2025-08-14 20:00:00
Our house, in the middle of our street. It’s both the chorus of a 1982 hit song and the location of the crime wave you’ve been hearing so much about. It turns out that the crime rate is at a pretty solid low in America. The one place it remains stubbornly high? Well, let’s put it this way. The call is coming from inside the house. And it’s likely to wake you up. Bloomberg (Gift Article): When and Where Does Crime Happen? At Home, After Midnight. “New FBI statistics paint a detailed portrait of where and how crime happens in the US. Violent incidents in particular tend to involve familiar people in familiar places.” (Maybe Trump should send in the National Guard to be roommates.)
+ The NYT editorial board breaks down many interesting reasons and theories about why crime has been falling. Crime Keeps Falling. Here’s Why. This tidbit will probably surprise a whole lot of Americans. “It is worth mentioning one factor that has played little role in the recent crime decline, contrary to claims from Mr. Trump. He has suggested that the crime spike was the fault of illegal immigration during the Biden administration and that the reversal stems from his border crackdown. That appears to be simply false. Immigrants, including those who entered the country illegally, commit crimes at lower rates than native-born Americans (in part because of the potential consequences, including deportation). The timeline does not work, either. Murder began surging in 2020, when migration was very low, and began falling in 2023, when it was still high.” Maybe these stats make this headline inevitable: Trump Crackdown Snares More Migrants With No US Criminal Records. The administration’s latest answer to these numbers comes from Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of public affairs at DHS: “Many of the individuals that are counted as ‘non-criminals’ are actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gangsters and more. They just don’t have a rap sheet in the US.” So we’re targeting criminals with no record of having committed a crime? Every house on the block is filled with those.
“According to recent research from McKinsey & Company, nearly eight in 10 companies have reported using generative A.I., but just as many have reported ‘no significant bottom-line impact.’ A.I. technology has been racing ahead with chatbots like ChatGPT, fueled by a high-stakes arms race among tech giants and superrich start-ups and prompting an expectation that everything from back-office accounting to customer service will be revolutionized. But the payoff for businesses outside the tech sector is lagging behind, plagued by issues including an irritating tendency by chatbots to make stuff up.” NYT (Gift Article): Companies Are Pouring Billions Into A.I. It Has Yet to Pay Off.
+ I don’t think there’s much doubt that in the long run, AI will be replacing a lot of the work done by humans. In the near-term, it’s already taking over some of the roles of your colleagues. Sarah E. Needleman: Meet your new office bestie: ChatGPT. “Unlike teammates with a pulse, chatbots are never snotty, grumpy, or off the clock. They don’t eat leftover salmon at their desks or give you the stink eye. They don’t go on a tangent about their kids or talk politics when you ask to schedule a meeting. And they won’t be insulted if you reject their suggestions.”
+ “A cognitively impaired New Jersey man grew infatuated with ‘Big sis Billie,’ a Facebook Messenger chatbot with a young woman’s persona. His fatal attraction puts a spotlight on Meta’s AI guidelines, which have let chatbots make things up and engage in ‘sensual’ banter with children.” Meta’s flirty AI chatbot invited a retiree to New York. He never made it home. “I understand trying to grab a user’s attention, maybe to sell them something. But for a bot to say ‘Come visit me’ is insane.”
“Exercise … may be the single most broadly beneficial health intervention in the world. No other medication or behavioral remedy is so effective at simultaneously combating body-wide inflammation, visceral fat accumulation, and neurodegenerative diseases. So, one would hope that a true health wave in America would also see a big leap in fitness activities. In fact, that’s exactly what seems to be happening.” Derek Thompson on The Great American Fitness Boom. (As with every big American story, the economic divide plays a role.)
“Jocelyn Benson made some of her closest friendships at sleep-away camp while hiking, climbing the ropes course and cheering for teammates during color war. She lived in a bunk with other campers, chatted late into the night and made plans to see them once camp ended. The other things she did: mingled with fellow campers who drank wine and cocktails and stayed up till 1:30 a.m. Benson was, after all, 29. Sleep-away camp isn’t just for kids anymore.” WSJ (Gift Article): Adults Are Going to Sleep-away Camp to Make Friends. It Seems to Actually Work. (The more I read about solutions for being lonely, the more I appreciate moments alone.)
Not a Matter of Tariff, But When: “US wholesale prices rose far more than expected in July, posting their biggest surge in three years.” Someone’s gonna have to make up for those higher prices, and that someone is always the consumer.
+ Wag the DOGE: “Through July, DOGE said it has saved taxpayers $52.8 billion by canceling contracts, but of the $32.7 billion in actual claimed contract savings that Politico could verify, DOGE’s savings over that period were closer to $1.4 billion.” Just how much has DOGE exaggerated its numbers? Now we have receipts. (DOGE wouldn’t have to inflate the stats if it instead measured how much damage its done.)
