End of Summer

When I was young, back in Michigan, Labor Day weekend was he last of the "big three" (the others being Memorial Day and the 4th of July) when our family would go camping and celebrate summertime. Labor Day marked the end of that.

Before we bought into a family camp called Rolling Hills with 24 other church families, we would often go to Ludington State Park way up on the Lake Michigan coast. There, we would catch fish in Lake Hamlin and collect blueberries on the Island Trail, roast marshmallows, swim and hike. 

At Mud Lake in Rolling Hills, we would swim, catch fish, play Capture the Flag or softball and collect blackberries and apples.

The main feeling that always struck me on Labor Day weekend was nostalgia. Summer was coming to a close and soon we would be back in school, as well as experiencing increasingly cold weather.

But once I arrived in San Francisco in 1971 I encountered a very different climate with a different set of rhythms — cold in the summer fog and warm in the spring and fall. Winter is normally the rainy season but we often have droughts so it can be sunny for weeks at a time.

All of these tendencies are now at least subtly threatened by climate change. Humans have altered our environment so that who knows what kind of places these will be in the not-too-distant future.

But for now, Labor Day for me still signals the end of summer, even though around here it is more like the beginning of summer. Still, the main feeling that strikes me every :labor Day is nostalgia.

And I can’t help but wonder about that.

(Note: I’ve published versions of this essay several times over the past 17 years.)

HEADLINERS:

• Ex-Proud Boys leader gets one of the longest Capitol riot sentences (Axios)

• Efforts to punish Fani Willis over Trump prosecution are ‘political theater,’ Georgia Gov. Kemp says (PBS)

• What Happens if Mitch McConnell Retires Before His Senate Term Ends? (NYT)

• It was fed-up farmers who started the only government-run bank in the U.S. (NPR)

• Families crossing U.S. border illegally reached all-time high in August (WP)

• Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall (R) argued he has the right to prosecute people who provide and facilitate travel for out-of-state abortion access on "criminal conspiracy charges" in a new court filing. [HuffPost]

• Hong Kong closes schools and cancels hundreds of flights as Typhoon Saola arrives (CNN)

• Taliban stop women scholars from studying in Dubai (DW)

• Don’t Work With the Taliban (Foreign Affairs)

• When China thought America might invade (Economist)

• Population collapse almost wiped out human ancestors, say scientists (Guardian)

• Why are married people happier than the rest of us? (Atlantic)

• A Single Dose of Magic Mushroom Psychedelic Can Ease Major Depression, Study Finds (Bloomberg)

• Material Found in Ocean Is Not From This Solar System, Study Claims (ScienceAlert)

• High-speed AI drone beats world-champion racers for the first time (Ars Technica)

• The Implications Of AI Elements Not Being Protected By Copyright (Forbes)

• 'The script will write itself': How the WGA strike could backfire on writers (USA Today)

• Hollywood studios have already lost the strikes. Now it’s time to surrender (LAT)

• Google DeepMind co-founder calls for US to enforce AI standards (Financial Times)

• People Are Increasingly Worried AI Will Make Daily Life Worse (Wired)

• How Can We Tell If Artificial Intelligence Is Conscious? (IFLScience)

• ACC adds Stanford, Cal, SMU as new members beginning 2024-25 (ESPN)

• What America can learn from baseball (yes, baseball) (Vox)

• Woman Beelining For Music Festival Porta Potties Must Have Come Specifically To See Them (The Onion)

 

Banning Trump

The intriguing theory advanced by Lawrence Tribe and other legal scholars that the states could bar Trump from appearing on their ballots next year under the Constitution’s insurrection clause seems to be gathering momentum.

The theory, which has not yet been tested in court, maintains that the Constitution bans those who have taken the oath of federal office from serving if they “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

Which brings us to the January 6th riot. If that was not an attempted insurrection, then one is not one, two is not two and three is not three. Hundreds of people have already been convicted of taking part in the rebellion and the ring leaders are all facing trial dates now.

The reasoning behind the argument would definitely be strengthened if Trump is convicted in either of the two cases, one in Washington, D.C., and the other in Georgia, charging him for his direct role in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

So we can hope one or both cases goes to trial before next year’s election. In the roughly 250 years since this country was founded, we’ve never faced an issue like this one. Of course, no previous President has tried to overturn an election or incited a mob to attack the Capitol, either.

Anyone who honestly evaluates the matter knows what Trump did was wrong on many levels — legally under our system if he is convicted, but morally, ethically and on patriotic grounds regardless of any verdict in court. It’s as simple as one, two, three.

The insurrection clause says nothing about requiring a conviction. Therefore, I conclude, it can and should be applied.

