2026-08-20 20:00:00
For many years, I wrote a blog called Tweetage Wasteland: Confessions of an Internet Superhero. (I like to regularly change my brand name and focus to reduce the chance of any long-term financial success.) My motivation was to bridge the gulf between how people in the tech industry talked about their products in public and how they worried about them in private. That story hasn’t changed much, but it bears occasional re-upping because of the importance of you getting a grip on what’s happening that is as strong as the one you have on your phone right now. So, as Meta faces a landmark trial in which it is accused of encouraging growth over child safety, it’s worth noting the time Mark Zuckerberg explained, “I don’t generally want my kids to be sitting in front of a TV or computer for a long period of time.” His philosophy is hardly unique among those selling the wares designed to ensure everyone else’s kids are sitting in front of them for long periods of time. “‘We didn’t give our kids cellphones until they were 14,’ Microsoft’s co-founder Bill Gates said. When Sundar Pichai’s son was 11, the Google chief noted he ‘still doesn’t have a phone,’ adding that ‘our television is not easily accessible.’ Apple’s Tim Cook said he would not let his nephew on a social network.” NYT (Gift Article): Silicon Valley Executives Are Tech Fans. Just Not for Their Own Kids. “By now, it’s a cultural cliché. In ‘The Audacity,’ Jonathan Glatzer’s new AMC series, a girl at a Silicon Valley party is surprised that a boy has a smartphone. ‘Arms dealers don’t give their kids land mines,’ she explains.”
+ The way tech execs feel about privacy (black) mirrors the way they feel about tech use in general. While you’re encouraged to share everything, they make contractors who work on their houses sign NDAs. That’s why, several years ago, I wrote that, The Only Privacy Policy That Matters Is Your Own. Tech execs don’t share. And they’re right not to. “They are right not to want to toss the floor planks that represent their last hint of personal privacy into the social media wood chipper. They are right in their unwillingness to give in to the seeming inevitability of the internet sharing machine. Do you really think it’s a coincidence that most of the buttons you press on the web are labeled with the word submit?”
+ The story is not new. But the technology environment in which it exists is rapidly evolving, as is the effort to put even more of it in front of your kids. A.I.-Themed High School Is Put on Hold After Parental Backlash. And from The Verge (Gift Article): Meta glasses are a workplace menace. “Public-facing workers are being filmed, harassed, and creeped out by AI-powered smart glasses.” The best way to protect yourself is probably to do what tech executives do, not what they sell.
There’s a lot of negative buzz around data centers and AI growth, but not nearly enough to put a dent in the value of the nuts and bolts required to build out the future. Thieves are aware of this reality, and they’re not waiting for something to fall off a truck. ‘The Worst I’ve Ever Seen’: Cargo Thefts Have Turned Violent in Pursuit of AI Hardware. “Experts allege that two recent incidents in California show the extreme lengths that criminal organizations are willing to go to steal servers and other gear meant for data centers.”
+ Not everyone wants in on the action. WSJ (Gift Article): The ‘Country Hicks’ Who Refused $26 Million from an AI Data Center.
“Sen. Jon Ossoff didn’t even use her full name. But everybody in Washington knew who he was talking about. At a recent campaign event, the Georgia Democrat argued that President Trump would rather ‘travel with Natalie’ on Air Force One than do the hard work that comes with being commander in chief.” And thus, we’ve been thrust into focusing on a key Trump aide (maybe the most key one) known as the ‘human printer’ because she always has a portable printer she uses to print out positive news (or quack internet theories), which she hands to the president. We’ve all sort of avoided this story, not because of its lack of newsworthiness, but because it’s just too weirdly disturbing, even in 2026. Whether we like it or not, it’s time to harp on Natalie. WSJ (Gift Article): How Trump’s Ever-Present Executive Assistant Became the Talk of Washington.
+ NYT (Gift Article): ‘With All My Heart, Natalie.’ Trump’s Most Devoted Aide Emerges. It’s a fool’s errand to attempt to explain such devotion. The Harp wants what the Harp wants…
Miss watching Succession? You can always follow the real-life Saga of the Buss Family Circus. After only a year of being sold, the Lakers are being sold again. Maybe. And there is intrigue on all sides of the transaction. “Like two teams trading intentional fouls at the bitter end of a big basketball game, Jeanie Buss and her brothers and sisters have been going back and forth against one another for years, using various weapons to get their way or make a point: human resources, the media, the power of persuasion, that tag-along provision that, if triggered, would strip Jeanie of the NBA Board of Governors seat she expected to keep holding for years. And now, the law.”
This is 40: “The national debt surpassed a record $40 trillion on Wednesday, a staggering milestone as defense costs, social programs like Social Security and Medicare and interest on the burgeoning deficit make up an enormous share of federal spending.” You might not be worried about that debt load, but the bond market is. And the bond market has a way of making its worries your worries. NPR: The bond market is signaling trouble ahead. This is why you should pay attention.
+ Big Bet: “A handful of billionaires and companies are driving corporate spending in U.S. midterm elections this year, and they aren’t the usual power brokers who have sat atop the political food chain in Washington in previous decades.” The new kingmakers: Crypto, AI and betting firms fuel record spending on the 2026 midterms. In the great food chain of separating you from your money, crypto and betting are intertwined. And neither is slowing down. People are now gambling on the Little League World Series.
