Rock the Vote

Contrary to popular opinion...

Life shouldn't be a popularity contest. But elections should be. So it might seem a little perplexing that the Trump administration is taking so many wildly unpopular steps. Yes, you could argue that the tough immigration stance, the attacks on higher education, the defiance of the courts, the chainsawing of the federal government workforce, and the obsession with all things DEI could bring daily moments of glee to a significant portion of the MAGA base. But I'm talking about the other stuff. The see-sawing tariffs that have shaken the economy for everyone from the investment class who voted for lower taxes and a deregulated market (but have gotten a market pullback and a less certain outlook) to working class voters who voted for lower prices? Meanwhile, the retaliation for those tariffs is being aimed to hurt Trump voters the hardest. Or the kowtowing to Russia when Americans widely support Ukraine? Or the persistant visual that the world's richest man is slashing benefits for the average American? Or the bizarre attacks on the national parks? The administration is even openly placing its sweaty little hands on the third rail of politics as Musk targets Social Security cuts. The moves have been so unpopular that many GOP members of Congress have stopped holding townhalls in their districts because of the angry reactions of their constituents. Why doesn't popularity seem matter in a game where popularity determines who wins and loses? Maybe the Trump administration doesn't think popularity will be the determining factor in 2026 and beyond. Maybe the bet is that an administration stacked with election deniers from the Justice Department to the FBI to the Oval Office will be able to do the very thing Trump has been trying to get done since the "perfect" phone call with Zelensky, the request to Georgia officials to find him 11,780 votes, or the the Jan 6 insurrection for which all of the attackers have been pardoned? The attack on the vote is Trump's most consistent and relentless policy position. Sue Halpern in The New Yorker: Trump Is Still Trying to Undermine Elections. "So far, it’s a tossup which of the Trump Administration’s wrecking balls will prove most destructive: the one that accelerates global warming, the one that abandons our allies, the one that torches the economy, or the one that compromises public health. Yet all of these are distractions from the President’s long-standing pet project: decimating free and fair elections. It may be that we have become so accustomed to hearing Donald Trump’s false claims about rigged elections and corrupt election officials that we have become inured to them, but in the past seven weeks he has pursued a renewed multilateral program to suppress the vote, curtail the franchise, undermine election security, eliminate protections from foreign interference, and neuter the independent oversight of election administration. And, as with the rest of Trump’s calamitous agenda, he is doing it in full view of the American people." (Only election deniers see this as a vote of confidence.)

+ It's not just about the vote, it's about the money and organizations underpinning the vote. "The president and his allies in Congress are targeting the financial, digital and legal machinery that powers the Democratic Party and much of the progressive political world." NYT (Gift Article): With Orders, Investigations and Innuendo, Trump and G.O.P. Aim to Cripple the Left. "It is not unusual for partisans in Congress or their outside allies to push for investigations into political groups on the other side of the aisle. But using the levers of government to target the opposition has long been considered an abuse of power, sometimes leading to prosecution. Mr. Trump himself was impeached in 2019 for pressuring the Ukrainian government to investigate the Bidens." (No, that pressure campaign wasn't a perfect phone call. But that fact misses a bigger story. Trump never hung up.)

2

Greased Lightning

"The legend goes that White Castle founder Walter 'Walt' Anderson started making hamburgers in the early to mid-1910s after he grew frustrated with how long it took to cook meatballs. So one day, Anderson smashed a meatball with a spatula, and, boom, he had a hamburger patty that he could cook much faster. If that's true, Anderson's embrace of hamburgers was really part of a quest for greater productivity — to cook and sell more meat sandwiches in less time. That origin story may or may not be bogus, but after founding White Castle in 1921, Anderson and his co-founder, Billy Ingram, pioneered many of the hallmarks of the fast-food industry, including helping to make hamburgers a national staple, standardizing practices across their chain restaurants and bringing an assembly-line mindset to food production." Since then, fast food only got faster. At least until the productivity gains slowed down for a couple decades. Well, they're back, and fast food is faster than ever. And consumers are partly to thank. NPR: Fast-er food: A productivity surge at U.S. restaurants.

+ Can AI make fast food even faster? Chipmaker Taco Bell taps chipmaker Nvidia. (Sounds like I'm gonna need a new chip for my glucose monitor.)

3

When the Chips Are Down

Since 1963, Lay's potato chips have been promoting the addictive slogan, Betcha can't eat just one. It was a safe bet. But in 2025, Americans are actually limiting their chip intake. It's not a health thing. Or even an Ozempic thing. It's an inflation thing. "Chip prices have increased 29% since February 2021, outpacing the overall grocery price inflation of 23%." Chips and cookies have gotten too expensive. Shoppers are buying less.

