Sweet Desires

Every now and then it happens. The light splashes a leaf, turning what appeared to be green into half a rainbow. Or, a sudden breeze stirs a glass-like pond, making you shiver.

These moments freeze like ice. You can’t really move your eyes away even if you try.

Painters live for moments like these; all artists do.

Often when in Europe on business trips, I would visit museums, which at that time, were unlike their American counterparts; you could walk right up to a painting as if to touch it. On those visits, I came to admire the use of color and light; for some reason the black in a Rembrandt always struck me not as the absence of light but as the essence of beauty.

Of course it wasn’t always black, it may have been green. Splashed by the light it could turn into half a rainbow if you looked long enough.

This memory came back to me when I discovered the 2003 film version of the historical novel “Girl With a Pearl Earring.” The book and the film re-imagine the character who might have inspired what was arguably the Dutch baroque painter Johannes Vermeer’s greatest painting.

As per the book, the film posits that Vermeer’s model for the painting was his maid, though there is no evidence this was the case. The original actors cast for the film were Ralph Fiennes and Kate Hudson, but when they both left the project before production started (he for “Maid in Manhattan”), 17-year-old Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth stepped into the roles.

The unresolved sexual tension between these two yields the story (and in the fictional version the painting) and Johansson does resemble the girl in the actual piece to a remarkable degree. The film also contains scenes that present the Dutch environment of the 1600’s as a replication of Vermeer’s painting style -- a luminous realism celebrating how light animates our surroundings if we just care to look.

The girl’s expression in the painting is the look of knowing she is desired and daring to look back. You don’t have to be an artist to appreciate that.

But you do have to see.

HEADLINES:

• Pentagon orders withdrawal of 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany as Trump escalates feud with Merz (Fox)

• The Real Reason Iran Hasn’t Struck a Deal (Atlantic)

• Poll: Trump’s fight with Iran is as unpopular as the Iraq and Vietnam wars (WP)

• Hegseth says clock paused on deadline to seek approval for Iran war (BBC)

• Oil prices fall after Iran sends updated peace proposal to mediators in Pakistan (CNBC)

• A senior United Arab Emirates official said Tehran could not be trusted over any unilateral arrangements it makes for the Strait of Hormuz, in a sign of deep mistrust on all sides as efforts to end the Iran war remain at an impasse.(Reuters)

• Trump administration says its war in Iran has been ‘terminated’ before 60-day deadline (AP)

• U.S. Debt Tops 100% of GDP (WSJ)

• Trump says he’s raising EU auto tariffs to 25% without clarifying how (CNBC)

• Trump fumes as Jerome Powell plots future at Federal Reserve (The Hill)

• Supreme Court decision sets off gerrymandering scramble (CNN)

• Federal Appeals Court Temporarily Halts Abortion Pills by Mail (NYT)

• Speaker Mike Johnson once longed for a ‘normal Congress,’ but that seems long gone in the House (AP)

• China and America Are Courting Nuclear Catastrophe (Foreign Affairs)

• Thousands in US to join ‘no school, no work, no shopping’ May Day protest in economic blackout (Guardian)

• The Whistleblower Who Uncovered the NSA’s ‘Big Brother Machine’ (MIT)

• Disappearing before our eyes: One photographer’s passion project of capturing local newsrooms (AP)

• Signed, Sealed, Delivered —What happens whensomeone throws a message into the sea? (New Yorker)

• California Police Can Start Ticketing Driverless Cars (NYT)

• Silicon Valley is slashing jobs. Don’t blame AI. (WP)

• I’ve Covered Robots for Years. This One Is Different (Wired)

• So, About That AI Bubble (Atlantic)

• Moonshot AI and Other Chinese Firms Weigh Corporate Overhaul in Wake of Meta-Manus Deal Reversal (The Information)

• Go start a business (Axios)

• Top AI companies agree to work with Pentagon on secret data (WP)

• Reporters at McClatchy Withhold Bylines in Dispute Over A.I. Content (NYT)

• Racehorse Receives Carrot Every Time He Wins $2 Million For Owner (Onion)

 

The Great Tomato Plant Mystery

A couple weeks ago, my daughter-in-law sent over six young tomato plants for my birthday.

I placed them into some loose, moist soil in a gardening box in the backyard, patted the soil down firmly, watered them and ever since have been tending to them on a daily basis.

They seemed to be adapting to the relocation pretty well, responding to the sunshine and the water I give them from a watering can every day around noon.

Until yesterday.

