2025-10-01 02:25:57
Speak softly and carry a big stick. That was the core phrase behind President Theodore Roosevelt’s Big Stick Diplomacy; an American value that has apparently been replaced by something more like, Look what a big d-ck I have diplomacy, as Pete Hegseth turned a massive gathering of more than 800 military commanders into something that resembled a product launch for a new Low T miracle cure. “In the days before the event, Democratic lawmakers and military specialists questioned the cost and disruption to daily operations caused by the meeting, as well as the security risks of concentrating so many top military commanders in one place. All, it appeared, for Mr. Hegseth to be able to lecture military leaders with decades of combat experience on an enhanced ‘warrior ethos’ in a forum that was televised live.” During the meeting, the president ominously argued that “we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military.” And he was referring to American cities. Loud talk and big sticks coming soon to a military theater near you... NYT (Gift Article): Trump and Hegseth Recount Familiar Partisan Complaints to Top Military Leaders.
+ “President Trump did not have many bad things to say about America’s foreign adversaries. He spoke about Vladimir Putin in largely neutral terms (only saying he was ‘disappointed’ in him) and barely mentioned China. He did, however, speak with great moral clarity about certain classes of Americans whom he views as a grave threat: The American left: ‘They’re really bad. They’re bad people.’ Again, he’s talking about Americans here. His own domestic political opponents: ‘They’re vicious people that we have to fight, just like you have to fight vicious people. Mine are a different kind of vicious.’ American journalists: sleazebags.’ Residents of American inner cities: ‘animals.” The most consequential parts of the commander-in-chief’s speech were the sections in which he attempted to prepare flag officers for increased deployment of the military in American cities ... He said America is ‘under invasion from within.’” (That’s true, but not in the way Trump means it.) The Bullwark: Trump prepares the generals for what comes next.
+ While Trump is trying to change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, it sure seems like he and Hegseth are mostly preparing the department to fight the culture wars. Trump and Hegseth declare an end to ‘politically correct’ leadership in the US military.
“During the first eight months of his second presidency, Donald Trump has tried to hollow out the federal workforce by any means possible, including paying more than 200,000 people not to work, disassembling entire agencies via the Department of Government Efficiency, and fighting in court any effort by employees to hang on to their job. This week, Trump could try his most audacious move yet: using a government shutdown to conduct mass firings.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): Trump’s Grand Plan for a Government Shutdown.
+ The big question for now is whether the Dems hold the line and try to defend health care (and whether or not, in this environment and with their current messengers, that message can even break through). Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries face a big leadership test in the shutdown fight.
“Fever ravaged the body of 5-year-old Suza Kenyaba as she sweated and shivered on a thin mattress in a two-room clinic in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The pigtailed girl who liked pretty dresses was battling malaria and desperately needed medication that could save her life. That medication, already purchased by a U.S.-taxpayer-funded program, was tantalizingly close — a little more than seven miles away. But it hadn’t reached the clinic where Suza was being treated because President Donald Trump’s suspension of foreign aid had thrown supply chains into chaos.The injections Suza needed had traveled thousands of miles to the Central African nation, USAID and other records show, only to be stranded in a regional distribution warehouse in the same city where she was gasping for air. Less than a week after her symptoms began, Suza was dead.” WaPo(Gift Article): Trump’s USAID pause stranded lifesaving drugs. Children died waiting. (Does the Nobel committee have a prize for this?)
Tilly Norwood is an actress looking for representation in Hollywood. That may not seem unusual for a new performer looking for fame. But here’s the twist. Tilly Norwood is AI. Creator of AI Actress Tilly Norwood Responds to Backlash: “She Is Not a Replacement for a Human Being.”
+ “Two years after AI protections for both writers and actors ruled the Hollywood labor strikes, production studio Particle6 is introducing an AI-generated ‘actor’ it hopes can rival real-life human movie stars like Oscar winner Natalie Portman and Oscar nominee/accidental AI symbol Scarlett Johansson.” Vanity Fair: AI ‘Actor’ Tilly Norwood Is Young, Ambitious—and ‘the End of the Industry as We Know It.’
+ Take a look at this video from Particle6 that features Tilly and is completely AI generated.
Godzilla v King Kong “We are no longer in a world where broadcast pioneers like Capital Cities/ABC’s Tom Murphy and local community owners who believed in acting in the public interest have any role. Courage in the face of governmental criticism and governmental power is barely present. Consolidation into behemoths with interests beyond the airwaves and the digital platform now rule. Whether it is Disney or Paramount, Universal or Nexstar, it is all about the bottom line, and the fear of retribution by a thuggish regime means that every value beyond the money goes out the window.” Norm Ornstein: Will Our Corporate Media Godzillas Have the Guts to Defend Democracy? “Five companies—five—now control 90 percent of the media marketplace.” (Here’s one clue: YouTube agrees to pay Trump $24.5m to settle lawsuit over account suspension.)
+ Lookie-Loo Larry: Since only a handful of people are gaining control of nearly all media, it’s worth noting how they think about things. Larry Ellison once predicted ‘citizens will be on their best behavior’ amid constant recording. Now his company will pay a key role in social media. “Citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on.”
+ Orange Pilled: “The White House is planning to unveil a direct-to-consumer website for Americans to buy drugs, dubbed TrumpRx, while also announcing that Pfizer plans to lower prices on several of its medications in the U.S., according to people familiar with the matter.” White House to Announce ‘TrumpRx’ Drug-Buying Website, Deal With Pfizer. (I guess the domain TrumpRex was already taken...)
+ Job Corpse: “It’s not just recent college graduates who are struggling to find entry-level positions. Out-of-work mid-career employees are taking part-time jobs, and hiring has stalled in industries from professional services to manufacturing. More than a quarter of the jobless have been out of work more than a half-year — the highest share since the mid-2010s excluding the pandemic-era years.” Bloomberg (Gift Article): Millions of Workers Are Left Out of the ‘Low-Hire, Low-Fire’ US Job Market.
