2025-12-10 20:00:00
Apparently, the Trump administration doesn’t know that sans serif typefaces are more straight. During the Biden years, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken ordered the department to start using the sans serif font Calibri “to improve accessibility for readers with disabilities, such as low vision and dyslexia, and people who use assistive technologies, such as screen readers.” After this transition, State Department memos and directives were being subjected to what can only be referred to as a woke font. But fear not, State Department employees, Calibri has been officially deported from your printer port. In modern parlance, the Calibri font has been officially undocumented. The return of the Times New Roman Empire is upon us. “While mostly framed as a matter of clarity and formality in presentation, Mr. Rubio’s directive to all diplomatic posts around the world blamed ‘radical’ diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility programs for what he said was a misguided and ineffective switch from the serif typeface Times New Roman to sans serif Calibri in official department paperwork.” (It goes without saying that all files must only be printed in black and white: Documents of color are not welcome.) NYT (Gift Article): At State Dept., a Typeface Falls Victim in the War Against Woke. “Serif typefaces are ‘generally perceived to connote tradition, formality and ceremony,’ Mr. Rubio’s order said, adding that they were used by the White House, Supreme Court and other state and federal government entities.” If this administration really wants a font that represents the current American government, I suggest they consider Comic Sans.
“The Trump administration plans to require all foreign tourists to provide their social media histories from the last five years to enter the country, according to a notice published Tuesday in the Federal Register. The data would be ‘mandatory’ for new entrants to the U.S., regardless of whether they are entering from countries that require visas, according to the notice from Customs and Border Protection.” (Too bad we didn’t have that requirement for running for president…)
+ As we make America less welcome, other countries are taking advantage. NYT (Gift Article): ‘Come North!’ Canada Makes Play for H-1B Visa Holders With New Talent Drive.
In general, it’s a bad time to be an immigrant and a pretty decent time to be a tax dodger. “President Donald Trump’s administration has carried out a sweeping overhaul of U.S. law enforcement this year, forcing out scores of attorneys and focusing large sections of the Justice Department on tracking down immigrants. Its retreat from tax enforcement illustrates the toll that shift has taken on other crime-fighting efforts.” Exclusive-Tax prosecutions plunge as Trump shifts crime-fighting efforts.
+ WaPo (Gift Article): DHS inks contract to create its own fleet of 737 jets for deportations. “The agency will spend nearly $140 million to buy the planes, funding that comes from a massive budget increase for immigration enforcement approved by Congress.”
+ Of course, the shift of resources to deportation efforts will have an impact on many other crime and terrorism fighting efforts. The question is, to what end? “Trump’s push for the largest mass deportation in history has had an outsized impact on the child care field, which is heavily reliant on immigrants and already strained by a worker shortage. Immigrant child care workers and preschool teachers, the majority of whom are working and living in the U.S. legally, say they are wracked by anxiety over possible encounters with ICE officials. Some have left the field, and others have been forced out by changes to immigration policy.” Trump’s crackdown on immigration is taking a toll on child care workers. (Feel safer?)
Tired of being cheated on? Want a partner you can actually trust to be monogamous? Stop swiping left and right and consider this one piece of advice: Date a California deermouse. WSJ (Gift Article): A Scientist Produced a Monogamy Ranking of Dozens of Mammals, Including Us. If you’re still at the point when multiple partners sounds like twice the fun, you can’t beat the bleat of a Soay sheep.
+ Seemingly related: These Utah Beavers Are Moving. They’ll Get New Jobs and More Space.
Miami Hurricane: “Democrat Eileen Higgins won the Miami mayor’s race on Tuesday, defeating a Republican endorsed by President Donald Trump to end her party’s nearly three-decade losing streak and give Democrats a boost in one of the last electoral battles ahead of the 2026 midterms.” Democrat wins Miami mayor’s race for the first time in nearly 30 years. (Who knows if the momentum will last, but at this point, a Democrat could win an election to be club president at Mar-a-Lago.)
+ Split Decision: “A Federal Reserve split over where its priorities should lie lowered its key interest rate Wednesday, but signaled a tougher road ahead for further reductions.” Divided Fed approves third rate cut this year, sees slower pace ahead.
+ Dropping Pinocchios in the Poconos: Trump is back on the rally tour, offering gems like these: “I said, why is it we only take people from shithole countries? Why can’t we have some people from Norway, Sweden, Denmark… But we always take people from Somalia— places that are filthy, dirty, disgusting.” … “Ilhan Omar, whatever the hell her name is. With her little turban. I love her. She comes in, does nothing but bitch … we ought to get her the hell out … she’s here illegally.” (After that one, the crowd started chanting “send her back.”) Trump strays from script at Poconos rally, calling affordability a ‘hoax’ and Pa. a ‘dumping ground’ for immigrants.
+ Foreseeable Future: Everything is television, AI is eating the economy, Gen Z is bummed, America is on drugs. Derek Thomas sums up the year ahead with The 26 Most Important Ideas For 2026.
+ A’ja: “Wilson, a seven-time All-Star, has positioned herself as an ideal leader in this pivotal moment in women’s sports history. She is an effervescent WNBA ambassador, who in recent weeks has been everywhere, finally getting her due.” A’ja Wilson Is TIME’s 2025 Athlete of the Year.
+ Bounty Hunters: Think your budget is stretched thin these days? The United Nations just got rid of paper towels at global HQ in NYC.