When I went out back to look in on them, only five remained. One of the smaller tomato plants had simply disappeared, roots and all.

Gone without a trace.

I have to say that in my many years of gardening, this has never before happened. Who stole my tomato plant?

It wasn’t a mole burrowing from below, because the plants are in a box.

I’m thinking the thief had to be a bird, although I’ve never seen that happen before. There was no hole and no tracks around where the plant had been.

So if anyone sees a bird’s nest with a small tomato plant wrapped into it, please let me know.

HEADLINES:

• Trump slams Germany’s Merz again as rift over Iran war widens (Al Jazeera)

• The UAE doubles down on Israel and America (Economist)

• The Iran War’s Ramifications Have Only Just Begun (Atlantic)

• The US is pushing for other countries to form an international coalition to restore freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, according to a State Department cable (Reuters)

• Congress votes to end record shutdown, sending DHS funding bill to Trump’s desk (NBC)

• Public rejects Trump’s ballroom by wide margin (WP)

• Trump taps Nicole Saphier for surgeon general after pulling Casey Means nomination (CNBC)

• Louisiana congressional primaries are suspended as a result of the Supreme Court’s ruling (AP)

• What Alex Padilla says Democrats should do about the Voting Rights Act ruling (Politico)

• Can the E.P.A. Survive Lee Zeldin? (New Yorker)

• This ABC Showdown Is Different (Atlantic)

• Meta lost 20 million users last quarter (Verge)

• Ukraine bets on battlefield AI as the race for weapons autonomy intensifies (AP)

• The Bloomberg Terminal Is Getting an AI Makeover, Like It or Not (Wired)

• OpenAI blames ‘nerdy personality’ for ChatGPT obsession with goblins (NBC)

• Musk fights in court to portray himself as hero, not villain, in founding of OpenAI (WP)

• A.I. Spending Sets a Record, With No End in Sight (NYT)

• Elon Musk Seemingly Admits xAI Has Used OpenAI’s Models to Train Its Own (Wired)

• Overambitious Man Wants To Get 2 Things Done Today (Onion)

Civil Rights Regression

When the Supreme Court struck down what remained of the Voting Rights Act on Wednesday, it completed the reversal of one of the signature achievements of the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Previously, black people in the segregated South and elsewhere faced obstacles to voting; the Voting Rights Act provided a remedy for that problem.

But racism is deeply engrained in American society, not just in the South but everywhere and the problem has become more complex as America has gotten more diverse.

When it comes to the progressive era of civil rights, I remember attending and covering the last demonstration led by Martin Luther King — it was in Memphis in late March 1968. At that march, a mixture of hope and fear hung in the air over our heads as thick as the Beale Street Blues. 

Hope that change might yet be possible; fear that violence might lay just around the corner. Both proved to be true. MLK was assassinated a week later and the Voting Rights Act proved to be his greatest legacy.

Sadly, the rights of our non-white citizens have now reverted to their pre-movement status of 60 years ago, thanks to a reactionary Court packed by Trump. What will be required is a new movement to reclaim those rights on behalf of everyone.

HEADLINES:

• Supreme Court Further Weakens Voting Rights Act (NYT)

• The Gerrymandering Wars Are Just Beginning (Slate)

• Florida lawmakers approve redistricting plan intended to give GOP four more seats (WP)

• How much can Trump screw with the midterms? (Silver Bulletin)

• A Divided Fed Holds Rates Steady (NYT)

• Iran war has cost the U.S. $25 billion so far, Pentagon official says (NBC)

• Two months into a war with the US and Israel, Iran no longer has a single, undisputed clerical arbiter at the pinnacle of power — an abrupt break with the past that may be hardening Tehran’s stance as it weighs renewed talks with Washington. (Reuters)

• Hegseth to Congress: We Have No Iran Plan But Give Us 1.5 Trillion Anyway. (Mother Jones)

• Trump's approval rating sank to the lowest level of his current term, as Americans increasingly soured on his handling of the cost ‌of living and an unpopular war, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. (Reuters)

• The UAE’s OPEC exit is not about oil; it is the end of Gulf solidarity (Al Jazeera)

• Cole Allen took selfie before Trump assassination attempt at WHCA dinner, prosecutors say (CNBC)

• New Disney Boss Is Tested by Trump and His Administration (NYT)

• US will issue commemorative passports with Trump’s picture for America’s 250th birthday (AP)

• ‘If it wasn’t for us, you’d be speaking French’: King and Trump joke at dinner (BBC)

