2025-05-08 20:00:00
Almost daily, I consume a salad that includes a head of lettuce and a couple hothouse cucumbers. One of the by-products of this routine is that I’ve developed Samurai-like skills when it comes to cutting and peeling. Lettuce wilts when it sees me coming. In short, I shred. So I’m not as worried as some by the specifics of this story, but we’ll all feel its broader impact. The Atlantic (Gift Article): Now Is Not the Time to Eat Bagged Lettuce. “Eating romaine lettuce is especially a gamble right now. Although America’s system for tracking and responding to foodborne illnesses has been woefully neglected for decades, it has recently been further undermined. The Biden administration cut funding for food inspections, and the Trump White House’s attempts to ruthlessly thin the federal workforce has made the future of food safety even murkier. The system faces so many stressors, food-safety experts told me, that regulators may miss cases of foodborne illness, giving Americans a false sense of security. If there’s one thing you can do right now to help protect yourself, it’s this: swearing off bagged, prechopped lettuce.”
+ The risks to food safety are only getting greater after the first hundred days of the Trump administration’s de-funding and destabilizing of government watchdogs, including those at the USDA. In some ways, those with access to less safe food will be the lucky ones. Many will have less access to any food. Trump radically remade the US food system in just 100 days. “The agency has … announced the cancellation of environmental protections against logging to ramp up timber production, escalated trade tensions with Mexico, eradicated food safety processes like limiting salmonella levels in raw poultry, and begun rolling back worker protections in meat processing plants.”
+ Meanwhile, Donald Trump tapped a wellness influencer close to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for surgeon general. When asked why he selected Dr. Casey Means for the post, Trump answered, “Because Bobby thought she was fantastic…I don’t know her.” (Lettuce pray…)
Bill Gates plans to accelerate his foundation’s distribution of funds worldwide over the next 20 years. One reason for the urgency is that many of the programs that have been successful are being reversed by the new administration, with a lot of help from Elon Musk. “You could say this announcement is not very timely. Over the last 25 years, we achieved far more than I — or I think anyone — expected. The world invented new tools, we made them cheap, we got them out. We went from 10 million childhood deaths to five million. Over the next 20 years, can you cut that in half again? The answer is: Absolutely. But then you have this weird thing: In the next four years — or eight years, I don’t know — the actual money going into these causes is reduced, and reduced way beyond what I would have expected. On childhood deaths, which over the next few years should have gone from five million to four million — now, unless there’s a big reversal, we’ll probably go from five million to six million.” David Wallace-Wells in the NYT Magazine (Gift Article): The $200 Billion Gamble: Bill Gates’s Plan to Wind Down His Foundation. “You have to go to Africa and see a malaria ward at the height of the malaria season. Or you have to see kids who are stunted. And weirdly, the incredible success of the last 25 years is not as visible to people as it should be. But that also means that when people cut these things, will they notice? They cut the money to Gaza Province in Mozambique. That is really for drugs, so mothers don’t give their babies H.I.V. But the people doing the cutting are so geographically illiterate, they think it’s Gaza and condoms. Will they go meet those babies who got H.I.V. because that money was cut? Probably not. And so you say, OK, it’s going to be millions — Because of these cuts, millions of additional deaths of kids.”
+ Gates on Musk and his own philanthropy, or lack thereof. “Well, he’s the one who cut the U.S.A.I.D. budget. He put it in the wood chipper, because he didn’t go to a party that weekend … Who knows? He could go on to be a great philanthropist. In the meantime, the world’s richest man has been involved in the deaths of the world’s poorest children.” Maybe swinging around that chainsaw isn’t so cute after all.
In the most anticipated puff of smoke since Seth Rogen spent time in Snoop Dogg’s trailer, the smoke signal awaited by people across the world has officially been exhausted. Habemus papam. On the second day of the conclave, we’ve got a new pope: Robert Prevost, originally from Chicago. He’s the first American pontiff in history (he’s also a Peruvian citizen). He will be known as Leo XIV. “A leader with global experience, he spent much of his career as a missionary in South America and most recently led a powerful Vatican office for bishop appointments. He is expected to build on Pope Francis’ reforms.” (The celebrations will go on for days. When my temple gets a new rabbi, all they do it change the name on the parking spot.) Here’s the latest from CNN and BBC. (Coincidentally, a puff of smoke generally emerges from my man cave each time a new edition of NextDraft is published.)
“When citizens must think twice about criticizing or opposing the government because they could credibly face government retribution, they no longer live in a full democracy. By that measure, America has crossed the line into competitive authoritarianism.” Three political scientists with a detailed explanation of where we’re at (and where we don’t want to go). NYT (Gift Article): No One Has Ever Defeated Autocracy From the Sidelines. “Strategies of self-preservation have led too many civil society leaders to retreat into silence or acquiesce to authoritarian bullying. Small acts of acquiescence, framed as necessary defensive measures, feel like the only reasonable course. But this is the fatal logic of appeasement: the belief that quietly yielding in small, seemingly temporary ways will mitigate long-term harm.”
Peace With the UK? “”President Trump announced his first deal since launching a global trade war Thursday, unveiling a limited pact with the United Kingdom that would lower barriers on some goods like automobiles and agriculture while leaving many unanswered questions.” Trump announces his first trade deal with the UK. Here’s what’s in it. (Full trade deals take months to fully negotiate, but at least we have the concept of plan for a framework, and so far the market is reacting positively. We’ll probably get the details of the deal right around infrastructure week.) “The pact spurred cautious optimism on Wall Street, with stocks up and bonds down amid hopes that the agreement could be a blueprint. Trump cheered the market reaction, and predicted investors would be even more encouraged if Congress passes a law extending his tax cuts, comments that spurred the S&P 500 Index to extend gains to session highs, climbing about 1.5%. ‘If that happens, on top of all of these trade deals that we’re doing, this country will hit a point — you better go out and buy stocks now,’ he said.” (Editor’s note: Sell.) Bloomberg: Trump Announces Framework With UK, Lowering Trade Barriers. And more from the BBC.