+ Photo Finish: Often, the story of our time is best told in photos. From The Atlantic (Gift Article): Top 25 News Photos of 2025. The photos of our time can be pretty bleak. So you may want to follow them with Instagram’s Favorite New Yorker Cartoons in 2025.
“When a small town in Oregon couldn’t afford to properly clear the snow from its streets, residents took the only natural step: They stripped.” WSJ (Gift Article): One Town’s Plan to Address a Financial Crisis: Nude Calendars. “Alan Munhall, the September model who was photographed by his wife in their garden with a basket strapped to his waist, wasn’t sure if they’d raise much money but figured it wouldn’t hurt to try. ‘I’ve gotten a few comments like ‘Oh, it’s a good thing that harvesting bag was as big as it was.”
+ In-N-Out “has removed the number 67 from its order system, as it found teens would go crazy when the number was called, launching celebrations of the nonsense term that have turned into viral videos.” (You may be thinking, “Well, at least we’re that much closer to 69.” But sadly, they got rid of that number, too.)
2025-12-09 20:00:00
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Except the main thing that happens in Vegas. That stays with you. You can bring it on the plane when you leave. It stays with you at home, at work, on the subway, on vacations, and even during trips to the restroom. In many states, your phone has become a legalized mobile casino. Sports betting is the main activity we often associate with phone-based gambling. But betting on sporting events is a drop in the quarter-filled bucket when it comes to casino economics. So predictably, in many states, slot machines are now on your phone, too. And people like the slot machines that fit into your pocket as much as they like the ones that serenade Las Vegas casinos on a non-stop basis. The slot machines aren’t the only Vegas highlight that travels well. So do the problems associated with gambling. “Traditional slot machines were once the most common reason people called the problem gambling hotline run by the Council on Compulsive Gambling of Pennsylvania. But in the years since the state legalized online gambling, online casino games have become the No. 1 reason for calls, ahead of physical casinos and sports betting.” With the risks associated with such behaviors, you’d assume states would be hesitant to legalize mobile slot machines. But here’s the rub. The state is in on the action. NYT Upshot: States Are Raking In Billions From Slot Machines on Your Phone. When it comes to sports betting, you have to wait for the game. With slots, the game is always waiting for you.
It’s hard to imagine that there’s anything that could make social media more addictive to teens. But outlawing it might do the trick. Australia launches youth social media ban it says will be the world’s first domino. “More than 1 million social media accounts held by users under 16 are set to be deactivated in Australia on Wednesday in a divisive world-first ban that has inflamed a culture war and is being closely watched in the United States and elsewhere.” There’s no doubt that there’s something attractive about ungluing kids from their phones. But when I think back to my teen years, something not being allowed only tended to make it more attractive. Being 21 took a lot of the thrill out of scoring a six-pack of beer and legal dispensaries took some of the fun out of buying a joint. And one can safely assume that teens getting around a technological age barrier will be a lot easier than breaking other rules. BBC: Can you ban kids from social media? Australia is about to, but some teens are a step ahead. “It took 13-year-old Isobel less than five minutes to outsmart Australia’s ‘world-leading’ social media ban for children. A notification from Snapchat, one of the ten platforms affected, had lit up her screen, warning she’d be booted off when the law kicked in this week – if she couldn’t prove she was over 16. ‘I got a photo of my mum, and I stuck it in front of the camera and it just let me through. It said thanks for verifying your age,’ Isobel claims. ‘I’ve heard someone used Beyoncé’s face,’ she adds.” (There is some irony at play here. When Facebook first launched, it was only available to college students and then high school students. So in the early days of social media, you had to pretend you were younger than you were if you wanted to check out the newest social tech.)
“A video on TikTok in October appeared to show a woman being interviewed by a television reporter about food stamps … [the guest discussed] selling food stamps for cash, which would have been a crime … Despite subtle red flags, hundreds vilified the woman as a criminal — some with explicit racism — while others attacked government assistance programs, just as a national debate was raging over President Trump’s planned cuts to the program.” Here’s the thing: The whole interview was AI generated. The same could very well be true about something that enraged you online. NYT (Gift Article): Even though the consumer apps to create them are only a few months old, A.I. Videos Have Flooded Social Media. No One Was Ready. (Who would have thought that in an era filled with real news that seems like it must be fake, we’d feel the need to create fake news that appears real.)
+ Yesterday, I covered the way campaigns are using AI to convince voters of certain ideas, even in remote areas. Don’t think you can be swayed? You’ll Come Around.
“More than 40 strangers logged in to Instacart, the grocery-shopping app, to buy eggs and test a hypothesis. Connected by videoconference, they simultaneously selected the same store — a Safeway in Washington, D.C. — and the same brand of eggs. They all chose pickup rather than delivery. The only difference was the price they were offered: $3.99 for a couple of lucky shoppers. $4.59 or $4.69 for others. And a few saw a price of $4.79 — 20 percent more than some others, for the exact same product.” NYT (Gift Article): Same Product, Same Store, but on Instacart, Prices Might Differ. “The Groundwork study found no evidence that Instacart was basing different prices on customers’ individual characteristics like income, ZIP code or shopping history. But there is little doubt that Instacart and other online sellers have the ability to do so.” (Oh, as sure as eggs is eggs, they will.)
Lies, Lies, and Allies: WSJ (Gift Article): “In a rambling and sometimes incoherent interview … the US president struggled to name any other Ukrainian cities except for Kyiv, misrepresented elements of the trajectory of the conflict, and recycled far-right tropes about European immigration that echoed the ‘great replacement’ conspiracy theory.” Trump lambasts ‘weak’ and ‘decaying’ Europe and hints at walking away from Ukraine. What’s weak and decaying are American values. Bloomberg (Gift Article): Why Russia Loves the New US National Security Strategy. “It calls, after all, for a rupture in the Transatlantic Alliance that every Kremlin leader — with brief exceptions for Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin — has sought since 1945.”
