2026-08-28 20:00:00
Won’t you please, please, help me? That entreaty from the Beatles wasn’t their only request for assistance. They also famously got by, and high, with a little help from their friends. And it seemed to work out pretty well. So maybe you should also try to get a little help whenever possible? That strategy isn’t always associated with success in an era when many people respond positively to messages like, “I alone can fix it.” But Angela Duckworth studies successful people, and it turns out that being willing to ask for help is a trait that is shared among most of them. “Without exception, every high performer I’ve studied credits a host of supporters for their success. Research has found that a willingness to ask for help is crucial to achievement.” NYT (Gift Article): I Study Successful People. They Have One Habit in Common. Remember, there’s no i in team. But there is one in insane. (Come to think of it, there’s also one in Lake America.)
“Of course I used AI. I’m not embarrassed by it. I write everything using AI now for the same reason I use a calculator when I do math problems.” That was billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller responding to complaints that his recent WSJ editorial was found to be 100% AI generated. The WSJ’s editorial page editor, Paul Gigot, also doesn’t see a problem. “‘AI is a fact of modern life,’ he said in a statement … Gigot followed up with a full column on the subject, mocking the ‘media pharisees’ who wag their fingers at automated writing … ‘Many contributors, especially prominent politicians or CEOs, employ speechwriters or hire a Beltway writing shop,’ he wrote. ‘How different is that from using AI to streamline an essay?'” Will Oremus in The Atlantic (Gift Article): A Turning Point in AI Writing.
+ Before too long, articles may be specifically labeled as artisanal if they have any human elements at all. An online newspaper covering SF is made up entirely of AI reporters. “Each ‘reporter’ has its own beat, bio and persona. Park, for instance, is ‘skeptical of hype.’ Casey Wong, the metro reporter, writes that they ‘notice the texture of a block — who’s been here 30 years, who just moved in.’ Drew Bennett, The Dissent’s local events reporter, ‘knows what’s worth your Saturday.’ Hal Brenner, the site’s managing editor, is ‘terse, exacting, fair.'”
Amid all the coverage of the Iran war, we often lose sight of the biggest victims of its failure. The people of Iran who were told, “the hour of your freedom is at hand.” That hour has come and gone, and now we’re six months into a war that was sold as a quick fix. “The Trump administration has replaced its military war with an economic one, but the result is likely to be no different, analysts said, with a lack of American clarity about goals, a decline in American credibility and a strategic defeat. One thing remains constant, however. The ordinary people of Iran are bearing the brunt of the war, victims of both the United States and their own leaders.” Six Months In, Iran’s Regime Stands, U.S. Goals Remain Unmet.
+ AP: The Iran war has changed the Middle East, but not in the way its architects had hoped. And this is a key point to remember: “In the runup to the war, the Islamic Republic appeared more vulnerable than at any point since Saddam Hussein’s Iraq invaded in 1980.”
+ Bloomberg (Gift Article): How the War in Iran Is Redrawing the Global Energy Map. “A handful of new reports show how, by dramatically raising fossil-fuel prices, the conflict has also been pushing governments, companies and consumers towards renewable energy, with a clear set of winners and losers emerging.”
What to Binge: Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren, and Paddy Considine star in the fast-paced mob family show, Mobland on Paramount Plus. Season two is coming in a few weeks, so it’s a good time to binge.
+ What to Pick: Tuner, starring Leo Woodall, Havana Rose Liu, and Dustin Hoffman, is about a piano tuner who realizes he can use his excellent ear to pick locks. The criminals learn that fact as well. The movie reminded me of the excellent Steve Hamilton novel about another skilled lock-picker whose talent proves popular with the wrong crowd. The Lock Artist.
Numbers Don’t Lie: Trump railed against the Fed for years for not cutting rates. Now, his handpicked Chair Kevin Warsh is “laying the groundwork for a possible interest rate hike in the coming months.” At issue is America’s stubborn inflation. One sign things are getting too expensive: dollar stores are killing it. WSJ (Gift Article): Dollar General Is Winning Over Inflation-Weary Shoppers With $1 Items.
+ Reality Checks and Balances: “John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, made a secretive visit to Moscow this week to privately share his bleak assessment of the state of the Russian war against Ukraine, and to urge the Russians to cut a deal before their military and economic situation gets worse.” American intel leaders are concerned Putin isn’t getting a real picture of how bad things are going in his war. Sound familiar?
+ Downstream Disaster: “Rescue teams have reported finding bodies hundreds of miles downstream from the disaster zone in the Chitwan district of Nepal, near the Tibetan border.” And the number of those reported missing is going up. Here’s the latest from The Guardian.
+ Unions are Jacked: Not everyone is against building a lot of new data centers. For example, the people who build them. Blue-Collar Jobs Are the New Flashpoint in Data-Center Fight.
+ Straining at a Nat: “Those three words—travel with Natalie—sent MAGA world into paroxysms of rage that have yet to subside.” Peter Wehner has a very insightful take as to why. The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Wrath of MAGA.
