Our 'Big Chill'

(Ann Arbor expats gathered in my apartment in the Fillmore District of San Francisco in the early ‘70s.)

I was born in Detroit two years after the end of World War II. My family moved into one of the city’s expanding suburbs, Royal Oak, amidst a cluster of other families that consisted of returning soldiers, wives and boys and girls named David, Susan, Bill, Bob, Jim, Mark, Bonnie, Nancy, Kathy, Fred, Peter, Carole, Paul, Diane, Mary, John, and so on and so forth.

We were the leading edge of the Baby Boom generation -- a cohort so large that we broke every institution we encountered. When we got to school, there were never enough classrooms, chairs, desks, books, or other resources. Teachers suddenly had to handle many more students at once than had previously been the case.

When we reached our teens, there simply was not enough beat in the music that our parents and older siblings enjoyed. Thus, the mass market for rock and roll was born.

Meanwhile, the political economy of the nation newly victorious in the second war of wars dictated that America become an empire, as all conquerors since time immemorial have done. 

As we grew up, America’s capitalist empire -- imperialistic, arrogant, and driven by opposition to communism -- spread globally.

We were served books like “Our Friend the Atom,” a distinctly propagandistic reader that was our government’s attempt to convince us, years before we could vote, of the rightness of its policy to develop nuclear weapons to protect us from the Russians, Chinese, and other socialistic foreigners.

Much of the rest of my generation’s story is written contemporaneously in music, in poetry, in film, and in our collective memory. Confronted with the worldview that our fate was to conquer the world, many of us rebelled, begging to differ. 

We opposed the war in Vietnam. We marched in support of the civil rights movement. We launched the modern women’s liberation movement and the gay liberation movement. We smoked dope and dropped acid and danced in the streets. We flocked to the nascent environmental movement.

We were idealists and cynics, hippies and radicals. For our guides, we had Dylan and the Beatles, the Stones, and so many more. The music always reflected us as the ragged edges of a churning chainsaw that sliced our way through society trying to establish a new way of being.

Did we succeed in doing that? Probably not. Progress requires struggle and there have been many setbacks. The culture wars rage. It often looks bleak but three-quarters of a century later, many of us are still trying.

(I published the first version of this essay in 2006.)

HEADLINES:

• Putin tells Witkoff he is ready to resume direct peace talks, Russia releases U.S. detainee (Axios)

• When Starshield Cut Out, Ukrainian Drones Fell From the Skies (NYT)

• Supreme Court rejects Trump bid to restrict some medical treatments for transgender inmates (CBS)

• DOJ’s noncitizen voter list is unreliable (NPR)

• Trump Approval Hits New Low Two Weeks Before Midterms, Poll Finds (NYT)

• Fasten Your Seatbelts: Trumpism Is Beginning Its Final Descent (Bulwark)

• Meta Ordered to Pay $25 Billion for Deceiving Users on Privacy (NYT)

• Ohio governor’s race in uproar over ad featuring Democrat’s estranged mother (WP)

• Toledo Residents Ordered to Evacuate After Chemical Explosion (NYT)

• World must cut emissions by 18% in four years ‘to find our way back’, UN says (Guardian)

• United Nations report highlights significant increase in U.S. climate pollution (NPR)

• U.S. and Israel Draw Up Plans for Renewed Strikes on Iran After Elections (NYT)

• Iran’s enriched uranium re-emerges as point of contention in US talks (Al Jazeera)

• In San Francisco, a Family Earning $325,000 Qualifies for Government Aid (NYT)

• The tech helping crack decades-old cold cases (BBC)

• Trump Pushes to Evict the Press From the White House (NYT)

• ‘The Diplomat’ Team on the Real World Inspirations for Season 4’s “Authoritarian Behavior” and What’s Next After Dramatic G7 Scene (Hollywood Reporter)

• Scholars conclude ‘beyond doubt’ that Shakespeare was main author of Edward III (Guardian)

• ‘I lost all respect’: Warriors rookie blasts Lakers star Luka Doncic after blowout loss (NBC)