HEADLINES:

• Proud Boy leader Joseph Biggs sentenced to 17 years for Jan. 6 crimes (WP)

• Clarence Thomas officially discloses private trips on GOP donor Harlan Crow’s plane (CNN)

• Fulton judge says Trump court proceedings will be televised (AJC)

• Trump enters not guilty plea in Fulton County, won't appear for arraignment (CBS)

• A shutdown wouldn't halt Trump's trials, so Republicans seek to rein in his prosecutors (NBC)

• Trump in deposition says he averted ‘nuclear holocaust’ (The Hill)

• Liberal groups seek to use the Constitution’s insurrection clause to block Trump from 2024 ballots (AP)

• Trump Asks to Dismiss Suit as A.G. Says He Inflated Worth by $2.2 Billion (NYT)

• Mark Meadows’s job wasn’t to help Trump steal the 2020 election (Edit Bd/WP)

• Rudy Giuliani has lost a civil lawsuit brought by two Georgia election workers after he failed to turn over discovery documents in the case, a federal judge ruled. The ex-Trump attorney was ordered to pay nearly $133,000 in sanctions. [HuffPost]

• McConnell is medically clear to continue his schedule after freezing episode, Capitol physician says (WP)

• U.S. Embassy urges Americans to leave Haiti 'as soon as possible' (USA Today)

• Fears for Afghans refugees on deadline to leave hotels (BBC)

• Ukrainian Counteroffensive Pierces Main Russian Defensive Line in Southeast (WSJ)

• How Ukraine Can Win a Long War (Foreign Affairs)

• Drone attack on Pskov airbase from inside Russia - Kyiv (BBC)

• Very, Very Few People Are Falling Down the YouTube Rabbit Hole (Atlantic)

• Visa, Mastercard Prepare to Raise Credit-Card Fees (WSJ)

• The largest wildfire currently burning in the United States is raging in California’s densely forested northwest corner. (Cal Today)

• The Inventor Behind a Rush of AI Copyright Suits Is Trying to Show His Bot Is Sentient (Wired)

• A.I.’s un-learning problem: Researchers say it’s virtually impossible to make an A.I. model ‘forget’ the things it learns from private user data (Fortune)

• OpenAI disputes authors’ claims that every ChatGPT response is a derivative work (Ars Technica)

• High-School English Needed a Makeover Before ChatGPT (Atlantic)

• What happens when AI passes through the ‘uncanny valley’? (Financial Times)

• Google's New GenAI Marketing Tools Speed Up Campaign Planning and Buying (AdWeek)

• Woman Disgusted After Finding Out There Over 2,000 Calories In Recommended Daily Intake (The Onion)

 

As It Blows

(When Idalia jackknifed its way into the Florida coast Wednesday morning, it was destructive but thankfully avoided the most populous areas, unlike Hurricane Ian last year, among others. I’ve been involved with a number of hurricanes over the decades — as a resident of Florida, a tourist in Bermuda, and a reporter in Mississippi. I first published the following essay last September.)

 In my twenties, during extended visits to Sanibel Island just off of the west coast of Florida, I got to know many of the young people who’d grown up there.

There weren’t very many of them and they all knew each other. They were mainly working class kids. At gatherings, over beers and marijuana, a common fantasy was how to blow up the causeway that connected the barrier island with the mainland.

None of them were ever going to do such a thing, of course, but the collective sense they voiced was that the constant flow of traffic over that bridge was going to ruin the idyllic life they had known up until then.

They were right about that. The influx of outsiders soon drove up property values to the point that few if any of those kids could afford to stay there. Property taxes went through the roof, forcing their parents to sell the family house, if they owned one, and move away.

Decades later, when I again visited the island, almost all of them were gone.

Well, I thought about those people this week when the causeway finally did get blown up. Hurricane Ian finally took out that bridge in three places and it will no doubt be a minute or two before it is back in action.

I’m no expert in real estate values but I’m sure the damage wrought by the storm will have a huge impact on property values on Sanibel and other low-lying coastal areas vulnerable to super storms.

The cost of flood insurance alone is now higher than the value of some of the modest cottages and beach properties those kids I knew grew up in. It not only takes great wealth to afford homes on the island; it will require owners willing to incur the risks that the next big storm could be the one that sweeps their home away for good.

Climate change is a fact of life. Hurricanes like Ian are no longer “once in a century” events. They are becoming once a year events.

