2025-06-25 01:49:58
Before Trump's first term, people used to nervously joke that world affairs and even wars would be managed via Tweets. That disquieting prediction proved far-fetched as we now know these matters are managed via Truth Social posts. The weirdness of the Trump posts never seems to be fully reflected in the news coverage. Here's just a little sample: "Israel & Iran came to me, almost simultaneously, and said, ‘PEACE!’ I knew the time was NOW. The World, and the Middle East, are the real WINNERS. Both Nations will see tremendous LOVE, PEACE, AND PROSPERITY in their futures. They have so much to gain, and yet, so much to lose if they stray from the road of RIGHTEOUSNESS & TRUTH." That post led to a headline that should probably be put in the 2025 time capsule: Trump hails ‘love, peace’ in Middle East as Iran missiles send Israelis to shelters. (What's so funny about peace, love, and misunderstanding?) We're not the only ones being led into the future by the odd ramblings of Trump's social media posts. NYT(Gift Article): Trump’s Cease-Fire Announcement Catches His Own Top Officials by Surprise. But ultimately (regardless of way things are always covered around these parts), America is not the main character in this story. This is a regional story, one that has altered the playing field in the Middle East in ways that no one would have predicted. Post October 7, Israel has dramatically damaged Iran's proxies, its military might, much of its nuclear program, and its reputation as a regional terror agent and power. What will happen from this point is impossible to predict. One hopes it's time to stop the bombing in Gaza and to work with the Iranian people to achieve a more free democracy. But we could just as easily see the tenuous ceasefire break, a weakened Iranian government turn its ire inward and create even harsher conditions inside the country, or realize the regime is using the lessons of the last few days as evidence that it needs to move more aggressively than ever to achieve a nuclear weapon. LET'S HOPE FOR THE BEST.
+ "After Israel decimated Iran’s air defenses in a missile skirmish and crippled its main ally, Hezbollah, in October, Netanyahu issued a general order to prepare for a strike, the current and former officials said. Israeli intelligence officials began huddling to compile lists of dozens of Iranian nuclear scientists and military leaders who could be targeted for assassination. Israel’s air force began to systematically take out air defenses in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq to clear the skies for future bombing runs against Iran." WaPo (Gift Article): Netanyahu decided on Iran war last year, then sought to recruit Trump.
+ Josh Marshall: Tweet Storms and Bunker Busters—War in a Time of Trump.
+ We can't really analyze the US decision to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities without going back to the moment in 2018 when "President Trump tore up the agreement and replaced it with … nothing." Antony Blinken in the NYT (Gift Article): Trump’s Iran Strike Was a Mistake. I Hope It Succeeds. "I wish that he had played out the diplomatic hand we left him. Now that the military die has been cast, I can only hope that we inflicted maximum damage — damage that gives the president the leverage he needs to finally deliver the deal he has so far failed to achieve."
+ The New Yorker: Can Ayatollah Khamenei, and Iran’s Theocracy, Survive This War?
+ "In the 48 hours since the strikes, Trump’s top advisers have given differing answers about the fate of Iran’s stockpiles of enriched uranium, which, satellite imagery suggests, Iranian authorities may have relocated prior to the strikes. Iranian leaders, meanwhile, have given no indication that they are ready to surrender the nuclear program. Facing the likelihood of ongoing U.S. and Israeli attacks, they may be more likely to make the long-feared decision to try to race toward a bomb." The Atlantic (Gift Article): The True Impact of Trump’s Strike on Iran.
+ Where was Russia? That's a question Iran's leaders are probably asking, too. The fighting between Iran and Israel raises questions about Russia’s influence in the Middle East.
+ "We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f**k they’re doing." So said the President about early violations of the ceasefire. As of this moment, it's holding. Here's the latest from CNN, NBC, BBC, and Times of Israel.
With the ceasefire holding in the Middle East, it's time to go back to worrying about America's war on America. "The Supreme Court on Monday blocked a lower court order that required 15 days notice to individuals the Trump administration is trying to deport to countries other than their own. The high court's action, at least for now, reversed the lower court's order requiring that those being deported have enough time to contact their lawyers and present evidence that would show their lives would be in danger if deported to certain countries." U.S. Supreme Court allows — for now — third-country deportations. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote: "The government has made clear in word and deed that it feels itself unconstrained by law, free to deport anyone, anywhere without notice or an opportunity be heard ... This is not the first time the court closes its eyes to noncompliance, nor, I fear, will it be the last."
+ Court order? What court order? "A senior Justice Department official, Emil Bove III, told subordinates he was willing to ignore court orders to fulfill the president’s aggressive deportation campaign, according to a whistle-blower complaint by a department lawyer who has since been fired ... In Mr. Reuveni’s telling, Mr. Bove discussed disregarding court orders, adding an expletive for emphasis, and other top law enforcement officials showed themselves ready to stonewall judges or lie to them to get their way." NYT (Gift Article): Justice Dept. Leader Suggested Violating Court Orders, Whistle-Blower Says. (This would be an even bigger deal if the majority in highest court frowned on such behavior.)
The overturning of Roe and other attacks on choice haven't diminished the overall number of abortions in America. That's mostly because of the increase of medication abortions — taking pills to end a pregnancy now makes up 63 percent of all abortions in the country. Which brings us to the war on medication abortions. Bloomberg (Gift Article): The New Assault on Abortion Is Quieter — But Just as Dangerous. A "shift has been facilitated by telehealth, which has allowed women living in states with — and without — bans to more easily access timely care...However, all that progress could be undone by the FDA, which has been ordered to review the data on mifepristone by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr."
"A year ago, a 1,200-acre stretch of farmland outside New Carlisle, Ind., was an empty cornfield. Now, seven Amazon data centers rise up from the rich soil, each larger than a football stadium. Over the next several years, Amazon plans to build around 30 data centers at the site, packed with hundreds of thousands of specialized computer chips. With hundreds of thousands of miles of fiber connecting every chip and computer together, the entire complex will form one giant machine intended just for artificial intelligence. The facility will consume 2.2 gigawatts of electricity — enough to power a million homes. Each year, it will use millions of gallons of water to keep the chips from overheating. And it was built with a single customer in mind: the A.I. start-up Anthropic, which aims to create an A.I. system that matches the human brain." And the whole thing is being built for one customer. NYT (Gift Article): At Amazon’s Biggest Data Center, Everything Is Supersized for AI. (If the history of computing is any indicator, you'll probably be able to fit this amount of computing power into your pocket in at some point.)