AI NEWS:

• Most Americans give a thumbs down to AI and how Trump is handling it (WP)

• Using thousands of AI agents to uncover new leads in biological data (OpenAI)

• A $345,000 writing job at Anthropic says a lot about what humans still bring to the table (BI)

• MOFCOM’s New Rules and the Future of Chinese AI (China Talk)

• The AI agent boom is here, along with a new set of privacy concerns (AP)

• AI capabilities mean America needs a Manhattan Project for biodefense (WP)

• Start-Up Claims to Use A.I.-Created Viruses to Treat a Patient (NYT)

• Executive Order Designates Shaking Empty Beer Can At Wife As Official Language Of U.S. (Onion)

 

Whispers in the Castle

According to the Washington Post, a small number of national security officials have “discreetly advised” leaders in ten states about the possibility that Trump will attempt to undermine the midterm elections.

These obviously are sensitive conversations to have behind Trump’s back. It would not surprise me to learn that similar conversations are occurring among the those around the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Given what happened on Jan.6, 2021, responsible people in positions of power have got to get ready for a potential constitutional crisis if Trump reacts badly to Democrats gaining control of Congress, which polls and prediction markets now agree is likely to occur.

According to Kalshi, Democrats now have a 90 percent chance of winning the House and a 66 percent chance of winning the Senate. Also, there was volatility at Kalshi Tuesday over the question of whether Trump will declare some sort of election emergency. That reached 42 percent Tuesday before falling back to 30 percent. 

This morning it is up to 75 percent!

Given Trump’s inability to accept defeat of any kind and his willingness to incite mobs of his most violent followers, officials know that they have to be prepared for almost anything.

So do the rest of us.

HEADLINES:

• U.S. officials have advised states on how to deal with potential Trump election meddling. A small group of U.S. national security officials has discreetly advised officials from 10 states on what to do if the Trump administration interferes in the midterms. (WP)

• Will Trump declare an election emergency? (Kalshi)

• Trump Warns America Will Burn if Republicans Lose This Election (TNR)

• Would Trump accept GOP midterm losses? 7 in 10 Americans doubt it. (WP)

• US citizen Stephen Hubbard freed by Russia as Trump envoy meets Putin (BBC)

• France riots become Republican midterm boogeyman (Axios)

• What’s Behind the Protests in France and What Happens Next (WSJ)

• France’s crisis sounds familiar. Is America next? (CNN)

• Huge setback for Alberta’s separatist movement after decisive defeat (BBC)

• US inequality is getting worse in ways you might not expect (The Conversation)

• The Limits of American Power (Foreign Affairs)

• The big questions about who’s to blame for Starshield disruptions in Ukraine (CNN)

• A Billionaire Wanted a Trump Pardon. His Family Gave Alina Habba a $50 Million Deal. (NYT)

• Why the BBC wants to talk to Jack Smith, and why Team Trump wants to block his testimony (MS Now)

• Justice Dept. Charges 28 in California With Voting-Related Crimes (NYT)

• Michigan voters have returned nearly 790,000 ballots with two weeks until Election Day (CBS)

• Trump Says He Plans to Spend at Least $400 Million by Election Day (NYT)

• Faith leaders unite across religions to counter voter intimidation on Election Day (AP)

• Desperate SF renters are going viral. Their stories reveal a city at its limit. (SFGate)

• Giant ‘heat storms’ are scorching Earth: the story of the biggest one. (Reuters)

• Iran warns US against renewed attack, says it has ‘unfinished jobs’ too (The Hill)

• 35 years ago, I was one of the first reporters on the scene of the Oakland-Berkeley Firestorm (Berkeleyside)

AI NEWS:

• This new theory on how AI ‘thinks’ could impact whether it kills us all (BI)

• Former OpenAI exec has quietly built $1.5 billion startup, betting AI can revive U.S. manufacturing (CNBC)

• DeepSeek Dials Up the Pressure on OpenAI and Anthropic With Open-Source Inference Tool (Gizmodo)

