2025-11-25 20:00:00
Here’s something you don’t want to hear during your Thanksgiving dinner: “OK, who wants the third wing?” Hopefully, artificial intelligence is not yet powerful enough to add anatomical parts to creatures (other than a few human fingers), but I’m not pulling your leg about AI and Thanksgiving. A little bird told me that people are taking to AI-powered recipes like a Turducken to water. But you may be better off winging it than deploying a bird’s eye view of recipes from an LLM. Beware that Internet searches that used to take you to recipe sites are now being intercepted by AI summaries. The results may leave your guests flipping you the bird. Bloomberg (Gift Article): AI Slop Recipes Are Taking Over the Internet — And Thanksgiving Dinner. Sounds like a recipe for disaster. (I knew one of my family members added AI to their recipe when the valuation of their turkey soared to $10 billion.)
+ Looking to avoid politics at the dinner table this year? Forget it. The food itself is political. The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Culture War Comes to the Kitchen.
+ Trump adds two Thanksgiving turkeys to his long list of second-term pardons. (Following his usual tradition, he only pardoned the white meat.)
+ I’ll be going cold turkey and taking the rest of the week off unless something really crazy happens in the news. And, come on, what are the odds of that? Have a great Thanksgiving.
“In theory, geoengineering could mean brightening marine clouds, or encouraging heat to bounce back into space by mirroring light off polar ice. The term has also been used to describe technology that removes carbon from the atmosphere, which is now widely accepted as a necessary tool to limit global warming. The most vexing technology is what’s broadly referred to as solar-radiation management—those reflective aerosols that could prevent the sun’s heat from reaching the Earth.” Some climate change mitigation ideas that seemed far-fetched (or even crazy) are being taken more seriously as the problem gets more severe. But if we don’t have the political will to do the simple stuff, are we gonna have the political will for the other ideas? The Atlantic (Gift Article): Who’s Ready to Think About Blocking Out the Sun?
+ Meanwhile, Trump EPA to abandon air pollution rule that would prevent thousands of U.S. deaths.
“Scientists have identified five major “epochs” of human brain development in one of the most comprehensive studies to date of how neural wiring changes from infancy to old age.” Brain has five ‘eras’, scientists say – with adult mode not starting until early 30s. (That seems optimistic.)
A GOP-led senate committee is concerned about the high price of automobiles. Good! So they want to cut costs by getting rid of some safety mandates. Wait, what? WSJ (Gift Article): Senate Committee to Challenge Auto-Safety Mandates That Hurt ‘Affordability.’ (I can’t wait until we have self-driving government.)
Shock and Law: “Democratic lawmakers who appeared in a social media video urging U.S. troops to defy ‘illegal orders’ say the FBI has contacted them to begin scheduling interviews, signaling a possible inquiry into the matter. It would mark the second investigation tied to the video, coming a day after the Pentagon said it was reviewing Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona over potential violations of military law. The FBI and Pentagon actions come after President Donald Trump accused the lawmakers of sedition ‘punishable by DEATH’ in a social media post.” (Obeying the law when it comes to orders is literally on the plaque displayed at West Point.)
+ Peace by Piece: ABC News: US official says Ukrainian delegation has agreed with US on terms of potential peace deal. (Seems like an interested party is still missing from this agreement.) Meanwhile, who is Trump’s ‘drone guy’ Dan Driscoll, taking key role in Ukraine talks?
+ Jair 404: “Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been ordered to start serving his 27-year sentence in a 12 sq meter bedroom in a police base in the capital, Brasília, after his conviction for plotting a coup.” (Plotting coups, it turns out, is still frowned upon in certain democracies.)
+ More Vax Cracks: WaPo (Gift Article): Louisiana health official who halted state vaccine campaign tapped as CDC’s No. 2. (Things brings up an interesting Thanksgiving dinner topic for discussion: Are we all going to die soon?)
+ Mad Rush: Don’t say Trump never gets anything done. Next ‘Rush Hour’ Sequel From Brett Ratner Is Being Distributed By Paramount. (Read the details and it will all make perfect sense.)
+ Cheese Stakes: “In a Venn diagram of people deeply concerned about Michelin ratings and people deeply concerned about cheesesteaks, the overlap is not large. But both camps have been in an uproar since last week.” NYT (Gift Article): Michelin Honored the Cheesesteak. Not All Philadelphians Cheered.
+ Internal War(hol): “In recorded excerpts included in the TV report, the person in the recording, alleged to be Bally, says: ‘We have s— for f— poor people.’ The speaker then acknowledges rarely buying Campbell’s products, saying they are unhealthy.” Lawsuit alleges Campbell’s soup VP made racist comments and said its food is made for ‘poor people.’
“The email in question was certainly boring enough to be written by ChatGPT. But it was also boring enough to be written by a school administrator. We ran the text through two AI detection tools, and both determined that there was a 0% chance a computer wrote it … So why did this source think AI had written it? Because the email contained em dashes.” Joel Stein: Don’t Let AI Ruin the Em Dash.
+ Looking for a book to read this weekend? NYT (Gift Article): Which Notable Book Should I Read First?
