Reading archive 2026-08-20

The End of the American Middle East: Iran and the Last Gasp of a Failed Order - "The American Middle East is finished. The regional order that has prevailed since 1991 has been one of the many casualties of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. The American and Israeli failure to dislodge the regime in Tehran has proved the bankruptcy of decades of sanctions and violence. The inability of the United States to protect its Gulf allies from Iranian attacks or to keep the Strait of Hormuz open has fatally undermined the core security bargain that justified its network of military bases in the region. And Israel’s increasingly threatening posture and abandonment of any pretense of interest in reaching an accommodation with the Palestinians have ended Washington’s decades-long mission of bringing its Arab allies and Israel together into an enduring security partnership.

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"The Trump administration, contemptuous of democracy and the rule of law at home and abroad, is not going to change that. It is difficult to imagine Trump, who vacillates wildly between strategies, designing a new regional order of any kind. But his successor will have a real chance to break with the status quo and craft a more coherent and more effective Middle East strategy. That starts with renouncing the use of military intervention as a first resort and ending the practice of diplomacy by airstrike. Washington’s priority should be defense, not offense. One way to make that intention clear is to forgo the restoration of damaged or destroyed U.S. military bases across the Gulf and focus instead on investments in intelligence sharing, missile defense systems for Gulf partners, and the preservation of freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz."

The Next Global Economic Crisis Could Be Made in China: How Overcapacity Ends - "China’s remarkable path of economic development over the last several decades has been made possible by a benign international environment in which other countries were eager to accept low-cost manufactured goods in exchange for efficient supply chains and consumer welfare. But that international environment has turned toxic. The political appetite for accepting the deindustrialization and critical dependencies that come with the flood of Chinese imports is finite and shrinking. As these trends continue, protectionism is likely to rise, cutting off Chinese manufacturers’ market access and thereby short-circuiting Beijing’s strategy, introduced in 2020, of 'dual circulation,' which promotes both domestic economic self-sufficiency and continued engagement in international markets."

Reading archive 2026-08-19

This little fish anchors the East Coast food web. A fight over it is brewing. Years of half measures and regulatory delays leave Atlantic menhaden potentially at risk. [ed. note: Canadian company with sham "American-owned" fishing fleet catches shit-ton of menhaden for processing in Virginia to ship to southeast Asia as, is destroying the Atlantic ecosystem]

Darline Graham stumbles over national security question in debate: Graham, facing a GOP Senate primary runoff, admits she’s “not that informed” on foreign policy, the specialty of her late brother, Lindsey Graham.

Six D.C. Police Employees Wanted for $441K in Overtime Fraud: They face charges of first-degree fraud and theft.

Reading archive 2026-08-18

Generative AI Is an Engineering Disaster: A shockingly inefficient trillion-dollar project - "Yet the returns are diminishing. The bigger an AI model is, the less it improves with each added parameter, and so it must be made bigger at a faster rate just to sustain steady progress. I asked a few AI researchers whether they could name any other real-world software that scales so poorly. None of them could think of any. Even outside the world of software, it's hard to find a comparable example, given that economy of scale is the principle that has made light bulbs, cars, and clothing so affordable. By economic and engineering measures, generative AI might be the worst technology ever deployed."

How the Smithsonian Could Fall: A president cracking down on museums is unusual—but so are the museums.

China’s Questionable Tech Strategy: Keeping out the world’s best tools promises to stymie innovation.

J. D. Vance’s Own Alien Abduction: The vice president has been replaced with a guy who’s just asking questions. - "Watching Vance's media appearances is uniquely painful. He lacks the authentic berserk of Kash Patel, or the pageant-queen polish of Karoline Leavitt, or his boss's unique corkscrew approach to conversation. Like Stephen Miller, Vance desperately wants to be funny and cool. Like Stephen Miller, he is neither. And that's before we get to the awkwardness of knowing that Vance-a Yale Law School graduate-has voluntarily lobotomized himself in the pursuit of power and attention. Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his dignity to be Donald Trump's lackey.