+ Meeting of the Mines: Expectations are being re-set for the Putin/Trump summit in Alaska. “The more important meeting will be the second meeting that we’re having,” Trump said “We’re going to have a meeting with President Putin, President Zelensky, myself, and maybe we’ll bring some of the European leaders along, maybe not.” (So this is a meeting about having a meeting.) Here’s the latest from CNN.
+ Bystand and Deliver: “President Donald Trump’s pick to run the Bureau of Labor Statistics was among the crowd outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, with the White House saying he was a ‘bystander’ who wandered over after seeing coverage on the news.” (He could have been one of the lunatics who broke through barricades and took a dump on the Capitol’s marble floor and the Senate GOP would still confirm him.)
+ Pill Pullers: “A coalition of faith-based activists had pressured the retailer to not offer the abortion pill mifepristone in its pharmacy locations. The group now turns its focus to CVS and Walgreens.” Costco Forgoes Sale of Abortion Pill, Emboldening Religious Groups.
+ Sandwich Generation: “A man accused of throwing a sandwich at a federal agent who was patrolling Washington this week, after calling him and other agents ‘fascists,’ was charged with assaulting a federal officer on Wednesday. On Thursday, Attorney General Pam Bondi said the man had been fired from his job at the Justice Department.” Man Charged With Assaulting Federal Agent With Sandwich in DC.
McDonald’s “said in a release that when customers purchase a Happy Meal, they would get a limited-edition set of two Pokemon cards.” What could possibly go wrong? McDonald’s Japan apologizes for chaotic 3-day Pokemon Happy Meal promo.
+ German states debate who invented Bratwurst sausages.
2025-08-13 20:00:00
It’s 2025, so there’s a very good chance that during the next few minutes as you join me in catching up on the news, you’ll pause, sigh (or possibly moan), and mumble to yourself, “Damn, I need a drink.” But this need for a drink comes with a twist. At a moment in American history when one imagines we’d need to imbibe, swill, guzzle, pound, swig, sip, nip, swallow, quaff, booze, indulge, binge, chug, tank up, knock a few back, bend the elbow, and hit the bottle more than ever, we’re actually hardly drinking at all. In short, life sucks, but we don’t. “Fewer Americans are reporting that they drink alcohol amid a growing belief that even moderate alcohol consumption is a health risk, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday … As concerns about health impacts rise, fewer Americans are reporting that they drink. The survey finds that 54% of U.S. adults say they drink alcoholic beverages such as liquor, wine or beer. That’s lower than at any other point in the past three decades.” It always seemed a little hard to believe that drinking was good for us. But it can’t be all that healthy consuming the news sober. Long story short, it looks like I picked the wrong era to stop sniffing glue.
In the NYT (Gift Article), M. Gessen does a great job of clearly explaining why sanctions, whether delivered by Biden or Trump, haven’t deterred Putin (When sanctions have an effect, it is usually to immiserate ordinary people. The elites remain wealthy, and the gap between the rich and the poor only grows. Rather than foment resentment against the regime and the elites, this tends to rally society against the country that imposed the sanctions.), and why the Russian leader may have won the Alaskan summit before it even starts. Trump Is Giving Putin a Most Wonderful Gift. “Trump seems to be unaware that, by meeting with Putin, he is giving Putin exactly what the Russian leader wants — a demonstration of his power. Trump is giving Putin additional gifts by agreeing to meet with him without Zelensky and by sidelining the European Union. Trump is affirming for all of Russia to see what Putin has claimed all along: that the conflict is really between Russia and the United States. The moment Putin walks into the negotiating room, he has gotten everything he wants — plus an opportunity to make a quip about Alaska as historically Russian land (consider this a prediction). If the meeting does not produce an agreement, Putin loses nothing. Trump, on the other hand, would lose face if he walked out empty-handed. He may be motivated to accept something, anything.”
+ European leaders talked with Trump and hope everyone is on the same page ahead of the summit. Trump told them he will not negotiate Ukrainian territory with Putin. Here’s the latest from CNN.
The ‘godfather of AI’ reveals the only way humanity can survive superintelligent AI. The key he explains, is to make AI more motherly. “In the future, Hinton warned, AI systems might be able to control humans just as easily as an adult can bribe 3-year-old with candy. This year has already seen examples of AI systems willing to deceive, cheat and steal to achieve their goals. For example, to avoid being replaced, one AI model tried to blackmail an engineer about an affair it learned about in an email. Instead of forcing AI to submit to humans, Hinton presented an intriguing solution: building ‘maternal instincts’ into AI models, so ‘they really care about people’ even once the technology becomes more powerful and smarter than humans.”
“Born in Alhambra, California, in 1948, Webster began standup surfing in 1961 at the age of 13. In 1973, he moved to Bodega Bay, about 70 miles north of San Francisco. Two years later, a run of large swells known as the Monster from New Zealand sparked a personal challenge: surf every day for 100 consecutive days.” That was just the beginning. Dale Webster, surfer who rode waves for 14,642 consecutive days, dies aged 77.