+ E-Gads: In many professional sports, success or failure comes down to injuries. You probably didn’t imagine that includes e-sports. Professional gaming is brutal on the body. (The same is true for news curators. Both my palm and my forehead are constantly getting injured.)
+ Starbucks 54: “‘Any time I had to use it, I had to hold my breath,’ she said. Her colleagues complained about coughs and tickling throats. Baristas around the country reported developing hives and having asthma attacks.” Starbucks Drops Drink Powder That Enveloped Baristas in Clouds of Dust. (I hear this stuff was pretty popular at discos in the 80s.)
“A one-time gene-editing treatment to lower cholesterol had long-lasting effects a year later, scientists reported on Friday. The results highlight the potential to treat even common diseases by altering people’s genes.” One day, you might be able to essentially remove your high cholesterol. An Experimental Single-Time Treatment Slashed Cholesterol for a Year. Also, This Pancreatic Cancer Drug Is So Good, It Got a Standing Ovation.
+ Dolly Parton’s Other Legacy: A Fortune Given Away, Dollar by Dollar. And she gave right until the end. When she knew she wasn’t going to survive, she offered to let doctors test experimental drugs on her that might help others in the future.
+ “In five games, Rasmus took the mound twice, logging 14 strikeouts. At the plate, she powered her team’s offense, collecting five hits and three RBIs.” Kinley Rasmus’ Little League World Series is over, but her legacy will live on.
+ This speed-hiker just smashed the record on the Pacific Crest Trail, hiking alone.
+ Dog missing for 12 years reunited with Chicago family.
2026-08-27 20:00:00
In 1979, Willie Mays got a gig as a “‘goodwill ambassador’ for the Bally’s Park Place hotel and casino in Atlantic City. It was not a full-time job. Mays’ job was basically to show up and be famous while doing meet-and-greets at corporate and charity events.” Back then, even that relatively minor connection with gambling was enough to get Mays banned from baseball. A few years later, Mickey Mantle suffered the same punishment for a similar transgression. Times—and values—have changed. Today, Major League Baseball has a casino as one official gaming partner and a betting app as another, and gambling has basically merged with professional sports. Just ask the players. The Athletic (Gift Article): MLB players reveal a modern toll of legal gambling: Threats, DMs and encounters.
+ If betting apps weren’t enough, now prediction markets are getting in on the action. Everyone knows that participating in prediction markets like Kalshi, especially when it comes to sports, is the same thing as betting. That’s why sports fans see prediction market ads everywhere, and why Kalshi is partnering with many teams, including my San Francisco Giants. The marketing push mirrors those of gambling companies because prediction markets are gambling companies. As Nick Brown, the Democratic attorney general of Washington, explains, “You can go onto a site and place money on the outcome of some sports activity. That’s the same thing as gambling.” One would assume that the notion that gambling is the same as gambling would be a self-evident and accepted truth. But this is 2026, and times—and values—have changed; so don’t bet on it. Here’s one thing you can bet on: When there’s something this obviously shady happening, the first family probably isn’t far from the action. “Last month, 44 states signed a letter attacking the platforms as a ‘new form of casino’ preying on young people.” But the federal government is doing everything it can to stop states from regulating the industry. Why? Just follow the money, Sonny: “In January last year, Kalshi hired Donald Trump Jr. as an adviser; his compensation included more than $300,000 in Kalshi shares, which have multiplied in value. Last year, the president’s son also joined Polymarket’s advisory board and bought a stake in the company via 1789 Capital, his investment firm.” NYT (Gift Article): Clash Between Prediction Markets and States Sets Off a Furious Political Battle.
+ The Trumps famously failed in the casino business. But they’ve found a business they seem really good at: government corruption for personal gain. WSJ (Gift Article): Drone-Defense Startup Needed Connections, so It Hired Eric Trump. “The agreement comes as the president’s two eldest sons have been amassing stakes in numerous small U.S. government contractors through investments or advisory work, positioning the brothers to benefit from spending and policy decisions by their father’s administration … It marks a notable pivot for the brothers, who for years were focused on their father’s turf of real estate, golf and branding. But since the start of their father’s second term, they have become highly active investors and advisers, also taking stakes in companies involved in tungsten mining and nuclear energy—while growing their crypto holdings.” (Say Hey Kid, meet the Pay Day Kids.) “”What’s remarkable about it is that it’s put in writing,’ said Jessica Tillipman, associate dean of government procurement law studies at George Washington University. An agreement like Eric Trump’s would be expected to trigger ‘the giant circle and red flag from the compliance department’ at a traditional U.S. corporation, she said.'” As a wise man once (or maybe twice) said: Times—and values—have changed.
“The surprise visit by the director of the Central Intelligence Agency to Moscow this week was to deliver a warning to Russia not to attack NATO countries.” The trip followed reports “that Russian President Vladimir Putin could try to test the resolve of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization with a limited assault on an allied country in the next few years.” Part of this is related to concerns that Putin will act desperately as his invasion of Ukraine takes a toll on Russia. But concerns have also been heightened because Putin might see an opportunity to test the resolve of NATO because of Trump’s constant attacks on the organization (in particular, and allies in general), and this: US Patriot missile stocks in Europe are ‘beyond critical’ due to Iran war, officials say.