+ In ancient times (about two years ago), everyone was advising young people to prepare for the job market of the future by learning to code. But then the tech industry coded those jobs into oblivion. The Computer-Science Bubble Is Bursting. "Artificial intelligence is ideally suited to replacing the very type of person who built it."
Paving Paradise: "The Trump administration said on Monday that it would open up 58 million acres of back country in national forests to road construction and development, removing protections that had been in place for a quarter century." NYT(Gift Article): Trump Administration to End Protections for 58 Million Acres of National Forests. "Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the Clinton-era rule barring road construction and logging was outdated and 'absurd.'" (He's not wrong. Nature is becoming outdated...)
+ Friend Zone: Canada and EU sign defense pact amid strained US relations and global instability.
+ I FTC What You Did There: "The all-Republican Federal Trade Commission agreed to approve a $13.5 billion ad merger if it includes a ban on steering ad dollars away from platforms or publishers based on 'political or ideological viewpoints.' ... The FTC commonly places conditions on companies seeking to merge through consent orders to prevent anticompetitive effects, but this unusual provision addresses a particular complaint of congressional Republicans and former 'First Buddy' Elon Musk."
+ Tahoe Tragedy: "The intensity of the thunderstorm surprised even forecasters, who had predicted some rain but nothing like the squall that lashed the southern part of the lake around 3 p.m., said meteorologist Matthew Chyba with the National Weather Service office in Reno, Nevada. Winds topped 35 mph and waves swelled up more than 8 feet." A really crazy, tragic, and as far as I know unprecedented freak storm in Tahoe. Last body found after boat capsizes on Lake Tahoe in storm, bringing death toll to 8.
+ Catastrofees: "World Bank pandemic bonds paid out only after death tolls passed a threshold. They’re part of a booming market where investors turn calamity into capital." The Business of Betting on Catastrophe. (It's 2025. Bet the over.)
+ Country Code: "As a kid growing up in a small town in Kentucky, Ashley Gorley was obsessed not just with songs but with the way listeners reacted to them. He studied the weekly radio countdowns to try to understand: Why did this track climb to No. 3, while another only got to No. 25? What made some songs better than others? How did certain hits just sound so catchy?" 83 number one songs later, it's sure seems like he figured it out. WaPo (Gift Article): This songwriter shaped today’s country music. You’ve never heard of him.
We knew the OKC Thunder was a young and inexperienced team. But we didn't expect them to need tips on popping the cork on bottles of champagne. (Something tells me they'll get pretty good at it over the next few days...)
+ "Guitarist David Howell Evans, known as The Edge, was born in Essex in England to Welsh parents and as a result never held Irish citizenship even though he has lived in Ireland since he was one." U2 guitarist The Edge becomes Irish citizen. "I'm a little tardy with the paper work..."
2025-06-24 03:45:41
On Fox News, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt explained that "Nobody knows what it means to accomplish peace through strength better than President Trump. He is the one who came up with that motto and that foreign policy doctrine." Of course, peace through strength doesn't actually mean bombing other countries, it means not having to. And though it will surely shock many Fox News viewers, Trump didn't invent the doctrine or the motto. Roman Emperor Hadrian seems to have first dibs around 1900 years ago. In America, the doctrine of peace through strength has been around since George Washington was delivering his state of the union addresses, and the phrase peace through strength has been an Air Force motto since 1944, was a core message of Barry Goldwater's 1964 campaign, is on the side of a US aircraft carrier, has been used as a book title, and was most famously deployed by Ronald Reagan (who was also the first presidential candidate with the campaign slogan, Let's Make America Great Again). This is all a long way of saying that this administration is addicted to lying—whether that means relatively small lies about who came up with a doctrine or a slogan or really big lies across just about every policy issue. The constant lying makes it even more difficult—especially in the short term—to analyze the causes and effects of the massive decision to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. Was Iran really that close to a nuclear weapon? (US intel said no, Trump said yes.) Were the nuclear facilities in Iran really obliterated? (Trump says yes, but he started doing so way before it would have possible to make such an assessment). Exactly how much damage did we do to Iran's nuclear program? (Trump said Iran's nuclear sites were 'obliterated,' but questions remain about enriched uranium.) Is America just focused on a one and done strike to the nuclear sites or are we after regime change? (The top figures in the administration hit all the Sunday talk shows to insist that regime change wasn't a goal and then a few hours later, Trump said that maybe it was.) And these are the relatively simple questions. The bigger more complex ones will depend on how Iran responds and how America responds to that response and so on. And trying to understand and apply broader meaning to these realities on the ground will be made even more difficult by the fog of war layered beneath of the fog of misinformation that comes out of this administration every time they speak. Here's what we know for sure. The plans to use US bombers and bunker busters to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities has been in place for years, across several administrations. The next part of the plan is up to the team Trump has assembled. If I said we had a good idea of what that will look like, then I'd be lying, too.
+ "I find that rational people have trouble accepting this absence of forethought. Everyone wants to believe in the existence of a three-dimensional chess game in which the American president has some secret long-term strategy. But he never does." Anne Applebaum: Trump has no strategy.
+ David Frum thinks the bombing campaign was the right move (and given Iran's current weakness after decades of terror sponsorship, region-destabilizing, and a determination to destroy Israel, it's not difficult to make that argument). But that doesn't mean the right move was made by the right person. The Atlantic(Gift Article): Right Move, Wrong Team. "Trump did the right thing, but he did that right thing in the wrongest possible way: without Congress, without competent leadership in place to defend the United States against terrorism, and while waging a culture war at home against half the nation. Trump has not put U.S. boots on the ground to fight Iran, but he has put U.S. troops on the ground for an uninvited military occupation of California."
+ Frank Bruni in the NYT: Trump Goes to War. And These Are His Advisers? "When an American president makes an especially weighty decision, there’s some small comfort in knowing that seasoned, steady aides were in the mix, complementing the commander in chief’s instincts with their expertise. President Trump dropped 15-ton bombs on uranium enrichment sites in Iran with Tulsi Gabbard as his director of national intelligence and Pete Hegseth as his defense secretary."