Thanks, But No Thanks: “Throughout Joe Biden’s presidency, there was a notion that a politician can win votes by delivering benefits to voters — also known as ‘deliverism.'” It turns out that delivering, even bigly, for communities often didn’t make the slightest dent in voting patterns. Everything that you’d assume matters doesn’t matter at all. NYT (Gift Article): Democrats Delivered Millions to Texarkana. It Didn’t Matter One Bit.
+ Right Here, Right Now: “For the first time in modern history, far-right and populist parties are simultaneously topping the polls in Europe’s three main economies of Germany, France and Britain.”
+ Mine Shaft: Reuters takes you to the other side of the supply chain that led to the device you’re reading this on. Inside the mine that feeds the tech world – and funds Congo’s rebels.
+ Order Up: “At least 63 people, mostly women and children, starved to death in the past week in the besieged city of El Fasher, the last major urban center in the sprawling Darfur region to not fall to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Local officials told reporters that number accounted only for those who made it to medical facilities in an area beset by battles and bombings. Aid has not entered the city for a year.” WaPo (Gift Article): Sudan’s calamity and ‘the end of the liberal world order.’ If you missed it last week, don’t miss Anne Applebaum’s piece on this topic. Out of Order.
+ Lone Ranger: “For three days in Georgia this spring, those culture wars felt very far away, in part because what I saw at Best Ranger belies the idea that the Army is weak or ‘woke’; in part because among the 104 soldiers on the starting line at Fort Benning was a 25-year-old first lieutenant named Gabrielle White, a West Point graduate who was the first woman to compete for the Best Ranger title; and in part because, to her opponents on the course, the fact that she was a woman did not seem to matter. The only thing that mattered to the Rangers I met was that she had qualified for the competition.” Kevin Maurer in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Is This the Hardest Physical Contest in the World?
+ Crime Waive: “The heart of D.C. was in a state of lawlessness. Roving mobs of wild men smashed windows, threatened murder and attacked the police … a mob committed a month’s worth of crime in the span of about three hours. The F.B.I. has estimated that around 2,000 people took part in criminal acts that day, and more than 600 people were charged with assaulting, resisting or interfering with the police.” But that non-imaginary DC crime wave didn’t result in Trump calling in the National Guard. Trump Deploys National Guard for D.C. Crime but Called Jan. 6 Rioters ‘Very Special.’
+ Kiss the Ring: Sylvester Stallone and KISS are among the new Kennedy Center honorees. And you’ll never guess who’s hosting the show. (Trump could be the only man in the world who wears more makeup than KISS.)
Think Americans get a little too comfortable when it comes to establishing a workspace in a cafe? Consider South Korea, where Starbucks has issued a new policy against things like customers bringing in desktop computers, printers, and even physical partitions. Starbucks Korea cracks down on people working, studying all day in cafes.
2025-08-12 20:00:00
The admonishment Don’t have a cow is decidedly out of style. Having a cow, or just about anything associated with one, is currently experiencing a level of enthusiasm not seen since worshippers kowtowed to the Golden Calf. The current bovine goldmine has turned into a cash cow for those leading the cattle call, and consumers seem ready to pay up ’til the cows come home. Never mind that some of the hyped benefits sound like a load of bull. Yasmin Tayag in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Americans Are All In on Cow-Based Wellness. “Beef tallow (as both a moisturizer and an alternative to seed oils) is one of many cow-based products that have crowded the wellness market in the past five or so years. Beef-bone broth is a grocery-store staple. Demand for raw milk has grown, despite numerous cases of illness and warnings from public-health officials that drinking it can be fatal.” (Oh, don’t tell me you woke-ass, leftist, vegan, weaklings are afraid of a little fatal!).
+ There’s more. “In certain circles, raw cow organs—heart, liver, kidney—are prized superfoods. Target and Walmart sell supplements containing bovine collagen (a protein found in cowhide and bone) and colostrum (the rich liquid that mammals produce for their newborn offspring); they promise healthier skin, a happier gut, and stronger immunity, and come in flavors such as watermelon lime, lemon sorbet, and ‘valiant grape.’ You can buy cow-placenta pills for postpartum healing, or powdered bull testicle for testosterone support.” (If you really want to get the full impact—and don’t mind the occasional slightly judgemental look from ranch hands—eat them raw in the field, right off the animal.)
+ “The slightest interaction with clean-beauty Instagram can fill your feed with ads for beef-tallow lip balms, cleansing creams, sunscreen, and deodorants. (One brand even offers creamsicle-flavored beef-tallow personal lubricant, which is currently out of stock online.)” (I guess this explains why Moo is my safe word.)
+ And the cow tipping point comes earlier than you might imagine. WSJ (Gift Article): Meet the Parents Raising ‘Carnivore Babies,’ Swapping Puréed Fruit for Rib-Eye. “Rising interest in protein and concerns about ultraprocessed foods are causing some people to look at carnivore-style diets. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a carnivore champion, has loudly expressed his affinity for beef tallow.” (Hopefully these parents know that The Onion is a parody site. With headlines like this one, it’s hard to tell these days: RFK Jr. Mandates All Americans Drink Mysterious Glowing Liquid.)