• Australia moves to tax Meta, Google and TikTok to fund newsrooms (AP)

• Legendary Country Outlaw, a 8-Decade Music Pioneer, Turns 93 (Parade)

• Why Humanoid Robots Are the Ultimate AI Frontier (Bloomberg)

• The Man Behind AlphaGo Thinks AI Is Taking the Wrong Path (Wired)

• A.I. Bots Told Scientists How to Make Biological Weapons (NYT)

• Musk testifies in trial over OpenAI’s future: ‘It’s not okay to steal a charity’ (WP)

• Google Signs A.I. Deal With the Pentagon (NYT)

• JD Vance Still Waiting For Secret Service To Retrieve Him From Secure Hiding Area (Onion)

 

The King Speaks

There is an art to public speaking, especially in these politically charged times, and King Charles displayed a masterful command of that art in his address to Congress Tuesday, which was charming and remarkably persuasive.

The King managed to articulate multiple points of disagreement with the Trump administration, but deftly avoided direct criticism and somehow united Democrats and Republicans on issues upon which they rarely agree, like the war in Ukraine, the exercise of checks and balances on executive power, and support for the environment.

He gently chided those, including Trump, who have questioned the U.S. role in NATO, the UN and reminded his audience of the significance of such alliances generally.

Perhaps he was most eloquent when speaking subtlety but effectively about climate change, never mentioned it by name but referencing “melting Arctic glaciers” and tying economic success directly to proper stewardship of nature.

It was, as I said, a masterful performance. We can only hope that some of our political leaders were actually listening, because if they were they might learn a thing or two about governing in a democracy from the king of the nation that spawned ours..

HEADLINES:

• Who holds the cards in Iran-US talks? (Al Jazeera)

• Trump warns Iran ‘better get smart soon’ as he weighs military options over Strait of Hormuz (NBC)

• Iran’s economy has been battered. Its leaders still think Trump will blink first (AP)

• Trump Skeptical of Iran’s Strait of Hormuz Proposal (WSJ)

• U.S. is ‘being humiliated by Iran,’ says Germany’s Merz, as Europe’s patience wanes (CNBC)

• What are OPEC and OPEC +, and why has the UAE quit? (Al Jazeera)

• The diplomacy at play behind the King’s speeches (BBC)

• Could the Florida Gerrymander Blow Up on the GOP? (Bulwark)

• ‘It’s bizarre’: Californians grapple with revelation that suspected Trump gunman was neighbour (BBC)

• King Charles’s rare state visit offers U.K. a chance to mend ties with Trump (WP)

• Epstein scandal lingers in background of King Charles’ visit to Washington (CNN)

• F.C.C. Orders a Review of ABC’s Broadcast Licenses (NYT)

• FCC to direct Disney-owned TV stations to file early license renewals, source says (NBC)

• Kash Patel’s Implausible Lawsuit Against The Atlantic (New Yorker)

• Trump Administration Secures New Indictment Against Comey (NYT)

• Judges rule Pentagon can require reporter escorts during policy appeal (The Hill)

• Supreme Court Appears Divided Over Roundup Weedkiller Case (NYT)

• An amateur just solved a 60-year-old math problem—by asking AI (SA)

• Altman, Musk and the A.I. Spectacle Come to ‘The Town’ (NYT)

• Farmer Buys Guardian Dog To Protect Livestock From RFK Jr. (Onion)

Bad Jokes

After a few brief calls for unity after the shooting incident Saturday night, Trump renewed his assaults on free speech by (again) demanding that ABC fire Jimmy Kimmel for a bad joke.

In the context of the attempted assault at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday night, Kimmel’s joke two nights earlier that Melania Trump had the “glow of an expectant widow” does indeed sound rather tasteless.

But back on last Thursday night, when he made the joke, he was referring to the age differential (24 years) between the First Lady and her husband. 

Besides, the point of having free speech in a society isn’t to cover nice remarks, the ones we all find comfortable and acceptable.

No, it is to cover the uncomfortable, the unacceptable, the bad jokes in bad taste.

Trump makes plenty of those himself.

But you didn’t hear any of Trump’s opponents demand he be censored for comparing himself to Jesus, which many considered blasphemy. Or by saying the “only good Democrat is a dead Democrat,” or ridiculing Nancy Pelosi’s husband after he was almost killed by an assailant.

There are many more examples of “bad jokes” by Donald J. Trump. Kimmel’s only problem in this case was unfortunate timing. 

The Trump administration is hypocritical through and through. The attacks on Kimmel are only the latest example. 

