Reading archive 2026-05-21

Why Thomas Massie Thought He Was Different: He wrongly believed his popularity back home made him able to withstand a Trump-backed challenge.

The Real Reason Thomas Massie Lost: He broke the one rule of the MAGA Republican Party. - That the current Republican Party is defined by allegiance to a person rather than any principle is not a new development. 'America First' has always meant Trump first. 'All this time, I thought they were voting for libertarian Republicans," one astute Republican congressman mused to the Washington Examiner as far back as 2017, 'but after some soul searching I realized when they voted for Rand and Ron [Paul] and me in these primaries, they weren't voting for libertarian ideas-they were voting for the craziest son of a bitch in the race. And Donald Trump won best in class, as we had up until he came along.'

"The politician who said that was Thomas Massie."

Reading archive 2026-05-20

Driver was going 116 mph with unrestrained 2-year-old in backseat seconds before deadly crash, Fairfax Police say: An 8-year-old child was the only passenger wearing a seatbelt when the crash happened and is expected to survive.

Reading archive 2026-05-18

Disease, Drought, Climate Change — And the Joy of Fighting Back: On my Virginia farm, I have a front-row seat to the grim consequences of a warming planet. But I’m not surrendering.

So, you got bit by a tick. Here’s exactly what to do next.: Experts explained what to do if you find a tick attached to your skin, including how to remove it and document it, and when to seek medical advice.

6 tick-borne diseases that should be on your radar: With tick season in full force, here are the most common diseases they spread in the U.S., where they most commonly occur and the symptoms to watch for.

I lead a Jewish school. Mamdani’s first veto is astonishing.: Amid rising antisemitism, New York's mayor stopped a safeguarding move for schools. [vetoed a bill banning protests near schools, the case this guy is mad about was a real-estate sale for settlement land in the West Bank]

Georgia’s top Republican fears a repeat of the GOP’s 2022 Senate blunder: Gov. Brian Kemp (R), the popular Georgia governor, has endorsed a Senate candidate he believes has broad appeal. But his more MAGA rival is gaining steam.

Trump has no good military option to ‘finish the job’ in Iran: Trump would be wise to ignore hawkish advice and try to forge a deal with Tehran.

ICE agent charged in shooting of immigrant during Minneapolis crackdown: County prosecutors issued a warrant for the arrest of the agent, who faces felony assault charges. The victim was one of three people shot during January’s crackdown.

A European rule could devastate American farmers: Lawmakers should stand up to this attempt to regulate American business. - "The increased costs would be felt throughout the supply chain. Farm profits would be squeezed, grocery bills would increase, and rural communities would be hit first and hardest. When a small farm goes under, it doesn’t just hurt one family; it hurts local businesses that buy from that farm and the equipment dealers that sell to it." [ed. note: shouldn't have pissed off Europe then]

Reading archive 2026-05-17

The Incredible Story of the Cartel Olympics: A Mexican athlete said he was kidnapped and forced to compete for his life in a tournament of gangs. But was he actually playing a different game?

Reading archive 2026-05-16

The Most Surprising Part of Stephen Colbert’s Late-Night Run: The Late Show host has been a calming counterbalance to his peers.

A Checkers Player Meets a Three-Dimensional-Chess Master: Trump’s summit with Xi Jinping demonstrated the perils of shortsightedness when playing a long game. - "Xi, however, has great ambitions. Trump may now see China as a mutually beneficial economic partner, but Xi's policies are designed to change the world order at America's expense. Beijing is working to engineer China's technological and industrial dominance, backing Russia in a destabilizing war in Europe, and generally setting the stage to achieve global supremacy when the United States flames out. Trump, with his disdain for global alliances and liberal values, doesn't seem interested in contesting Xi on these fronts. 'Xi Jinping has the long plan, about dominating the world and putting the United States in its right place,' Joerg Wuttke, a partner at the consulting firm Albright Stonebridge Group, told me. 'Donald Trump doesn't look that far.'"

The Protein Shortage Is Coming: Making all that whey is complicated.

Reading archive 2026-05-15

Metro lost $50M in bus fare evasion alone in just 9 months Nearly 70% of bus riders don't pay, Metro said.

Metro wants to double Stadium-Armory station's capacity for new RFK site: WMATA's board met Thursday about improvements to the Stadium-Armory Metro station they say are necessary before the new Washington Commanders stadium opens in 2030 at the old RFK site.

Emails show FBI Director Kash Patel’s Hawaii trip included ‘VIP snorkel’ at a Pearl Harbor memorial

Trump administration aims to roll back limits on toxic wastewater from coal-fired power plants - "In 2024, the EPA strengthened wastewater rules over coal-fired power plants that keep coal ash — a byproduct of burning coal — in unlined, uncovered dumps that leach toxic heavy metals such as mercury, arsenic and selenium into groundwater. 