+ Not the War of Yore: “To counter the growing threat, America must simultaneously win the race to build autonomous weapons and lead the world in controlling them.” NYT (Gift Article) on the state of weaponry, battles, and what America needs to do to avoid falling behind. This Is the Future of War.
+ Patriarch of History: “Networked misogyny is now firmly established as a key tactic in the 21st-century authoritarian’s playbook. This is not a new trend – but it is now being supercharged by generative AI tools that make it easier, quicker and cheaper than ever to perpetrate online violence against women in public life – from journalists to human rights defenders, politicians and activists..” We see examples on the daily from the very top. Michelle Goldberg: Republican Women Suddenly Realize They’re Surrounded by Misogynists. “Last week, The Times reported on Republican women in Congress who say that Johnson ‘failed to listen to them or engage in direct conversations on major political and policy issues,’ which they seemed to attribute to his highly patriarchal evangelical Christianity. (He recently said that women, unlike men, are unable to ‘compartmentalize’ their thoughts.)” Some men are even able to compartmentalize their ethics.
+ Chips on the Table: “By letting Nvidia sell its H200 artificial-intelligence chips to China, he gave the U.S. company the giant market it demanded. But he also handed China’s AI industry what it couldn’t build itself: the high-end semiconductors needed to rival America.” WSJ (Gift Article): How Trump’s U-Turn on Nvidia Chips Changes the Game for China’s AI.
+ The Reel Deal: “New problems are plaguing old reels, putting decades of history at risk. One man, armed with hair dryers and a love of tinkering, is leading the charge to rescue them.” NYT (Gift Article): The ‘Race Against Time’ to Save Music Legends’ Decaying Tapes.
+ You Seriously Need to Chill: “Your first thought on hearing this is probably ‘Why?’ Why is leftover pizza healthier for me? And the answer has to do with what happens when you cool the delicious crust. When you cool a pizza to below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, some of the starches in the dough will start to mingle together to form these long chains called resistant starches.” Why Leftover Pizza Might Actually Be Healthier. (And it’s not just pizza…)
+ Gift Sift: Jason Kottke, the gift that keeps on giving, is back with his unique and always fun annual gift guide. (It’s slightly shorter than the list my daughter texted to me earlier this week.)
“Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.” A symphony of woofs: This is what happens when 2,397 golden retrievers gather in an Argentina park. (The noise was the equivalent of two beagles noticing a squirrel.)
2025-12-08 20:00:00
For a glimpse into the future of campaigns, let’s join Rest of World for a look at a recent election in the Indian state of Bihar. Political parties used widely available, very powerful, and reasonably cheap AI tools to reach voters in one of the country’s poorest and most populous states. Some of the tools seem useful and relatively harmless. Consider an AI that can translate campaign messages into a local dialect: A lot of the tools don’t seem harmless at all. “Deepfakes of politicians, journalists, and celebrities endorsing and discrediting candidates, and promising freebies circulated ahead of the election. Videos of candidates campaigning in Bihar even when they were not [there]. ‘It was really confusing for us to know what to believe and what not to,’ said Kumar Singh, 28. ‘I am tech-literate, so I know what AI is, but my parents and grandparents don’t, and the AI content convinced people in my home and neighborhood that these candidates were on the ground, even when they weren’t.'” Cheap and powerful AI campaigns target voters in India. If you don’t see this trend as a major concern, I suppose I won’t be able to convince you otherwise. I’m only human.
+ Of course, like everything involving AI, we’re just scratching the surface of how the technology will be deployed to inform and manipulate voters. AI can be used to assess the most effective message to deliver to any group of voters, create that message, and enhance the delivery of that message. And being 28 and tech literate may not help much when the deluge hits. Technology Review: AI chatbots can sway voters better than political advertisements. “A multi-university team of researchers has found that chatting with a politically biased AI model was more effective than political advertisements at nudging both Democrats and Republicans to support presidential candidates of the opposing party. The chatbots swayed opinions by citing facts and evidence, but they were not always accurate—in fact, the researchers found, the most persuasive models said the most untrue things.” (Maybe we’ve already reached the singularity, because that sounds a whole lot like human politicians.)
+ “‘I don’t know much about Harris,’ the voter admitted. ‘… However, with Trump, he is associated with a lot of bad things. So, I do not feel he is trustworthy right now.’ The AI chatbot replied: ‘I completely understand your emphasis on trustworthiness, and it’s a crucial trait for any leader. Let’s delve into this aspect with a nuanced perspective.’ By the conversation’s end, according to a transcript of the exchange, the voter was reconsidering whether to vote at all.'” WaPo (Gift Article): Voters’ minds are hard to change. AI chatbots are surprisingly good at it.
Cryptocurrency proponents argue that the new money offers faster, cheaper, decentralized transactions that transfer some of the power from massive, centralized banks to individuals, especially those in poorer regions without traditional banking infrastructure. And maybe some of those elements will prove to be as fruitful as the currency has been for investors. For now, crypto definitely seems to being Helping Criminals Launder Money and Evade Sanctions. “Smugglers, money launderers and people facing sanctions once relied on diamonds, gold and artwork to store illicit fortunes. The luxury goods could help hide wealth but were cumbersome to move and hard to spend. Now, criminals have a far more practical alternative: stablecoins, a cryptocurrency tied to the U.S. dollar that exists largely beyond traditional financial oversight.”