“What I see in these stories are fragments of a larger problem that will be with us for years, and maybe decades. I don’t just think about the vulnerable adults who can be lured into chats that inflate their delusions. I also think about today’s children, including my daughter, who will grow up around friendly AI conversationalists that they’ll turn to for finishing their homework, drafting texts to girls and boys in high school, resolving fights with their parents, working out ethical challenges, and managing the hormonal circus of being a teenager. On the receiving end of these articulated fears may be not only messy, flawed, distracted friends, but also the articulate, always-online, and highly practiced you-are-so-right reassurance of a disembodied bot that excels in flattery.” Derek Thompson on The Looming Social Crisis of AI Friends and Chatbot Therapists, or How to Manufacture Narcissism at Scale… (As if humans haven’t been good enough at doing that on their own…)
+ “The follies began when lawyers—including some at prestigious firms—submitted documents citing cases that didn’t exist. Similar mistakes soon spread to other roles in the courts. In December, a Stanford professor submitted sworn testimony containing hallucinations and errors in a case about deepfakes, despite being an expert on AI and misinformation himself. The buck stopped with judges, who—whether they or opposing counsel caught the mistakes—issued reprimands and fines, and likely left attorneys embarrassed enough to think twice before trusting AI again. But now judges are experimenting with generative AI too.”
“The siding plant’s closure was unfortunate, but the workers will be fine, they say. The workers aren’t so sure. They say that many available jobs pay less, as their cost of living — especially their housing — soars. Several Bonner workers said they had applied for jobs that pay $5 an hour less than the $20 to $25 they earned at the siding plant, without similar benefits. The elites are doing great in a Montana buoyed by technology and tourism, they say, but blue collar workers are slipping farther behind.” NYT (Gift Article): Trump Promised a Golden Age. Then a Montana Lumber Plant Closed Down. And because this is 2025, the closing of the plant has led to wildly different political explanations. Here’s mine: The economic divide is the everything story. The economic divide led to Trump and Trumpism will increase the economic divide.
+ WSJ (Gift Article): The Era of Big Raises for Low-Paid Workers Is Over. “Something remarkable happened in the years immediately preceding and, especially, following the pandemic: Wages for poor workers began rising much faster than they did for the rich.” That trend has now reverted to the modern norm.
“Female tennis players Iga Świątek, Yulia Putintseva and Emma Raducanu dealt with stalking incidents this year. Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers and other women’s basketball players were subjected to stalking that led them to fear for their safety. Gymnasts Simone Biles and Livvy Dunne have been targeted, as has track athlete Gabby Thomas; American hurdler and bobsledder Lolo Jones had someone break into her training facility and attempt to do the same at her home, one of three men she said have stalked her in recent years.” The Athletic: ‘I’m sitting behind the bench’: Inside sports’ escalating stalking problem.
The New Math: “President Trump on Tuesday appeared to call for Goldman Sachs to replace the bank’s top economist over his past predictions, in his latest broadside against executives he believes are undermining his goals.” Meanwhile, Trump’s pick to replace the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner he fired suggests suspending the monthly jobs report.
+ You Wanna a Peace of Me? Russia tries to make sudden advance in Ukraine before Trump-Putin summit. I previewed the Alaska Summit in yesterday’s edition: Another One Bites the Dust.
+ Over Reaction: As the National Guard arrives in DC, the Pentagon puts together a plan that would create a military ‘reaction force’ for civil unrest.
+ White Noise: “Members have espoused racist and antisemitic views and repeatedly praised Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. They’ve raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, and their movement is growing.” Wired: Inside the ‘Whites Only’ Community in Arkansas.
+ Vision Quest: “The president singled out the Smithsonian Institution in his executive order and said the Smithsonian had recently ‘come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology’ that promotes ‘narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.'” White House to Vet Smithsonian Museums to Fit Trump’s Historical Vision.
+ Aryna’s Arena: Aryna Sabalenka’s bonkers tiebreak streak sets new WTA single-season record. She has won 15 tie-breakers in a row. Insane.
+ The Whack Pact: Howard Stern Went From Shock Jock to Centrist Cat Dad. If His Audience Couldn’t Follow, That’s Not His Fault. (I walk and exercise to Howard every day. If he retires, I will gain at least 30 pounds.)
“The team at Tuk South visited one of the tallest sand dunes in Chile and did the obvious: threw a tire down it and followed it with a drone to see how long it would roll.” This is what I should be doing instead of reading the news.
+ A UFC fight at the White House? Dana White says it’s happening as part of deal with Paramount.
