June 26th – The Day’s Most Fascinating News

The Supremes uphold the travel ban, why SF residents need to bus their own tables, and Audacity Without the Hope.

“The 5-4 decision Tuesday is a big victory for Trump on an issue that is central to his presidency, and the court’s first substantive ruling on a Trump administration policy. The president quickly tweeted his reaction: ‘Wow!'” From AP: A sharply divided Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld President Donald Trump’s ban on travel from several mostly Muslim countries. The majority opinion rejected the notion that the ban discriminates against Muslims or exceeds presidential authority. In writing the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote: “We express no view on the soundness of the policy.”

+ Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote the dissent: [The ruling] leaves undisturbed a policy first advertised openly and unequivocally as a ‘total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States’ because the policy now masquerades behind a façade of national-security concerns.”

+ “The travel ban ruling is the latest major consequence of the blockade of Merrick Garland.” If that fact was lost on you, Mitch McConnell was happy to tweet a reminder.

+ Here’s the latest on the reaction to the Court’s decision.

+ In another decision, “the U.S. Supreme Court has reversed a lower court decision upholding a California law requiring anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers to more fully disclose what they are.”

2

The Server Economy

“Inside these restaurants, it’s evident that the forces making this one of the most expensive cities in America are subtly altering the economics of everything. Commercial rents have gone up. Labor costs have soared. And restaurant workers, many of them priced out by the expense of housing, have been moving away.” Emily Badger in the NYT: San Francisco Restaurants Can’t Afford Waiters. So They’re Putting Diners to Work.

+ The restaurant economy can be traced from the table all the way back to the farm where income is low and stress is high. CBS News: Farmers in America are killing themselves in staggering numbers.

3

Family Guise

“The United States government knows the location of all children in its custody and is working to reunite them with their families. This process is well coordinated.” So says the Department of Homeland Security. Reports from the ground differ. From Buzzfeed: Learning where the US is keeping your child is only the beginning of the fight for reunification.

+ NBC News with a look at the first non-government video from inside a facility that serves children who have been taken from their parents.

+ The New Yorker: “The theatre of cruelty unfolding at the southern border last week was the purest distillation yet of what it means to be governed by a President with no moral center.”

4

I Think I Cannabidiol

“The FDA says this is the first drug approved in the U.S. that contains a purified substance derived from marijuana.” NPR: FDA Green Lights Marijuana-Based Pharmaceutical Drug.

+ It’s taken decades to approve the first marijuana-based drug with no major side-effects. Meanwhile, other drugs with potentially deadly side-effects are being rushed to market by the FDA.

+ Buzzfeed: Meet The Kratom Warriors Who Say This Plant Will End The Opioid Epidemic. “There’s just one problem. The government is in secret talks to possibly ban the plant, suspecting that kratom is not the answer to the opioid crisis, but the start of a new one.”

+ Vice: Psychedelics are going mainstream, because the mainstream needs them.

5

Swedes of Discontent

“Yet the country is showing strains all too familiar in other parts of Europe with nationalists gaining support and Swedes increasingly questioning the sustainability of their fabled cradle-to-grave welfare system.” Bloomberg: Now Even Swedes Are Questioning the Welfare State.

6

Boss Hog

“A Harley-Davidson should never be built in another country-never! Their employees and customers are already very angry at them. If they move, watch, it will be the beginning of the end – they surrendered, they quit! The Aura will be gone and they will be taxed like never before!” Trump threatens Harley-Davidson. And like most Twitter users, the president has his facts wrong.

+ Reminder: Most Trump-branded products are made overseas. (We should put a tariff on hypocrisy.)

7

Dad Baud

How Old Are Successful Tech Entrepreneurs? The answer might surprise you. “The researchers find that, contrary to popular thinking, the best entrepreneurs tend to be middle-aged. Among the very fastest-growing new tech companies, the average founder was 45 at the time of founding. Furthermore, a given 50-year-old entrepreneur is nearly twice as likely to have a runaway success as a 30-year-old.” (This just makes us look all the more ridiculous riding around on those scooters…)

+ Breath of the Wild Success: “The outside world is wondering how a company periodically left for dead keeps revitalizing itself. But seesawing is nothing new for Nintendo. It has long alternated between fallow periods, in which the media churns out reports of pending doom, and boom times, during which Nintendo Mania is cast as an unstoppable force. What remains constant is the company’s understated and zealously guarded culture.” Bloomberg: The Legend of Nintendo.

8

Audacity Without the Hope

“Any one of the scandals currently facing him would have brought down an ordinary president. In his case, each one has merely confirmed Trump’s core belief that Trump needs to be more Trumpian.” The always entertaining and informative Dave Pell on Donald Trump’s super power, which has been on full display this week. Audacity Without the Hope.

9

Death Mettle

“Nearly a million people have downloaded the starter kit for the Conversation Project, a guide to discussing plans for the end of life. Others use the popular WeCroak app, which sends five daily reminders that we are all going to die. All share a common idea: that Western culture has become too squeamish about talking about death, and that the silence impoverishes the lives leading up to it.” NYT: The Positive Death Movement Comes to Life. (Editor’s note: I remain negative.)

10

Bottom of the News

“Danny don’t you know that you are cool as f*ck on the inside. You’re just going through an awkward phase from 12 to 29.” Ninja Sex Party has finally released their much antipated nerd anthem. It’s incredible. Danny Don’t You Know.

+ Dog really is man’s best friend, at least when dog knows CPR.

+ In honor of his selection as the NBA’s MVP, here is an oral history of how James Harden grew The Beard.

+ Here’s something shocking about a person pictured in one of the internet’s biggest memes.

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