+ Ed Sheering: “He’s a terrific person, and he wasn’t getting the support from people that I thought.” Trump says he’ll announce new pick for DC top prosecutor as controversial Ed Martin nomination falters. The “terrific person” was a big fan and defender of Jan 6, repeatedly praised a Nazi sympathizer, and appeared about 150 times on Russian propaganda outlets, in addition to having no qualifications for the job. And he barely didn’t make the cut.
+ Sinking to New Depths: “Extracting more water than can be replenished ‘can have a direct relationship with what happens on the surface … You can cause the ground to sink significantly.” NYT: Across America, Big Cities Are Sinking. Here’s Why. (So this is why I’ve had that sinking feeling for the last few months…)
+ Bank Run: “Israel conducted frequent military operations in this area in recent years, but its forces almost always left within hours or days. Since January, however, its military has maintained its longest-running presence in the heart of West Bank cities in decades.” NYT (Gift Article): The Huge, Under-the-Radar Shift Happening in the West Bank. (There’s a strong connection between what’s happening in the West Bank and what’s happening in the West Wing.)
+ We Need to Chat: “While professors may think they are good at detecting AI-generated writing, studies have found they’re actually not. One, published in June 2024, used fake student profiles to slip 100 percent AI-generated work into professors’ grading piles at a U.K. university. The professors failed to flag 97 percent. It doesn’t help that since ChatGPT’s launch, AI’s capacity to write human-sounding essays has only gotten better.” Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College.
+ Bad Idea Poorly Executed: Lawyers for man executed by firing squad in South Carolina say bullets mostly missed his heart.
+ Sprite Pops: “Sprite has long leaned on culture to market its brand, specifically basketball and hip-hop. It continues to do so today, updated for a modern audience.” How Sprite overtook Pepsi as America’s No. 3 soda.
“A doctor who claimed he hid cameras to film friends and colleagues in the bathroom due to concerns over the size of his penis has been jailed for 18 months. Anaesthetist Ju Young Um hid the recording devices in air fresheners and a smoke alarm in the bathroom and spare bedroom of his flat in Glasgow’s west end and in staff accommodation at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary. Um, 34, claimed he recorded 30 different people and used the footage to compare himself to other men.” (Has this guy heard of the internet?)
2025-05-07 20:00:00
Look, up in the sky. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. Traditionally, that intro would be followed by the exclamation, “It’s Superman!” But it’s 2025. So it probably won’t surprise you to learn that when you look up, there’s a decent chance you’re going to see garbage dropping from the sky. In 1972, a robotic Russian spacecraft called Kosmos-482 set out for Venus. “Cloaked in a protective heat shield, the spacecraft, weighing roughly 1,050 pounds, it was designed to survive its plunge through the toxic Venusian atmosphere.” It never made it to its destination, instead getting stuck in Earth’s orbit. Well, what goes up must come down (and I’m not talking about the Trump economy). Kosmos-482 is expected to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere by the end of the weekend. No one is quite sure where it will land, but the foremost expert on the topic is generally optimistic given that so much of our planet is covered by water. NYT (Gift Article): A Half-Ton Spacecraft Lost by the Soviets in 1972 Is Coming Home. Space waste landing back on Earth isn’t even all that rare—and one expects the pace to increase as we send more stuff into orbit. “‘I’m not worried — I’m not telling all my friends to go to the basement for this,’ said Darren McKnight, senior technical fellow at LeoLabs, a company that tracks objects in orbit and monitors Kosmos-482 six times a day. ‘Usually about once a week we have a large object re-enter Earth’s atmosphere where some remnants of it will survive to the ground … There are three things that can happen when something re-enters: a splash, a thud or an ouch.'” (I once got almost that exact prognosis from my gastroenterologist.)
“At least 26 people, including several children, have been killed and 46 injured after India launched attacks on what it claimed were nine sites of ‘terrorist infrastructure’ inside Pakistan, in a sharp escalation of hostilities between the two nuclear-armed neighbors. Pakistan called the strikes an ‘act of war’ and claimed it had shot down several Indian air force jets. The office of the prime minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, said the country’s armed forces had been authorised to undertake ‘corresponding actions.'” Obviously, this exchange between two nuclear powers has the world in edge. What we know about India’s strike on Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. And the latest from CNN.
+ Domestically, the question is: Can Trump Handle the India-Pakistan Crisis? “A clearly preoccupied President Trump seems to believe he can somehow remove himself from this crisis, stating that ‘they’ll get it figured out one way or the other,’ and repeating a deeply misinformed quip that ‘there have been tensions on that border for 1500 years.'”
+ And unlike when there were tensions in the region during his first term, Trump has assembled a wildly inexperienced team. George Will in WaPo (Gift Article): Behold, the artful dealmaker Trump working his magic on Putin. “Appoint as your chief peace negotiator Stephen Witkoff. He has a mind so open that amazing thoughts stride in: “I don’t regard Putin as a bad guy” and “It was gracious of him to accept me, to see me.” Having never spent a day in diplomacy, Witkoff can amiably negotiate with that gracious scamp Putin, forgiving his fibs about pausing attacks during Easter, and against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Witkoff’s other credential is praise from one of the president’s children.”
+ Meanwhile, Biden gave his first major post presidency interview. “And the way we talk about now that, ‘it’s the Gulf of America’, ‘maybe we’re going to have to take back Panama’, ‘maybe we need to acquire Greenland, ‘maybe Canada should be a [51st state].’ What the hell’s going on here? What President ever talks like that? That’s not who we are. We’re about freedom, democracy, opportunity – not about confiscation.” (That’s what you think. That’s what I think. But as I explained yesterday, it’s less and less the way the rest of the world thinks: Bye American.
+ And finally, Another Navy jet falls into sea, marking fourth major mishap in months. (This is becoming the most expensive metaphor of all time.)
“At the beginning of January, Matthew Memoli was a relatively little-known flu researcher running a small lab at the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health. Then the Trump administration handpicked him to be the acting director of the $48 billion federal agency, a role in which he oversaw pauses in award payments, the mass cancellation of grants, the defunding of clinical trials, and the firing of thousands of employees” … now he and his close collaborator are “set to be awarded up to $500 million for their in-house [RFK Jr approved] vaccine research.” Katherine J. Wu in The Atlantic (Gift Article) with just one relatively small example the new swamp of corruption. ‘It’s All Cronyism Going Forward.’
