Everything Trump touches… www.nytimes.com/athletic/742...

If you’re trying to do something controversial — like build immense power sucking, water guzzling, polluting data centers — it might be prudent to assure communities that AI won’t destroy their quality of life *and* make all their jobs disappear. Whether or not that’s true is another matter.

“.. They may have realized it was simply bad business to say that your great new product will destroy the economy.” @wsj.com www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-w...

Something to look forward to, a Bill Cunningham exhibit at the New York Historical [Society] next year. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/03/s...

“We had the American dream. We never had the American dream, however, like we have it right now.” True. But maybe not the way he means it. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/05/u...

“The Trump administration is scrapping more than three dozen firearms regulations, abandoning a crackdown on illegal sales, restoring gun rights to some people with mental illness… More guns. More carcinogenic pesticides. Fewer vaccines. Not paranoid to think the fucker is trying to kill us.

Short version: Ukraine is targeting Russian oil refineries. Russia is targeting Ukrainian apartment buildings. Ukraine is targeting Russia’s economy Russia is targeting Ukrainians. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/05/w...

Mike Luckovich

Strikes me as hilarious that, a half century after the fact, there’s a 672 page biography of Carlos Castaneda that denounces him as a fraud. I mean, of course he was. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/04/b...

Q. In the extremely unlikely event that the US team wins the World Cup, won’t the fact that Trump intervened to have FIFA suspend Folarin Balogun’s red card tarnish that victory? Wont that suggest the victory is, in a word, rigged? sports.yahoo.com/soccer/break...

Glad to learn that Adrian Benepe is taking on the management of Fort Tryon Park, where he plans to restore and maintain the woodlands. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/29/n...

“The structure of human brains is likened to a layer cake while bird brains resemble a fruit cake.” Just thought you’d want to know. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/05/s...

Hard to beat celebrating the Semiquincentennial on the Q train. (There’s even a good chance that it was air-conditioned.)

CNN: You jumped into a pool with a full suit on. What's with the full suit? Why not some shorts or, you know, some trunks? Mamdani: I think I misunderstood the term swimsuit.

“After lightning was spotted in the area, spectators were told to take shelter in nearby buildings, including Smithsonian museums [and] the Jefferson Memorial…But some of those buildings were not open to serve as shelters.” Collusion between God and the Deep State? www.nytimes.com/2026/07/04/u...

As our once reliable news sources are dismantled or corrupted by new owners, people turn to AI for advice on who to vote for? Dystopia has arrived. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/04/u...

The Perfect Storm?

You think someone told him that a good response to the affordability issue was to yammer about Communism? Or is this just Roy Cohn’s ghost setting him up?

I must’ve missed the part about Communism in the Declaration of Independence.

As Joe Jackson framed it: “Everything gives you cancer. There’s no cure. There’s no answer…” As it turns out, everything also gives you heart disease. www.wired.com/story/food-p...

“And Trump, who went on about ‘angry mobs trying to tear down statues of our founders,’ clearly envisions himself as one of the guys at top of the mountain…But, really, he was doing just what every selfie-shooting tourist at Mount Rushmore does.” — what I wrote on July 7, 2020.

Red-baiting a the time-honored strategy, a way for a failing politician to reassert his strength and mastery. Used to work. But, really, no one cares about Communism anymore. And trying to turn Democratic Socialism into an existential threat is a joke.

“He is leveraging the power of being president to launch currencies, when he seems trustworthy in the public’s eye. It is kind of incredible. It is almost a legal scam.” —Nicholas Pinto, a frequent crypto trader who voted for Mr. Trump in 2024, and lost roughly $250,000 on #$TRUMP.

“The 2026 Great Newburgh to Beacon Swim has been cancelled this year. We have been denied access to the river from our usual splash-in site. After more than 20 years of safe entry we've been informed that the insurance company will no longer allow swimmers on the docks.” Sad. (Swam it in 2024.)

A classic corrupt dictator move: he screws something up, heedlessly, stupidly and publicly. And then starts arresting and blaming hapless passersby. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/02/u...

To be fair, Trump is also compared to: Berlusconi, Netanyahu, Sani Abacha of Nigeria, Congolese dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and, of course, Victor Orban. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2026/07/02/w...

“Still, the scale of the profits has instead drawn comparisons with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.” Now there’s a precedent. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/02/w...

Compared to Trump, the Visigoths were preservationists.

“The 2-1 ruling of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that people detained by ICE while awaiting the outcome of their deportation proceedings…must be afforded a bond hearing within 90 days. Anything less would be a violation of their…due process rights.” www.politico.com/news/2026/07...

“The agreed-upon budget also establishes a ‘Cultural Stability Fund’ that would make a $10 million pool available to struggling cultural organizations each year through the 2029 fiscal year.” Especially important when our federal gov is dedicated to cultural instability.

Statement from Counsel for Olympian Davey Hearn:

Burry:

Because 78 is socialism…

As the rest of the world invests in the future, we recede into the past at an alarming rate.

And there it is: With just hours remaining until deadline to release more Epstein Files under lawsuit filed by @KatiePhang — Justice Dept asks judge for two-month delay, claiming it risks revealing victims’ identities.. … (which the Trump Admin has already done)

Brilliant. How real trolling is done.

At first glance I thought this was a post about prisoners of ICE. But no.

Profiles in Grift

“…Vice President JD Vance referenced the film on a podcast this week, describing how a bloody shoot-out scene in the film, which both the characters portrayed by Jackson and John Travolta miraculously survive, was influential to his own faith journey.”

Philippe Petit they’re not. But they’d make one hell of a Vows column. (If they ever tire of high altitude proposals and actually tie the knot.) hellgatenyc.com/empire-state...

THIS IS WHAT IS CALLED FOR UNDER FASCISM — BRAVERY Before the attacks & the hot takes start, a few facts: Major Jason Watson is a graduate of the US Air Force Academy, a career logistics officer, a NATO officer, and a decorated veteran who volunteered for a 365-day tour in Afghanistan… 🧵

Trump blows off our European allies and cozies up to Netanyahu and MBS (and, of course, Putin). As a teenager’s Mom would say: “You think those are your friends, Donny. They’re not your friends. “ www.nytimes.com/2026/07/01/u...

“When the power of love beats the love of power, the world knows peace” Has Trump called them terrorists yet?

“ICE did not respond to a request for comment on why she was detained.” The worst of the worst? www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

My National Garden of American Heroes would surely include a statue of E. Jean Carroll. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/30/n...

Funeral in the Capitol rotunda? www.nytimes.com/2026/07/01/o...

Debilitating depression strikes me as an entirely reasonable response to being a Republican in Congress at this moment. Resigning from office might be the cure. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/30/n...

“‘It is the openness, the flagrant nature of what they are doing, almost with pride — cashing in on the office itself,’ Mr. Updegrove said. ‘That’s what makes it dramatically different.’” www.nytimes.com/2026/06/30/u...