Meaning in Life

 (Kater Begemot/wiki commons)

When it comes to the physical evolution of the human species over time, our bodies — including our brains — have changed very little. Slowly it seems we get a bit bigger, a lot heavier and somewhat less hairy.

What about our behavior? Are we getting smarter?

Well, we’ve gotten more sophisticated in using tools, building nests, crafting comfortable clothing, inventing vehicles that let us zoom around the planet, and establishing routines that are meant to optimize pleasure.

We’ve improved our medical knowledge and expanded our lifespans.

And we’ve been able to accomplish all these things largely by inventing technologies.

But are we happier?

Technology inherently is neither good nor bad. It is officially neutral like Switzerland, although neutrality also is a relative concept. But if there are imperatives to the evolution of our species they probably include a technological component, i.e., we are going to continue to experiment and develop technologies that extend our reach — physically, mentally and maybe even emotionally.

Artificial intelligence and robotics are the latest examples of this imperative. No government or religion seems able to stop this process.

But technological progress is also inherently disorienting and disruptive. It was becoming commonplace several years ago to describe each new upheaval of our traditional industries in terms that it had just been disrupted by the internet, or by a digital device, or a software application.

Suddenly it seemed that all of the middlemen, all of the intermediaries who held our society together were being thrown out of work. The technical term is that they were getting disintermediated.

Travel agents? Disintermediated.

Secretaries? Disintermediated.

Taxi drivers? Disintermediated.

Publishers? Disintermediated.

Finally, in 2025, this process has reached the federal government in the form of Elon Musk’s DOGE.

Government workers? Disintermediated. Meanwhile, the disrupters always ask the same rhetorical question. Why do we need all these people anyway?

I know the answer.

It turns out that we get something pretty valuable from the intermediaries. Something we need every bit as much as food, water, clothing, and blankets when it’s cold..

We need to be cared for; we need to be taken care of now and then; we need to be helped. At the same time, we need to be able to take care of the people we love. In our jobs, we need to be able to feel that our work matters.

It’s what gives our lives meaning. We need to feel we are helping makes things better, not worse. And a lot of the fired federal workers fit into that category.

That is one of the many things that the richest man in the world just doesn’t understand.

HEADLINES:

• The forgotten history of the U.S.’s Cold War presence in Greenland (WP)

• JD, Usha Vance visit Greenland as Trump administration eyes territory (CBS)

• Danish foreign minister scorns 'tone' of JD Vance in Greenland, Denmark comments (France24)

• Trump administration moves to formally abolish USAID (WP)

• Trump Deportation Fight Reaches Supreme Court (NYT)

• Trump’s Giant New Car and Truck Tax (WSJ)

• Trump wants to reshape the Smithsonian. Who funds the vast institution? (WP)

• Trump’s executive order on Smithsonian targets funding for programs with ‘improper ideology’ (AP)

• The Double Standard at the Center of the Signal Debacle (Atlantic)

• A federal judge on Thursday said he will order the Trump administration to preserve records of a Signal text thread in which senior national security officials discussed sensitive plans for a U.S. military strike against Yemen's Houthis. [AP]

• I visited Social Security offices to see if there was any DOGE-fueled confusion (Business Insider)

• Myanmar quake death toll passes 1,600, as junta lets in foreign rescuers (Reuters)

• Israel strikes Beirut for first time since Hezbollah ceasefire (Guardian)

• Earth’s storage of water in soil, lakes and rivers is dwindling. And it’s especially bad for farming (AP)

• Stanford, Cal and UCLA investigated in Trump's anti-DEI campaign (SFGate)

• Top US vaccine official resigns over RFK Jr’s ‘misinformation and lies’ (Guardian)

• Kennedy Turns to a Discredited Vaccine Skeptic for Autism Study (NYT)

• Texas Never Wanted RFK Jr.’s Unproven Measles Treatment (Atlantic)

• Hillary Clinton warns Trump ‘stupidity’ will leave US ‘feeble and friendless’ (Guardian)

• Unburying the Remains of the Third Reich (NYT)

• Viral Studio Ghibli-style AI images showcase power – and copyright concerns – of ChatGPT update (CNN)

• How Artificial Intelligence Reasons (NYT)

• ChatGPT's new image generator blurs copyright lines (Axios)

• New Law Requires Texans To Show ID To Buy Phallic Foods (The Onion)

DOGE Retreats

Last week, we reported on Musk’s War on the Elderly, specifically DOGE’s plan to make it much more difficult for many people who are disabled or living with limited mobility to obtain their Social Security benefits.