+ The Verge: Grifters thrive under Trump’s scam-friendly administration. “The president has created his own money-fleecing spin on Reagonomics — instead of promising trickle-down wealth, it’s trickle-down opportunities for fraud.”
+ WaPo U.S. pushes nations facing tariffs to approve Musk’s Starlink, cables show.
“I think people are going to want a system that knows them well and that kind of understands them in the way that their feed algorithms do.” That frightening notion comes from Mark Zuckerberg’s view on how AI will impact our lives. He also sees AI as filling in for the friends we don’t have and the therapists we might need. This all matters because the people designing these technologies, as odd as they may sound, will have an enormous impact on the future of our interactions. And most of them are pretty sure that the isolation largely caused by the technological revolution can be cured by an even more technological solution. WSJ (Gift Article): Zuckerberg’s Grand Vision: Most of Your Friends Will Be AI. (I spend so much time in front of my laptop, my friends might not notice the difference.)
+ I’m not sure how AI will impact the way we make and maintain friendships. But I’m quite sure AI is going to completely upend search and the way we interact with the internet. Google stock sinks on report Apple plans to integrate AI search into Safari browser. “While Eddy Cue said Apple won’t replace Google as its default option out of fear of losing the revenue its deal generates, he said he believes AI search apps will eventually replace standard search engines.” (For a lot of young people, they already have.)
+ NBC to Use Famed NBA Narrator Jim Fagan For Upcoming Season. The twist? Fagan died in 2017.
Getting the Lay of the ‘Land: “The directive is one of the first concrete steps Trump’s administration has taken toward fulfilling the president’s often-stated desire to acquire Greenland.” WSJ (Gift Article): U.S. Orders Intelligence Agencies to Step Up Spying on Greenland.
+ Xi Sheds Pretenses: “China’s Xi Jinping arrived in Moscow Wednesday for a four-day state visit aimed at deepening the ‘mutual trust’ between the Chinese leader and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Beijing said.”
+ Cardinal Rules: “Given the stakes, extreme measures have been taken to avoid eavesdropping, not just sweeping the Sistine Chapel for bugs but shuttering its windows to prevent scanners from detecting vibrations of the cardinals’ words on the panes. The electors must not only give up their cellphones but are also encouraged to vote using disguised handwriting.” No phones, no news — only God and church politics as Catholic elders choose Francis’ successor. (I wondered why my open rate dropped a bit this week.)
+ Voice of Unreason: Kari Lake says OAN’s far-right coverage will fuel Voice of America.
+ Star Wars: “E.P.A. managers announced during a staff meeting on Monday that divisions that oversee climate change and energy efficiency would be eliminated as part of an agency reorganization. That includes the E.P.A.’s climate change office as well as the division that oversees Energy Star.” E.P.A. Plans to Shut Down the Energy Star Program.
+ Diving Miss Daisy: “I watched an 87-year-old woman jump off a boat that hadn’t stopped moving.” WaPo: Genetics of Korea’s extreme divers could unlock chronic disease treatments. “The secret to tackling one of the United States’ most deadly chronic diseases may reside thousands of miles away in the chilly waters separating the Korean Peninsula and Japan, where generations of Jeju Island women have been diving to gather food from depths of up to 60 feet using only the bodies that genes and conditioning have given them.”
+ Mules Rush In: “The route involves risks not listed in the unofficial USPS motto. In the winter, ice can accumulate on the narrow switchbacks, which drop 1,000 feet in the first two miles. Temperatures in the summertime can exceed 110 degrees. Mules (and horses, which are sometimes used in the pack string) can get spooked by blowing debris and the occasional rattlesnake. During monsoon season, rainwater rushing down the canyon walls can turn the desert floor into a surging river within minutes.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): How the Most Remote Community in America Gets Its Mail. (They get their news from the outside world delivered by a mule. And you get yours sent by a jackass.)
“A Kentucky woman was in a sticky mess when she found stacks of boxes containing lollipops on her front doorstep. The surprise delivery was ordered by her young son while he played on her phone. Holly LaFavers says she tried stopping 8-year-old Liam’s Amazon order for about 70,000 Dum-Dum suckers before the treats arrived but it was too late.” (He should have ordered 30 dolls while he was at it…)
2025-05-06 20:00:00
We’re in the age of the personal brand, where everyone uses various forms of social media and communication to develop a perception of themselves. Occasionally, those personal brands, especially when tainted, can seep into the broader brands of one’s friends, families, or companies. Sometimes, they can even inundate an entire country. After having made the fateful decision to give Donald Trump a second turn in the Oval Office, to most of the world, America’s brand is Trump. From the inside, we see a divided country in a fight for the future (and maybe the survival) of democracy. From the outside, we’re the country that elected Trump again — the Oval Office outbursts and embarrassments, the humiliating interactions with foreign leaders, the abandonment of allies, the siding with dictators, the tariffs, the threats to take over other countries, the constant lies, the authoritarian behaviors, the sending of untried people seeking asylum to foreign gulags…you may hate it all but. But it’s our brand now. Just today, the new prime minister of our closest ally had to sit in the Oval Office and suffer the buffoonery of our leader suggesting, again, that Canada would make a great 51st state. This is us. And it’s not going to be easy to undo. On the national level, our allies are already looking to make deals that don’t include us. But there’s also the personal level, from Canadian hockey fans booing our national anthem, to a dramatic drop in international travel to the U.S., to European shoppers deciding they’d rather buy products from non-American brands. The long red tie, the fake hair, the orange makeup—we’re all wearing it, and it’s not a good look. NYT (Gift Article): Buy American? No Thanks, Europe Says, as Tariff Backlash Grows. “What is new, the central bank said, is a ‘preference’ among European consumers ‘to move away from U.S. products and brands altogether,’ no matter what the cost. That was the case even for households that could bear the brunt of higher prices. ‘Even though they could afford more expensive U.S. products and services, they consciously choose alternatives,’ the bank said. ‘This suggests that consumers’ reactions may not just be a temporary response to tariff increases, but instead signal a possible long-term structural shift in consumer preferences away from U.S. products and brands.’ … [Even] McDonald’s said it was observing growing negative attitudes abroad toward U.S. brands, especially in Northern Europe and Canada.” (American brands can argue that the president doesn’t represent their views, that they’re lobbying to end the tariffs, that they share the frustration with the Trumpian policies. But this time around, the rest of the world isn’t buying it.)