2025-11-24 20:00:00
A few years ago, my son and I watched as some inebriated patrons of one our favorite Bay Area restaurants came to blows in the parking lot. One of the guys who worked at the restaurant explained that these kinds of tensions were becoming more prevalent as lifelong residents of the community became increasingly frustrated that the increased cost of living was pricing them out of their own hometown. This story is nothing new in my neck of the woods where tech booms from PCs to the internet to AI have repeatedly drawn people to the region of the original gold rush for even more profitable digital versions. Because of rising local prices, especially in housing, the boom and bust cycles often emerge simultaneously. That’s why headlines about the breathtaking levels of wealth being created by the AI explosion can be coupled with stories like this from WaPo (Gift Article): Poverty spikes in the land of the tech billionaires. “For the first time in more than a decade, the Bay Area’s poverty rate is rising significantly, jumping by more than 4 percent in less than a year, according to an analysis released Wednesday by Tipping Point Community, a San Francisco-based anti-poverty nonprofit organization.” This divide between Wall Street and Main Street, playing out in a parking lot near you, is a story as old as the market. But today, there’s another divide. Think of this divide as Wall Street vs the Rest of Wall Street. It’s between a handful of trillion dollar companies that are gaining value hand over fist and the rest of the market, where there’s a better and better understanding of the frustration that can lead to parking lot fisticuffs. “A group of trillion-dollar brands known as the ‘Magnificent Seven’ — Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla — has been at the forefront of those gains, thanks in large part to corporate spending and intense interest in artificial intelligence. But economists and investors are raising concerns about the companies that aren’t part of the AI investment boom — in other words, most businesses in the United States. An index that leaves out the seven high-flying tech firms — call it the S&P 493 — reveals a far weaker picture, as smaller and lower-tech companies report lackluster sales and declining investment.” WaPo (Gift Article): What the S&P 500 is hiding about the economy.
+ Much of the market, and much of the economy, is currently being driven by AI-focused companies that are in a weight class all their own and are raising an unprecedented amount of investment dollars and debt. So we all depend on their accounting. In the WSJ, Jonathan Weil, highlights a few concerns (with a red pen) in the ol’ Excel spreadsheet. “It seems like a marvel of financial engineering: Meta Platforms META 3.34%increase; green up pointing triangle is building a $27 billion data center in Louisiana, financed with debt, and neither the data center nor the debt will be on its own balance sheet. That outcome looks too good to be true, and it probably is.” AI Meets Aggressive Accounting at Meta’s Gigantic New Data Center. It’s worth noting that Jonathan Weil is most famous for a September of 2000 article titled Energy Traders Cite Gains, But Some Math Is Missing, in which he was the first reporter to challenge Enron’s accounting. No, I’m not suggesting that the AI revolution is anything like the Enron scandal. I’m just thinking it might be worth keeping your guard up.
“Ukraine has significantly amended the US “peace plan” to end the conflict, removing some of Russia’s maximalist demands, people familiar with the negotiations said, as European leaders warned on Monday that no deal could be reached quickly.” The Guardian chose to put the phrase “peace plan” in quotes because, by many accounts, it seemed to be more of a Russian wishlist than a negotiated deal. (Which sort of makes sense since Trump’s entire presidency has been a Russian wishlist.)
+ “The plan was negotiated by Steve Witkoff, a real-estate developer with no historical, geographical, or cultural knowledge of Russia or Ukraine, and Kirill Dmitriev, who heads Russia’s sovereign-wealth fund and spends most of his time making business deals. The revelation of their plan this week shocked European leaders, who are now paying almost all of the military costs of the war, as well as the Ukrainians, who were not sure whether to take this latest plan seriously until they were told to agree to it by Thanksgiving or lose all further U.S. support. Even if the plan falls apart, this arrogant and confusing ultimatum, coming only days after the State Department authorized the sale of anti-missile technology to Ukraine, will do permanent damage to America’s reputation as a reliable ally, not only in Europe but around the world.” Anne Applebaum: The Murky Plan That Ensures a Future War.
+ “It looks a lot like that Russians are seeking to bribe Americans to allow Russia to win a war it would otherwise lose. Having allowed Russians in this instance to design our policy, we then rely on our European and Ukrainian allies to serve as a check on us. We (or rather some powerful Americans) scold them for doing what they have to do.” Timothy Snyder: Russian Unreality and American Weakness.
+ Thomas Friedman in the NYT (Gift Article): “Finally, finally, President Trump just might get a peace prize that would secure his place in history. Unfortunately, though, it is not that Nobel peace prize he so covets. It is the ‘Neville Chamberlain Peace Prize‘ … This prize richly deserves to be shared by Trump’s many ‘secretaries of state’ — Steve Witkoff, Marco Rubio and Dan Driscoll — who together negotiated the surrender of Ukraine to Vladimir Putin’s demands without consulting Ukraine or our European allies in advance — and then told Ukraine it had to accept the plan by Thanksgiving.” (It’s looking less and less like the original plan will be forced on Ukraine and Europe, but it’s impossible to undo the fact that America is negotiating against its allies.)
“The rulings from U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie halt at least for now a pair of prosecutions that had hastened concerns that the Justice Department was being weaponized to pursue the president’s political adversaries and amount to a stunning rebuke of the Trump administration’s legal maneuvering to install a loyal, and inexperienced, prosecutor willing to file the cases.” Judge dismisses Comey, James indictments after finding that prosecutor was illegally appointed.
+ Well, this ruling should provide a respite from weaponized, personal, and absurd prosecutions from the DOJ. Which gives us time to focus on weaponized, personal, and absurd prosecutions from the Pentagon. Pentagon says it’s investigating Sen. Mark Kelly over video urging troops to defy ‘illegal orders.’ (Editor’s note: You’re supposed to defy illegal orders.)
