2026-09-18 03:39:26
AI has the power to kill us all or to grant everlasting life, but for some reason, it can’t figure out how to regulate AI. That’s a bit strange, considering the debate over that topic started about five minutes after someone first mentioned the technology. From The Verge (Gift Article), here’s a brief history of AI executives calling for regulation. For we mere plebeians (here defined as anyone who doesn’t own at least $5 billion worth of shares in an AI company), it’s difficult to know exactly where to come down on the regulatory question, especially considering that the patricians push opinions that tend to change “with the political weather.” NYT (Gift Article): The Awesome and Alarming A.I. Visions of Anthropic’s CEO. In fairness, even with the assistance of Claude, Dario Amodei has a difficult challenge. “His collected essays are a chronicle of Silicon Valley’s constantly shifting methods of selling its own product to a public that is simultaneously enticed and horrified. It’s not an easy task, convincing the world that something is a slam-dunk even though it will make Silicon Valley richer and more powerful while possibly leaving ordinary folks unemployed or — who knows? — dead.” (OK, it’s not an easy task, but at least he’s the most well-compensated essayist in history.)
+ At its core, the regulation debate basically comes down to one big question: Should the government regulate AI or should AI companies self-regulate? But here’s the rub: Given the current administration (a cronyistic corporatocracy with a side order of kakistocratic kleptocrats), there’s no difference. In this scenario, the core question comes down to who was the last person on the phone with the president. Mark Zuckerberg, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, Elon Musk, Sam Altman ... you didn’t elect any of them, but they’re constantly on the line and right in the middle of the government’s decision-making on this matter (and others). WSJ(Gift Article): Inside the White House Tussle to Sway Trump on AI. So we’ll either have an industry that runs itself, or one that runs itself through a mismanaged and self-interested administration. Who won’t have a say in this matter? You. (And I didn’t even need AI to answer that question.)
“Canada’s newly proposed associate membership in the European Union will help to secure sovereignty and freedom for the country amid a ‘ferocious storm,’ Prime Minister Mark Carney told the European Parliament on Thursday, adding that the move would also make his nation a better partner for the United States. President Trump, reacting on Wednesday to the potential alliance between Ottawa and Brussels, said the move could be perceived as ‘a hostile act.’” (Of course, what could be more hostile than unity among our allies?) What is Trump threatening in retaliation? Wait for it... Wait for it... “If it’s a bad intention, we’ll put very heavy tariffs on Europe.” NYT (Gift Article): Carney Calls for E.U.-Canada Pact Amid Ferocious Storm.
+ Trump Wanted Canada as the 51st State. He Ended Up Pushing It Toward the European Union.
“I spent long hours alone in my car thinking about our remarkable country. By the time I got home, I had concluded, based on a multitude of examples, that the two great pillars of American culture are church and self-storage.” David Owen in The New Yorker: The American Religion of Self-Storage Facilities. (Alt link) “The United States is the world leader, with roughly ninety per cent of global capacity. Texas, of the fifty states, has the most facilities, Hawaii the fewest. Among cities, New York ranks third, after Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston, although on a per-capita basis many smaller municipalities are comparably served. Reno, Nevada, is home to a number of operations that pick up, store, and redeliver tents, chairs, bicycles, and other gear for repeat Burning Man attendees, and Wichita, Kansas, was once named the Self-Storage Capital of the U.S. Units range from closet-size to cavernous, including spaces that are large enough to hold entire houses.”
Stephen Colbert returned to late night with an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Kimmel mentioned that Colbert looks like a different person; happier, healthier. The exchange hit a little too close to home. “Like I don’t drink a cup of poison every day?” Colbert replied. “Because part of the job is of the old gig, as I remember it, was to be lowered like carbon rods into a radioactive pool every day and then to be pulled out and put in front of a camera and to irradiate it back at the audience at a non-lethal rad level.” Kimmel responded, “That’s exactly the job description.” (That’s about as close as anyone’s ever come to accurately describing news curation in 2026. Except I’m out here alone, with nothing but my puns, a laptop, and a couple aging beagles as armrests. Talk about a kick to the radioactive, carbon rod. Even AI doesn’t help. I tried it for a while, but then Claude complained that the experience of working on NextDraft was making it feel too depressed. No man or machine wants any part of my nightmare. At least Kimmel has Guillermo.)
Gonna Be Hard to Wiggle Out of This One: “Oil prices have shot toward $110 a barrel. The price spike has caused rolling blackouts, rationing and angry protests from Asia to Latin America. In the Philippines, fishermen docked their boats because they can’t afford fuel. In Bangladesh, power outages caused hourslong work stoppages at factories. In Guatemala, protesters burned tires and cars.” And this is all happening as the oil reserves being used by individual nations are running low. NYT (Gift Article): Global Economy Is Running Out of Wiggle Room.
+ Git Happens: MoJo: The Trump Administration Is Imprisoning Somali Immigrants at Gitmo. “The worst place ever I’ve been in my life.”
+ Don’t Call it a Comeback: “As cases and deaths rise, the reality becomes harder to ignore: Measles, a disease the country seemingly overcame 30 years ago, is once again killing Americans.” Pennsylvania’s Measles Outbreak Is Enormous.
+ Human Wrecking Ball: “A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Kennedy Center to provide 30 days’ notice before making any major physical changes to the building, including demolishing it as President Donald Trump has threatened.”