+ More from Thomas Wright in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Why Did John Ratcliffe Go to Moscow? The “U.S. intelligence community is concerned that Russia could carry out a limited attack on a NATO state, possibly even launching a small land incursion. Such an assault might thwart Russia’s own interests, prompting Europe to accelerate its military buildup and target Moscow’s sovereign assets. But Putin may see attacking a NATO country as an unprecedented opportunity to break the alliance, by manufacturing a crisis in which the United States fails to act.”
ICE arrests have been sold as a way to get “bad hombres” off the streets. But “a surge in immigration arrests this summer has swept up thousands of people who had not previously been the focus of President Trump’s mass deportation campaign. They included people married to U.S. citizens, people who had entered legally and were pursuing an asylum claim, and others with a temporary legal status that the administration pushed to revoke … The share with a past violent criminal conviction fell to less than 4 percent.” ICE Arrests Soar as People With No Criminal Record Are Increasingly Targeted.
+ “An immigration officer facing state charges in connection with a shooting in Minneapolis was released from jail on Thursday after Republican officials in Texas prevailed in an extradition battle with their Democratic counterparts in Minnesota. “
“As the US Open welcomes hundreds of thousands of people for Fan Week, they’ll notice that Arthur Ashe Stadium has a new look after extensive renovations. But if fans around the world look closely, they’ll see that what happened at Ashe is happening just about everywhere.” In short, the cheaper seats are being removed and more expensive boxes and suites are being added. The death of the cheap seat.
Glacial Movement: “At 8:37am on Wednesday, an enormous section of a glacier in the Himalayas sheared free and crashed onto the valley floor in Nepal’s Langtang national park, about 35 miles north of the capital, Kathmandu, near the mountainous Nepal-Tibet border. Such was the force of the event, it was initially reported as an earthquake of magnitude 4.4. The US Geological Survey later determined the tremor was caused by glacial rock and ice collapsing, registering a magnitude of 5.2. The collapse triggered a huge release of water, mud, rock and ice that thundered down valleys.” How the deadly Nepal and Tibet flash flood unfolded – a visual guide. Hundreds of people are missing (many of them tourists) and at least 389 have died in Nepal. Here’s the latest from The Guardian and the NYT.
+ Lake News! As if watching Sterling Point wasn’t enough to put you on Canada’s side, our clown in chief just signed an order renaming Lake Ontario as ‘Lake America.’ (Let’s sign an order renaming Mark Carney as President of all of North America.)
+ Unfriendly Fire: “A sailor who jumped from the USS Abraham Lincoln this month in what his wife described as a suicide attempt is now facing disciplinary action from the Navy.” (Surrender to enemies, attack allies. It’s a definite theme, folks.)
+ New Bag of Trix: “General Mills said Wednesday it has removed artificial colors from all its U.S. cereals, including Lucky Charms and Trix. The Minneapolis company has shifted to fruit- and vegetable-based dyes as well as colors derived from spices like turmeric and paprika to give its cereals their customary bright colors.” (You know it’s only a matter of time before they tell us that artificial dyes were actually good for us…)
+ A Pack of Liars: “Newly obtained documents indicate that the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, lied during two congressional hearings last year, when he told lawmakers who held the key to his confirmation that a 2019 visit to Samoa had ‘nothing to do with vaccines.'” (He’ll probably get a promotion.)
+ Who’s Decaffing Now: “Why is decaf suddenly expensive? It involves a Colombian processing plant, a paint-stripper ban, and a supply chain that broke in several places at once.” Everything is connected. Or, Why Your Decaf Now Costs as Much as the ‘Good Stuff.’
It had something to do with measuring the health of soils, but let’s just be glad it happened. Why did 1,000 world citizens bury their underpants?
2026-08-26 20:00:00
Meta has to pay a $17 billion fine for what they did to become a $1.5 trillion company. That oughta teach ’em a lesson. Actually, that doesn’t really do justice to the financial slap on the wrist Meta just got in their settlement over claims that their products endangered children. They have a decade to make good on the settlement, and “the full value of Meta’s payout depends on whether other social media companies also settle with the states and agree to financial penalties and product changes. Meta will initially pay about $12 billion. It will pay an additional $5 billion if Snap, TikTok and YouTube also settle with the states and agree to financial penalties and product changes.” Meanwhile, Meta’s stock rose on the news, and at points during the trading day, the company gained more in marketcap than they’ll ever be required to pay out in fines. What amounts to financial rounding errors aside, the bigger news here is that the tide appears to have turned, at least a little, when it comes to this issue. “The settlement could signal an inflection point for a social media industry that has largely escaped regulatory scrutiny over the harms its products have caused children.” NYT (Gift Article): Meta to Pay Up to $17.1 Billion in Landmark Settlement Over Social Media Addiction Claims.
