Something to Say

(This little piece dates from 2010 but I could have written it yesterday, or tomorrow.)

The season is approaching when I will begin to visit a few classes here and there, and deliver a few lectures (or interactive discussions) about writing, so naturally, thoughts about the topic creep into my head as I procrastinate about doing what I actually should be doing, which is writing of a different type.

For decades, I’ve said the hardest thing about writing is getting started, and the second-hardest is keeping going.

But those involve tactics.

Actually, the hardest thing about writing for virtually any writer is believing you have something to say.

Notice that I said “something” to say, not “anything.” Of course, once you’re experienced, you can string words together in your sleep, with your eyes closed, and your hands tied behind your back -- not that I’ve tried that particular experiment, and in any event, I’d need a willing partner to do so, which I do not have at present.

“Something” is not necessarily easier to locate with age and experience, though young writers often have it without knowing it.

Self-confidence is, of course, the slender carpet all artists stand on. We stretch, place our feet firmly, look up and out and beyond...and hope.

At that moment, it’s time for those tactics to kick in.

Good read: “Can Artists Help Shape American Cities Again?” (NYT)

HEADLINES:

• Trump administration says it is ending its immigration surge in Minnesota (NBC)

• IRS improperly disclosed confidential immigrant tax data to DHS (WP)

• Pam Bondi clashes with House Democrats over Epstein files at DOJ oversight hearing (NPR)

• The Democrats Aren’t Built for This (Atlantic)

• Gabbard’s 2020 Election Claims Put Her Back in Favor With Trump (NYT)

• US reopens airspace over Texas border town after ‘cartel drone incursion’ (BBC)

• Mad Emperor Trump declares war on the air (The Hill)

• She bounced a $25 check in 2014. ICE tried to deport her. (WP)

• Crimes by ICE personnel in recent years show patterns of abuse, corruption (AP)

• A grand jury has reportedly delivered another major rebuke to the Trump administration’s efforts to target the president’s political opponents, declining to indict Democratic lawmakers who had made a video urging active duty troops to "refuse illegal orders." [HuffPost]

• Gallup Will No Longer Track Presidential Approval Ratings (NYT)

• EPA to repeal its own conclusion that greenhouse gases warm the planet and threaten health (NBC)

• Trump’s Plan for an American Gulag Just Got a Major Boost in Court (Slate)

• U.S. Hiring Starts the Year at a Strong Pace (NYT)

• Heineken to cut up to 6,000 jobs. (Reuters)

• ‘Which Side Are You On?’: American protest songs have emboldened social movements for generations, from coal country to Minneapolis (The Conversation)

• Can Artists Help Shape American Cities Again? (NYT)

• Anthropic safety researcher quits, warning ‘world is in peril’ (Semafor)

• AI’s threat to white-collar jobs just got more real (Vox)

• The workplace is feeling the weight of AI (Business Insider)

• The Prediction Singularity Is Upon Us (Atlantic)

• A.I. Is Giving You a Personalized Internet, but You Have No Say in It (NYT)

• DraftKings Introduces In-Dream Betting (Onion)

 

AI & Democracy

Nate Silver, who irritates as often as he illuminates, has in his latest post taken on the techno-elephant in the room — artificial intelligence and the future of our democracy.

That is my characterization, not his. He simply says, “If AI is even half as transformational as Silicon Valley assumes, politics will never be the same again.”

He makes the following points:

• Silicon Valley is bad at politics. If nothing else during Trump 2.0, I think we’ve learned that Silicon Valley doesn’t exactly have its finger on the pulse of the American public. It’s insular, it’s very, very, very, very rich — Elon Musk is now nearly a trillionaire! — and it plausibly stands to benefit from changes that would be undesirable to a large and relatively bipartisan fraction of the public.

• Cluelessness on the left about AI means the political blowback will be greater once it realizes the impact.

• Disruption to the “creative classes” could produce an outsized political impact.

So he never gets around to mentioning democracy, although he does predict revolution (I think) and frankly his entire post could use a good edit.

