the month of his suicide, while he pored over architectural projects that included a palatial residence that Hitler hoped to have completed by 1950, with an office that measured 960 square meters, 16 times the size of the old Reich chancellor office, and a dining room that could seat 1,000 guests.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): Hitler’s Edifice Complex. “He was obsessed with adding an expensive new wing to the Reich Chancellery, part of his grandiose architectural ambitions for the nation’s capital.” In other news... Trump appointee-led commission approves White House ballroom plans.
+ Betting the Over Down Under: “Australia said it would ban gambling advertisements featuring celebrities and limit online gambling advertisements to internet users over 18 from next year, an attempt to appease public health concerns but falling short of measures recommended by its own inquiry.”
+ Memory Storage: “It was so simple at the start. When Michael got into the game of flipping used goods, he just wanted to make some money. But the business of dealing in people’s abandoned possessions, it turns out, can be fraught. Two years into his pursuit, he knows all too well that every locker tells a story, many of them bleak.” A New Jersey Teen Finds Treasure, and More, in Abandoned Storage Units.
+ You Bet Your Assets: OpenAI closes record-breaking $122 billion funding round as anticipation builds for IPO. “Moments like this do not come often. The capital being deployed today is helping build the infrastructure layer for intelligence itself. Over time, that value will flow back into the economy, to companies, to communities, and increasingly to individuals.” Ooh, I can’t wait...
“Hershey said Wednesday it will use classic recipes for all Reese’s products starting next year, a change that comes after the grandson of Reese’s founder criticized the company for shifting to cheaper ingredients.”
2026-04-02 02:49:58
April 1st is a day when people share stories that seem real until you realize they’re fake. That contrasts with every day in 2026 when we’re confronted with stories that seem like they must be fake until we realize, much to our chagrin, they’re real. Let’s go with a third option. Let’s forget, just for one blurb in one edition of this newsletter, all the craziness and distortions that dominate our streams and dreams, and focus instead on what, during normal times, would be the leading story of the day: one that includes some very out of fashion elements, such as positivity, science, human achievement, diversity, unity, a projectile fired into the sky that’s not intended to blow things up, and best of all, the glorious prospect of getting the hell out of here (like way out) for a few days. I know, I know, I’m asking for the moon. But it looks like I might get it (or at least close to it). Crowds are already gathering for the scheduled launch of Artemis II, a historic NASA mission that will shoot astronauts around the moon and back on a 10-day mission. I’m a mere Humanities major, but I’m told by the internet that following a violent collision between Earth and a protoplanet named Theia, the moon was formed from the ensuing debris. Well, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. So let’s go check it out. It’s got to beat the garbage we’re dealing with down here...
+ “Before taking his last steps on the moon, NASA astronaut Gene Cernan made sure to scratch his young daughter’s initials into the lunar dust. He had some parting thoughts for the rest of humanity, too. ‘We leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind,’ the Apollo 17 commander said before departing for Earth. That was December 1972. Now, more than half a century later, NASA may be about to fulfill Cernan’s wishes.”
+ “Their path through space could send the group farther from Earth than any human has ever ventured, surpassing the Apollo 13 distance record of 248,655 miles set in 1970.” Even though the celebration of the crew’s diversity (across race, gender, and even Canadian lines) has been deleted from government websites, it can’t be deleted from reality. Meet NASA’s Artemis II astronauts.
+ And now that you’ve met them, let’s get to know how they’ll go to the bathroom. SciAm: Artemis II’s toilet is a moon mission milestone. And a short video from BBC: “When you’re in zero gravity, how do you go to the toilet? That’s what Nasa scientists have spent more than $23 million figuring out in time for the launch of Artemis II later this week.” (I spent nearly that much on a Toto Washlet...)
+ Photos: Counting Down to the Launch of Artemis II.
+ Here’s the latest from NBC and NASA.
Of course, no one would possibly try to preempt coverage of a unifying human effort like a literal moonshot. Yeah, and the moon is made of cheese. President Trump has scheduled an Oval Office address around the same time as the Artemis II launch to provide an update on the Iran war. (After exploring space, NASA should increase the range of its rocket and try to explore the far reaches of Trump’s ego.) Ahead of the speech, Trump said Iran has asked for a ceasefire. Iran says it hasn’t. Meanwhile, Trump says he’s definitely considering leaving NATO. Here’s the latest from The Guardian and NYT.