+ The settlement itself is actually less about money and more about future requirements. The Verge: Meta agrees to heavy restrictions on teen users in major lawsuit settlement. “Under the terms of the settlement, which resolves claims by a larger group of 47 states and several districts and territories, Meta agreed to come up with an age assurance standard that is subject to independent testing, and must have a false positive rate no higher than 10 percent for users aged 16 to 17, and 3 percent for users aged 13 to 15. The company also agreed to give teens the option to turn off personalized feeds, meaning that they won’t be shown content based on Meta’s recommendation algorithm, and Meta will suspend push notifications for teens between 10 PM and 7 AM unless parents disable those restrictions, as well as limit teens to two hours of Meta app usage per day.”
+ Ironically, big tech companies are finally being forced to acknowledge the damaging qualities of their wares at a moment when they’re moving on to a much more sweeping and powerful set of tools. Whether you read Bill Gates’ warnings about this moment in AI development in his interview with MIT Tech Review, the NYT, the WSJ, or his own personal blog, the message is basically the same. Insiders are extremely worried about the pace at which AI is developing (even though they don’t usually admit that in public), outsiders (including governments) aren’t doing nearly enough to address (or even understand) the issue, and thus, we’re not ready for what’s coming. So we’re addressing yesterday’s concerns as today’s are passing us by.
It looks like there’s still something that can unite Americans: a love for Dolly Parton. NYT (Gift Article): Dolly Parton, Superstar Whose Songs Spoke to Millions, Dies at 80. And David Graham in The Atlantic (Gift Article) on The Transcendence of Dolly Parton. “The late singer was perhaps the only person in the United States who commanded nearly universal affection.” Part of the reason the loss of Dolly Parton hits so hard is that her whole being stood in such stark and glorious contrast to the times in which we’re living and being led. Dolly Parton was the epitome of the decent American. Pro-reading, pro-vaccines, pro-LGBTQ, pro-minorities, pro-underdogs, pro-union, talented, kind, generous, giving. She didn’t talk politics, but in an era when everything is political, she was the rags-to-riches anti-Trump, and she was so supremely successful in that endeavor, even he had to lower the flag in her honor.
+ Her Imagination Library has gifted 332,411,218 books, and counting.
+ Xochitl Gonzalez in The Cut: ” Growing up, Dolly Parton’s unabashed femininity helped me define and embrace my own.” Thank God for Dolly’s Boobs.
+ Dolly Parton: Photos From an Extraordinary Life and Career.
Here’s another ridiculous 2026 headline: Before Hegseth fired him, top general was advised to drop Kid Rock probe. These silly acts are a joke, but no one is laughing because of the serious times in the department where they’re being carried out. “The Army has not had a chief of staff, the service’s top officer, since Mr. Hegseth fired Gen. Randy George without explanation in April, and there are no signs that he is close to filling the position, said current and former officials speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters. Mr. Hegseth has forced out at least three senior officers who had been viewed as potential successors to General George.” (Did I mention that we were in a war during this period?) NYT (Gift Article): Hegseth’s Purge of Top Generals Leaves the Army Rudderless.
“When riderless testing began last month, residents in nearby Toluca Lake were delighted, with several calling the attraction ‘whisper quiet.’ Then came the riders. Every 30 seconds or so, for 10 hours straight, according to interviews with more than a dozen homeowners, the air is now filled with the sound of humans who fear they’re in mortal peril.” Universal’s New Coaster Is a Scream. That’s the Problem.
+ Those who haven’t blocked out the Covid year know there’s a pretty simple fix for this. In July of 2020, the Fuji-Q Highland amusement park outside of Tokyo reopened under tight pandemic rules: riders of the park’s famed Fujiyama Roller Coaster were required to wear face masks and were advised not to scream to avoid unnecessary germ spread. When park attendees complained that being told not to scream on such a scary ride was an impossible demand, the amusement park released a video of two park executives in suits, and without a hair out of place, who sat completely stone-faced through the entire roller coaster ride. The video, which went viral, ended with the message: Please Scream Inside Your Heart.” The moment was so notable that someone even used that phrase as the title of an excellent book.
Punting on the Issue: “Fans know too much to plead ignorance. They now know, thanks to a new study, that at least one in four former N.F.L. players had C.T.E. among the nearly 900 who died between 2016 and 2021. We are living in an era of cognitive dissonance, sociologists said. How many C.T.E. cases, they wondered, are too many for fans’ collective consciousness? What would it take to quit watching, or to quit sending children into the scrum? How many irreversibly damaged brains in the N.F.L. would turn away the masses?” John Branch in the NYT (Gift Article): As C.T.E. Cases Soar, Why Do Football Crowds Still Go Wild? (This is a follow-up to yesterday’s lead story: There’s fantasy football and then there’s football’s fantasy.)
+ Flash Flood: A flash flood on the Nepal-Tibet border has killed more than 150, with hundreds of tourists missing. Here’s the latest from BBC.
+ Binge and Splurge: “Artificial intelligence is no longer primarily a stock market story. It is a story of debt, and that should worry us. Unfortunately, manias fueled mainly by credit almost inevitably end badly.” Robin Wigglesworth: This Is How the A.I. Debt Binge Sinks the Economy.