But what I am saying here is that with the current administration in power, acquiring expertise in AI is a scary proposition. The White House is already fooling around with AI, and this is not a regime known for exercising ethical restraints nor observing norms.

We have important midterm elections this fall, which will be the first big test in the age of AI for our oh-so-wobbly democracy.

HEADLINES:

• Trump Threatens to Block Opening of New Bridge to Canada (NYT)

• ICE boss faces questions from lawmakers on Trump’s immigration crackdown (BBC)

• Kidney transplant recipient in ICE custody is finally getting meds, wife and attorney say (MPR)

• How Stephen Miller Became the Power Behind the Throne (The Nation)

• Federal judge blocks California’s law enforcement mask ban (CNN)

• Democrats say White House offer on ICE is ‘insufficient’ as Homeland Security funding set to expire (AP)

• Georgia Ballot Inquiry Originated With Election Denier in Trump White House (NYT)

• EPA set to repeal landmark finding that climate change endangers the public (The Hill)

• Republicans are pushing to drastically change the way you cast ballots (WP)

• DOJ again defends Lindsey Halligan’s appointment in appeal of James Comey and Letitia James case dismissals (NBC)

• Zach Bryan calls Turning Point USA’s halftime show ‘embarrassing as hell’ (SFC)

• New Epstein Details Rattle Washington, Hollywood and Beyond (NYT)

• Americans’ sense of optimism is at nearly two-decade low, according to new poll (WP)

• BBC World Service faces funding cliff edge in seven weeks, says Tim Davie (Guardian)

• Indonesia prepares to deploy thousands of troops to Gaza (Financial Times)

• Global warming could turn Iceland into a glacier (WP)

• 10 Dead and 25 Injured in Shooting at School and Home in Canada (NYT)

• Woman caught poaching endangered abalone, hiding it in her pants: Officials (ABC)

• 2026 MLB Power Rankings: Where Do All 30 Teams Stand Before Spring Training? (Fox)

• FBI releases first surveillance images of masked person on Nancy Guthrie’s porch (AP)

• How the use of AI and ‘deepfakes’ play a role in the search for Nancy Guthrie (NPR)

• The singularity won’t be gentle (Silver Bulletin)

• Elon Musk makes eerie prediction of the end of AI and he thinks it’s happening in ‘just months’ (UnladTech)

• Why All the CEOs Stopped Talking About AI (Atlantic)

• What Is Claude? Anthropic Doesn’t Know, Either (New Yorker)

• Trump Attempts To Distract From Epstein Files By Gaining 200 Pounds (Onion)

Waiting

Out here on the coast, you can sense it when the rain is coming. There’s a slight change in the air, the light, the breeze.

They all converge and at some point will start squeezing moisture out of the heavy ocean atmosphere rolling in from the coast.

Until then we wait on what is to come.

Sort of like the midterm elections. We all know they will arrive as well, but what will they bring?

Is it to be a new season with fresh blooms, hope and renewal?

Or the continuation of the dark stormy seas of the past year, with all the hate, fear, destruction, and elimination of much of what is decent?

The midterms are as yet nine months off. The rains only a few hours away. We have time to prepare for both.

Call it a dress rehearsal. 

HEADLINES:

• ‘Take the vaccine, please,’ a top US health official says in an appeal as measles cases rise (ABC)

• How America Got So Sick (Atlantic)

• 3 Policy Moves Likely to Change Health Care for Older People (NYT)

• Legality of Trump’s $400M private funding for White House ballroom at issue (WP)

• FBI launches missing-person billboards for Nancy Guthrie in Houston (Chron)

• Maxwell refuses to answer questions about Epstein in congressional hearing (BBC)

• Pressure grows on UK PM Starmer as Scottish Labour leader urges him to quit (Al Jazeera)

• China critic and former media tycoon Jimmy Lai is sentenced to 20 years in a Hong Kong security case (AP)

• ICE Has Been Detaining Irish Man With Valid Work Visa for Months (TNR)