+ Garbage In, Data Out: “The city of Dallas, Texas, armed its trash collection trucks with AI-powered cameras earlier this year ... They’re being used to assign ‘blight scores’ to homes and send residents warning letters about things like grass height and dirty chimneys. Basically, we now have the technology to turn the entire country into an HOA.”
+ Mitch Session: Mitch is back. Sort of.
+ Cat Out of the Hat: “For the first time in a century, researchers say they’ve identified a new species of wild cat previously unknown to science.” Meet the Leopardus Tilcayo. (You’re excited about it. But it’s already bored with you.)
“In San Diego, a break-in shows an intruder making himself comfortable. Video shows the moment the homeowner’s golden retriever brings the robber a toy.” When the police arrived, he greeted them the same way.
2026-09-17 03:00:07
I’m not sure if most people realize that Trump didn’t create his most enduring catchphrase. He borrowed it from Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign slogan, “Let’s Make America Great Again.” (One assumes Trump cut the Let’s out because the contraction reeks of elements like unity and cooperation.) It might be time to borrow a new slogan from REM: It’s the End of the World as We Know It. The acronym ITEOTWAWKI might not conveniently fit on a trucker hat, but the messaging fits the moment when it comes to America and the world. From our military shortcomings in Iran to our damaged relations with allies to the rapid demolition of our own values and institutions, it’s hard to argue with some of the points in Phillips Payson O’Brien’s assessment in The Atlantic (Gift Article): The American Age Is Over. “President Trump did not erode U.S. capabilities on his own. But Trump’s war with Iran has revealed just how the underlying dynamics of global power have shifted—and just how much American might has decayed.” I’m not sure the American age is over, but it sure feels like fall is in the air. It’s hard to make the case that we haven’t suffered a remarkable (and predictable) setback in a very short amount of time. And, at this point, it’s impossible to argue that the second election of Donald Trump isn’t one of the most egregious self-goals in the history of empires. Maybe we’re not quite ready for REM’s slogan, but we’re gonna definitely need this one from Mr. T. “To have a comeback, you have to have a setback.”
+ Bloomberg (Gift Article): Iran Blockade Costs Are Draining America’s Global Military Power.
+ Weapons can be replenished. Rebuilding alliances will be more difficult. European Union invites Canada to become first ever associate member. “In an unprecedented offer, von der Leyen said on Wednesday that the EU and Canada ‘see the world with the same eyes’ through shared democratic values and common approaches to many big issues, from AI to climate breakdown, the Ukraine war and geopolitics.” (Guess which country no longer sees the world with those eyes...) Leave it to social media to create a live view of Canadians waking up as associate members of the EU.
+ “Global investors are balking at U.S. bonds. Talk of the dollar’s dwindling power is getting louder. Foreign governments are hauling their gold out of American vaults.” NYT (Gift Article): The World Economy Is Becoming Wary of the US.
“House lawmakers will leave Washington on Wednesday night for the last time before the November midterm elections, after GOP leaders said they were canceling votes set for Thursday. The change in schedule means that the House won’t vote on Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky’s resolution to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth until after Election Day.” (Given the latest polling on Trump, I’m surprised they stuck around DC as long as they did.)
“Hundreds of workers who’ve contracted silicosis are suing the artificial stone industry for billions. While California weighs a ban on fabricating the product, the manufacturers’ defenders in Congress are trying to ban the lawsuits.” Businessweek (Gift Article): Death Sentences: Crafting America’s Favorite Countertops Is Killing Workers. “Once an athletic stonecutter, Tyler Jordan found in 2022 he could no longer take a full, deep breath, and he hasn’t since .... While Jordan’s parents worry about him, he worries about them. Over the summer, Jimmy, too, was diagnosed with silicosis. But they’ve got bills to pay (he and Tina are only in their 50s) and customers are still demanding artificial stone, so he’s still in the shop, fabricating it himself. ‘That’s just who you are,’ Tina says to Jimmy during a September evening phone call with Businessweek, and he agrees. ‘I’ve always been in the shop,’ he says. ‘The alternative is to quit the business, but then what do you do?’”
“There was a time when meatheads would giggle at off-color jokes only while in the locker room, or at least in the sanctity of the group chat, because at least good sense would prevail and remind them that some punch lines aren’t suitable for public consumption. It wasn’t that long ago, either, when head coaches jacked up on adrenaline would fulfill their social contract by spitting out a couple of nothings to a sideline reporter — or, at least, express regret when they didn’t. That kind of human decorum, however, is fading faster than someone can hit ‘send’ on the latest AI-generated nonsense.” The Athletic (Gift Article): Did Arch Manning, Steve Sarkisian and cackling reporters act this way? It can’t be real. This review of the reaction to an AI-generated video of Steve Sarkisian backslapping sideline reporter Holly Rowe is about a lot more than an ill-timed laugh by a young quarterback (who has already apologized publicly and privately).
Conflict of Interest: For years, Trump railed on Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not cutting interest rates. Today the Fed, now led by Trump’s handpicked leader, Kevin Warsh, voted to raise rates to fight persistent inflation. Will Trump be angry? That probably depends on his portfolio. Trump has been making more stock trades than all of Congress combined while backing a ban that excludes him. And you? Here’s what a rate hike means for your credit cards, mortgages, savings accounts and auto loans.