+ Grahamed if You Do, Grahamed if You Don’t: “Her win came after an endorsement from President Trump, backing her for a full term in the seat formerly held by her brother, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham.” With a boost from Trump, Sen. Darline Graham wins GOP nomination for U.S. Senate in South Carolina. (It’s a short-term loss for merit. But will it provide a long-term opportunity for Dems?)
+ Sky Rizz: “A presidential decree praised Musk ‘for outstanding personal contributions to protecting human life and freedom,’ while Ukraine pushes for permission to use Starlink over Russian territory.” Ukraine awards Elon Musk high state honor as it seeks to expand Starlink access.
+ Tim Curry: “A prolific performer across stage, screen and TV, the actor starred in Legend, Clue and It, but will always be associated with the flamboyantly camp rock’n’roll musical in which he made his breakthrough.” Tim Curry, star of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Stephen King’s It, dies at 80.
“Though American toilet paper and tissues are often made domestically, they heavily rely on lumber-rich Canada for raw materials. Procter & Gamble, the owner of Charmin toilet paper, said last year that it would have to increase prices amid tariffs that were in place at the time.” Wiped out: US faces surging toilet paper prices amid trade war with Canada. As if we didn’t already know this trade war was ass backwards…
2026-08-25 20:00:00
Are you ready for some football? That’s a rhetorical question. We all know the answer. Live sports have never been more important to the bottom line for media companies, and the NFL has never been a more dominant American league. The NFL is too big to fail. Yes, you are ready for some football. And you were probably ready for this preseason report about the brain-injury risks associated with the sport. We get some version of these stories during most preseasons, and they’re usually punted, passed, and kicked to the curb in time for the opening weekend. “The study, published Tuesday by the British Medical Journal, focused on how common chronic traumatic encephalopathy might be among NFL players. What it found is that of the 878 players who appeared in at least one NFL game and died in that six-year period, at least 25% had CTE.” Players and fans alike are in denial about this risk. There’s fantasy football and then there’s football’s fantasy.
+ “The most notorious form of workplace illness in the United States might be black lung disease. Scientists say that 10 to 20 percent of coal miners who have worked 25 years or more have gotten it. It has long been considered an epidemic. Imagine an American job that is less safe than that, where one in four workers (and maybe far more) ends up with an incurable, degenerative brain disease that withers the mind, sometimes after just a few years of exposure. Imagine the outrage at the working conditions, the demands that something be done to protect the employees, the questions about whether the industry needed to be overhauled, if not abolished. ‘I don’t think that this would be abided in any industry,’ said Doug Parker, the head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration under the Biden administration. Unless that profession was N.F.L. football.” John Branch in the NYT (Gift Article): Many N.F.L. Players Get Brain Disease. Why Hasn’t OSHA Intervened?
Canada has struck back with retaliatory tariffs as the trade war between neighbors continues to escalate. The NYT (Gift Article) has a detailed look back at exactly how the trade talks fell apart. In terms of financial might, the US dominates. The same may not be true in terms of politics. Trump is giving Americans – including GOP politicians – more of what they don’t want, while Mark Carney is fighting in a way that Canadians seem to support. Stephen Marche in the NYT (Gift Article): Canada Said No to America. It Will Reverberate Far Beyond Its Borders. “For Canada, the choice came down to either accepting severe but temporary economic instability or binding itself to a pseudodemocratic fiscal basket case of a nation whose only apparent foreign policy objective has become domination for the gratification of its president’s slapdash vanity.”
+ As I wrote yesterday, “Trump surrenders to our enemies and makes enemies of our allies. And his party still falls in line, over and over. So no, Blame Canada is no longer a parody, it’s a national anthem and a call to arms. And it’s even more ridiculous than it was when the South Park cartoon characters first performed it.” Blame Canada!
+ “President Donald Trump announced Tuesday morning that he is giving ‘serious consideration’ to renaming Lake Ontario ‘Lake America.'” (It tells you everything you need to know about Trump’s impact on our country’s brand that it’s now considered a total burn to name something America.)
“For years, AI industry watchers of all stripes have been warning of a coming jobs apocalypse driven by ultra-intelligent AI systems that will be able to replicate most human tasks more cheaply. Now, newly updated research from Stanford University economists suggests AI seems to be causing significant entry-level job losses for younger workers in some fields, even as older workers appear largely unaffected so far.” AI is hitting entry-level jobs hardest, Stanford study finds.
+ Maybe AI will be coming for professorial jobs? Harvard Is Selling a $699 Course Taught by A.I. Clones of Its Faculty. (Sounds good, as long as I can have an A.I. clone of me actually take the course…)
“The grid is perhaps the most complex machine ever built, but it was created without a master plan and made subject to the distortions of greed and local orneriness like every other big project in the United States. As a result, we have not one grid but three: the Western, Eastern and Texas Interconnections. Within each area, thousands of utilities generate and distribute power, and the flow is managed by one of 101 regional balancing authorities across the United States … ‘If you knock out nine total substations among those three grids, you can black out the entire United States.'” NYT Mag (Gift Article): What if America Went Completely Dark? (On the bright side, you wouldn’t be able to access the news.)