+ “One of the great moral values of congressional declarations of war is that they provide soldiers with the assurance that the conflict has been debated and that their deployment is a matter of national will. When the decision rests with the president alone, it puts members of the military in the position of trusting the judgment of a person who may not deserve that trust.” David French (former JAG) in the NYT (Gift Article): Trump Has Put the Military in an Impossible Situation.
“One of the main realities of being a pop star is that at a certain level, it’s really f-cking fun. You get to go to great parties in a black SUV and you can smoke cigarettes in the car and scream out of the sunroof and all that cliche shit … You get good free shit like phones and laptops and vinyl and trips and shroom gummies and headphones and clothes and sometimes even an electric bike that will sit in your garage untouched for the best part of 5 years. You get to enter restaurants through the back entrance and give a half smile to the head chef (who probably hates you) and the waiters (who probably hate you too) as they sweat away doing an actual real service industry job while you strut through the kitchen with your 4 best friends who are tagging along for the ride. You get to feel special, but you also have to at points feel embarrassed by how stupid the whole thing is.” Charli XCX on some of the realities of being a pop star. (It’s basically like being a newsletter writer, but without all the typing…)
No Place Like Home: “The Trump Administration is deporting people to countries they have no ties to, where many are being detained indefinitely or forcibly returned to the places they fled.” The New Yorker: Disappeared to a Foreign Prison.
+ Ven Diagram: NYT: “The nation’s top military officer on Monday will visit Puerto Rico and one of the several Navy warships dispatched to the Caribbean Sea to combat drug trafficking as the Trump administration weighs the possibility of a broader military campaign against Venezuela.”
+ Gov at First Sight: “It was a break-the-internet moment if there ever was one. Unpredictable, at times perplexing and rich, with the kinds of surreal moments social media feeds on.” Mamdani’s Meeting With Trump Scrambled the MAGA-Sphere. (It’s what happens when you tell a bully to, “Say it to my face.”) So in MAGA World, MTG is out and Mamdani is in. Shit’s so weird, you can’t even predict things after the fact.
+ Didn’t Account For This: “A rational response to all of this would be for people to log off.” Charlie Warzel on what a new location feature on X told us about a whole lot of supposedly patriotic, American accounts. Elon Musk’s Worthless, Poisoned Hall of Mirrors.
+ Six Figure: A headline for the time capsule: Pardoned Capitol rioter tried to bribe child sex victim with promise of Jan. 6 payout.
+ The Harder They Fall: “Mr. Cliff won two Grammy Awards over his decades-long career: best reggae recording in 1986 for ‘Cliff Hanger’ and best reggae album in 2013 for ‘Rebirth.’ But his breakthrough in the United States came when he starred as an actor in ‘The Harder They Come,’ a 1972 movie about a struggling Jamaican musician who turns to crime.” Jimmy Cliff, Singer Who Helped Bring Reggae to Global Audience, Dies at 81.
+ More Cheddar for Cheese: “The Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium has revealed that United Talent Agency has signed the governing body for ‘the king of cheeses’ to get the supermarket staple placement in films, TV shows and streaming projects around the globe.” (Maybe they can re-use the old Have You Had Your Sprinkle Today slogan?)
“Pairat Soodthoop, the temple’s general and financial affairs manager, told The Associated Press on Monday that the 65-year-old woman’s brother drove her from the province of Phitsanulok to be cremated. He said they heard a faint knock coming from the coffin.” (In fairness, though, it was really faint.) Thai woman found alive in coffin after being brought in for cremation.
2025-11-21 20:00:00
I feel sorry for billionaires. Each election season, I donate to a handful of Democratic campaigns. From that moment, my phone number is passed around like a hat, criss-crossing the country, and I start getting text messages requesting contributions from candidates and causes from every nook and cranny of America. I spend much of my day hopelessly typing STOP to end the incoming messages. The first three words that are suggested in my iPhone messaging app’s predictive text are I, The, and Stop. I can’t imagine what it’s like for billionaires, who currently play an outsized and outlandish role in funding American elections. For their sakes, I hope there’s a threshold one can reach that gets one’s phone number removed from the donor list. You’re probably thinking that big money from big donors is nothing new in American politics. And you’re right. But the scope has changed dramatically. “In 2000, the country’s wealthiest 100 people donated about a quarter of 1 percent of the total cost of federal elections, according to a Post analysis of data from OpenSecrets. By 2024, they covered about 7.5 percent, even as the cost of such elections soared. In other words, roughly 1 in every 13 dollars spent in last year’s national elections was donated by a handful of the country’s richest people.” We’ve become a plutocracy in which elections basically boil down to our billionaires vs your billionaires. WaPo (Gift Article): How billionaires took over American politics. Last year, New York City billionaire John Catsimatidis donated millions to the Trump campaign. “‘If you’re a billionaire, you want to stay a billionaire,’ said Catsimatidis, whose net worth is estimated at $4.5 billion. It’s not just about his own wealth, he said, adding, ‘I worry about America and the way of life we have.'” Oh, please. STOP.