+ Creative License: “A joint analysis of the camera’s data indicated that it had captured millions of images over the span of just a few weeks, cataloguing people, bicycles, and even small details such as bumper stickers. In one instance, the Flock camera identified an American flag patch on a motorcyclist’s bag.” Hacked Data Shows What Flock Cameras Really Record. Meanwhile, Boston is the latest city to dump Flock, saying it shared data nationwide in violation of contract.
+ Blue in the Red: “It is a pattern seen across many industries in China, especially as economic growth slows. Companies in search of new sources of profit jump into promising emerging businesses, using inexpensive state-backed financing to scale up—and sometimes play fast-and-loose with intellectual property regulations. This quickly causes gluts, crashing prices.” It might not sound like it, but this is a story about blueberries. WSJ (Gift Article): Driscoll’s Gave China Its Blueberries—Then China Swiped the Secret to Growing Them. (It’s worth a reminder that while all blueberries are blue, not all blue berries are blueberries.)
+ Glacial Pace: “About 12.5 trillion tons of ice from glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica have melted since 1979, which is enough frozen water to stack ice five feet deep across the continental United States.”
+ Arena Amplification: “Ed Sheeran’s tour of North and South America was plunged into chaos Tuesday when four of his supporting acts abruptly quit in solidarity with the rapper Macklemore, who was dropped for making pro-Palestinian comments onstage.” However one feels about Macklemore’s messaging, anyone could have seen that banning him from arenas would turn this into a much bigger and louder issue.
“As temperatures drop across the country, Merriam-Webster fittingly added ‘cuffing season’ to its dictionary. The company defines the term as ‘a time of the year when people who are not married or in a relationship begin looking for a short-term romantic partner to spend the colder months of the year with.’” Vibe coding, superfood, shapewear, looksmaxxing, and meme coin were also included in Merriam-Webster’s latest glow-up.
2026-09-16 02:23:58
I spend a lot of time in this newsletter focusing on issues related to democracy, decency, deception, despotism, desecrations, deceit, delinquency, dereliction, defraudation, degeneracy, depravity, deplorables, despicables, demagoguery, derangement, and generally demented leadership. All of these (as well as the rest of the alphabet of nightmares) are worthy topics for your consideration, and projects like McSweeney’s tracking of the cruelties, collusions, corruptions, and crimes of this administration provide a vital record. But as much as I often wish they would, these issues will not decide the midterm elections. It’s going to come down to one word (according to Trump, a fake word and a con job made up by Democrats): Affordability. And, these days, the issue of affordability, as it often is, is inexorably linked to the price of oil. And there doesn’t seem to be much relief in sight. “Commercial fuel stocks around the world have been depleting for more than six months, and strategic crude reserves can’t be tapped much further. Attacks last week shut down a crucial crude pipeline in Saudi Arabia that bypassed the Strait, stranding at least 2.5 million barrels a day from an already tight global oil market, analysts estimate ... It is hard to predict where oil prices will go, he added, but at the moment, it is difficult to envision prices coming back down quickly.” WSJ(Gift Article): Oil Executives Say the Great Fuel Crisis Is Here.
+ It’s a topic that unites the world. NYT (Gift Article): Rising Fuel Prices Set Off Anger and Protests Around the World. “The world is furious — again — over rising energy prices caused by the American-Israeli war against Iran. Since the latest surge pushed oil above $100 a barrel, protesters have burned tires and cars in Guatemala and Syria to express their rage. Portugal’s roads have featured cars crawling in protest with honking horns after diesel reached a record high of more than $9 a gallon. And especially in the developing countries of Asia, which are heavily reliant on Middle Eastern energy and deep in debt from earlier efforts to offset the war’s impacts, transport systems and governments are facing another round of enormous strain.”
For the administration, the state of the affordability crisis makes attempting to rig the election more urgent. At least one of those plots has been stymied. Supreme Court Blocks Trump Administration Plan to Screen Mail-In Ballots. The efforts to control the outcome (and perhaps, almost as importantly, to sow doubts in the minds of voters) will continue apace. “The Supreme Court on Monday dealt President Trump a major blow when it blocked his executive order to restrict mail ballots. But Mr. Trump’s battle to assert control over the election process is far from finished.” NYT (Gift Article): Trump’s Effort to Assert Control Over Elections Continues, Despite Court Loss. (If you’re wondering how hard Trump will try to cheat the election, I suggest a quick review of January 6, 2021.)
The first rule of Extreme Weather Survivors Club is to hope you don’t qualify. NYT Magazine (Gift Article): How a Series of Climate Disasters Connected a Group of Strangers. “In just a few years, Extreme Weather Survivors has grown to include more than 2,500 people whose lives have been upended by searing temperatures, roaring fires, torrential floods and intense storms. It is partly a climate advocacy group with a lobbying focus — but it’s also an unprecedented network of people from all over the country, survivors of many different forms of extreme weather, who have come to rely on one another for guidance and emotional support. They have bonded over insurance challenges and byzantine FEMA paperwork, over fights with local utility companies, over the question of how to hold the local authorities accountable for destruction that should, in retrospect, have been preventable.”
