2026-06-24 20:00:00
Back in 1990, when Trump was just a real estate developer that other real estate developers made fun of, I took my dad (a real estate developer no one ever made fun of) to Atlantic City to spend a night in the just-opened and heavily hyped Trump Taj Mahal Casino. In the elevator up to our room, my dad sniffed a couple of times and said, “You can smell the kitchen from the elevator. They cut corners. This place is not built well.” Suffice it to say, my dad would not be surprised at the disastrous results from our now algae-filled Reflecting Pool. (After spending his youth watching, and fighting, the rise of fascism in Europe, he wouldn’t be surprised by much else, either.) In the grand scheme of things, the Reflecting Pool saga doesn’t amount to much, but since it’s getting so much attention, it might be worth ascribing some meaning to an otherwise meaningless story. First, it’s a reminder that Trump was never all that good at those things he was known for definitely being good at (real estate, construction, building things, the still long-awaited infrastructure week). Second, it’s an example of the onslaught of seemingly irresistible stories that come at such a feverish pace that they bump other (often more important) stories from our battered public consciousness. The swamp, it turns out, is draining us. (For example… Algae story: not big. Failed war in Iran: big). Third, the increased security and fencing put around the Reflecting Pool to protect it from supposed vandalism typifies the longstanding Trump tradition of using real resources to solve fake issues. Every second wasted on an imagined problem is a second not spent on a real one. Fourth, the media’s overcoverage of this story isn’t actually its biggest failing. It’s that we’re getting headlines like this: Was the Reflecting Pool vandalized? Experts cast doubt on Trump’s claims. And this: Trump Blames Vandals for Reflecting Pool Problems. Internal Records Tell Another Story. Headlines STILL present a possibility that a nonstop liar could be telling the truth. It’s fully insane. It’s Onion-esque, but real. I half-expected the byline to be Al G. Bloom. And fifth, what could be more illustrative of this era than a narcissist so malignant that he actually ruined his own reflecting pool? Circling back to that night in 1990, my dad and I won a lot of money, the Taj Mahal eventually went bankrupt, and that phony real estate developer Donald Trump was never heard from again. (If that sounds like fake news, I blame the vandals who accessed my laptop keyboard…)
“This was a discovery war. Both sides treated it as a live rehearsal, learning the things you can only learn by fighting: what the missiles and drones can really do, where the air defenses hold and where they leak, how the next one might be fought. More conflicts are coming, soon enough, and everyone fought this one with that in mind. The problem is the asymmetry in what was learned. We learned tactics, which depreciate. The other side learned something strategic, which compounds. They learned that the West is not built for discomfort. One oil shock and a single election cycle’s worth of patience, and the most powerful military coalition on earth stood down a regime it had on the ropes. And consider who the opponent was. Iran was close to the weakest adversary we could have faced: isolated, under sanctions for decades, its air defenses degraded, no nuclear weapon yet in hand, no major power fighting at its side, and a regime its own people had risen against months earlier. The conditions will never be this favorable again. If this is what our resolve looks like against Iran, the question every capital is now asking is the obvious one. What does it look like against China, with a peer military, an integrated economy we cannot simply sanction, and the patience of a state that thinks in decades?” Dror Berman with a very interesting look at what we, and the world, just learned. A Discovery War, Not a Peace Deal.
+ “It reflected not only the errors of an unusually feckless administration, but the accumulation of poor decisions and inadequate or misdirected investments by the Pentagon and Congress, civilian and military leaders alike. It was caused only partly by the distractions of Afghanistan and Iraq, but resulted even more from decades of loose thinking and self-serving assumptions about the changing character of war.” Eliot A. Cohen in The Atlantic (Gift Article): War and Consequences.
“The latest developments leave the first major piece of housing legislation to reach the president’s desk since the financial crisis in limbo after it passed Congress by wide margins and, for now, deny Trump and congressional Republicans a key affordability-related win ahead of November’s midterm elections.” Trump abruptly halts housing affordability legislation, holds bill hostage in effort to pass voter ID law. (Even legislation that is good for the GOP isn’t as important to the administration as legislation that can unfairly tilt the election.)
+ Very likely related: Federal judge bars Trump from implementing proof of citizenship requirement to vote.
“Emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases from human activity are driving the planet’s long-term increase in temperatures, which is helping hot spells reach ever-greater extremes of severity and duration. But local factors determine how all that excess heat is distributed around the world, and why temperatures are rising faster in some places than others.” NYT (Gift Article): Why Europe Is the Fastest-Warming Continent.
+ And when we say warming, we mean warming. On Wednesday, at least 94 million people in Europe were expected to experience temperatures above 95°F. It’s effing June.
Apocalypse, Now: “Five years into the civil war, far from the reach of international aid groups, we found a heartland that felt lost in an apocalypse. From the skies above dusty villages and patchworks of farmland plowed by emaciated oxen, the Myanmar military’s instruments of death killed with chaotic impunity. In its isolation, Anyar suffers from crippling shortages, too, of weapons, guerrillas and, increasingly, hope.” Hannah Beech and Daniel Berehulak with some incredible, and incredibly depressing, reporting as we reach year five of Myanmar’s civil war. NYT (Gift Article): The War Forgotten by the World Is an Apocalypse Now.
+ Give it Arrest: “A growing number of conservative leaders are starting to argue that the only way to stop women from ending their pregnancies could be to arrest them.”
+ Pay to Play: WSJ (Gift Article): How a $45 Million Donation Brought Larry Ellison Deeper Into Trump’s Circle. (I mean, the explanation is right there in the headline…)
+ On a Wing and a Mayor: “All the winning candidates share Mr. Mamdani’s progressive economic platform, and they each ran campaigns that focused intently on ending American support for Israel, a sign of how far public opinion has shifted on the issue, even in New York.” Mamdani Emerges as Kingmaker, Pushing His Slate to a Primary Sweep.