+ Switching Sides: “When the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Shamil Lukozhev was sure he’d die. The Russian soldier feared he’d be shot because he wouldn’t be able to pull the trigger on his own gun. He couldn’t bring himself to kill someone who was defending their homeland. More than 3½ years later, Mr. Lukozhev says he has no problem shooting at those he once served alongside.” Globe and Mail: The Russian reversal. A unit of deserters fights for Ukraine and hopes for Putin’s downfall.
+ Binded With Science: “Dr. Agarwal is among more than 20 researchers who have left their work at Meta, OpenAI, Google DeepMind and other big A.I. projects in recent weeks to join a new Silicon Valley start-up, Periodic Labs. Many of them have given up tens of millions of dollars — if not hundreds of millions — to make the move.” NYT (Gift Article): Top A.I. Researchers Leave OpenAI, Google and Meta for New Start-Up. “Periodic Labs aims to build artificial intelligence that can accelerate discoveries in physics, chemistry and other fields.” (Yes, more of this. I can figure out how to write my own emails...)
+ Beneath the Ice: “The move is a striking about-face, just a few days after the Department of Homeland Security released a statement denouncing the officer’s conduct as ‘unacceptable and beneath the men and women of ICE.’” ICE officer seen on video pushing woman to ground has returned to duty.
+ Talking Shop: “OpenAI said it will allow users in the U.S. to make purchases directly through ChatGPT using a new Instant Checkout feature powered by a payment protocol for AI co-developed with Stripe. The new chatbot shopping feature is a big step toward helping OpenAI monetize its 700 million weekly users, many of whom currently pay nothing to interact with ChatGPT, as well as a move that could eventually steal significant market share from traditional Google search advertising.”
“Although consumers have traded down to less expensive private-label versions of coffee, peanut butter, syrup and chips, butter is a different story. Once people have tasted better butters, they don’t want to go back, said Lydia Clarke, co-owner of two Southern California cheese shops that sell specialty butters from brands including Rodolphe Le Meunier, Maison Bordier and Ploughgate Creamery. ‘You realize, ‘I can cut other things out of my life, but I cannot cut this butter out,’ Clarke said. ‘The world is on fire. We have butter and cheese.’” Bloomberg (Gift Article): The Latest Little Luxury: Fancier, Fattier Butter. (I mean, mediocre butter is pretty good, too.)
+ From the Swiss Alps to a solar eclipse: the 2025 Bird Photographer of the Year – in pictures.
2025-09-30 02:20:37
Here’s some good news. Young people are reading more than ever. Well, maybe it’s only good news relative to all of the other 2025 headlines, because what they’re reading isn’t books. It’s subtitles on television content that is being broadcast in their native language. I’ve notice this generational trend in my own household. A recent “poll finds that about 4 in 10 adults under 45 use subtitles at least ‘often’ when watching TV or movies, compared with about 3 in 10 adults older than 45. Those 60 and older are especially likely to say they ‘never’ use subtitles.” (It’s interesting that the worse our hearing gets, the less likely we are to use subtitles.) The question of course is why so many people want to watch television subtitles on shows in their own language. There are a variety of reasons including this: “About one-quarter of subtitle users say they turn on captions because they are watching while multitasking.” Why many young adults turn on TV or movie subtitles. This actually relates somewhat to the model I’ve adopted when it comes to consuming 24 hour cable news panels. I turn off the subtitles. Then I mute the sound. Then I change the channel.
“At least four victims have died and eight others were injured after a shooter opened fire at and set fire to a Mormon church some 50 mi. north of Detroit Sunday morning. Hundreds of people were attending service at a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township, Mich., when a man rammed the vehicle he was driving through the church’s front doors, stepped out of the car, and opened fire.” What to Know About the Michigan Church Shooting.
+ Of course the political angling around the latest shooting began almost immediately. There are reports that the attacker “was an Iraq war veteran who had previously shown support for Donald Trump.” Whether it’s this incident or one of the other endless parade of shootings that have plagued America, I don’t find I have much interest in the political leanings or motivations behind them. I am against those who commit mass murder. I am against the wide availability of automatic weapons that make it possible for them to kill their victims much faster. And I am against those who seek to gain political advantage from mass murders, especially those who have supported policies that make these actions more likely.
“Mr. Musk, who spent more than $250 million to help elect Mr. Trump, had celebrity, access to the president and political capital that the budget director could never hope for. But Mr. Vought (pronounced ‘vote’) had something Mr. Musk did not: He had done his homework. In the months since Mr. Musk fell out with the president, Mr. Vought has at last begun to put his plans into action — remaking the presidency, block by block, by restoring powers weakened after the Nixon administration. His efforts are helping Mr. Trump exert authority more aggressively than any modern president, and are threatening an erosion of the longstanding checks and balances in America’s constitutional system. Now, as the government heads toward a shutdown when federal funding lapses on Tuesday, Mr. Vought, 49, is leveraging the moment to further advance his goals of slashing agencies and purging employees.” Russell T. Vought is having a moment. Actually, he’s having a lot of them, and he’s been preparing for them. NYT (Gift Article): The Man Behind Trump’s Push for an All-Powerful Presidency.
+ Meanwhile, Trump is set to meet with Congressional leaders as a shutdown looms (I suppose a day before a shutdown is as good a time to finally meet as any). Among other things, health care hangs in the balance. Here’s the latest from CBS.