+ Iran has fired missiles at US bases in Qatar. So far, there are no reports of casualties. Is this the start of a wider effort or just a limited response to save face? That answer will be key to how things play out in the near term. The Iran of today is a far different country and threat than it was just a few months ago. See today's second item for more. Here's the latest from CNN, Times of Israel, and BBC.
"In the end, the October 7 massacre Sinwar ordered did not cause the destruction of Israel but instead led to the dismantling of its enemies. Hamas is largely destroyed, and most of its leaders, including Sinwar, are dead, assassinated by Israel. Hezbollah, in Lebanon, is comprehensively weakened. Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, Iran’s main Arab ally, is in exile in Moscow, his country now led by Sunni Muslims hostile to Iran’s leaders. Iran’s skies are under the control of the Israeli Air Force, and its $500 billion nuclear program appears to be, at least partially, rubble and dust." The Atlantic (Gift Article): Sinwar’s March of Folly. "What is certain is that the conventional components of the Axis of Resistance are in dismal shape. The demolition of this axis happened because Israel, after the humiliation on October 7, reconstituted its fighting and intelligence capabilities in remarkably effective (and severely uncompromising) ways, and because Sinwar and his allies fundamentally misunderstood their enemy."
+ "Even though leading members of Netanyahu’s military and defense establishment have resigned or apologized for their roles in the tragedy of October 7th, he has so far dodged any real accounting, rebuffed any inquiry. As a result, for the first year after the attacks, his poll numbers were dreadful. Political observers in Israel across the ideological spectrum talked about when, not if, Netanyahu would finally fall from power." Things may have changed. The New Yorker: With His Eyes on History, Benjamin Netanyahu Aims for Political Resurrection.
"Apparently protein shakes and protein bars don’t cut it anymore. Americans are so obsessed with protein that even an Arnold Palmer comes infused with it. Perhaps protein iced tea was inevitable ... But even compared with other food trends, the protein situation has gotten out of hand. Just last week, Starbucks announced that it’s piloting a high-protein, banana-flavored cold foam. There is protein water, Kardashian-branded protein popcorn, and “macho” protein pasta sauce. If you want to get drunk while bulking up, consider a protein-fortified pale ale or a “Swoleberry” spiked protein seltzer. Nothing is safe from the protein pandemonium. Name a food, and the protein version of it probably exists." The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Protein Madness Is Just Getting Started. The article doesn't really mention it, but one of the drivers of the protein craze is the prevalence of people with high blood sugar using monitors to track their levels. Adding protein (and fiber) to a meal that features carbs can somewhat limit the associated sugar spike. All that said, when protein's popularity hits its inevitable peak, you know we're gonna find out how terrible it is for us...
"Denigrated and dismissed by a basketballing commentariat who’ve spent much of this season ruing the modern NBA’s dearth of charisma, Oklahoma City and Indiana played as if stung by the laugh lines, launching from both ends of the court with a kind of mad, symphonic intensity." The NBA Finals were great. The final game, and the win by the OKC Thunder, was somewhat muted by the devastating injury to Indiana's Tyrese Haliburton, but still capped a remarkable season by a remarkably young and likable team. Thunder’s thrilling nerd juggernaut ushers in NBA’s nice guy era. "With their love of group interviews, relentless positivity, and unfortunate penchant for barking, this vintage of the Oklahoma City Thunder often seems more like an a cappella troupe than a basketball team, a band of barber shop Harlem Globetrotters ready to pop up on the campus of our collective psyche at any moment and begin a relentless assault of harmonization and good vibes. Head coach Mark Daigneault is fond of describing them as an “uncommon” team – but what may be most uncommon about them is how supremely, relatably dorky they are." (Now that they're champions, I'm pretty sure fans of other teams will find a way to hate them!)
+ "Even if Haliburton isn’t on the court next season, the Pacers’ influence should still be seen in ways that stretch from subtle to overt. There are no moral victories in the NBA Finals, but this was a special team. And right now, even as they suffer through the pangs of regret and what could’ve been, the Pacers should take pride in knowing that, in a copycat league, there’s a good chance no team will motivate more stylistic plagiarism over the next few years than these Indiana Pacers will." The NBA Won’t Forget About the 2024-25 Pacers.
The Other War: One big question about the widening of the war on Iran is how it will impact the defense of Ukraine. On one hand, Iran has been supplying Russia with a lot of drones and that could be interrupted. On the other hand, America, NATO, and the rest of the world are distracted at a moment when Zelensky needs their attention. Russian attacks on Ukraine kill at least 14 people.
+ Data Center Centralization: "Last month, Sam Altman, the chief executive of the artificial intelligence company OpenAI, donned a helmet, work boots and a luminescent high-visibility vest to visit the construction site of the company’s new data center project in Texas. Bigger than New York’s Central Park, the estimated $60 billion project, which has its own natural gas plant, will be one of the most powerful computing hubs ever created when completed as soon as next year. Around the same time as Mr. Altman’s visit to Texas, Nicolás Wolovick, a computer science professor at the National University of Córdoba in Argentina, was running what counts as one of his country’s most advanced A.I. computing hubs. It was in a converted room at the university, where wires snaked between aging A.I. chips and server computers." NYT (Gift Article): The Global A.I. Divide.
+ Imitator Tots: "Words like 'prowess' and 'tapestry,' which are favored by ChatGPT, are creeping into our vocabulary, while words like 'bolster,' 'unearth,' and 'nuance,' words less favored by ChatGPT, have declined in use. Researchers are already documenting shifts in the way we speak and communicate as a result of ChatGPT — and they see this linguistic influence accelerating into something much larger." The Verge: You sound like ChatGPT.
+ Meatpacking Byproducts: "For decades, this old railroad hub was stuck. Some employers departed, Union Pacific cut rail-yard positions and young people fled. Now, officials are pinning their hopes on a slaughterhouse, which promises an economic jolt but represents a risky bet and a crucial question: Will Americans work there?" WSJ (Gift Article): A New Meatpacking Plant’s Novel Pitch to Attract American Workers.
+ He Delivered: "Smith once told The Associated Press that he came up with the name Federal Express because he wanted the company to sound big and important when in fact it was a start-up operation with a future far from assured." His company definitely grew into its name. FedEx founder Fred Smith, who revolutionized package delivery, dies at 80.