“In exchange for giving up land and its ability to defend itself, Ukraine would be offered toothless security guarantees by the United States—much like the never-enforced guarantees that it received when it gave up nuclear weapons after gaining independence in the 1990s. The points in the deal appear to be so lopsided in Putin’s favor that they might as well have been dictated by Moscow.” (Maybe they were…) The Atlantic (Gift Article): Trump’s Devastating Plan for Ukraine. “If Trump forces Ukraine and its allies in Western Europe to accept a peace deal that ratifies Russia’s territorial gains—giving Putin even more than he was able to conquer, and requiring no real concessions of him at all—it will amount to a complete rehabilitation of the Russian president in the international sphere. It will be as if Russia had done nothing wrong at all by invading a sovereign state and seizing a large part of its territory—everyone slaps one another on the back and gets on with business.” (Within our lifetimes, America may forgive itself for Trump. The world won’t.)
+ Ukraine banned from Nato, Russia readmitted to the G8 and territory ceded: what’s in Trump’s draft plan.
+ Trump wants a decision from Ukraine and Europe by Thanksgiving. Here’s the latest from The Guardian.
Elon Musk edges out LeBron James when it comes to holistic fitness, takes the crown over Jerry Seinfeld when it comes to being funny, rivals DaVinci and Newton when it comes to intelligence, could beat Mike Tyson in a boxing match, and (not that you asked) would dominate in a p-ss drinking contest. The Verge: Grok’s Elon Musk worship is getting weird. This all seems funny and ridiculous, and it is. But it’s also very serious, as these AI chat programs are the new search; the place where millions of people get their information. And the falsehoods aren’t limited to Elon’s ego. France will investigate Musk’s Grok chatbot after Holocaust denial claims. Suggesting Elon could beat up Mike Tyson? Funny. A widely used AI program run by the world’s richest heil-er indicating “that gas chambers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp were designed for ‘disinfection with Zyklon B against typhus’ rather than for mass murder.” Not funny.
+ And it’s not just Grok. Elon Musk’s Grokipedia cites a neo-Nazi website 42 times. “Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s online encyclopedia, Grokipedia, cites the neo-Nazi website Stormfront as a source 42 times and relies on other websites that experts have shunned as unreliable or hate-filled.”
+ “What’s undeniable is that we’re all living in a world where the whims and desires of wealthy and powerful men create uncertain, unstable conditions for everyone else. Although no other major chatbot has gone ballistic in the same ways as Grok, any one of them could be subtly tweaked to promote a given viewpoint over another, or to quietly manipulate users toward whatever purpose.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): Elon Musk Is Trying to Rewrite History. “Why did Grok say he’s better than Jesus?” (Probably just more antisemitism…)
What to Movie: “A college professor finds herself at a personal and professional crossroad when a star student levels an accusation against one of her colleagues, threatening to expose a dark secret from her own past.” Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, and Andrew Garfield star in the riveting drama from Luca Guadagnino, After the Hunt. It’s widely available to rent, and included free for Prime Members.
+ What to Binge: A famous author is pulled into a twisted mind game with her rich, powerful new neighbor — who might be a murderer. (I mean, basically, every character on every Netflix show might be a murderer.) Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys are both excellent in The Beast in Me on Netflix.
+ What to Watch: It took me a few episodes, but now I’m fully into Pluribus on AppleTV, which, at its core, seems to represent a battle between AI and humanity.
Mad Dash: “Things like user reviews, ads, loyalty programs, upsells, and partnerships would all go away — AI agents don’t care about those things, after all.” Nilay Patel with an interesting take on how AI could change the way we do everything on the internet, including ordering a sandwich. The DoorDash Problem: How AI browsers are a huge threat to Amazon.
+ Don’t Write Off This Loss: Can a company in any business other than tech and AI join the one trillion dollar club? Yes, one focused on weight loss. Bloomberg (Gift Article): Lilly Joins $1 Trillion Club in Weight-Loss Drug Fueled Climb.
+ When The Lies Get Real: Trump’s DoJ investigating unfounded claims Venezuela helped steal 2020 election. (I guess all those speed boats we’ve blown up were actually transporting ballots.)
+ Extremists in Our Midst: “It’s a sign of something happening nationwide: the mainstreaming of abolitionism, a movement that calls for conservatives to bring the law in line with scripture, and that identifies the punishment of women as necessary for guaranteeing ‘equality for the unborn.'” South Carolina Tried to Pass a Bill Jailing Women for Abortion. No Republican Voted Against It. “The law would have subjected women who have abortions to prison sentences of up to 30 years; criminalized the act of providing information about how to get an abortion, even in another state; allowed family members to sue women who had abortions; and eliminated exceptions for rape and incest.”
+ Crime Syndicator: “A New Jersey fraudster who was pardoned by President Trump in 2021 was sentenced to 37 years in prison this month for running a $44 million Ponzi scheme, one of a growing number of people granted clemency by Mr. Trump only to be charged with new crimes.”
+ Thank God It’s Frida: “An enigmatic self-portrait by Frida Kahlo set a public auction record for the Mexican artist when it sold for $55 million.” Meanwhile, a Superman comic found in attic sold for $9.12m to become most expensive ever sold.
+ Decorum Punch: “Dress ‘with respect.’ Help elderly people lift their bags. Keep your kids under control. Say please and thank you, especially to flight attendants. These are some of the things the Department of Transportation is urging air travelers to do as we head into what’s expected to be a record-setting holiday travel season. The department launched a new ‘civility campaign.'” Yes, the government that has threatened political opponents with hanging and scolded reporters, “Quiet, Piggy!” is now calling for more civility this holiday season.
