The Boy Who Cried Win
Trump’s MOU, Knick's Knack
We have a deal! Well, actually, we have a memorandum of understanding. And not everyone seems to have gotten the memo about how we should be understanding it. We won’t know what devil is in the details of the peace agreement with Iran until those details are ultimately ironed out over the coming weeks and months. But it sure doesn’t look like unconditional surrender. It’s also not looking better than the deal Obama negotiated with Iran (the nuclear issues are still subject to negotiation). In terms of lives, dollars, and reputation, Trump’s tearing up of the old Iran agreement could go down as the most expensive tantrum in American history. And I’m not using my own scorecard, I’m using Trump’s. “Mr. Trump said the United States intended to ‘annihilate’ Iran’s military capabilities, abolish its nuclear ambitions, topple its theocratic leadership and liberate its people, whom he encouraged to take over their government when the fighting had stopped. Just one week after the strikes started, he said Iran’s only path to a deal was an ‘unconditional surrender.’” NYT (Gift Article): Trump Winds Down the War He Started With Goals Unmet. Meanwhile, the region and the Iranian people (who were promised “help is on the way”) are left to deal with a more emboldened, more extreme, more entrenched, and less sanctioned regime.
+ “The United States has perhaps done worse than gaining nothing. Iran, while temporarily weakened, is now an even more powerful political actor: The regime in Tehran stood up to a massive U.S. onslaught, survived, and then inflicted pain on various states in the Gulf as punishment for going along with Trump’s war. The Israelis, for their part, have been left out in the cold.” Tom Nichols in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Trump Celebrates While America Capitulates.
+ “Initial details suggest that the agreement does nothing to curb Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal, or its funding of regional proxies like Hezbollah in Lebanon or the Houthis in Yemen, who have attacked Israel with their own arsenals. It could help Iran bolster those proxies by easing sanctions, which would allow billions of dollars to flow into its bank accounts. The deal’s terms when it comes to constraining Iran’s nuclear program — of greatest importance to Israel, and the greatest priority of Mr. Netanyahu’s career — remain undisclosed or still to be negotiated ... Worse still for Mr. Netanyahu, who faces re-election in a few months and is behind in the polls, President Trump, the Israeli leader’s most valuable political asset, has publicly rebuked him multiple times in recent weeks.” NYT (Gift Article): Israel Counts the Ways That Netanyahu’s Iran Strategy Failed.
+ “Ships are starting to move, many loaded up with Oil, out of the Strait of Hormuz. They are going along the Southern ‘Highway,’ which is totally safe, secure, and pristine. There are other areas of travel, also!!!” So said Trump about the re-opening of the Strait, officially happening on Friday. Historians will note that the Strait was open before the war. Here’s the latest from The Guardian.
2
Punch Drunk Gov
While the world celebrated the beautiful game, Americans were left to suffer an ugly spectacle at the White House. Monica Hesse in WaPo (Gift Article): The White House UFC fights showed us the America we needed to see. “MMA is a deeply violent sport, and always has been. We are a deeply violent country, and always have been. But there’s artistry to the MMA fight, and discipline, a body pushing itself to limits that are simultaneously sickening and exhilarating. But the Ultimate Fighting Championship event that happened on Sunday night was not a celebration of a sport, it was a celebration of slop. It was a pseudo-patriotic grift that tried to convince us that fighters wheel-kicking each other for the chance of $1 million in crypto deserved the same level of hero admiration as the boys who launched onto the beach at Normandy; it was an infomercial that paused every seven seconds to advertise Starlink internet or Starry soda or Ram trucks or flavors of Monster energy drink that God forgot.” (The spectacle was made even less impressive when Josh Hokit ended his post-fight speech at the White House UFC event by yelling, “Michelle Obama is a man!” Michelle Obama is not a man, and Josh Hokit proved himself to be a sad excuse for one.)
+ “All of this was pure, distilled Trump. No previous American leader could plausibly have presided over the scene of a tattooed Brazilian fighter in a black cowboy hat and Lycra shorts running out of the White House, saluted by honor guards, with the intent of pulverizing another human being. He had built an Octagon on the lawn in part, surely, to troll his opponents, as he so often does, but what I saw in the fighting itself—in fight after fight after fight, seven in all—was an affirmative expression of Trump’s favorite kind of storyline: dominance and submission. This was not just a political stunt, but the best way he could imagine spending his 80th birthday.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Theory That Explains Trump’s UFC Fight. (The event also makes it look like Trump is leading a populist revolt when he’s really leading a billionaire boom. That will go down as the biggest gut punch of the night.)
+ And coming soon... Trump announces July Fourth ‘TRUMP RALLY’ on National Mall. (Might as well rename it the National Maul at this point.)
