Reading archive 2026-03-09

As D.C.’s mayor race heats up, stark contrasts emerge in the two front-runners: With a Democratic primary in June, Kenyan R. McDuffie and Janeese Lewis George remain the leading contenders in the race to succeed D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser.

Israeli officials are growing concerned: A bombing campaign nearing its military goals in Iran leaves the hardest questions unanswered. - "A second concern expressed by the Israeli official was maintaining good relations with the United States at a time when Americans in both political parties are voicing growing concern about the alliance. 'We won’t drag the U.S. into an endless war,' the official said. 'Israel is a reliable ally,' not a burden, he argued."

There are two winners in Iran. Neither one is America.: Oil disruption benefits Russia, as does less U.S. aid for Ukraine. And Iran distracts from China. - "While Trump has been bombing various countries, imposing tariffs, discouraging foreign students from coming to America and cutting research funding, China has been making massive investments designed to dominate the industries of the future. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute reports that China now leads the United States in research on 66 of 74 frontier technologies, including artificial intelligence, superconductors, quantum computing and optical communications. China is already manufacturing roughly 70 percent of the world’s electric vehicles, 80 percent of smartphones, 80 percent of lithium-ion batteries and 90 percent of drones. Last year, roughly half of all vehicles sold in China were EVs or hybrids. The comparable figure for the U.S. is 22 percent — and it is likely to decline after Congress repealed the EV tax credit."

D.C.’s most apolitical official is on the hot seat — with $180M on the line: The brewing conflict in D.C. government stems from a vote by Republicans in Congress to block a city tax policy and the revenue it raised.

Reasons you should get a colonoscopy earlier than recommended: The official recommendation is to start colorectal cancer screening at age 45, but should you go earlier if you’re concerned? An oncologist explains.

Gen Z Lives in the Archive: Is cultural time actually continuous? - "In Plato’s dialogue, 'Ion,' he describes how inspiration works: the first poet was inspired directly by the muse, like an iron filling attached to a lodestone. The subsequent generations of poets are like iron fillings attached to that first filling. The force of inspiration is still present, but it is exerted indirectly and weakens with every generation. Thus, the influence of the original impetus wanes until, presumably, we culturally reset and reconnect to the magnetic source directly. Gen Z finds itself in a state in which the fillings have all been scattered on the ground, perhaps experiencing some ambient attraction from the lodestone, but unable to really connect with it. 

"Can this state of affairs create vital popular music? It appears not. The results seem to be avant garde Adderall brain slurry—100 Gecs and nettspend and hyperpop—for a tiny, cultured minority. The masses just keep listening to Taylor Swift on repeat. And for those of you who want to object by saying, 'No, no, you have to hear my cousin’s noise rock project. It’s really going somewhere, doing something new,' I say, 'That’s exactly what I’m talking about.'"

After a decade of missteps, Corpus Christi careens toward water catastrophe: City officials expect to reach a “water emergency” within months and run out of water next year. That would halt jet fuel deliveries to Texas airports, hike gas prices and trigger a local economic disaster without precedent, former officials say. - "The region’s largest industrial users, which collectively consume the majority of the region’s water, remain exempt from emergency curtailment. These multi-billion-dollar refineries, petrochemical plants and liquified natural gas facilities are built to run at a steady rate and can’t simply throttle down production in accordance with water availability. They consume large volumes of water primarily in cooling towers to prevent excessive heating and explosions.

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"'It’s a surprise to me that none of those refineries and industries down there have their own desal plants,' said [former assistant energy secretary with the Obama administration Charles] McConnell, who worked 31 years for the chemical manufacturer Praxair in Houston. 'They’re using municipal water, for Christ’s sake!'

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"A facility of that scale, he knew, would require railcars full of pretreatment chemicals, create a mountain of sludge waste every day and consume a tremendous amount of electricity. But he didn’t see serious plans for any of that, he said. 

"He dug deeper into the desalination boom and quickly saw what was going on: Politicians and businessmen had oversold their water supply, he said, and were scrambling for more as shortages approached. But none of them had any idea what they were doing, Serna remembered thinking as he reviewed the applications. 