“Eleven years ago, Paul Lundy was dying a slow, workingman’s death under fluorescent light. … One Sunday morning in 2014, he opened The Seattle Times and found a feature story about Bob Montgomery, age 92, known to friends, customers and locals simply as Mr. Montgomery. The article read like an obituary for a vanishing trade — fixing typewriters — suggesting that when Mr. Montgomery went, seven decades of expertise would vanish into the digital ether.
Lundy read it once, then a second time. He had never given old typewriters much thought, but something stirred in him that he could not quite name.” NYT (Gift Article): How to Fix a Typewriter and Your Life.
+ The Cousin Walk: “The term is shorthand for the moment when certain younger members of the family quietly grab their coats, glance toward the door and—clutch those pearls—get stoned before rejoining the festivities with altered minds and ravenous hunger.” This Year’s Thanksgiving Surprise: Half of the Guests Are Stoned. (If you have to talk politics with anyone, choose someone from that half.)
+ California Solar Canals Could Save 63 Billion Gallons of Water Annually.
+ Heavy metal is healing teens on the Blackfeet Nation. “Teachers show students the power of headbanging at Fire in the Mountains festival.”
+ Two Harvard alums built a robot that can braid hair.
+ In a small town in northern Italy, there’s a barista who has been brewing espressos and serving coffees for more than 80 years. She’s still going strong as she turns 101 this weekend.
2025-11-20 20:00:00
There’s an endless supply of content available these days. Instead of providing the average media consumer with a cross-section of differing views, the content gets filtered through social graphs and algorithms, before being pumped into our overflowing silos of political and cultural homogeneity. We don’t even get a commercial break. The ad nauseam ads follow the same trends as the content they support. And both the content and the ads are only getting more extreme, a trend that has accelerated in 2025. Bloomberg (Gift Article) surveys the center of the new media universe to provide a detailed and interesting look at how ads and content are merging, even as audiences divide. YouTube’s Right-Wing Stars Fuel Boom in Politically Charged Ads. “On YouTube’s conservative airwaves, podcast hosts tout products that let people buy into the MAGA crowd: Republican Red Winery vintages for toasting the “silent majority;” Black Rifle Coffee for caffeinating gun owners; XX-XY Athletics for workout clothes symbolizing opposition to the ‘lunacy of the left social agenda.’ … Other advertisers lean heavily on political appeals: Seven Weeks Coffee says its name refers to the idea that a coffee bean is about the size of a fetus at seven weeks, when abortion opponents say a heartbeat can be heard. My Patriot Supply, a survival-kit seller, promotes self-reliance as a ‘patriotic duty.'” (I wish I could come up with a pithy and humorous way to end this blurb, if only so I could be considered an Ad Lib who ad-libs.)
Earlier this week, six lawmakers with military credentials released a video in which they reminded “their still-serving counterparts in a short online video that they are obligated to refuse illegal orders.” Trump responded to the video by going full all cap, describing the call to follow the law as seditious behavior, and arguing the lawmakers should be “ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL … An example MUST BE SET.” In another post, he wrote: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” He also “reposted 16 Truth Social posts, including one that advocated for hanging the Democrats, like ‘GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD.'” (Guys, I always forget, are we supposed to take threats to hang political opponents literally or seriously?) While we’re on the topic of providing advice to our peers, I would suggest that journalists and editors are obligated to refuse the temptation to cover this insanity like it’s normal.
+ The call to refuse illegal orders mostly refers to the invasion of US cities by US military personnel, and the threats of many more such deployments. But it could also relate to the boat bombings. Top military lawyer raised legal concerns about boat strikes.
“The drop-off spans both red and blue states and has unfolded even as police departments have struggled to fill vacancies and Americans have purchased guns at a staggering pace — a practice often linked to higher rates of violence.
It began during the administration of President Joe Biden and has persisted under President Donald Trump, who has continued to portray cities as lawless while deploying the National Guard and federal law enforcement agents to help local police combat crime.” WaPo (Gift Article): These five cities help explain why homicide rates are down across the U.S. “There is no one reason or no silver bullet for what makes crime go up and crime go down. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying.” (As is anyone who tells you there’s a current state of emergency that requires deploying troops to cities.)
“There are almost as many med spas as McDonald’s in the US, ready to serve you a smoother forehead, glowier skin, and fuller lips. Are you safe placing an order?” Med Spa Nation. “Like McDonald’s, people keep going to med spas despite what a lot of health care professionals say—fast filler, like fast food, isn’t generally recommended by doctors.”
Peace Nix: “The U.S. and Russia have drawn up a plan aimed at ending the war in Ukraine that calls for major concessions from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to a person familiar with the matter.” Does it seem like a few interested parties are absent from these peace talks? EU leaders say they and Kyiv must be involved in peace talks.
+ Raw Nerve: Is having sushi for lunch a significant political statement? Sometimes, yes. Taiwan president shows support for Japan in China dispute.
+ Someone Heard the Tree Fall in the Forest: “If Bill made repairs, it might seem like the Forest Service was getting along fine with a smaller staff, justifying Trump’s cuts to government. But if he didn’t, people might get hurt. Even die.” WaPo (Gift Article): They retired from the government. Now they’re back, protecting forests Trump abandoned.
+ Larry, Larry, Quite Contrary: The bids are due from potential Warner Bros suitors. You can already guess who has the inside track with regulators. Larry Ellison discussed axing CNN hosts with White House in takeover bid talks.