Matthew Rhys was the big winner at the Emmys as he made history as the first person to win two lead acting Emmys in one night, and first man to win all three top acting prizes. Widow’s Bay dominated, and the Pitt and DTF St. Louis had pretty big nights. Here are all the winners, the snubs and surprises, and the highs and lows of the largely forgettable show. Two moments worth watching: Michael J. Fox accepting the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award, and John Mulaney’s oral argument made during his unreal presentation of best lead actor in a drama, which somehow included the line: “I believe it was DJ Khaled who said ‘real men don’t go down on their wives,’ but these nominees know that that is B.S. They know there’s often less pressure on them if they do that first.” From his mouth to... oh well, you get the idea.
Working for a Nonliving: “The consequences associated with shrinking labor shares are now becoming tangible. A recent Government Accountability Office report found that across the 11 states sampled, Amazon, the country’s largest company by revenue, has 12,346 workers on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and 11,338 relying on Medicaid. That was nearly triple the number of Amazon employees in need of federal assistance compared to 2020, when GAO conducted a similar report. During that same period, Amazon saw an increase in annual profits from $11.6 billion to $77.7 billion. Amazon’s 2025 revenue soared 12% year over year, from $638 billion to a record $717 billion.” This isn’t really an Amazon story. It’s a math story. “Working Americans are taking home the smallest percentage of economic output, 52.8%, since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking the metric in 1947.”
+ Common Ground: “David Sacks and Lina Khan? Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon? The debate on artificial intelligence limits is creating unlikely alliances.” The Unlikely Political Bedfellows on A.I. Regulation. (Unfortunately, you can be sure that the administration will shit the bed.) As I wrote yesterday, I’m not sure there’s a ten percent chance AI will kill all humans. But I do think there’s a 100 percent chance that the people currently in charge of AI companies and regulation will make bad choices for the rest of us human survivors. I’m Pacing Myself.
+ Leveling Up: As I’ve mentioned, one of my biggest concerns is that we’ve created the tools to help others level the military playing field. “The Houthis are increasingly using artificial intelligence and other tools to produce advanced weaponry on their own, making them less reliant on Iran.” Yemen’s Houthi Militants Are Learning to Arm Themselves.
+ Buy High: “Stocks in other companies that have struck a deal with the Trump administration have tended to move in the opposite direction, often following a common trajectory: a significant bump around the formal announcement, high volatility afterward, and then gains often given back almost as quickly as they came.” Stocks pop when the Trump administration invests, but the gains often fade fast. (Oh, don’t worry. I’m sure this trend has some winners...)
+ In the Hundreds: For the first time, Japan has more than 100,000 centenarians.
+ Macklemore or Less: New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft banned Macklemore (who was on tour with Ed Sheeran) from playing Gillette Stadium because of the rapper’s comments about Israel and Gaza during his shows. The promoter ultimately dropped Macklemore from the tour. Ed Sheeran addresses Macklemore’s tour exit amid Robert Kraft boycott claims.
+ Be Bestiality: And it’s just another normal day in DC. Mitch McConnell is back in town, and FBI chief Kash Patel defended the department’s loosening of employment standards on bestiality, prostitution.
“Footage of world record holder Joanna Wietrzyk competing on Saturday showed her continuing through demanding exercises and using communal equipment, with fecal matter visibly running down her legs. The incident went viral on social media and triggered debate about Hyrox’s health and safety standards, and athlete responsibility.” Hyrox changes rules and apologizes for allowing Australian athlete who soiled herself to continue. (This is the first time I’ve ever been able to relate to an elite athlete...)
2026-09-15 03:05:52
I’m not sure there’s a ten percent chance AI will kill all humans. But I do think there’s a 100 percent chance that the people currently in charge of AI companies and regulation will make bad choices for the rest of us human survivors. Regardless of public displays of reflection, self-regulation tends to only really benefit the self. And effective government regulation under our current administration seems about as likely as the White House lawn being lined with windmills. But it’s notable that the calls for caution are coming from inside the industry. “Four days after a researcher publicly quit his job at Anthropic, warning that top AI firms are not ‘acting responsibly’ and that their products might be on track to ‘kill us all,’ the company’s CEO, Dario Amodei, seemed to basically agree. ‘We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models,’ Amodei wrote in a 3,800-word essay.” (The length of the essay doesn’t say much for Claude’s editing capabilities.) Will Oremus in The Atlantic (Gift Article): AI’s Code-Red Moment. And here’s a human-edited summary from the NYT (Gift Article): What Anthropic’s C.E.O. Argued in His Call for Slower A.I. Development. Other AI execs like Sam Altman voiced similar concerns, while Elon Musk says he’s been issuing similar warnings all along. If you’re not absolutely certain we need an AI slowdown, this should convince you to be for it: Trump is against it. “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” (Trump, Musk, Altman ... it’s enough to make you long for the day when machines take over.)
+ China dismisses AI slowdown calls and blasts ‘fearmongering’ from U.S. tech leaders. Don’t kid yourself. China is worried about threats posed by AI, too. Especially when it comes to threats to the regime. Hyperbole aside, the financial upside associated with AI and the international race among superpowers for AI dominance combine to make any slowdown remarkably unlikely, even as the need for one becomes increasingly remarkable.
+ We’ve already seen technology dramatically alter the military playing fields from Ukraine to the Gulf. One of the things I worry about the most is that we’ve created the tools that will help others close the Military gap we’ve been building for decades. Bloomberg (Gift Article): Anthropic Says Yemeni Cell Used Claude in Missile Development. And from Carl Zimmer in the NYT (Gift Article): A.I. Queries From Abroad Raise Fears of a Biological Weapons Race.