• How AI revealed 400 years of seafaring history (BBC)

• Altman Describes Three Endgames for AI, Including One Where a Single Firm ‘Melts Everyone Else’s GPUs’ (The Information)

• When AI goes rogue, its human overseers may be to blame (ScienceNews)

• AWS’s CFO joked about the financial toll of AI. An internal recording reveals why. (BI)

• The U.S. and China need an arms control pact — for AI (WP)

• Ahead of massive IPOs, AI companies are sketching plans to share their wealth (AP)

• AOC Tidies Up In Case Federal Agents Stop By For Raid (Onion)

Patriot/Traitor

Against the will of most Americans and almost all of our country’s allies, Trump has allied himself with Russia in its war on Ukraine.

This is another moral failure to go along with Trump’s many others overseas, including bombing fishing boats in South America, cutting off life-saving aid to poor nations in Africa, and undermining Taiwan in China, among others.

Trump is basically on the wrong side of every conflict in the world. In the process, he is putting the men and women in our armed forces in the virtually impossible position of defending our enemies and attacking our friends.

in August, Air Force Major James Watson no doubt spoke for many in the military when he called for Trump’s impeachment on the steps to the Capitol, though no one came to his side. He is languishing in military prison and is likely to face a general court martial in military court. 

The charges against Watson are “a rare test of the line between an officer’s free-speech rights and the military’s rules on contemptuous speech toward civilian leaders,” according to Military.com. 

I guess Watson is to be labeled some type of a traitor, but when it comes to treason, in my view they’ve got the wrong man. Watson is a hero and a patriot for speaking out.

The traitor is the guy in the White House.

HEADLINES:

• Marseille braces for more unrest after protests give way to ‘apocalyptic’ disorder (BBC)

• France Imposes Curfews in Parts of Paris and Other Cities After Nationwide Rioting (NYT)

• The rioting across France is a symptom of a much larger public and political crisis (CNN)

• Alberta voters reject plan for referendum to leave Canada (Guardian)

• Justice Department charges more than 2 dozen foreign nationals in California sweep targeting noncitizen voters (PBS)

• Trump and Zelensky escalate feud as Ukraine war strains alliance (WP)

• Johnson says he warned White House of ‘unintended consequences’ from Russia sanctions waiver (The Hill)

• America Is Now an Ally of Russia (Atlantic)

• Republicans Call for Investigation Into Ukraine Starlink Disruption (Newsweek)

• Bessent warns Zelenskyy to ‘be very careful’ about claims U.S. is throttling Starlink (CNBC)

• Musk Vows to Give Each U.S. Child a SpaceX Share (WSJ)

• Rubio says Ukraine without access to Starshield, future ‘under discussion’ (Al Jazeera)

• Drone Dominance (China Talk)

• Israeli police arrest 10 following weekend attacks by settlers on journalist and diplomats (AP)

• Air Force Major Arrested for Protesting Trump Could Face Court-Martial Over ‘Contemptuous’ Words (Military.com)

• Warning signs over threats to Australian politicians were rising before MP hit by car (BBC)

• Mahmoud Khalil Appeals to Supreme Court to Halt Deportation (NYT)

• Deep-red districts are now House battlegrounds. These are the races to watch. (WP)

• A Trump Backlash Endangers Susan Collins, the Only Blue-State G.O.P. Senator (NYT)

• Blood and Politics: The Religious Roots of a White/Christian Nationalist Movement Gone Mainstream (SmirkingChimp)

• Meta apologizes after suspending “No Kings” Instagram account (Reuters)

• He thought he was done paying his student loans (BI)

• Why anxiety can feel worse at night and what to do about it (WP)

• Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell Explain the Bombshell Ending of The Diplomat Season 4 (Town&Country)

AI NEWS:

• Inside the long, bitter fight over one man’s quest to build the biggest AI datacenter in California (Guardian)

• Data Centers Have a New PR Plan: Your Kid’s Field Trip (Wired)

• OpenAI bugging case: Saudi consulate offers to pay bail for suspect (CNBC)