+ Bet Offensive: Still don’t believe me when I keep saying that prediction market apps are a detriment to society? Maybe this will convince you. Mark Zuckerberg Directed Meta to Create a Prediction Markets App.
+ Reversing History: “The welcome bags include a report commissioned by Mr. Trump during his first term that downplays the role of slavery in the country’s founding, and a children’s book accusing South Africa’s government of ‘favoring the Black population.'” NYT (Gift Article): A Look Inside the Welcome Bags Planned for White South African Refugees.
+ Tall Order: What Messi lacks in height, he more than makes up for in statue height. “In Cutral Col, a remote town in Patagonia, Messi was honored with (literally) the largest monument to his greatness, yet. Local artists unveiled an 85-foot statue of the soccer legend.” (We all know there’s only one foot that matters…)
Basic Training Meets Basic Science: “The outbreak flared just two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth abandoned a decades-long requirement for flu shots.” Military branches restore flu shot requirement after virus swept through base.
2026-06-23 20:00:00
I mix my beagles’ dry food dinner with cottage cheese, so I make regular visits to my local corner grocery store to pick up a few containers. I was surprised recently when there was a note on the refrigerator shelf announcing that the cottage cheese was being rationed: One container per customer. When, on behalf of my beagles, I inquired about the new limit, the woman behind the counter explained, “It has something to do with TikTok. Teenagers have been coming in and buying our entire stock.” F. Scott Fitzgerald might have to rethink the notion that there are no second acts in American lives. Cottage cheese, once considered a diet food that had peaked in the 70s, only to be kicked to the curd by yogurt, has ridden a social media and protein wave back to prominence. Cottage cheese is no longer a cottage industry. “A growing obsession with protein among American consumers has given the white curds a new life. A few years ago, online fans began posting about ‘protein-maxxing’ with cottage cheese, adding it to ice cream, smoothies, flatbreads, bagels and pasta dishes. TikTok creators became cottage cheese converts, enticed by the product’s roughly 14 grams of protein per serving.” It’s rare that the New York Times and my beagles wake up asking themselves the same question, but in the 2026 news cycle, anything is possible. NYT (Gift Article): Where Has All the Cottage Cheese Gone?
Over the weekend, I visited the WWII Museum in New Orleans. The examples of leadership, unity, strategy, and deep alliance building you see in that museum stand in such sharp contrast to this American moment, dominated by what I described last week as the Trump Doctrine, which combines amorality and incompetence to empower enemies and betray allies, as it dilutes American power in a Dunning-Kruger stew of bluster, arrogance, and stupidity. It’s hard to imagine FDR feuding with an ally over a lie he told about a photo request or interrupting negotiations led by an already in-over-his-head vice president with threats to start bombing again. “If it works out, I’m going to take the credit,” Mr. Trump said of the peace deal last week. “If it doesn’t work out, I’m blaming JD.” Not exactly the day of infamy speech there. As Vance Leads Iran Negotiations, Trump Creates Disruptions in His Path.
+ So far, we’re getting conflicting details from Iran and the US when it comes to control of the Strait, frozen Iranian assets, and nuclear inspections. So basically everything. Here’s the latest from the NYT.
+ All Trump’s bluster aside, it’s hard to envision an outcome in which Iran’s monstrous regime isn’t more monstrous moving forward. NYT (Gift Article): Iranian Singer Sentenced to 74 Lashes for Performing Without Hijab.
The seriousness of the Iran disaster and the damage it (along with much else) has done to America’s global standing is somehow sharing headlines with the president passing the buck for his Reflecting Pool clown show onto imaginary vandals. “‘They put, somebody said, fertilizer in the water,’ Mr. Trump said. ‘If you put fertilizer in the water, you get algae. But somebody said they might have put fertilizer. They did something to create the algae.'” Trump on the Shabby Condition of the Reflecting Pool: Not My Fault. It’s worth noting that even Narcissus himself didn’t f-ck up the reflecting pool.
“If you’re remotely soccer-aware, you’d already heard of the majesty of a Leo Messi-led Argentina, the artistry of a Kylian Mbappé-led France, the relentlessness of an Erling Haaland-led Norway. But until you see those nations, and those stars, in action, you can’t really comprehend how amazing they truly are. America is now getting the full Messi-Mbappé-Haaland experience, and it’s every bit as astounding as we’ve been told. How lucky are we to get to see generational glory play out right in front of us?” The Big 3 are somehow delivering more than anybody could have imagined.
+ “The two mid-half pauses for hydration (and advertisements) have been met with increasingly loud boos from crowds who are frustrated at FIFA turning matches into de facto four-quarter affairs. And the best way to get them to stop booing is, apparently, to get them to start singing.” The not-so-silent war being fought in World Cup stadiums: Stadium DJs vs. hydration break boos.
+ “For fans and players, [hydration breaks are] not worth much at all, and have engendered complaints they break up the flow of the game and topple decades of strategy.” For Fox Sports, they’re worth a lot. A whole lot.
+ “Human annotators in Brazil, Cambodia, and the Philippines are tracking every movement in the football tournament for teams, broadcasters, and the betting industry.” The AI-powered World Cup runs on thousands of data workers.