2025-08-11 20:00:00
Termination Dust is an Alaskan phrase that refers to first snow of the season, which many local workers viewed as a sign that their seasonal gigs would be coming to an end. Maybe the antiquated term will be updated later this week when Trump welcomes Putin to Alaska, in a move that threatens the termination of American values and the turning its global leadership to dust. The Atlantic (Gift Article): Trump Invites Putin to Set Foot in America. “Vladimir Putin is coming to America, despite the international warrant for the Russian president’s arrest, despite his years of hostile threats against NATO, and despite him showing no remorse for his invasion of a sovereign nation.” Putin, who has usually responded to Trump’s demands and threats by increasing attacks on Ukraine, has made no concessions to gain this summit, but has much to gain by attending it. As Heather Cox Richardson summarizes, “Putin generally cannot travel outside Russia because he has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, including the theft of Ukrainian children. And yet Trump is welcoming him to the United States of America.” Maybe Trump is as sickened by the thought of Putin on US soil as the rest of us. On Monday, Trump repeatedly told reporters that he was traveling to Russia to meet with Putin. Who will have the upper hand in this negotiation between Putin and Trump (and his real estate friend Steve Witkoff, the administration’s newbie negotiating point person across multiple global conflicts)? At this point, it’s not even clear they have different goals. Something tells me we’re not going to like what we see when the dust settles.
+ Meanwhile, “President Trump significantly escalated his efforts to exert federal authority over the nation’s capital on Monday, saying that he was temporarily taking control of the city’s police department and deploying 800 National Guard troops to fight crime there. At a White House news conference, the president painted a dystopian picture of Washington — including ‘bloodthirsty criminals’ and ‘roving mobs of wild youth’ — that stood in sharp contrast to official figures showing violent crime in the city is at a 30-year low.” Trump Orders National Guard to Washington and Takeover of Capital’s Police. Is the low DC crime rate just a figment of fake news imagination? No, but one imagines the Justice Department will be deleting this page posted to its website just a few months ago: Violent Crime in D.C. Hits 30 Year Low. Long story short, Trump is deploying troops against an imaginary enemy in DC before heading to Alaska to surrender to a real one.
“Over the past decade, practitioners of euthanasia have become as familiar as orthodontists or plastic surgeons are with the mundane rituals of lanyards and drink tickets and It’s been so longs outside the ballroom of a four-star hotel. The difference is that, 10 years ago, what many of the attendees here do for work would have been considered homicide.” Canada has legalized what it calls MAID (Medical Assistance in Dying). On the most basic level, providing terminally ill patients with a say about their end of life decisions seems like a good and long overdue policy. But the policy is surfacing details and edge cases that lawmakers hadn’t considered. Elaina Plott Calabro in The Atlantic (Gift Article) with a very interesting look at an evolving law: Canada Is Killing Itself. “The country gave its citizens the right to die. Doctors are struggling to keep up with demand.”
For years, young people with aspirations for future employment were advised to get a computer science degree. The demand for coders was insatiable. But then the coders already in the business created AI that can do a lot of the coding itself. And just like that, for many the computer science major turned into a major bummer. NYT (Gift Article): Goodbye, $165,000 Tech Jobs. Student Coders Seek Work at Chipotle. Just consider how unimaginable these stats would have seemed back when today’s college graduates were choosing their majors. “Among college graduates ages 22 to 27, computer science and computer engineering majors are facing some of the highest unemployment rates, 6.1 percent and 7.5 percent respectively, according to a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. That is more than double the unemployment rate among recent biology and art history graduates, which is just 3 percent.” (Hey, it could be worse. I spent my life perfecting the art of providing quick, clear summaries of vast amounts of information spread across the internet.)
“An event will take place on September 30 that most people assume happened years ago: AOL will discontinue its dial-up internet service. If you’re wondering just how many dial-up users are still out there, the answer is not many: the figure was ‘in the low thousands’ as of 2021.” AOL to discontinue dial-up internet service after 34 years.
Cashing in Your Chips: “Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices are expected to pay the United States 15 percent of the money they take in from selling artificial intelligence chips to China, as part of a highly unusual financial agreement with the Trump administration.” NYT: U.S. Government to Take Cut of Nvidia and AMD A.I. Chip Sales to China. As the WSJ (Gift Article) explains: The U.S. Marches Toward State Capitalism With American Characteristics. “A generation ago conventional wisdom held that as China liberalized, its economy would come to resemble America’s. Instead, capitalism in America is starting to look like China.”
+ It’s Good to Be the King: While the US government is taking a cut of the chip business, the Trumps are cashing in on everything else. How much is Trump pocketing off the Presidency? In The New Yorker, David D. Kirkpatrick takes a crack at adding things up. The Number. (He got to about $3.4 billion, and counting…)
+ Arms Race: “None of this is new … but [it’s] in the midst of an upgrade that adds one crucial element: arms.” The Verge: Inside the automated warehouse where robots are packing your groceries.
+ Suffragette Lag: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reposted and praised a video interview of a self-described Christian nationalist pastor whose church doesn’t believe women should be allowed to vote … In the CNN interview, Wilson also defended previous comments where he had said there was mutual affection between slaves and their masters. He also said that sodomy should be recriminalized.” (As crazy as you think these guys are, they’re crazier.)