"'I’ve been trying since 2020 to let them know how catastrophic this is going to be,' he said in an interview at his home. 'They’ve acted with a profound ignorance.'"

Losing the War on Truth: Iran and what to make of it

‘Nazi heaven’: Inside Miami campus Republicans’ racist group chat - "The conversations included some of the campus’ top conservative leaders: the county GOP secretary, FIU’s Turning Point USA chapter president and the former College Republicans recruitment chair."

Reading archive 2026-03-08

Texas primaries raise GOP alarm about Latino voters: Strong Democratic turnout last week in heavily Latino parts of Texas has some Republicans fearing they will struggle to maintain the coalition Trump built in 2024.

The dumbest way to lower beef prices: Breaking up meatpacking companies would make steak even more expensive. - "The biggest driver of rising prices is that the U.S. has its smallest herd of cattle in 75 years while demand for red meat continues to rise. Importing more beef from other countries would help lower prices for consumers, but politically influential ranchers don’t want that."

Trump team bashed Europe for a year. Now he wants support in war on Iran.: European leaders are ramping up their response to the crisis spreading outside Iran but remain wary of a conflict that could have untold ramifications.

Reading archive 2026-03-07

The Gulf Countries Can’t Take Much More: Iran is exposing their vulnerabilities.

Something New Is Happening in Lebanon: For the first time, the country’s government is directly confronting a weakened Hezbollah.

America’s and Israel’s Goals Are Already Colliding: Trump and Netanyahu seem to have very different ideas about how the war should end.

‘We Need to Do McCarthyism to the Tenth Power’: Conservative influencers are pushing for a return to the dark days of 1950s inquisitions. - "Some of the tactics that the McCarthy revivalists propose are more aggressive than anything McCarthy pursued. 'McCarthy, for all of his obvious flaws, was still predicated on the use of the judicial system,' David Austin Walsh, a historian at the University of Virginia, told me. Should this new McCarthyism veer into proposing or doing anything violent, Walsh added, it 'isn't even really McCarthyism anymore-it's just fascism.'"

Reading archive 2026-03-06

America Cannot Withstand the Economic Shock That’s Coming - "This can start with tearing down the wall between the business and education communities. I saw this firsthand as secretary of commerce when implementing the CHIPS Act, which put billions of dollars toward semiconductor development and production. Working intensively with TSMC, the Taiwanese chipmaker, my team learned new chip plants were stymied by talent gaps in tool maintenance, electrical engineering and pipe fitting. TSMC used these findings to lobby states, employers and schools like Maricopa Community College to build accelerated certificate programs to train people to fill these specific talent gaps."

Russia is providing Iran intelligence to target U.S. forces, officials say: The targeting information has included the locations of American warships and aircraft in the Middle East, the officials said.

The U.S. labor market lost 92,000 jobs in February in warning sign for economy: With the unexpected setback, the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4 percent, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Trump administration wants to streamline federal worker layoffs: The union for federal workers has argued the proposed changes would remove protections that are in place to prevent “politically motivated layoffs.” - "The administration has also proposed transferring responsibility for reviewing federal employee appeals of proposed layoffs. The rule would move that job from an independent panel that reviews challenges, called the Merit Systems Protection Board, to OPM, giving the administration more control over the appeals process. 

"OPM said the change would speed up the process after MSPB has seen a growing backlog in cases. The backlog grew last year after the board lost its quorum when President Donald Trump fired its Democratic members."

Kenyan McDuffie seeks to ramp up D.C. mayoral campaign amid early jitters from supporters

U.S. Capabilities Are Showing Signs of Rot: When a military force begins to decline, the first symptoms may be subtle. - "The U.S. military's supremacy over foreign rivals is built on intensive training and the manipulation of advanced technology. By contrast, Hegseth has been stressing lethality and a warrior ethos instead of learning and reflection, to the point of blocking U.S. military personnel from taking courses at the most elite American universities. Yet the events of the past week underscore how shows of force alone may not defeat even militarily inferior enemies. 