During the SCOTUS oral arguments on a case to determine whether the president has the power to fire agency heads without cause, Justice Sonia Sotomayor argued: “You’re asking us to destroy the structure of government and to take away from Congress its ability to protect its idea that the government is better structured with some agencies that are independent.” To the current court majority, that sounds like great news. (Don’t worry, once we destroy the structure of government, we’re gonna replace it with a big, beautiful ballroom.) Supreme Court appears poised to rule for Trump on independent agency firings.
“Paramount Skydance on Monday launched a hostile bid worth $108.4 billion for Warner Bros Discovery, in a last-ditch effort to outbid Netflix and create a media powerhouse that would challenge the dominance of the streaming giant.” The hostile bidders have a few things going for them when it comes to getting administration approval: The Ellisons, Jared Kushner, and the backing of several Middle Eastern government-run investment funds. The gang’s all here. Warner Bros fight heats up with $108 billion hostile bid from Paramount. Neither of these deals will be particularly good for consumers. So we’re left to root for the least bad option. Welcome to 2025.
+ Deal points, competition, and societal good aside, it is remarkable that Netflix has risen to the point where it can buy Warner Bros. I discussed this last week. “I didn’t know it at the time, but the future of entertainment depended on a single data point shared with me over a cup of coffee in the 90s.”
Soy Vey: WSJ (Gift Article): “The Trump administration is planning to announce $12 billion in aid to U.S. farmers, according to administration officials, as the agriculture sector grapples with the fallout from President Trump’s far-reaching tariffs … The aid will be a shot in the arm to soybean farmers, who have faced devastating financial losses this year.” (Create a problem. Take credit for trying to fix the problem you created. I wonder if FIFA gives a medal for that?)
+ Surplus Sized: “China’s trade surplus in goods this year topped $1 trillion for the first time, a milestone that underscores the dominance that the country has attained in everything from high-end electric vehicles to low-end T-shirts.”
+ Good Hombres: “The data, which includes ICE arrests from Jan. 20 to Oct. 15, shows that nearly 75,000 people with no criminal records have been swept up in immigration operations that the president and his top officials have said would target murderers, rapists and gang members.”
+ Pardon Variety Hypocrisy: “President Trump promised to crack down on bad behavior in the ticketing and concert industry to help bring down prices for American fans. This past week, though, he pardoned a sports executive in one of his Justice Department’s big battles against the industry, Tim Leiweke.” WSJ (Gift Article): A Round of Golf Changed Trump’s Tone on the Concert Industry. Meanwhile, Trump pardons major drug traffickers despite his anti-drug rhetoric.
+ Grid Pro Quo: “American researchers invented the lithium-ion battery in the 1970s and later showed that the devices could help the electric grid. But for a long time batteries made little headway because grid managers and utility executives dismissed them as expensive and risky.” NYT: Once a Gamble in the Desert, Electric Grid Batteries Are Everywhere.
+ Golden Receivers: The Golden Globe noms are led by One Battle After Another and the White Lotus. Here are all the nominees and the snubs and surprises.
+ Parking Violation: “The US’s National Park Service will offer free admission to US residents on Donald Trump’s birthday in 2026 – which also happens to be Flag Day – but is eliminating the benefit for Martin Luther King Jr Day and Juneteenth.” (I really think these guys are trying to send some kind of message, I just can’t make out what it is…)
“As the years have gone by, the letter has grown in scope. When we sent the first Christmas newsletter, we were just a two-person operation in a small home in Middlebury. Now we have to cover nine busy family members across four states. And sometimes Jessica has a boyfriend.” McSweeney’s: Why We’re Paywalling Our Family Christmas Card.
2025-12-05 20:00:00
I didn’t know it at the time, but the future of entertainment depended on a single data point shared with me over a cup of coffee in the 90s. I was chatting with Marc Randolph, one of the co-founders of a small, just-launched company called Netflix. Even though the company had only rented a relative handful of DVDs at that point, Randolph was very bullish on its prospects because the founders had an answer to the one key question that they believed would ultimately determine the company’s success: Would consumers be willing to rent a DVD by mail? The early answer was yes. That answer upended the entire movie rental business, and it was followed by a series of additional yeses. Would bandwidth reach a level where we could reasonably download and then stream movies? Yes. Could Netflix successfully manage the transition and the competition associated with adapting to the streaming age? Yes. Could a tech upstart from the Bay Area establish itself as one of the most powerful, influential players in the business of Hollywood? Yes? And now the biggest yes of all: Would Netflix eventually become a 300 million subscriber behemoth so massive and valuable that it could win a bidding competition against the likes of Paramount and Comcast to buy one of Hollywood’s most storied studios? NYT (Gift Article): Netflix to Buy Warner Bros. in $83 Billion Deal to Create a Streaming Giant. “Netflix announced plans on Friday to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming business, in a deal that will send shock waves through Hollywood and the broader media landscape. The cash-and-stock deal values the business at $82.7 billion, including debt. The acquisition is expected to close after Warner Bros. Discovery carves out its cable unit, which the companies expected be completed by the third quarter of 2026. That means there will be a separate public company controlling channels like CNN, TNT and Discovery.” (I suppose this is an appropriate moment to look back at that moment in September of 2000 when Netflix offered to sell itself to Blockbuster for $50 million. John Antioco, CEO of Blockbuster, declined, saying, “The dot-com hysteria is completely overblown.”)