+ Moby Slick: "Killer whales have been observed mutually grooming each other with a type of seaweed, the first known instance of a marine animal using tools in a way that was previously thought to be the preserve of primates such as humans."
"Firefighters had to rescue a man who got stuck in the chimneyof a Connecticut parks building while trying to retrieve his dog from a bathroom when the doors automatically locked for the night." (The man was arrested. The dog was like, "Why'd you wake me up?")
2025-06-21 02:44:38
Cogito, ergo sum. So said René Descartes. For the few of us who don't speak Latin, that usually translates as I think therefore I am. Eminem updated Decartes slightly in the year 2000 when he philosophized, Sum quidquid dicis me esse (or I am whatever you say I am). Modern humans are faced with another twist to philosophical conundrum of how to define existence. If I let ChatGPT think for me, then what am I? Professor Brian Klaas recently reflected on what his students are becoming in an era when the student essay has been effectively murdered. "Every piece of technology can either make us more human or less human. It can liberate us from the mundane to unleash creativity and connection, or it can shackle us to mindless robotic drudgery of isolated meaninglessness ... When artificial intelligence is used to diagnose cancer or automate soul-crushing tasks that require vapid toiling, it makes us more human and should be celebrated. But when it sucks out the core process of advanced cognition, cutting-edge tools can become an existential peril. In the formative stages of education, we are now at risk of stripping away the core competency that makes our species thrive: learning not what to think, but how to think." The Death of the Student Essay—and the Future of Cognition. "Artificial intelligence is already killing off important parts of the human experience. But one of its most consequential murders—so far—is the demise of a longstanding rite of passage for students worldwide: an attempt to synthesize complex information and condense it into compelling analytical prose. It’s a training ground for the most quintessentially human aptitudes, combining how to think with how to use language to communicate." (I synthesize the entire internet down to a few pithy blurbs every day. Until AI rips this laptop from my cold, dead heads, I'll continue to define myself as I always have: I Yam What I Yam and Dats All What I Yam!. Or, roughly, Sum quod sum, et id est totum quod sum!)
President Trump has delayed his decision on bunker busting Iran's nuclear facilities for two weeks. In theory, this could make room for negotiations or provide enough time for Israel to knock out more of Iran's defenses that could target US bombers or military bases in the region. Or it could just be more weak sauce from a guy who constantly promises things in two weeks. Here's three straight minutes of him doing just that. However America responds, "the Iranian regime finds itself in its most difficult position 46 years after the revolution that brought it to power." Roger Cohen in the NYT (Gift Article): An Islamic Republic With Its Back Against the Wall. "Whether the current difficulty facing Iran’s regime will lead to its demise remains to be seen. Isolated cries of 'Death to Khamenei' rise into the night sky, but popular protests are impossible under bombs, and always risky under the thumb of the government. There are no obvious leaders to steer any political transition for the same reason."
+ Did Trump and Bibi work together to pull off the ultimate psyop on Iran by scheduling a negotiation and then launching an attack just before it was to take place? Maybe. But this analysis from Julia Ioffe in Puck seems more on the mark: "In the week since the Israeli attack on Iran commenced, it’s been looking more and more like the story of that brilliant Trump–Bibi psyop was itself a psyop, with Trump as the target. Whatever the president’s level of involvement in, or assent to, Israel’s bombing campaign—and all we have now are conflicting accounts—it’s clear that Bibi knows how to manipulate his counterpart, possibly right into a war that Trump has claimed he doesn’t want." (I'm no fan of Bibi, but puting him in a complex geopolitical negotiation with Trump, Witkoff, and Huckabee isn't even close to a fair fight.)
+ Israelis have to deal with constant missile warnings that send them to underground shelters. Iranians have to deal with getting no warnings at all. Iran’s internet blackout leaves public in darkand creates an uneven picture of the war with Israel.
+ Iran appoints new IRGC intel chief after two predecessors killed by Israel. (How do you even begin to write that want ad?)
"The companies that build Americans' everyday digital tools are now getting into the business of war. Tech giants are adapting consumer AI systems for battlefield use, meaning every ChatGPT query and Instagram scroll now potentially trains military targeting algorithms. Meanwhile, safety guardrails are being dismantled just as these dual-use technologies become central to warfare." How Big Tech learned to love America's military.
+ "The Army also says that these men will not be sent to battle, so they will not be risking their lives in potential theaters of war in Iran, Greenland, or downtown Los Angeles, California. Their mission is to use their undeniable expertise to school their colleagues and superiors in the military on how to utilize cutting-edge technologies for efficiency and deadly force." Wired: What Big Tech's Band of Execs Will Do in the Army. (We've come a long way since the blink tag.)
What to Watch: Families Like Ours on Netflix is a really solid series that imagines that Denmark's flooding problems have gotten so bad that whole country needs to shut down, an eventuality that turns every Dane into a refugee.
+ What to Book: If you're interested in the topics covered in today's top story on writing, learning, and thinking in the age of AI, you can go much deeper with John Warner's, More Than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI. As Dave Eggers says, Warner "reminds us only humans can write and only humans can read, and that writing is thinking—and if we allow machines to write for ourselves, then we’ve allowed them to think for us, too. And that is the sorriest thing a human could do."
+ What to Sport: This has been an unexpectedly awesome NBA finals between Indiana and OKC and its taken us all the way to one of the greatest things in sports: A game seven. Don't miss it on Sunday. An NBA Finals for the Ages, a Game 7 for Immortality.
Off Guard: "A federal appeals court in California has ruled that President Trump can maintain control over California National Guard troops in Los Angeles — rejecting at least temporarily Gov. Gavin Newsom's attempt to take back control of the Guard." And how a parking lot at Dodger stadium became ground zero for the ICE in LA debate, even though it's unclear what ICE was actually doing there in the first place.