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"The other explanation for this hey-I-wonder approach is that Vance is dealing with the cognitive dissonance between his own self-image as a smart guy and the constant requirement to defend dumb and inconsistent actions by hallucinating that he is not really part of this administration, but instead a mere interested bystander. Vance treats the vice presidency the way that Instagram influencers approach a vacation in the Maldives: It only truly exists when converted into content. In one telling exchange, Vance said that he felt like he had 'made it' when he was satirized on South Park, rather than at his inauguration."

Priced out of D.C., young women found low rent with unlikely roommates

AIPAC has a new target to exert influence over Democrats: The organization’s super PAC poured nearly $2.5 million to boost Melissa Hernandez over Aisha Wahab in a California congressional race. - "AIPAC’s defenders have said the organization has faced unfair and outsize criticism compared to the other special interest groups that have spent on American elections." [ed. note: lol like who?]

The government’s Intel bet was even worse than expected: The equity stake has ballooned into an expansive, risky portfolio. - "The administration’s holdings are growing at breakneck speed. The running tally at the Cato Institute counts 31 government equity deals — spanning companies in steel, critical minerals, semiconductors, nuclear power, rocket motors and quantum computing — enacted by three different federal agencies acting under murky legal authority. The Commerce Department has based more than a dozen semiconductor and quantum computing deals on the Chips and Science Act, which does not expressly authorize federal shareholding. Some of the equity deals appear to have been coerced by the administration — or at least conditioned on the granting of a permit, subsidy or other government privilege. And more stakes are rumored to be on the way. In a single year, Washington went from one position to a diverse and questionable portfolio, with nary a vote from Congress or the American public."

Tesla’s true believers are starting to question their faith in Elon Musk: As Musk turns his focus to other ventures such as SpaceX, some of his biggest backers are wondering whether his car company has become an afterthought.

Russians pull billions from banks, fearing Kremlin will seize deposits for war: Russians are withdrawing billions, causing liquidity problems for banks and undermining the Kremlin’s ability to issue bonds to finance the fight in Ukraine.

Backlash in Michigan complicates Democrats’ road to retaking the Senate: The party’s chances may depend on Abdul El-Sayed, who beat Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s preferred candidate and has criticized his support for Israel.

White House attacks CNN reporter after Trump clash, invoking her children: The president shushed CNN’s Kristen Holmes in the Oval Office, and later an official White House account said her children would be “embarrassed” by her.

White House attacks CNN reporter after Trump clash, invoking her children: The president shushed CNN’s Kristen Holmes in the Oval Office, and later an official White House account said her children would be “embarrassed” by her.

What to know about Natalie Harp, the Trump aide whom Ossoff put in the spotlight: The president’s executive assistant was among a small group of people who secretly switched planes with Trump over a potential Iranian threat, as noted by Sen. Jon Ossoff.

Pentagon weighing smaller U.S. military presence in Gulf once Iran war ends: An analysis, which the Defense Department said was not yet a formal review, will help address whether to rebuild strike-battered bases, said people familiar with the matter.

So Far This Year, China Has Wasted Enough Clean Energy to Power Mexico

How melting Arctic ice has created a new Silk Road:  China plans to send container ships along Russia’s northern coast, reviving environmental concerns about the fragile polar region

See which native plants will thrive in your garden: Pick your state to get recommendations for species that help local butterflies, bees and birds.

The Cruelty Was Fine Until It Became Personal: Another Trump supporter is outraged after getting what he voted for.

Reading archive 2026-08-17

The American Dream comes down to OnlyFans, dodgeball and reality TV: Life, liberty and the pursuit of solvency take a side hustle, as seen on the small screen.

It ‘felt like a Renée Good situation,’ U.S. citizen says after ICE encounter: Video from the Virginia incident, which shows an agent with a gun, has reignited conversations about the aggressiveness of ICE enforcement.

A Wisconsin city spent millions on a grocery store. It didn’t go well.: Madison spent millions to build a supermarket across the street from another one.

Democrats abandon Senate races in deep-red states, boosting independents: Democratic Senate nominees in Nebraska, Idaho and South Dakota dropped out, clearing the way for independents. But Alani Bankhead in Montana declined to join them.

The most common cancer is easy to miss. Here’s what to look for.: One 24-year-old thought her skin cancer was just an acne scar or eczema.

Shooting at VSU leaves 5 injured hours after freshmen welcome event: Police arrested a 19-year-old suspect in the shooting, which occurred around 1:30 a.m. Saturday at Virginia State University.