+ Ebola Mode: “The Trump administration has said that it’s just reorganizing the bureaucracy and is prepared to handle biothreats. But our experience suggests otherwise. Without a leader from the NSC embedded in the White House and ready to coordinate other agencies, more people—including Americans—will get sick and die.” No One in the White House Knows How to Stop Ebola.
+ If The Suit Fits: Ski jumping’s suit-cheating saga rolls on as 5 Norwegians are charged. “The International Ski and Snowboard Federation said star ski jumpers Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang, two coaches and a member of the service staff were formally charged as part of an investigation into ‘equipment manipulation.'” (I’m old enough to remember when Equipment Manipulation was a late night movie on Cinemax.)
“Pickles are virtually everywhere. Popeyes released a limited-time pickle menu in April, which featured pickle glaze sandwiches, wings and lemonade. Cup Noodles debuted pickle ramen in June, encouraging customers to pair the noodles with a crunchy pickle spear. Pringles, Cheetos and Goldfish are selling their own versions of pickle-flavored snacks. The ubiquity has deepened America’s divide over the already polarizing snack as haters find them harder to avoid.” America’s Great Pickle Divide.
+ “A group of burglars has broken into a Los Angeles store, taking thousands of dollars worth of Labubu dolls, which have surged in popularity this year among both children and adults, including celebrities.”
2025-08-08 20:00:00
The house always wins. It’s an adage that always holds up. Well, almost. On occasion, the house loses, like when Donald Trump runs the casinos. These days, Trump is running a much larger game with much higher stakes. Is an American economy that seemed to hold all the cards just a few months ago headed for a historically bad beat? Well, if you’re placing your bets, you might want to check with Las Vegas first. The sin city has often served as a bellwether for what’s in the cards for the broader American economy. Economic uncertainty, tariffs, and a hit to international travel are taking a toll. NPR: Las Vegas sees drop in tourism, hinting at broader economic woes facing the US. “Summer is typically a slower season for Las Vegas given its heat, and June was a quieter convention month than last year, according to experts on Las Vegas tourism. But the dip in tourism also comes amid growing concerns over the impact of President Trump’s global trade war and immigration policies on international travel to the U.S. Meanwhile, rising prices and tariffs appear to be changing how American consumers are spending their money.”
+ Don’t like Vegas as an economic indicator? How about breakfast? “At Wendy’s Co. and McDonald’s Corp., diners are cutting back on Maple Bacon Chicken Croissants and McGriddles, even as both chains have offered discounts. Breakfast is doing worse than sales at other times of the day, executives at the two companies said this week. ‘When consumer uncertainty increases and consumers choose to eat another meal at home, breakfast is often the first place that they do that with.'” Fast-Food Breakfast Sales Fade as Diners Eat at Home, Skip Meals.
+ Maybe it’s not actually the economy driving these trends. GLP-1s could be driving down appetites and addictions. Some businesses are reacting by getting small. NYT (Gift Article): Ozempic Is Shrinking Appetites. Restaurants Are Shrinking the Food. I wonder if they can come up with a weekly injectable to suppress the appetite for destruction.
“The exchanges highlight how corporations have changed their lobbying strategies to adapt to a uniquely transactional president who prioritizes wins and deals. Executives who have long outsourced the messy practice of lobbying to consultants or dark-money groups have learned that the best way to shape Trump’s policies is often through a late-night call to the president or a visit to one of his golf resorts.” WaPo (Gift Article): America’s CEOs come to the White House bearing gifts and flattery. (Or what Colbert calls, The Apple iKiss.)
“A decision in the Perrier case is due in the coming months. It follows revelations in the French media about illicit filtration systems that have been widely used in the industry, apparently because of worries about water contamination.” The big story here isn’t that some supposedly natural water has been treated before hitting the bottle. The big story is why companies feel the need to filter. And that’s a climate story. Is Perrier as pure as it claims? The bottled water scandal gripping France.
What to Book: “In the fall of 1980, when I was fourteen, a friend of my parents named Naomi Shah fell in love with me. She was thirty-six, a mother of two, and married to a wealthy man. Like so many things that happened to me that year, it didn’t seem strange at the time.” Playworld by Adam Ross is an epic coming of age story about a teen actor set in NYC in the 80s that more than lives up to its stellar reviews. It’s so great.
+ What to Doc: I really didn’t have much interest in Jayne Mansfield. And I haven’t watched that many episodes of Law and Order SVU with Mariska Hargitay. So I’m not sure why I found myself watching Hargitay’s doc My Mom Jayne on HBO Max. But I’m sure glad I did. In many ways, it’s the story of one of America’s first social influencers. And it’s also a consistently jaw-dropping uncovering of Hargitay’s broader family history.