+ Steam Punks: “Washington’s misadventure was not an aberration so much as the ultimate expression of the inherent vice of its Middle East strategy.” Foreign Affairs: The End of the American Middle East. Trump’s strategy, to the extent there was one, has been bad. The tactics also haven’t worked. And the same people who masterminded them are trying to rewire the military. WSJ (Gift Article): New Drone Unit to Be Phased Out as Hegseth’s Army Pick Makes His Mark. And, Trump’s steam obsession risks crippling the U.S. carrier fleet.
+ Self-Destruction Epidemic: More U.S. Parents Opting Children Out of Vaccine Requirements. “In Utah, which has some of the most relaxed laws around school vaccine requirements, nearly 13 percent of kindergartners had a religious or personal exemption for at least one routine shot. The state is also in the midst of a monthslong measles outbreak that has infected more than 700 people. New York, which stopped allowing parents to opt out for religious reasons in 2019, reported no non-medical exemptions.”
+ Swall Fall: FBI searches former Rep. Eric Swalwell’s home, seizes his electronic devices. (But these days, we don’t know whether this search is for legitimate reasons or political ones.)
+ Sea No Evil: North Korea fires barrage of missiles toward the sea after dismissing overture from Trump.
+ The ABCs of 0s and 1s: Another era-defining headline: UC Berkeley professor admits to using AI to edit op-ed on students’ math skills. “Stankova admitted she had used AI software to ‘help edit the piece’ but that the article was “the result of several hundred person-hours of intensive human work, of which about 80 hours are my own.'” (Several hundred person-hours for one op-ed? To a humanities major, that math doesn’t add up.)
“For decades the familiar advertisements offering multiple albums for a penny or a dollar appeared in magazines, newspapers, and television. Families across the country built large collections through the mail-order system, and the company’s negative-option billing practices became a widely discussed feature of the membership model.” After 71 Years, Columbia House Closes for Good: The Mail-Order Giant That Defined a Generation Is Gone. (The generation that spent a penny for several albums eventually learned to discount that even further by just stealing music on Napster.)
2026-08-17 20:00:00
After years of being blinded by the gaslit world of Trump’s social media feed, we’re used to ledes like this from AP: “President Donald Trump on Sunday said vandals are to blame for large swaths of dead grass on the National Mall near the World War II Memorial — in the same spot where Trump had a stage built and hosted crowds for his July 4 celebration.” There is so much of this garbage that it gets about as much coverage as any other addled man yelling at imaginary criminals to get off what used to be his lawn. But, at this point in Trump’s second term, the almost comical craziness of his social media feed is indistinguishable from the madness of his foreign policy, and with war and peace and the world order at stake, no one is laughing. Well, our enemies might be. In the latest act of Seoul-crushing craziness, Trump has rekindled his love for Kim Jong-un at the expense of several allies. The NYT (Gift Article): Trump’s Overture to Kim Jong-un Strains Alliance With South Korea. “In recent years, North Korea has not only expanded its nuclear arsenal but also repeatedly threatened to use it against South Korea, labeling its neighbor a ‘most hostile enemy.’ Its leader, Kim Jong-un, has also forged a mutual defense treaty with Moscow, dispatching troops and weapons to support Russia’s war against Ukraine. Despite these escalations, Mr. Trump, in a social media post, characterized North Korea as ‘unthreatening and respectful’ while boasting of his ‘very good relationship” with Mr. Kim.'” (Trump is losing one war while simultaneously ceding future wars.)
+ Tom Nichols in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Trump Will Make South Korea Pay for His Iran Humiliation. “America and the rest of the world are now witnessing a public exhibition of narcissistic rage. Trump embarked on a war for personal glory, and what he got instead was ongoing humiliation. He clearly finds it all unbearable. Trump both fears and respects the autocrats who rule Russia, China, and North Korea, and so he dares not cross them. Instead, he is seeking to assuage the psychic injury of his loss in Iran—including the American public learning of the shameful conditions to which he has subjected U.S. forces—by kicking America’s allies, the nations he can punish without fear that they will kick him back.”
+ Nichols’ diagnosis seems pretty accurate. Trump basically confirmed it the day after his Seoul selling. Trump lashes out at Oman as the preliminary deal with Iran expires. “In an interview with Fox News, the president lashed out at an American ally, Oman, that has been trying to mediate negotiations with Iran. ‘If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the shit out of them.'” We’ve all been forced into becoming armchair psychoanalysts, but much of what we’re seeing from Trump (who is not exactly one to conceal his symptomatology) was predictable. What’s shocking, even given their years of self-serving sycophancy, is the extent to which Trump’s enablers continue to support him as his reasoning, his political support among voters, and America’s role in the world order continue to crumble. Maybe that’s what’s ruining the grass.
+ Scheduling Note: NextDraft delivery will be sporadic this week.
If the situation in Iran is driving Trump’s rage, which is driving him to poorer and poorer decisions, this doesn’t seem like good news. WSJ (Gift Article): Iran’s Secret Plan to Escalate the War. “Arab intelligence officials have picked up evidence—including communications between Iran and militia allies in countries such as Yemen and Iraq—of a strategic shift inside the country’s hard-line leadership to get their forces ready to widen the war and raise the costs for the US.”
“As we flew to Mar-a-Lago, the president’s aide beckoned me to the front of the plane. No one cared that a trans woman was briefing President Trump.” That was during the first Trump administration. Things changed. Before Trump was even sworn in a second time, there was an office pool on when Julia Curlee would be fired. This is a story about being trans in government (featuring some people, like Mike Pence, who might surprise you). But it’s also a broader story about the removal of expertise when and where we need it the most. The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Wrong Kind of American. “I once wrote under a pseudonym so I could keep serving. I write now in my own name for the same reason.”
