Antipodes Nuts

Trump's U-Turn, Reading Romantasy

What’s up is down. Yin, meet yang. Strike that, reverse it. A little bit country, say hello to a little bit rock ‘n roll. After an extreme effort that played out everywhere from social media tirades to strong-arming in The Situation Room, Donald Trump went full Contradictator, “suddenly reversing his monthslong campaign to bottle up a bipartisan effort to disclose federal records dealing with Jeffrey Epstein — just as scores of House Republicans prepare to defy his demands concerning the late convicted sex offender.” So Trump is essentially encouraging the House to compel him to release the files he could order released on his own. What gives? Is this a classic Trumpian case of He Said, He Said? Has Donald Trump so completely polarized the country that he’s accidentally polarized himself? Or are we playing Checkers while he’s playing Destroy Checks and Balances? Let’s posit a guess at what’s going on. Trump was faced with a House battle to release the Epstein files that he was going to lose. So he jumped to the winning side. But doesn’t that present a big risk if the files contain damaging information about him? After all, he took his pre U-Turn position for a reason. My hunch is that if Congress compels the release of the files, Pam Bondi will say she can’t release all of them because of the ongoing investigation into Epstein and others (Democrats) that Trump ordered last week. If that’s the case, the DOJ investigation into Trump’s enemies could stretch into forever, and we’ll see those files just about the time we kick off Infrastructure Week.

+ Of course, the fact that Trump gives investigation orders via social media to a once independent DOJ is representative of an even bigger scandal than the one everyone is talking about. NYT Magazine (Gift Article): The Unraveling of the Justice Department. “We interviewed more than 60 attorneys who recently resigned or were fired from the Justice Department. Much of what they told us is reported here for the first time. Beginning with Trump’s first day in office, the lawyers narrated the events that most alarmed them over the next 10 months. They described being asked to drop cases for political reasons, to find evidence for flimsy investigations and to take positions in court they thought had no legitimate basis. They also talked about the work they and their colleagues were told to abandon — investigations of terrorist plots, corruption and white-collar fraud.”

2

New Carr Smell

Trump’s latest light night target is Seth Myers. He called for the host to be fired. “Less than an hour later Trump’s tirade was reposted on X by Brendan Carr, chairperson of the Federal Communications Commission.” Carr’s social media attacks on comedians and critics is disturbing. But nowhere near as disturbing as his very real, and very extreme, power to shape the future of media. The Atlantic (Gift Article): The ‘Easy Way’ to Crush the Mainstream Media. “Whoever controls communications infrastructure can shape the informational environment. Using that power to advance political objectives requires someone with both technocratic know-how and the ambition to use it. According to friends and detractors alike, Carr is that person.”

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The Apartment of Homeland Security

“On the night of the raid, heavily armed federal agents zip-tied Jhonny Manuel Caicedo Fereira’s hands behind his back, marched him out of his Chicago apartment building and put him against a wall to question him. As a Black Hawk helicopter roared overhead, the slender, 28-year-old immigrant from Venezuela answered softly, his eyes darting to a television crew invited to film the raid ... The U.S. government paraded him and his neighbors in front of the cameras and called their arrests a spectacular victory against terrorism. But later, after the cameras had gone, prosecutors didn’t charge Caicedo with a crime.” ProPublica: Venezuelans Were Rounded Up in a Dramatic Midnight Raid but Never Charged With a Crime.

+ Next stop: Charlotte, North Carolina.

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The Romantasy Empire

“The wildly popular fiction genre allows readers to talk openly about yearning, sex and desire. And it’s spilling over into their bedrooms.” NYT (Gift Article): Sex Had Become a Chore. Then They Started Reading Romantasy. (Then reading became a chore.) I joke, but this line stood out: “Ms. Morton went from having sex with her husband about twice a month before she got hooked on romantasy to being intimate with him twice a day.” (At this point, they probably need to read about ice packs.) “They have explored different power dynamics in the bedroom, tucking a set of black fabric straps under their mattress so Ms. Morton’s husband, Aaron, can handcuff her. Recently, he got so caught up in a bit of role-play that he accidentally pulled the railing off their stairs.” (Meh, big deal. Call me when you leave a Hey Kool-Aidshaped hole in the wall.)

5

Extra, Extra

A Diversion of Justice: “The Department of Homeland Security has diverted thousands of federal agents from their normal dutiesto focus on arresting undocumented immigrants, undermining a wide range of law enforcement operations ... Homeland security agents investigating sexual crimes against children, for instance, have been redeployed to the immigrant crackdown for weeks at a time.” (Every resource deployed to fight a largely imagined problem is a resource not used to fight a real one.) And from WSJ(Gift Article): A Taco Shop Raid Splits an Ohio Town in Red America.

+ Fema’s Emergency: “During Richardson’s time as FEMA chief, he was heavily criticized for his slow response to the catastrophic floods that devastated Texas’ Hill Country in July. Richardson could not be reached for 24 hours after raging floodwaters killed more than 130 people in the state on July 4 ... It was later revealed that Richardson, who did not have emergency management experience before he became acting head of FEMA, had been on vacation for the holiday weekend.” Acting FEMA head resigns.

+ Misconduct Tape: “A federal judge in Virginia on Monday ordered prosecutors to turn over grand jury materials in the criminal case against James Comey after finding the government’s handling of the case raises ‘genuine issues of misconduct‘ that could result in the charges against the former FBI director being dismissed.”

+ Feud Renewed: “The escalation came after comments this month by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi of Japan about Taiwan, a self-governed democracy that China considers part of its territory. Ms. Takaichi told the Japanese Parliament that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Tokyo.” China Escalates Japan Feud With Island Patrols and Warnings to Citizens.

+ Pressure Cooker: High blood pressure rates recorded among young people worldwide nearly doubled in 20 years, research found.

+ Tuition Inhibition: “The rate of new international enrollment at US universities dropped by 17% this autumn compared to previous years, research released on Monday indicates.” (This is probably viewed as a win-win for Trump. Fewer foreign students and less tuition revenue for universities. It’s a lose lose for the rest of us.)

+ Matcha Maker Matcha Maker, Make Me a Matcha: “In 2023, the global matcha market was estimated to be $4.3 billion. That number is expected to nearly double by the end of the decade. Like most trends, this one is a synthesis of several macro-level factors, among them: caffeine anxiety, the wellness boom, rising coffee prices, the proliferation of cheap home milk frothers, and the fact that the color green looks amazing on video.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Matcha Problem.

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Bottom of the News

“I approached the question of shopping cart abandonment the way I would any puzzle about human behavior: I collected data. My evidence came from an unlikely source: Cart Narcs, a small group whose mission is to encourage cart return, sometimes gently, sometimes less so.” Why Don’t People Return Their Shopping Carts? A (Somewhat) Scientific Investigation.

+ SNL’s parody of the making of a Norwegian Movie was excellent.