Fake Dues: “In his videos, George Makihara appears to have a lucrative side hustle making bets on Polymarket. In January, the college student posted a video that showed him winning $100,000 on a wager that President Trump would publicly say the word ‘McDonald’s’ that month. The bet was one of 145 that Makihara appeared to place on Polymarket’s website between January and mid-May, based on his videos—bets adding up to almost $410,000. But none of those bets were real.” WSJ (Gift Article): They Looked Like They Were Getting Rich on Polymarket—but None of It Was Real. Pay attention to who the prediction markets are targeting: “Makihara, who declined to comment, is one of dozens of mostly college-age creators Polymarket paid to film themselves making fake trades and sometimes scoring fake wins.”
+ Lettuce Try Again: “Six Prime Ministers have now resigned since the Brexit vote, in 2016. The sight of the lectern being carried out onto Downing Street, followed by the short, poignant farewell address, has taken on a ritual familiarity, with each departure colored by particular dismay.” The New Yorker: The Torture Chamber of British Politics Crushes Its Latest Prime Minister. And from TNR: Ten Years After Brexit, Every Grim Prediction Has More Than Come True.
+ Dread Nought Decision: A SCOTUS obsessed with religious rights appears to have limits. Color us shocked. “The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled against a devout Rastafarian who sought damages after Louisiana prison officials cut his dreadlocks despite his claim that it violated his religious rights … The ruling saw the conservative majority depart from its regular support for religious claims, although recent high-profile wins tended to involve conservative Christians.”
+ Eifel Towering Inferno: The European heat waves are getting hotter, coming earlier, and arriving in places not used to them. Forty drown in France as people seek relief from Europe’s heatwave.
+ Behind the Scenes: “Mr. Davis worked to develop his business instincts — and his ear — by studying the Billboard charts and analyzing what made a song a hit. He came to believe in the power of what he called contemporary music: the unabashedly commercial pop that results when a record executive plays matchmaker in the studio, connecting the right singers with the right material.” The studying paid off. NYT (Gift Article): Clive Davis, Hitmaking Titan of the Music Industry, Dies at 94. And, the absolutely great TV director James Burrows (Taxi, Cheers, Will and Grace) died at 85.
+ Real Company, Meme Stock: “SpaceX is obviously not Dogecoin. Its rocket business is a genuine success story, as is Starlink. But the company’s appeal, particularly in the face of setbacks, is also reliant on a combination of story and Musk’s own image in ways that are not necessarily connected to reality. Musk has frequently set unrealistic timelines for projects, including putting a spacecraft on Mars by 2018.” Charlie Warzel in The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Myth of SpaceX.
+ It’s Never Too Late To Stop: “While divorce rates have been dropping across age groups in recent years, the exception to that trend is among Americans ages 65 and up. The reasons are complicated, but it’s becoming clear that some Gen Xers and baby boomers are increasingly unwilling to stay in what sociologists call ’empty shell marriages.'”
“For most of human history, the threats our nervous system processed were local. A neighbouring tribe. A drought. The illness of a child we personally knew. Information about distant places would barely arrive, and if it did, it was mainly irrelevant. In 2026, the same neurological system is being asked to absorb a war in one region, a financial shock in another, a climate disaster in a third and a violent crime in a fourth, all before lunchtime.” Why 40 per cent of people are avoiding the news. OK, OK, so I’m pushing a product no one wants. Maybe there’s a workaround. Or at least a reach-around. Apparently, newsletters are The Hot New Place for Singles.
2026-06-18 20:00:00
If nothing else, we’ve at least stumbled our way into understanding the Trump Doctrine. It combines amorality and incompetence to empower enemies and betray allies, as it dilutes American power in a Dunning-Kruger stew of bluster, arrogance, and stupidity. This doctrine, and the war that came to represent it so clearly, is hardly a surprise. As Daniel B. Shapiro asks in The Atlantic (Gift Article), What Did You Expect? “The credibility of the U.S. in tatters and its military readiness compromised. Alliances and partnerships under stress. The global economy in tumult, inflicting financial pain on American citizens that will linger even as oil prices decline. A fine and avoidable mess all around.” Maybe you’re feeling a little schadenfreude watching this humiliation. But this is not just political theater. As Americans, the humiliation is ours as well. And its impact is bad. Bad for America, our alliances, the region, the Iranian people, Israelis, and the world order.
+ At one point yesterday, after describing the Iranian regime as “nice to deal with,” Trump explained to reporters why it makes sense to leave Iran with its ballistic missile program: “I’m saying that if other countries have them, it’s a little unfair for them not to have some.” Today, JD Vance concurred. Defending Trump’s remark, Vance says Iran needs missiles for ‘self-defense,’ like Israel. Empower enemies and betray allies. Vance, who famously said he didn’t care what happens to our ally, Ukraine, added: “Donald J. Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time. If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world.” (I’m no fan of Bibi or his cabinet, but Trump was locking arms with them as recently as a couple weeks ago. But I’ll give this to Vance: He is an expert on reducing the number of one’s powerful allies.)
+ NYT (Gift Article): Israel, Stunned by Trump’s Iran Deal, Sees It as a ‘Catastrophic Capitulation.’ And from Yair Rosenberg in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Netanyahu Finally Learns the Truth About Trump. “For years, Netanyahu has built his brand on two promises to the Israeli electorate: that he alone could withstand international pressure to compromise on Israeli security, and that he alone could handle Trump.” (If there’s any silver lining to this whole mess, it’s that it may finally doom Bibi’s election winning streak.)
+ While Vance was railing against our ally in the Middle East, Pete Hegseth was covering the Europe beat, lashing out at NATO for failing to be supportive enough of America’s historic blunder in Iran. (Easy on enemies, tough on allies.)
+ Some housekeeping. First, NextDraft will be off until Tuesday. Second, there’s still one more day to score a NextDraft shirt for just $13. (Use the code LUCKY13 at checkout.)