Vlad Handing: “Such an outcome would represent a major win for Putin, who has long sought direct negotiations with the US on terms for ending the war that he started, sidelining Ukraine and its European allies. Zelenskiy risks being presented with a take-it-or-leave-it deal to accept the loss of Ukrainian territory, while Europe fears it would be left to monitor a ceasefire as Putin rebuilds his forces.” Bloomberg (Gift Article): US and Russia Plan Truce to Cement Putin’s Gains in Ukraine.
+ Dealer’s Choice: “Directing the military to crack down on the illicit trade also raises legal issues, including whether it would count as ‘murder’ if U.S. forces acting outside of a congressionally authorized armed conflict were to kill civilians — even criminal suspects — who pose no imminent threat.” (Legal issues. Ha, ha, ha.) NYT (Gift Article): Trump Directs Military to Target Foreign Drug Cartels.
+ Austin City Limitless: “As Texas Republicans try to muscle a rare mid-decade redistricting bill through the Legislature to help Republicans gain seats in Congress — at President Donald Trump’s request — residents in Austin, the state capital, could find themselves sharing a district with rural Texans more than 300 miles away.” (A person could get carpal tunnel just trying to trace this map…)
+ Justice Just Isn’t: “The acting U.S. attorney in Albany sent Ms. James’s office two subpoenas, one of which was related to the civil fraud case, which led to Mr. Trump being penalized more than half a billion dollars.” Justice Dept. Subpoenas Office of Letitia James, Who Sued Trump for Fraud. The Justice Dept is being turned into a personal retribution tool.
+ Bibi Guns For More: “The chorus of condemnation from longstanding European allies, Arab governments and the families of hostages held by militant groups in Gaza reflected Mr. Netanyahu’s intensifying clash with foreign nationsand the supporters of hostages.” Netanyahu Broadly Criticized at Home and Abroad After New Gaza Plan. (How are those protests at Kamala rallies looking in retrospect?)
+ Pop Goes the Measle: Human ingenuity solved measles. Then human stupidity stepped in. WSJ (Gift Article): The Race to Find a Measles Treatment as Infections Surge.
+ Pepe Le PU: The inclusion of butter in a UK recipe for cacio e pepe draws outrage from Italian media. (I miss the days when this would have been the top international conflict story…)
“The journey was no longer impossible, but that didn’t make it any less audacious. One great waterway, newly freed from the stranglehold of four hulking dams. More than 300 miles, through some of the most intense rapids in the West. And 15 young kayakers, nearly all of them new to the sport.” 15 teens. 300 miles. One mighty ancestral river, running free.
+ “After finding the homeschooling life confining, the teen petitioned her way into a graduate class at Berkeley, where she ended up disproving a 40-year-old conjecture.” At 17, Hannah Cairo Solved a Major Math Mystery. (Go Bears.)
+ This weekend, Jen Pawol will make history by becoming the first woman to umpire a Major League Baseball game.
+ “They knew they were risking their lives, venturing out in the aftermath of a rebel takeover of their city, where U.N. experts were documenting hundreds of beatings, arrests and executions by the rebels, as well as grave crimes committed by fleeing soldiers. But all three had the same objective: to get back on the basketball court.” Congo’s Teens Brave Bombs, Rebels and Abduction to Play Hoops.
+ Helsinki went a full year without a traffic death. How did they do it?
+ Dog Heroically Leads Stranger to 2 Unconscious People in Need of Help. (They’re still looking for the cat that knocked them out.)
2025-08-07 20:00:00
Buy low, sell high. Does that adage still apply to the stock market? These days, buy when a company’s CEO is kissing the president’s ass and sell when the president is calling for the ouster of a company’s CEO probably works just as well. Or maybe buy on bribes, sell on ethics? Or you could just buy all crypto and not sell ever, or at least until the crypto industry proves less adept at buying the legislation they want. If you really want to keep busy, you can just buy and sell based on tariff announcements, the real ones and the ones that are immediately changed via executive Truth Social post. Trump’s latest tariffs just kicked in, raising import taxes to the highest level since Great Depression. OK, wait. In this new market, is mimicking policies of the Great Depression depressing, or are we just making Depressions Great Again? Don’t waste time asking your favorite AI program to ponder such philosophical financial questions. Just buy. “The president’s levies — which are expected to drive up prices for American consumers, and have spooked many businesses around the world — officially took effect just after midnight.” But the market wasn’t spooked. We’ve long been told that the American market likes logic, stability, certainty, and a strong rule of law. Well, to paraphrase Willy Wonka, “Strike that, re-invest it.”
+ “Can anything stop the stock market? The U.S. economy recently weathered the worst pandemic in 100 years, the worst inflation in 40 years, and the highest interest rates in 20 years. Yet from 2019 through 2024, the S&P 500 grew by an average of nearly 20 percent a year, about double its historical average rate. Despite President Donald Trump’s erratic economic policies, which include the highest tariffs since the 19th century, the market is already up by about 8 percent in 2025.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): Does the Stock Market Know Something We Don’t? Confused? Don’t worry. Even confusion is a buy signal.