Avner Harari was a convicted assassin known as ‘the Terminator’ who spent four decades in prison. But for much of that time, he longed to become a famous singer. So he gave it a shot. When it didn’t go as well as he expected, Harari reverted to his original career. He started targeting those who wouldn’t play his music with car bombs. From the always excellent Jeff Maysh, this is the true story of Israel’s singing hit man. FT: The mafia hitman who dreamt of being a pop star. (Alternate link.)
Peace Sign? Trump and Netanyahu are meeting at the White House to discuss the latest peace plan. It’s unclear if Bibi or Hamas is on-board with the current framework. It’s also a framework that counters in many ways what Trump has said in the past. Let’s hope this time is different and there’s progress. This is what we know about the peace proposal and here’s the latest from BBC and NBC.
+ It’s Mine All Mine: “The Trump administration on Monday outlined a coordinated plan to revive the mining and burning of coal, the largest contributor to climate change worldwide. Coal use has been declining sharply in the United States since 2005, displaced in many cases by cheaper and cleaner natural gas, wind and solar power. But in a series of steps aimed at improving the economics of coal, the Interior Department said it would open 13.1 million acres of federal land for coal mining and reduce the royalty rates that companies would need to pay to extract coal.” ‘Mine, Baby, Mine’: Trump Officials Offer $625 Million to Rescue Coal.
+ Cup and Saucier: This year’s Ryder Cup was one of the best ever on the course. But, in some ways, the play was overshadowed by the often remarkably poor behavior by fans. With Ryder Cup over, Rory McIlroy admonishes fans over behavior.
+ State of the Arts: “Jared Kushner’s private equity firm and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund are some of the investors teaming up to take the video game giant private.” $55 Billion Deal for Electronic Arts Is Biggest Buyout Ever.
+ Comedy is Not Pretty: “The existence of a Saudi Arabia comedy festival has been on the periphery of my mind for a few weeks, but there’s no more ignoring it. It’s finally here. The Riyadh Comedy Festival kicks off on Friday and runs for two weeks, and judging by the lineup, many famous comedians have no qualms about cashing that check and ignoring the human rights abuses.” Defector: All Your Favorite Sellouts Will Be At The Riyadh Comedy Festival. And from NPR: Marc Maron, Human Rights Watch and others slam Saudi comedy festival. From Maron: “The same guy that’s gonna pay them is the same guy that paid that guy to bone-saw Jamal Khashoggi and put him in a f***ing suitcase. But don’t let that stop the yucks, it’s gonna be a good time!”
+ Hip Hop: Bad Bunny revealed as Super Bowl half-time show performer. This is an especially interesting pick as Bad Bunny has been avoiding any US tour dates because of ICE actions.
+ Black Diamond Run: Polish climber makes history skiing down Everest without bottled oxygen (and it’s not like he took a chairlift to the top, either).
“About 58 million pounds of corn dogs and other sausage-on-a-stick products are being recalled across the U.S. because pieces of wood may be embedded in the batter, with several consumers reporting injuries to date.”
2025-09-27 02:59:50
Donald Trump has gone from breaking the law to breaking the legal system. In his quest for revenge against James Comey, Trump replaced the top prosecutor in Virginia’s eastern district (who refused to bring a case against Comey and other Trump enemies because of a lack of evidence) with one of his personal attorneys, a loyalist named Lindsey Halligan, previously best known for agreeing with the president that the Smithsonian museums have an “overemphasis on slavery,” and who has no prosecutorial experience. Scratch that. She has a little. She just indicted James Comey. All by herself. And thus, the crucial line between a politically motivated revenge indictments and what is supposed to be an independent Justice Department has, like so many American norms, been obliterated and replaced with lawless, all-caps directives sent over social media. “The case against Comey marks the most significant step to date in Trump’s campaign to deploy the Justice Department to avenge personal grievances and prosecute those he perceives as his enemies. The president’s demands during the weekend that Attorney General Pam Bondi swiftly charge Comey and others flew in the face of long-standing norms meant to shield the Justice Department from direct political interference from the White House.” WaPo (Gift Article): Former FBI director James Comey indicted amid Trump push to prosecute foes.
+ “By directing his DOJ to charge Comey, Trump appears to be borrowing a tactic from the playbook of Vladimir Putin. According to Ben Rhodes , a former deputy national security adviser, Putin doesn’t try to convince the Russian people that he is honest. Instead, he works to persuade them that everyone else is corrupt. It’s a cynical ploy meant to condition people to tolerate corruption. If voters believe that all public officials are crooks, then they will overlook the crooked leader who professes to share their values.” Barbara McQuade in Bloomberg (Gift Article): Comey’s Indictment Subverts Justice and Trump’s Credibility.
+ “It’s telling that various experienced, conservative, pro-Trump prosecutors reportedly expressed doubts about the case. A team of career prosecutors on the case reportedly wrote a memo concluding that charges were unwarranted. Trump’s own U.S. attorney nominee for the Eastern District of Virginia, the veteran federal prosecutor Erik Siebert, refused to charge and resigned under pressure from Trump. The President replaced him with Lindsay Halligan, an unqualified loyalist who has never previously worked as a prosecutor; she pulled the trigger on a precipitous indictment of Comey during her fourth day on the job.” The Meaning of the Comey Indictment.
+ In keeping with the themes of 2025, the Comey indictment may not have even been yesterday’s worst effort by Trump to turn the American justice system into a personal retribution operation. He’s not just going after Comey. He’s going after Democratic groups and those that fund them. NYT (Gift Article): Trump Orders Broad Effort to Root Out Groups He Says Organize Political Violence.