+ Doc Crock: “The agency’s webpage on vaccines and autism, updated on Wednesday, now repeats the skepticism that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has voiced about the safety of vaccines, though dozens of scientific studies have failed to find evidence of a link.” C.D.C. Changes Website to Reflect Kennedy’s Vaccine Skepticism.
+ Showing a Lot of Potential: U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses as hate symbols. “Instead, the Coast Guard will classify the Nazi-era insignia as ‘potentially divisive.'”
+ Disaster Plan: “A federal indictment charges U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida with stealing $5 million in federal disaster funds, laundering some of the money through straw donors to her congressional campaign and then conspiring to file a false tax return, the Justice Department announced.”
+ Funeral Directors: George W. Bush and Liz Cheney gave eulogies at Dick Cheney’s funeral. Trump and Vance were not on the guest list.
+ Crash Testing for Dummies: For the first time ever, American car companies will soon be required to test vehicle safety using dummies that are representative of women.
+ Take No Prisoners: “His will to survive as a P.O.W., he later said, was built on memories of his domestic life and the hope of returning one day to his family. Those thoughts sustained him after he was shot down and forced to eject from his F-105 Thunderchief during a bombing mission over North Vietnam on Oct. 27, 1967, and they continued to sustain him in prison camps, including the notorious ‘Hanoi Hilton,’ where he was starved, tortured and subjected to mock executions … Three days before he landed at Travis Air Force Base, he was handed what he described as a ‘Dear John’ letter from his wife.” NYT (Gift Article) with the surprising backstory behind a very well known photo. Robert L. Stirm, Returning P.O.W. in Pulitzer-Winning Photo, Dies at 92.
“Lemon, a five-pound Chihuahua, waited at the starting line until her owner signaled ‘go,’ then pulled a wheeled cart weighing 260 pounds down a 16-foot chute. Amid applause, the pint-size canine trotted to her crate for treats, water and rest until the next round of the North American Weight Pull Association competition. Lemon, competing in the 10-pounds-and-under weight class, pulled 52 times her weight. That would be the equivalent of a 175-pound man pulling an average-size forklift.” WSJ (Gift Article): The Tiny Dogs That Can Pull 100 Times Their Weight. (My beagles can barely do downward dog.)
2025-11-19 20:00:00
Some words you might be happy to see in a real estate listing for your home: Breathtaking, Pristine, Charming. Some words you might not be happy to see in a real esate listing for your home: Smoldering, Scorching, Blub, blub, blub… In the Atlantic (Gift Article), Vann R. Newkirk II gives an overview of What Climate Change Will Do to America by Mid-Century. “Over the next 30 years or so, the changes to American life might be short of apocalyptic. But miles of heartbreak lie between here and the apocalypse, and the future toward which we are heading will mean heartbreak for millions. Many people will go in search of new homes in cooler, more predictable places. Those travelers will leave behind growing portions of America where services and comforts will be in short supply—let’s call them ‘dead zones.’ Should the demolition of America’s rule of law continue, authoritarianism and climate change will reinforce each other, a vicious spiral from which it will be difficult to exit. How do we know this? As ever, all it takes is looking around … Yet 2025 has been perhaps the single most devastating year in the fight for a livable planet. An authoritarian American president has pressed what can only be described as a policy of climate-change acceleration—destroying commitments to clean energy and pushing for more oil production. It doesn’t require an oracle to see where this trajectory might lead.” As obvious as the arriving danger is, there are still plenty of deniers. So how does one know who to believe? As always, it pays to follow the money. Or in this case, the absence of money, as homeowners in an increasing number of places are seeing insurance prices soar which is making their home values sink. Even if your home isn’t yet underwater, your mortgage might be. NYT (Gift Article): A Climate ‘Shock’ Is Eroding Some Home Values. New Data Shows How Much. The problem for many home owners across the country can be boiled down this: Politicians may lie, but the numbers don’t. And no one crunches those numbers more than reinsurance companies. “Insurance companies purchase reinsurance to help limit their exposure when a catastrophe hits. Over the past several years, global reinsurance companies have had what the researchers call a ‘climate epiphany’ and have roughly doubled the rates they charge home insurance providers.” Nothing can hammer home reality like the bottom line.
The Epstein files bill that Trump tried to prevent but then was forced to get behind advanced through both chambers and is awaiting the president’s signature. But stopping this information from becoming public has been one of Trump’s signature goals, so it’s fair to wonder if we’ll actually see the full files anytime soon. As I’ve mentioned, my hunch is that Pam Bondi will say she can’t release all of them because of the ongoing investigation into Epstein and others (Democrats) that Trump ordered last week. We don’t know how this will all play out, but we do know that it’s been a rare moment when the GOP (in large numbers) couldn’t be strong-armed by Trump. It would be nice to say we’ve reached some kind of moral reckoning. But the turning point has more do to with recent election results and the latest polling numbers. Meanwhile, a reminder: Trump Will Get More Reckless as His Power Ebbs.
+ How far will that ebb flow? Keep in mind, there will always be two separate and unequal standards. How scandals affect Trump. And how they affect everyone else. Consider this story which would obliterate the average political career: One of the rioters who Trump pardoned was just arrested for child sexual abuse (during the same week Trump’s ties to Epstein are dominating the news), and it’s barely a blip in the news. Meanwhile, among those who are not Trump, scandals hurt: Larry Summers resigns from OpenAI board, Harvard launches probe after release of Epstein emails. At this point, we don’t know if the Epstein scandal will damage Trump or just a lot of other people. We only know what recent history suggests.