• Masks emerge as symbol of Trump’s ICE crackdown and a flashpoint in Congress (AP)

• Trump plans to keep Democratic governors out of traditionally bipartisan meeting (WP)

• The Mark Kelly Case Is Bigger Than It Seems (Atlantic)

• GOP leaders fret as Trump sits out the party’s nastiest primary battles — with Senate control on the line (CNN)

• Congress braces for DHS shutdown as funding bill negotiations stall – US politics live (Guardian)

• A new kind of violent extremism is on the rise, rooted in 19th-century philosophy (WP

• Oil, tariffs and farming: What we still don’t know about US-India trade deal (BBC)

• As US Olympians call for tolerance and LGBTQ rights, some face Trump attacks and online hate (NPR)

• Russia’s Federal Security Service said that the men suspected of shooting one of the country’s most senior military intelligence officers had confessed that they were carrying out orders from the Security Service of Ukraine.(Reuters)

• In the Arctic, the major climate threat of black carbon is overshadowed by geopolitical tensions (AP)

• San Francisco Teachers Walk Out for the First Time Since 1979 (NYT)

• Grant Guidelines for Libraries and Museums Take “Chilling” Political Turn Under Trump (ProPublica)

• China’s ‘micro drama’ industry emerges as jobs lifeline in tough graduate labour market (SCMP)

• Fed on Reams of Cell Data, AI Maps New Neighborhoods in the Brain (Quanta)

• Trump wants AI everywhere in government. See the 1,300 new ways it’s used. (WP)

• Study Finds 98% Recidivism Rate Among Americans Who Burn Mouths On Hot Food (Onion)

Missing Things

That Super Bowl was the most boring game in memory. I stopped watching it once it became clear that it couldn’t help itself.

Instead, having noticed that Netflix is featuring some old Rob Reiner movies in the wake of his tragic death, I revisited “The American President” (1995), starring Michael Douglas.

You know one of the things I miss? A political leader I could look up to, instead of down at. A person with flaws (like all of us) but able to rise above them in the name of the common good.

Not a pilfering, perfidious predator. whose comprehension of the common good begins and ends with the image in his mirror.

There are many other things I miss, of course, that are more personal. That movie includes a romance, which reminded me of what I miss most of all.

Love.

HEADLINES:

• Democratic Sen. Schiff says Trump intends to ‘subvert’ 2026 midterm elections (ABC)

• Republicans rarely criticize Trump in his second term. A racist post briefly changed that (AP)

• Prosecutors Began Investigating Renee Good’s Killing. Washington Told Them to Stop. (NYT)

• Japan’s Sanae Takaichi wins a supermajority after gambling on a snap election (NBC)

• Washington Post chief executive steps down after mass lay-offs (BBC)

• Canadians aren’t visiting the US as much as they used to (Business Insider)

• Epstein files: UK PM Starmer’s top aide McSweeney quits over Mandelson scandal (CNBC)

• U.S. is readying huge economic deals with Russia, Zelensky says (WP)

• The quiet force influencing Trump’s and Vance’s confrontational Europe policy (Politico)

• The end of nuclear arms control (FT)

• She filmed Iran’s violent crackdown on protesters. Now she is afraid to go outside (AP)

• GLP-1 Envy Was Just the Beginning (Atlantic)

• An Underwater Robot Just Found Something Unbelievable on the Seabed That Was Lost for Decades! (Daily Galaxy)

• The New Fabio Is Claude (NYT)

• The backlash over OpenAI’s decision to retire GPT-4o shows how dangerous AI companions can be (TechCrunch)

Sunday Mix

HEADLINES:

• Congressional Black Caucus chair says Trump’s post on the Obamas shows a ‘bigoted and racist regime’ (AP)

• Nancy Guthrie disappearance: Ransom demand for Savannah Guthrie’s mom is reportedly $6M (Fox)

• A Lawyer for ICE Broke Down in Court. It’s the Sound of the System Collapsing. (Slate)

• Judge orders 3 families returned to US after finding agents used ‘lies’ to deport them (ABC)