3
Panel Discussion
“A technology — known as plug-in, balcony or garden solar — is already enormously popular in Germany, in part because you can buy a kit for less than $600 at IKEA. It’s a small solar panel system, often producing up to 1,200 watts of electricity, or a little more than a refrigerator consumes, that you can affix to a wall, hang on a railing or prop up in a garden — and then plug directly into a wall socket. With the help of a small device called a micro inverter, it pumps electricity into your household circuits to offset your power demand. At least 30 states have passed legislation to legalize these plug-in solar kits or are considering similar bills.” Robinson Meyer in the NYT (Gift Article): The Tiny Solar Panel That Could Change America.
4
Knick’s Knack
“So this is how it feels. It is giggling, weeping, spinning, convulsing, mosh-pitting, truck-honking, law-skirting, trumpet-playing, cowbell-ringing, off-key-singing, cigar-lighting, all-night-ing — remembering to remember it all, as if Knicks fans would ever forget. It is hugging strangers so hard they go airborne, fist-bumping cabbies as they crawl through concrete delirium, high-fiving kids on shoulders (and adults on shoulders), climbing stoplights and trees and scaffolding to wave the team flag higher, swiping utility cones and wearing them as hats because they are orange.” Knicks Give Their City Something New: Impossible Joy. (During their playoff run, the Knicks went 15 and Trump.)
+ The Knicks’ long-awaited championship was hardly the only big sports story over a jam-packed weekend. The Carolina Hurricanes took home the Stanley Cup, and at least for one night, the USMNT looked like the team fans always hoped it could be. And there was much more. Here’s a good overview of a fun weekend in sporting events, during which no one desecrated the White House or verbally attacked Michelle Obama.
5
Extra, Extra
British Evasion: “Starmer told a news conference that he will fight back if technology companies resist the move, and acknowledged some teens would try to find their way around a ban. But he said he is ‘not prepared to compromise on the safety and happiness of our children.’” Britain will ban under-16s from social media apps, including TikTok and YouTube.
+ California Reaming: “The California governor said in a video statement that federal agents had knocked on the doors of family friends and former employees in recent days as part of an effort to find a crime, demanding records and ‘abusing the grand jury process.’” Gavin Newsom says Trump directed DoJ to investigate him and his wife.
+ DOJ (Pronounced, Doge): “DOJ officials determined the transaction did not pose a threat to competition and declined to challenge it, said the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. The department approved the merger without requiring any divestitures, behavioral remedies or concessions.” In entirely unsurprising news, the Justice Department approves Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Let’s see what the states have to say.
+ We Will, We Will, Roku: “The deal—Fox’s largest to date—brings together a media company known for its live news and sports programming with the biggest provider of streaming platforms for connected TVs.” Fox to Buy Roku Streaming Service in $25 Billion Deal. (Both stocks are down on the deal announcement.)
+ Tren Crash: “Tren de Aragua has been labeled a terrorist organization by the US. Guerrero Flores was charged in a New York federal court with racketeering conspiracy and other crimes, including lending support to terrorists in crimes that stretched more than a decade.” Trump says leader of Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang killed in US strike.
+ Back (Rent) From the Dead: “The casting call seemed simple enough: An unnamed nonprofit was offering $75 in cash to people who could spend a couple of hours acting as zombies in a ‘mock demonstration.’ The scenes would be part of an instructional video, and actors were asked to wear tattered clothing and to be ready to have their faces painted. But when the group of 40 or so participants arrived at the filming site in Downtown Brooklyn on Thursday evening, things started to take a turn.” The Casting Call Was for Zombies. The Job Was Actually a Landlord Rally.
+ One Track Mind: “Imagine it’s the 1980s or early ‘90s, and there’s a queue for the pay phone in a college dorm hallway. Students line up, waiting their turn for the once-a-week, brief check-in with a parent. That was the norm.” The norm has changed. NPR: Most parents track their 18- to 25-year-old kids on their smartphones. Is it healthy? Is anything on your phone healthy? Location tracking apps are just as addictive as everything else on your phone. And yes, kids, your mother and I are watching (but only because we want to be sure you’re going out and having fun.)
6
Bottom of the News
“Police in Peru took a novel approach to clamping down on drug trafficking Wednesday as they conducted a raid in Lima disguised as the 2026 World Cup mascots.” Depending on the drugs involved, this could have made for the trip of a lifetime. Peruvian police disguise themselves as World Cup mascots for drug raid.
+ “Recently, dates have surged in popularity as consumers increasingly turn away from processed snacks in favor of cleaner, more natural options. Last year, U.S. sales of the fruit rose 33 percent.” (This just proves the old adage: If you have a good business plan and you stick with it for 8 or 9 thousand years, it just might work.)