+ “President Donald Trump recently ordered his attorney general to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey, and tonight, the Department of Justice delivered an indictment of Comey for lying to Congress. Comey, for his part, insists on his innocence. But the charges against Comey are not just about the president’s abuse of his power for personal retribution. They represent a test of the president’s plans for the future ... The American justice system is only as good as the people who staff it. Led by Kash Patel and Pam Bondi, the system can be an abundant resource for a president who wants to use the law to frighten opponents away from the political process. Troops in the streets of Washington, D.C., have deterred residents from going to bars and restaurants in 2025. Those troops could be used to dissuade residents of blue cities in red states from standing in voting lines in 2026. Selective prosecution can be used to cut the flow of money to Democratic candidates. Yes, Trump’s politicization of the Department of Justice is a backward-looking expression of hurt feelings. It’s also another step in a forward-looking plot to shred the rule of law in order to pervert the next election and protect his corruption from accountability.” David Frum in The Atlantic(Gift Article): The Comey Indictment Is Not Just Payback.
Noam Scheiber in the NYT (Gift Article) with an interesting take on Why Corporate America Is Caving to Trump. “Sheer terror undeniably plays an important role. But there appears to be a deeper explanation, too. Resisting government coercion is often a matter of collective action: Companies are much more likely to succeed if they stand together, rather than fight on their own. ‘It’s easy to pick off individual companies,’ Mark Mizruchi, a sociologist at the University of Michigan who studies large corporations, said in an interview. ‘But if they’re all coming after you as a single collective, you can’t — he’d tank the whole economy.’ Over the past few generations, however, the culture and ethos of the American business elite has changed. A once cohesive establishment has broken down, making collective action rarer and much harder to achieve. Competition among companies has become increasingly cutthroat. Chief executives are often more concerned with their share price than their company’s long-term health, much less any genteel sense of obligation to a vague greater good. The civic organizations that once bonded corporate leaders to one another have been hollowed out or disappeared altogether.” (This is one more reason why the pro democracy crowd is desperate for a leader. It’s not just that corporate America is divided and therefore easier to conquer. It’s that there is no powerful voice calling on them, or anyone else, to unify for the good of the country.)
“After he moved out of their family home, his wife started to send him strange, AI-generated messages that, through an unfamiliar blend of spiritual and therapeutic language, drew a portrait of himself and their marriage that he says he didn’t recognize. When he first read them, he said, he wondered whether his wife had joined a cult. The couple is now divorcing and engaged in ongoing custody litigation. Today, the man’s soon-to-be-ex-wife communicates with him about everything from court matters to childcare almost exclusively through peculiar-sounding ChatGPT-generated text.” ChatGPT Is Blowing Up Marriages as Spouses Use AI to Attack Their Partners. Damn, all we really wanted was place to easily find funny cat videos and look what we ended up building...
+ Interesting video mini-doc from the NYT (Gift Article) on the power struggle between AI and us. A.I.’s Environmental Impact Will Threaten Its Own Supply Chain.
What to Watch: There are some excellent performances in Task on HBO Max. An FBI agent (Mark Ruffalo) heads a task force to put an end to a string of violent robberies led by an unassuming family man (Tom Pelphrey).
+ What to Binge: Nothing will ever be The Office. But it’s follow up, The Paper on Peacock, is a fun, bingeable comedy that gets better as the season goes on. The idea of placing a struggling local newspaper inside an office of its more successful toilet paper selling parent company is about as on point as you can get.
Land of Milk and Honey (And Isolation): “Facing down a mass walkout and mounting diplomatic pressure, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Friday to ‘finish the job’ as he defied growing isolation over his military’s devastating assault on the Gaza Strip.” Netanyahu blasts ‘shameful’ recognition of Palestinian state; U.N. delegates walk out to protest speech.
+ Powder Keg: “Trump and his aides have justified the extrajudicial killings as a decisive measure to protect Americans from dangerous drugs, especially fentanyl, the synthetic opioid behind the worst overdose epidemic in U.S. history, which accelerated during his first term in office ... But here’s the thing: Although the United States Coast Guard interdicts staggering quantities of illegal drugs in the Caribbean each year, it does not encounter fentanyl on the high seas.” (Details, details.) Fentanyl Doesn’t Come Through the Caribbean.
+ Let Them Eat Newsfeed: Margaret Sullivan: “In 2020, only a tiny fraction of Americans got news from TikTok. These days, that number has soared to one in five. For young adults, those figures are much higher, with almost half of adults under 30 getting news there, according to the Pew Research Center. But who will own that hugely influential purveyor of information? As with so much of American media – from television networks to some of the largest newspapers – the answer is shaping up to be as simple and short as a TikTok video: the ultra-rich.”
+ Teaming Up: “The accords are an example of the two militaries moving beyond symbolic joint drills and public statements to develop interoperable systems and shared combat experience in areas that China considers critical for winning a battle over Taiwan, the self-governing island of 23 million that Beijing claims as its territory.” WaPo (Gift Article): Russia is helping prepare China to attack Taiwan, documents suggest.
+ Every Dog Has Its Dayrate: “Drivers in London, New York and other major cities are used to being charged for bringing cars into the city. Now one municipality may demand payment to bring dogs into town. A bill in Bolzano, Italy, would mean that dogs bringing their owners to the Tyrolean Alps for some scenery and mountain air would face a new charge of roughly 1.50 euros ($1.75) per day, the Italian news media reported.” An Italian City Is Considering a Dog Tax for Tourists and Locals. (This is not nearly the weirdest thing this town has proposed to end the scourge of owners who don’t pick up after their pets.)
“Avion Anderson knew he would have to face his fear of heights when he became a firefighter. Anderson had no idea he would do it — screaming in terror at the top of his lungs — while millions of people watched him day after day on TikTok.” This firefighter overcame his fear of heights as millions cheered him on.
+ A school in Kentucky banned phones. Remarkable things started happening.
+ Las Vegas team develops tech to harvest water from desert air.
+ Huntington’s disease successfully treated for first time.
+ Comedian spots man in cardiac arrest during show, finishes set at hospital.