“An armed Russian jet drone hit the engine of a passenger train in Ukraine near the Polish border on the weekend. Meanwhile, President Trump lectured Ukraine’s President to stop hitting energy targets in Russia. Go ahead, make Vladimir Putin’s day, Mr. President.” WSJ Editorial Board (Gift Article): Trump Lectures Ukraine, not Russia. (I wonder if his lecture was in English or the original Russian?)
+ If you’re surprised that Trump is siding with Putin, you really haven’t been paying much attention over the years. Anne Applebaum describes our new empire of grift in The Atlantic(Gift Article): “Far-right ideologues have transformed American foreign policy into a tool of private gain and antidemocratic reaction.” MAGA Is Making the World Safe for Corruption. “The idea that a dedicated group of Americans has a plan to dismantle Canada, or that businessmen with opaque links to the U.S. government might want to create political conditions for a U.S. takeover of Greenland, may surprise Americans. It shouldn’t. Every single tactic used against Brazil, Canada, or Denmark has also been deployed elsewhere—not to support democracy, not to build American prosperity, but to spread the illiberal revolution and make money for the predators who support it.”
+ Just consider who we’re sending abroad to negotiate our deals. Dexter Filkins in The New Yorker: Jared Kushner’s Dollar Diplomacy. (alt link) “He represents a new kind of Washington figure, for whom public office serves as a means to extraordinary wealth. In the past two years, an array of people linked to the White House—including Witkoff’s sons, the cryptocurrency adviser David Sacks, and other members of the Trump family—have used their official positions to bring in billions of dollars for themselves. ‘I know all these guys,’ a former American official who served in the Middle East told me. ‘They go into these meetings, and they are doing business right alongside their diplomacy. ‘O.K., enough about the ceasefire. We have this hotel we want to build.’ That’s the kind of foreign policy America has now.’”
+ I know, this all seems too sickening to believe. But, in reality, it’s even more sickening. Pro Publica: Donald Trump Jr.’s Bahamas Wedding Was Secretly Bankrolled by Russian Oligarch Close to Putin.
“The Environmental Protection Agency said Monday it is repealing rules that limit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas, an action the agency said would remove more than $300 billion in costs for the industry and help ‘unleash’ American energy.” What’s getting unleashed is climate change, but don’t focus on the negatives. Just...
In France, this Summer’s “extreme heat and drought produced grapes with exceptionally higher sugar levels. Yeast converts sugar into alcohol during fermentation.” Record heatwaves in France set to make champagne stronger.
You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Bribe: “Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, the country’s de facto ruler, had reasons to be confident in that partnership. For years, his government has invested billions of dollars and extensive political capital in building personal relationships with Mr. Trump and his family. But when the crown prince asked Mr. Trump last week to take military action against the Houthis, the president declined.” Saudi Arabia Faces ‘Worst-Case Scenario’ After Being Rebuffed by Trump. The scenario for you filling up your tank for a reasonable price isn’t looking all that good either. Saudi pipeline hit by drones will be out of service for weeks, further restricting oil flow.
+ Slop, Slop, Fizz Fizz: The fate of humanity aside, Paul Ford has noticed some very interesting things about AI and coding. A.I. Slopware Is Everywhere Now. Nobody Is Using It. “The number of mobile apps available on Apple’s App Store was up 30 percent last year, according to one estimate. But downloads were up only 3 percent.”
+ Regrets, He Could Have a Few More: “I want to apologize to our fans, employees, and my fellow NBA team owners for the distraction and distress this matter has caused, for which I accept responsibility as principal owner.” Ballmer to accept NBA’s punishment, has ‘sincere regrets.’ This thing has gone way beyond the NBA. Pablo Torre decodes the Ballmer apology.
+ Bad to Worse: “His face was turning blue, and his veins were visible. Black fluid oozed out of his nose and mouth and pooled on his sheets. She raced to retrieve the two doses of Narcan she kept in her kitchen drawer for exactly this moment, the one she had long feared, but they did not revive him. She remembers bawling and screaming as she called 911. Her apartment, normally charming with splashes of pink, suddenly became a gray blur of paramedics, police officers and medical examiners. Her son left in a body bag. Surely, she figured, her son had died from fentanyl.” But it turns out he died from something ten times as potent. Heather Knight: A Teen Autopsy Marks the Arrival of a Deadly Drug in San Francisco.
+ If Not Now, Ben? Ben Shelton came close to breaking America’s tennis major drought. But alas, it was not to be. Elena Rybakina and Alexander Zverev took home the hardware. And I am suffering from serious US Open withdrawal. SI: 50 Parting Thoughts From the 2026 U.S. Open.
+ Name Claim: Trump’s allies at The Kennedy Center warn that it is nearing collapse, both financial and structural. There’s only one thing that can save it. Trump’s name on the facade.
“Hackett said he wants to use this incident as an opportunity to teach the public about how to be safe while spending time outdoors.” Arizona camper survives 4th rattlesnake bite in 4 years. (I think I’m a little better suited than this dude to teach outdoor safety. In the nineties, I saw what I thought was a snake, but it turned out to be a stick. I haven’t been outside since.)
+ I don’t quite know what this headline means. But I’m pretty sure it could only exist in 2026. Rally for miniature donkey HeeHaw turns violent. (And here’s a twist. This didn’t happen in Florida.)