"In the rule, the EPA required plant owners to report whether the groundwater was contaminated and, if so, pump and treat the contaminated groundwater before discharging it into streams and rivers, Thom Cmar, an attorney for environmental advocacy group Earthjustice, said."

Serious. Has a spine. No wonder he’s leaving Congress.: Rep. Don Bacon (R-Nebraska) isn't seeking reelection. That’s a loss for the country.

The Smithsonian’s most contested exhibition is back on view, mostly intact: National Portrait Gallery curators have found a way to counter the Trump administration: with facts.

In northern Ukraine, it was boy vs. Russian drone. The boy won.: A soldier taught a 12-year-old how to disable the fiber-optic drones that Russia has been using to hunt Ukrainian civilians in a campaign the U.N. has labeled a war crime.

Tumultuous, bloody week unfolds in Ukraine and Russia after brief ceasefire: A Russian airstrike on a Kyiv apartment complex that killed at least 24 people and a Ukrainian strike on residential buildings and an oil refinery in Ryazan, Russia, suggested no end is in sight to the war.

Parents of teens who break curfew in D.C. will be prosecuted, DOJ says: The Justice Department’s crackdown on crime comes ahead of 250th anniversary events in the nation’s capital.

A golden statue of Trump draws mixed reactions at his golf course: Online, the glittering statue has become a flash point. In real life, golfers seem less excited.

Reality check: AI-generated images have left us questioning what is real. But the godfather of digital forensics, Hany Farid, is not giving up - "Of course, even the most thorough and well-reasoned investigation may not always persuade doubters. Farid learnt this the hard way in 2009, when he analyzed a 1963 photo of Lee Harvey Oswald holding the rifle he would later use to kill President John F. Kennedy. Conspiracy theorists—and Oswald himself—had long claimed the photo was faked, pointing to unusual features like the shadows on Oswald’s face. But Farid’s analysis found nothing wrong. 'I wrote this little paper, and I thought, all right, this will be the end of this,' he says. Instead, people invested in the conspiracy theory turned on Farid, suspecting he was part of the cover-up. They claimed that his father’s job at Eastman Kodak—which had made the film on which Kennedy’s assassination was captured—somehow implicated him, and even wrote to Dartmouth asking for him to be fired. 'This is how batshit crazy it was,' he says."

The Election Deniers Are Winning: The universe of people pressing debunked theories is so broad that it’s a feature of the system.

Too Much Is Happening Too Fast: The AI boom is meant to overwhelm you.

Reading archive 2026-05-14

Stephen Colbert’s ‘Late Show’ comes to an ironic end: The host who coined "truthiness" never found his footing in the world it predicted.

Ad wars ramp up in D.C. mayoral race as primary enters final month: Deep-pocketed political groups are seizing on potential vulnerabilities of the top Democrats in the race, Janeese Lewis George and Kenyan McDuffie.

Here’s Another Way America Will Choke at the World Cup: The nation’s railway system is destined to lose.

The Democrats Can’t Let Go of Racial Preferences: How to persuade skeptical voters to take a fresh look at the party - "In a recent study, the political scientists David Broockman of UC Berkeley and Joshua Kalla of Yale tested potential policy shifts in 29 different issue areas-including immigration, transgender athletes in women's sports, and Israel and Gaza-in an attempt to discern what might make skeptical voters consider choosing Democratic candidates. They found that moving to the center on racial preferences in college admissions was the most electorally fruitful move Democrats could make and that doing so on racial preferences in government contracting was the second most important."

The AI Backlash Could Get Very Ugly: Imagine what happens if jobs actually start disappearing.

The Trump Counterterrorism Strategy Makes America More Vulnerable: The policy is unfocused, run by amateurs, and concerned more with the president’s many grievances than with the security of the United States. - "The security analyst Kabir Taneja wrote on X that the document'"looks like something written by an intern,' and Kayyem told me that the report is so badly done that it 'mocks the American public' rather than informs it. The terrorism scholar Colin P. Clarke posted that 'competent career CT professionals must be aghast at this slop' and that he 'would give this a solid D+ grade.' I'm a former professor, and I might have given it something a smidge higher, but only if it had come from a clueless undergraduate who was encountering all of the concepts related to terrorism and counterterrorism for the first time. But it didn't. Instead, this jumble was apparently the brainchild of Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism.

...

"A document that should have explained the president's plan to keep the American people safe during wartime is now on global display as a pathetic-and dangerous-joke. More than anything, it is a faithful reflection of the Trump administration itself: To judge from this report, America's counterterrorism policy is unfocused, run by amateurs, and concerned more with Donald Trump's many grievances than the security of the United States."

Why Did Bill Cassidy Do It?: The senator from Louisiana offered an olive branch to MAHA and got nothing in return.

The Mystery of the Golden Coffin: How did $65 million of allegedly stolen antiquities wind up in two of the world’s greatest museums?