Kimmel himself handled the controversy deftly on his show Monday night. Watch: Jimmy Kimmel on Melania & Donald Trump Demanding His Firing & The White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

HEADLINES:

• Suspect in White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting wrote of targeting Trump administration (NBC)

• Donald Trump’s Would-Be Assassin Had a Plan. The Opposite Is About to Unfold. (Slate)

• Justice Department cites dinner shooting to press preservationists to drop Trump ballroom suit (AP)

• First came the shooting. Then, the conspiracies. (WP)

• ‘Should be fired’: Why the Trumps want Jimmy Kimmel sacked (Al Jazeera)

• It Took Charles a Lifetime to Be King. Now He Has to Deal With Trump. (Politico)

• 8 Memorable Moments From Past British Royal Visits to the U.S. (NYT)

• Trump said Iran could telephone if it wanted to negotiate an end to their two-month war, as Tehran’s foreign minister landed in Russiato seek support from President Vladimir Putin. (Reuters)

• Iran offers to end chokehold on Strait of Hormuz and asks US to end blockade, officials say (AP)

• Trump Seeks to Abolish Iran’s Atomic Stockpile, a Problem He Helped Create (NYT)

• Israeli strikes killed 14 people and wounded 37 as the Israeli military warned residents to leave towns beyond the “buffer zone” ‌it occupied. (Reuters)

• California Billionaire Tax Has Signatures Needed for Ballot, Backers Say (NYT)

• Melania Trump urges ABC to ‘take stand’ on Jimmy Kimmel after widow joke (BBC)

• Can we please stop rationalizing political violence? (Silver Bulletin)

• A majority of Americans believe all babies born in the country should automatically be granted citizenship,according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll carried out as the US Supreme Court prepares to rule on Trump’s effort to end the ‌practice. (Reuters)

• Amazon’s retail business pushes AI use and closely tracks adoption (BI)

• From scepticism to concern: Mythos panic is slowly starting to reach China (SCMP)

• College students wary of the job market are changing course in search of ‘AI-proof’ majors (AP)

• China Orders the Unwinding of Meta’s Acquisition of an A.I. Start-Up (NYT)

• Could AI unmask anonymous internet users? I tested it. (WP)

• Victor Wembanyama Returns From Concussion Speaking Fluent French (Onion)

 

The Sound of Slippers

When you lift a new pair of slippers out of their box, the first thing you notice (besides the extensive packaging) is that they appear to be identical. There is no right, and there is no left. They’re programmable.

So you make a choice and begin the process of training them to fit your feet, or maybe it’s training your feet to fit them, I’m not sure, but the day inevitably comes when you mix them up as you get dressed in the dark. Your feet instantly tell you how to fix that problem.

As long as you don’t think too deeply about it, living is a bit like breaking in a new pair of slippers.

I was not aware of this until recently, when I could suddenly feel my old slippers again and it mattered after many months which one was right and which one was left.

It’s called “peripheral neuropathy” when you lose the feeling in your extremities. The doctor taps the reflex hammer on your knee and foot but nothing happens. The jerk has come out of your knee. It is common after a stroke. 

Not to worry. Physical therapists, or the Internet, can teach you how to get that feeling back. It’s the kind of exercise that hurts just enough to actually feel good. 

***

Today, listening to the train whistles as they passed nearby, I remembered a sheet posted in the kitchen at one of the places I worked. It had pictures and words. “Compost these items (food scraps, etc.); Recycle these items (look for a the appropriate symbol); Place the rest in the trash.”

The sign’s creator couldn’t resist an editorial comment: “Almost nothing should go into the trash.”

***

Another programmable element in our lives arrives periodically in the form of election ballots. They’re sort of like slippers, they don’t arrive pre-set for the right or the left. Nothing compels us to vote the way we’ve voted previously. 

This year is another election year; most years are.

There are many positions on most ballots. Can you imagine what would happen if a meaningful percentage of voters considered their choices with an open mind?

Aristotle proposed something like that.

So whatever your choices on this year’s ballot, just tap your finger and be glad that peripheral neuropathy — or a tyrant — hasn’t taken your voice away…yet.

(This is an excerpt from an essay I wrote six years ago. Those slippers are old now and have retired.)