Ukraine knows all too well the American administration’s doctrine of going soft on enemies while holding back support for allies. Trump essentially pushed for a surrender in that war, too. Luckily, Ukrainians (and their European allies, who understand that Putin is also not “nice” to deal with) aren’t going along with that program. Ukraine Bombards Moscow With One of the Biggest Drone Attacks of the War. “No deaths were immediately reported. But the large-scale assault seemed likely to feed fears among Russians that the Kremlin’s ability to isolate society from the impacts of the war was sharply eroding.”
+ Inspired by Ukraine, and worried by China: Taiwan teaches its citizens how to fly drones.
“With some small, high-stakes exceptions—such as software used on the International Space Station or nuclear submarines—code is written and deployed without much rigorous testing. If a bug is reported, it gets patched … Such a relaxed security posture has been more or less fine because discovering vulnerabilities is hard and skilled hackers are few in number: Either nobody found the bugs or nobody was able to exploit them. But traditional cybersecurity methods don’t cut it anymore.” AI might feel like it gives you some superpowers. But it also gives them to the bad guys. Matteo Wong: Assume You Will Be Hacked.
Meanwhile, back in decent America, the Obama Presidential Center opened today in Chicago. It turns out some presidents don’t have any trouble attracting A-list talent (Bono, Bruce, The Roots, Stevie Wonder, Jennifer Hudson, Eddie Vedder, etc) or former presidents to celebrate unity and what makes America actually great. Here are live updates from NBC, and the stream from YouTube. It takes a little more audacity to have hope these days. This might help.
High Court: “The U.S. Supreme Court found Thursday that the government’s prosecution of a marijuana user from Texas for owning guns was inconsistent with the Second Amendment. The decision was unanimous.” Supreme Court sides with a marijuana user who was barred from owning guns. (On the plus side, his aim probably isn’t all that good…)
+ How The Doge Bites: “Their mother died in January, their father in February. Now these brothers are in the process of figuring out the basics of living alone … Both parents were HIV positive but had been able to survive because of the daily medications they took to prevent the virus from progressing. When the U.S. overhauled foreign aid at the start of President Trump’s second term, there were major cuts to global health — and disruptions to the U.S.’s flagship efforts to combat HIV/AIDS globally called PEPFAR or the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.” NPR: These 3 brothers lost their parents to AIDS. Now they struggle to make it on their own.
+ What’s Up, Grok? “This enthusiasm feels unprecedented. Health care is typically among the last fields to adopt a new technology; I still use a pager, and I send faxes on a regular basis. (Younger readers can ask Claude to explain what these things are.) A tendency toward simple tech is in part a product of doctors’ safety-focused culture: We know that any ill-timed glitch has the potential to turn deadly. But these days, clinicians are allowed—encouraged, even—to run wild with the latest software.” AI Is Taking Over Hospitals. (It’s only a matter of time before AI says there are no appointments available for a few months…)
+ See If I Care: “Some had parents who never said ‘I love you’; who never tried very hard; who never took an interest. Others had parents who hurt them. Many were harmed in the usual, derivative ways — with belts and closed fists and neglect and humiliation — but some had parents who were more inventive in their infliction of pain. A woman whose father would swing her sister around by her ponytail. A man whose drunken mother used to wake him up at night to tell him that he was a ‘piece of shit’ for hours on end, so he couldn’t sleep.” NYT Magazine (Gift Article): The Pain of Caring for a Parent Who Abused You.
+ On Parade: Here are some highlights from the Knicks parade in NYC. Owner James Dolan announced that the Knicks would be the first NBA team to visit the Trump White House. I guess we’ll find out how the players feel about that.
American diplomacy ain’t dead yet. Ranch dressing has been such a hit with World Cup visitors that the TSA felt the need to remind people about how much liquid can be stored in carry-on baggage. Please avoid chugging your ranch.
+ Scheduling reminder: NextDraft will be off until Tuesday. Have a good weekend.
2026-06-17 20:00:00
Usually, when we hear about drugs gaining popularity on the black market, people are looking to party, get high, or feed their related addictions. But these days, perhaps unsurprisingly, the drugs shooting up black market sales charts are being purchased by people interested in looksmaxxing, improving fitness, or extending their lifespan. Tonight, we’re gonna party like it’s 2026. Getting ripped (muscular) is the new getting ripped (wasted). Forget meth, opioids, coke, or weed. The new class of drug users is looking for peptides, “a loose cohort of amino acid-based drugs that bond to receptors in the body to toggle various physiological processes on and off. Some peptides are legal and widely used, including insulin and GLP-1 drugs (the ‘P’ is for ‘peptide’) … the [blackmarket peptides] consist of cryptic jumbles of letters (BPC-157, CJC-1295, TB-500) and promise all kinds of benefits: Want to sleep better? There’s a peptide for that. How about heal your tendinitis faster or lock in at work? There are peptides for that too. Need a tan? Sure. Then there are the ‘stacks,’ such as Wolverine, KLOW and Phoenix — combinations of peptides meant to max out users’ results.” The big question is whether or not peptide aficionados are getting ripped (off). Or worse; doing self harm (getting R.I.P.ed…) One alarming sign is that, in addition to influencers like Joe Rogan, RFK Jr is a fan, and that means prescriptions could soon be moving from the black market to a compounding pharmacy or profit-obsessed telehealth provider near you. Whether you (or your liver) are ready or not, the peptide is about to turn. Bloomberg (Gift Article): The Billion-Dollar Peptides Gold Rush.
