When Italy's Jasmine Paolini played Veronika Kedermetova at the Cincinnati Masters over the weekend, the score showed no Russian flag next to Kedermetova's name and her nationality wasn't mentioned by the arena announcer when she walked on the court. That's how it is for Russian athletes since Putin's invasion of Ukraine. But while these athletes' nationality is shunned, the madman, expansionist, war criminal responsible for that shunning was welcomed onto America soil and back into the international arena by a clapping US president standing on a long red carpet. This was just one of many visuals and deal points that turned the Alaska summit into a new low point for American leadership. As Anne Applebaum explains: "There is not much else to say about yesterday’s Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska, other than to observe the intertwining elements of tragedy and farce. It was embarrassing for Americans to welcome a notorious wanted war criminal on their territory. It was humiliating to watch an American president act like a happy puppy upon encountering the dictator of a much poorer, much less important state, treating him as a superior." Of course, none of this comes as any surprise. The Atlantic (Gift Article): Trump Has No Cards. By immediately giving up his demand for a ceasefire and embracing Putin on the global stage, he reminded the world that American policy is a few cards short of a deck.
+ Which brings us to today's follow-up summit with Zelensky, who is being joined by a large group of European leaders. They are obviously there to sway, cajole, convince, and even manipulate an American president into understanding that in the battle between a brutal, expansion-minded, invader and Western Democracy, the latter is the good guy. If history is any indicator, that won't be an easy sell.
+ Trump spent part of his press appearance with Zelensky arguing against mail-in voting, which he said Putin explained could never be fair. No, I'm not making that up. There were also more jokes about Zelensky's attire. I'm guessing no one is laughing harder than Vladamir Putin. Let's hope that, behind the scenes, European leaders can remind Trump of whose side we're supposed to be on. The talks mostly focused on two issues: Land and security guarantees. Here's the latest from the NYT, BBC, and NBC.
2
Quick on the Redraw
"In the end, Democrats said they had decided to return only after they had denied a vote during a first special legislative session, a move that drew national attention to Mr. Trump’s push for a rare mid-decade redistricting and helped propel Democratic states to begin their own redistricting efforts. On Monday, California state lawmakers were expected to move forward on a measure to redraw the state’s congressional map to favor Democrats and counteract the changes in Texas, a move championed by California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom." NYT (Gift Article): Texas Democrats End Walkout, Allowing Redrawn Map to Pass.
3
That Clip Has Sailed
"But the flood of financially incentivized 'slop' has also given way to a strange new internet, where social media feeds overflow with unsettlingly lifelike imagery and even real videos can appear suspect. Some viral clips now barely rely on humans at all, with AI tools generating not just the imagery but also the ideas." WaPo (Gift Article): Making cash off ‘AI slop’: The surreal video business taking over the web. (As with all of the stories, you have to remember that these technologies are only getting warmed up. In movie parlance, we're still just watching the previews.)
4
A Racket About the Racket Racket
"Between 1990 and 1998, the number of Americans who said they roller skated grew from 3.6 million to 27 million, making it one of the fastest growing exercise fads in modern American history. Today, fewer than 6 million Americans say they roller skate; the whole boom has practically collapsed." Pickleball isn't the first sport to explode in popularity. It's not even the first racket sport to do so. But it's having a moment, and "it might be the fastest-growing sport in modern American history." Derek Thompson: How Pickleball Explains American Culture. If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
5
Extra, Extra
Must Be the Money: "To save the lives of infants and small children living in low- and middle-income countries, there are a handful of tried and tested tools, like anti-malarial drugs, bed nets and vaccines. The results from a massive experiment in rural Kenya suggests another: cash." NPR: Researchers discover a secret weapon that saves babies' lives.
+ Operation Warped Speed: "The federal government also offered hefty incentives: up to $50,000 in signing bonuses and up to $60,000 in student loan forgiveness. No undergraduate degree is required. DHS also lifted the age cap for law-enforcement roles ... 'America has been invaded by criminals and predators,' the agency says on its recruiting website. 'We need YOU to get them out.'" $50,000 Signing Bonus, No Age Caps: The Blitz to Hire ICE Officers. One of their social media campaigns encourages applicants to "deport illegals with your absolute boys."
+ Defense Mechanism: "If the United States abandons mRNA, it will not simply be forfeiting a public health advantage. It will be ceding a strategic asset. In national security terms, mRNA is the equivalent of a missile defense system for biology." NYT (Gift Article): America Is Abandoning One of the Greatest Medical Breakthroughs.
+ The A Team: "Grammarly is launching several new AI agents for specific writing challenges, from educators trying to detect plagiarism and AI-generated text to students looking to gauge reader reaction to their paper, needing help with citations, and even seeing their predicted grade." (It's only a matter of a time until a student sues a teacher for giving them a B on a paper that AI said deserves an A.)
+ Letter RIP: MSNBC will soon be renamed as MS NOW, meaning "My Source for News, Opinion and the World." (They would have been better off going with TCBY.)
+ Snap Decisions: "Former NFL players now entering retirement age are more likely to be living with chronic pain or a disability, are more depressed and anxious, and are far more likely to report having some type of cognitive decline than the average American man ... Yet, in spite of all that, the vast majority say they would do it all over again, and that playing football had a positive effect on their lives."
+ Thinking Inside the Box: Looking for a solid, short-term economic indicator. Consider cardboard. "US box shipments—that is, volumes of empty packaging materials sold to retailers, which in turn use them to ship orders to warehouses, storefronts and Americans’ doorsteps—fell to the lowest second-quarter reading since 2015."
6
Bottom of the News
"The Cambridge Dictionary defines skibidi as 'a word that can have different meanings such as ‘cool’ or ‘bad’, or can be used with no real meaning as a joke’, an example of its use is: ‘What the skibidi are you doing?’" That might be a good question to ask dictionary editors. ‘Skibidi’, ‘delulu’ and ‘tradwife’ among words added to Cambridge Dictionary.
+ The Giants' Jung Hoo Lee somehow caught a ball between his knees in center field. (Sadly, I wasn't wearing my Hoo Let the Dogs Out shirt at the time.)
A few cards hell, he's a few suits shy
“By immediately giving up his demand for a ceasefire and embracing Putin on the global stage, he reminded the world that American policy is a few cards short of a deck.”
We’ve been a few cards short of the policy deck since the end of WWII, with a few exceptions. I’m no fan of Putin, and don’t condone him pulling the invasion trigger, but there is no country in the world that has more grey between the black and white than Ukraine. None of this would have happened if Bill Clinton hadn’t been such a stupid jackass in pushing NATO expansion back in the 90s. Read Scott Horton’s book, ‘Provoked’, and you’ll never bother quoting Russiaphobe fools like Applebaum again.