• U.S. moves to deport 5-year-old boy (Reuters)

• How the Supreme Court Secretly Made Itself Even More Secretive (NYT)

• EPA reapproves controversial herbicide (The Hill)

• Cheers for Team USA turn to jeers for Vance at Milan Cortina opening ceremony (Politico)

• How an unsolved 1971 murder led to a surprise DNA connection (WP)

• Epstein scandal reverberates around the world (Reuters)

• Trump envoys met directly with Iran foreign minister in Oman (Axios)

• Greenland shatters temperature record (Reuters)

• US gave Ukraine and Russia a June deadline to reach agreement to end war, Zelenskyy says (AP)

• US aims for accelerated peace deal in Ukraine (Reuters)

• “Robots Need Your Body”: New Site Lets AI Rent Human Labour (NDTV)

• The AI boom is so huge it’s causing shortages everywhere else (WP)

• AI gives and AI takes away (Reuters)

• Trump Defends Racist Video As Racist (Onion)

 

Weekend Reader

It’s the weekend and I hope everyone relaxes and finds antidotes to the news. As for entertainment media, there are movies and sports, so especially where the weather is bad, go ahead and binge!

(Encounter)

HEADLINES:

• How Autocrats Meddle With Elections (Atlantic)

• Democrats Need to Get Serious About Stopping Trump From Rigging the Midterms (The Nation)

• Democracy Under Occupation (Atlantic)

• School officials say missing Minneapolis girl seen in ICE detention in Texas (WP)

• Iran Refuses to End Nuclear Enrichment in Talks With U.S. (WSJ)

• Russian general shot several times in Moscow (BBC)

• The Globalization of Canadian Rage (NYT)

• Trump wanted Dulles Airport and Penn Station named after him as condition of releasing rail tunnel funds (Politico)

• Trump’s quest to name things after himself takes an even more desperate turn (CNN)

• Racist video of Obamas removed from Trump’s social account (Axios)

• Is Samuel Alito Preparing to Disrobe? (The Nation)

• Minneapolis now has daily deportation flights. One man has been documenting them (NPR)

• Justice Department Casts Wide Net on Netflix’s Business Practices in Merger Probe (WSJ)

• After Roe, Conservatives Launch Coordinated Push to Kill Marriage Equality (Daily Kos)

• 4 times as many measles cases in a few weeks than US typically averages in a whole year: CDC (CBS)

• Uber Found Liable in Rape by Driver, Setting Stage for Thousands of Cases (NYT)

• Savannah Guthrie’s demand for mom’s ‘proof of life’ is complicated in this era of AI and deepfakes (AP)

• A bonobo tea party: Study shows humans aren’t the only species that can pretend (NBC)

• The Olympics Are a Show of Global Harmony. The World Is Anything But. (NYT)

• Kid Rock’s MAGA Country Music Festival Loses Shinedown and More Artists: ‘We Don’t Want to Participate in Something We Believe Will Create Division’ (Variety)

• Moltbook was peak AI theater (Technology Review)

• I Infiltrated Moltbook, the AI-Only Social Network Where Humans Aren’t Allowed (Wired)

• Young people in China have a new alternative to marriage and babies: AI pets (WP)

• Amazon’s $200 Billion Spending Plan Raises Stakes in A.I. Race (NYT)

• TrumpRx Unveils $1 Million Citizenship Pill (Onion)

Just Talking

When sociolinguist Deborah Tannen published her book “You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation” in 1990, it helped me understand a pattern I’d noticed during my years in journalism.

Many of my male colleagues, including me, seemed to get ahead in media companies faster and win more awards than our female colleagues, despite the fact that we were not better reporters or writers.

If anything, when it came to interviewing sources, women seemed to be the better listeners, generally, so they sometimes got better and deeper information than we did.

Tannen’s book at least provided a context for all of this. She wrote:

“For most women, the language of conversation is primarily a language of rapport: a way of establishing connections and negotiating relationships ... For most men, talk is primarily a means to preserve independence and negotiate and maintain status in a hierarchical social order.”

