Beauty and the Beast

There is No Escape

I call offside. I need sports as an escape from the Trump-dominated news cycle. Since my wife and I have watched TV (all of it, seriously), and I’ve memorized the first five seasons of The Office, sports are the only escape I have left. And no sporting event has provided that escape as powerfully as the World Cup. And it worked for a while. But, like everything else, the beautiful game has been soiled by the ugliest American. The place we all went for a break from Trump is now being dominated by headlines about him. There is no escape. The World Cup has become one more algae-filled pool reflecting the orange pathological prevaricator whose distorted open-mouthed image ripples over everything. I guess we need to offer some credit where credit is due. You know how hard it is to be more corrupt than FIFA? “President Trump called Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, in the hours after the United States men’s soccer team played Wednesday and asked him to review the suspension of the team’s top goal scorer in the World Cup, Folarin Balogun, after he was given a red card, according to four people familiar with the conversation. On Sunday, FIFA reversed the suspension, announcing that Mr. Balogun would be eligible to play Monday against Belgium. The reversal is highly unusual and is the first time since 1962 that FIFA has allowed a player to appear in a game when they would have been suspended after being sent off in the World Cup.” (Maybe Trump can get Infantino to negotiate a new peace deal with Iran...) I’m partly leading with this story because it’s dominated headlines across the globe, and it fits into a storyline that has more countries viewing America as corrupt. And I’m partly leading with it in what will probably be a futile effort to get it out of my mind and into a newsletter in time for me to actually enjoy the game this evening. I mean, this has got to be the last time Trump will insert himself into this story. It’s not like he’s giving out the winning trophy. Oh, wait...

+ “Following Wednesday’s victory against Bosnia and Herzegovina, White House FIFA World Cup Task Force executive director Andrew Giuliani alerted President Donald Trump to Balogun’s punishment for a rash tackle — removal from the Bosnia match and a routine one-match suspension that would keep him out of a must-win encounter against Belgium.” Politico: Inside the White House push to get Folarin Balogun back on the field. And from the WSJ (Gift Article): Inside the White House Campaign to Overturn a World Cup Red Card. (I would say it’s ironic that Trump’s intervention in this matter will result in a birthright American getting to play for the US, but Trump had irony overturned, too.)

+ Here’s the latest from The Guardian.

2

Under the Weather

Here in the Bay Area, we wrapped ourselves in overcoats and huddled under blankets to watch a Golden Gate Bridge fireworks show that mostly just made the low-hanging fog glow. And believe me, we know how lucky we were compared to much of the rest of the country, where (like much of the rest of the world), it was brutally hot. You aren’t the only one surprised by the climate in your neck of the woods. So are the experts, even the ones who predicted the worst. Bloomberg (Gift Article): Extreme Heat Isn’t the Only Climate Impact Shocking Scientists. “While scientists have long braced for climate change, the growing severity of its impacts is shocking them.”

+ Just when you thought there wouldn’t be a solution for climate change... NYT (Gift Article): To Beat the Heat, the Wealthy Are Building Snow Rooms. “A snow room is more or less the opposite of a sauna — a cavelike space of ice and snow. In some, white flakes descend gently from the ceiling to create the feeling of being inside a snow globe.”

3

Poking Fun

“Over the course of the past two decades, the US has lost 2,000 golf courses and 7,000 bars and nightclubs, and Americans now own 1.3 million fewer boats. It’s prohibitively expensive to open a new summer camp and practically impossible to build a beachfront resort or marina. Venue shortages afflict musicians looking for performance spaces, children looking to play in local sports leagues and adults looking to go out dancing. The best time to book a rental for this summer was last summer, and the best time to book for next summer is … well, it may already be too late. America appears to be suffering from a fun shortage.” Bloomberg (Gift Article): The Fun Shortage Is Real, and It’s Making America Miserable.

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White Lines Blowin’ Through My Mind

“The lightbulb. The internet. The telephone and the iPhone. Since the founding of the United States, we have built airplanes, refrigerators and Costco. We dreamed up the microchip and we gave the world chocolate-chip cookies. But the greatest American innovation that you won’t ever find on a list of America’s innovations might just be one that you see every day. It’s an unsung idea that changed a nation and spread all over the world—and it was driven by one guy.” WSJ (Gift Article): This Simple White Line Is America’s Greatest Unsung Innovation. “In the 1950s, around the time Jonas Salk cracked the polio vaccine, a metallurgist named John V. N. Dorr became the champion of a different lifesaver: a white line on the right side of the road.”

