Who Was That Masked Man?

Thin ICE, Trash Sucking That Doesn't Suck

It didn't take long for us to almost expect headlines like this from TNR: Masked ICE Agents Detain U.S. Citizen Who Is Nine Months Pregnant. But over the camouflage-armored bodies and masked faces, there's now another disturbing layer to this story. As we move forward, how can people be sure whether the paramilitary-resembling groups storming their neighborhoods are actually ICE agents, or law enforcement officials at all? When six armed agents "dressed as though they had parachuted into a war zone" showed up in the small town of Great Barrington (apparently to protect the community and the country from a gardener pulling weeds), a pair of local boutique owners tried to figure out what was going on outside their store. "'These guys had guns hanging all over them,' said Shafiroff, but they otherwise had no conformity to their dress. 'None of them had the same letters on the front of their vests. Some of them didn’t even have letters, but it said ‘Police’ across the back ... The women asked to see IDs or warrants, or even the names of the alleged criminals these agents were there to track down. They refused. One briefly flashed a badge, Stiner recounted, but would not let her inspect it even to see what agency it was for. 'It could have been from Cracker Jacks,' she recalled." WaPo (Gift Article): The secret police descending on Small Town, USA. "It’s easy to buy tactical gear online. And around the country, bigots and criminals have already begun taking advantage of chaotic, masked immigration raids to further their own ends. Civilians have impersonated ICE agents while committing robbery (Pennsylvania), kidnappings (Florida, South Carolina), sexual assault (North Carolina), and other forms of public intimidation (Washington state, California)." Apparently masks are enraging when they're used to prevent the spread of a deadly virus but they're worth celebrating and cosplaying when used to terrorize communities. Ordinarily, we'd refer to this an extreme irony, but irony got deported a few weeks ago.

2

I Went Down to the Crossroads

"This is a president who, in just over 140 days, has fired government watchdogs that could hold him accountable, accountable for corruption and fraud. He’s declared a war, a war on culture, on history, on science, on knowledge itself. Databases quite literally are vanishing. He’s delegitimizing news organizations and he’s assaulting the First Amendment. And the threat of defunding them. At threat, he’s dictating what universities themselves can teach. He’s targeting law firms and the judicial branch that are the foundations of an orderly and civil society. He’s calling for a sitting governor to be arrested for no other reason than to, in his own words, 'for getting elected.' And we all know, this Saturday, he’s ordering our American heroes, the United States military, and forcing them to put on a vulgar display to celebrate his birthday, just as other failed dictators have done in the past. Look, this isn’t just about protests here in Los Angeles. When Donald Trump sought blanket authority to commandeer the National Guard. he made that order apply to every state in this nation. This is about all of us. This is about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next." Gavin Newsom gave a short, clear speech on Democracy at a Crossroads. (Feels more like Democracy is parked on the tracks at a railroad crossing.)

+ "The president of the United States has been tougher on L.A. than Russia. Remember that two-week deadline he gave Putin to sit down for peace talks with Ukraine? As of tomorrow, it’s two weeks. But by all means, send the Marines to The Grove." Jimmy Kimmel completely nails it (and hopefully gives a lesson to some in the media) as he outlines what's really happening in LA. (Jimmy Kimmel fighting the good fight every night makes it a lot easier for some of us to wake up the next morning and do the same.)

+ We've got more politicians telling the truth about what's going on. We've got more cultural icons and celebrities telling the truth about what's going on. But a lot more people have to follow their example. The more people who speak out, the less scary it is to do so. And we need more of our best and bravest to join the chorus. Tom Nichols in The Atlantic (Gift Article) on Trump's unhinged, politicized speech at Fort Bragg: The Silence of the Generals. "Trump, himself a convicted felon, doesn’t care about rules and laws, but active-duty military members are not allowed to attend political rallies in uniform. They are not allowed to express partisan views while on duty, or to show disrespect for American elected officials. Trump may not know these rules and regulations, but the officers who lead these men and women know them well. It is part of their oath, their credo, and their identity as officers to remain apart from such displays. Young soldiers will make mistakes. But if senior officers remain silent, what lesson will those young men and women take from what happened today?"

3

Rev on the Redline

"Revolutions have a logic. The revolutionaries start with a big, transformative, impossible goal. They want to remake society, smash existing institutions, replace them with something different. They know they will do damage on the road to their utopia, and they know people will object. Committed to their ideology, the revolutionaries pursue their goals anyway. Inevitably, a crisis appears ... But whatever the nature of the crisis, it forces the revolutionaries to make a choice. Give up—or radicalize. Find compromises—or polarize society further. Slow down—or use violence." In The Atlantic (Gift Article), Anne Applebaum with an overview of where we are: This Is What Trump Does When His Revolution Sputters. "The logic of revolution often traps revolutionaries: They start out thinking that the task will be swift and easy. The people will support them. Their cause is just. But as their project falters, their vision narrows. At each obstacle, after each catastrophe, the turn to violence becomes that much swifter, the harsh decisions that much easier. If not stopped, by Congress or the courts, the Trump revolution will follow that logic too."