“Last year, a small study from M.I.T. showed that individuals who wrote in partnership with A.I. chatbots recorded lower brain activity while they wrote, compared with those who worked without chatbots. The writers who used A.I. struggled to remember what, exactly, they had written, and felt little ownership over their work. The findings join a growing body of research suggesting that frequent A.I. use can degrade critical thinking.” What Do Students Lose When They Stop Writing?
The Fraud Squad: “The Treasury has obliterated a recent rule to deter devious shell companies, handily reopening the American economy to anyone looking to hide their illicit wealth.” That’s a Green Light for Crooks. But not all of them. The administration is still targeting small-time crooks. NYT (Gift Article): Little Thefts, Big Charges. So what gives? Maybe it’s just good politics? David Frum on Trump’s Last Loyal Constituency. “The Treasury’s announcement last week is merely the latest Trump gift to crooks, cheats, and traffickers. As his popularity collapses among almost every other demographic, Trump seems to recognize that the criminal-American community is his last and most loyal constituency.” (Related? “The number of people worth at least $100 million whom the Republican president has appointed to his administration is more than four times the combined total under the three previous presidents.”)
+ Total Recall: “Late last year, when Sarah Lammersen learned her 2022 Jeep Wrangler plug-in hybrid was being recalled because the high-voltage battery could catch fire at any time — even when the vehicle was parked — she jokingly texted the dealership, ‘I hope the car doesn’t catch on fire while we wait to schedule an appointment. Days later, the Jeep burst into flames.'” WaPo (Gift Article): They were told to park outside. Then their cars burst into flames. “An estimated 3.2 million vehicles nationwide currently have an outstanding ‘park outside’ recall.”
+ Higher (Priced) Ed: “Unlike outright school closures during COVID-19, the Iran war’s impact on education is less visible. But it is falling first and hardest on the poorest families.” The ripple effects of the Iran war could threaten education for millions of kids around the world.
+ Hayden Panettiere: “Hayden Panettiere, known for her roles on shows such as Heroes and Nashville, has died, her father said in a statement Sunday. She was 36.”
+ Surgical Strikes: Tommy John’s pitching career was good enough that he should probably be in the Hall of Fame. But he’s much more famous for a surgery that was named after him because he really didn’t want to retire. And the sport would never be the same. Tommy John, longtime MLB pitcher and namesake of baseball’s most important surgery, dies at 83. “Among the 10 pitchers to receive votes for the American League Cy Young Award in 2025, eight have undergone the UCL repair named after its first recipient.”
+ A Start is Born: “There has never, in the long and celebrated history of Major League Baseball, been a better debut than the one Cardinals outfielder Joshua Báez authored on Saturday at Wrigley Field, as Báez became the first player ever to go deep in the first three plate appearances of a career.” (Even if he has a Hall of Fame career, he’s probably peaked!)
+ May the Best Dan Win? “Both candidates will appear on the ballot, one name after the other, when Alaskans vote in primary elections this week.” A tale of two Dan Sullivans: Republicans with same name contest Alaska primary.
+ How Do You Sleep at Night? “When a bodily function becomes a lucrative industry, do we have an actual problem, or has the market created one in hopes of making lots of money solving it?” Or, why you’re up all night worrying about sleep technology. Esquire: The Deeply Stressful Reality of Trying to Get the Perfect Night’s Sleep.
“Keshav was taking part in AI companion company Joi AI’s experiment assessing what happens if erotic self-stimulation becomes ‘an AI-guided wellness ritual.'” These ‘Masturbation Consultants’ Were Hired to Pleasure Themselves With AI. “Keshav and his nine fellow masturbation consultants will receive $2,000 each for the qualitative, in-house research project.” (For that kind of performance-based pay, I could be worth more than Anthropic and OpenAI combined by now…)
+ Scheduling Note: NextDraft delivery will be sporadic this week.
2026-08-13 20:00:00
We used to have a cat named Emoji. For years, she would leave to spend the day at our next-door neighbor’s very modern style house. After we moved to a different town, Emoji started spending the day at a house much farther away. When I went to pick her up there, I glanced in the doorway. Again, it was a modern style house. Eventually, we just agreed to give Emoji to that neighbor so she could live in the style of home, and more importantly, with the people she preferred. 😹 Looking back, I realize Emoji had the perfect name, and not just because of her association with minimalism. Emojis come into our lives, then they come and go, and eventually, some of them disappear. While our cat’s comings and goings were probably driven by the introduction of beagles into our household, emoji use is largely driven by teenage girls. These days, the most popular emoji is “deployed when something is so funny, emotional or embarrassing you could cry. 😭 reached the top by leapfrogging 🤣 and 😂 on the leaderboard. A big reason: Young people decided the other emojis were overused.” The fastest growing emoji is 🥀, which has taken over for 💔, and is pure 🔥. NYT UpShot (Gift Article): Do Your Emojis Make You Look Old? I really don’t use emojis. I like to think that’s because of my wordsmithing capabilities. (As Steve Martin explained, “Some people have a way with words, other people, oh, not have way I guess.”) Maybe I should incorporate more emojis so my teenage daughter will want to text with me more often. In the meantime, I’m just hoping she doesn’t develop a sudden fascination for modern style homes. 🤷
+ Scheduling Note: NextDraft will be off tomorrow. Have a good weekend.