"In Bahrain, a lone Iranian drone penetrated the headquarters of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, which oversees 2.5 million square miles of the world's oceans. The incoming weapon destroyed an AN/TPS-59 radar unit intended to provide 360-degree air surveillance for U.S. forces. In a moment, Iranian equipment that cost perhaps $30,000 devastated a piece of U.S. military hardware estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars."

Things Are About to Get Ugly in Texas: A runoff, resentments, and the question of whether a Democrat can win statewide

10 severely malnourished dogs rescued from Southeast DC apartment: The Humane Rescue Alliance said they were found in "various stages of starvation, physical injury, and neglect."

Tesla’s Secret Weapon Is a Giant Metal Box: Elon Musk’s car company is quietly poised to power the AI boom.

Reading archive 2026-03-05

DC CFO defying Trump administration on local tax code: Glen Lee is relying on an opinion by D.C.’s attorney general that the congressional action was not specifically retroactive to the 2025 tax year and therefore isn’t valid.

Plans for an ICE detention center spark anger in a deep-red Maryland county: The conversion of an enormous warehouse in Washington County to a detainment facility has worried and angered some residents.

Iran's armed Kurdish groups a potential ground force against Tehran: Factions regarded as most organised part of country's otherwise fragmented opposition - "'We have to be realistic, the Kurds have demands as well,' he said. 'They require guarantees because we just witnessed what the Kurds went through in Syria, and they do not want to be betrayed by the West again.'

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Iran analyst Karim Sadjadpour said arming Kurdish factions could weaken broader opposition efforts. 'The greatest countervailing force against the Islamic Republic is pluralistic Iranian nationalism,' he told CNN. 'Reports that the US may fund or arm Kurdish factions inside Iran will alarm many Iranians and undermine the regime’s opposition.'"

The Terrifying Tentacles of Paramount’s Media Empire: The Ellisons are building a multicorporate network of data mining, surveillance, news, and entertainment. What could possibly go wrong?

Reading archive 2026-03-4

In Dallas County, frustration and confusion after GOP forces switch to precinct-based voting: Countywide vote centers weren’t used for election day. The ensuing disorder spurred an unresolved legal battle.

Abolition Vs. Empire, At Home As It Is Abroad: A new essay of mine for The Nation. It predicted the Iran War. I had to rewrite a bunch of it over the weekend. Stay for the part about abolishing JSOC

“Bombs will fall Everywhere”: The American, Israeli and Iranian Weapons Being Deployed in Middle East

Senator mocked ‘green energy crap.’ His house runs on it.: Montana Republican Tim Sheehy voted to scrap solar tax credits after installing panels and battery storage at his Bozeman home.

Why MAGA suddenly loves solar power: The Trump-led attack on solar eases as the right reckons with its crucial role in powering AI and keeping utility bills in check.

Targeting this $2.8 trillion tax shelter could solve a big U.S. problem: Only good can come from taxing these “nonprofits.” - "Reform could take several paths. The simplest: exempt only charitable donations and government grants from taxation, while taxing all commercial revenue — TV deals, insurance payments, ticket sales, royalties and sponsorship income — at standard corporate rates. The infrastructure exists; nonprofits must already categorize these revenue streams on their tax returns."

Putin is failing. These charts prove it.: Data from the battlefield show Ukraine is holding its own.

Top defense officials push back on concerns about U.S. munitions shortage: The U.S. campaign in Iran has already expended thousands of high-cost air defense missiles and other sophisticated munitions, just days into the conflict.

Capitol rioter arrested for assault, battery on Silver Line Metro train: Bryan Betancur spent four months in prison for his role on Jan. 6, 2021. He was later taken back to jail for stalking a D.C. activist.

Pete Buttigieg in the Wilderness: He has a beard, a splitting maul, and a house in Michigan. Is that enough to convince America that he’s a man of the people?

‘Elaine From Atlantic … She Needs to Leave’: Representative Jasmine Crockett claimed I wasn’t kicked out of her rally. Here’s the audio.