“Congress’s weakness is our deepest constitutional problem, because it is not a function of one man’s whims and won’t pass with one administration’s term. It is an institutional dynamic that has disordered our politics for a generation. It results from choices that members of Congress have made, and only those members can improve the situation. It is hard to imagine any meaningful constitutional renewal in America unless they do.” Yuval Levin in The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Missing Branch. “Many ambitious members of Congress have concluded that their path to prominence must run not through policy expertise and bargaining in committees but through political performance art on social media and punditry on cable news. Our broader political culture has pushed in the same direction, encouraging performative partisanship. And the narrowing of congressional majorities has put a premium on party loyalty, further empowering leaders, and leaving many members wary of the cross-partisan bargaining that is the essence of legislative work.” (So Congress is ceding its role and the administration is ignoring the courts?)
“Musk is clearly imagining a future in which neither his network nor his will can be restrained by the people of this world. But even now, here on Earth, space internet is a big business. Fiber networks cannot extend to every bit of dry land on the planet, and they certainly can’t reach airborne or seaborne vessels. More than 5 million people have already signed up for Starlink, and it is growing rapidly. (You may end up using Starlink when you fly United, for example.) In the not-too-distant future, an expanded version of this system—or one very much like it—could overtake broadband as the internet’s backbone. A decade or two from now, it could be among our most crucial information infrastructure. The majority of our communications, our entertainment, our global commerce, might be beamed back and forth between satellites and the Earth. If Musk continues to dominate the launches that take satellites to space, and the internet services that operate there, he could end up with more power over the human exchange of information than any previous person has ever enjoyed.” Elon Musk may have seriously damaged Tesla’s business outlook. But his DC efforts are paying off for SpaceX, a company with a massive lead in building the network that could connect us all. The Atlantic (Gift Article): Elon Musk’s Most Alarming Power Grab.
“Zapata wrapped her foot in gauze. She swallowed the antibiotics and painkillers the doctor gave her, hobbled out of the clinic and started to run.” WaPo (Gift Article): No route. No rules. All passion. “Welcome to the Speed Project, a 340-mile relay race from Los Angeles to Las Vegas with no designated route, no specific rules and only one goal: to get there as fast as possible.” You probably haven’t heard anything about this race. Apparently, what happens on the way to Vegas stays on the way to Vegas.
Port of Call My Broker: Percival Everett’s James won the Pulitzer for best fiction. Here’s a look at All the Winning Books and Finalists. And a little closer to home (or least to NextDraft HQ), here are the 2025 Pulitzer Prizes in journalism. The winner for illustrated reporting, Ann Telnaes, who won for “delivering piercing commentary on powerful people and institutions” recently left WaPo in protest.
+ Rogue One: Pete Hegseth has had a terrible, and at times embarrassing, stint as Defense Secretary. But he’s still got the gig. And he’s still purging people who actually know how to do their jobs. And this report from Reuters is just plain scary. Order by Hegseth to cancel Ukraine weapons caught White House off guard.
+ Jersey Oys: “Those 30 seconds of silence when communication went down – and controllers’ temporary loss of radar contact with the planes they were supposed to guide – ultimately cascaded into a weeklong meltdown at Newark, one of the nation’s largest airports. It resulted in delays and cancellations for thousands of customers, controllers taking leave for trauma, and renewed scrutiny on an outdated air traffic control system. The chaos also highlighted the challenges of an understaffed system.” Inside the multi-day meltdown at Newark airport.
+ Trill Seeker: “OpenAI has decided that its nonprofit division will retain control over its for-profit organization, after the company initially announced that it planned to convert to a for-profit organization.” You’ll have to ask ChatGPT about all the details. But this point certainly stands out: “CEO Sam Altman said he thinks OpenAI may eventually require ‘trillions of dollars’ to fulfill its goal of ‘[making the company’s] services broadly available to all of humanity.'” (I’ll serve all of humanity for half that.)
+ Houthis on First? “We will stop the bombings. They have capitulated… we will take their word that they will not be blowing up ships anymore, and that’s the purpose of what we were doing.” U.S. will stop bombing Yemen after Houthis “capitulated,” Trump says. (This comes at a confusing moment as the Houthis bombed the airport in Tel Aviv over the weekend and Israel just retaliated with strikes “conducted in coordination with U.S. Central Command.”)
+ Drill Baby Drill: “At Donated Dental, providers expect their monthslong waitlist for children’s procedures to grow significantly and their need for volunteer dentists to skyrocket.” How Utah dentists are preparing patients for the first statewide fluoride ban.
+ Ego, Superego, and I.D. What you need to know about the REAL ID requirements for air travel.
+ The Right Puff: “Wait, you might say, haven’t I seen this movie? It sounds like the intrigue-laden, Oscar-winning film ‘Conclave,’ starring Ralph Fiennes as a cardinal who oversees a papal election beset by rivalries. Except this is the real-life version.” WSJ (Gift Article): Real-Life Conclave Rivals Drama of Movie Version.
+ Little Ditty ‘Bout Barry and Diane: “I’ve lived for decades reading about Diane and me: about us being best friends rather than lovers. We weren’t just friends. We aren’t just friends. Plain and simple, it was an explosion of passion that kept up for years. And, yes, I also liked guys, but that was not a conflict with my love for Diane. I can’t explain it to myself or to the world. It simply happened to both of us without motive or manipulation. In some cosmic way we were destined for each other … What others think sometimes irritates but mostly amuses us. We know, our family knows, and our friends know. The rest is blather.” Barry Diller on Diane von Fürstenberg: The truth about us, after all these years.