Today comes good news. Social Security official have pulled back from some of those restrictions and delayed others. (WP)

This is one of the first indications that pressure from concerned citizens can still work, even in the Trump era. The outcry from Republican and Democratic voters alike forced this retreat.

Of course this is only one of the many battles we face in Trump’s war on America, but it is at least a small sign of hope that resistance to the autocracy is slowly beginning to develop.

HEADLINES:

• Powerful quake in Southeast Asia kills several, 81 trapped in Bangkok building rubble (Reuters)

• Trump says US will 'go as far as we have to' to get control of Greenland (ABC)

• Internal White House document details layoff plans across U.S. agencies (WP)

• The Greater Scandal of Signalgate (New Yorker)

• RFK Jr. Plans 20,000 Job Cuts in Major Restructuring of Health Department (WSJ)

• GOP lawmakers turn up the pressure on Hegseth (The Hill)

• A Democratic lawmaker got into a shouting match with CIA Director John Ratcliffe after asking if Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth may have been drinking before he shared operational details on Signal about a planned attack. Trump has downplayed Hegseth's role in the controversy. Meanwhile, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was grilled over questionable past testimony. [HuffPost]

• Full transcript of Trump team’s Yemen attack plan that was shared on Signal (Al Jazeera)

• Signal Chat Leak Angers U.S. Military Pilots (NYT)

• Trump says he 'always thought' Waltz was responsible for Signal chat scandal (Fox)

• Signalgate scrambles MAGA's messaging machine (Axios)

• The Worst Thing a MAGA Warrior Can Do (Atlantic)

• Let’s put it in language the Signal leakers will understand: what a bunch of pathetic sleazebags (Guardian)

• Social Security backs off plan to cut phone services for disabled people (WP)

• Social Security backtracks on major changes: Here’s who is exempt (Alabama.com)

• A populist uprising stirs among Democrats furious at their leaders (WP)

• Trump's 25% Tariffs Rattle Auto Industry, Hit Global Car Stocks (WSJ)

• Europe lashes out over Trump auto tariffs and the economic threat to both continents (AP)

• Europe Confronts Reality That Vance’s Hostility Is More Than Just a Show (WSJ)

• What We Know About Rumeysa Ozturk—Tufts Student Detained By ICE (Forbes)

• Turkish student at Tufts University is latest Palestinian supporter swept up in US crackdown (AP)

• What happens after Trump blows up the world order (WP)

• EU urges citizens to stockpile 72 hours’ worth of supplies amid war risk (CNN)

• Turkey detains nearly 1,900 in protests over jailed mayor, rejects international criticism (Reuters)

• Marjorie Taylor Greene battles NPR and PBS leaders in House hearing (WP)

• The Trump administration is building a case in court for its ability to send people in the United States to an overseas detention camp — and then refuse to bring them home even if they’re innocent. [HuffPost]

• The Nazis Called It Gleichschaltung (Total Political & Cultural Control); Trump/Musk Have DOGE (Daily Kos)

• U.S. Prosecutors Probe Tip About Timing of Pfizer Vaccine (WSJ)

• Apple’s AI isn’t a letdown. AI is the letdown (CNN)

• OpenAI’s new AI image generator is potent and bound to provoke (ArsTechnica)

• Job hunting and hiring in the age of AI: Where did all the humans go? (WP)

• New A.I. Project Explores Mysteries of Delacroix, Master of Romanticism (NYT)

• Furious Trump Cancels ‘Atlantic’ Subscription After 48 Years (The Onion)

MUSIC VIDEO:

Suzy Bogguss & Kathy Mattea - Teach Your Children [Live]

On Defense

"Ignorance is strength" — George Orwell, 1984

Posting to the Signal group chat published by the Atlantic, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth sounded like one of my grandchildren playing a video game:

“Just CONFIRMED w/CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch…Trigger-based F-18 1st strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME) — also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s).” 

And so it goes. But while the Trump team played their war games, Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg was listening in.