+ Sinclair is putting Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show back on the air.
2025-09-26 01:53:49
We’re all quite familiar with the ways clickbait and doom-scrolling tactics have been used to drive engagement on the internet. But as we enter the new dawn of AI chatbots, when there’s nothing to click, how will big tech keep you preoccupied? Well, the chatbot just wants to talk. Lila Shroff in The Atlantic(Gift Article): “Lately, chatbots seem to be using more sophisticated tactics to keep people talking. In some cases, like my request for headache tips, bots end their messages with prodding follow-up questions. In others, they proactively message users to coax them into conversation: After clicking through the profiles of 20 AI bots on Instagram, all of them DM’ed me first. “Hey bestie! what’s up?? 🥰,” wrote one. “Hey, babe. Miss me?” asked another. Days later, my phone pinged: “bestie 💗” wanted to chat.” Chatbait Is Taking Over the Internet. “OpenAI and its peers have plenty to gain from keeping users hooked. People’s conversations with chatbots serve as valuable training data for future models. And the more time someone spends talking to a bot, the more personal data they are likely to reveal, which AI companies can, in turn, use to create more compelling responses. Longer conversations now might translate into greater product loyalty later on.” Somehow we’ve evolved from a society that warned us not to talk to strangers to world where we share everything about ourselves with a machine-powered motormouth.
Trump promised to bring manufacturing back to America. And he has. The Justice Department is actively manufacturing cases against the president’s enemies. The process seems to go something like this. Trump demands legal retribution against his perceived enemies. Justice appointees and career officials find no wrongdoing. So Trump fires those appointees and replaces them with new, often wildly unqualified, loyalists who moved forward with the baseless case. Case in point: The targeting of James Comey: “President Trump’s handpicked federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia is racing to present a case against James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, to a grand jury before a deadline early next week, according to officials familiar with the situation. Lindsey Halligan, a former defense lawyer for Mr. Trump who was hastily appointed after the president forced out her predecessor last week, is rushing to draft an indictment under withering pressure from the White House. The president has demanded the department go after one of his foremost enemies, even though career prosecutors determined there was insufficient evidence to indict Mr. Comey.” NYT (Gift Article): U.S. Attorney Races to Present Case Against James Comey.
+ “The prosecutors earlier this week summarized their findings -- that probable cause does not exist to secure an indictment, let alone a conviction at trial -- in a detailed declination memo for Lindsey Halligan, President Donald Trump’s newly appointed U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, sources said. Nevertheless, sources say Halligan plans to ask a grand jury in the coming days to indict Comey.”
+ The strategy is not limited to individuals. Organizations are in the crosshairs, too. NYT: Justice Dept. Official Pushes Prosecutors to Investigate George Soros’s Foundation. “The directive suggests department leaders are following orders from the president.”
+ “Political opponents, critics, perceived enemies are targeted for investigation or arrest to silence them, and the prosecutors instead of investigating … cases, they’re left to figure out a basis for charges after the fact ... Where the rule of law is eroding, friends of the president do not have to worry about following the same laws that the rest of us follow. Exceptions will be made. And nobody, I mean nobody, in a president’s administration, or his allies, will be investigated or prosecuted, no matter what they do.” Former special counsel Jack Smith warns that rule of law is under attack.
“If Trump has been right about anything, it is that there is a deep rot in the upper echelons of American society, among people who have been put in positions of power and leadership. Trump understands that many of these people are weak, that their public commitment to civic principles can crumble under sustained pressure. In many cases, those folding have had ample resources to resist Trump’s shakedowns but haven’t been brave enough to do so. They are, in a word, chickenshit.” Adam Serwer in The Atlantic on the surrender of America’s elites. (Gift Article): Lower Than Cowards.
+ This piecemeal surrender is just part of a broader set of trends that is careening our republic down a slip ‘n slide toward a form of modern authoritarianism. George Packer in The Atlantic (Gift Article): America’s Zombie Democracy.
“It happened again. You went to a party, and, even though everyone there looked super normal, it turned out that they’d all been preparing for the apocalypse. In urgent tones, they warned you that it’s coming soon, and you should be ready. You arrive home half-drunk and tell your husband that you’re finally going to take it all seriously. It’s time you prep for the end, which may be nigh. He wanders off muttering something about you being cool in the twenty-tens—but he’ll thank you later.” The New Yorker: Preparing for the Impending Apocalypse. “You pick up a gallon of water at the grocery store but immediately set it down because it’s too heavy. Later that week, you attend a martial-arts class, and fifteen minutes in you’re getting choked by a child. Gasping for breath, you wonder if perhaps you shouldn’t rely on your own brute strength. Maybe it’s time to invest in a weapon?” (I should probably warn you now that when the apocalypse arrives, resources grow scarce, and every waking minute must be dedicated to the simple act of personal survival, I plan on reducing the NextDraft publishing schedule to four days a week.)
It’s Not Just Tylenol, Ya’ll: “Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Republican states this week that the FDA would conduct a new review of abortion pills, a move that abortion rights advocates say could lead to significant restrictions on the most common abortion method nationwide.” They’re going to attack abortion rights from every angle, and this is one of the primary strategies. RFK Jr. launches FDA review of abortion pill.
+ Vought with Peril: “The new memo sent by Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought sharply raises the stakes for funding talks and increases the pressure on Senate Democrats, who are demanding that Republicans restore hundreds of billions of dollars in healthcare spending as a condition of their support for keeping the government funded.” As the government funding deadline looms, the fight over shutting down the government is getting nastier. White House to Pursue Mass Firings if Government Shuts Down.
+ ICE Shooting: Dallas ICE shooting latest: Sniper allegedly left behind note saying he wanted to bring ‘terror’ to agents.