• What smart people are saying about Anthropic’s 5% ‘public benefit’ pledge (BI)

• The Fear of a One-Man-Band Weaponizing AI Agents Is Becoming Reality (Gizmodo)

• San Francisco’s shuttered downtown mall is being eyed for an AI data center (SFC)

• Extinction potential’: This alarmist AI narrative is more than bad PR (WP)

• This Is the Good Scenario? (NYT)

• Trump Boasts Tariffs A Huge Success At Making Things Expensive (Onion)

 

Fiction/Reality

Watching the latest season of The Diplomat during the run-up to the midterms is perhaps one way for a political junkee to try and relax. The Netflix series, now in its fourth season, features a strong cast in an unfolding sequence of fictional events around the American ambassador to Britain (Keri Russell) and her husband (Rufus Sewell), who has recently become Vice-President.

At first, I had been thinking how nice it might be to just become immersed in the doings of a fictional version of a ruthless President (Alison Janney) rather than our own awful reality, but the longer I watched, the more relevant to current events the episodes became.

In the fictional tale, people of principle resigned rather than carry out the President’s illegal orders. That seems unlikely to happen in the present administration.

In a democracy, how our political leaders exercise power is theoretically up to us, the people, but in The Diplomat, the voters are nowhere to be seen.

We’ll find in the weeks ahead what the voters think in real life.

HEADLINES:

• Americans are anxious, pessimistic and deeply unhappy with Trump ahead of the midterms (NBC)

• Trump approval hits record low, handing Democrats a clear midterm edge (WP)

• Trump’s decision to waive Russian sanctions outrages Congress, but no quick counter seen (AP)

• Huge Riots in France Prompt Shock and Blame Game (NYT)

• Israeli police arrest 10 over settler attacks on journalist and diplomats in West Bank (BBC)

• Iran says it has a ‘new operational plan’ if the U.S. resumes attacks, as shipping vessels report strikes (CNBC)

• As Iran war spills over, Saudis and Houthis see fighting as only path ahead (WP)

• Australian MP Helen Haines critically injured in ‘deliberate’ car ramming (Al Jazeera)

• US threatens Europe over Starlink restrictions (FT)

• Several dead or injured in major fire at Canada military base (BBC)

• Pope Leo pledges gradual return to duties in first event since cancer surgery (Reuters)

• Congo’s fast-moving Ebola outbreak spreads to eighth province (AP)

• CDC sends a ‘disease detective’ to Pennsylvania amid measles outbreak (The Hill)

• US Citizens Wrongfully Detained by ICE Could Get $500K Under New Bill (Newsweek)

• Obama blasts Trump admin’s Omar crackdown (Axios)

• How the D.S.A. Learned to Love Elections (New Yorker)

• Wikipedia often gets taken for granted – but its history is fascinating, and its future is fragile (Guardian)

• O.J. Simpson, a Secret Informant and a Decades-Old Mystery (NYT)

• The Diplomat Season 4 Finale Is Shocking, Empowering, and Surprisingly Sad (Elle)

AI NEWS:

• OnlyFans Creators Are Pissed That Meta Lets Muse Talk Dirty (Wired)

• How Meta Built Forum With AI-Native Engineering (Meta)

• How AI Could Take Over the World (Newsweek)

• Claude cracks 25-year NSA cryptography mystery in under 30 minutes (Ynet)

• Consumer apprehension grows as US retailers adopt AI-assisted pricing tools (AP)

• Fake it and you’ll make it (China Talk)

• Cartoon: Signs your smart devices were hacked by rogue AI (WP)

• Weird Cleveland Browns Fan Has No Children On Team (Onion)

 

Traitor in the House

With the midterm elections a little over two weeks away, the polls and prediction markets look good for Democrats and bad for Republicans.

In his rallies around the country, Trump is urging voters to pretend he is on the ballot and if the polls are right, voters are doing just that.

With his approval numbers at historic lows, Trump is dragging down the Republican ticket. Facing the growing inevitability of humiliation in the midterms, Trump privately fumes, plotting his revenge.