“A 7-year-old boy, who took his younger sister for a spin in their mother’s car in the hunt for a McDonald’s Happy Meal, has been found safe, according to police.” The kid drove his sister 10 miles! According to his mom, “he’s probably grounded for the rest of his life.”
+ Here’s What Everyone Wore To The 2025 Met Gala.
2025-05-05 20:00:00
A recent study indicates that the median investor puts in a hefty six minutes of research before buying a stock. I spent more time than that deciding how many dollars to put under my kids’ pillows when they lost a tooth. There are some investors who are little more deliberate and painstaking when buying a stake in a business. That slow, old fashioned version of “doing your own research” can pay off. It certainly did for Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha, as he steps down after 60 years as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, one the most successful companies in the world. Let’s just say Berkshire hath a way with investing. “Berkshire shares have skyrocketed 5,502,284% between when Buffett took over what was then a failing textile company in 1965 and the end of 2024.” It’s a sign of Buffett’s steady and ubiquitous presence in his company and the broader investing community that it somehow came as something of a surprise when the 94 year-old announced he was relinquishing the CEO role. Andrew Ross Sorkin in the NYT (Gift Article): The Emotional Moment When Warren Buffett Announced His Departure. “Mr. Buffett, who turns 95 in August, is often described as a symbol of American capitalism. In truth, he is an outlier. He is more the conscience of capitalism, willing to speak uncomfortable truths about the system’s ills while others remained silent. (His public comments on issues like tariffs over the weekend are a prime example.) The billionaire always comes across as a gentleman, and in an age of distrust he has become a trusted figure. Fellow business moguls and government officials admire him because of his success, yes — Berkshire reported $89 billion in net profit last year, and it is one of the biggest buyers of U.S. Treasury bonds — but also because he has appeared unchanged by wealth. He lives in a modest house in Omaha, and for years drove his own car, including to the drive-through at McDonald’s.”
+ “Buffett’s presence here has for decades created its own economic weather. Tens of thousands of people gather in Omaha for the company’s annual investor conference, which alone pumps at least $22 million into the local economy. The Buffett mystique draws curious tourists year-round, too.” As Buffett Steps Down, Omaha Is Grateful—and a Little Worried. (In honor of Buffett, here’s Peyton Manning yelling Omaha over and over.)
+ Philanthropic Thunder: Buffett is also known for giving away a lot of money and encouraging his wealthy counterparts to do the same. “Buffett has said previously that his three kids will distribute his remaining $147.4 billion fortune in the 10 years after his death.”
+ As you probably know by now, not all billionaire stories are about clearly thought out decisions, successful businesses, and philanthropically minded offspring. NYT (Gift Article): Trump Sons’ Deals on Three Continents Directly Benefit the President. “A luxury hotel in Dubai. A second high-end residential tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Two cryptocurrency ventures based in the United States. A new golf course and villa complex in Qatar. And a new private club in Washington. In many cases these new deals promoted over the last week will personally benefit not only Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., but also President Trump himself.” (Eric and Don Jr are gonna be able to buy all the dolls they want this Christmas.)
+ Trump Crypto Corruption Intensifies as Abu Dhabi Firm Invests $2 Billion.
It’s not so much that other people don’t see things they way you do. It’s that they don’t see the things you see at all. Oakdale, Calif is a couple hours from NextDraft HQ. But I’m guessing I don’t have a lot of subscribers in the town where traditional news sources have been abandoned. NYT (Gift Article): It Was Just a Rumor on Facebook. Then a Militia Showed Up. “Now, in place of longtime TV pundits and radio hosts, residents turn to a new sphere of podcasters and online influencers to get their political news. Facebook groups for local events run by residents have replaced the role of local newspapers, elevating the county’s “keyboard warriors” to roles akin to editors in chief. Of the 80 Oakdale residents The New York Times spoke to for this article, not a single one subscribed to a regional news site, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal or The Washington Post. Oakdale is not alone: Between news deserts expanding in rural areas and a growing distrust of national outlets, the town’s shift toward new sources of information is becoming commonplace in small communities across the country.” It’s a big deal. And it’s only getting worse.
“Americans’ milk drinking has been on the decline for decades. Between 1975 and 2024, the country’s per capita milk consumption dropped by 47%, according to USDA data. It’s the kind of dragged-out downslide that suggests more than just a slump, but the steady drift toward cultural obsolescence. But the tides may be shifting. Suddenly, milk’s half-century-long flop era is showing signs of reversal.” It’s partly about protein and plants, but like it always is when it comes to milk, it’s also about politics. Why everybody’s drinking milk again.
+ The politics of milk never stops. A couple decades ago, raw, unpasteurized milk was mostly popular among Whole Foods shopping, boxy Volvo-driving, hippy-clinging lefties who liked to use it wash down the personal blend of GORP they custom mixed by scooping just the right ratio of organic, artisanal, raw pumpkin seeds, sun-dried chia-powdered chard, carob-covered banana chips, and all-natural sugarless, tasteless granola from fairtrade plastic grocery bins into their hemp-based reusable shopping bag. At the time, reversing this trend would have seemed like milking a duck, but in a condensed period of time, this group’s love for raw milk evaporated and an entirely different group of voters, let’s call them the Milk Men—intolerant of everything but lactose—were chugging the raw stuff double-fisted on the hood of a gun-racked, gas-converted Tesla cybertruck—partly to quench thirst, partly to own the libs, and partly because the milk mustache hid the fact they couldn’t grow a natural one—and were milking legislatures to allow unpasteurized goods to bypass science and adopt a new American socio-dietary movement: Teat to Table. Fraught Milk?
“The real reason why you informed on me is that you hate me … And what you hate me for is your own gnawing sense of inferiority. Your suspicion that I was the Unabomber at last gave you your opportunity to get a crushing revenge on big brother for being smarter and more capable than you are.” A very interesting story of brotherhood and misanthropy (with a quite ominous subhead). NYT (Gift Article): The Unabomber’s Brother Turned Him In. Then Spent 27 Years Trying to Win Him Back. “Ted Kaczynski, whose anti-tech rants are finding a new generation of readers, shunned the brother who called the F.B.I. in an effort to halt his campaign of violence.”