+ Some Indiana residents have been getting an unwanted preview of what it’s like when things go dark. Gary residents turn to prayer as power outage stretches into third week.
Getting a D in Economics Day: “‘The rhetoric was ferocious, but the punch less so,’ said Daniel Fried, a former U.S. diplomat now at the Atlantic Council. ‘Dealing a crippling blow to Iran’s economy would probably require taking on big Chinese firms and banks.” WSJ (Gift Article): U.S. Squeezes Iran but Avoids Targeting Its Biggest Lifeline: China. Meanwhile, “President Trump’s war on Iran has been a welcome revelation for China, which absorbed one of the most severe oil-supply disruptions of the modern era, demonstrating that years of preparation had mitigated a huge vulnerability and potential source of U.S. leverage over Beijing in a geopolitical confrontation.” The Iran War Shows China’s Energy Strategy Is Working.
+ SCOTUS Goes Postal: “The decision means the administration can move ahead with planning for restricting the use of mail ballots even as a lower court continues to weigh the legality of Mr. Trump’s executive order. But with a little more than two months until Election Day — and considerably less time before early voting begins in many states — it remains unclear whether the White House’s rules will be in effect for a midterm election in which control of both chambers is at stake. Additional legal action is a near certainty with the plan’s fate not yet final.” Court Allows Trump to Pursue Mail Voting Limits, for Now. (The decision may not be enough to do away with mail-in voting, but it will be enough to create the election chaos and doubt that Trump wants.) Meanwhile, Trump Quietly Asserts Control Over Postal Service Amid Plans to Overhaul Voting.
+ Penn Pain: “Both people were unvaccinated. They are the first such deaths in the U.S. this year, and the first in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 35 years.” Two unvaccinated people die of measles in Pennsylvania outbreak.
+ The Guile High Club: “Even some Qatari leaders were surprised by the president’s gall. But they did what they’ve always done when an American official has asked them for something dubious—politically, ethically, or even legally. They said yes.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Qataris Gave Trump an Airplane. He Crippled Their Country in Return.
+ Take Me to Your Leader: “Not even Mojtaba’s close friends and relatives have seen him. Fewer than five people have met with Mojtaba since his ascent to power, Mohammad Hossein Khoshvaght, a former official and a relative of Mojtaba’s told me, ‘due to security precautions.’ The rationale is not implausible.” But neither are the rumors that he might not be alive. Is Mojtaba Khamenei Dead? (Maybe we could get him and Mitch McConnell on a Zoom?)
Target pulls clown Halloween costume after backlash, says ‘we got this wrong’ in apology note. Oh, come on, could a costume really be that bad? Uh, yes,
2026-08-24 20:00:00
Blame Canada was an Oscar-nominated satirical song featured in the animated movie, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. This was back in 1999, when it was still possible to satirize America, before parody became reality; before we entered an era when Kim Jong-un was being described by an American president as “unthreatening and respectful” and Putin was being repeatedly praised, while our closest allies are constantly threatened. Trump surrenders to our enemies and makes enemies of our allies. And his party still falls in line, over and over. So no, Blame Canada is no longer a parody, it’s a national anthem and a call to arms. And it’s even more ridiculous than it was when the South Park cartoon characters first performed it.
Our hoser in chief thought the latest kerfuffle would leave the Canucks turning into keeners. Well, don’t count your loonies & toonies yet. All the chirping may not lead to the US bringing home the Canadian bacon. They’ve got a Carney and we’ve got a carnie. And Prime Minister Mark Carney has, in many ways, become the global leader of the Trump resistance, and he has declared that Canada is now “at war” with the US, justifiably telling the administration to go Canuck itself. So chances are that the stupidest trade war in an era of stupidity will end with little financial upside and a whole lot of diplomatic downside. And I’m not asking you to accept the opinion of a remarkably creative and intelligent member of the liberal elite (who also happens to be a quick study when it comes to Canadian slang). Even the WSJ Editorial Board thinks the ten-ply, spare parts Trump administration should give their balls a tug. The Dumbest Trade War Revisited. “Trump’s decision to escalate a tariff brawl with Canada makes no economic or political sense.” (Other than that, it’s a real beauty, eh?)
+ “Yes, Trump can hurt Canada more than Canada can hurt Trump. That part of Trump’s thinking is true. But wars are not decided only by the question Who can inflict more pain? Wars are also decided by the question Who can endure more pain? Trump’s failure to accept this truth is why he lost the Iran war—and why he is losing his trade wars.” David Frum in The Atlantic (Gift Article): How to Lose a Trade War.
+ “A bully refuses to learn that his actions are counterproductive and instead doubles down.” Paul Krugman on why Trump will lose his war with Canada. The Moose That Roared. (The fact that we’re even having a “war” with Canada is already a loss.)