“We’re dealing with people that I think are very rational, I mean, they were nice to deal with.” That’s how Donald Trump described his Iranian counterparts, the regime members he was determined to remove (until he wasn’t). I’m guessing victims of the regime’s terror, countries like Israel that the regime has long been determined to destroy, and soldiers tasked with risking their lives to fight against it, are surprised to hear how nice they are to deal with. But not as surprised and saddened as the Iranian people. At the beginning of the war, Trump said, “To the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand.” Instead, “the war without has since compounded Iran’s war within, in ways that the world has hardly reckoned with.” Laura Secor in The Atlantic (Gift Article) on The Betrayal of the Iranian People. “‘Now is the time to seize control of your destiny, and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach,’ Trump told the Iranian people the night he started the war. ‘This is the moment for action. Do not let it pass.’ What a misreading of the moment that was. War has instead done what it usually does: empowered the powerful, rallied the faithful, and allowed an apparatus of repression to present its imperatives in terms of national security.” (Read the first couple paragraphs of this article and see if nice is the first word that comes to mind…)
+ “Just this winter, Trump had promised the Iranian people that the tyrants who ruled them would be gone. But now? ‘I never cared about regime change,’ he told reporters, waving away his failure to achieve a primary strategic goal by denying that it had ever been a goal at all.” Tom Nichols: Trump Does Not Understand the War He Lost. (It turns out that reality is not so nice to deal with.)
+ Meanwhile, Trump now says, MOU with Iran ‘not final,’ we’ll go ‘back to dropping bombs’ if talks fail. “If I don’t like it, if they don’t behave, we’ll go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head, okay?”
+ “Iran affirms that it will never seek, develop, or acquire nuclear weapons.” That’s the key line from the agreement that Trump tore up during his first term. And he’s been bombing and bombastic in an effort to get us back anywhere close to that deal again. Here’s the Memorandum of Understanding, annotated by the WSJ (Gift Article).
Forget cloud nine. Today’s cloud goes to eleven. Data centers are generally unpopular these days. Particularly so among those who live within shouting (or thrumming) distance of one. NYT (Gift Article): The Cloud Has Sound: The Unrelenting and Unseen Cost of A.I. Data Centers. “Yes, the cloud has a sound, and some who live closest to data centers that emit the noise have reached their wit’s end trying to block it out. Residents in three small cities last month filed lawsuits against data centers specifically about noise.”
+ When it comes to these lawsuits, some datacenter owners have a very big thing on their side. The US government. D.O.J. Seeks to Halt Air Pollution Lawsuit Against xAI Data Center.
“For the past six years, Casey Harrell’s life has felt like a slow-motion car crash. At 42, he began to lose his voice to the neurodegenerative disease ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. His world shrank as his ability to sing to his young daughter, give a presentation for work or tell a joke eroded.
Three years later, researchers at the University of California at Davis placed experimental implants in his brain. He gained something incredible: ‘The ability to talk from my brain.'” WaPo (Gift Article): Two years, 2 million words: How a brain implant transformed an ALS patient’s life.
Snap Decision: “As a House committee debated President Donald Trump’s signature domestic policy bill last year, Republican backers repeatedly emphasized that its changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, wouldn’t affect vulnerable people.” Apparently, hungry kids aren’t vulnerable anymore. ProPublica: More Than 770,000 Children Are No Longer Receiving SNAP Benefits After Trump Changes Federal Food Program.
+ Friendly Fire? “President Donald Trump on Wednesday derailed the confirmation process of his own nominee to head the nation’s intelligence agencies, an extraordinary move that upended Senate efforts to renew a crucial surveillance program that expired last week and fueled fresh tensions with fellow Republicans on Capitol Hill.” Trump delays his own national intelligence nominee. (It’s all about pushing the voter ID bill because it’s all about finding ways to tilt the midterms.)
+ Going Steady: After all the attacks on Jerome Powell for not cutting interest rates, the first Fed meeting with Kevin Warsh at the helm ends with rates holding steady. And they may rise later in the year.
+ Serial Sentencing: “The sentence, the maximum the New York law allows, was handed down by Judge Timothy Mazzei after a morning of grueling victim’s family impact statements on the effect Heuermann’s murder spree had on the children and relatives of his victims.” Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann sentenced to life in prison without parole.
+ Messi Job: “Soccer, like much of life, is a team sport, and teams don’t go far unless there’s unselfish cooperation, etc. Everyone knows what to say: no player is bigger than the group, blah, blah, blah. Same in the workplace—don’t eat all the doughnuts in the kitchen, Jason, they’re supposed to be for everyone, blah, blah, blah. Every coach, every boss, you’ve ever had says stuff like this. They’re right. They’re mostly right. Some days…it really is all about the stars.” And the stars showed up big time in early World Cup games, including a ridiculous hat trick from Messi. Messi! Mbappé! Haaland! The World Cup Gets a Starry, Scoring-Filled Spectacular.
“We’ve been here for over 30 years, and we’ve never seen anything like it … We tripled St. Patrick’s Day.” How do you outdrink St. Patrick’s Day in Boston? Inviting Scots to town is a good start. (These are the only kind of World Cup hydration breaks that no one is complaining about.)
+ Gromit: Wallace’s long-suffering canine companion to tell all in memoir.
2026-06-16 20:00:00
Meta’s Twitter-clone Threads just reached 500 million monthly users, which is further proof that humans are starved for community interaction, even when that interaction is only virtual and often unpleasant. Of course, we’re constantly reminded by endless expert-led studies that real-life human relationships are the key to health, happiness, and longevity. But, you may have wondered while considering this research whether these near-universal findings apply to all relationships. There are, it turns out, exceptions. And you probably know a few of them. “Relationships with people who are draining, critical, or otherwise difficult can compromise our mental and physical health. Shira Offer, a sociologist at Bar-Ilan University, in Israel, who has studied these so-called negative social ties, told me, ‘For a long time, social scientists have focused on the positive aspects of relationships. And finally, we’re also seriously dealing with the negative aspects.'” Olga Khazan in The Atlantic (Gift Article): There’s a Name for the People Who Drain You. (I must be an introvert, a misanthrope, or both, because I always thought that name was people.)