4

These Pipes Are Clean

"The medieval heart of this 955-year-old city is home to one of the most high-tech waste management systems in the world. Beneath the cobblestones lies a network of tubes that sucks trash out of the city with the force of half a million household vacuum cleaners." WaPo (Gift Article): Trash sucks: A Norwegian city uses vacuum tubes to whisk waste away. "When an inlet on Haugen’s street fills, a trapdoor opens and dumps the contents into a 20-inch steel tube below the street. At a waste station a mile away, three industrial fans start spinning. They suck air through the tubes at 40 mph, stirring up a tropical-storm-force garbage gale that subsides in a 20-foot container at the station. It’s like having a central vacuum system for your house, but also for all of your neighbors." (Why do I have a bad feeling this system will eventually lead to a headline like, "Beloved Missing Grandmother Last Seen Taking Out the Trash.")

5

Extra, Extra

Counterproductive Countermeasures: "Israelis, diaspora Jewry and friends of Israel everywhere need to understand that the way Israel is fighting the war in Gaza today is laying the groundwork for a fundamental recasting of how Israel and Jews will be seen the world over. It won’t be good." Thomas Friedman gets at a point that might not be fair, but is sadly accurate and something I've been worried about for a while. This Israeli Government Is a Danger to Jews Everywhere. (It's not just Israel's unwillingness to halt a military action that was justified. It's the antisemitism that is bubbling up across the world.)

+ Trending: "The case triggered an outcry in the town, and tapped into a broader anti-immigrant movement that has resulted in several outbreaks of violence in recent years. Far-right groups and influencers on social media amplified news of the assault case and celebrated the ensuing riots." NYT (Gift Article): Anti-Immigrant Rioting Stretches Into Second Night in Northern Ireland. (The trends enveloping America are sadly not unique.)

+ Fulbright Dims: "The State Department was supposed to send acceptance letters by April, the people said. But instead, the board learned that the office of public diplomacy at the agency had begun sending rejection letters to the scholars based mainly on their research topics." Fulbright Board Resigns After Accusing Trump Aides of Political Interference. (It's good see these ethical stands. But it's hard not to worry that mass resignations are exactly what the administration wants.)

+ Uncle: Last week, in response to the Musk/Trump spat heard 'round the world, I wrote, "Everything about 2025 so far is evidence that Trump and Musk are likely to patch things up and work together toward the common bad once more. After all, that’s the worst possible outcome." This week: Elon Musk says some of his social media posts about Trump 'went too far.' (This is all turning out a lot like Musk's proposed cage fight against Mark Zuckerberg...)

+ This Seema Like a Fema Schema: "President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he planned to start 'phasing out' the Federal Emergency Management Agency after the hurricane season and that states would receive less federal aid to respond to natural disasters. Trump also said he planned to distribute disaster relief funds directly from the president’s office."

+ Own Goal: "The 2026 World Cup has been billed as the opportunity of a lifetime, as a chance for the U.S. men’s national team to “change soccer in America forever.” It will be a monthlong moment to captivate a country and lift an entire sport; a moment that everyone, for years, assumed a rising USMNT would seize with pride." But things aren't going according to plan. And the recent failures of the US men's team seem like a pretty solid metaphor for the weirdness of America hosting a global event (not to mention sharing World Cup hosting duties with Canada and Mexico).

+ Minor Inconvenience: "Ross Minor wasn’t born blind. One night in 2006, as he and his older brother slept in their bedroom, his father, angry after being threatened with a divorce, walked in and shot Minor and his brother in the head. Then he turned the gun on himself. Minor woke up in the hospital, where he was told that his brother and father were both dead. Minor couldn’t see the person who told him this ... Today, he’s a hardcore gamer who runs YouTube and Twitch channels and consults for big studios." Wired: The Blind Leading the Gamers.

+ Tariff Not Now, When? "US consumer prices rose less than expected in May, indicating that while many economists expect President Donald Trump’s tariff regime to lead to higher prices, that has not happened yet."

+ Brians' Song: "Brian Wilson, who as the leader and chief songwriter of the Beach Boys became rock’s poet laureate of surf-and-sun innocence, but also an embodiment of damaged genius through his struggles with mental illness and drugs, has died. He was 82."

6

Bottom of the News

"The 18th-century English writer Samuel Johnson once wrote, 'He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others’. It’s a sentiment eagerly embraced by The Dull Men’s Club. Several million members in a number of connected Facebook groups strive to cause dullness in others on a daily basis. In this club, they wear their dullness with pride. The duller the better. This is where the nerds of the world unite." Meet the members of the Dull Men’s Club: ‘Some of them would bore the ears off you.' (What I wouldn't give for a little more dullness these days...)

+ "Tom Bodett, known for his radio and TV ads telling travelers that at Motel 6 'we'll leave the light on for you,' has sued the motel chain for using his name and voice without permission ... Bodett had been Motel 6's lead spokesman since 1986, and said he coined 'we'll leave the light on for you' as an ad-lib."