Port of Call My Broker: “The tariffs themselves are a shock to the system, and the shock is echoed and amplified across the entire chain. Even if there is resolution, it will take nine to 12 months to work out these bumps.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): Don’t Look at Stock Markets. Look at the Ports. The latest tariff announced by Trump targets the film industry. But so far, details are as scarce as logic. White House Says “No Final Decisions” Have Been Made on Movie Tariffs. (No initial decisions have been made either.)
+ Alcatraz Razzmatazz: In another social media weekend rant, Trump said he will reopen Alcatraz for the ‘most ruthless and violent’ prisoners. (Wait, I thought he hated staying in San Francisco…)
+ No Holds Barred: “Israel’s security cabinet has approved a plan to expand its military offensive against Hamas which includes the ‘capture’ of Gaza and the holding of its territory.”
+ Extensive Collection: “There are some five million borrowers whose loans are in default, many of whom haven’t made regular payments since the pandemic. Millions more are on the cusp of default, according to the Education Department.” Collections Coming for Millions of Student-Loan Borrowers.
+ RegurgiNation: Robert Reich on Trump’s apparent plans for a military parade to celebrate his birthday. George Washington would have thrown up. (At this point, Washington would’ve already puked enough to fill the Delaware…)
+ Offsprings Eternal: Sovereignty edged out Journalism in the 151st Kentucky Derby. (Continuing Journalism’s 2025 losing streak.) Every horse that ran in this year’s Kentucky Derby is a descendant of Secretariat. Take that, Elon.
+ Spur of the Moment: “There is no signature style, no ‘Showtime’ to his name. The beauty in Popovich entering this pantheon is the adaptability of his approach.” Gregg Popovich’s legacy in the NBA is every bit as big as Warren Buffett’s legacy in investing. Gregg Popovich’s legacy: Behind the beauty of the Spurs coach’s greatness.
+ The Conman and The Conclave: Over the weekend, Trump, asked if he has to ‘uphold the Constitution,’ said, “I don’t know.'” Also, “the messaging app that President Donald Trump’s former national security advisor was seen using during a Cabinet meeting last week is temporarily suspending services following reports it was hacked.” Meanwhile, Catholic leaders criticized Trump for posting apparent AI photo of himself as the pope. (It’s gonna take a lot of puffs of smoke to get through the next four years, folks.)
“Racers often buy or inherit burros from owners who run out of money, time or patience. Others adopt burros that were corralled by the federal government to prevent overpopulation. Novices easily can rent an ass to try it out for kicks.” Burro racing wins over runners in backcountry ode to mining history.
+ The Onion: ICE Opens New Supermax Detention Center For Most Hardened Toddlers.
2025-05-02 20:00:00
“I rode with a stuntman who estimated he’d sustained 50 concussions. A few years later, in Utah, a young man said God told him to pick me up; the next morning, a mother coming off a night shift told me she regretted her disinterest in the Church. In Wyoming, an oil-field geologist steamed about his divorce after months alone in a trailer. ‘You’re the first person I’ve talked to,’ he said. The next year, around Tennessee, a bounty hunter argued to me that the Earth was flat, and a Mexican American man told me why he kept a ‘Make America great again’ hat on his dashboard: In his town, he said, not showing support for Donald Trump could lead to your mailbox getting smashed. Near Pennsylvania, a young salt-factory worker showed off hands so callused, he couldn’t use gloves without developing blisters. He dreamed of driving a truck to Kansas. The freedom of the road beckoned to us both.” Those are Andrew Fedorov’s hitchhiking recollections, not mine. The road generally only beckons me to drive away from social interactions; especially rapidly when those interactions are with people I don’t know. I’m fine with device-aided textual communications, but, these days, when it comes to the traditional in-person stuff, I’m all thumb-drives. But Fedorov’s reflections on how the waning popularity of hitchhiking has also mirrored a loss of something else in American culture is nothing to thumb your nose at. The Atlantic (Gift Article): Does Anyone Still Hitchhike? “‘Few transport experiences involve being repeatedly catapulted into other people’s lives with such intensity,’ Jonathan Purkis wrote in his 2022 book, Driving With Strangers. Studies have shown that conversations with new people make us happier. In a time when social connections with strangers are so often algorithmically regulated, the unexpected, serendipitous meetings from hitchhiking can be all the more powerful because they’re so much rarer.” (Whether through hitchhiking or some other means, hopefully those social interactions in our rearview mirrors are closer than they appear.)
Trump continues to deploy federal money as a weapon, even in cases where it’s unclear that he has the power to do so. Trump says he’s ending federal funding for NPR and PBS. They say he can’t. And in his latest salvo in an ongoing battle, Trump again threatened Harvard’s tax-exempt status, saying, ‘It’s what they deserve!'” (Full disclosure: I went to Harvard for grad school, but I identify as a Cal Bear.)
+ Maybe Trump should put Marco Rubio in charge of collections. He seems to be in charge of everything else. It almost seems like this is all part of a DOGE plan to save government funds by giving Marco Rubio every job. “In addition to running the State Department, the onetime Trump critic-turned-ally is also serving as acting administrator for USAID, acting archivist, and now also Trump’s interim national security adviser.” (During dark times you have to look for the bright side. One day soon Marco Rubio is gonna get fired from all of these jobs at once.)
“The video is just under two and a half minutes long. A slim man with close-cropped hair walks into a room, pulls a long black mamba — whose venom can kill within an hour — from a crate and allows it to bite his left arm. Immediately after, he lets a taipan from Papua New Guinea bite his right arm. ‘Thanks for watching,’ he calmly tells the camera, his left arm bleeding, and then exits.” But maybe we should be thanking him. This nearly two-decade hobby of his helped create a blood mix that contains antibodies that can neutralize the venom of many snakes. “More than 600 species of venomous snakes roam the earth, biting as many as 2.7 million people, killing about 120,000 people and maiming 400,000 others — numbers thought to be vast underestimates.” NYT (Gift Article): Universal Antivenom May Grow Out of Man Who Let Snakes Bite Him 200 Times. (Universal Antivenom is also a pretty great name for a band.)