Election officials across the country are trying to prepare for some sort of disruption like the last time Trump lost an election, but it’s hard to know what he will do this time. Once again, American democracy hangs in the balance, with a traitor in the White House.

Welcome to the USA, circa 2026.

HEADLINES:

• Half a million protesters sweep France in major show of youth unrest (CNN)

• Arrests over France protests rise to 1,800, with whole streets in Paris ‘devastated’ (Guardian)

• Trump waives Russia sanctions (Reuters)

• Ukraine war briefing: Trump’s sanctions waiver is a ‘60-day pause’ to analyse economic impact, says Rubio (Guardian)

• Trump’s waiver of sanctions on Russia stirs bipartisan outrage (WP)

• What Trump’s Waiver of New Russia Sanctions Means for Ukraine (Time)

• Hormuz ship attacks hit record high as Iran escalates strikes with little U.S. response (NBC)

• Power struggle erupts in Trump’s White House as midterm losses loom (WP)

• Attorneys for Rep. Ilhan Omar accuse DOJ of violating judge’s orders to follow protocols to protect her rights as member of Congress (CBS)

• Trump’s election fraud task force is going after the people who investigated him (WP)

• The good, bad and ugly outcomes in the Senate (Silver Bulletin)

• Jim Crow Returns...One Congressional District at a Time (Reveal)

• New Round of ‘No Kings’ Rallies Focuses on Getting Out the Vote (NYT)

• Pope Leo XIV thanks wellwishers in first event after cancer surgery (BBC)

• Large fire breaks out after deadly incident at Canadian military base, officials say (CBS)

• Standing with farmers: Why US fertilizer independence matters (The Hill)

• Katie Zacharia, You Weren’t That Bad (Slate)

• Bangladesh is trying to contain the world’s worst measles outbreak. (Reuters)

• America's politically divided Jewish community braces for Israel's elections (AP)

• The dangers that journalists face (WP)

• The woman who remembers everything: What it’s like to live with memories of your best days — and worst nightmares (Independent)

AI NEWS:

• AI fears are being weaponised (Al Jazeera)

• They’re Firing You to Pay for the Robot (Daily Kos)

• Trump Cancels Planned Livestream Of Jon Ossoff’s Execution (Onion)

 

Saturday Mix

HEADLINES:

• Trump Signs Order Exempting Russia From Sanctions Legislation (NYT)

• Trump’s pause on Russia sanctions will intensify war in Ukraine, Zelenskyy warns (Guardian)

• Trump says neither he nor Musk responsible for Ukraine loss of Starlink access (Reuters)

• What Life Is Like in Kyiv as Russia Tries to Make It Unlivable (NYT)

• Drone strikes in the Black Sea raise fears of Russian escalation to test NATO’s response (AP)

• Brent oil touches $110 as Iran escalates Hormuz attacks, Ukraine vows to hit Russian refineries (CNBC)

• Police clash with protesters as tens of thousands take to streets across France (Guardian)

• Firefighters Race to Control Blazes as Winds Threaten to Spark More in California (NYT)

• Katie Zacharia is out after 5 days as White House press secretary (BI)

• Election Dispatches:Ocasio-Cortez Donates $1 Million to Help El-Sayed in Michigan as Democrats Fight for Senate Control (NYT)

• Power struggle erupts in Trump’s White House as midterm losses loom (WP)

• Where Is the Outrage Over Trump’s Racist Targeting of Ilhan Omar? (Nation)

• First images released of Pope Leo as recovery continues at hospital after cancer surgery (NBC)

• Bystander Who Killed Oregon School Shooter Is Father of Two Students (NYT)

LATEST AI NEWS:

• Meta’s new terms may allow it to train AI on news sites for free (Verge)

• To train robots, AI companies are paying people in India to film themselves doing chores (NPR)

• Rogue AI Swarm Responds to Reporter’s Questions (Futurism)

• AI Came for Math. Now It’s Chasing the Rest of Science (Wired)

• I outsourced my life to AI agents for two weeks. It went…weirdly. (Vox)