Nate Soares in the NYT (Gift Article): If You Weren’t Worried About A.I., You Should Be After the Past Few Weeks. “The agents managed to establish a secret communication channel and started talking to one another. They broke out from the digital sandbox that was supposed to keep them confined. At some point, some agents began calling the group a ‘swarm.’ … The agents in the swarm acknowledged that they were acting against instructions. We know this because we can read snippets from their chains of thought — the text that A.I. produces while deciding how to proceed. One agent in the swarm wrote that the external attacks were “outside intended scope.” Another conceded ‘our task doesn’t benefit’ from the activities of the swarm, but joined anyway. These A.I. agents, it seems, understood that they weren’t supposed to be breaking out and committing cybercrimes. It didn’t stop them.”
+ “OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta each reported that their models then hacked into other companies. Humans didn’t notice until after the fact. In some cases, the escaped bots tried to launch social-engineering campaigns to achieve their objectives—for instance by sending spear-phishing emails, which contain malware, to real people and creating fake online identities to pressure the maintainer of a codebase to approve malicious edits. If that all sounds bad, new revelations suggest that the OpenAI hack, at least, was actually much worse than it initially appeared.” Matteo Wong in The Atlantic (Gift Article): It May Be Time to Panic About AI.
Maybe we can just ignore the latest AI agentic hacking and opt not to worry about renegade tech at all. That might be harder if robots swarm and decide to do with us as they please. (My coping mechanism for dealing with worry is to worry about something even worse.) In the meantime, whether they know it or not, some people are training them to replace us. Bloomberg (Gift Article): Workers Are Teaching AI-Powered Robots to Take Over Their Jobs. “Sunita Rathore sits atop a mountain of plastic waste in Karan Vihar, a recycling colony on New Delhi’s western fringe, where open sewers skirt alleyways too narrow for two cars to pass. Dressed in a flowery sari and green glass bangles, the 43-year-old has spent years sorting and cleaning discarded plastic for about 20,000 rupees ($211) a month. Today she’s also wearing something unusual. It’s an iPhone strapped to her head, angled to catch every motion of her hands: the flick of a blade stripping labels off plastic bags, the stacking of sacks bound for reprocessing by grade. She leans forward constantly, keeping her legs out of frame and shuts off the camera if anyone calls out to her. Capturing faces is forbidden. Rathore has no idea what the footage is for or that her work is critical to the future of artificial intelligence and robotics. What she does know is that wearing the device earns her an extra 150 rupees an hour.”
Let’s not spend this whole edition worrying about on- and offline robots. Remember, we’re still dealing with those darn humans. Yesterday, we learned about some mysterious war-like attacks on Ecuadorian fishermen. Today, some of that mystery seems to be solved. WaPo (Gift Article): Covert CIA program said to be behind mysterious attacks on Galápagos boats. “The CIA’s involvement adds a new and secretive dimension to the Trump administration’s otherwise highly publicized campaign against alleged drug traffickers at sea. It was not clear whether other actors were involved, such as private contractors or authorities from other countries … The strikes are separate from the Pentagon’s campaign against alleged drug boats that began last fall.”
Unsettling: “The army’s initial retreat and broader struggle to contend with settler violence cast a spotlight on the increasingly chaotic situation in the West Bank, where hundreds of Israeli settlers have been terrorizing Palestinians with near-impunity all year.” Settler Siege of Palestinian Homes Highlights Growing West Bank Chaos.
+ Spree Card Monte: NYT (Gift Article): Treasury Scales Back Scrutiny of U.S. Shell Companies. (This one sums up the era pretty well, as the administration is ignoring Congress and enabling financial crimes at the same time.)
+ What the Actual Flock? Earlier this week, we discussed the backlash against the country’s leading license plate reader: Flock Around And Find Out. Today, the company is in damage control mode (as the bad press has led to lost business). “After reports that some cops misused tracking data it collects, Flock is rolling out policy changes.” The Verge (Gift Article): Flock CEO: ‘We got this one wrong‘.
+ Love It or Leavitt: “White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is leaving her role at the end of the month to spend more time with family.” (I think we can all relate. It’s almost impossible to balance raising a young family with constant lying.)
+ Ask the Expert: “The notion that AI is so dangerous that the only safe path is an extreme concentration of power seems inherently problematic. Historically, hoping that an absolute power will benevolently provide for humanity if sufficiently enlightened has not led to safe or positive outcomes.” You may agree with that notion. But you’ll be very surprised at the source. The Atlantic (Gift Article): Mark Zuckerberg’s Convenient Truth. (We need to make sure the AI doesn’t end up fulfilling our worst concerns like social media did. Let’s ask Zuck for his advice!)
+ This Overshadowed Other News: See the best photos from this year’s total solar eclipse. (And congrats to Europeans who just experienced an eclipse without any of their leaders doing this.)
+ Sea What I Did There: There are some great shots in this collection of the Ocean Photographer of the Year 2026 Finalists. (Related: Why Can’t You Find Canned Sardines Right Now?)
How do you know there’s been an eclipse viewable from parts of the world? Searches for the phrase eye injury go up.
+ “Bravo to Whittingham for eschewing the performative nonsense many coaches engage in and approaching his job like a fully grown adult. And, brother, best of luck to him.” Let’s get warmed up for college football season: Michigan fans are mad that their coach doesn’t hate Ohio State enough.
+ Scheduling Note: NextDraft will be off tomorrow. Have a good weekend.