What to Doc: When I was in high school, my room was a Led Zeppelin shrine. Sadly, there’s no documentation of that. So we’ll have to settle for the documentary Becoming Led Zeppelin, which is finally available to rent and stream.
+ What to Surf: I don’t surf. But I love surfing movies and documentaries. And there are now three seasons of the excellent HBO series, 100 Foot Wave.
+ What to Book: “Every story has two sides. Every relationship has two perspectives. And sometimes, it turns out, the key to a great marriage is not its truths but its secrets. At the core of this rich, expansive, layered novel, Lauren Groff presents the story of one such marriage over the course of twenty-four years.” I’m late to the party, but Fates and Furies is a great read.
Roll Tide: “Trump’s policies and the way he’s orienting his government combine as an assault on the Great Society legislation Johnson pushed through in the 1960s, including the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.” Trump turns civil rights upside down in ‘biggest rollback’ since Reconstruction. He’s doing this in between rolling back health care and environmental safeguards. WaPo: Senate overturns EPA rule on seven highly toxic air pollutants.
+ Buy AI: Visa and Mastercard unveil AI-powered shopping. “Artificial intelligence is not just infiltrating the startup world. Now credit card giants Visa and Mastercard are getting into the AI game. Visa announced on Wednesday ‘Intelligent Commerce,’ which it says enables AI ‘to find and buy.'” (I’ve set mine to match my actual shopping habits. It researches obsessively and never actually makes a purchase.)
+ Trial and Errors: “As months passed with no trial, no hearing, no updates and rare interactions with his lawyers, there were many times, alone and despairing in jail, when he wondered if anyone was listening. Then, in an extraordinary turn, the blame shifted onto the officers and the bulk of the case against Jordan was dropped. Now he was free.” A Mississippi man spent 940 days in jail waiting for a trial that never came.
+ Can’t Find a Fetterman: “John Fetterman insists he is in good health. But staffers past and present say they no longer recognize the man they once knew.” All By Himself. This is a really interesting article about health, depression, and the extreme impact of social media. (If it’s behind a paywall, try reader mode on your browser.)
+ Happy Ending: “For eight years running, Finland has topped the World Happiness Report — but what exactly does it measure?” NYT (Gift Article): My Miserable Week in the ‘Happiest Country on Earth.’
+ Belichick Flick: “I should not be hearing about Bill Belichick right now. It’s late spring, which means that the Great American Hobgoblin should be sequestered in his film dungeon right now, fastidiously studying ancient football scrolls for the key to leading his UNC Tar Heels to a Fanatics Bowl win against Iowa State eight months from now. That’s the Bill Belichick that you and I are used to. It’s not the Belichick we love — no such iteration of the man exists — but it’s the one we can easily forget about this time of year, when football is dead asleep. Instead, the old man has decided to curse the eyes of a weary nation with imagery that leaves far too much to the imagination.” Drew Magary: What on earth is going on with Bill Belichick and his new girlfriend/publicist? (You can read this if you want. Me? I’m onto Cincinnati.)
+ Commode Rage: “According to the affidavit, Solometo told police that she was in a line of cars to turn left at a light and honked at a driver in front of her who did not move when the arrow was green.” And then things escalated. “I wanted to punch her in the face, but I pooped on her car instead.”
“If you choose to commute by bike, there is a lot you might encounter on your morning ride – nice things like spring flowers … or not so nice things, like angry motorists. But on the last Friday of each month, in Portland, Oregon, you’ll also come across fresh-brewed coffee, doughnuts and other early morning treats.” ‘Breakfast on the Bridges’: a monthly Portland commuter tradition.
+ Playing hockey until you’re 80? Bay Area senior rec league’s oldest hangs up his skates.
+ Robert De Niro supports daughter Airyn as she comes out as trans. “I loved and supported Aaron as my son, and now I love and support Airyn as my daughter. I don’t know what the big deal is … I love all my children.” (Loving all of our children. What a concept.)
+ Legal veteran starts new firm to defend targets of Trump actions.
+ US economy beats expectations to add 177,000 jobs in April.
+ WaPo: The world’s tallest and shortest dogs met for a playdate.
+ We just had the most preposterous year of Aaron Judge.
+ How an abandoned couch changed a small village – in pictures.
2025-05-01 20:00:00
A day after taking part in one of Trump’s unctuous song and dance cabinet meetings in which members try to outdo each other in their praising of the president, National security adviser Michael Waltz appears to be facing the music and getting ousted from his spot and instead has been nominated as UN Ambassador. For now, Marco Rubio will be cutting in and stepping into the NSA role in addition to leading the State Department. (Double the genuflecting for the same price.) Waltz is most famous for his inadvertent inclusion of The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg on the Yemen attack planning Signal chat heard around the world. While Waltz had two left feet when it comes to securing classified chats, he also was out of step with the administration. For example, he had some relevant experience before being nominated for his job. And he had some traditional conservative views. For example, “Republicans in Congress who favor continued U.S. military aid to Ukraine viewed Waltz as a counterweight to Vice President J.D. Vance and others in the administration who have a more skeptical view of Kyiv and its cause.” If the rest of the cabinet is any indication, the next NSA head on the dance card will be even worse.
+ “Waltz was one of the more respected and expert hands on Trump’s team, and that would have doomed him sooner or later.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): Mike Waltz Was Doomed From the Start.
+ “The tensions that led to Waltz’s departure began before the so-called Signalgate affair, according to four people familiar with the situation. One of those people told Semafor that Waltz’s traditionally hawkish views of national security created tension with more isolationist players in the White House — and said that the former Green Beret was on the outs in Trump’s network even before the group chat flap.” Semafor: Trump’s national security adviser ousted amid ideological tensions.
During the same cabinet roundtable, Attorney General Pam Bondi told her dear leader that his “first 100 days has far exceeded that of any other presidency in this country. Ever. Ever. Never seen anything like it. Thank you.” She then added that Trump’s border policies have “saved — are you ready for this, media? — 258 million lives.” (Wow. Even the combination of UV light, injected disinfectant, and Ivermectin never numbers like that!) In addition to that quote being absurd enough to make Kim Jong Un blush, it’s also, as is so often the case, the opposite of reality. The administration is adopting policies that will cost lives, at home and abroad. It turns out the funding and science (not sickeningly sycophancy) is what saves lives. Science: NIH Under Siege.
