The State of the Farce
“No fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals.” That was the key message during what Pete Hegseth called his “State of the Force” address, in which he also accused “the anti-American losers in our media” of treason for reporting negative stories about the Iran war, “that every red-blooded American is proud of,” and proclaimed that, “the ideological clowns are out, the patriotic cowboys are in, with testosterone testing on top.” (I kept waiting for Sgt. Hulka to walk onto the stage and say, “Lighten up, Francis.”) Given the state of the war he pushed inside the administration, Hegseth might want to spend less time worrying about low T and more time worrying about the lack of Ws. But while some of his strategies haven’t worked against our enemies, they’ve been very effective at remaking the military in ways that may take a long time to undo. Many military leaders and troops have been forced out under Hegseth’s leadership, and the ones who remain have to sit through speeches like this. Tom Nichols in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Pete Hegseth, Idea Guy. “He eagerly sowed division between the U.S. military and the society it serves … Hegseth’s speech proved, yet again, that he is manifestly unfit for his job. America can endure a bloated Pentagon with some generals in make-work jobs. It can stand to trim the waste in expensive programs and root out incompetent bureaucrats. What a democracy cannot—and should not—tolerate is a secretary of defense who trucks in propaganda and wants the people who serve in America’s military to be the armed instrument of his own resentments and biases.”
+ Foreign Policy’s Emma Ashford: Everyone got Pete Hegseth wrong. “It is astounding how a man initially dismissed as a drunken buffoon—or a television talking head—has nonetheless so profoundly shaped the direction of the Trump administration’s defense policy. It is likewise notable that he remains so influential. Hegseth would appear to be the obvious sacrificial lamb for a president looking to off-load blame for the war in Iran, yet he remains ascendant. Clearly, in the eyes of the White House, he is doing something right. Here, the explanation may be simple: Trump sees himself in Hegseth. From angry culture war posturing to his willingness to challenge the media and an obsession with image over substance, Hegseth’s qualities are fundamentally Trumpian, suited to a television personality and not a public servant. Indeed, more than anyone else in the Trump administration, the self-styled ‘secretary of war’ is uniquely well-positioned to mimic Trump himself in this way. Yet for the rest of us, the costs inflicted by Hegseth will not be limited only to this presidency.”
+ “Pete Hegseth has held onto his job by projecting a tough guy image, but his relationship with Republican lawmakers has never been worse.” NYT (Gift Article): Hegseth Talks Tough as Republican Doubts About His Leadership Grow. Who are we kidding? There’s only one Republican whose support Hegseth needs to maintain, and he loves all the attacks on media members, fatties, trannies, beardos, weirdos, wimps, and radicals (even if he meets the criteria for several of those categories).
From Subject Tests to Test Subjects
For the past few decades, we’ve put our kids into a giant petri dish and run an endless array of experiments featuring addictive screens, streams, and social interactions. But we’ve never poured anything into the petri dish quite like AI. And even the scientists holding the beakers have some concerns. WSJ (Gift Article): Google Pushed AI Into Schools—and Even Students Say It’s Gone Too Far. “‘We’re doing this experiment on an entire generation on cognitive development, with no control group,’ said Mikel Rodriguez, a former Google research scientist who left last year. He said people inside Google privately worried among themselves about how their AI use was affecting their own cognitive skills. ‘It’s really uncertain what that’s going to lead to in terms of learning.'”
+ Middle-Schoolers Are Seeking Out AI Friends Instead of Real Human Ones.
+ An NYT (Gift Article) interview with Bill Gates, who offered several blunt warnings on AI and the notion of leaving the regulation up to the companies making the products. “I almost can’t keep a straight face. It’s fair to say that outside of the industry, the awareness of the dangers of A.I. is extremely low. And you can say that of academia, you can say that of think tanks, you can say that of policymakers, politicians. And part of the reason I’m speaking so loudly — as loud as I can — is that you can’t rely on the industry to self-regulate here. I mean, it’s just insane.”