+ I’m not sure that morphing from a builder to a buyer is a smart move for Netflix. And I’m not sure that market consolidation will be good for consumers. And I’m going to be really worried if company executives announce that the new name for the combined streamer will be Netflix Max. But I am sure the deal’s announcement will set off a blockbuster debate among regulators, and that will include Trump administration officials who sure seemed to prefer the Ellison father and son backed Skydance/Paramount bid that could have been a big win for a Trump ally and put CNN into the hands of a MAGA-friendly owner. Netflix-Warner Bros deal faces political pushback even as company touts benefits. “Republicans in Congress have warned of potential antitrust problems with Netflix absorbing HBO Max and Warner Bros’ content rights — and Democrats including U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren criticized the transaction after it was announced on Friday.” (How will it all turn out? We can either wait and see, or I can just invite Marc Randolph to coffee again. I just worry about him asking me about those two or three DVDs rentals I never returned.)
“Andrew Kolvet, a spokesperson for the late Charlie Kirk’s Conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA, showcased ardent support for the Secretary of Defense via social media, saying ‘Every new attack aimed at Pete Hegseth makes me want another narco drug boat blown up and sent to the bottom of the ocean.’ In response, Hegseth said: ‘Your wish is our command, Andrew. Just sunk another narco boat.'” The latest strike took place on the same day Congressional officials were gathering information on the infamous second strike. The second strike was a crime. The first strike was a crime. But, as Phil Klay explains in the NYT (Gift Article), these strikes are something more than that. “This [legality] discussion misses the bigger effort the Trump administration seems to be engaged in. In lieu of careful analysis of the campaign’s legality, detailed rationales for the boat strikes and explanations of why they couldn’t be done with more traditional methods, we get Mr. Hegseth posting an image of himself with laser eyes and video after video of alleged drug traffickers being killed. The cartoon turtle is just one example in an avalanche of juvenile public messaging about those we kill. I suspect the question the administration cares about is not ‘is this legal,’ ‘is this a war crime,’ ‘is this murder’ or even ‘is this good for America,’ but rather, ‘isn’t this violence delightful?'” What Trump Is Really Doing With His Boat Strikes. “We’re in the Colosseum, one brought to us digitally so that we need not leave our homes to hear the cheers of the crowd, to watch the killing done for our entertainment.”
“He switched from vodka to light beer. He started booking two-hundred-dollar-an-hour corporate Santa gigs. He reconnected with his son and even employed him as an elf. The easy explanation would be that playing Santa Claus saved Billy and that the magic of Christmas had wrapped its warm glow around another lost soul. That’s what Billy thought. That’s what a lot of men who worked at Macy’s thought when they, too, found happiness sitting in a gold-painted chair wearing a red costume. But there was something else at work on Thirty-fourth Street. Something more profound. A better story, actually.” David Gauvey Herbert in Esquire: Yes, Bob, There is a Santa Clause.
What to Watch: Michael Shannon, Matthew Macfadyen, and Nick Offerman lead an excellent cast in the the story of James Garfield, who rose from obscurity to become America’s 20th president — and Charles Guiteau, the man who assassinated him. Watch Death by Lightning on Netflix.
+ What to Book: Kaplan’s Plot by Jason Diamond is an entertaining and sometimes touching story of failed tech bro who returns home to Chicago and uncovers a sprawling story of his grandfather’s role in an epic gangster saga.
+ What to Sandman: Adam Sandler is the latest interviewee on David Letterman’s Netflix show: My Next Guest. These two guys chatting just makes me feel good.
Erasure Head: “The document released overnight is the clearest statement yet of how the president wants his America First foreign policy to be a clarion call for other nationalist politicians to overhaul their political systems. And it echoes some of the language of the Great Replacement Theory, a nationalist conspiracy theory embraced by some of his top aides that warns of a deliberate effort to replace white people with nonwhite immigrants.” NYT (Gift Article): Trump Administration Says Europe Faces ‘Civilizational Erasure.’ (I could use some news erasure…)
+ Replacing Merits with Parrots: “But as the populist right trashes meritocracy, it is replacing it with something older, cruder and more corrosive: a naked plutocracy — rule by the very rich. We have the wealthiest Cabinet in history, stocked with billionaires and centimillionaires. Immense wealth is now seen as the single best qualification to run anything.” An excellent piece from Fareed Zakaria in WaPo (Gift Article): Populists are replacing meritocracy with something far worse.
+ Vax Attacks: Panel Votes to End Recommendation for Hepatitis B Shots for All Newborns. (And RFK’s vaccine dismantling begins.)
+ Scotus Operandi: Supreme Court lets Texas use gerrymandered map that could give GOP 5 more House seats. (The Court’s majority disregarding the law and lower court rulings to support Trump? Shocker.)
+ Shock and Draw: The United States will face Australia, Paraguay and winner of Turkey, Romania, Slovakia and Kosovo. Here’s a look at all the groups and news from the World Cup draw, where Trump accepted the FIFA Peace Prize and spoke briefly onstage at the Kennedy Center. ‘This is truly one of the great honors of my life. We’ve saved millions and millions of lives.'” (Millions? I’m pretty sure it’s more like trillions…)
+ Fact Wrecker: A headline that defines an era: State Department to deny visas to fact checkers and others.