You might imagine that the best place to train to be a cybercrime fighter would be right here in front of your laptop. But, there may be a better place. The FBI built its own replica small town to simulate real-world cyberattacks. “Dubbed the Kinetic Cyber Range, the FBI’s small purpose-built town opened in February 2025 and features fully furnished houses, a hotel, a gas station and grocery mart, a courthouse, a hospital, and a power company — complete with roads and traffic lights — designed to mimic a real U.S. community.”
“The profound vulnerability of countries throughout Asia, Europe and elsewhere that depend on imported energy is supercharging the hunt for alternatives. In some places, like South Korea and Japan, that has led to an increased use of dirtier fuels like coal. But over the longer term, this energy shock — the second in just four years — is likely to accelerate a transition to renewables like solar and wind as well as nuclear power.” Could Trump have inadvertently become the leader on renewables? NYT (Gift Article): The Iran War Permanently Altered the Global Economy. Or as Ian Bremmer explains: “We could look back on this in 10 years and see that orange is the new green. Trump will have done more for renewable energy unintentionally than any other president in U.S. history.” Maybe Bremmer is right: Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool turns green after surface painted.
+ “The United States, for its part, looks weaker in the eyes of the world. The American military has shown itself unable to quash a much smaller opponent even as it burned through many of its long-range precision missiles and interceptors. The outcome damages this country’s ability to deter other potential adversaries. To begin to repair the damage, the United States would be wise to mend alliances in Europe, the Middle East and Asia that have been frayed by the war’s military and economic effects. The Pentagon will also need to modernize and prepare for the wars of the future. Neither is likely to happen under President Trump.” NYT Editorial Board (Gift Article): President Trump Lost This War. (This provides a pretty good summary of what just about every expert is saying. Even GOP officials aren’t getting on board with the memorandum of understanding – and no one has even been able to see it yet.)
+ Aside from the Iranian people who were promised that “help is on the way,” the person most concerned about this deal is probably Bibi Netanyahu. For years, he looked like one of the few Trump partners who wouldn’t end up under the bus. Maybe there are no exceptions. From saying Netanyahu has no f-cking judgment, to freezing him out of negotiations, to complaining about him at this week’s G7, Bibi seems to be getting run over by the wagon he hitched himself to.
+ Trump insists that the relationship with Bibi is still good, adding, “Without me there would be no Israel, because no other president was willing to do what I did.” Here’s the latest from The Guardian.
+ A headline for the ages from Politico: Trump is turning his attention back to Ukraine — and Kyiv’s allies are worried. (Somehow, Ukraine has managed to overcome both Putin and Trump over the past year and a half. It’s an incredible story.)
“The town that hosts the world’s largest convenience store smells like ass. For many decades, Luling, Texas, was regionally famous for its excellent barbecue, locally grown supersized watermelons, and the unpleasant rotten-egg smell of hydrogen sulfide, the toxic and highly flammable byproduct of its abundant oil wells. Some locals swear they can’t detect the odor; others profess to love the smell of their own farts, bragging that it’s the ‘smell of money.’ But today, Luling might be best known for a very, very large gas station. Four miles southeast of the town of about six thousand, rising out of the brush alongside Interstate 10, is the mother of all convenience stores—the flagship of Buc-ee’s, a Texas-based chain of ‘travel centers’ that has become a cult phenomenon and one of the state’s most eminent brand ambassadors. The 75,593-square-foot travel center—with its 120 gas pumps, more than two hundred employees, fifty-one bathroom stalls, nineteen urinals attended 24/7 by workers who flit in and out of an ’employees only’ janitor’s closet, food court of cowboy-hat-wearing staff chopping brisket, clerks chirping ‘Welcome in” to every visitor, stacks of deer corn, $1,499 deer blinds, and racks of in-house gummy bears and jerky—has the distinct odor of caramel-coated Beaver Nuggets. But really, it smells like money.” In The Baffler, Forrest Wilder takes us on a unique summer road trip: Leave it to Beaver.
There’s No Gravity Up Here: “We can say with certainty that this valuation makes absolutely no sense today. People are buying SpaceX in the expectation that others will buy too and push the price higher – that’s speculation.” Whatever you call it, the stock is going up. SpaceX vaults past Microsoft and Amazon’s market value as post IPO momentum builds.
+ In Fact It’s a Gas: “For years, federal health officials have warned about the risks associated with a supplement derived from the leaves of kratom trees that adherents say can kill pain or boost energy. Sold in gas stations across America, kratom has been linked to liver toxicity, seizures and thousands of deaths.” So this won’t surprise you. How an Addictive Gas Station Drug Found Allies in Trump’s Cabinet.
+ Death Notes: “The picture drawn most clearly by this new information is not the elaborate conspiracy that his murder would have required; rather, it is an unfortunate though not improbable convergence of longstanding institutional failures, human errors and chance events, which created an opportunity for Epstein to act on what was by then a well-established desire that he had already tried and failed to realize.” NYT Mag (Gift Article): The Untold Story of Jeffrey Epstein’s Death. (Now, let’s release the untold stories from his life.)
+ If There Are No Objections… “The Justice Department’s senior leadership closed an investigation of Paramount’s bid for Warner Bros. Discovery before career staffers who were concerned about the acquisition had an opportunity to object, according to people familiar with the matter.” (I’m beginning to think there’s some corruption going on at the Justice Dept.)