And that’s a good thing. Hegseth is in way over his head, which is not a surprise given his lack of experience. He also lacks the maturity to admit that mistakes were made in this case. Instead, he remains defensive and defiant, giving the scandal new life and keeping it in the headlines.

Although he may survive for a while, I suspect Hegseth’s days are numbered. He’s not up to the job, and when it comes to that, he has plenty of competition in Trump’s Cabinet of the Mediocre.

One big problem with this administration is that it is based on ignorance. George Orwell foresaw the danger of this type of regime and tried to warn us 76 years ago. The question for Americans in 2025 is are we finally beginning to listen?

HEADLINES:

• The Trump Team’s Denials Are Laughable (Atlantic)

• ‘The White House is in denial': A Republican rejects the latest group-chat deflections (Politico)

• Trump Administration Live Updates: Intelligence Officials Grilled After More Signal Texts Are Released (NYT)

• How the Signal transcript undermines key Trump administration claims (WP)

• Disdain for Europe in US Signal chat horrifies EU (BBC)

• Schumer says Hegseth should be fired (The Hill)

• Hegseth’s Leak Would Have Warned the Enemy. The White House Is Using Semantics to Obscure That. (NYT)

• They Lied, Again (Mother Jones)

• Judge who ruled against Trump deportation flights will oversee Signal lawsuit (Axios)

• Hegseth faces renewed scrutiny after Signal chat disclosures (WP)

• What the Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez mega-rallies are really about (Politico)

• Measles cases rise to 370 in Texas and New Mexico, say state health departments (Reuters)

• DOGE says it needs to know the government's most sensitive data, but can't say why (NPR)

• DOGE staffer 'Big Balls' provided tech support to cybercrime ring, records show (Reuters)

• Trump signs order seeking to overhaul US elections (AP)

• PBS and NPR Prepare for Showdown With Congress (NYT)

• Appeals court upholds temporary block on Alien Enemies Act deportations (WP)

• Supreme Court upholds rules requiring background checks for ‘ghost guns’ (CNN)

• Hundreds join Gaza's largest anti-Hamas protest since war began (BBC)

• Trump's Black Sea truce plan is a 'gift to Russia' that risks undermining sanctions, analysts warn (NBC)

• How Trump’s policies have helped Russia and furthered Putin’s goals (WP)

• NATO chief appeals for unity as Europe builds its armies and the US eyes security threats elsewhere (AP)

• Three Hundred Years Later, a Tool from Isaac Newton Gets an Update (Quanta)

• NIH Ends Future Funding to Study the Health Effects of Climate Change (ProPublica)

• We asked 5 AI bots to write tough emails. One beat a human. (WP)

• Inside A.I.’s Super Bowl: Nvidia Dreams of a Robot Future (NYT)

• Taylor & Francis has announced it will produce AI generated, and human 
  reviewed, translations of non English academic works to expand their 
  access (Publisher’s Weekly)

• JD Vance Begins To Suspect There Another Group Chat (The Onion)

MUSIC VIDEO:

Alan Jackson & Lee Ann Womack - Murder on Music Row  

The Adult in the (Chat) Room

Jeffrey Goldberg, the Atlantic editor who was startled to find himself in a secret online group chat with the Trump administration’s top national security officials about an impending military strike, took several actions in response. These can be instructive to all journalists and concerned citizens alike.

The choices Goldberg made illustrate why we are dependent on an alert and aggressive press if we are to maintain our democracy here in the U.S.

• First, he published a story about the matter, but only after the military strike had taken place so as not to endanger military personnel.

• Second, he deleted his email address from the chat group going forward.

• Third, he has withheld (so far) from disclosing certain details from the chat that he thought might conceivably compromise our country’s national security.

In response, the Trump administration has all too predictably denounced him as a “fake” journalist while they scramble to contain the damage from this, the first major scandal of Trump’s second term.

The two officials said to be most responsible for the breach, defense secretary Pete Hegseth and national security advisor Michael Waltz, may face negative consequences if the scandal persists longer than a few days, but what’s more important is to recognize that Goldberg acted more responsibly, and in more enduringly in our national interest than they did.

He was the one adult in a room full of amateurs.

That Goldberg withheld some details he could have chosen to reveal reminds me of a theoretical debate many of us had in the distant past when covering U.S. nuclear secrets.