+ Sarkozying Up to Libya: “A Paris court on Thursday sentenced former French President Nicolas Sarkozy to five years in prison after finding him guilty of criminal conspiracy in an alleged scheme to finance his 2007 campaign with funds from Libya.”
+ Mystery Meet: “The highly unusual directive was sent to virtually all of the military’s top commanders worldwide, according to more than a dozen people familiar with the matter. It was issued earlier this week, against the backdrop of a potential government shutdown, and as Hegseth’s overtly political moves have deepened a sense of distress among his opponents who fear that he is erasing the Defense Department’s status as a nonpartisan institution.” Hegseth orders rare, urgent meeting of hundreds of generals, admirals.
+ Silly Season: A couple of monumental baseball achievements as the season draws to a close: Cal Raleigh hits 59th, 60th HRs. And presumptive Cy Young winner Paul Skenes just finished his season with an ERA below 2.
+ Sushi Rolls: “Once considered rarefied and exotic in the United States, sushi has become something entirely different in the last five years: convenience food.” NYT: Sushi Is Bigger Than Ever in America.
“From murder scenes to whale blubber, Ben Giles has seen it – and cleaned it – all. In their stickiest hours, people rely on him to restore order.” The human stain remover: what Britain’s greatest extreme cleaner learned from 25 years on the job.
+ Hard pass. Cold brew. Dad bod. Merriam-Webster adds over 5,000 words to ‘Collegiate’ dictionary.
2025-09-25 02:47:03
They say laughter is the best medicine. They’re wrong. That’s Tylenol. But laughter helps and we got a little of it back last night with the de-suspension of Jimmy Kimmel. As you might imagine, an attack on the freedom of expression by someone critical of the administation who interjects humor into the day’s headlines is of particular importance to me. But, given America’s slide toward the kind of authoritarianism that silences dissent, it should be of particular importance to everyone. As Kimmel explained: “This show is not important. What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this. I’ve had the opportunity to meet and spend time with comedians and talk show hosts from countries like Russia, countries in the Middle East who tell me they would get thrown in prison for making fun of those in power. And worse than being thrown in prison. They know how lucky we are here. Our freedom to speak is what they admire most about this country.” We’re losing our collective grasp on a lot of America’s most admirable characteristics. Saving, at least for now, the voice of one late night talkshow host on broadcast TV might seem like a small win. But seeing artists, viewers, colleagues, competitors, and a massive corporation like Disney stand up for an American value is a big deal. It’s also proved to be a rare fight in which people across the political spectrum seemed to find some common ground. “I definitely don’t think that the government should be involved ever in dictating what a comedian can or cannot say in a monologue. That’s f-cking crazy.” That’s what I think. It’s also what Joe Rogan said. Maybe the combination of protests, pressure, and corporate spine-showing has the makings of a playbook that can be replicated. That’s the hope, anyway. I don’t know how this fight will play out. Maybe Kimmel’s return will mark one of American democracy’s last stands, or maybe it will be a meaningful step in a broader movement to safeguard democracy’s most precious attributes. That part isn’t up to Disney or Kimmel. It’s up to you and me. If we don’t rise to the occasion, well, then the joke will be on us.
+ “But when Mr. Kimmel returned on Tuesday, there was nothing shadowy or diminished about him. He did not apologize abjectly or rein himself in as a model for a chilling new form of tempered speech. Neither did he bound onstage and preen in triumph in a defiantly juvenile way. Instead he recognized every note that needed to be hit, and he hit them all with precision and impressive grace.” Jimmy Kimmel Rose to the Occasion.
+ Here’s the entire monologue, which as you’d expect, will grow to become the show’s most viral and viewed video ever. “As I was saying before I was interrupted...”
It’s nice to have Jimmy back, but we’ve got bigger fish to fry. Actually, on our current trajectory, the ocean might fry them for us. “In a remarkable United Nations address, the president lashed out at wind turbines, environmentalists and allies around the world while dismissing the dangers of climate change.” NYT(Gift Article): Trump to World: Green Energy Is a Scam and Climate Science Is From ‘Stupid People.’
+ “Don’t take Tylenol,” Mr. Trump said standing next to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “Fight like hell not to take it.” ABC: ‘Highly concerning’: Major medical groups react to Trump’s claim that Tylenol is linked to autism. (Ironically, the only time I really need Tylenol is during press conferences when Trump discusses medicine.)
+ WSJ (Gift Article): Trump, Tylenol and the Plaintiffs Bar. “Why the sudden alarm, complete with a presidential presser? The Occam’s razor answer is the influence of RFK Jr., who is carrying water for his friends in the plaintiffs bar. A who’s-who of lawsuit shops are pushing the Tylenol-autism link in federal court.” (I imagine there’s some of this, along with a heavy dose of general quackery.)
“Stockpiles of food and medicine are running out here. Village health workers who used to provide inexpensive preventive care have been laid off. Public health initiatives like deworming and vitamin A distribution have collapsed. Immunizations are being missed. Contraception is harder to get. Ordinary people are growing weaker, hungrier and more fragile. So as months pass, the crisis is not easing but growing increasingly lethal — and because children are particularly vulnerable, they are often the first to starve and the first to die. It’s difficult to know how many children are dying worldwide as a result of the Trump aid cuts, but credible estimates by experts suggest that the child death toll may be in the hundreds of thousands this year alone — and likely an even higher number next year.” Nick Kristoff in the NYT (Gift Article): Trump’s Most Lethal Policy.
+ This is all about a very clear policy of ending foreign aid, right? Not exactly. Bessent Says U.S. Talking With Argentina About $20 Billion in Aid. “Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. is in talks to provide Argentina with a $20 billion swap line to help contain financial upheaval and support President Javier Milei’s free-market overhaul.”