From the WaPo Editorial Board (Gift Article): Things happen: Setting the record straight about our murdered colleague. “The United States government often advances its national interests by working with nasty people, and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is one of the nastiest. It’s one thing, however regrettable, to deal reluctantly with him. President Donald Trump’s performance at the White House Tuesday was something else entirely: weak, crass and of no strategic benefit to America.” (Looking back, maybe WaPo should have endorsed a candidate in the 2024 presidential election…) America is at a crossroads and must choose correctly between these two opposing visions. The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. Or, Things happen.
“Donald Scherber bought a Minnesota dairy farm in 1958. His son, John, bought it from him in 1995 and will probably pass it down to his children. For decades, the family has made a living selling the milk of their dairy cows. But recently, Scherber’s Morningstar Dairy has become known in the Minneapolis area for another business.” And they’re far from the only farmers getting in on this action. WaPo (Gift Article): Cow cuddling gives farms boost amid dropping dairy prices. Hey, it beats falling in love with an AI…
Backfire? The Texas gerrymandering move that attempts to pick up five seats for the GOP has been blocked by a federal court and is now headed for SCOTUS. Meanwhile, the GOP is headed to court to try to block the gerrymandering changes that California voters just approved. Given the merits (or lack thereof) of both cases, it’s not unthinkable that Texas will be unable to use their new maps while California’s will stand. Slate (Gift Article): Republicans Are Suing to Kill California’s Pro-Democratic Gerrymander. They Have a Huge Problem.
+ Dust in the Wind: “Poisonous dust falls from the sky over the town of Ogijo, near Lagos, Nigeria. It coats kitchen floors, vegetable gardens, churchyards and schoolyards. The toxic soot billows from crude factories that recycle lead for American companies. With every breath, people inhale invisible lead particles and absorb them into their bloodstream. The metal seeps into their brains, wreaking havoc on their nervous systems. It damages livers and kidneys. Toddlers ingest the dust by crawling across floors, playgrounds and backyards, then putting their hands in their mouths.” A report from the NYT (Gift Article): Recycling Lead for U.S. Car Batteries Is Poisoning People.
+ Iowa You Nothing for This Ride: “Free city buses are relatively rare in the United States. The idea has been getting a new look recently, after Zohran Mamdani won New York City’s mayoral race with a promise to make buses free. However, critics have described the plan as pie in the sky, and Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York recently voiced doubts.” Don’t tell that to Iowa City. Iowa City Made Its Buses Free. Traffic Cleared, and So Did the Air.
+ Breaking Up is Hard to Do: “When the court first looked at this case, the opinions ‘did not even mention the word ‘TikTok.’ On Tuesday, TikTok more or less decided the case.” Casey Newton: The simple test that blew up the FTC’s case against Meta.
+ No Mas Hamas? WSJ (Gift Article): “Hamas’s popularity has edged up among Palestinians in Gaza since the cease-fire, ending a slide during the war and posing a challenge to President Trump’s plan to bring peace to the enclave by disarming the militant group.”
+ Curaçao it Goes: “As the final whistle blew Tuesday, few were rethinking anything about their decision. They had just delivered their country one of its happiest-ever moments.” Curaçao, the smallest nation in World Cup history, just shocked the soccer world.
+ Upright Citizen: “Self-taught in the art of kicking by studying videos on YouTube, Matsuzawa has turned himself into a hero at the University of Hawaii.” The ‘Tokyo Toe’ Learned Football on YouTube. Now He Might Be the Best Kicker in College Football.
“Their study suggests that the mouth-on-mouth kiss evolved more than 21 million years ago, and was something that the common ancestor of humans and other great apes probably indulged in. The same research concluded that Neanderthals may have kissed too – and that humans and Neanderthals may even have smooched one another.” One never forgets a first kiss. Even if it dates back 21 million years. (Or it just feels that long…)
2025-11-18 20:00:00
The fentanyl crisis in America started when a highly addictive drug used in hospital settings became the latest and most dangerous pain killing opioid that pharmaceutical companies marketed for prescription. Americans were already hooked on opioids, often sold by pill mills just off the highway. The crackdown on these pill mills and the over-prescribing of opioids, along with the legalization of marijuana in some states, motivated drug cartels to shift their focus to the now surging demand for illegal fentanyl. “Old supply chains moved heroin from poppy fields to central markets in major U.S. cities; traffickers in the 2010s built new supply chains bringing synthetic products such as fentanyl sourced with chemicals from China to American consumers wherever they lived — including the rural areas and small towns struck by the opioid crisis. Which is to say: fentanyl traffickers were responding to consumer demand. They did not create it. The opioid crisis initially struck white areas not because of a conspiracy to destroy heartland America. Rather, it was a devastatingly ironic result of white Americans’ privileged access to the medical system. Physicians’ willingness to recognize and treat their pain opened their communities to pharmaceutical companies’ flood of opioids.” Given this brief history, it will not surprise you to learn that the best way to fight the fentanyl crisis is not by using the US military to bomb small boats near Venezuela. In fact, bombing other supply routes (like the ones actually being used to traffic in fentanyl) won’t work either. Killing pain is notoriously hard. Killing painkillers is even harder. “In a world where people and goods circulate freely, there will always be ways for a tiny powder to travel with them.” David Herzberg drops a few truth bombs about our strategies, past and present, in the NYT (Gift Article): I Am a Drug Historian. Trump Is Wrong About fentanyl in Almost Every Way. (In fairness, he’s not the first politician to fit that description when it comes to the war on drugs.) “American politicians have long been drawn to more emotionally satisfying stories like the ones where foreign traffickers are to blame for the decline of rural and small-town America. Again, drugs are not unique: The MAGA movement has many other such morally simplifying stories, about Big Pharma’s vaccines as the cause of chronic disorders or about tariffs as a magical solution to unemployment. These stories may serve the needs of politicians, but they can’t fix the actual problems.”