Some journalists argued back then that we should protect the most sensitive secrets we discovered in the course of our work; others argued that we should disclose them, even if they risked triggering a nuclear war. (I sided with those choosing not to disclose them.)

Government officials like those appointed by Trump will come and go. Some, like Hegseth, are little more than a bad joke. But long before, during and long after their time in office, a free and vigorous press offers the truest kind of national security we as a democratic people require and deserve.

And that in my book makes Jeff Goldberg a true American hero — just by being an honest journalist doing his job.

P.S. I’m certain Goldberg and his attorneys are discussing the option of releasing further details from the chat. Goldberg says he isn’t finished reporting on the matter, and the Trump administration’s prevarications and attacks on him personally may well backfire in the days to come. Stay tuned.

P.S.S. This just in this morning: Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump’s Advisers Shared on Signal (Atlantic)

And: Newly shared Signal messages show Trump advisers discussed Yemen attack plans (Guardian)

HEADLINES:

• The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans (Atlantic)

• Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, said national security adviser Michael Waltz inadvertently added him to a group chat with Trump administration officials discussing attack plans. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who recently made a foolish boast, slammed Goldberg, denying the messages were war plans, even after the White House confirmed they were authentic. One GOP senator conceded the episode amounted to a "huge screwup." [HuffPost]

• Top Trump Officials Try to Downplay Gravity of Signal Chat Leak (NYT)

• What Is Signal and Why Were Trump Officials Using It to Plan a Military Strike? (WSJ)

• Trump downplays national security team texting military operation plan on Signal as a minor 'glitch' (AP)

• Bernie Sanders and A.O.C. Fight the Oligarchy (New Yorker)

• Long waits, waves of calls, website crashes: Social Security is breaking down (WP)

• The Social Security crisis, briefly explained (Vox)

• Social Security rushing service cuts at White House request, sources say (Axios)

• America Is Watching the Rise of a Dual State (Atlantic)

• 5 high-level CDC officials are leaving in the latest turmoil for the public health agency (AP)

• Kyiv, Moscow agree sea, energy truce; Washington to seek easing Russia sanctions (Reuters)

• U.S. Agrees to Help Russia Boost Exports in Black Sea Truce (WSJ)

• US academic groups sue White House over planned deportations of pro-Gaza students (Guardian)

• Columbia University student sues Trump administration amid potential deportation proceedings (CNN)

• Israeli settlers beat up one of the Palestinian co-directors of the Oscar-winning documentary film "No Other Land" in the occupied West Bank before he was detained by the Israeli military, according to two of his fellow directors and other witnesses. [AP]

• Hamdan Ballal, a Palestinian director beaten by Israeli settlers, is now released (NPR) 

• Tesla has flirted with disaster before. This time feels different. (Business Insider)

• US visit to Greenland is unacceptable, Danish prime minister says (Reuters)

• An iPad spent five years in a river — then helped crack a murder plot (WP)

• In His Second Term, Trump Fuels a ‘Machinery’ of Misinformation (NYT)

• How to tell when AI models infringe copyright (WP)

• Emboldened by Trump, A.I. Companies Lobby for Fewer Rules (NYT)

• Man Sneaks Bag Of Outside Stimuli Into Sensory Deprivation Tank (The Onion)

 

Origin Story: CIR

In April 1977, Lowell Bergman and I were discussing how to form a new journalism organization in the wake of the demise of our informal muckraking unit inside Rolling Stone.

Over the preceding two years at the magazine's headquarters at 625 Third Street in Soma, we'd pulled together a half dozen or so reporters to pursue investigative stories, which had resulted in some good stories and also a ton of trouble.

Along with a bunch of awards, we had proven an ability to attract death threats and huge libel suits, among other forms of attention. We had both been unceremoniously dumped by Jann Wenner just before Christmas 1976 when he announced he would be taking the magazine to the east coast.

Our idea was to form a non-profit to carry on that type of work and Lowell brought an ally into the mix -- Dan Noyes, who he'd met in the "Arizona Project." That was a group investigation into the murder of journalist Don Bolles, which in turn led to the creation of another non-profit group, Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE).

The three of us -- Bergman, Noyes and myself -- co-founded the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) later in 1977. A large group of advisers helped us launch the organization and we settled into an office in downtown Oakland.