+ Holidays and Confused: Juneteenth Goes Uncelebrated at White House as Trump Complains About ‘Too Many’ Holidays. (I wonder what it could be about this particular holiday that set him off…)
+ The Air of Our Ways: "Experts say it should be possible to reverse the trend. 'The entire thing about this whole disease is it’s 100 percent preventable,' said Dr. Robert Cohen, a pulmonologist at the University of Illinois Chicago who has studied the disease for decades. 'It’s not an act of God or an act of nature. It’s not something out of our control. In a wealthy country with a wealthy economy, we should be able to do better.'" NYT (Gift Article): How Black Lung Came Roaring Back to Coal Country. "But as President Trump aims to revitalize the mining industry, doctors and researchers like Dr. Cohen also worry that federal government cuts are hampering efforts to find a solution."
+ Protest March: "Khalil isn’t accused of breaking any laws during the protests at Columbia. The international affairs graduate student served as a negotiator and spokesperson for student activists. He wasn’t among the demonstrators arrested, but his prominence in news coverage and willingness to speak publicly made him a target of critics." Judge says he will order Columbia University protester Mahmoud Khalil freed from detention.
+ Full Pedal Jacket: An American cyclist who got trapped in Iran talks about his tense escape as Israeli bombs kept falling. (People following on Strava were like, um, dude?...)
+ How to Get your Irish up: How did Ireland, a country of 5.4 million, end up with the second-largest goods-trade imbalance with the U.S., behind China? Two factors: Tariffs and weight loss drugs. WSJ (Gift Article): How Weight-Loss Drugs Blew Out the U.S. Trade Deficit.
+ Seed Investing: Telegram boss to leave fortune to over 100 children he has fathered.
The U.S. has approved the world’s only twice-a-year shot to prevent HIV, the first step in an anticipated global rollout that could protect millions. (Like all good news in modern medicine, this one could be hampered by the current administration.)
+ "Among the revelers in crop tops, short skirts and high heels, one group stood out: gray-haired retirement-home residents, many in their 80s or 90s. The men wore suits with pocket handkerchiefs, and the women, in mascara and red lipstick, wore chunky necklaces and tops with sequins." NYT (Gift Article): They’re Over 80. You Can Find Them in the Club. (The thing I like most about aging is not having to go to the club anymore.)
+ "The precipitous drops have astounded public officials and health-policy experts, who have traveled across the country in an attempt to learn the formula and replicate it. Governors, members of Congress and sheriffs from as far away as Alaska have all come through, along with an acting U.S. drug czar." WSJ (Gift Article): One Community Took a Radical Approach to Fighting Addiction. It’s Working.
+ Michigan wildlife experts finally were able to trap a black bear and remove a large lid that was stuck around his neck – after two years.
+ 3-pound puppy left in trash is rescued, now thriving.
+ NYT: Friday Is the Longest Day of the Year in the Northern Hemisphere. (Who are we kidding? In 2025, every day is the longest day of the year.)
2025-06-20 02:15:02
America has the strongest military in the world and our geographic position between two oceans and two allies gives us added advantages. But the battlefield is changing dramatically and new tactics and technologies are leveling the playing field, making even powerful countries vulnerable to inside threats from outside actors. Traditional military might doesn't provide the same advantages it used to and the threats we face exist far below the protective layer a golden dome might offer. "The spectacular surprise attacks that Ukraine and Israel have pulled off against their enemies suggest just how serious such penetration can become. In Operation Spiderweb, Ukraine smuggled attack drones on trucks with unwitting drivers deep inside of Russia, and then used artificial intelligence to simultaneously attack four military bases and destroy a significant number of strategic bombers, which are part of Russia’s nuclear triad. Israel created a real pager-production company in Hungary to infiltrate Hezbollah’s global supply chains and booby-trap its communication devices, killing or maiming much of the group’s leadership in one go. Last week, in Operation Rising Lion, Israel assassinated many top Iranian military leaders simultaneously and attacked the country’s nuclear facilities, thanks in part to a drone base it built inside Iran." Thomas Wright in The Atlantic(Gift Article): The Trojan Horse Will Come for Us Too. It's a bad time to be losing many of our best and brightest minds in the government and to be losing our focus on actual threats while we fight invented ones. As Wright explains, "Those responsible for homeland security should not be chasing laborers on farms and busboys in restaurants in order to meet quotas imposed by the White House. The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East are giving Americans a glimpse into the battles of the future—and a warning. It is time to prepare."
It's worth noting that among those who don't think the administration's top military and intel appointees are up to the task is the man who appointed them. When confronted with recent statements from National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard who recently stated that the US intel community did not believe Iran was close to having a nuclear weapon, Trump responded, "I don’t care what she said." And she's not the only one he's not interested in hearing from. "As Trump faces a critical decision about whether to join Israel’s military strikes against Iran’s nuclear program, perhaps the most momentous of his presidency, neither Gabbard nor Hegseth are playing starring roles as members of Trump’s inner circle of advisers." WaPo: Navigating Iran crisis, Trump relies on experience over star power. (But the final decision is up to Trump, which should worry you.)
+ White House: Trump to make a decision on whether to attack Iran 'within two weeks.' It's incredible he's going with the two weeks thing again. A two week deadline given to Putin recently passed and he's been saying things are coming in two weeks since early his first term. (Infrastructure week is still coming in two weeks.)
+ As Trump and his advisors deliberate over whether or not to get directly involved in the Iran-Israel war, the two sides have accelerated their attacks. An Iranian missile hit an Israeli hospital, after which Israel's defense minister said that Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei "can no longer be allowed to exist." Netanyahu says the Israel's efforts are "ahead of the schedule we set — both in terms of timing and results." Here's the latest from Times of Israel, NBC News, and The Guardian.
"For a few weeks after the president’s announcement, I actively feared for our safety. At one point, my chest ached so badly I thought I was having a heart attack. I booked consultations with a financial adviser, a family-law attorney and a global relocation specialist. I stayed up late, scrolling on my phone, researching countries we could flee to, developing a detailed escape plan. And then I realized, this is exactly what our state legislature wanted. Fear. Spectacle. Submission." NYT (Gift Article): My Daughter Was at the Center of the Supreme Court Case on Trans Care. Our Hearts Are Broken.