+ Tarped: “President Donald Trump’s name came off the Kennedy Center in the dead of night Saturday. More than 60 hours later, almost no one has seen it gone.” Trump’s name is off the Kennedy Center, but a tarp is hiding the proof.
+ News Re-Cap: Giants baseball has hit a real low point. And it’s not because the team has been terrible. In a controversy that only seems to be building, “several Giants players responded to Pride Night on Friday by writing Bible verses on their caps.” Grant Brisbee: Giants pitchers’ Bible verses on Pride Night caps show how they’ve missed the point. A lot of fans are furious. So is just about every beat writer. Giants pitchers didn’t just deface Pride uniforms. They alienated their fans and city. Mike Krukow, our beloved broadcaster: “I would just hope they would understand the demographic of San Francisco and respect people for who they are. What you do to your uniform, that has weight to it. You can offend people. And why would you do that?” (A question for the era.)
+ Winning Tie: “It took Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha all of his 40 years on Earth to make his World Cup debut. The long, long wait was worth every fleeting second. Vozinha recorded seven saves Monday, holding Spain’s star-studded lineup to a shocking 0-0 draw.” In the shock of the World Cup so far, 40-year-old Cape Verde goalkeeper keeps favorite Spain to 0 goals at World Cup. (He also managed to pick up about 7 million Instagram followers.) And from The Guardian: How Algeria won over a Kansas town – and became the World Cup’s unlikeliest love affair.
A company once ahead of its time is trying to turn back the clock. “Although the phone has Internet connectivity, it blocks web browsers and social media.” Commodore’s newest gadget is a flip phone that blocks social media and browsers.
+ In 1992, “McDonald’s replaced the fried apple pie with a baked version in most of the U.S., responding to growing consumer awareness of fat and cholesterol consumption.” McDonald’s is serving fried apple pie again for America’s 250th birthday. (Sounds pretty good, but I’m still celebrating with a Safeway Cake.)
+ Self-pleasure before bed is linked to falling asleep faster and sleeping better. (OK! OK! … I’ll try it.)
2026-06-15 20:00:00
We have a deal! Well, actually, we have a memorandum of understanding. And not everyone seems to have gotten the memo about how we should be understanding it. We won’t know what devil is in the details of the peace agreement with Iran until those details are ultimately ironed out over the coming weeks and months. But it sure doesn’t look like unconditional surrender. It’s also not looking better than the deal Obama negotiated with Iran (the nuclear issues are still subject to negotiation). In terms of lives, dollars, and reputation, Trump’s tearing up of the old Iran agreement could go down as the most expensive tantrum in American history. And I’m not using my own scorecard, I’m using Trump’s. “Mr. Trump said the United States intended to ‘annihilate’ Iran’s military capabilities, abolish its nuclear ambitions, topple its theocratic leadership and liberate its people, whom he encouraged to take over their government when the fighting had stopped. Just one week after the strikes started, he said Iran’s only path to a deal was an ‘unconditional surrender.'” NYT (Gift Article): Trump Winds Down the War He Started With Goals Unmet. Meanwhile, the region and the Iranian people (who were promised “help is on the way”) are left to deal with a more emboldened, more extreme, more entrenched, and less sanctioned regime.
+ “The United States has perhaps done worse than gaining nothing. Iran, while temporarily weakened, is now an even more powerful political actor: The regime in Tehran stood up to a massive U.S. onslaught, survived, and then inflicted pain on various states in the Gulf as punishment for going along with Trump’s war. The Israelis, for their part, have been left out in the cold.” Tom Nichols in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Trump Celebrates While America Capitulates.
+ “Initial details suggest that the agreement does nothing to curb Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal, or its funding of regional proxies like Hezbollah in Lebanon or the Houthis in Yemen, who have attacked Israel with their own arsenals. It could help Iran bolster those proxies by easing sanctions, which would allow billions of dollars to flow into its bank accounts. The deal’s terms when it comes to constraining Iran’s nuclear program — of greatest importance to Israel, and the greatest priority of Mr. Netanyahu’s career — remain undisclosed or still to be negotiated … Worse still for Mr. Netanyahu, who faces re-election in a few months and is behind in the polls, President Trump, the Israeli leader’s most valuable political asset, has publicly rebuked him multiple times in recent weeks.” NYT (Gift Article): Israel Counts the Ways That Netanyahu’s Iran Strategy Failed.
+ “Ships are starting to move, many loaded up with Oil, out of the Strait of Hormuz. They are going along the Southern ‘Highway,’ which is totally safe, secure, and pristine. There are other areas of travel, also!!!” So said Trump about the re-opening of the Strait, officially happening on Friday. Historians will note that the Strait was open before the war. Here’s the latest from The Guardian.
While the world celebrated the beautiful game, Americans were left to suffer an ugly spectacle at the White House. Monica Hesse in WaPo (Gift Article): The White House UFC fights showed us the America we needed to see. “MMA is a deeply violent sport, and always has been. We are a deeply violent country, and always have been. But there’s artistry to the MMA fight, and discipline, a body pushing itself to limits that are simultaneously sickening and exhilarating.
But the Ultimate Fighting Championship event that happened on Sunday night was not a celebration of a sport, it was a celebration of slop. It was a pseudo-patriotic grift that tried to convince us that fighters wheel-kicking each other for the chance of $1 million in crypto deserved the same level of hero admiration as the boys who launched onto the beach at Normandy; it was an infomercial that paused every seven seconds to advertise Starlink internet or Starry soda or Ram trucks or flavors of Monster energy drink that God forgot.” (The spectacle was made even less impressive when Josh Hokit ended his post-fight speech at the White House UFC event by yelling, “Michelle Obama is a man!” Michelle Obama is not a man, and Josh Hokit proved himself to be a sad excuse for one.)
