And They're Off...

DC Shutdown, Robotic Reproduction

The government has officially shut down. The Democrats are using what little leverage they have to try to save extremely popular health care policies, keep premiums from spiking, and to convince their constituents they have a little fight left in them. The GOP is refusing to negotiate on health care or anything else until a short spending bill is approved. It’s a battle over one of the most important and expensive aspects of American life, but like everything in politics, it’s also a battle over messaging—which is especially complicated in an era of algorithms, deep-fakes, siloed news universes, and a newsfeed that scrolls so rapidly, even something as vital as whether the government is on or off may not consume our attention for more than about five minutes. In this environment, it’s become challenging for Americans to focus on something as personal and critical as their own health. I can barely maintain my focus through a prostate exam without being distracted by incoming news notifications. And those news notifications are coming faster than ever, because the messaging wars, they have begun. NPR: Trump administration uses taxpayer dollars to blame Democrats for government shutdown. “The Trump administration is blaming Democrats for the government shutdown in internal federal agency communications as well as public agency websites, in what experts say could be a violation of federal ethics laws.” (At this point, I’d usually insert a humorous remark to provide some levity to a serious issue. But I can’t really come up with anything funnier than the phrase, federal ethics laws.)

+ Government shutdown 2025: A guide to what’s still open, what’s closed and what’s fuzzy.

+ Semafor: Congress is about to experience a painful reality for the first time in six years: Getting into shutdowns is easy. Getting out of them is a lot harder. (I don’t think any of the old rules apply to our current politics. So who knows?)

+ With the government shut down, maybe we should update the software, and unplug it for thirty seconds and plug it back in. Maybe when it restarts, Kamala will somehow be president. Here’s the latest from NBC, AP, and ABC.

+ Speaking of shutting things down, NextDraft will be off on Wednesday in observance of Yom Kippur.

2

Are You a Top or a Bot?

“Over the past three years, babies have been conceived — and at least 20 of them have been born — through clinical trials that involve automation with little to no human intervention. The same algorithmic computer-vision software that helps autonomous vehicles spot objects on the road and finds signs of breast cancer in a mammogram can instantaneously detect the most robust swimmer among hundreds of thousands of flailing, corkscrewing sperm — each one a fraction of the width of a hair strand. It’s a capability that far exceeds any trained embryologist’s eye. A robotic arm can collect that sperm and mix the chemicals required for an egg to stay viable. And it can delicately and reproducibly fertilize an egg, initiating the moment of conception.” WaPo (Gift Article): Robots are learning to make human babies. Twenty have already been born. (When I tried using this technology, the robot said it wasn’t really in the mood.)

+ NPR: Scientists create human eggs in the lab, using skin cells.

3

Looney Platoons

“There is a certain kind of Army officer who, after the excitement of company command, finds his career stalled, and who perhaps leaves the service as a major in the National Guard filled with bitterness and resentment. He may then dream of one day being in a position to make all the superior officers who failed to appreciate his leadership qualities, his insight, his sheer fitness stand to attention and hear him lay down the law about what it is to be an officer, and threaten to fire those who do not meet *his* standards. In this respect, and this respect only, on that stage Pete Hegseth was living the dream. In all other respects, however, he was ridiculous.” Eliot A. Cohen in The Atlantic: Pete Hegseth Is Living the Dream.

+ The Hegseth speech to the gathering of military commanders was bad. The president’s was unhinged. Tom Nichols: The Commander in Chief Is Not Okay. “It’s one thing to serve it up to an adoring MAGA crowd: They know that most of it is nonsense and only some of it is real. They find it entertaining, and they can take or leave as much of Trump’s rhetorical junk-food buffet as they would like. It is another thing entirely to aim this kind of sludge at military officers, who are trained and acculturated to treat every word from the president with respect, and to regard his thoughts as policy.”

+ The speeches were laughable. What’s happening inside the Dept is no laughing matter. WaPo (Gift Article): Pentagon plans widespread random polygraphs, NDAs to stanch leaks. (A Pentagon determined to go to war with the American people is now even declaring war on itself.)