But back in April, we had been still discussing what such an organization should be, what it should do, what its essential identity should be.

Today, 48 years later, CIR and IRE have long been staples of the journalism world and we are working individually on our memoirs. In that context, Lowell recently unearthed an old type-written letter he had sent to Dan that April. Dan and I had not yet met and Lowell wanted to introduce him to my thoughts on the subject.

"I talked with Weir --as expected he is enthusiastic. Interestingly, David presented the following perspective: (the group should have) two major groups of activity: publications and community involvement."

This old letter is a prime example of why I spend so much energy beseeching people to preserve their journals, letters, notes and files whenever possible. Until Lowell sent a copy of it to me recently, I had absolutely no memory of having said those things.

But clearly I was envisioning not only a journalism organization but one that would attempt to root that work in the communities where we worked.

The Bay Area was our base. It was a region with deep contradictions -- idealism, activism and hope with violence, cynicism, and deeply entrenched reactionary media organizations, notably the old Hearst daily, the San Francisco Examiner.

We couldn't know it at the time, but that same newspaper would be transformed by a talented group of our peers, including the heir to the Hearst publishing empire, Will Hearst, into an excellent newspaper in its final decades.

We participated in that transformation. We also found our way into relationships with dozens of other media groups -- CBS News, NBC News, ABC News, 60 Minutes, 20/20, Mother Jones, New West, New York, NHK, BBC, etc., here and around the world.

There were many ups and downs in the early years, including press conferences denouncing us, and/or announcing libel suits and more death threats, but ultimately CIR survived and thrived. How that came to be is the story the three of us need to tell in our memoirs.

NOTE: Early in 2024, Mother Jones and CIR merged into a single organization.

HEADLINES:

• The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans (Atlantic)

• Group chat planning for Houthi strike was ’mistake,’ Johnson says (Politico)

• Hegseth’s Own Words Come Back to Haunt Him After Texting War Plans (TNR)

• "Heads should roll": Congress erupts over stunning Trump admin leak (Axios)

• Erdogan slams protests over jailing of Istanbul mayor as 'movement of violence' (Reuters) 

• Trump says car tariffs coming ‘in next few days’ (Politico)

• Trump says he’ll put a 25% tariff on countries that buy Venezuelan oil, though the US does so itself (AP)

• In a Sea of Political Change, Bernie Sanders Keeps Truckin’ (NYT)

• Dealing With Social Security Is Heading From Bad to Worse (WSJ)

• Don’t Believe Trump’s Promises About Protecting the Social Safety Net (New Yorker) 

• Musk Is Positioned to Profit Off Billions in New Government Contracts (NYT)

• Trump turbulence leads allies to rethink reliance on U.S. weapons (WP)

• US alleges Columbia student covered up his work for UNRWA (Reuters)

• Russia and Ukraine Hold U.S.-Mediated Talks: What to Know (NYT)

• Ukraine’s clandestine book club defies Russia’s push to rewrite history (Guardian)

• Russian strikes injure scores in Ukraine as US and Kremlin officials meet for ceasefire talks (CNN)

• Putin gifted a portrait of Trump to the U.S. president (AP)

• Greenland’s PM slams visit by US officials, including second lady Usha Vance (ABC)

• Government Built Silicon Valley (Foreign Policy)

• OpenAI finds own product ChatGPT linked to more loneliness, social isolation (Economic Times)

• Microsoft announces security AI agents to help overwhelmed humans (Verge)

• Spray-Painted Penis Only Thing Holding Cybertruck Together (The Onion)

Down and Up

The Guardian has put into words what many of us have been fearing for some time: “(Trump) is leading the world’s oldest continuous democracy to a once unthinkable destination.

“Eviscerating the federal government and subjugating Congress; defying court orders and delegitimising judges; deporting immigrants and arresting protesters without due process; chilling free speech at universities and cultural institutions; cowing news outlets with divide-and-rule. 

“Add a rightwing media ecosystem manufacturing consent and obeyance in advance, along with a weak and divided opposition offering feeble resistance. Join all the dots, critics say, and America is sleepwalking into authoritarianism.”

The Guardian article is very long and goes into great detail before ending on a surprising and welcome positive note.