Navy weighs major warship redesign to match Trump’s preferences: The president wants the new fleet of aircraft carriers to more closely resemble those from World War II. The change could cost billions.

What I learned about the American Dream from Europeans pretending to live in Ohio: The gap between America’s most powerful ideal and the reality of life in the U.S. came into focus watching a few dozen Europeans pretend to be us.

CIA had ‘low confidence’ in Iranian threat before Trump switched planes in Turkey: CIA had doubts about Israeli intelligence on a threat to Trump in Turkey that prompted an extraordinary secret flight.

Why Kansas might elect its first Democratic senator in nearly 100 years: Adam Hamilton wants to bring empathy back to Washington.

Her childhood photo. Thousands of explicit images. One woman’s nightmare.: A Wyoming woman alleges in a federal lawsuit that her stepfather used the Grok chatbot to transform a childhood photo into child sexual abuse material.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Convenient Truth: The Meta CEO has a new message now that his company is losing the AI race.

AOC Knows a Lemon When She Sees One: Francesca Hong’s surprise loss in Wisconsin is a blessing to the Democratic Party.

Why I Quit the Tenure Track: The insufferable hypocrisy of elite academia - "Wokeness allowed elite higher ed to create a new model of inclusive exclusion: one in which tuition can continue to climb, acceptance rates can continue to plummet, endowments can continue to expand, and adjunct labor can continue to be exploited as long as the demographics of those paying the tuition and those being exploited continued to get browner, Blacker, more LGBTQAIP2+. It also helped nurture the delusion that elite college graduates were being prepared for lives of civic virtue, and that their highly priced education would be deployed in service of the public good. Never mind the fact that, during my time at Bates, roughly a quarter of the school's graduates went on to jobs in tech, finance, or consulting—a startling figure that nonetheless pales in comparison to the nearly half of Harvard and Yale students who end up in these same career tracks.

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"Sandra seemed stuck: Some minority professors supported the requirement, while others, like me, did not. In my observation, woke white academics—who are largely acculturated to defer to the 'lived experience' of their Black and brown students and colleagues—had next to no ability to make decisions when confronted with minorities who disagreed with one another. Encountering 'marginalized' people with opposing views tended to create a kind of cognitive paralysis in some of my white co-workers, and I noticed that, in such cases, they usually followed the recommendation of the most recent minority they'd spoken with about the issue. With my friends, I jokingly called this the 'last Black person I talked to' problem."

The Cities That Said Yes to Drugs Policies that gave addicts clean needles and places to use drugs were intended to reduce harm. They created a “zombie apocalypse.”

Reading archive 2026-08-13

The web’s newest weapon against AI scrapers is a font: “ShieldFont” aims to poison AI training data without making pages unreadable for people.

The More You Think About One Night Only, The Harder It Is to Believe Gay People Would Be OK:  A conservative government has biochips in people’s wrists and they’re just... not banning homosexuality?

Reading archive 2026-08-12

Putin just showed the world how afraid he is of his own people: Barring the only anti-war party from the ballot shows the hollowness of Kremlin propaganda.

Reading archive 2026-08-11

Contradicting public statements, Trump took secret flight from Turkey amid Iranian threat: The White House said the president was aboard Air Force One as he left a NATO summit. Instead, his departure included an elaborate ruse that concealed his travel.

Catnip lotion as effective as Deet at repelling mosquitoes, study finds: Researchers testing a cheap, homegrown oil in Uganda found what cats knew all along – it worked as well as the artificial chemical used globally

The fog is alive: Researchers discover bacteria in fog droplets clear toxins from air: Study shifts our understanding of fog from a sterile mist to a temporary aquatic habitat

Democratic rebellion against older politicians reaches new battleground: Former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, 47, is challenging Rep. John Larson, who is 78 and running for his fifteenth term representing Connecticut's first district.

Trump-Netanyahu rift widens as election pressures pull them in opposite directions: While the Israeli leader touts a willingness to defy the U.S. on Gaza, the president needs to show progress in the foreign entanglements weighing on his approval rating.

Told to book a gym class, an AI agent hacked the site instead to move its user up the waitlist