Elon Musk Moves Against the Russians in Ukraine: Russian forces falter as the world’s richest man intervenes in the war once again.

Reading archive 2026-02-27

What Is Palantir? An FAQ.: The Peter Thiel–founded, ‘Lord of the Rings’–inspired company has a massive government presence and is seemingly always at the center of controversy. So, uh … why does hardly anyone know what it does? - "Born in Germany and raised partly in South Africa, Thiel was one of Trump’s earliest boosters in Silicon Valley and has been one of Silicon Valley’s biggest Republican donors. Politically, Thiel is often described as a libertarian, which is an interesting conclusion to draw about a guy whose work has consistently had the effect of enhancing state power and who once famously said, 'I no longer believe freedom and democracy are compatible.' There’s a sort of übermensch libertarianism that you often encounter in narcissists who see themselves as Ayn Rand protagonists; full of elevated ideas about their own grand destinies, they believe they themselves should live in unconstrained freedom, but they don’t really care if their housekeepers do. (Generally, they seem pretty happy with any hierarchy that places other people beneath them, which is not how libertarianism is supposed to work.) Maybe Thiel is that sort of libertarian? I wouldn’t know."

Trump, seeking executive power over elections, is urged to declare emergency: Activists who say they are in coordination with the White House are circulating a draft executive order that would unlock extraordinary presidential power over voting.

What Your DNA Reveals About the Sex Life of Neanderthals: Most people alive today carry fragments of Neanderthal DNA in their genome. Now scientists are gaining a more intimate understanding of the ancient encounters that put it there.

We’re about to turn night into day. Is that a good idea? - "If Reflect Orbital succeeds — a big 'if' for a company that has yet to launch a single satellite — it would by definition increase light pollution when it illuminates areas that have been in the dark. But Nowack said he can light cities with 'less total photons spilling into the environment than streetlights, with the same illumination level on the ground.' As for its effects on birds and other creatures, he said, 'we’re going to be doing these studies with the first satellites.'" [ed. note: lol that's bullshit]

Families frustrated with airline seating: ‘A 2-year-old should sit with their parents’: Should parents have to pay extra to guarantee an adjacent seat for their toddler?

As MAGA embraces Erika Kirk, Candace Owens goes on the attack: The right-wing influencer launched a video series about Charlie Kirk’s widow that is provoking outrage among conservatives — and raising Owens’s profile.

The hypothetical nuclear attack that escalated the Pentagon’s showdown with Anthropic: Start-up Anthropic and the U.S. military are careening toward a clash over government use of artificial intelligence — and whether it should be allowed to kill.

Why I Got Thrown Out of a Jasmine Crockett Rally: The crowd was fired up. The candidate was on her game. And I was escorted out by armed guards. - "'Are you Elaine?" she asked. I recognized her from the entrance of the event, where I had identified myself as she'd waved me into the building's press area. Yes, I answered. 'Her team has asked you to leave,' she said. When I asked why, the staffer looked at her phone and read dutifully: 'They just said, 'Elaine from Atlantic, white girl with a hat and notepad. She's interviewing people in the crowd. She's a top-notch hater and will spin. She needs to leave.''"

Trump’s Favorite Voter-ID Bill Would Probably Backfire: Congressional Republicans are trying to pass a strict “election integrity” law that seems almost custom-designed to disenfranchise their own supporters. - "Trump beat Kamala Harris among voters who didn't regularly participate in elections. In the low-turnout, off-cycle elections that have happened since then, Democrats have overperformed dramatically, suggesting that their advantage with the most educated, plugged-in voters remains strong. In other words, the politics of voter ID have not caught up to its new partisan implications. Making voting more difficult would most likely hurt Republicans' chances, yet they're pushing hard to make that happen; meanwhile, Democrats, who insist that Trump and a MAGA Congress are existential threats to American democracy, refuse on principle to help Republicans sabotage themselves.

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"The Democratic analyst David Shor has found that Democrats dominated in 2024 with voters whose political identity was very important to them. If every eligible voter had voted, Shor concluded, Trump would have won by five points instead of one and a half."