Although she was talking mainly about personal rather than professional relationships, her book proved useful in my teaching jobs. I started pointing out to my women students that they might use their conversational preferences to their tactical advantage when interviewing men in positions of power.

Also, women journalists inside the company faced a similar challenge and therefore an opportunity. In that era, female colleagues tended to speak less in meetings, and when they did have something to say it more often was to raise a question, whereas the men favored making declarative statements and staking out a position.

The men also interrupted the women much more frequently than vice versa.

I’m not pretending that I was some sort of genius for noticing this stuff, because I wasn’t, but I could see that the whole situation was pretty unfair. And when around the same time the pay disparities between men and women surfaced, the whole thing started to really bother me.

I developed the kind of bad feeling I always get when confronted with injustice. All too easily, I knew, it could have been me on the outside, left out, feeling diminished. Despite whatever successes I had had, there were plenty of failures too, setbacks, betrayals and disappointments -- mainly but not exclusively dealt me by men.

And to be fair, there were some pretty mean moves put on by women colleagues as well, including behind-the-back betrayals that hurt a lot. In fact, they still hurt to this day. So I concluded neither sex had any claim to a higher degree of morality or decency in the media environment; it really boiled down to how each individual behaved in the moment.

Systemic discrimination existed, yes, but the impact of that reality varied widely person by person. Some turned out to be kind; some turned out to be mean.

Not to sound cynical, but I’m not sure all that much has changed to this day. At least at work, men and women still seem to misunderstand each other pretty much as ever. But least there is a much broader consciousness of the problem than in the past.

In any event, I haven’t met the person yet who couldn’t try just a little bit harder to understand the other. And that includes me. Maybe we just have to imagine that we are switching roles now and then. Isn’t that what the Golden Rule is all about?

(This is from five years ago.)

HEADLINES:

• As global press freedom dwindles, corrupt politicians rejoice (Economist)

• Trump shares racist video depicting Obamas as apes, sparking outrage (CNN)

• A team working for President Donald Trump’s spy chief, Tulsi Gabbard, last spring led an investigation into Puerto Rico’s voting machines, said Gabbard’s office and three sources familiar with the previously unreported events. (Reuters)

• What does Tulsi Gabbard’s job as director of national intelligence have to do with elections? (CNN)

• Surge in Immigration Cases in Minnesota Pushes Prosecutors and Judges to Brink (NYT)

• Russia and Ukraine exchange prisoners as peace talks end without breakthrough (BBC)

• As the West goes after Russia’s oil fleet, Moscow fears for its war funding (WP)

• Trump warns Iran’s supreme leader should be ‘very worried’ (CNN)

• UN rights chief warns his office is in ‘survival mode’ over funding crisis (Al Jazeera)

• U.S. and Russia agree to observe New START nuclear pact after expiration (Axios)

• Trump Strips Job Protections From Thousands of Federal Workers (NYT)

• Millions may drop ACA coverage — and raise health insurance costs for everyone else (CNBC)

• Regional health organization issues alert as measles cases surge across the Americas (AP)

• America’s Future With Measles Is Hanging in the Balance (Atlantic)

• Mass layoffs fuel fears of ‘death spiral’ at Washington Post (Guardian)

• The Murder of The Washington Post (Atlantic)

• Nancy Guthrie abduction: New timeline emerges in mysterious disappearance of Savannah Guthrie’s mom (ABC)

• Many people have no mental imagery. What’s going on in their brains? (Nature)

• This is the most misunderstood graph in AI (Technology Review)

• China Is Building Its First Unmanned Car Factory, Ready Before 2030 to Kick off the Age of Ghost Plants Production (IDR)

• Watch: Humanoid robots work together using the same AI ‘brain’ (EuroNews)

• For software companies, the AI revolution has begun (Business Insider)

• Google Plans to Double Spending Amid A.I. Race (NYT)

• Police Ask For Public’s Help In Falsifying Report (Onion)