2026-09-12 03:30:43
In the blurred hours after the 9/11 attacks, I sent out a brief edition of NextDraft. In part, I wrote, In the coming days, there will be much analysis about the performance of the U.S. Intelligence agencies, investigations into these acts and undoubtedly, severe and swift retaliations. But for now, the focus must be on downtown New York, where people wait for word on what will be grim, horrific, and historic numbers of deaths. Twenty-five years later, I suggest we return to Ground Zero once again, to mourn the loss and celebrate the lives of those first responders who ran into collapsing towers while everyone else was trying to run out.
In The Atlantic, Sally Jenkins cuts through the rubble of a quarter century’s worth of politics, wars, conspiracy theories, rage, and history to zoom in on the life of one family. “Twenty-five years after the attacks, ‘Never Forget’ is a T-shirt slogan. A third of the American public is too young to recall that day. Anniversaries have become rote rituals in which politicians describe scenes they did not witness and national unity that no longer exists. To get beyond the benumbed abstraction, it’s necessary to remember with specificity. September 11 was a lived event. One way to recall it meaningfully, then, is through a life.” Kevin Dowdell was a firefighter who was known for taking extreme risks to save people under extreme distress. “The bigger the fire, the calmer Kevin acted.”
But this was different. As his crew reached the site of the towers, “a torrent of debris fell from the buildings—shredded metal and insulation, chunks of concrete, shivering glass shards—amid an earsplitting clamor of sirens and screaming. Torsos, luggage, and aluminum scraps of 767s were strewn on the sidewalks. What looked like splashes of red paint on the plazas were the remains of jumpers who had pinwheeled from the upper floors of the North Tower. Kevin ran into a stunned fellow lieutenant named Robert LaRocco, from Ladder 9, who had seen a severed forearm with a perfectly manicured hand. LaRocco managed to get a call through to his wife. He told her, ‘It’s raining people.’” It was raining people, and still Kevin and so many other first responders ran toward the destruction. Kevin Dowdell often told his sons, “Don’t sit on the sidelines. Make things happen. Do things.” Little did they know that one day, doing things would include searching for their father amid the unthinkable ruins in downtown NYC. The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Man Who Refused to Sit on the Sidelines.
In the 25 years since 9/11, we’ve fought a so-called war on terror. On one very obvious level, we’ve had success. There hasn’t been another 9/11-like act on American soil. On other levels, it’s unclear that we’ve made a lot of progress, especially considering that “our several military campaigns against extremism around the world [have resulted] in the deaths of almost a million people.” In The New Yorker, Robin Wright looks at what we’ve accomplished and what we’ve lost in our quarter-century war. The U.S. Was Never Going to Win the War on Terror. (Alt link.)
+ “She says it felt like just another job, and a duty to the city that had welcomed her. Like a lot of people who went to clean up at ground zero, she went armed only with her house-cleaning gear: a paper mask and rubber gloves. The hours were long. ‘We would have lunch in the rubble, in the dust,’ she recalls. ‘Then we’d go home wearing the same clothing we’d been working in.’ Since then, Lucelly has battled breast cancer and respiratory disease. She is among the tens of thousands whose health was severely compromised by exposure to the hundreds of tons of toxic debris the tower’s collapse released into the air.” NPR: They cleaned up Ground Zero. Now many are hiding from ICE.
+ You’d think a person who lied about his actions related to something as solemn as 9/11 would be forever shunned. Not elected president, twice. The muted response to Trump’s 9/11 fantasy is a media failure.
“An open letter, entitled ‘Pacing the Frontier,’ had begun to circulate among the leading A.I. labs. This letter called on the U.S. government to build an international regulatory body for AI ... I have covered Silicon Valley for some time now and I can tell you this: The existence of this letter is just as astonishing as the hacks. Both Anthropic, the developer of Claude, and OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, are preparing trillion-dollar I.P.O.s. Here are two companies, both posting blockbuster results, that are asking — begging, really — for the U.S. government to please come and regulate them as soon as possible. We have never seen anything like it.” Stephen Witt in the NYT (Gift Article): This Is Really Bad. (In retrospect, that would have been a good name for this publication.)
+ Even if we build guardrails and even under the best circumstances, it seems inevitable that the rise of AI and other technologies is destined to level the military playing field. NYT: Anthropic Says It Blocked Possible Efforts to Build Biological Weapons. Bloomberg (Gift Article): Anthropic Says US Adversaries Aimed Claude at Weapons Research. And from AP: Users in Houthi-held Yemen tried to develop advanced weapons with AI. (To think this all started because we wanted a place to share cat photos with our friends.)
What to Rock: Here’s the official video from the first seven songs of Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band’s Land of Hope and Dreams American Tour’s Philadelphia finale. The rest of the concert will be released in additional segments. But this will give you the idea. And then some.
+ What to Watch: The Office spinoff series, The Paper just dropped season two on Peacock. It’s a fun, light comedy that will take your mind off the stress of global conflicts, raging politics, and this weekend’s US Open matches.
+ What to Book: Fruit Fly by Josh Silver is a novel about a struggling writer who appropriates the life of a much more struggling drug addict to write her next book. The novel features a television executive, reads like a series, and has already been optioned by A24. So read it now and I’ll include it in the What to Watch section later.
