Over the weekend, President Trump and his minions hinted that impeachment hearings might lead to a civil war. One could argue that the threatened civil war is already happening among government agencies. The latest salvo comes from Mike Pompeo who now says State Dept. officials won't show up for scheduled impeachment depositions this week. "The statements came as Pompeo's role in the Ukraine investigation broadened with reports that he was a participant in the July 25 call by President Trump to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky."

+ WaPo: Barr personally asked foreign officials to aid inquiry into CIA, FBI activities in 2016.

+ Politico on the ways that team Trump is cranking up the grievance machine. A video ad used "as part of an online counteroffensive to the impeachment push ... brought in 50,000-plus new donors and raked in $8.5 million in two days." (This gives me hope that I'll still be able to unload my WeWork IPO shares...)

+ Here's the latest on the impeachment story from CNN.

"While the new findings are likely to please proponents of popular high-protein diets, they seem certain to add to public consternation over dietary advice that seems to change every few years." NYT: Eat Less Red Meat, Scientists Said. Now Some Believe That Was Bad Advice. (I'm just gonna sit back and eat my pasta and butter sandwich and see how this all plays out.)

+ "How did the authors of the new studies come to a wildly different conclusion? It's less a story about whether or not one should eat meat and more about how nutrition recommendations are — or should be — made." Julia Belluz in Vox: The new fight raging in nutrition science, explained.

+ In related news, America never really liked kale.

"160 aircraft flew overhead, while more than 600 tanks, missiles and other weapons systems slowly rolled past carefully selected onlookers throughout the morning." As China flexed its muscles in a parade marking 70 years of Communist rule (Yippee!), Hong Kong marked the anniversary with more protests. BBC: China anniversary: Hong Kong protester shot by live round.

+ Four months, 1,500 arrests, 2,000 rounds of tear gas. From the NYT: 115 Days of Hong Kong Protests. How Did We Get Here?

"He lit a cigarette and rolled down the window as he drove by the dusty ranches and dry lakebeds of West Texas. He'd started smoking to cope with the stress of medical school, but now he'd been practicing rural family medicine for 41 years as the stresses continued to mount. He was the only working doctor left to care for three remote counties east of El Paso, an area similar in size to the entire state of Maryland." WaPo's excellent Eli Saslow on the dramatic shortage of rural doctors (and why the pressing problem could get even worse). 'Out here, it's just me': In the medical desert of rural America, one doctor for 11,000 square miles.

I used to run a small search engine. So I can tell you, with some authority, that the worst thing about providing people with a search box is that you'll find out what they search for -- and what they're able to find. "Last year, tech companies reported over 45 million online photos and videos of children being sexually abused — more than double what they found the previous year." A special report from the NYT: The Internet Is Overrun With Images of Child Sexual Abuse. What Went Wrong?

"We want to engage in good faith the NCAA and other states, but at the end of the day, we want to address this injustice in higher education. No other student is restricted in using their name, image and likeness. Not one. Only athletes." LA Times: California will allow college athletes to profit from endorsements under bill signed by Newsom. (This is the latest salvo in an ongoing battle between lawmakers and an often corrupt NCAA. In the meantime, every student athlete should be required to major in Econ...)

"You have someone like Elizabeth Warren who thinks that the right answer is to break up the companies ... if she gets elected president, then I would bet that we will have a legal challenge, and I would bet that we will win the legal challenge. And does that still suck for us? Yeah. I mean, I don't want to have a major lawsuit against our own government. ... But look, at the end of the day, if someone's going to try to threaten something that existential, you go to the mat and you fight." The Verge: In two hours of leaked audio, Mark Zuckerberg rallies Facebook employees against critics, competitors, and the US government. (If nothing else, this leak means that Facebook can't even be trusted with their own privacy.)

"A jury has found former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger guilty of murder after less than 24 hours of deliberation. Guyger was indicted last year after fatally shooting her unarmed neighbor, Botham Jean, in his apartment, which she said she mistook as hers." CNN with the latest on a case that sparked interest and outrage: Ex-cop who killed neighbor in his own home found guilty of murder.

"The documents, combined with earlier reporting spearheaded by the BBC and ProPublica, paint a picture of a coach and doctor who used athletes, employees and, in one case, even Salazar's own sons, as guinea pigs to test theories on how supplements and medicine could enhance their performance. The documents also show they went to great lengths to produce falsified and incomplete medical records that made their master plan hard to detect. Behind it all was the world's largest sportswear company." AP: Suspicious athletes led to coaching great Alberto Salazar's downfall.

"People say age is just a number, yet this truth glosses over the fact that number refers, rather crucially, to the number of years one has been alive." Sarah Miller reflects on dating a younger man. Darkness on the Edge of Cougartown.

+ "Midcentury Modern architecture and Japanese shou sugi ban wood exteriors. Wall-to-wall block-print wallpaper and shabby chic crystal chandeliers. These are not features on a Los Angeles home tour but the kind of amenities you might find in some of the city's more elaborate chicken coops." LA Times: From chandeliers to AC, how some LA owners pamper their pets.

+ At long last, a self-driving garbage can.