4

But Wait, There’s Moore

“One might assume that Mary Tyler Moore would have wanted The Hat from the opening titles of her 1970s hit series, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” In what may be the most famous freeze frame in television history, Ms. Moore’s character, a Midwestern sunburst named Mary Richards, removes her tufted tam-o’-shanter and, right in the thick of bustling Minneapolis foot traffic, tosses it skyward — as purely ebullient an image as Hollywood has ever produced. The moment has been aped by “Scrubs” and “The Simpsons,” and immortalized in bronze at the site of the throw. In an opening title sequence that was forever being tweaked throughout the show’s seven seasons, The Hat was a constant. So: How did she manage to keep it?” NYT (Gift Article): She Turned the World On With Her Smile. But Where Will the Hat Land?

5

Extra, Extra

It’s Mourning in America: “The merging of state power and economic power around one man who accepts that power as his due would not be possible without the algorithmic grift that has so all-consumingly captured our attention. The internet and the people who, for all intents and purposes, now own it have excelled at making Trump good at authoritarianism. They commodified information. They quelled regulation. They escaped blame for degrading collective action while raking in profits for spectacles of violence that degradation predictably produces. Now, via their president, they are using it to crush the First Amendment, to supercharge the Second Amendment, to stand up bot armies and real armed militias to defend their ownership of your civil liberties.” Tressie McMillan Cottom in the NYT (Gift Article) with a really good essay that ties together the administration’s authoritarian leanings, the consolidation of media ownership, and the attack on free speech. Mourn, or Else.

+ No Hook From Crook for Cook: “While the Supreme Court’s conservative majority has repeatedly cleared the way for the president to fire leaders of other independent agencies, the justices have recently signaled that the central bank is uniquely independent.” Supreme Court Allows Lisa Cook to Remain at Fed, for Now.

+ Jane: “Jane Goodall, one of the world’s most revered conservationists, who earned scientific stature and global celebrity by chronicling the distinctive behavior of wild chimpanzees in East Africa — primates that made and used tools, ate meat, held rain dances and engaged in organized warfare — died on Wednesday in California. She was 91.” Jane Goodall, Eminent Primatologist Who Chronicled the Lives of Chimps, Dies at 91. (Might be a good time to watch the documentary Jane, on Hulu and elsewhere.)

+ Familiar Figure of Speech: “The current group is headlined by actor and activist Jane Fonda — whose father, actor Henry Fonda, was one of the early members of the first Committee for the First Amendment, which was founded in the 1940s to oppose the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee.” Hundreds of celebrities relaunch a McCarthy-era committee to defend free speech.

+ We Better Talk About Fight Club: There’s a growing number of Americans who think violence might be necessary to get the country back on track. (And the recent gains are mostly among Dems.)

+ Use Your Noodle: “Doctors are warning of a food trend inspired by the popular Netflix movie “KPop Demon Hunters” that is leading to serious burn injuries. The trend involves children and teens imitating a scene from the hit streaming movie by eating hot instant noodles, but doctors say it has become dangerous.”

6

Bottom of the News

“When the bear, nicknamed Chunk, lost two finals in a row, he gained a reputation as a loser. When Chunk mauled and killed the cub of Grazer, last year’s winner, he gained a reputation as a sore loser. When Chunk dragged away the carcass of another dead bear in order to eat it, he gained a reputation as just kind of a bad dude. Chunk is trouble. Chunk is a fat bear; no one denies this. But he reported for competition this spring in a new and unlikely role: that of underdog. Chunk showed up in June with a huge scar across his muzzle, and a broken and dislocated jaw, almost certainly received in battle with another male during a mating-season fight. It’s unclear which bear would dare tussle with the 1,200-pound Chunk, one of Katmai’s largest bears, but for once in his life, Chunk got his sh-t rocked.” Chunk Overcomes Murder Rap, Broken Jaw To Win Fat Bear Week.