"The hens were unaware of the heist. They had done their part: the shuffling around, the squatting down, the gentle plop! to release one perfect orb, ready to be tucked into a carton and shipped to the grocery aisles and diner griddles and breakfast tables of America. Before the product of their labor was an item on a police report, it was a shipment headed from Maryland to Florida: 280,000 brown eggs, sizes large and extra large." WaPo(Gift Article) on one of the weirder crimes in a decidedly weird moment in America. The Great Egg Heist. "The trucker had been awake for almost 24 hours. Thinking his job was done, he said, he decided to lie down in the cab of his truck while the eggs were unloaded. He fell asleep. When he woke up, it was dark. The people were gone. The eggs were gone." (This is disturbingly close to how Father's Day brunch played out at my house.)
Surgical Strike: "The bans and restrictions were motivated by a commitment 'to protecting our nation and its citizens by upholding the highest standard of national security and public safety through our visa process,' the State Department official said." And what better way to protect us than to prevent medical residents from entering the country. Trump Travel Restrictions Bar Residents Needed at U.S. Hospitals. "The American medical system relies heavily on physicians from other countries. One in five U.S. physicians was born and educated overseas." Meanwhile, the US will now review social media for foreign student visa applications. How long until they start reviewing social media for Americans to decide who can stay?
+ Food For Thought (And Eating): "Middle East peace, climate change, Ukraine — if Sisyphus were assigned one of today’s global problems, he’d plead to be returned to rock rolling. So let’s focus for a moment on a global challenge that we can actually solve: starvation." It's not expensive. We've gotten pretty good at it. So why end these programs just to be cruel? Nick Kristof: This Problem Is Easy to Solve.
+ Droidian Slip: One of ChatGPT's popular uses just got skewered by Stanford researchers. "Chatbots like ChatGPT should not replace therapists because of their dangerous tendencies to express stigma, encourage delusions and respond inappropriately in critical moments." (OK, so then chatbots shouldn't replace good therapists.)
+ Tesla Chainsaw Massacre: "Something similar to DOGE’s steep staffing cuts has been playing out at Tesla. About a third of the executives who stood onstage with him two years ago have left Tesla or been ousted. Many other high-profile company leaders have resigned. Just since April, Tesla has lost its head of software engineering, head of battery technology, and head of humanoid robotics. Tens of thousands of rank-and-file employees left last year amid waves of mass layoffs. At the end of the day, Tesla is the Musk show." The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Tesla Brain Drain.
+ Read Allowed: "Read, 45, was accused of killing John O'Keefe in January 2022 by hitting him with her Lexus SUV and leaving him to die in the snow after a night of heavy drinking. Her defense team blamed O'Keefe's fellow law enforcement officers for killing him in a house fight and dragging his body outside, then tampering with evidence in order to frame Read." In a closely watched case that will likely result in multiple documentaries and Netflix limited series, Karen Read's second murder trial ends with an acquittal.
+ Go Jump in the Lakers: "The Buss family is entering into an agreement to sell majority ownership of the Los Angeles Lakers to Mark Walter for a franchise valuation of approximately $10 billion, sources told ESPN on Wednesday, the highest ever for a U.S. professional sports franchise."
+ Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Go Back in The Theater: "Fifty years ago, Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” terrified moviegoers. Its shocks still reverberate. Its blueprint is now so recognizable that you have probably seen 'Jaws' — even if you haven’t actually seen 'Jaws.'" How ‘Jaws’ Made a Template for the Modern Blockbuster. And the two musical notes that changed Hollywood forever.
"The driver tested negative for alcohol, the police added. The police did not identify the driver but released a photo of him, standing by the vehicle and dressed in a suit, talking to a police officer. According to the Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera, the man was in a state of confusion." A Man Drove a Car Down Rome’s Spanish Steps. It Did Not Go Great.
2025-06-19 02:52:40
"Democracy, Mr. Obama said, requires government workers, judges and lawyers at the Justice Department to uphold the Constitution and follow the law. 'It requires them to take that oath seriously, and when that isn’t happening we start drifting into something that is not consistent with American democracy, It is consistent with autocracies. It is consistent with Hungary under Orban ... We’re not there yet completely, but I think that we are dangerously close to normalizing behavior like that. And we need people both outside government and inside government saying, 'Let’s not go over that cliff because it’s hard to recover.'" NYT (Gift Article): Obama, Back in Public Eye, Offers a Careful Warning of a Democratic Slide. Some will be relieved that Obama is speaking about this issue. Others will be disappointed that he's doing so in such measured tones. Here's my take. We were warned for years about what another Trump term would mean for democracy. And while many of those issuing the warnings were written off as being too hysterical, it's only taken a few months to realize they were actually being too understated. At this point, with basically every warning light flashing and millions of people taking to the streets, I think we get it. We've been warned. Yes, I want commentators, artists, comedians, late night talk-show hosts, journalists, and brain-addled newsletter writers to keep reminding us of the danger to our democracy. But, when it comes to politicians, I think we're ready (maybe even desperate) for something more. Maybe the warnings are the job of yesterday's leaders. The job of tomorrow's leader is to tell us that we're going to get us out of this mess and lead us on that path—someone needs to emerge to take a thousands protests and turn them into one grand movement. We've been told how close we are to going over "that cliff." It's time for someone to tell us where to go instead.
+ If American democracy is on the edge of the cliff, then American decency is a red splat inside of a chalk outline on the rocks below. As I wrote yesterday, today's version of Joseph Welch wouldn't even bother asking, "At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" He'd already know the answer: On Mike Lee and the descent of decency. Indecent Exposure.
"In a dissent for the court’s three liberal justices that she summarized aloud in the courtroom, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, 'By retreating from meaningful judicial review exactly where it matters most, the court abandons transgender children and their families to political whims. In sadness, I dissent.'" Supreme Court OKs Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care for kids, a setback for transgender rights. (It's a setback to be sure, but it's hardly a surprise. These are the kinds of decisions this SCOTUS majority was molded to make.)
+ Related: Trump Administration Will End LGBTQ Suicide Prevention Service.
In the early days of the tech boom, the number of employees a startup had was seen by investors as a key metric of growth. These days, "adding talent, once a sign of surging sales and confidence in the future, now means leaders must be doing something wrong." It's partly AI, it's partly a change of philosophy, it's partly evolving views on productivity. Whatever it is, corporate America, once proud of its bloat, is now mainlining Ozempic for workforces. WSJ (Gift Article): The Biggest Companies Across America Are Cutting Their Workforces. "U.S. public companies have reduced their white-collar workforces by a collective 3.5% over the past three years, according to employment data-provider Live Data Technologies. Over the past decade, one in five companies in the S&P 500 have shrunk." (The headcount at NextDraft has remained consistent at one. But my wife currently has me doing pilates three times a week, so even this operation is getting leaner.)
