Shaka and Awe

You Are Now Safe

Americans can all sleep a little easier tonight. Another dangerous illegal immigrant is off the streets. In this case, the streets are in Hawaii. The removal is tied to events of more than fifteen years ago when the immigrant spent some time in jail after getting addicted to crack and missing a court date. Wait, it gets worse. This story includes violence and automatic weapons, too. The immigrant blames his addiction on the PTSD he suffered after being seriously injured in a shoot-out. That shoot-out took place in Panama where the immigrant, serving in the US Army, earned a purple heart after being shot in the back. 55-year-old U.S. Army veteran Sae Joon Park probably should have been paralyzed on that day back in 1989 but one of the bullets headed for his spine was deflected by his dog tag. After getting out of jail, Sae Joon Park "fought deportation in court and as a Purple Heart veteran was allowed to stay in the U.S. under deferred action, as long as he checked in each year and stayed clean and sober. Park turned his life around -- he became a loving father to his two children, now in their 20s, and cares for his aging parents and aunts, who are in their 80s." It was in many ways a classic American story with service, trials and tribulations, and a comeback. But the American story has changed. "This month, officials ended his deferred action status and told him he had to leave the country or be detained and forcibly deported. He was given an ankle monitor and three weeks to handle his affairs." U.S. Army Purple Heart veteran forced to self-deport from Hawaii. "People were saying 'You took two bullets for this country. Like you’re more American than most of the Americans living in America.'" That's just it. We're not living in the same America anymore.

+ NPR: Purple Heart Army veteran self-deports after nearly 50 years in the U.S.

+ OK, OK, some less dangerous immigrants might get swept up unnecessarily, but it's worth it because the overall process is getting the actually dangerous criminals off the streets, right? No. Despite promise to remove 'worst of the worst,' ICE has arrested only 6% of known immigrant murderers. "The data is a tally of every person booked by ICE from Oct. 1 through May 31, part of which was during the Biden administration. It shows a total of 185,042 people arrested and booked into ICE facilities during that time; 65,041 of them have been convicted of crimes. The most common categories of crimes they committed were immigration and traffic offenses." (They're eating the cats. They're eating the dogs. They're running the stop signs...)

+ ICE is holding a record 59,000 immigrant detainees, nearly half with no criminal record, internal data show. This is what happens when you mix cruelty with ineffectiveness.

+ Still not sleeping easier? Maybe this will help convince you how much safer the streets are now that we got tough on immigrants. ICE Arrested a Pregnant Tennessee Woman — While in Detention in Louisiana, She had a Stillbirth.

+ For a pitch perfect take on immigration, take a few minutes and listen to Kimmel guest host Diego Luna's take on the importance of immigration in America. (Of course, Andor is leading the resistance.)

2

Obliteration Fabrication?

"The assessment also suggests that at least some of Iran’s highly enriched uranium, necessary for creating a nuclear weapon, was moved out of multiple sites before the U.S. strikes and survived, and it found that Iran’s centrifuges, which are required to further enrich uranium to weapons-grade levels, are largely intact." Early US intelligence report suggests US strikes only set back Iran’s nuclear program by months. Of course, Trump and his sycophants are taking this intel as a personal attack. But as I explained on Monday, this is an administration addicted to lying about all topics, big and small, and Trump started telling us that Iran's nuclear program was obliterated before anyone had the chance to assess the outcome of the strikes. As usual, the only thing that we can be sure got obliterated is the truth.

+ Trump says Israel sent agents into Iran’s Fordo nuclear site, saw total obliteration. "Israeli officials told the Kan public broadcaster Wednesday, responding to Trump’s comments, that they were unaware of any Israeli operation at the Fordo nuclear facility after the strike." (Just keep saying TOTAL OBLITERATION in all-caps. They'll come around.)

+ "If parts of the program survived, or if Iran stockpiled and hid enriched uranium in advance of the strikes, then Tehran’s next steps seem clear. It will end cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency and withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Without eyes and ears on the ground, the international community will lose the ability to monitor Iran’s program. Iran could then choose to build a bomb covertly." Thomas Wright in The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Problem With Trump’s Cease-Fire.

+ As I've mentioned, one big concern in Iran is that a weakened Iranian government will turn its ire inward and create even harsher conditions inside the country. Execution of 3 accused of spying and mass detentions fuel crackdown fears in Iran.

