Let There Be Light

The Important Stuff, Western Sieve

"A few days after learning I had cancer, a dear friend of mine with his own health problems drove from hours away to show up at our door lugging two huge bags of the very finest from his favorite Italian restaurant. 'When a friend is in trouble, you circle the wagons,' he said. I was reminded of when Lou Gehrig, facing a devastating diagnosis, called himself 'the luckiest man on the face of the earth.'" In the NYT (Gift Article), David C. Roberts gets a terrible diagnosis but also welcomes an unexpected light: Other people who care. Light in the Shadow of a Diagnosis. "Maybe it’s the steroids talking, but what has become clear to me is that without intimate human connection, however fleeting, we are lost. Everything else seems so small by comparison. It feels like something I had always known — perhaps something that deep down we all know — but then real life made me forget." Yes, this is a moving piece with an important message about community and friendship. And yes, it also serves as a reminder of what's most important at a moment when America's diagnosis feels bleak.

+ "So, when my dad called me Tuesday morning, I thought it would be the election on his mind. It was all that was on my mind, that’s for sure. He had, in fact, just come back from voting, but it was something else. His voice was chipper, upbeat, but I could tell it wasn’t a good story. I know him too well. Turns out, he had gone out to eat, by himself, Monday evening. In fact, at the very same restaurant where he and my mom ate their last meal together. He ate, drove home, and once home went to wash his hands before going to bed. That’s when he noticed his wedding band was missing from his finger." John Gruber with a very different election day story. How It Went.

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Western Sieve

“And the face of the nation keeps changin' and changin’. The face of the nation, I don't recognize it no more.”—John Mellencamp

"Naturally, on Oligarchs' Island the premise of Gilligan's Island would have to be adjusted. The castaways on Gilligan's Island were all American, whereas the powerful oligarchs are South African or Russian. Rather than try to find ways to return home, the oligarchs seek a Muscovian promised land of endless wealth, impunity, and immortality. Our oligarchs are stuck with one another, as were the good people of Gilligan's Island, but they cannot be expected to cooperate. Oligarchies are unstable; members disappear." Timothy Snyder compares the new American oligarchy to Gilligan's Island. Oligarchs' Island. (I got so nauseated I barely survived the three-hour cruise.) Related: Elon Musk’s PAC spent an estimated $200 million to help elect Trump. (And he's not going to stop spending. Look as the Tesla share price. He made a profit on the 200.)

+ And another piece by Snyder, this one from The New Yorker: What Does It Mean That Donald Trump Is a Fascist? "Trump takes the tools of dictators and adapts them for the Internet. We should expect him to try to cling to power until death, and create a cult of January 6th martyrs."

+ One of the things it means is that those appointed to be in his administration will all share something in common: Loyalty to Trump. (And support of the Big Lie looks real good on the resume). Marco Rubio, Stephen Miller, Susie Wiles, Lee Zeldin, Tom Homan, Elise Stefanik, Mike Waltz, and Kristi Noem are among the picks so far. Trump’s cabinet picks and likely contenders – so far.

+ Seriously but not literally is old news. Trump's picks for certain positions indicate this time we need to take his promises seriously and literally. Meet Tom Homan, the new border czar, previously known as the father of Trump’s family separation policy. "Trump comes back in January, I’ll be on his heels coming back, and I will run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen. They ain’t seen shit yet. Wait until 2025."

+ Well, at least we have our health. At least for a few more days. Kennedy’s F.D.A. Wish List: Raw Milk, Stem Cells, Heavy Metals. (It will be interesting to see if RFK, Jr gets a top role he believes he was promised.)

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The Emperor Has No Bros

You're not the only one thinking (or at least joking) about moving somewhere very different. Emperor penguin travels over 2,000 miles from Antarctica to Australia in possible first.

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The Stroke Feels Good

"There is only one product in my life that I’ve been using for over a decade, longer than anything else. Over the years, my preference in nearly everything has changed and evolved; from the face wash I use to the jewelry I wear to the coffee I drink, everything’s gotten an upgrade. Everything, that is, except for the trustiest pen on the market. Pen lovers already know which one it is—the good ol’ Pilot G2." Esquire: A Love Letter to the Greatest Pen of All Time. (It's been so long since I've used a pen my hand cramps up just signing my name.)

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Extra, Extra

Amsterdamn: "Amsterdam police were bracing for yet another night of unrest on Tuesday as the Dutch capital grapples with antisemitic violence that started with attacks against visiting Israeli football fans last week." Meanwhile, closer to home: Demonstrators wave Nazi flags outside local theater performance of ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ in Michigan.

+ Huckabeing There: "Last month, the Biden administration gave Israel an unusually stark ultimatum: Improve aid access to hunger-ravaged Gaza in the next 30 days or risk losing some American military support. With the deadline set to expire Tuesday, humanitarian organizations say Israel has failed to follow through, bringing the Palestinian enclave to the brink of mass starvation." WaPo (Gift Article): The U.S. demanded that Israel surge aid to Gaza. Little has changed. The most misguided voting trend last Tuesday was the pro-Palestinian protest vote against Harris. The ceasefire talks are already being sidelined and any efforts to slow the settler movement in the West Bank will be off under Trump's pick for Israeli ambassador. Mike Huckabee.

+ The Lay of the Land: "The new team will immediately run into the same dilemma that everyone else has encountered: 'Land for peace' sounds nice, but the president of Russia isn’t fighting for land. Putin is fighting not to conquer Pokrovsk but to destroy Ukraine as a nation. He wants to show his own people that Ukraine’s democratic aspirations are hopeless. He wants to prove that a whole host of international laws and norms, including the United Nations Charter and the Geneva conventions, no longer matter. His goal is not to have peace but to build concentration camps, torture civilians, kidnap 20,000 Ukrainian children, and get away with it—which, so far, he has." Anne Applebaum in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Putin Isn’t Fighting for Land in Ukraine. (One could argue that he just took America without firing a shot.)

+ State of Mind: "You come for my people, you come through me." Blue state govs gear up to protect their people.

+ Ride or Die: From Bicycling: The Alchemists. "They led a cycling revolution in Afghanistan where women were forbidden to ride. When the Taliban returned to power, their only hope was a harrowing escape to an uncertain future."

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Bottom of the News

"Wander into the bathroom products aisle at the supermarket and you’ve entered a topsy-turvy world where numbers shape-shift. A pack of 18 mega toilet paper rolls, for example, magically transforms into 90 'regular' ones. The labeling emphasizes this greater number in large font, lest you foolishly think 18 simply equals 18. Another pack might insist that 12 even-thicker rolls of toilet paper are the equivalent of 96 normal rolls." How Big Toilet Paper dupes us all. (All marketing copy aside, you're paying more for your toilet paper. But this is not high on your list of worries, and the math is almost impossible, so you'll probably just roll with it.)

+ This story is weirder than the headline suggests. And the headline suggests a pretty weird story. China roads blocked by thousands of cyclists in night quest for dumplings.