HEADLINES: 

• Accused WH correspondents’ dinner attacker is tutor and computer programmer from California (AP)

• Grievance Propelled Gala Attack Suspect Across Country, Authorities Say (NYT)

• Inside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner as Gunshots Rang Out (New Yorker)

• Trump, allies use shooting to press case for White House ballroom (WP)

• Iran offers U.S. deal to reopen strait but postpone nuclear talks (Axios)

• Iran and U.S. Sink Into Awkward Limbo of ‘No War, No Peace’ (NYT)

• King Charles’s security for US visit under review after Washington shooting (Guardian)

• The 1939 royal visit and the party that tested U.S.-British relations (WP)

• Why Trump’s winning streak at the Supreme Court came to an abrupt end (NBC)

• There’s no such thing as the petrodollar (FT)

• More countries are turning to nuclear power 40 years after the Chernobyl disaster (AP)

• Surviving in a poisoned land: Chernobyl’s wildlife is different, but not in the ways you might think (BBC)

• NYC’s plan to tax empty second homes (BI)

• DNA research just rewrote the origin of human species (Science Daily)

• These Tiny Robots 50x Smaller Than a Hair Can Hunt and Move Bacteria (SciTechDaily)

• AI is making it very easy for the government to spy on you. (NBC)

• Regulars Angry Dive Bar Now Popular Enough To Be Financially Solvent (Onion)

 

Can a Billionaire Fix This?

Californians will elect a new governor to replace Gavin Newsom later this year and the upcoming primary has become a wildly unpredictable affair since two of the Democrats dropped out of the crowded race. 

For some valuable insight into this contest, I recommend Susan Zakin’s piece, “The Mole,” which profiles billionaire Tom Steyer and the other remaining candidates contending for the job.

Steyer presents us with an odd dilemma. Is there such a thing as a good billionaire? We’ve become accustomed to the notion that some ultra-rich people devote substantial portions of their wealth to philanthropic purposes, but what about a guy who is trying to buy his way into office in order, he says, to do good?

During our lifetimes, the wealth disparity between rich and poor has grown to such an extreme that these two classes might as well be living on separate planets. (And maybe, if some predictions come true, someday they will.)

Meanwhile, the much-vaunted “middle class,” which was supposedly one benefit of democracy’s regulation of unfettered capitalism, has virtually disappeared.

Today’s youth who have grown up in families at that formerly middle class level are struggling to ever be able to own a home or even afford to raise kids. They fear dropping below the poverty line in an unwelcoming job market. Many question whether a college education is worth the debt that inevitably accompanies it.

These are the bread and butter issues Steyer or whoever is California’s next governor will have to confront.

We know billionaires try to buy elections and sometimes they win. We know they're good at wrecking things. But can they ever do something that helps the rest of us?

That is the trillion-dollar question.

HEADLINES:

• Trump and his Cabinet safe after shots fired at White House Correspondents’ Dinner (CNN)

• Washington hotel shooting raises questions about Trump security (BBC)

• Caltech Grad, ‘Teacher of the Month’ Named as Washington Shooting Suspect (WSJ)

• Trump Calls Off Witkoff and Kushner’s Travel to Pakistan for Peace Talks (NYT)

• Trump Isn’t Thinking Strait (Bulwark)

• Iran’s Foreign Minister Has No Plan for Talks With U.S. in Pakistan: Tasnim (WSJ)

• Rubio’s Absence From Iran Talks Highlights Stay-at-Home Role (NYT)

• The rising cost of fertilizer and fuel prices is pushing some farmers to the brink (NPR)

• Trump ousts National Science Board members (WP)

• Poisoning the Forest for the Trees (Reveal)

• Something Is Happening to America’s Moral Code (Atlantic)

• Trump’s political headwinds pile up after gerrymandering, Iran setbacks (WP)

• The 85-Year-Old Widow Snagged by Trump’s Immigration Crackdown (NYT)

• Democrats look to rein in Trump’s war powers, this time on Cuba (Reuters)

• Kash Patel’s Lawsuit Against The Atlantic Is a Giant Self-Own (Nation)

• America’s hidden race data (Axios)

• Unfounded Health Concerns Are Powering a Solar Backlash (ProPublica)

• RFK Jr. draws backlash for ripping Medicaid programs that pay people to care for relatives (NBC)

• Inside Amazon’s hardcore transformation (BI)

• King Charles’s high-stakes America trip (FT)

• Despite Iran tensions, King Charles III will follow his mother’s lead in celebrating US-UK bonds (AP)

• The Mole (Journal of the Plague Years)

• 20,000 job cuts at Meta, Microsoft raise concern that AI-driven labor crisis is here (CNBC)

• Soaring Gas Prices Forcing More Americans To Drink Less Gas (Onion)