4

School Bully

Earlier this week, I described an alternative March Madness in which more than 60 universities were competing, not for a basketball title, but for the funding to thrive in an era when they're being targeted by the federal government: A Method to the Madness. "Autocrats — both left-wing and right-wing — always attack universities." The latest attack comes in the name of transgender involvement in sports. NYT (Gift Article): White House Plans to Pause $175 Million for Penn Over Transgender Policy. "The move would intensify the government’s campaign against transgender people’s participation in public life and escalate a clash with elite colleges."

+ The big question is how elite colleges will respond. WSJ (Gift Article): Columbia Is Nearing Agreement to Give Trump What He Wants. "Trustees have been huddled for days. Progress has been one step forward, two steps back, with some board members deeply concerned the university is trading away its moral authority and academic independence for federal funds. Others have argued the school has limited options because it relies on federal money." (If the deepest pocketed schools bend, the rest will break.)

5

Extra, Extra

Enemies, a Love Story: "The larger worry is that Mr. Trump is struggling to see Mr. Putin for the aggressor he is—one that previous Presidents have failed to tame via talks. The White House even heralded the possibility of working with Russia in the Middle East, where Mr. Putin has spent a decade as a force for instability." WSJ (Gift Article): Putin Rejects the Trump Cease-Fire. (Is there any signal that Trump won't give Putin whatever he demands?) BBC: Trump-Putin call seen as victory in Russia. "Instead of pressuring Moscow with the threat of even tougher sanctions and penalties, to get Russia to sign up to its plan, the US administration reacted by praising the Kremlin leader. 'We had a great call,' Donald Trump told Fox News. 'I would commend President Putin for all he did today on that call to move his country close to a final peace deal,' said Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff."

+ Netanyahu Goes There: "Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched into Jerusalem on Wednesday morning in a renewed outburst of rage against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, over efforts to remove key security and judicial officials and renew highly controversial legislation to increase political power over the judiciary, and following the collapse of the Gaza ceasefire." Major protests in Jerusalem as Netanyahu seeks to fire Shin Bet chief, renews Gaza war.

+ One Flu Over the Cuckoo's Nest: "Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s top health official, has an unorthodox idea for tackling the bird flu bedeviling U.S. poultry farms. Let the virus rip. Instead of culling birds when the infection is discovered, farmers 'should consider maybe the possibility of letting it run through the flock so that we can identify the birds, and preserve the birds, that are immune to it.'" (You know who loves this idea? The virus.) NYT (Gift Article): Kennedy’s Alarming Prescription for Bird Flu on Poultry Farms.

+ 47 Deletes 42: "The military story of Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball after serving as a 2nd lieutenant in the Army, no longer exists on the Department of Defense’s website as part of the Trump administration’s wiping out of diversity, equity and inclusion within the federal government." Jackie Robinson’s Army career wiped from military website in DEI purge.

+ Byd Pro Quo: "Over the past decade, Tesla has gone from a disruptive newcomer in the auto industry to America’s best-selling electric-vehicle brand. But recently, its dealerships have been attacked and many owners have sold their vehicles." What to Know About the Backlash Against Tesla. The bigger challenge to Tesla is probably coming from its primary Chinese competitor. Tesla faces trouble from BYD's new EV charger breakthrough.

+ We Could All Use a Pop: "It is a strange new reality for everyone. The bond between Popovich and the Spurs has been so solid, so ingrained in everything, that it fueled the rise of this proud franchise. They grew together, evolved, aged and then started anew. Until Popovich stopped in his tracks that afternoon in November, leaving everyone at a crossroads. The long-discussed and delayed succession plan was suddenly urgent, and decisions that were once his to make, perhaps were no longer. For the first time in three decades, the man who has been at the center of this city and this franchise has been on a different sideline -- fighting to get back to what he once was." 'It's Pop's decision. He's earned that': Inside Gregg Popovich's fight to return to the sideline.

6

Bottom of the News

"Five men had smashed their way into the palace, ripped out a £4.8m solid gold toilet and fled in a stolen Volkswagen Golf. The working loo, entitled America, had been on display for just two days at the 18th Century stately home, plumbed in as part of an exhibition by the Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan. Now, more than five years on, a total of three men have been convicted in connection to the heist." The inside story of Blenheim's gold toilet heist. (Now the thieves are gonna do some time in the can.)

+ Winners of the British Wildlife Photography Awards 2025.