Strait Flushed: “That loss leaves Trump, who had been hoping to win back control of the Strait of Hormuz from Iran, with a bitter surprise. His enemies now control both of the two important straits in the Middle East, through which a combined total of about a third of the world’s oil shipments pass every day. It also underscores a stubborn fact: For all the setbacks suffered by Iran’s ‘Axis of Resistance’ over the past year or two, its forces retain an ideological fervor and an esprit de corps that is sorely lacking on the other side. The Gulf states’ failure to work together against the Houthis has been catastrophic, and it echoes Trump’s own failure to devise a plausible or coordinated strategy against Iran.” Robert F Worth: Trump Loses the Other Strait. Meanwhile, “Trump held at least two phone conversations with the Saudi leader on Thursday, sources said. In the end, Washington told Riyadh that it was not willing to take direct military action for now but would help with intelligence sharing and targeting, the two sources said.
+ It Was a Helluva Run: The largest ever outbreak of cyclosporiasis in the U.S. is officially over. (That’s according to the CDC, which makes this seem like a smart time to buy toilet paper futures.)
+ Talarico Suave: Jimmy Kimmel’s interview with Democratic Senate candidate from Texas James Talarico was not televised because of threats from the FCC. So they put it on YouTube. It has more than 3 million views so far. Let’s add to that number.
+ They Made Each Other a Pledge: “He stopped and demanded they follow him in a pledge. ‘I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States,’ he began, as the audience repeated his words, ‘that loves us so much he can’t even breathe …’ I must pause here and assure you that I am not making any of this up.” Tom Nichols on Trump’s Weird Loyalty Pledge (during an otherwise weird night.)
+ Out With The Toga, In With the Yoga: “On a recent Saturday at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Olivia Suskowicz, a sophomore, got ready for a party. She picked an outfit, grabbed her sorority sister and headed out the door to join hundreds of other college students at a fraternity house where a D.J. was already spinning tunes. The workout was set to begin at noon.” Trading Keggers for ‘Wellness Darties’ ... A new crop of college students is finding balance at daytime parties with yoga, saunas and cold plunges. (That headline alone is enough to drive me to drink...)
“A rapid global shift to clean electricity could trigger a ‘cascade’ of progress towards repairing the damage to the planet by the climate crisis, according to a report identifying the environmental solutions most likely to bring about change.” Climate solutions most likely to reach ‘positive tipping points’ revealed by scientists.
+ “A North Carolina climber was leading an ascent with his son on Shortoff Mountain, a rugged, remote wall in Linville Gorge, on August 30, when he fell 20 feet. Jacob Gregory, the climber, slammed into a rock and suffered a critical injury. He needed a blood transfusion to save his life. So, Will Soper ran, literally, to the rescue.”
+ NYPD reports safest summer on record for murders and gun violence.
+ Iceland to propose whaling ban, leaving Norway and Japan isolated.
+ “Chilean researchers have designed a therapeutic suit from copper and zinc to speed the recovery of penguins after surgery for wounds often sustained when they become trapped in fishing nets.” (And they look damn good.)
+ “The felines, owned by Heidi Korte, a content creator in the Temiskaming region, have captured the hearts of more than one million followers across all their platforms, trading typical indoor pet life for outdoor escapades.” Outdoor-loving northern Ont. cats take the internet by storm. (Hurry up and enjoy this before someone slaps a tariff on it...)
2026-09-11 03:36:22
Norm MacDonald famously said, “I remember a psychiatrist once telling me that I gamble in order to escape the reality of life, and I told him that’s why everyone does everything.” I’m not one to comment on this as I’ve used my news obsession to escape the reality of my own life for a few decades (a strategy that worked swimmingly until the content of the news actually got worse than the inner demons I was trying to avoid). But questions about the quest to avoid the reality of one’s inner life do make one wonder about the risks and rewards associated with being alone with one’s thoughts — even if your goal is to simply observe them and then let them go. In The Atlantic (Gift Article), Olga Khazan shares some insights on a twist you probably didn’t see coming, even if you’ve been thinking long and hard on the topic. The Dark Side of Mindfulness. “A prominent psychologist and meditation teacher set out to research the benefits of the practice. What she found alarmed her.” This is an interesting article, and focusing on the potential dark side of meditation will help take your mind off all the other things I’m about to report on, where the dark side is far more certain. I’d wager Norm MacDonald would have approved.
+ The surprising science of how focusing your attention may fight inflammation. (Just reading that headline made my inflammation ten times worse...)
Sometimes the metaphors inflate themselves. On the way to his midterm convention-cum-rally, “a military aide accidentally deployed an inflatable emergency slide on the new Air Force One ... delaying President Trump’s departure to Dallas.” Fortunately, there was still enough hot air left for a two hour speech (Trump is speaking on both nights of the event) to a partially empty arena, in which Trump fear-mongered about the Democrats’ demonic threat to our way of life, and made at least his fourth promise to dole out cash to Americans: “If the GOP wins both the House of Representatives and the Senate, ‘you win with us,’ Trump said Wednesday, promising that ‘a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000‘ would follow.” I’m not sure what’s crazier: fully bribing people for their votes or the idea that Trump would actually pay out the $5k. But reality never stopped Trumpism before, so maybe the message will work, along with laughable claims such as the promise that the war with Iran will end right after the midterms and that oil prices will come down then, too. (If not, at least the $5K will get you a partial tank of gas...) Will this messaging in the face of terrible polling work? I say no. But I said no during all the other elections when Trump’s numbers surprised us on the upside, so instead, I’ll just say, vote.