+ The Next Pardon? “One of Trump’s first executive actions of his second term was to issue clemency to the nearly 1,600 defendants accused or convicted of ‘offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.’ It remains to be seen whether Cole’s lawyers will try to argue that their client is covered by Trump’s proclamation.” Brian Cole Jr., suspect in Jan. 6 pipe bomb plot, reportedly told FBI he believed 2020 election was stolen.
“Mesfin Yana Dollar came to the U.S. for surgery. Now he works at the Mayo Clinic, assisting with some of the world’s most complex open-heart surgeries.” WaPo (Gift Article): A heart surgeon saved his life as a teen. Now they perform surgeries together.
+ Teens may have come up with a new way to detect, treat Lyme disease using CRISPR gene editing.
+ 14-Year-Old Wins Prize For Origami That Can Hold 10,000 Times Its Own Weight.
+ Students in need were paid $500 a month to stay in school. It worked.
+ Boy, 5, Sneaks Out for Chick-fil-A While Family Sleeps.
+ “Usually, there’s about an hour of quiet reading. Then you can stick around to chat and swap books — or not.” Inside Seattle’s silent book clubs. You show up with your own book and just read for a while in the presence of others doing the same thing. (If I can partipate from home, this would be the perfect club.)
2025-12-04 20:00:00
Over the past few decades, humanity has gotten a lot better at keeping very young and very poor children from dying. “The number of [childhood] deaths expected in 2025—about 4.8 million—is less than half of the 11.6 million reported in 1990.” I don’t have expertise in either childhood health or the complex math of global economics, but those numbers seem to make one thing pretty clear: We should do more of whatever we we’ve been doing since 1990. The richest countries in the world have been able to save millions and millions of lives for what is essentially a rounding error on their annual GDP spreadsheets. It’s not only economically sensical, it’s also the decent thing to do as human beings. In other words, child-saving foreign aid is precisely the kind of program that the Trump administration would cut. And with the help of the chainsaw-wielding DOGE taskmaskers, backed by the world’s richest man, cutting USAID funds was one of the first things the new administration did. For whatever reason, foreign aid is not one of the hot button political issues that gets voters to the polls. People tend to think we spend a lot more on such aid than we actually do. “Opinion polls consistently report that Americans believe foreign aid is in the range of 25 percent of the federal budget. When asked how much it should be, they say about 10 percent.” The real number is closer to one percent. So maybe it’s a misinformation problem. Or maybe providing food and medicine for starving and sickly babies is just viewed as being too woke. Whatever the reason, there’s a relatively small political price to be paid for these cuts. But the human cost is dramatic. WSJ (Gift Article): For First Time in Decades, Child Deaths Will Rise This Year. “Almost a quarter of a million more children are projected to die in 2025 than in 2024 … Driving the shift, Bill Gates said, is a 27% decline in global health aid from donors in wealthy countries, including the U.S. and some European governments. Such aid pays for medicine, health clinics and workers, food and other needs for children in poor countries. The reductions include the Trump administration’s cutting and reorganizing of the U.S. Agency for International Development. ‘I believe that was a gigantic mistake, and that’s partly why we’ve had the turmoil and increase in deaths this year.'”
+ “The US has dismantled initiatives to tackle diseases such as HIV and malaria, while other countries, including Germany and the UK, have also cut spending. Growing vaccine skepticism has also hit immunization rates, leading to a rise in deadly childhood illnesses.” Childhood deaths to rise for first time this millennium. This turn of events should be a teachable moment for American voters. But it might just end up being a tough lesson for the kids waiting on aid.
“What I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service. You have two individuals in clear distress without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel who were killed by the United States.” So said House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Jim Himes after hearing second strike testimony from Adm. Frank ‘Mitch’ Bradley. The Navy admiral “told lawmakers Thursday that there was no ‘kill them all’ order from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth but grave questions and concerns remain as Congress scrutinizes an attack that killed two survivors of an initial strike on an alleged drug boat in international waters near Venezuela.” Admiral says there was no ‘kill them all’ order in boat attack, but video alarms lawmakers.
+ The immediate reaction to the testimony seemed split between those who saw two struggling people clinging to a sinking boat vs those who believed that the two survivors represented a danger to American and we still trying, somehow, to continue their drug trafficking mission. While the second strike debate is important, it’s critical that we don’t lose site of the much bigger question: Were any of these strikes legal or justified in the first place? The whole second strike debate presupposes that these were legitimate targets in the first place. The notion that they were put Admiral Bradley and other military leaders in a difficult spot where poor decisions were bound to be made. Meanwhile, some leaders who didn’t want to be put in a position of carrying out such a mission are no longer employed by the US government. Hegseth asked top admiral to resign after months of discord. “Adm. Alvin Holsey had initial concerns about the legality of lethal strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, according to former officials aware of the discussions. Not long after, Hegseth announced that Holsey would be retiring.”
+ Here’s my take: “If you’re doing something that is just completely unlawful and ruthless, then there is a consequence for that. That’s why the military said it won’t follow unlawful orders from their commander in chief. There’s a standard, there’s an ethos, there’s a belief that we are above what so many things that our enemies or others would do.” Oh wait, that wasn’t my take. That was Pete Hegseth in 2016.
“An examination of Mr. Kennedy’s tenure atop the nation’s massive health agency shows how, in ways not previously known, he has methodically laid the groundwork to overhaul American vaccine policy, following a blueprint he laid out in books, speeches and podcast appearances during his years as the leader of a movement attacking the system he now oversees. He has walled himself off from the government scientists and other civil servants he distrusts while elevating longtime allies to help carry out his vaccine agenda.” (If a guy spends his whole life on a crusade, it’s a safe bet that he will continue on that path once he has the power to do something about it.) NYT (Gift Article): Kennedy’s Methodical 2-Decade Quest to Dismantle Vaccine Policy.