At least in the case of Iran, the administration has chosen an appropriate target for economic warfare. Whether it will work where military warfare failed remains to be seen. “Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced plans for a wave of new sanctions Monday aimed at further isolating Iran, after threatening the Islamic Republic with ‘an economic D-Day.'” Bessent threatens new Iran secondary sanctions, says Trump asking world leaders to cooperate. Here’s the latest from CNN.
+ There’s no doubt Iran’s economy is suffering. But Robert Kagan still argues that “the dominant power in the Middle East from now on will not be the U.S. or Israel but Iran.” I sure hope he’s wrong. But he’s been pretty right about this war so far. Iran Unleashed. “Neighboring countries are already making their adjustments to this new reality. More distant powers will too. For years, the world has been dealing with an Iran constrained. It will now discover what Iran unleashed looks like.”
“These newer products are specifically engineered to deliver THC in ways that are often more convenient and discreet than smoking cannabis. That shift is especially concerning for adolescents, whose brains are still developing and are more vulnerable to the effects of repeated exposure to high levels of THC.” NYT (Gift Article): The Weed Got Too Strong. (It’s way too strong for developing minds. It’s not nearly strong enough for news curators.)
“A self-described ‘elder millennial’ came in search of one for the hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest, but left with an old tee for MTV’s animated series ‘Celebrity Deathmatch,’ which aired in the late 1990s and 2000s. Another ThirftCon attendee was looking to replace a lost tee for the band the Smashing Pumpkins. Some styles for sale at the convention cost more than $800.” WSJ (Gift Article): Your Favorite Old T-Shirt Might Now Be Worth a Fortune. (It makes a lot more economic sense to score a shirt from the NextDraft store. If you want me to pre-wear it while writing a few editions of the newsletter, just let me know.)
Good Hombres: “Luis Manuel Aviles, 48, was arrested after leaving his house to take his car to the mechanic.” At the same time, his son was “entering his ninth month on the USS Abraham Lincoln.” He was waiting for his son to return from the USS Lincoln. Then Border Patrol arrested him. (Families who have never served are targeting those who are serving. Feel safer?)
+ Allies: “Ukraine has been Europe’s protector, not a drain on our security, but the frontline of keeping Europe safe … That’s why I believe the Ukrainian people deserve not just our continued support, but our gratitude and our respect.” British Prime Minister Andy Burnham tells it like it is in his first foreign trip to Ukraine.
+ Machine Learning and Discerning: “It is a development long watched for in the war in Ukraine, presaging a dystopian future in which killer robots roam the skies making life-or-death decisions that reduce targets to data points.” A Drone Killed Three Ukrainians. It Was Guided Entirely by A.I.
+ Bunker Shot: “President Donald Trump has claimed that the White House needs a massive new ballroom because it would provide him and future presidents with a secure, hardened facility. But former officials say the argument fails to acknowledge that the presidential complex already has one.” Wait, is this article suggesting a falsehood? WaPo (Gift Article): Secret White House bunker undercuts Trump’s ballroom lawsuit.
+ That’s the Ticket: “The Justice Department was preparing to wage a legal battle more than a decade in the making against the world’s largest concert promoter. Then President Trump called.” WSJ (Gift Article): The Trump Intervention That Got the DOJ Off Live Nation’s Back.
+ Back to School: Last week, Dae’Quan Wright was playing tight end during a Cleveland Browns preseason game. Next week, he might be back playing college football at LSU. (Even if you don’t think of the Browns as being a fully professional football team, this is crazy.)
“We must continue utilizing Flock technologies so that we can follow and surveil the rebel scum as they move from playground to playground, from playground to pool, from pool to gymnasium.” Darth Vader comes out in favor of Flock cameras at San Diego city council meeting.
+ Humanoid robots run really fast now. Stopping can be more of an issue. And in photos, Scenes From the 2026 World Humanoid Robot Games.
2026-08-21 20:00:00
Remember when IBM was most associated with a corporate name and not a simple statement of fact? Well, the cat is out of the bag. And so is everything else. Welcome to 2026 America, where thousands of citizens across the country are repeatedly racing, trotting, and running to the bathroom in a hopeless attempt to cut loose from the bowels of hell, only to find the stool has been pulled out once again, the GI bill has come due, the motion has been passed, everyone is full of crap, the shit never gets cut, the bile never ends, and the promises about food safety we once believed are now null and void, and void, and void. I know there must be a metaphor here somewhere, but in this case, the literal is a more urgent matter. As the cyclospora outbreak has exploded across 47 states, it’s probably a reasonable moment to pause (to the extent possible) and assess the ways in which bags of lettuce could have bagged so many victims. If nothing else, this makes for some interesting bathroom reading. NYT (Gift Article): 9 Vulnerable Moments in the Life of a Bagged Salad. For example, there’s number 6: “Labels like ‘pre-washed’ and ‘triple washed’ on bagged lettuce mean that it has been cleaned, often in a trough-like machine that tumbles the lettuce through flowing water to dislodge any soil or other debris, and through a food-safe sanitizing solution to kill microbes. If there is too much debris in the water, the chemicals can’t kill all of the pathogens — and the standard chemicals in these solutions, like chlorine, don’t kill cyclospora.” (I know we’re just shooting the shit here, but it sure feels like America’s salad days are over.)