+ Judge formally approves opioid settlement for Purdue Pharma and Sackler family members who own the company.
+ For some more background in this issue, I recommend the books American Pain by John Temple and Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe. Also, Don Winslow’s article: El Chapo and the Secret History of the Heroin Crisis.
“Hosting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House, President Trump brushed off the murder of a journalist by Saudi agents by saying, ‘Things happen.’ Fighter jets and business deals are on the leaders’ agenda today.” Trump also attacked the journalist who asked about the issue. Another meeting at the White House, another international embarrassment. Here’s the latest from the NYT and The Guardian. (MBS also indicated that he would be investing $1 trillion in America. “$1 trillion, is roughly the size of Saudi Arabia’s entire annual economic output.” It would also barely cover the cost of the gold now lining the Oval Office.)
+ Meanwhile … Trump Organization Is Said to Be in Talks on a Saudi Government Real Estate Deal.
“The analysis deemed 109 hospitals most exposed to the coming Medicaid cuts, because they share three risk factors: They serve vulnerable communities, their finances are already fragile, and more than a quarter of their patients rely on Medicaid. Of those hospitals, 85 percent were in urban areas.” NYT (Gift Article): When the G.O.P. Medicaid Cuts Arrive, These Hospitals Will Be Hit Hardest. People often wonder if we could ever have another Civil War. But we’re already in a legislative Civil War.
+ Border Patrol Expands North Carolina Operations to More Liberal Cities.
The great economic divide is also becoming a physical divide. WSJ (Gift Article): The Ultrarich Are Spending a Fortune to Live in Extreme Privacy. “In the Bentley Residences condo tower under construction in Sunny Isles Beach, north of Miami, car elevators will deliver residents straight up to their homes and deposit vehicles in adjoining ‘sky garages,’ avoiding the need to deal with parking valets and reception areas.”
Antipodeez Nuts: “The House is headed toward a vote Tuesday afternoon on legislation to force the Justice Department to publicly release its files on the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, the culmination of a monthslong effort that has overcome opposition from President Donald Trump and Republican leadership.” I offered my take on Trump’s change of heart on this matter yesterday: “What’s up is down. Yin, meet yang. Strike that, reverse it. A little bit country, say hello to a little bit rock ‘n roll. After an extreme effort that played out everywhere from social media tirades to strong-arming in The Situation Room, Donald Trump went full Contradictator.” Antipodes Nuts.
+ Elimination Die it: “Health officials on Monday linked for the first time the measles outbreak that began in Texas with another in Utah and Arizona, a finding that could end America’s status as a nation that has eliminated measles.”
+ Bullet Point: More divisiveness, hate, and fear isn’t bad news for everyone. More liberals, people of color and LGBTQ Americans say they’re buying guns out of fear.
+ Ed’s Dead, Baby. Ed’s Dead: “The Education Department plans to announce Tuesday that it will move parts of the agency to other federal departments, a unilateral effort aimed at dismantling an agency created by Congress to ensure equal access to educational opportunity but long derided by conservatives as ineffective.”
+ Immune Reaction: “On Tuesday, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai warned of ‘irrationality’ in the AI market, telling the BBC in an interview, ‘I think no company is going to be immune, including us.’ His comments arrive as scrutiny over the state of the AI market has reached new heights.” Industry players from corporate CEOs to Wall Street bigwigs are trying to get investors to ease up a bit so we can have a gentle pullback instead of a massive drop.
+ Villain US: Pro Publica: The White House Intervened on Behalf of Accused Sex Trafficker Andrew Tate During a Federal Investigation.
+ Decency’s Descent: In 1954, the phrase “have you no sense of decency” sort of shocked Americans back toward the right track. Today, that question would be viewed laughable. Trump responded to a question from a female Bloomberg reporter about the Epstein files by saying, “Quiet Piggy.” Here’s the video. This is what the journalist’s fellow reporters have come to accept. This is what the GOP has come to accept. And apparently, this is what America has come to accept, since it was barely news.
“The four giant pairs of glasses are simple and striking: rendered in the crosswalks of an intersection in Lubbock, Texas, in white paint, tidy inside the bounds of the crossing lines. For years, they’ve been a beloved part of the city’s quirky downtown, a testament to its native son, the rock ‘n’ roller Buddy Holly. Are they road murals? Are they public art? Or are they a safety hazard? Whatever they are, the streetbound specs are now verboten, a casualty of the Trump administration’s crackdown on artistic displays on the nation’s roadways.” NYT (Gift Article): Lubbock Will Remove Buddy Holly-Themed Crosswalk After Federal Crackdown. At some point, this rampant idiocy has to end. And well, that’ll be the day.