+ While workforces are getting smaller, the fortunes of many are getting bigger. America added 1,000 new millionaires every day last year.
"Last November, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that, as secretary of health and human services, he would not 'take away anybody’s vaccines.' If you believed him, you were duped." (Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me a few thousands times...) The Verge: RFK Jr. is coming for your vaccines. "Most recently, in accordance with the larger trend of Donald Trump’s administration axing experienced, well-vetted advisors in favor of unqualified sycophants, Kennedy fired 17 people from the federal committee responsible for making vaccine recommendations. He replaced them almost entirely with close associates that echo his scientifically dubious and medically dangerous beliefs, or with those who seem to lack the relevant knowledge for the role." (This is the model playing out across countless government programs. Fire the good people, hire bad people, and watch things burn.)
+ "If it isn’t stopped, and some of this isn’t reversed, like, immediately, a lot of Americans are going to die as a result of vaccine-preventable diseases." NYT (Gift Article): Why a Vaccine Expert Left the C.D.C.: ‘Americans Are Going to Die.'
+ Leader of top FEMA disaster coordination office resigns, as Trump moves to eliminate agency.
Will He or Won't He? The biggest question facing the world at the moment is whether or not the US will join Israel's effort to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities with bunker busters. According to Trump: "Nobody knows what I’m going to do." That likely includes him, too. After all, his views on this matter have changed dramatically over the past couple of weeks, going from wanting more time for negotiations to throwing his all-caps support behind Israel's attack once he saw that it was going pretty well. NYT (Gift Article): How Trump Shifted on Iran Under Pressure From Israel. Here's the latest from NBC, The Guardian, and Times of Israel. For what it's worth, Israeli officials sure seem confident that Trump will join the effort. And few people know how to manipulate Trump better than Bibi.
+ Cuff Links: "The arrest of Brad Lander in New York was the latest incident in a pattern of increasingly aggressive actions that the Administration has taken against Democrats." Jonathan Blitzer in The New Yorker: The Trump Crackdown on Elected Officials. "The incidents involving lawmakers all have something in common: in each case, video evidence directly contradicted or undermined the Administration’s account of what happened."
+ Spirit Animal: "He would have been taught to see the world as a great spiritual battleground between God and Satan, and to consider himself a kind of spiritual warrior. He would have been told that actual demonic forces can take hold of culture, political leaders, and entire territories, and thwart God’s kingdom. He would have been exposed to versions of courses currently offered, such as one that explains how 'the World is in an era of serious warfare' and how 'the body of Christ must remember that Jesus has already won this war.' He may have heard the founder’s slogan that 'every Christian should pray at least one violent prayer a day.'" The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Minnesota Suspect’s Radical Spiritual World.
+ We're Going to Pump You Up: "All through my reporting I’d been struggling to understand what was in it for the investors—why billionaires with no interest in sport were so interested in disrupting it. Toward the end of the presentation in Vegas, it all clicked into place when D’Souza announced the launch of Enhanced Performance Products—a new line of supplements inspired by the ones athletes will be taking to prepare for the Games." Wired: The Definitive, Insane, Swimsuit-Bursting Story of the Steroid Olympics.
+ Land Hoes: "The proceeds from this unprecedented land purge would be used to fund tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. The West is being carved up, parceled out, and sold off to subsidize the already rich. What Teddy Roosevelt called 'the great natural resources of our country' are being treated not as a shared inheritance but as political spoil." A Quiet Betrayal: The Largest Public Lands Sell-Off in Modern History.
+ Puck Around and Find Out: "They're the most antagonistic trash-talking bullies in the National Hockey League. Opponents decry their actions and fans of other teams outright loathe them. It took 29 years, but the franchise made famous for having rats thrown on the ice also now has the most famous rat on the ice in winger Brad Marchand -- a label he has accepted. Being the last team standing isn't just a tribute to their elite preparation, execution and talent. It's delivering on the promise of their endless taunting." Florida Panthers: The nicest rats to win the Stanley Cup (twice).
"Not for the faint of heart, Skywalk is a 70-foot-long, horseshoe-shaped glass and steel bridge that sticks out from the rim of the Grand Canyon. The views beyond the bridge are breathtaking, but it’s the scene beneath that draws anywhere from 800 to 3,000 visitors to Skywalk each day. Gazing through the glass floor offers a glimpse of the inner canyon, which stretches 4,000 dizzying feet down." If the idea of walking out over the Grand Canyon gets your heart pumping, imaging having to hang over the edge of the walkway to keep it clean. Meet the daredevils who take on the Grand Canyon's most terrifying job.
2025-06-18 00:32:27
During the Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954, Joseph Welch, the special counsel for the US Army asked a now famous question of Senator McCarthy: "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" Seven decades later, in the era of MAGA politics led by a social media flame-throwing vulgarian, the answer to that question that once helped shock a nation into its senses is so obvious as to render its asking almost comical. But there's nothing funny about the descent of decency in American politics, and there's no better example of the bottomless pit of depravity than Mike Lee's demented reaction to the political violence that took lives in Minnesota. In social media posts, the Senator from Utah blamed the tragic murder of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman on the radical left: "This is what happens. When Marxists don’t get their way." He also shared a photo of the murderer with the line, "Nightmare on Waltz Street." (Spelling error his.) With these posts, Lee achieved the holy trinity of Trumpism: Cruelty, Lies, Stupidity. After the posts, Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith confronted Mike Lee in person about the terrible posts. "I think he listened to what I said. He indicated that he of course meant no harm. But of course these things do cause harm." Unfortunately, in one political party, causing harm is a currency more valuable than crypto.