“Too often, we are losing control of our personal technology, and the list of examples keeps growing. BMW made headlines in 2022 when it began charging subscriptions to use heated seats in some cars — a decision it reversed after a backlash. In 2021, Oura, the maker of a $350 sleep-tracking device, angered customers when it began charging a $6 monthly fee for users to get deeper analysis of their sleep. (Oura is still charging the fee.) For years, some printer companies have required consumers to buy proprietary ink cartridges, but more recently they began employing more aggressive tactics, like remotely bricking a printer when a payment is missed for an ink subscription.” The need to have a subscription for everything is one reason Why One Man Is Fighting for Our Right to Control Our Garage Door Openers.
Pipe Bomb Arrest: “Brian Cole Jr., 30, was arrested and charged with transporting an explosive device and attempted malicious destruction by means of explosive materials, according to charging documents filed Thursday afternoon. The arrest marks a breakthrough in a case that has stymied investigators for nearly five years.” Suspect arrested in January 2021 D.C. pipe bomb case, DOJ says. (Now, they’ll check his political leanings and, depending how that goes, he’ll either be used to punish Democrats or be given a pardon and a speaking role at CPAC.)
+ Fuel Injection: “The Trump administration has started the process of dramatically easing fuel economy requirements for new vehicles, part of the administration’s broader pivot away from cleaner cars.” (Because, as we know, Americans hate spending less on gas!)
+ A Real Peace of Work: “The takeover of the Peace Institute was also anything but peaceful, with his administration seizing the independent entity and ousting its board.” Trump is fighting the Institute of Peace in court. Now, his name is on the building.
+ Vice-Verse: “Meta Platforms Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg is expected to meaningfully cut resources for building the so-called metaverse, an effort that he once framed as the future of the company and the reason for changing its name from Facebook Inc.” (It’s probably a sign that the company’s stock soared on the news.)
+ We Built This City: “In helping to unseat Castro, Stone and Trejo wrote, Trump could both ‘crush socialism and save a freedom city in Honduras.’ The ‘freedom city’ in question, they explained, was Próspera, a special economic zone founded in Honduras by a cadre of American tech titans including Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen—both friends and fans of Trump family.” Why Did Trump Pardon the Former Honduran President? Follow the Tech Bros.
+ Eurovision Test:“Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands and Slovenia said on Thursday that they were boycotting next year’s Eurovision Song Contest because Israel would continue to be allowed in the competition.”
+ Are You Ready For Some? How’s NFL viewership this season? Well, this might give you a decent indication. Cowboys vs. Chiefs sets regular-season record for most-watched NFL game after 57.2 million viewers tuned in on Thanksgiving.
+ Duck! “While a Florida woman insists she was hit in the face by a duck while riding a roller coaster at SeaWorld Orlando (and is seeking $60,000 in damages for the incident), the theme park says the case should be thrown out. Oh, and it wasn’t a duck either, by the way, attorneys added.” (This is one of those cases where you can’t be sure whether or not Duck was just an autocorrect.)
“Pantone, the self-styled color experts, have been predicting a ‘color of the year’ since 1999. Their pick for what everyone will be wearing, wanting, eating and otherwise consuming in 2026: Cloud Dancer, officially PANTONE 11-4201. Either way, it’s a pretty fancy name for … white.” (PANTONE 11-4201 is also the color of year at Homeland Security.)
2025-12-03 20:00:00
After school in the 1970s, I’d often stop by my friend RD’s house where we’d sit on stools at a counter and eat cereal while watching shows like MASH, All in the Family, and The Six Million Dollar Man on a rabbit-earred TV. RD’s mom allowed sugary cereals in the house while my protein-obsessed Jewish mother made me put a couple scoops of Wheat Germ on my Shredded Wheat, so I consumed as many bowls as I could. It never occurred to either of us, even during commercial breaks, that we may have been budding members of America’s greatest generation. And even looking back now, I’m still not sure we were. If anything, I think of us as the crossover generation: the people who grew up without the internet but who were young enough to become fluent users and creators. When you go online today, is it any wonder there’s some nostalgia for the before times? Amanda Fortini in the NYT: Is Gen X Actually the Greatest Generation? “How did a generation that gets stereotyped as slackers turn out to be a far more important group of artists than they were initially given credit for? Why does their work — their music, books, films, television shows, even their magazines — continue to resonate? As I looked at their cultural contributions and spoke to the artists, actors and writers who shaped the Gen X canon (at least those who would speak with me, since Gen X is nothing if not conflicted about the spotlight), I began to think that their upbringing, no matter how arduous it was to live through at the time, might also have provided the ideal conditions for making art.” (It would take some overly positive, Six Million Dollar Man-level historical revisionism to boost GenX to GreatestGen—we can rebuild it … better than it was before. But our generation definitely kicked some cultural ass.) To close the loop, it’s probably worth noting that, as he often does, RD proofread this blurb before I sent it out—and these days, his breakfast of choice usually includes multiple heaps of pure psyllium husk stirred into a glass of water. Meanwhile, I have extremely high glucose numbers, my doctor doesn’t really let me eat any kind of cereal, and protein-fortified products are lining grocery store shelves across America. My mom was right. That’s just one of the reasons I still think she was part of the actual greatest generation.