Norm Eisen, a lawyer and founder of State Democracy Defenders Action, says “There is reason for hope but nobody knows. Will we go the way of Brazil, Poland, Czech Republic, where I was ambassador, all of which pushed out autocratic regimes in recent years? Or will we go the way of Hungary and Turkey, which failed to oust autocrats? It remains to be seen but I, at least, am hopeful.”

HEADLINES:

• The Trump administration is descending into authoritarianism (Guardian)

• Autocrats worldwide rolling back rights and rule of law — and citing Trump’s example (WP)

• Trump moves closer to court crisis (Axios)

• It’s Trump vs. the Courts, and It Won’t End Well for Trump (NYT)

• New Trump memo seen as threat to lawyers, attempt to scare off lawsuits (WP)

• Canadian PM Carney calls snap election, says Trump wants to break Canada (Reuters)

• US Hopes for Ukraine Peace Deal as Putin Seems in No Hurry (Bloomberg)

• Voice of America journalists sue Trump officials for dismantling the outlet (WP)

• America’s European allies are trying to pry their unspent money back from USAID (AP)

• Trump officials defend use of wartime law to deport migrants (Reuters)

• More US states report measles cases amid vaccine misinformation (Guardian)

• How Israel plans to escalate its war on Hamas in Gaza (WP)

• Gaza’s Health Ministry says Israel has struck the largest hospital in the territory’s south (AP)

• Israeli air strike kills top Hamas official in Gaza (BBC)

• Tesla in Trouble (CNN)

• ‘Very dangerous’: Japanese Americans warn of Trump’s use of Alien Enemies Act (WP)

• Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the courage to brawl for the working class (Guardian)

• The Unbelievable Scale of AI’s Pirated-Books Problem (Atlantic)

• JD Vance Reminded Caddies Not Allowed In Clubhouse (The Onion)

 

Riding the Wind

”There are many here among us who feel life is but a joke.” — Bob Dylan

It's not easy to be a plastic bag here in San Francisco. Due to local regulations, you no longer are welcome at local supermarkets; thus, the local population is in steep decline. You may not be on the endangered species list quite yet, but that's only a matter of time.

The few who persist on our mean streets get whipped around mercilessly by our biting winds. Today, I watched one such victim rise and fall in a wind tunnel next to the brick edifice of a warehouse-turned-loft apartment building.

The winds were having their way with this bag. It was flipped wide open, upside down, handles flapping uselessly in the cyclone's grasp. The bag had no hope of flying away gracefully like an escaped balloon. Its only option was to put up with the abuse, while waiting to find out its fate. Would its next resting place be high (tangled in a tree or in the wires), or low, (squashed and dirty in the gutter.)

***

Somewhat more gracefully, one hopes, I too rode the winds into town today, flying home from a trip to New York looking for work. I’m not exactly certain how welcome old journalists are around here either any more, given the hopeless job market, but in our neighborhood the air felt especially fresh as my two youngest kids greeted me with hugs.

(This is from from 2008.)

HEADLINES:

• Bernie Sanders is drawing record crowds as he pushes Democrats to 'fight oligarchy' (NPR)

• FBI scales back staffing, tracking of domestic terrorism probes, sources say (Reuters)

• White House buoyed up by submission of major law firm attacked by Trump (Guardian)

• Columbia Agrees to Trump’s Demands After Federal Funds Are Stripped (NYT)

• Ukraine's retreat from Kursk deepens public divide on incursion benefits (Reuters)

• Israel strikes Lebanon after first rocket attack since ceasefire (BBC)

• UK, France, Germany urge Gaza ceasefire, ask Israel to restore humanitarian access (Reuters)

• Trump and DOGE Propel V.A. Mental Health System into Turmoil (NYT)

• Trump and Roberts battle (Reuters)

• Acting Social Security head backs off threat to close agency after judge rejects argument (WP)

• Why baby boomers may hold the cards to any Trump plan to rescue stocks from the selloff (MarketWatch)

• Trump pulls security clearances for Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton (Reuters)

• Why Did Elon Musk Go After Bunkers Full of Seeds? (NYT)

• The Careless People Won (Atlantic)

• Trump revoking protections for 530,000 Cubans, Haitians and other migrants (BBC)

• At Least 3 Dead and 14 Injured in Shooting at New Mexico Park, Officials Say (NYT)