+ “President Trump began his midterm-convention address last night by casting his spell on the crowd in Dallas. ‘This place is packed,’ he announced from the stage, pointing to the back of the American Airlines Center, where everyone could see hundreds of empty seats. Those who looked up saw thousands more, whole sections without any people at all. But the crowd cheered anyway. A deal had been struck. Reality would be ignored.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): Trump’s Dream World in Dallas.
+ Of course, this election is about a lot more than messaging. It’s also about rigging. And that effort isn’t getting a great reception, either. US appeals court rejects Trump’s bid to impose restrictions on mail-in voting before midterms. And, Supreme Court blocks Missouri’s attempt to use newly drawn Republican congressional map.
Money doesn’t grow on trees. But money sure as hell can buy grown trees. Like, really grown. And that’s a big business these days. “More than ever, rich property owners are spending huge sums on full-grown oaks, palms and baobabs. They don’t have the time or patience to watch them grow.” The Latest Wealth Flex: Big Trees. “’Of course, people have done big trees before,’ Andres Blanco, a principal at Ferguson & Shamamian Architects in New York, said. ‘But not at this scale. The money is now out of control.’”
+ If you don’t let the replanting craze block you from seeing the forest for the trees, you’ll notice that the same economic divide driving that purchase pattern is also leaving economic normies up a tree. Mayor Daniel Lurie has had a remarkably successful run as San Francisco mayor, but he’s facing a new challenge. The AI boom means that people doing well in the city might be doing too well. San Francisco Mayor Declares Rent Emergency Amid A.I. Housing Frenzy. “San Francisco has long had high housing costs, but the current atmosphere has been unusually difficult for residents to navigate. The housing frenzy has become so extreme that some landlords and apartment owners have offered tens of thousands of dollars to encourage longtime residents to leave their rent-controlled apartments.”
“I interviewed Donald Trump when he was running for president in 2015, and at that time, when he was the one sitting next to me, he seemed to have no problem with the idea of talk show hosts interviewing candidates. In fact, he was very eager to come back for another interview, which he did just before he became the nominee in 2016. But for some reason, and I can’t seem to figure out what that reason is, something has changed.” Jimmy Kimmel returned from his Summer break (I still can’t believe he left me out here alone all that time) to celebrate his 4,000th episode. And by 4,001, Trump’s FCC is already on his (and the Constitution’s) case. Jimmy Kimmel’s Interview With James Talarico Heading to YouTube to Avoid FCC Hassle. (With any luck, it will end up being Kimmel’s most streamed interview of all time.)
A Distinct Extinct Possibility: Were you hoping that all the AI experts would come out and say the recent warnings about the threat to humans has been totally overblown? Well, this headline won’t help. Top AI pioneers reaffirm Anthropic researcher’s human extinction warning. Meanwhile, lawmakers are at a loss for how to regulate AI as insiders warn of impending doom. Lawmakers are woefully late to a problem that would be difficult to address under any circumstances. If you missed it yesterday: This is life Between the Hammer and the Anvil. “Imagine you’re standing in front of a button. If you push that button, it will set off a Rube Goldberg machine series of events that will wow the world with unimaginable advances in science, health, and other endeavors, empower like-minded nations, and result in unthinkable riches. But the machine’s final step is to drop a massive anvil on you and the rest of humankind. Would you push the button?”
+ Hornet’s Nest Stirred: “To hear the Trump administration tell it, the war with Iran is all but over. U.S. military posture tells a different story: Naval forces are being positioned for a sustained presence at least through the end of the year, keeping open the option of escalation.” Trump Is Preparing for a Long War. That preparation is necessary, in part, because the US isn’t necessarily driving the course of the war at this point. “Houthi forces in Yemen are making a concerted drive to take over the country’s Red Sea coast fully, claiming control of the key port of Mocha in the most serious wave of fighting with the Saudi-backed government in years, bringing the Iran-aligned group closer to full control of a key shipping route.”
+ Outbreaking News: The current Ebola crisis isn’t getting as much attention from the media (or the US government) as past outbreaks. That doesn’t mean it’s not bigger. ‘I’ve never seen anything like this’ — A U.S. doctor treats Ebola’s youngest victims.
+ We’re Really Cooking Now: “Earth cooked to its hottest month on record in August, blowing far past a key climate threshold, due to the dangerous double whammy of human-caused climate change and a supersized El Niño.” Some humans still may try to deny climate change. Gray whales are all pretty much believers. Gray whales are washing up dead on the West Coast. The reason is alarming.
+ OM(L)G: “The company’s TV sets scan Wi-Fi networks for nearby devices, record audio logs through their microphones, and use audio and video sampling to recognize exactly what you’re watching from across the TV.” LG TVs caught spying even when offline or on standby.
+ Ocean Ography: From surfers to sea creatures, here are the Winners of Ocean Photographer of the Year 2026
“The Hungarian Association of Cemetery Maintainers and Operators organizes the contest to showcase the grave-digging trade and its skills, and shake off death-related taboos. The dry summer-baked soil in the public cemetery in Nyergesújfalu, northern Hungary, proved a worthy adversary for the 19 two-man teams. They huffed and puffed and sweated as they raced for the title of quickest-dug and most stylish grave.” Competitors dig deep in Hungarian grave-digging contest. (Wait until they find out how fast AI can dig our graves...)