But at least U.S. troops will have testosterone shots.

In 2011, WeChat destroyed my presumption that China could not innovate (in tech, design, business model), and you can't visit China today without noticing innovations large and small. A decade and a half of easily-observable innovation, but much of the American punditry has not caught on yet.

Sorry I said bad things about Taco Bell, whose food I have never eaten.

Ok. As promised, a thread about supply chain food safety vulnerabilities in the food industry. Buckle up. It's a long one.

The most insufferable linguistic tic on Bluesky is "I need people to understand…"

Happy #WorldSnakeDay! Garter snakes are good swimmers

Because he is a philistine.

Francis Fukuyama at LibCon 2026 on the closed loop of oligarchic power: business empire buys media empire, media buys political power, and power protects the business. "Once you had political power, you could use that to protect your business empire." #LibCon2026

The title essay is online here www.chinafile.com/library/nyrb... and is a core reading for understanding how censorship in China actually works.

This is how to speak to every single one of those sycophants.

Musk vote Le Pen : y a comme un X. C'est la une de Libération vendredi.

I have a piece in the NYT today arguing that the law should permit victims of ICE abuse to sue not just individual officers, but supervisors and policymakers like Stephen Miller and Gregory Bovino. A Democratic president and Congress could do this in 2029. And they could make it retroactive.

I thought @mjgault.bsky.social was taking the piss here, I endured 2 minutes of Hegseth to confirm that this is real.

Good moment to call for banning all dark money ever. We have so many safe guards to protect who votes and almost none for who can buy an election.

As an immigrant, the first time I heard of Taco Bell was in a standup comedy bit about diarrhea, so this seems on brand?

Mamdani isn't a communist, Trump isn't conservative, liberals aren't socialists and socialists also aren't liberals. None of this makes any sense

This morning in Biddeford, Maine, a 26-year-old man said goodbye to his wife and daughter and left for work. Moments later he was dead, shot in the head by ICE agents, the second man ICE has killed in six days. ICE is killing our neighbors. ICE cannot be reformed. Abolish ICE.

Why now Marco? Is this preemptive defense against charges of crimes against humanity in the Caribbean, Iran, ICE concentration camps etc., all of which crimes are about to increase in number and severity?

No, this seems fine www.wsj.com/opinion/why-...

I was sunning by the pool when the boxes arrived. And here in my hand is my life’s work: “The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War On Democracy.” Coming 8/18. Pre-orders make a huge difference! Make a fascist sweat—pre-order today! www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Ne...

Morning hummingbird

My tax dollars paid for this. Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, Scott Bessent and "members of the Trump family in Jefferson County" unveil a sign. Source in ALT

Is that really the conventional wisdom? Isn't it so obvious that the only way Trump will leave the White House without resistance is if he is dead?

If you had only one cookbook for the rest of your life? Every Grain of Rice by Fuschia Dunlop

China-born scientists having been moving back in growing numbers since Trump 1. It's a new sign entirely an eminent scientist with no ties to China takes a job there. It will be interesting to see if he can stick it out at Tsinghua University, & if other non-Chinese scientists make the same choice

Peter Hessler Ian Rankin Margaret Atwood JM Coetzee William Gibson

The son of the man shot and killed by ICE: I am Ronaldo Salgado, the oldest son of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. He should've been picking up the last of his guys before heading to finish up construction. Unbeknownst to all of us, my dad had been shot inside his van by ICE agents in unmarked cars.

by definition, accepting a job with the second trump administration makes you unsuitable to do that job, regardless of your past behavior or accomplishments

For no particular reason

CCP: What are those cookies she keeps mashing up? We don’t have them here in our country.

This is the Zeteo line, a position no other american news outlet is brave enough to take

Orban’s propaganda outlets are finally being dismantled in Hungary. “Public media should not lie. We are sorry for doing it for so long,” read an on-screen message from the country’s main public broadcaster. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

This is an interview I did with South African investigative journalist Richard Poplak on state capture in South Africa, recorded at the end of February 2025, as the Musk-Trump criminal clique was plundering the U.S. government:

Did Trump pick up the communism tic because Peter Thiel accused the Pope of "working for the Chinese Communists" last week?

Here's a good roundup of the Trump corruption machine:

囧 "The MNPD strongly encourages Nashvillians and visitors to lock their automobile doors, secure any valuables---especially guns, and REMOVE THE KEYS. So far this year, 299 guns have been stolen from vehicles in Nashville, six were taken from autos last week."

More of this please.

I think Starlink is a bigger short term threat to Canada and Europe because of the mercurial nature of its owner and the inability of American law to constrain his behavior. The Huawei risks are more distant and more predictable, more akin to the risks of Google, MS, Apple etc.

In the woods near Nashville this morning:

Need to re-up this.

Algorithm-driven anti-semitism is the difference between the anti-semitism of China’s past and present. It just takes a few Douyin videos to go from “Israel bombs Gaza” to “Hitler was right,” and Chinese people have minimal natural immunity to that message.

It’s out of control on Douyin

This is not surprising: Mamdani makes America's most Jewish city look like a great place to live, while Netanyahu…Well, the only in-my-face antisemitism incidents (i.e. people ranting about Jews) I have experienced in the last year and both rants started out about with Bibi killing babies.

Mamdani: "As we mark 250 years ... we see the wealthiest country -- one where children go to sleep hungry while the world's first trillionaire hungers for more ... we see masked agents terrorizing our streets, eating food cooked by undocumented neighbors before spiriting them away in unmarked vans"

It is seriously alarming how many of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful people are just screamingly mentally unwell in deeply toxic, dangerous ways.

Kristof can be kind of annoyingly self-righteous but his whole deal is pretty devastating to Musk here.

"It's over, right?" a journo asked me this morning about the birthright citizenship case. No. No legal or political result is final unless the losing side gives up fighting. They will try again. New prez, new judges. There's a social movement based on racial grievance + scapegoating immigrants.

How delightful. This guy is number three or four or five on the list of people in the US who should be investigated and if guilty prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity. But if he just loses his shirt, that would be good too.

Is this good? “Andy Cheng is 26, unemployed and, with the help of a little borrowed money, the proud owner of $60K worth of Taiwanese tech stocks. And in many ways, he speaks for the entire island of 23 million people when he doles out the following advice: ‘Buy any stock and you will make money.’”