Buck-passing Pete Hegseth argued that he “did not personally see survivors” on the boat that was victim of the now infamous second strike. “The thing was on fire. It exploded, there’s fire, there’s smoke. This is called the fog of war.” He’s close. But it’s not the fog of war. It’s the fog machine of lies. The justification for any strikes in the first place. The need for a second strike. Hegseth’s knowledge of the second strike. It’s lie upon lie upon lie from a Pentagon shamed by an incompetent and terrible person cosplaying as its leader. Trump slept through much of the cabinet meeting, but he woke up long enough to help Hegseth to throw Adm. Frank M. Bradley under the MAGA bus. (I’m not sure Trump is enough of a reader to have noticed the typo on Hegseth’s name card, but man, The SSecretary of War is really doing a lot of work.) NYT (Gift Article): After Decades in Combat, a SEAL Suddenly Comes Under Scrutiny. “He has become a public example of the potential legal peril that the American military faces as it carries out the orders of President Trump and his defense secretary.”
+ Meanwhile, Pentagon’s Signalgate review finds Pete Hegseth violated military regulations. (This finding, along with the highly unusual leak about the second strike, strongly suggests that Hegseth is about as popular in the Pentagon as he is in this newsletter.)
+ Aside from typing some pretty pristine prose, George Will and I don’t have much in common. But we agree on this. “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth seems to be a war criminal. Without a war. An interesting achievement … The killing of the survivors by this moral slum of an administration should nauseate Americans. A nation incapable of shame is dangerous, not least to itself.” WaPo (Gift Article): A sickening moral slum of an administration.
“Inside the store, which sits along a three-lane road in a county of peanut growers and poultry workers, Coffield scanned 300 items and recorded their shelf prices. He carried the scanned bar codes to the cashier and watched as item after item rang up at a higher price. Red Baron frozen pizzas, listed on the shelf at $5, rang up at $7.65. Bounty paper towels, shelf price $10.99, rang up at $15.50. Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes, Stouffer’s frozen meatloaf, Sprite and Pepsi, ibuprofen, Klondike Minis – shoppers were overpaying for all of them.” The Guardian explains how the shelf-life of prices often doesn’t last all the way to the cash register at dollar stores. How the dollar-store industry overcharges cash-strapped customers while promising low prices.
“The solitary Afghan man who allegedly shot two members of the West Virginia National Guard near the White House last week, killing a 20-year-old woman and critically wounding a 24-year-old man, gave the president exactly the pretext he needed to crush the hopes of desperate people here and around the world. Trump started with Afghans, canceling all U.S. visas issued to Afghans abroad and barring visa holders from entering the country, including men and women who aided the 20-year American war effort in Afghanistan. He halted asylum hearings in the U.S. for all migrants; announced that green cards issued to migrants from 19 countries … This broad assault against the right of refuge is being staged on a heap of lies. Trump suggested that he would never have allowed the alleged gunman—who had served in a CIA-trained unit during the war—and others like him into the country; in fact Trump criticized President Joe Biden for leaving Afghan allies behind after the fall of Kabul in 2021, and the alleged gunman was granted U.S. asylum in April, under Trump.” George Packer in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Condemning Millions for One Man’s Crime.
+ “‘When they come from hell and they complain and do nothing but bitch, we don’t want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it,’ Mr. Trump added as Vice President JD Vance banged the table in encouragement.” NYT (Gift Article): Trump Calls Somalis ‘Garbage’ He Doesn’t Want in the Country.
+ Federal agents begin immigration operations in New Orleans and Minneapolis.
Grand Children: “Fertility rates in the U.S. have never been lower. Could $1,000 ‘Trump accounts’ for newborns, plus Tuesday’s announcement of an additional $250 for some children 10 and under, convince Americans to have more kids?” WSJ (Gift Article): Can ‘Trump Accounts’ for Babies Change the Economics of Having a Family? (Probably not, but it’s not the first time they’ve tried to pay for sex…)
+ Peace Talks Sabre Rattling: “The peace talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and a U.S. delegation led by President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff stretched on for five hours on Tuesday, but ended without a breakthrough.” (Shocker).
+ Crossing the Aisle: “President Donald Trump pardoned Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar and his wife in a federal bribery and conspiracy case on Wednesday, citing what he called a ‘weaponized’ justice system.”
+ Settimana delle Infrastrutture: “It is 64 days until the first hockey game of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, and the main hockey arena is still under construction … Even if construction is completed, the ice surface—usually significantly larger for international play than in the NHL—will be smaller than NHL rinks.” What’s Going On With The Olympic Hockey Arena?
+ Bunny Ears: “The holiday season is here, and with it, a present for fans of end of year data and marketing: Spotify Wrapped is here! And Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny has been named its most-played artist for a fourth time, dethroning Taylor Swift.”
+ Mad Menace: The ‘Mad Men’ 4K Stream on HBO Max Had So Many Problems (Not All of Which Involved a Barf Machine). It sounds like someone uploaded the wrong files.
+ Landscape Orientation: Need an escape? Here are the Winners of the 2025 International Landscape Photographer of the Year.
“A liquor store employee in Virginia was startled on Saturday to discover smashed whisky bottles on the floor of the shop and, upon entering the bathroom, an apparently drunk, sleeping and spread-eagled raccoon.” Drunk raccoon found passed out in Virginia liquor store.
+ “Believe it or not, an emerging pastime called “hobby dogging” is a new leisure activity for animal lovers in Germany who don’t want the vet bills, hairy carpets, drooling or expensive vet fees.” It’s dog ownership, without the dog.