+ There have been a variety of war goals that have come and gone, but getting rid of Iran’s ability to make nuclear weapons has always been at the top of the list. Has it been achieved? David E. Sanger in the NYT (Gift Article): Iran Maintains Nuclear Capacities Despite Trump’s Claim of U.S. Success.
+ Thomas Friedman in the NYT (Gift Article): “If this were not the leadership of my own country — and if Iran were not, indeed, the most destabilizing force in the Middle East and its transformation not a worthy goal for its own people and its neighbors — I’d just sit back and watch the show, savoring the spectacle of Trump getting what he deserves. But it is my country. Iran going nuclear is a threat that could unleash nuclear proliferation all across the Middle East. And we are all going to get what Trump deserves.”
+ “Rarely has a president been surrounded by such an array of toadies and lickspittles, operating beyond their competence in an atmosphere of organizational chaos.” Eliot A. Cohen in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Lions Led by Donkeys.
“In a post on his social media site, Trump says falsely the United States is the ‘only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow Birthright” Citizenship!’ In fact, the United States is one of more than 30 countries that confer citizenship at birth with no conditions.” (Since America has the world’s leading economy and military, wouldn’t our citizenship policies be considered pretty SMART!) Trump attended part of the SCOTUS oral arguments (becoming the first president to do so). Let’s hope the act of intimidation (and the ridiculous arguments) don’t carry the day. Key Justices Appear Skeptical of Limiting Birthright Citizenship.
“On phone calls over the past couple of weeks, we talked about cheating commissioners and deadbeat team owners, about booze- and weed-fueled draft rooms and end-of-season punishments for league losers. We talked about how difficult it can be to make small talk with other parents at the playground, about the ways relationships wither as we age. We talked, to a shocking degree, about death.” The Fantasy Baseball Ties That Bind. “How do fantasy sports leagues fit into the larger story of the male loneliness epidemic? You might be surprised.” (The Giants have won two in a row. That’s all the fantasy I need...)
How Will the Crude Feud Conclude? “If there’s irony here, it’s the tragic kind. The administration’s war of choice has made energy dangerously expensive in nearly every corner of the globe, causing needless suffering. The most fossil fuel-friendly government in recent U.S. history has shown us all just how risky reliance on oil and gas can be — and taught the world that true energy security lies in accelerating toward a cleaner, electrified future.” This Energy Crisis Is Going to Change the World. (We can hope...)
+ Swindler’s List: Proof that no headlines can shock us anymore: Federal Judge Approves Trump Effort to Obtain List of Jews From Penn. (I won’t even release the names of the Jews coming to my seder tonight.)
+ They’re Not Being Campy: You may view the phrase alpha male as ironic or funny, but “there are plenty of American men these days who regard alpha masculinity—or ‘warrior mode,’ or ‘modern knighthood,’ or other such appellations—not ironically but aspirationally. There are now programs offering to help such men achieve these aspirations, or something close ... At the Men of War Crucible, you bear-crawl through rivers. At Warrior Week, you dig your own grave.” The New Yorker: The Camps Promising to Turn You—or Your Son—Into an Alpha Male. (And I thought I had it bad going away to camps that made you want to never go to camp again...)
+ Noemenclatures: “These men all knew Bryon Noem as the nice, tall insurance salesman who married Kristi Arnold, the town beauty queen who grew up to be governor. But now there were these pictures.” NYT (Gift Article): In South Dakota, Neighbors Feel Sorry for Kristi Noem’s Husband. (I sort of felt sorry for him before the pictures.)
+ Kid Gloves: Hegseth reverses Army’s suspension of aircrew who flew helicopters near Kid Rock’s home. “No punishment. No investigation, Carry on, patriots.” (I haven’t heard that line since Deflategate...)
+ Masters and Disasters: Tiger Woods says he’ll seek treatment after pleading not guilty to DUI.
+ Boss > King: “This past winter, federal troops brought death and terror to the streets of Minneapolis. Well they picked the wrong town. The power, the solidarity of the people of Minneapolis, of Minnesota, was an inspiration to the entire country. Your strength and your commitment told us this is still America. And this will not stand.” To kick off his tour, Bruce Springsteen Brings Fiery Speeches and Songs to Minneapolis. (He really couldn’t be rising to the occasion any more than he is.)
As I argue annually, April Fool’s Day pranks should have been canceled after the greatest one of them all. George Plimpton: The Curious Case Of Sidd Finch.
+ And to all who celebrate, have a good Passover Seder. And good luck this week…