5

Extra, Extra

Unmasked: “Hundreds of masked men carrying banners, including the Confederate flag, marched through Washington DC on the Fourth of July, the 250th anniversary of the US’s inception ... Members chanted ‘Life, liberty, victory!’ and ‘Reclaim America!’ during the Saturday demonstration, according to video posted on social media.” Hundreds of masked white nationalists march in Washington on Fourth of July. (The sick display resulted in what may be the most revealing image of 2026, from Cheney Orr of Reuters).

+ Dealer’s Choice: “What Trump offers is an easy escape from the pain. To every complex problem, he promises a simple solution. He can bring jobs back simply by punishing offshoring companies into submission. As he told a New Hampshire crowd—folks all too familiar with the opioid scourge—he can cure the addiction epidemic by building a Mexican wall and keeping the cartels out. He will spare the United States from humiliation and military defeat with indiscriminate bombing. It doesn’t matter that no credible military leader has endorsed his plan. He never offers details for how these plans will work, because he can’t. Trump’s promises are the needle in America’s collective vein.” That is a powerful commentary. Guess who wrote it? JD Vance in 2016. The Atlantic (Gift Article): Opioid of the Masses. (This was before JD became a dealer...)

+ RSVP Minus One: “Iranian state media showed huge crowds at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla — a large prayer complex in Tehran — visiting the casket of Ayatollah’s Ali Khamenei, who was killed on Feb. 28 at the start of the U.S.-Israel war against Iran. The caskets of four of his killed family members were also on display.” Dayslong funeral for slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei begins in Tehran. Not everyone is attending. Time: Khamenei’s Funeral Is Meant to Project Strength. But Iran’s New Leader Has Yet to Appear.

+ Fishing Expedition: “Government officials and agencies closest to the action, at sea and on America’s streets, tell a different story. In hearings, official reports, and interviews they have all but given up the pretense that the campaign has succeeded in reducing the flow of drugs into the U.S., even as 221 people have been killed in more than 60 strikes.” The Results Are In On Trump’s Boat Strikes Campaign.

+ Ven Diagram: “When a giant earthquake struck Haiti in 2010, the United States mounted an enormous relief effort involving more than $3 billion in aid, 7,000 U.S. troops on the ground and a halt to deportations of Haitians to their devastated country.” Things have changed. With $8 Billion in Venezuelan Oil Money, U.S. Gives $300 Million in Quake Aid.

+ Packing Heat: “In the view of critics and even some A.T.F. veterans, the agency, in closely mirroring the demands made by gun owners and manufacturers to lighten their regulatory burden, is enacting changes at the expense of public safety. The moves, they worry, come as the bureau has already been weakened, with hundreds of its officials diverted to immigration enforcement.” Trump Administration Rolls Back Dozens of Gun Regulations.

+ Walk This Way: Can you outrun dementia by walking really fast? NPR: Fast walkers in their 80s cut their risk of cognitive decline by half, a study finds.

+ Humanoidian Slip: “Around small pets, around small children, there’s still work to be done.” The robots are coming. Are we ready? More importantly, are they? The New Yorker: Are Humanoid Robots Ready to Be Deployed?

+A Nietzsche Business: My kids wanted to get into coding. But told them to follow the money and get into a major that pays off. Philosophy. NYT (Gift Article): The Revenge of the Philosophy Majors.

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Bottom of the News

“The red-white-and-blue popsicles are the ultimate shorthand Americana — a throwback to the simple days of ice cream trucks, July 4th fireworks and humid summer nights. But after the Bomb Pop came on the market in July 1955, some parents revolted over the symbolism of selling a frozen weapon of war to children.” Bomb Pops, the Kansas City invention that defined American summers and patriotic nostalgia. (Greatest popsicle ever.)

+ During his team’s epic win over Mexico, England’s Jordan Henderson got a yellow card and suffered a serious wrist injury. Even though he didn’t play.