“Even more alarming is how reliant the economy has become on spending binges by the richest Americans … The ‘K-shaped’ economy is back, where there’s a clear divergence between how the top and the bottom are faring. Businesses understand this. It’s why credit card companies have introduced even more exclusive credit cards this summer with higher fees, all-inclusive resorts are debuting $1,000-a-night experiences, and luxury car brands such as Porsche and Aston Martin have been among the first automakers to raise prices, because their clientele is less likely to push back. Any company that can is trying to go “upmarket” as much as possible in this environment.” WaPo (Gift Article): The economy is cracking. This trend is most alarming. (Don’t be alarmed. Just buy more Ks…)
“Most Americans get more than half their calories from ultra-processed foods, those super-tasty, energy-dense foods typically full of sugar, salt and unhealthy fats, according to a new federal report. Nutrition research has shown for years that ultra-processed foods make up a big chunk of the U.S. diet, especially for kids and teens. For the first time, however, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed those high levels of consumption, using dietary data collected from August 2021 to August 2023.” Americans get more than half their calories from ultra-processed foods, CDC report says. Of course, this report is being shared during the RFK Jr Health and Human Services era, so one wonders if the data has been ultra-processed as well.
“Breeders have long been obsessed with dog optimization. They created the Labrador retriever in the Victorian era to help owners hunt. In Germany, also in the 19th century, a man who ran a local dog pound came up with the Doberman pinscher, thinking he could use more muscle at his other job—as a tax collector. But rather than breeding a dog that has a single utility for a subset of people, people engineered the goldendoodle and various other poodle-based hybrids—labradoodles, schnoodles, bernedoodles, cockapoos, on and on—as the ultimate pets for, well, everyone.” Businessweek (Gift Article): Doodlemania: Goldendoodles, labradoodles and bernedoodles are everywhere. They’re now also a high-stakes, billion-dollar industry.
Meeting Expectations: “President Donald Trump’s abrupt shift from frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intransigence to a potential one-on-one meeting soon — despite Putin’s refusal to halt attacks on Ukraine or back away from Russia’s core war aims — handed the Russian leader a diplomatic coup, which the Kremlin embraced Thursday.” Actually, they may not be meeting. When you get conflicting statements from the Kremlin and the White House in 2025, who should you believe?
+ Re: Member: It’s not just that the administration is firing some of its most honest and talented staff. It’s who’s replacing them. “The Department of Justice hired a former Jan. 6 defendant who was caught on tape urging rioters to ‘kill’ police. The department calls him a ‘valued member’ of the administration.”
+ You Had Me at Shalom: “As described by their handlers, their motives were a mix of personal and political. Some were seeking revenge against a repressive, clerical regime that had imposed strict limits on political expression and daily life. Others were enticed by cash, the promise of medical care for family members or opportunities to attend college overseas.” ProPublica: Israel Secretly Recruited Iranian Dissidents to Attack Their Country From Within.
+ Cain Able? Ex-Superman actor Dean Cain has announced he is planning to join ICE. However, don’t think this means you need a super heroic resumé to apply. They even just got rid of age restrictions for the gig. ICE Is Extremely Desperate for You to Work for Them. And once arrests are made, Migrants Vanish Into Opaque ICE Detention System. “Frequent transfers between detention centers, across the country or to multiple locations in a few days, have become commonplace in the second Trump administration, according to more than a dozen immigration lawyers across the country. They describe a trend where their clients are disappearing into an opaque and labyrinthine system that is obstructing their ability to defend themselves in court.”
+ The Fugitives: “Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, said on Thursday that the F.B.I. had agreed to his request to help track down dozens of Democratic Texas state lawmakers who left the state to prevent a vote on a redistricting plan.” But wait. What about the actual law? Ha, ha, ha.
+ Burning Rubber: “It’s just egregious that they’re willing to waste $9 million worth of contraceptives that are so desperately needed … Women are going to die because they’ve not had access to those contraceptives.” NYT (Gift Article): As Trump Administration Plans to Burn Contraceptives, Europeans Are Alarmed. (The second half of that title can work with almost any headline.)
+ Still in the Room Where it Happened: “It’s a running joke that he’s moved into the building. Fans predict he’ll haunt the place one day — they call him the Phantom of the Rodgers.” The only actor who’s been in ‘Hamilton’ the whole time is still having a blast.
“Do you eat enough protein in a day? Don’t even bother answering, because I know the answer is no. But don’t worry, I’m kind of a protein guy. I can give you all the guidance you need so you can stop being such a weak little bitch. I eat three hundred times my recommended daily allowance of protein. So as you can imagine, my life is perfect. I can crush a fifteen-gallon stainless-steel trash can with my thighs. I could lift your sofa above my head and throw it so far you’ll never see it again.” McSweeney’s: You Don’t Eat Enough Protein and It Sickens Me.
+ Defector: Are You Aware of the Alan Dershowitz Martha’s Vineyard Pierogi Situation? (It’s amazing that only the first story in this section is from a satirical site…)