3

Murder Without the Mystery

"The United States won’t contribute anymore to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, until the global health organization has 're-earned the public trust,' U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday." As Atul Gawande explains: "This is a travesty & a nightmare. The US was a founder of Gavi. It lowers global vaccine costs, has vaccinated 1B children, & averted 19M deaths. This pull out will cost 100s of thousands of children's lives a year - and RFK Jr will be personally responsible."

+ NYT (Gift Article): Promise of Victory Over H.I.V. Fades as U.S. Withdraws Support. "There is more potential than ever before to end the H.I.V. epidemic, scientists and public health experts say. But now, H.I.V. programs across Africa are scrambling to procure drugs that the United States once supplied, replace lost nurses and lab technicians, and restart shuttered programs to prevent new infections. 'We imagined we would be in a different world right now,'" (Editor's note: Same.)

4

Opus Won

"In a highly engineered experiment, Anthropic embedded its flagship model, Claude Opus 4, inside a fictional company and granted it access to internal emails. From there, the model learned two things: It was about to be replaced, and the engineer behind the decision was engaged in an extramarital affair. The safety researchers conducting the test encouraged Opus to reflect on the long-term consequences of its potential responses. The experiment was constructed to leave the model with only two real options: accept being replaced or attempt blackmail to preserve its existence. In most of the test scenarios, Claude Opus responded with blackmail, threatening to expose the engineer’s affair if it was taken offline and replaced." Leading AI models show up to 96% blackmail rate when their goals or existence is threatened. (At least that's 3.9999% lower than the human rate.)

+ A federal judge sides with Anthropic in lawsuit over training AI on books without authors’ permission.

5

Extra, Extra

New York's State of Mind: "The national Democratic establishment on Tuesday night struggled to absorb the startling ascent of a democratic socialist in New York City who embraced a progressive economic agenda and diverged from the party’s dominant position on the Middle East." NYT (Gift Article) on Zohran Mamdani's big win in the NYC Mayoral primary. A New Political Star Emerges Out of a Fractured Democratic Party. This is as much a story about the establishment dems who poured money and endorsements on a deeply flawed, scandal ridden retread like Andrew Cuomo. OK, they didn't want Mamdani. But Cuomo was the best they could do? Doesn't bode well for the old guard.

+ Daddy's War Bucks: "NATO allies promised to raise defense related spending to 5% of GDP by 2035. For more than a decade that target was just 2%. Most European leaders were keen to avoid a rift with the US president – who in the past has raised doubts about America’s commitment to Nato allies." Mark Rutte NATO's secretary-general chimed in on Trump's use of the F word earlier in the week. "Daddy has to sometimes use strong language." (This daddy just threw up in mouth a little.)

+ Fact(ory) Check: "The country is flooded with college graduates who can’t find jobs that match their education ... and there are not enough skilled blue-collar workers to fill the positions that currently exist, let alone the jobs that will be created if more factories are built in the United States." Why Factories Are Having Trouble Filling Nearly 400,000 Open Jobs.

+ Let Freedom Drain: "They are told that academic freedom still exists, but that their institutions are following directives from Hegseth that, at least on their face, seem aimed at ending academic freedom." Tom Nichols in The Atlantic (Gift Article): A Military Ethics Professor Resigns in Protest.

+ June's Hot August Nights: I am writing from the one sliver of America where it's currently sweatshirt weather, so I'm no expert. But if you have an inkling that it's too f---ing early to be this f---ing hot, you're probably right. WaPo: June is the new July: Why intense summer heat is arriving earlier.

+ Balls Out: Wired: ‘Big Balls’ No Longer Works for the US Government.

+ Other Balls Out: "Chris Robinson has suffered an 'equipment failure' as he left it all out there on his way to win the 400m hurdles at the Golden Spike meet on Wednesday morning." World champion’s wardrobe malfunction is stuff of nightmares. (He still won.) Defector probably has a more clear headline: Hurdler Wins 400-Meter Race Despite His Dick And Balls Falling Out Several Times.

6

Bottom of the News

What's worse than having your sister defeat you in major election? Having your mother serve as her campaign manager. Sister beats brother in local Florida election.

+ Is it possible to predict the time of a US military attack by tracking pizza deliveries to the Pentagon? Pepperoni, Pre-Strikes, and the Pentagon’s Favorite Pie Shops.