A Plumber and a Dentist Walk into a Cockpit
Netflix may not want to buy the rights to the story of the near-disaster of the FlyDubai flight bound for Israel yesterday. It’s too unrealistic to believe. “A dentist and other passengers wrestled with a violent copilot. A plumber seized the controls as the plane plunged towards the desert. And the captain, despite being stabbed, managed to open the cockpit door — helping save all 182 people aboard the Israel-bound flight.” A plumber and a dentist are praised as heroes in FlyDubai near-disaster. The plumber had no experience flying, “but he remembered what he had seen in movies.”
+ Unprecedented: Extraordinary heroism and near-miraculous circumstances avert an airplane catastrophe.
No Whey? Way.
Whey is in such high demand and short supply that it’s a good time to run a company that can extract protein from just about anything else. “For decades, whey has reigned supreme among the added protein in packaged foods or athletes’ shakes, thanks to its dissolvability, digestibility and sheer ubiquity. (Nearly 7 million tons of whey, a natural byproduct of cheesemaking, is churned out every year in the US alone.) But with diners wanting protein in almost everything they consume, from tortilla chips to cold brew, demand is outpacing supply, driving shortages and pushing up prices. That has opened the door for smaller startups trying to extract the macronutrient from other sources.” Startups Race to Cash In on Gold Rush Sparked by Whey Protein Shortage. (I was working on a plan to include protein with each edition of NextDraft, but I decided to work on including Xanax instead. Seems both more pressing and more on brand…)
Extra, Extra
Juárez Rizz: “No one expected the artificial intelligence revolution to appear here, on the edge of the Mexican city of Juárez, across from a patch of tiny homes where Roger Vilchis sells Tostitos and Coca-Cola from a roadside stand. His neighborhood is all dust and heat, with dogs sleeping in the dirt roads and norteño music bouncing through the air. A sign on a chain-link fence warns: ‘It is prohibited to throw garbage or dead animals here.'” Mary Beth Sheridan in the NYT (Gift Article) with a very interesting look at how market forces and a changing world order are bigger than any set of policies. This Is One Map Trump Can’t Redraw. “Mexico and other middle powers are banking on their competitive advantages and indispensability to the U.S. economy to withstand the Trump administration’s tariff campaign. As Washington throws its might into dominating the global A.I. market, Mexico has become an increasingly important supplier for America’s artificial intelligence boom, providing more than one-third of the United States’ imported computer servers.”
+ Seeing Double: “The ultrawealthy aren’t just pulling away from average Americans. Buoyed by a stock-market boom that has added trillions of dollars to their net worth, the extremely rich are even pulling away from other rich Americans. The top 0.1% wealthiest Americans have seen their total wealth more than double since the end of 2019.” WSJ (Gift Article): The Gap Between the Rich and the Very, Very Rich Is Getting Wider.
+ Near Death Experience: “Pike survived two doses of the lethal injection drug pentobarbital. Media witnesses said she was still heard breathing and snoring when they were removed from the viewing area.” Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is calling for a third-party review to determine what caused Christa Pike’s failed execution Wednesday. “At least seven needles were used to administer the lethal injection into Pike’s arm over the course of an hour.” She is currently in critical condition.
+ Follow Suit: “The partner of Renee Good, a Minneapolis woman who was fatally shot by an immigration officer in January, spoke publicly about her death for the first time Thursday as the family announced that they have filed two federal civil lawsuits.” With the absence of criminal investigations and the coming preemptive Trump pardons, we’re going to see lawsuits like these used more and more.
+ Welcome Splat: Even in a year when America hosted the World Cup, “overseas visitors to the US are on track to drop by almost two million year-on-year.” Gee, I wonder what it could be…
+ Taken for a Ride: What do companies like Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Pinterest, and Reddit have to do with your daily commute? A lot, as it turns out. 19 Out of 21 Late-Model Cars Tested Shared Data With 3rd Parties, Including Big Tech Companies.
Bottom of the News
In Fiji, “more than $13 million worth of cocaine has been stolen from a courthouse and replaced with flour.” (Damn it, I’m trying to cut down on carbs…)