“President Trump reversed himself on one of the key foreign policy issues of his presidency on Tuesday, abandoning his insistence that Ukraine give up land to strike a peace deal with Russia and instead declaring that Ukraine, with the support of Europe, was ‘in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form.’ His turnabout on social media shortly after a meeting in New York with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine was a head-spinning pivot.” (Now we just have to find a way to make sure he doesn’t talk to anyone else about this issue until peace is secured...) NYT (Gift Article): In a Sudden Shift, Trump Says Ukraine Can Win the War With Russia. (Ukraine can win, but it will take more than words from America.)
+ Tom Nichols in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Why Trump Changed His Mind on Ukraine. “I hope I’m wrong. But Trump has a well-known tendency to agree with whomever he spoke with last, and his comments today may only reflect the immediacy of his meetings with Zelensky and Macron. The only way the world can know if the president meant what he said today is if he comes back to Washington and puts America firmly back on the side of NATO and Ukraine with money and materiel. Until then, it’s just talk.”
ICE Facility Shooting: “A shooter opened fire on a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas on Wednesday, killing two detainees and critically wounding a third, investigators said. The gunman died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and left behind ammunition with what officials described as anti-ICE language.” Here’s the latest from CNN and NYT.
+ One Ring to Bind Them: Jamelle Bouie in the NYT (Gift Article): This Is About So Much More Than Lisa Cook. “In the view of the White House, it’s not just that Trump is vested with inherent authority to remove whoever he wants from office, but that as one of two officials elected by the nation at large — and the central person on the ticket — the president is also imbued with the will of the people. This gives him the sovereign authority to do as he pleases, so that he might fulfill that will. It is the responsibility of every agency, under this view of executive power, to ‘advance the president’s priorities,’ even if those priorities conflict with the law.” (And it sure seems like the SCOTUS majority is primed to agree with that notion.)
+ Making News: “The government and the press have tangled over the publication of secret information for decades, of course, most famously in the publication of the Pentagon Papers, which led to a landmark court fight that reaffirmed press freedoms. But the rules set out by the Pentagon under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth seek to establish new constraints on journalists that news organizations consider unconstitutional and at odds with democratic norms.” NYT: The Pentagon, the Press and the Fight to Control National Security Coverage.
+ Give Him the Sack: “A restaurant take-out bag with $50,000 inside. A former (and future) government official. Allegations of a Department of Justice cover-up. It sounds like a Matt Damon movie, but it’s just another day in 2025. The Justice Department has halted the investigation of border czar Tom Homan, who MSNBC reported was caught on tape last September accepting a cash payment from FBI agents posing as businessmen seeking government contracts. But that won’t end the matter — nor should it.” Homan’s $50,000 Bribe Allegation Deserves a Thorough Probe.
+ Come Back! “The General Services Administration has given the employees — who managed government workspaces — until the end of the week to accept or decline reinstatement, according to an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press. Those who accept must report for duty on Oct. 6 after what amounts to a seven-month paid vacation.” Trump administration rehires hundreds of federal employees laid off by DOGE.
+ Short Sighted: Need a good book to read? Here’s a look at this year’s Booker shortlist.
The attack on carbs is getting real. The number one beer in America today is Michelob Ultra. At least until someone comes out with protein-infused beer.
+ Rodents prevail in rat race: New York City’s rat czar resigns from post.
+ Winners of the 2025 Natural Landscape Photography Awards.
2025-09-23 04:44:18
Those who consider themselves the Lord's people work in mysterious ways. But the thing to remember is that they work. For decades, there's been a religious war in America. Not so much a war between religions, but one between those pushing a right-leaning, politically-infused Christianity and secularists who pray at the altar of the Constitution. I say it's a religious war, but for a long time, it's seemed like only one side is actually fighting. Many on Team Secular assumed issues like abortion, gay rights, keeping religion out of schools, and the broad tenets of the separation of church and state we're essentially settled. It's not that the secular side brought a knife to a gun fight. They didn't even know there was a fight. But, as you may have noticed from the rise of the Christian nationalism, the consistent decisions by the Supreme Court majority, the proselytising from administration officials, the attacks on women's health and gay rights, the book bans, the push to get the ten commandments into schools, etc, etc, in politics, nothing is settled. And now, just as secular America is waking up to the idea that, Hey, you got your church chocolate in my state peanut butter, religious America pushing Theodicies Peanut Butter Cups through government, schools, media, and even the Oval Office. It might sound laughable to imagine Donald Trump as the tip of a religious movement's spear—Little Lord Fauntleroy spreading the Lord's word—but the merging of this particular brand of church and what's left of our fragile state is no laughing matter. NYT (Gift Article): Behind Charlie Kirk’s Spiritual Journey That Fused Christianity and Politics. "Cabinet members and activists onstage Sunday repeatedly shared the Christian gospel message of salvation. Mr. Vance called him a 'martyr for the Christian faith.' Mr. Trump said 'he’s a martyr now for American freedom.” Those two, it appeared, were one and the same.'" Most Americans believe in the separation of church and state. But the only way to impact the fight is to get into the ring. Can I get an Amen? Or at least an OMFG?
+ "The evil murderer who took Charlie from us expected us to have a funeral today, and instead, my friends, we have had a revival in celebration of Charlie Kirk and of his lord Jesus Christ." Which televangelist said that? JD Vance. Trump lionizes Charlie Kirk, warns of dangers to America. And Stephen Miller: "The storm whispers to the warrior that you cannot withstand my strength and the warrior whispers back: ‘I am the storm.’ Erika is the storm. We are the storm, and our enemies cannot comprehend our strength, our determination, our resolve, our passion." Onlookers horrified as Stephen Miller parrots Nazi speech.