+ Smith’s Deputy Chief of Staff Ed Shelleby sent an email to Lee's office about the killing of Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband in which he echoed Joseph Welch: "Why would you use the awesome power of a United States Senate Office to compound people’s grief? Is this how your team measures success? Using the office of US Senator to post not just one but a series of jokes about an assassination — is that a successful day of work on Team Lee? Did you come into the office Monday and feel proud of the work you did over the weekend? ... the decision of the office of Senator Mike Lee was not to publicly condemn the violence or to express condolences to her shattered children — it was to intimate that Melissa and Mark somehow deserved this? By making jokes? Did you have any consideration for the survivors in her family? For the Hoffmans in the hospital? For their families? You exploited the murder of a lifetime public servant and her husband to post some sick burns about Democrats. Did you see this as an excellent opportunity to get likes and retweet[s]? Have you absolutely no conscience? No decency?"
+ Sadly, that question has been answered a thousand times by the Sadist in Chief, the world's richest man, and their band of pathetic online mimics. Trump and other Republicans mock Democrats after Minnesota lawmaker killings. After having a couple days to think about it, Trump maintained his public indecency when asked if he planned to call Minnesota Gov Tim Walz: "I don’t really call him...I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out, I’m not calling him. Why would I call him? ... I could call him, say, ‘Hi, how are you doing? The guy doesn’t have a clue, he’s a mess. So I could be nice and call him, but why waste time." In 2025, I doubt Joseph Welch would waste time asking his famous question.
Russia was kicked out of what now is the G7, but Putin still had a representative at the meetings: Donald Trump. I'm not sure the real reason behind Trump's early departure from the G7 Summit in Canada, but I'm glad he departed before he could further embarrass America. Consider this statement he made while standing next to host Mark Carney: "The G7 used to be the G8. Barack Obama and a person named Trudeau didn't want to have Russia in, and I would say that was a mistake, because I think you wouldn't have a war right now if you had Russia in." For what it's worth, Trudeau wasn't prime minister at the time of Russia's expulsion. Oh, and the expulsion was in response to Russia's earlier attack on Ukraine and annexing of Crimea. NYT(Gift Article): Trump Renews Embrace of Putin Amid Rift With Allies.
"Remember ivermectin? The animal-deworming medication was used so avidly as an off-label COVID treatment during the pandemic that some feed stores ended up going out of stock ... If you haven’t heard about it since, then you’ve existed blissfully outside the gyre of misinformation and conspiracies that have come to define the MAGA world’s outlook on medicine. In the past few years, ivermectin’s popularity has only grown, and the drug has become a go-to treatment for almost any ailment whatsoever." Benjamin Mazer in The Atlantic (Gift Article): How Ivermectin Became Right-Wing Aspirin. "Nicholas Hornstein, a medical oncologist in New York City, told me that he’s had the same experience: About one in 20 of his patients ask about the drug, he said. He remembers one woman who came into his office with a tumor that was visibly protruding from her abdomen, having swapped her chemotherapy for some ivermectin that she’d picked up at a veterinary-supply store. 'It’s going to work any day now,' he says she told him when he tried to intervene."
"The remote and rugged Klamath River in Oregon and California, one of the mightiest in the American West and an ancient lifeline to Indigenous tribes, is running free again, mostly, for the first time in 100 years after the recent removal of four major dams. At the burbling aquifer near Chiloquin, Ore., that is considered the headwaters, a sacred spot for native people, a group of kayakers, mostly Indigenous youth from the river’s vast basin began to paddle on Thursday. Ages 13 to 20, they had learned to kayak for this moment. Stroke by stroke, mile by mile, day by day, they plan to reach the salty water of the rugged Northern California coast, more than 300 miles away, in mid-July." The always excellent John Branch in the NYT (Gift Article): First Time in 100 Years: Young Kayakers on a Ride for the Ages.
Betting the Farm: "The Department of Homeland Security on Monday told staff that it was reversing guidance issued last week that agents were not to conduct immigration raids at farms, hotels and restaurants — a decision that stood at odds with President Donald Trump’s calls for mass deportations of anyone without legal status." WaPo (Gift Article): Trump officials reverse guidance exempting farms, hotels from immigration raids.
+ Israel and Iran: While the fighting between Israel and Iran continued to escalate, there are signs that Iran's position is rapidly weakening. Fewer of their missiles have landed in Israel, they've lost control of the skies over Tehran, Israel said it had killed Ali Shadmani, Iran's new wartime chief of staff after killing his predecessor in its initial attack, and El Al is set to begin flights into Israel. Meanwhile, Trump says he wants an end to the conflict, but no one's entirely sure what that means. (He either means a negotiated deal or a bunker buster.) German Chancellor Friedrich Merz: "This is the dirty work Israel is doing for all of us. We are also victims of this regime. This mullah regime has brought death and destruction to the world." Here's the latest from NBC and Times of Israel. With Hamas reeling and its backers facing attacks, why are things like this still happening in Gaza? Israeli forces kill dozens of Palestinians seeking aid.
+ Grant Rant: "I've sat on this bench now for 40 years. I've never seen government racial discrimination like this." Terminated NIH grants must be restored, judge orders.
+ Miss Information? "For the first time, social media has displaced television as the top way Americans get news. 'The proportion accessing news via social media and video networks in the United States (54%) is sharply up,' the report’s authors write, 'overtaking both TV news (50%) and news websites/apps (48%) for the first time.'" For the first time, social media overtakes TV as Americans’ top news source. (With the endless panels, TV news barely even exists anymore.)
+ Export Hole: "As President Trump’s tariffs start to shut China out of the United States, its biggest market, Chinese factories are sending their toys, cars and shoes to other countries at a pace that is reshaping economies and geopolitics. This year so far, China’s trade surplus with the world is nearly $500 billion — a more than 40 percent increase from the same period last year." NYT: China Is Unleashing a New Export Shock on the World. (Why am I not shocked.)
+ We're History: "As A.I. becomes more capable of parsing large data sets, it seems inevitable that historians and other nonfiction writers will turn to it for assistance; in fact, as I discovered in surveying a wide variety of historians over the last few months, experiments with it are already far more common than I expected. But it also seems inevitable that this power to help search and synthesize historical texts will change the kinds of history books that are written. If history, per the adage, is written by the winners, then it’s not premature to wonder how the winners of the A.I. race might soon shape the stories that historians tell about the past." Bill Wasik with an interesting look at how historians are using AI and how that might impact what they write. NYT Magazine (Gift Article): A.I. Is Poised to Rewrite History. Literally.
First the no kings protests. Now this. America is on the comeback, folks. Joey Chestnut returning to Nathan's hot dog eating contest.