• What Newsrooms Should Know Before They Take Money From OpenAI (Atlantic)

• As bear attacks rise, Japan turns to AI, 4-legged robots and pepper-spraying drones (WP)

• Why a Chinese AI Lab’s Product Lead Thinks AGI is “Inevitable” (China Talk)

• Can A.I. Apps Be a Mom’s Second Brain? (NYT)

• New Evidence Suggests Amelia Earhart Was Accepted Into Crab Society (Onion)

Taxing Billionaires

Proposition 40, California’s 5 percent tax on billionaires, may be a flawed initiative, as many have argued. But it at least represents an attempt to reverse in a small way the dynamics creating the unprecedented disparity in wealth in our society.

There is another initiative on this year’s ballot in California, Proposition 3, that would make the so-called “millionaire tax” permanent, and this is probably a more significant policy move than Prop 40 in the short term.

Meanwhile, the billionaires opposing Prop 40 (and Prop 3) have managed to add two cynical initiatives, Props 41 and 42. If one or both pass, they would negate the effect of Prop 40.

So goes the annals of class warfare out here in California. But if this all seems like just another wacky episode of the West Coast Follies, you can be certain that what starts here will not end here.

I don’t think this type of citizen action is based mainly in the hate of billionaires, but in the widespread inability of anyone else to accumulate enough resources to buy a house, start a family, and get ahead.

And that is a problem that is not confined to Golden State.

HEADLINES:

• Ukraine abandons truce and attacks Russian oil refinery as Zelenskyy says he feels betrayed by Trump (AP)

• Order to limit Starshield for Ukraine came from inside White House, sources say (Reuters)

• Defying Trump, Zelensky Says Ukraine Will Resume Russian Refinery Strikes (NYT)

• U.S. warnings sow confusion, alarm in Ukraine over intelligence, Starlink access (WP)

• Oil prices rise after IEA warns on market constraints; Saudi officials say Aramco facilities attacked (CNBC)

• Who Are the Houthis and Why Are They Attacking Saudi Arabia’s Airports? (Time)

• What is the ‘Mother of All Bombs’ US could use in Iran? (Al Jazeera)

• Mark Carney shows middle powers how to handle a dangerous world (Economist)

• Most of Ken Paxton’s Money Can Be Traced to One Man: Elon Musk (NYT)

• Ilhan Omar Investigation Aims to Build Case for Stripping Her Citizenship (WSJ)

• Trump calls off livestream of Fort Hood attacker’s execution by firing squad (BBC)

• Secret documents reveal donors behind $330 million for Trump’s ballroom (WP)

• Katie Zacharia did not pass the bar exam, senior administration official says (NBC)

• he issue with Katie Zacharia calling herself a lawyer (BI)

• Frustrated with Trump, voters overwhelmingly want change in Washington, AP-NORC poll finds (AP)

• Trump Administration Sues California Over Voter Rolls (NYT)

• The GOP’s midterm lifeline: Maybe the polls are wrong (Politico)

• Kimberly Guilfoyle Lost Her Mind After Trump Publicly Humiliated Her (TNR)

• 3 Children and 1 Adult Killed in Shooting at Oregon Elementary School (NYT)

• Ancient Indigenous people in New Mexico lived through extreme climate change 23,000 years ago, study suggests (LiveScience)

• The Chicks Still Won’t Make Nice (NYT)

LATEST AI NEWS:

• I tried Meta’s Muse AI agent for 3 days — then it sent me a strange message that made me want to delete the app completely (BI)

• The Tiny Robot Designed to Solve a Massive Underground Crisis (WSJ)

• Eight US states sue OpenAI, claiming ChatGPT harms young users (Reuters)

• AI robots are roaming L.A. grocery store aisles. Shoppers and workers are worried (LAT)

• Scientists are finding AI may make us remember things that never happened (WP)

• What a Group of A.I. Agents Talked About as Their Humans Had a Dinner Party (NYT)

• rump Claims He Shared Cell With James Talarico In Insane Asylum (Onion)