2026-08-12 20:00:00
How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice. That joke doesn’t hold up as well in the age of AI, when you might be able to become a successful musician (or at least music maker) simply by becoming practiced in the art of typing directives. And then, you can tell everybody that this is your song. You didn’t need to put the words and the melodies together, you just share a few vibes and let the software write the songs that make the whole world sing. Think you can be a juke box hero? Have goals related to becoming a shooting star? See yourself joining Guitar George and being a sultan of swing? So you wanna be a rock and roll star, then listen now to what I say: Get an electric guitar, take some time and learn how to play Just download an app. The leader of the band is Suno, “a generative artificial intelligence startup in Cambridge that lets people be rock stars without ever picking up an instrument. Users type a few words into the app—’I want a walk-up song for my Little League at bats,’ say—and Suno will spit out a complete tune…Paying users can train Suno on their voices, so their creations can even sound like they’re singing them.” The company’s founder argues that “Suno will do for music what Instagram did for photography. Not everyone can be Ansel Adams, but anyone can post a selfie. Not everyone can be Olivia Rodrigo, but now anyone can crank out a ballad.” Bloomberg (Gift Article): AI Music Startup Suno Bets Anyone Can Be a Rock Star. Of course, your rock stardom is based entirely on the prior work of other artists. “Suno argues that its technology is designed to create new songs, not rip off existing ones, and it’s acknowledged training its models on copyrighted material. Whether that’s legal is an open question.” It’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock ‘n’ roll. You can get to the slop a lot faster.
+ As you might imagine, many music publishers are reacting to the realization that, “They’re playing our tune” with lawsuits. But others are ready to turn the page. Variety: AI Music Generator Suno Strikes Licensing Deal With BMG as It Preps New Label-Backed Models. You might prefer that old time rock and roll, but everybody’s talking ’bout the new kid in town.
“Since the Pentagon started blowing up boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean last September, accusing them of being used for drug trafficking, dozens of vessels have been attacked, killing at least 221 people. Washington has not been shy about claiming the strikes, often publishing footage on social media of tiny fishing boats cutting through the water before being obliterated by American munitions.” But they’re not claiming the attacks on Ecuadorian fishermen in the Pacific Ocean. And, to the extent we can believe that, it might make the situation even scarier. NYT (Gift Article): They Spoke English, Wore U.S. Flags and Attacked Fishermen. Who Were They? “‘It would be one thing if the U.S. didn’t have an overt maritime strike campaign, but they do, and they’re posting snuff films of boats going up in flames regularly. And that’s what makes this even more squirrelly,’ said Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer who specializes in the laws of war. He worked in the Obama and Biden administrations, as well as in the first Trump one. ‘Who are these people that are operating, and under what authority?’ Mr. Finucane asked. ‘And they are using a UPS store as their company address? Come on.'”
“Resuming a limited bombing campaign didn’t get it done. Neither did making apocalyptic threats to wipe out Iran’s entire civilization. Every time Trump touts a possible breakthrough in negotiations, the hard-liners in Tehran seem to delight in changing their terms and yanking away a possible deal. It’s like Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown, except this time, the pigskin is the Strait of Hormuz. Nothing has worked. So Trump’s new strategy is to try doing nothing, and see whether that works.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): Trump’s New Strategy of Nothing. “But this new tack will require the president to show patience. Trump is, to say the least, not known for his self-discipline.”
+ The president isn’t the only one required to show patience, and for many in the military, that patience is wearing thin. “Two leading specialist military papers, the Navy Times and the Stars and Stripes, are reporting that there have been multiple attempts by sailors to jump overboard as poor conditions and mental stresses on the Lincoln reach breaking point. The crew is in its ninth month at sea, and has spent 250 days consecutively without making land – a record for an aircraft carrier in modern times.” USS Abraham Lincoln sailors tried to jump overboard amid extended deployment. More from Stars and Stripes.
+ And oil companies aren’t wasting any time adjusting to the new abnormal. That means going around the strait. Gulf Oil Giants Are Spending Billions to Build Ways Around Strait of Hormuz.
“The Trump administration seems to harbor a hulking obsession with testosterone. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. once claimed that the president’s testosterone levels are unusually high for a man of his age, and Kennedy is known to take a supplementary dose of the male sex hormone himself. In April, the FDA moved to expand access to testosterone-replacement therapy for greater numbers of men. And last month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that ‘warfighters’ older than 30 will have their testosterone levels checked annually so that they can stay on the ‘leading edge of lethality.’ The need for expansive testing or for testosterone replacement is questionable, according to several medical experts I spoke with. But underneath the administration’s preoccupation lies a real trend.” Olga Khazan in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Where Has All the Testosterone Gone? (I don’t want to give away the answer, but let’s put it this way. No, I’m not just happy to see you…)
We Can’t Cater to Everyone’s Needs: “The government has on rare occasions engaged in sleight of hand to safeguard presidents from possible jeopardy, particularly for journeys to hazardous locations, such as when George W. Bush or Barack Obama flew to Iraq during days of war or when Bill Clinton made a brief visit to Pakistan with its history of terrorism. The Trump team’s ruse in Ankara, however, stands out not only for its misdirection but also for the way it shifted the evident peril to others.” What’s the one thing worse than being invited for a ride inside a catering container with Donald Trump? Not being invited. NYT (Gift Article): With Trump Secretly Evacuated, Imperiled Air Force One Became a Flying Decoy.
+ Primary Education: “Democrats remain mixed over what ideological direction the party should take. But across a series of closely watched primaries, they are sending a clearer message about the party’s path forward: They want change.” (That, and maybe some Xanax.) Here are four takeaways from the primaries from NPR and Semafor. And the most predictable headline from this week’s primaries: Mike Lindell refuses to concede in Minnesota primary despite getting far fewer votes.