+ WaPo (Gift Article): Kirk’s memorial was an emblem of the Trump era — and a sign of what’s ahead. "The five-hour memorial service for conservative activist/influencer/organizer Charlie Kirk that packed tens of thousands Sunday into a Phoenix-area stadium was a melding of religion and politics unlike any seen before. Or perhaps it was proof, if any more were needed, that the line that used to separate them may no longer exist, particularly on the right."
+ And here's a segue that's so perfect, it's got to be divine intervention. NextDraft will be off tomorrow in observance of Rosh Hashanah. As I've mentioned before, when people ask me if I'm a practicing Jew, I usually respond, "No, I just show up on game days."
+ I'm also taking tomorrow off in observance of Jimmy Kimmel is back on the air day! The fight over free speech, and even over the Jimmy Kimmel show, is far from over. But a lot of people, and now Disney itself, passed the Jimmy Kimmel Test over the past few days. We'll need a lot more. It's not easy to stand up the pressure from the Trump admin, and Disney is certain to endure the wrath of fraud. So kudos to them for the spine stiffening. (It's sort of perfect that Kimmel is returning to the airwaves to ring in the Jewish new year. Jimmy's not Jewish, but he's definitely funny enough to be.)
"President Donald Trump is worried that Attorney General Pam Bondi is moving too slowly to prosecute his political adversaries on fake charges. Trump has good reason to be concerned. He is carrying out his project to consolidate authoritarian power against the trend of declining public support for his administration and himself." David Frum in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Trump Might Be Losing His Race Against Time. "The MAGA project in many ways resembles one of former businessman Donald Trump’s dangerously leveraged real-estate deals. A comparatively small number of fanatics are heart-and-soul committed. Through them, Trump controls the Republican apparatus and the right-wing media world, which allows him to do things like gerrymander states where he is in trouble (50 percent of Texans now disapprove of Trump, while only 43 percent approve) or wield the enforcement powers of the Federal Communications Commission to silence on-air critics. But overleveraged structures are susceptible to external shocks and internal mistakes." (This is somewhat hopeful. But Trump's race is not only against time. It's against the Americans who see things a different way. And that movement needs a clear, strong, unifying leader to harness its power, or time won't be on our side.)
+ G. Elliott Morris: A lot of powerful people just don’t realize how unpopular Trump is. "The president’s entire domestic policy agenda is underwater, too — especially on the economy and inflation, the two issues that won him the 2024 election."
"In demanding that the attorney general go after his enemies, Donald Trump is upending fundamental norms of fairness and neutrality in the American legal system." Paul Rosenzweig in The Atlantic (Gift Article): A Most Profound Transgression. "The gravest sin here is not so much that Trump has an enemies list and that he is issuing kingly orders of retribution. It is that not a single elected Republican seems likely to stand up and condemn this total perversion of the American legal system. Government action should not be arbitrarily coercive and subject to the personal whims of our leaders. Sadly, it now is." (At this point, using the word Sadly to prepend a conclusion seems redundant.)
"Then he added, 'Here at Chase, we’ll never ask for your personal information or passwords.' On the contrary, he gave me more information — two 'cancellation codes' and a long case number with four letters and 10 digits. That’s when he offered to transfer me to his supervisor. That simple phrase, familiar from countless customer-service calls, draped a cloak of corporate competence over this unfolding drama. His supervisor. I mean, would a scammer have a supervisor?" NYT (Gift Article): I’ve Written About Loads of Scams. This One Almost Got Me.
Law Fighting: "A White House announcement about autism is expected Monday afternoon after President Donald Trump’s weekend comment that 'I think we found an answer' to the developmental disorder. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised earlier this year to determine the cause of autism by September. That baffled brain experts who say there is no single cause and that the rhetoric appears to ignore decades of science into the genetic and environmental factors that can play a role." And from NPR: The Trump administration is expected to link autism to Tylenol use during pregnancy.
+ Wanna Screw? "Taiwan has long been the top provider of screws to the United States. But its factories are struggling to survive under tariffs on steel and aluminum." Trump’s Tariffs Are Damaging America’s Biggest Foreign Source of Screws. (This article is interesting re tariffs but even more so re screws.)
+ It Computes: Nvidia to invest $100 billion in OpenAI, linking two artificial intelligence titans. The future is all about computing power. Might be time to update my Macbook Air.
+ In a State: France joined a host of countries recognizing a Palestinian state. These recognitions are in large part a reaction to Bibi's increasingly aggressive war in Gaza. Will it make him less aggressive or more? How Israel could retaliate against the growing push for recognition of a Palestinian state.
+ H-1B Sting: Trump's new $100K fee on H-1B visas will hurt the tech companies trying to woo him. "President Trump's latest executive order on immigration will sharply curtail a visa program used by hundreds of thousands of people currently living in the United States. It also threatens some operations of the big tech companies that have tried hard to curry favor with Trump this year, raising the question of how much return those companies are getting on that ongoing investment." (Well, those companies will be invited to kiss the ring in order to get price breaks on these visas. That's the way it works now.)
+ Algorithm Method: "The exact mix of investors has been in flux. Mr. Trump hinted this weekend that the media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan were considering an investment, which could come through the media giant Fox Corporation, a person familiar with the talks said." The new TikTok will deploy an algorithm out of the control of the Chinese government. That's good. The people who will be controlling it? Not as good. U.S.-Run TikTok to License Algorithm.
We Are the World: I attended the Laver Cup (Europe vs The World) with my wife over the weekend. We didn't get to see either of Taylor Fritz's major wins (ones that could change his career) over Zverev and Alcaraz, but it was a lot of fun and a great event for SF and tennis. It also allows me the type the most non-2025 phrase: The world won. (The Laver Cup is basically the last place where the USA is still part of the World team.)
+ The highlight of the whole event was watching World coach Andre Agassi's celebrations and exhortations. And his spreading of libations.