+ “All of this was pure, distilled Trump. No previous American leader could plausibly have presided over the scene of a tattooed Brazilian fighter in a black cowboy hat and Lycra shorts running out of the White House, saluted by honor guards, with the intent of pulverizing another human being. He had built an Octagon on the lawn in part, surely, to troll his opponents, as he so often does, but what I saw in the fighting itself—in fight after fight after fight, seven in all—was an affirmative expression of Trump’s favorite kind of storyline: dominance and submission. This was not just a political stunt, but the best way he could imagine spending his 80th birthday.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Theory That Explains Trump’s UFC Fight. (The event also makes it look like Trump is leading a populist revolt when he’s really leading a billionaire boom. That will go down as the biggest gut punch of the night.)
+ And coming soon… Trump announces July Fourth ‘TRUMP RALLY’ on National Mall. (Might as well rename it the National Maul at this point.)
“A technology — known as plug-in, balcony or garden solar — is already enormously popular in Germany, in part because you can buy a kit for less than $600 at IKEA. It’s a small solar panel system, often producing up to 1,200 watts of electricity, or a little more than a refrigerator consumes, that you can affix to a wall, hang on a railing or prop up in a garden — and then plug directly into a wall socket. With the help of a small device called a micro inverter, it pumps electricity into your household circuits to offset your power demand. At least 30 states have passed legislation to legalize these plug-in solar kits or are considering similar bills.” Robinson Meyer in the NYT (Gift Article): The Tiny Solar Panel That Could Change America.
“So this is how it feels. It is giggling, weeping, spinning, convulsing, mosh-pitting, truck-honking, law-skirting, trumpet-playing, cowbell-ringing, off-key-singing, cigar-lighting, all-night-ing — remembering to remember it all, as if Knicks fans would ever forget. It is hugging strangers so hard they go airborne, fist-bumping cabbies as they crawl through concrete delirium, high-fiving kids on shoulders (and adults on shoulders), climbing stoplights and trees and scaffolding to wave the team flag higher, swiping utility cones and wearing them as hats because they are orange.” Knicks Give Their City Something New: Impossible Joy. (During their playoff run, the Knicks went 15 and Trump.)
+ The Knicks’ long-awaited championship was hardly the only big sports story over a jam-packed weekend. The Carolina Hurricanes took home the Stanley Cup, and at least for one night, the USMNT looked like the team fans always hoped it could be. And there was much more. Here’s a good overview of a fun weekend in sporting events, during which no one desecrated the White House or verbally attacked Michelle Obama.
British Evasion: “Starmer told a news conference that he will fight back if technology companies resist the move, and acknowledged some teens would try to find their way around a ban. But he said he is ‘not prepared to compromise on the safety and happiness of our children.'” Britain will ban under-16s from social media apps, including TikTok and YouTube.
+ California Reaming: “The California governor said in a video statement that federal agents had knocked on the doors of family friends and former employees in recent days as part of an effort to find a crime, demanding records and ‘abusing the grand jury process.'” Gavin Newsom says Trump directed DoJ to investigate him and his wife.
+ DOJ (Pronounced, Doge): “DOJ officials determined the transaction did not pose a threat to competition and declined to challenge it, said the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. The department approved the merger without requiring any divestitures, behavioral remedies or concessions.” In entirely unsurprising news, the Justice Department approves Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Let’s see what the states have to say.
+ We Will, We Will, Roku: “The deal—Fox’s largest to date—brings together a media company known for its live news and sports programming with the biggest provider of streaming platforms for connected TVs.” Fox to Buy Roku Streaming Service in $25 Billion Deal. (Both stocks are down on the deal announcement.)
+ Tren Crash: “Tren de Aragua has been labeled a terrorist organization by the US. Guerrero Flores was charged in a New York federal court with racketeering conspiracy and other crimes, including lending support to terrorists in crimes that stretched more than a decade.” Trump says leader of Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang killed in US strike.
+ Back (Rent) From the Dead: “The casting call seemed simple enough: An unnamed nonprofit was offering $75 in cash to people who could spend a couple of hours acting as zombies in a ‘mock demonstration.’ The scenes would be part of an instructional video, and actors were asked to wear tattered clothing and to be ready to have their faces painted. But when the group of 40 or so participants arrived at the filming site in Downtown Brooklyn on Thursday evening, things started to take a turn.” The Casting Call Was for Zombies. The Job Was Actually a Landlord Rally.
+ One Track Mind: “Imagine it’s the 1980s or early ’90s, and there’s a queue for the pay phone in a college dorm hallway. Students line up, waiting their turn for the once-a-week, brief check-in with a parent. That was the norm.” The norm has changed. NPR: Most parents track their 18- to 25-year-old kids on their smartphones. Is it healthy? Is anything on your phone healthy? Location tracking apps are just as addictive as everything else on your phone. And yes, kids, your mother and I are watching (but only because we want to be sure you’re going out and having fun.)
“Police in Peru took a novel approach to clamping down on drug trafficking Wednesday as they conducted a raid in Lima disguised as the 2026 World Cup mascots.” Depending on the drugs involved, this could have made for the trip of a lifetime. Peruvian police disguise themselves as World Cup mascots for drug raid.
+ “Recently, dates have surged in popularity as consumers increasingly turn away from processed snacks in favor of cleaner, more natural options. Last year, U.S. sales of the fruit rose 33 percent.” (This just proves the old adage: If you have a good business plan and you stick with it for 8 or 9 thousand years, it just might work.)