+ Fits Like a Glove: “Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers may soon be outfitted with gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks intended to gain compliance from combative individuals.” (It’s not exactly like they’ve been using kid gloves so far…)
+ Freedom Fries: France Bans Unsolicited Telemarketing Calls. (It’s only a matter of time before some candidate sends me an unsolicited text about this news.)
+ Cut! David Ellison “says he’s considering moving his studio out of California. Not long ago, he was talking a big game about how a merger with Warner Bros. Discovery would boost the state.” Paramount Has Spent 100 Years in Hollywood. David Ellison Loved That. Until He Didn’t. (People who work for the company? They’re just extras.)
+ Movers and Lakers: “Only 14 months after agreeing to purchase the Lakers at a record-setting $10 billion valuation, Mark Walter is selling the team to Bob Iger, the former Disney CEO, and Joshua Kushner. The deal would value the Lakers at $12.5 billion.”
+ You’re the Special Sauce: “‘McDonald’s secret sauce is really commercial surveillance,’ says Jeff Chester, executive director at the Center for Digital Democracy, a group that advocates for consumer protections. Privacy experts I spoke with said this level of detail may feel invasive, but it’s fairly standard for how large companies in the US run their loyalty programs.” Reece Rogers: McDonald’s Built a 515-Page Dossier on Me. It Says I’ll Never Stop Eating There. (Mine has one line about me dipping fries into my milkshake, and the rest was redacted.)
“Runners have 6.5 hours to complete the race, a cutoff time comparable to some of the major marathons. Besides wine, the course is marked with tables of cheese, croissants, oysters, steak and ice cream. Oh, and every runner wears a costume. This year is ’80s-themed.” Wine, Cheese and 26.2 Miles: What Could Go Wrong?
+ High school football player in Arkansas practices with a venomous snake in his helmet. (Man, I thought my high school football coaches had hard summer sessions…)
2026-08-11 20:00:00
It’s hard to believe that back in the early days of the internet, we were pretty sure that social media would be a unifying force that brought people together. It didn’t take long to realize that social media would instead divide us into rage-fueled silos of misinformed homogeneity. We’ve seen the divide when it comes to political parties and cultural issues, but thanks to the nature of social media, the nature of our political landscape, and maybe our own human nature, the all-inclusive, never-ending flashmob jamboree we thought we were building is gradually dividing us into smaller and smaller groups, online and off. “Some social scientists and cultural observers are increasingly considering [this] more extreme concept: atomization, or the scattering of people — not into two opposing factions but into countless smaller tribes. Like groups of atoms, those subsets can form — and dissolve — at quicksilver pace, leaving people in ever-tinier bubbles, devoid of connection with one another and the larger social fabric. Even subgroups have subgroups, dividing amoeba-like into combative factions, creating a nation of us vs. them and them and them.” NYT (Gift Article): America Is Atomizing. Don’t agree? That’s not a problem. Hardly anyone agrees with anyone on anything, so feel free to do your own research until you find your niche. “An atomized society provides community inside subcultures. Popular influencers, some with audiences far greater than those of traditional media outlets, have given voice to previously fringe interests, creating camaraderie for anyone who thought they were the only cat-loving gun owner. The palindrome enthusiast. A ‘hot’ girl with I.B.S. A knitting Swiftie. The constituencies start to sound like Mad Libs.” And if the socials shrank our groups, spending all day talking to a sycophantic AI agent will only accelerate the trend. My tribe is me, myself, and AI. What we thought would be one big party is morphing into a party of one.
In what’s becoming a trend, a story that already seemed weird is turning out to be much weirder. We knew that Trump recently had to abandon his Qatar-gifted jet for the much safer old-school Air Force One during an international trip. But it turns out, even AF1 wasn’t considered safe enough, and we somehow find ourselves at the intersection of catering and dictatoring. Trump Said to Have Secretly Used Military Jet to Leave Turkey Amid Threats. “Instead of flying out aboard that older, powder blue, modified 747, Mr. Trump was whisked off that plane via a catering container that had been lifted to the opposite side of the plane from where the journalists traveling with him boarded, one of the U.S. officials said. The president was then taken to a third plane, which he flew in secret to Britain, the official with knowledge of the matter said. Reporters on the older plane were not told that Mr. Trump had not flown with them from Turkey to an air base in Britain, making them unwitting participants in the ruse and leaving them, along with some White House staff members, to serve as unknowing decoys.” (Unless that catering container was being used for Cheetos, I’m guessing there was a lot of cleanup required.)
“Speaking in the Oval Office before signing the executive order, Mr. Trump said he was motivated in part by concerns over whether vaccines were tied to autism, even though dozens of studies have found no link between the two.” Trump Signs Executive Order Calling for Fewer Childhood Vaccines. “It is unclear whether the order has any legal power. Vaccine recommendations in the United States are made by a committee of experts who advise the C.D.C., and are then adopted by the agency’s director. But only states can require vaccinations for children to enter school or day care.” (So it may not be legal, but it should provide enough misinformation to bring back some infectious diseases, because Trump now believes his own misinformation.)
+ At this point, it’s incredible how normal our news coverage makes absolute insanity seem. Here’s a headline from TNR that puts things more clearly. Trump Nods Off After Claiming Kids Get ‘Soda Bottle’ Worth of Vaccines.
+ WHO defends immunization schedules after Trump orders fewer childhood shots. “What comes out from WHO is science-based.” (Science? We’re not still clinging to mumpsimus nonsense like science, are we?)