Today’s top story: Hurricane Idalia hits Florida with 125 mph winds, flooding streets, snapping trees and cutting power (AP)

OTHER HEADLINE LINKS:

• Military officers in Gabon say they have seized power (NPR)

• Ukraine’s drone strikes against Russia are working. Can it keep them up? (Economist)

• Russia earns less from oil and spends more on war. So far, sanctions are working like a slow poison (AP)

• Afghan refugees are stuck in US limbo as Congress fails to move legislation  (The Hill)

• Afghans who fought in secret CIA-trained force face legal uncertainty in the U.S. (NBC)

• In court, Trump supporter faces election official he violently threatened (WP)

• With more than a year to go before the 2024 election, a constellation of conservative organizations is preparing for a possible second White House term for Donald Trump, recruiting thousands of Americans to come to Washington on a mission to dismantle the federal government and replace it with a vision closer to his own. A 1,000-page handbook lays out how to do away with what Republicans deride as the “deep state” bureaucracy, including firing up to 50,000 workers. [AP]

• How Trump’s Election Lies Left the Michigan G.O.P. Broken and Battered (NYT)

• As Trump and Republicans target Georgia's Fani Willis for retribution, the state's governor opts out (AP)

• Mitch McConnell freezes, struggles to speak in second incident this summer (CNBC)

• The U.S. is pumping oil faster than ever. Republicans don’t care. (Politico)

• Judge holds Giuliani liable in Georgia election workers’ defamation case and orders him to pay fees (AP)

• Benioff's Salesforce pledges $1 million for ‘desperately needed’ S.F. homeless program. Here are the details (SFC)

• DA Jenkins in SF committed prosecutorial misconduct, Court of Appeal finds (Mission Local)

• Canada warns LGBTQ travellers of risks in the US (Al Jazeera)

• Large language models aren’t people. Let’s stop testing them as if they were. (MIT)

• Talking the AI Talk (Atlantic)

• Nation Attempts To Fall Asleep By Doing Little Impression Of Sleeping (The Onion)

 

Bad Roads and Drought (Afghan Report 66)

 

(This is the latest in a series of secret reports from inside Afghanistan written by a friend whose identity I am keeping confidential.)

Dear David:

I took a trip to Bamyan not long ago. The road was originally built with foreign aid but was destroyed by mines set by the Taliban during the previous government. Their justification was that all things made by foreigners are dirty. 

Crossing the culverts during those years was like stepping on a sharp razor with bare feet. From our village, which has about 500 families, three young people lost their lives on the highway due to those roadside mines. 

The Americans who came in 2001 to Afghanistan were looking to build the support of the people. Therefore, they tried to carry out activities that would make noticeable changes in the shortest time, like building highways, clinics, schools, and other things that could be built in one or two years. 

Since the Americans left two years ago and the Taliban came to power, it is they who are trying to gain the trust of the people. Therefore they are repairing the roads that they damaged when the Americans were here.

Meanwhile, in our province the people are suffering from drought. One of the farmers said that this year the crops of his fields are half as productive as in the previous years. Since the beginning of spring, he has managed to irrigate his fields only twice. 

Another 50-year-old farmer said that if the drought continues, he will have no choice but to go to Iran to work. Already, one of his sons works in Iran and sends money to his parents every month. But Afghans working in Iran face very bad working conditions.

So there is no good option.

HEADLINES:

• HHS Selects the First Drugs for Medicare Drug Price Negotiation (HHS)

• Donald Trump’s Plan to Get Reelected and Pardon Himself Was Just Dealt Serious Setback (Vanity Fair)

• Former GA DA 'absolutely amazed' Meadows is testifying in Fulton County hearing (CNN)

• The GOP is a shambles, unable to nominate anyone electable (The Hill)

• Florida Governor Ron DeSantis faces Black leaders’ anger after racist killings in Jacksonville (AP)

• Storm strengthens into hurricane, expected to rapidly intensify before hitting Florida (WP)

• A New Threat on a Coast Ravaged by Hurricane Ian (NYT)

• Restaurateur Behind Kansas Newspaper Raid Breaks Her Silence (Daily Beast)

• America Is Using Up Its Groundwater Like There’s No Tomorrow (NYT)

• Americans Are Bailing on Their Home Insurance (WSJ)

• Germany’s economy is in trouble and no one is prepared to deal with it (Economist)

• There Are So Many Explosives-Laden Drones Flying Over Southern Ukraine That They’re Running Into Each Other (Forbes)

• 2 years after US withdrawal Afghanistan resistance group yearns for Western help as they take on Taliban (Fox)

• Joe Biden was determined to get out of Afghanistan—no matter the cost. (Atlantic)

• Prehistoric bird once thought extinct returns to New Zealand wild (Guardian)

• This NASA-backed robot is the droid coworker you’ve been dreaming of (Fast Company)

• Google DeepMind has launched a watermarking tool for AI-generated images (MIT)

• AI images are getting harder to spot. Google thinks it has a solution. (WP)

• ‘Be flexible, imaginative and brave’: experts give career advice for an AI world (Guardian)

• It Costs Just $400 to Build an AI Disinformation Machine (Wired)

• How to Use ChatGPT for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (MUO)

• ChatGPT plays doctor with 72% success (Axios)

• HR Reminds Staff Doctor’s Note Required To Use Bathroom (The Onion)