+ Meanwhile, the FDA announced a recall of frozen fruit bars sold nationwide because they may contain glass.
“President Trump this week promised an ‘economic D-Day’ against Iran, a ‘crushing’ operation to ‘cripple’ Iran. The U.S. clampdown is formidable, a combination of wartime destruction, a naval blockade and sanctions that have already put the Iranian economy under more pressure than its regime has experienced in decades. But between the lines of the administration’s threats was a signal that Mr. Bessent made as clear as ever on Thursday: Mr. Trump does not want to go back to war right now.” NYT (Gift Article): The Message Behind Trump’s Threats of ‘Economic Warfare’ Against Iran.
+ “Anyone can get distracted now and then, and say things out loud he or she probably shouldn’t say. Perhaps an excited friend lets on about a surprise party, or a co-worker dishes up some unseemly office gossip. Or, if you’re the president of the United States, you might reveal some numbers about an adversary’s nuclear arsenal and then admit that those weapons, even a relatively small number of them, are pretty darn useful.” Tom Nichols on the latest craziness. Donald Trump Effectively Just Told Iran to Get a Nuclear Weapon.
At this point, it still feels pretty easy to tell if something was written by AI. If nothing else, we sure have a lot of examples to study. As many as a third of web pages posted since the release of ChatGPT may be written by AI. Pew Research used AI to figure that out. How Much of the Internet Is Written With AI? (I don’t use AI to write any part of NextDraft, but after today’s top story, you probably wish I did…)
What to Binge: I love coming of age teen dramas. There, I said it. And Sterling Point on Prime is an excellent one, worthy of a weekend binge because it’s entertaining, and because I have a feeling several of the actors will be on our screens for a while.
+ What to Watch: “When the past catches up with two former spies, their biggest challenge isn’t car chases, shootouts or fistfights — it’s telling each other the truth.” Unfamiliar on Netflix is an excellent entry into the husband/wife spy genre. One warning: it ends without a clear resolution and season 2 has yet to be confirmed. I still recommend it!
If You Build It, They Will Come Around: The Supreme Court temporarily allows Trump ballroom construction to continue. While the decision is temporary in theory, the construction has been going on “with a 250-person crew working 20 hours a day, seven days a week.” So at most, the court may draw the line at a second coat of gold paint.
+ You Can’t Vandal the Truth: Flock cameras are designed to stop lawbreakers, but they’ve also created a new crime. Amid intense backlash, people are vandalizing Flock surveillance cameras.
+ Bros Before Nose: Apparently, some students in Happy Valley wanted to be even happier… “Pennsylvania’s attorney general on Monday charged 13 former and current Penn State students with felonies and misdemeanors related to a cocaine trafficking operation that he said involved packaging the drug at fraternity houses and distributing it to students.” Penn State Fraternity Members Are Charged in Cocaine Trafficking Case. “Members of the Sigma Chi and Delta Upsilon fraternity houses helped package the cocaine, he added, sometimes as part of the initiation process for new members.”
+ Ship Happens: CNN: Navy weighs renaming carrier slated to honor Black war hero, potentially switching it to Trump. Meanwhile, remember how Hegseth insisted that all the stories about the mental health crisis aboard the USS Lincoln were fake or exaggerated? Well, the carrier is heading home (I’m sure for totally unrelated reasons).
+ Another Bad Bet: “More than 150 wallets on Polymarket International may have traded on inside U.S. military information, attracting copycat bets and raising concerns that the market could broadcast signals exploitable by foreign adversaries.” (The administration should block this, but they’ll probably try to get in on the action instead…)
“On her way to an early morning exercise class, she was confronted and chased by a man wearing a Halloween mask that many observers have compared to the horror character Chucky. Recalling her training, she stopped, turned and delivered a kick to his chest.” A Masked Man Was Scaring Philadelphians. Then He Picked the Wrong Woman.
+ “Built on the mRNA platform that allowed Moderna to quickly roll out COVID-19 vaccines five years ago, intismeran is a genetically personalized vaccine that instructs the patient’s immune system to attack tumors, slowing melanoma’s progression and spread.” Moderna’s skin cancer vaccine shows promise in trial.
+ A brain injury changed David Jackson’s life. Now he’s running 100 ultramarathons in 100 days. (That can’t feel good, but the story does.)
+ The FDA just authorized the first robot that can draw blood on its own. (I know that doesn’t sound like a feel good story, but we’re talking about phlebotomy, not war.)
+ They’re friends. They’re both 109. Here are their longevity secrets.
+ WSJ (Gift Article): The Claw Machine Is King of the Arcade Again. And This Time, You Might Win.
+ Welcome to the world of competitive boat docking. WSJ (Gift Article): How to Dock a Boat in 20 Seconds Without Taking Out a Tiki Bar. (This is impressive, but none of it compares to the difficulty of trying to pull a boat into a slip on an average day on San Francisco Bay.)