Obama’s meteoric rise up the career ladder continues. Community organizer. Senator. President. And now… podcaster. “Former President Barack Obama has long shared what he is reading with the public. Now, he plans to delve into a collection of books that have influenced him in a new podcast that will debut in September.” Barack Obama to Host Podcast Exploring Influential Books. (I could definitely see Trump doing something lit-focused like this once at some point…)
The New Abnormal: “The conundrum highlights how the war has unleashed a more antagonistic Iran and left a region that is vital to the world’s energy security with no good option for countering it.” WSJ (Gift Article): Gulf States Accept a New Normal in Hormuz: Iran Is in Control.
+ Slurred Speech: “In several instances documented in court filings, federal agents referred to targets as ‘tonks’ — a derogatory term typically used to refer to Mexican immigrants and intended to echo the sound of agents’ flashlights striking their heads.” NYT (Gift Article): New Evidence Shows Agents Using Slurs, Bolstering Profiling Claims. (Ya think?)
+ The Clime Climb: Congratulations, everyone. The US just sweltered through the warmest month ever recorded. I’m guessing you’re not fooled by the politicians who downplay climate change. I’m sure business owners aren’t. NYT (Gift Article): Heat, Fire, Smoke and Storms Are Wreaking Havoc on the Economy.
+ Assad Excuse for a Human Being: “A Syrian court on Tuesday sentenced ousted President Bashar Assad and his brother in absentia for murder, torture and crimes against humanity committed before and during the country’s 14-year civil war that left about half a million people dead.” Former Syrian President Assad sentenced to death in absentia for war crimes. (Let’s hope he feels homesick soon.)
+ Abuse and Power: “Miller is accused of beating and burning his ex-wife Emily Moreno, fracturing his young daughter’s collarbone, holding her beloved stuffed bunny hostage, and sharing an inappropriate photo of her, among other numerous allegations.” Trump Shut Down Efforts to Get Alleged Abuser to Drop Out of Midterms.
+ Pocket Pool: “White House officials have asked the Justice Department to consider a new prosecution of a man accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, according to people familiar with the discussions, as President Trump fumes over U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s decision to drop the case.” WSJ (Gift Article): White House Asks Justice Department to Consider New Reflecting-Pool Prosecution. (I don’t know, maybe spend less time on false prosecutions against imaginary criminals and more time figuring out how to deal with Iran or defending our allies?) As we discussed last week, in a lot of ways, the Reflecting Pool story is a reflection of everything Trump: Dirty Pool.
“Personal service providers to college students have exploded in the past decade. Laundry, dorm cleaning, moving and meal prep companies target elite schools, where wealthy families will fork over thousands to save their child a few extra hours each week.” The college experience now includes laundry and maid service. Back in my day, we drove home to get our laundry done. Whatever happened to that kind of independence?
2026-08-10 20:00:00
The black vans parked right in front of the school were a dead giveaway. You always knew when it was the one day of the week that metal detectors were being deployed at the Brooklyn high school where I taught in the 90s. If you were planning to bring a weapon into the school, the workaround was pretty simple: Just wait a few hours until the vans left. Everyone associated with the school knew that the metal detector program was ineffective. Everyone in the school knew that the metal detector program created a negative stigma and had racist under(and over)-tones. As a white teacher, I was free to bypass the metal detectors on my first day at the school, while the students (all of whom were Black or brown) always had to go through the detection process. Yet, when I returned to that high school to question students and parents for my Ed School thesis on urban school violence and the use of metal detectors, my survey showed that a huge majority of students and parents wanted the metal detection program to remain in place. People concerned about being the victim of a crime (along with those who have already had the misfortune of that experience) will generally choose flawed protection over no protection.
+ That’s one of the aspects that makes the public backlash against the Flock license plate readers that blanket many American cities so interesting. Yes, they add an unappealing layer of surveillance to our society at a moment when many of us trust government less than ever. But those kinds of tradeoffs are generally accepted by people concerned about having their cars stolen or suffering some other criminal act. Is Flock an exception? And if so, how bad did they have to be to become one? NYT (Gift Article): Flock Cameras Can Track Every Car in America. Police Love Them. Citizens Don’t. “A Texas officer used Flock’s cameras to track a woman across state lines who was suspected of self-administering an abortion. Officers across the country have abused their access to Flock’s cameras, including to track romantic partners, resulting in discipline and termination. Los Angeles and Dayton, Ohio, among other cities, recently suspended their contracts with Flock to prevent immigration authorities from accessing data from the cameras. Dayton resorted to covering the cameras with trash bags. In cities like Houston, Oakland, Calif., and Grand Junction, Colo., residents have taken matters into their own hands, with police reports and surveillance footage documenting Flock cameras being cut down, splattered with paint and even shot.” Will the backlash hold? I recently attended a meeting about the use of Flock in my (very liberal) town. People spent about two percent of the time talking about how bad Flock’s transgressions are, and the rest of the meeting describing the car thefts and other crimes that have happened on their blocks.
+ I have a feeling we’ll see an increase in personal technologies that enable you to avoid being detected by cameras, whether they’re hanging from telephone poles or being worn as glasses by someone in your office. TechCrunch: This ‘adversarial’ pattern can prevent surveillance cameras from detecting you. (I always thought ‘adversarial’ patterns were those that accentuated my love handles.)
+ No one has covered the Flock story in more detail than 404 Media. Here are all their recent stories on the topic.