• What the JFK File Dump Actually Revealed (Atlantic)

• Meta scrambled to silence a tell-all book. Now it’s a bestseller. (WP)

• The iPhone Needs to Go Back to Its Roots to Salvage AI (Bloomberg)

• OpenAI’s Deep Research Agent Is Coming for White-Collar Work (Wired)

• DOJ Designates Posting Photos Of Balding Elon Musk As Domestic Terrorism (The Onion)

VIDEO:

Neil Young - Heart of Gold (Live at Farm Aid 1985)

Ring of Truth

During my recent trip to Arizona, my sister told me a story about an incident that happened when I was in kindergarten. Apparently, we were sitting on our front porch when I spotted a girl I liked walking toward our house on the sidewalk.

As the girl drew near, I grabbed a newspaper, held it up and pretended to read it.

“That happened today?” I called out loudly. “How interesting!”

***

Most of the time, I’m the oldest one in the room, so when it comes to memories, mine reach back the furthest. So it is a refreshing experience whenever I get to hang out with my older sister, who remembers things that I don’t.

It is also nice to be just a character in the memory of somebody else as opposed to the being the family patrician and sole custodian of the now-distant past.

I was almost 30 when my first child was born, and almost 60 when my first grandchild was born. That’s a lot of rings on the tree for me to try and recall when my descendants ask me specific questions about my past.

Besides, the way I tell a tale is not necessarily more accurate than anyone else, plus the more distant in the past an event occurred, the more our individual versions are likely to diverge, which brings me to the phenomenon of memory consensus.

Within families, communities, countries, cultures — even on a species level — we ultimately tend to reach some sort of consensus about the past, though historians, ideologues, contrarians and poets continue to debate and revise that consensus as new evidence emerges.

And as much as I enjoy telling my descendants stories from the past, I’m acutely aware from my journalism career that for a more well-rounded narrative, other sources ought to be interviewed. My version is only that — mine.

A joint family memoir would no doubt do a better job. As the saying goes, ‘there’s your version, my version and the truth and no one is lying.’

As for the story of the girl and the newspaper at the top of this essay, I had no memory of it until my sister told me about it last week.

That said, it has the ring of truth.

(This is from 2023.)

HEADLINES:

• Social Security Says DOGE Ruling Could Force Agency to Shut Down (Bloomberg)

• As Massive Social Security Changes Begin, Here's What You Need To Know (Forbes)

• Inside Trump and Musks’s Takeover of NASA (New Yorker)

• Trump says Education Department will no longer oversee student loans, 'special needs' (NPR)

• US small business agency to oversee student loans (BBC)

• Elon Musk visits Pentagon after bombshell reports on access to China war plans (Axios)

• Elon Musk threatens Pentagon leakers after NYT report on secret China war briefing (Politico)

• Trump rescinds order targeting law firm after it makes $40m promise (BBC)

• Trump asks the Supreme Court to stop judges from blocking his policies (MSNBC)

• Threats to federal judges increasing, US Marshals Service warns (ABC)

• Recession watch 2025 (Financial Times)

• Democrats open whistleblower portal aimed at DOGE (Axios)

• Weekslong lockups of European tourists at US borders spark fears of traveling to America (AP)

• Low-Cost Drone Add-Ons From China Let Anyone With a Credit Card Turn Toys Into Weapons of War (Wired)

• Democrats are angry, disillusioned over party’s failure to stand up to Trump and Musk (WP)

• People are angry, and they’re showing up at town halls to let their Congresspeople know. DOGE workers are getting doxxed. (BusinessInsider)

• Were the Kennedy Files a Bust? Not So Fast, Historians Say. (NYT)

• Five Takeaways From the New JFK Assassination Files (WSJ)

• Boat tours and ash scatterings help beleaguered California salmon fleet stay afloat (AP)

• Snow White’ remake drags Walt Disney back into the culture wars (Financial Times)

• What the Press Got Wrong About Hitler (Atlantic)

• AI is more likely to give a correct response when given the opportunity to give a wrong one first (Medium)

• Experts Recommend Using Hunger As Egg Substitute (The Onion)

MUSIC VIDEOs: 

Taylor Swift - "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" (Carole King) | 2021 Induction Olivia Rodrigo - "You’re So Vain" (Carly Simon) | 2022 Induction