+ Amid DOGE-induced turmoil, National Science Foundation in crisis.
+ “Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., declared chronic diseases an ‘existential threat.’ Then his agency terminated one of the world’s longest-running diabetes trials.” The New Yorker: A Life-Changing Scientific Study Ended by the Trump Administration.
+ NIH cancels participation in Safe to Sleep campaign that decreased infant deaths.
+ This is just a small subsection of today’s news about the science cuts at home that, especially when paired with the attack on university research, will have massive longterm implications in America. The implications of our policies are already costing lives abroad. “For 15 years, Chanda has been meeting truckers in dusty parking lots at the border of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo to give them their HIV medications. Now, he says, he doesn’t know what to tell them. He’s lost his job as a community health worker. The U.S.-funded program he worked for — which supported the mobile clinic where he collected the medications for distribution — shut down.” NPR: What Trump’s first 100 days has meant for these truck drivers and sex workers.
+ NBC News: Calling it ‘illegal DEI,’ Trump shut down program to end human waste backing into Alabama homes. (Sometimes the metaphor just writes itself.)
“A federal judge appointed by President Donald Trump on Thursday rejected the Trump administration’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport Venezuelans it alleges are members of the criminal organization Tren de Aragua … Rodriguez wrote in his 36-page opinion that the Trump administration’s use of ‘invasion’ does not match the historical use of the term, which has typically been used in connection with military endeavors or warfare.” (At this point, there’s less confusion about what courts will decide on these matters than there is about whether those decisions will be followed by the administration.)
+ “Carlos Uzcategui is one of more than 250 Venezuelan men the U.S. has sent to El Salvador to be imprisoned in the Terrorism Confinement Center, or Cecot. The U.S. contends that the men are members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. In this video, The Wall Street Journal investigated Uzcategui’s story, and found no criminal record or ties to any gang. Our review found no evidence to suggest he should be held in a foreign prison with no indication that he will ever be released.” WSJ (Gift Article): He’s Held in El Salvador’s Mega-Prison, Without Any Criminal Charges.
+ As I mentioned yesterday: “After 100 days of jackhammering America’s norms, values, laws, finances, allies, and what’s left of the psyche of the average news curator, it’s hard to narrow things down to Trump’s worst affront so far. But there is one transgression that seems to best encapsulate where we’ve been dragged: The sending of potentially innocent Venezuelans to a gulag-like prison in El Salvador.” In Abroad Daylight.
“Wijckmans didn’t know it yet, but he’d stumbled onto the edges of an audacious, global cybercrime operation. He’d unwittingly made contact with an army of seemingly unassuming IT workers, deployed to work remotely for American and European companies under false identities, all to bankroll the government of North Korea. With a little help from some friends on the ground, of course.” Wired: North Korea Stole Your Job. “For years, North Korea has been secretly placing young IT workers inside Western companies. With AI, their schemes are now more devious—and effective—than ever.” (If any of them are good with news-related puns, please apply within.)
Protect the Dolls: “Fewer massive container ships have been plying the ocean between Chinese and American ports, and in the coming weeks, far fewer Chinese goods will arrive on American shores.” A Tidal Wave of Change Is Headed for the U.S. Economy. CNBC: Port of Los Angeles says shipping volume will plummet 35% next week as China tariffs start to bite. Meanwhile, Trump, on Tariffs, Says ‘Maybe the Children Will Have 2 Dolls Instead of 30.’
+ Bully Market: Ukraine and the US have finally signed a minerals deal. What does it include? (Aside from exploiting an ally when they need you the most…)
+ Bro Code(breaker): “A lover of puzzles and crosswords while growing up in Pittsburgh during the Great Depression, Mrs. Parsons deciphered German military messages that had been created by an Enigma machine, a typewriter-size device with a keyboard wired to internal rotors, which generated millions of codes. Her efforts provided Allied forces with information critical to evading, attacking and sinking enemy submarines.” NYT (Gift Article): Julia Parsons, U.S. Navy Code Breaker During World War II, Dies at 104. Also from the NYT (Gift Article): The Six Triple Eight: Black, Female Soldiers Honored for World War II Success. Meanwhile, Hegseth announces he’s ending Pentagon involvement in Trump initiative empowering women championed by Ivanka Trump and Rubio.
+ Case and Point: “When big law firms attacked by President Trump decided to make a deal with him rather than fight, many did so because their leaders feared that clients would abandon a firm caught on the administration’s bad side. Now that logic may be getting less compelling. A major company, Microsoft, has dropped a law firm that settled with the administration in favor of one that is fighting it.” Microsoft Drops Law Firm That Made a Deal With Trump From a Case.
+ There’s a Slap for That: “Epic Games v. Apple judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers just ruled that, effective immediately, Apple is no longer allowed to collect fees on purchases made outside apps and blocks the company from restricting how developers can point users to where they can make purchases outside of apps. Apple says it will appeal the order.” The judge was decidedly not pleased with Apple. More from Daring Fireball: Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers Rules, in Excoriating Decision, That Apple Violated Her 2021 Court Order Regarding App Store Anti-Steering Provisions.
+ Sludge Report: The Trump administration goes full state media with a Drudge-like website that promotes Trump.
+ Lash Out: “From stopping dust and dirt getting into the eyes to prompting our blink reflex, eyelashes do more than just look pretty. Which makes it hard to explain the social media trend of men trimming down — or even entirely shaving off — their eyelashes in a bid to look ‘more masculine.'” (What fake hair, extra long ties, and orange makeup weren’t already doing the trick?)
Dropping the dime: An avalanche of 8 million freshly minted dimes spilled from an overturned truck and closed a Texas highway for almost 14 hours. Man, if I had a nickel for every dime that dropped.
+ Scientists once thought only humans could bob to music. Ronan the sea lion helped prove them wrong. (FWIW, scientists also once thought only humans were named Ronan.)