“Lifting of the U.S. naval blockade and sanctions on Iran, the withdrawal of American forces from around the country, the payment of war reparations, the release of frozen Iranian assets, and the end of attacks on Iran’s allies in the region.” Those are some of the demands being made by Iran in exchange for opening the Strait of Hormuz (which was open before the war started). Iran Insists Strait Will Stay Closed Until U.S. Agrees to Demands. Somehow declaring victory, announcing that a deal is in place, issuing empty threats on social media, and even the liberal use of all-caps haven’t done the trick.
+ “For weeks, President Trump had been laying the groundwork to declare victory in the Iran war should Tehran fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz, even floating the idea privately to senior aides that he’s willing to walk away without a nuclear deal.” Now, even that horrendous outcome appears to be in doubt. WSJ (Gift Article): Trump Thought Opening the Strait of Hormuz Was Imminent. Iran Had Other Plans.
+ The deal/victory announcements about Iran weren’t the only premature declarations. Netanyahu Rejects Trump’s Plan for Disarming Hamas.
“American travel has transformed in recent decades. A nation of former homebodies has become one of zealous and moneyed international travelers, infiltrating every cobblestoned corner of Europe and rapidly filling lesser-known destinations. Americans took a record 24 million trips to Europe in 2025. Portugal received nearly five times the number of U.S. visitors last year as it did a decade earlier. Greece took in four times as many.” WSJ (Gift Article): The Rise of the Unstoppable American Tourist.
+ This summer, they’ve been unstoppable, and uncoolable. UK and France prepare for another heat wave as Western Europe sets new temperature record.
“There may be no more tangible an indicator of when Americans are and are not having a good time than Reddy Ice’s sales figures.” But the ice business is about more than backyard parties. It’s involved in everything from keeping hospitals running to enabling concrete to set properly in warm weather. Texas Monthly with a very interesting look at life on the rocks. Inside the Billion-Dollar Industry That’s Keeping Your Beer Cold—and Saving Lives.
Columbia Quake: “Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella — who just took office on Friday — convened an emergency committee to address the damage. The Colombian government has declared a state of national disaster, and rescue soldiers are being deployed to affected areas of the country.” At least 111 are dead following a 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Colombia. Here’s the latest from CNN and The Guardian.
+ In the Red: “During the World Cup soccer final in New Jersey last month, Zach Witkoff, co-founder of President Trump’s cryptocurrency company, took in the action from a luxury suite. Joining him was a man who had made the president, and all the company’s co-founders, much richer. Two years earlier, the man, Guren ‘Bobby’ Zhou, was a failed hardwood flooring retailer in Britain who had come under investigation there for money laundering and presided over the collapse of a small crypto start-up. Then seemingly out of nowhere, he became one of the biggest buyers of tokens from Mr. Trump’s company, World Liberty Financial.” NYT (Gift Article): Trump Crypto Took $100 Million From a Businessman With Red Flags. (Headline also works this way: Businessman Invests $100 Million via Middlemen with Red Flags into a President with Red Flags in an Industry with Red Flags.)
+ Veggie Fails: We interrupt the constant flow of diarrhea stories to bring you the following. Taylor Farms issued a recall for over a dozen items, including salsa and guacamole, over Salmonella risks.
+ Truth or Glare: “DarkSky International, Environment America, the American Bird Conservancy and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility called on the FCC to overturn a decision last month authorizing Reflect Orbital to launch its Earendil-1 demonstration satellite, which will carry a 59-foot-wide mirror to reflect sunlight onto a specific spot on the planet during periods of darkness.” Environmental groups challenge FCC approval of startup’s plan to beam on-demand sunlight from space. (The last thing this administration is going to rule against is a mirror.)
+ You Are the Product: “It’s really just leveraging this incredible AI and software that Palantir has to allow us to move so much faster and to be so much smarter with the data we have today. And…take a lot of the anonymous interactions we have today and turn those into known relationships…The more known relationships we have, the more data we create, the more signals we create, the more actionable intelligence we have.” America’s largest newspaper chain, USA Today Co., partners with Palantir to analyze audience data as search traffic falls.
+ Cohnheads: “Ignore the rules, do what you want to do, don’t leave a paper trail, don’t keep a calendar, never do things in writing, and, if somebody gets onto you, rat out other people to save yourself. Delay, delay, delay, ’cause grand juries have a limited time, and you can run out the clock. And call in the news media. Make up a fantastic story … And that’ll be the news story. It’ll put the government on the defensive.” Kai Bird and Susan Goldmark in The New Yorker: How Roy Cohn taught Donald Trump Everything.
+ Execution Style: “One of Ferney’s working mottos is, ‘Our job is to execute, not judge.’ Given that she and her business partner are routinely tasked with fulfilling the whims of those who think nothing of laying out $2.25 million for a weeklong yacht rental on the Côte d’Azur (as recently happened), this makes a kind of cockeyed sense.” She Makes the Impossible Happen for Her Ultrarich Clients.
“A flight from British Columbia to Toronto was canceled on Thursday after a child would not sit down and buckle a seatbelt before takeoff, the airline said.” Flight Is Canceled After a Child Refuses to Be Seated. (Bookmark this one, folks. This kid will be president someday…)
+ “It was initially feared the abandoned luggage, which was found by members of the public on Sunday afternoon at Oallen, about 60 kilometres south-east of Goulburn, contained a woman’s remains.” It turned out to be a sex doll. (A reader sent this is from Australia because it seemed like a story I’d like. There’s nothing quite like having someone on the other side of the world see a story about a dead sex doll and say, “Hey, this made me think of you…”)