Exposing Lies, Hooters Tooters
They say the cover-up is worse than the crime. I’m not sure that adage can hold true when offense includes sharing war plans on a group chat that included a journalist and a member of the administration who was in Moscow. But the cover-up is definitely more predictable than the crime. When DOD’s Pete Hegseth, DNI’s Tulsi Gabbard, CIA’s John Radcliffe, and OMFG’s Donald Trump all denied that the instantly infamous Signal chat detailed war plans or included classified information, it came as little surprise. But as the original story’s author Jeffrey Goldberg explains: “These statements presented us with a dilemma. In The Atlantic’s initial story about the Signal chat—the “Houthi PC small group,” as it was named by Waltz—we withheld specific information related to weapons and to the timing of attacks that we found in certain texts. As a general rule, we do not publish information about military operations if that information could possibly jeopardize the lives of U.S. personnel. That is why we chose to characterize the nature of the information being shared, not specific details about the attacks. The statements by Hegseth, Gabbard, Ratcliffe, and Trump—combined with the assertions made by numerous administration officials that we are lying about the content of the Signal texts—have led us to believe that people should see the texts in order to reach their own conclusions.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): So, about that Signal chat.
+ The exposing of the predictable lies issued by the Trump team will likely be met with more attacks on Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg. But here’s the truth. Goldberg is a rock solid journalist, who, at a time when so many individuals are cowering in fear or ceding the ethical high ground, is standing firm—both in terms of this particular story and in terms of The Atlantic’s consistently prescient, excellent, and accurate coverage of this era. So journalists (along with readers who care about the truth) should band together behind Goldberg. Don’t just call out the individuals and institutions that let you down, celebrate and support those that hold you up. Consider that Jeffrey Goldberg is the journalist who informed us that Trump described Americans who died in war as “suckers and losers,” who told us that James Mattis denounced Trump as a threat to the constitution, who predicted that the Capitol Riot was a prologue, who reminded us that Trump longed for military leaders who would be more like Hitler’s generals, and who warned us that a second Trump term would be much worse (OK, he understated that one). Maybe if the average American voter watched a little less Fox News and read a little more Jeffrey Goldberg, we wouldn’t be in this f-cking mess in the first place.
+ “If you’re running the security directorate of a hostile nation, savor this moment. It’s never been easier to steal secrets from the United States government. Can you even call it stealing when it’s this simple? The Trump administration has unlocked the vault doors, fired half of the security guards and asked the rest to roll pennies. Walk right in. Take what you want. This is the golden age.” Noah Shachtman in the NYT (Gift Article): Foreign Spies to Team Trump: 👊🇺🇸🔥
+ Our enemies are excited by the leak. Our allies are sickened by it. Disdain for Europe in US Signal chat horrifies EU.
Poof
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz set the Signal chat messages to disappear after 4 weeks. It makes one wonder how long these guys expect to wait before disappearing democracy. AP: “President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking broad changes to how elections are run in the U.S. is vast in scope and holds the potential to reorder the voting landscape across the country.” Of course, voting often only directly impacts two of the three branches of government. How should we deal with that pesky third one? Mike Johnson has some ideas. “Republican House speaker Mike Johnson suggested potentially defunding, restructuring or eliminating US federal courts as a means of pushing back against judicial decisions that have challenged Donald Trump’s policies.”
Perps Walk
“When a prosecutor began chasing an accused serial rapist, she lost her job but unravelled a scandal. Why were the police refusing to investigate Sean Williams?” Ronan Farrow’s latest investigation for The New Yorker: How Police Let One of America’s Most Prolific Predators Get Away.
+ This is an extreme example of all-to-common problem. It’s not just that predators get away. Victims are often punished. Be sure to watch the Center for Investigative Reporting’s doc on Netflix: Victim/Suspect.
Hooters Tutors
“Our waitress was a tall, brassy blonde — a caricature of the caricature that is a Hooters waitress. She was in her late 20s with a deep yet indistinct Southern accent, and I could tell she clocked me almost immediately. Who knows if it was how I held myself or how my voice quivered or how my eyes slid away from hers. But later in the meal, when my grandfather went to the restroom, she slipped into the booth across from me and leaned in close. ‘You’re perfect just the way you are, kid,’ she said, or something near enough to it, her voice low, kind and certain. Consider the delicious irony that a chain restaurant famed for its cleavage and chicken wings somehow became a secret sanctuary for young gay men.” Peter Rothpletz in the NYT (Gift Article): Why Dads Take Their Gay Sons to Hooters.
Extra, Extra
Vax Attacks: Foreign aid is not popular politically, so it isn’t one of the big talking points among the opposition. But that doesn’t mean America’s ruthless cuts (to save what amounts to little more than a budgeting rounding error) are not a big story. NYT (Gift Article): U.S. to End Vaccine Funds for Poor Countries. “The Trump administration intends to terminate the United States’ financial support for Gavi, the organization that has helped purchase critical vaccines for children in developing countries, saving millions of lives over the past quarter century, and to significantly scale back support for efforts to combat malaria, one of the biggest killers globally.”
+ Friendly Ghost Ruling: “The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld Biden-era federal regulations on ‘ghost guns,’ mail-order kits that allow people to build untraceable weapons at home – handing gun control groups a rare win at the conservative high court.”
+ Inside Job: This one was inevitable. Senate Majority Leader Pushes Estate Tax Repeal in GOP Bill Talks.
+ Tariffs, Ands, and Buts: The market wants clarity on tariffs. Every day, the market gets wildly different signals from the White House. Those signals drive the market to soar or fall dramatically. Will anyone be surprised if we learn that there are Trump cronies who know about the signals in advance and are trading accordingly?
+ That’s Nuts: DOGE staffer ‘Big Balls’ provided tech support to cybercrime ring, records show.
+ Curry Sauce: “Stephen Curry teams up with Michelle Obama to launch sports drink.” (The tagline just writes itself: When they go low, we jump high.)
Bottom of the News
The Stare Master: “Millions have been transfixed by videos of Karis Dadson, a California teenager who shows pigs at livestock competitions. She finds the whole thing very weird.” NYT (Gift Article): The ‘Iconic’ Stare That Conquered the Internet.
+ “Sometimes brands attempt to diversify in ways that don’t make sense — Cheetos once tried to market a lip balm. Other times, it feels kismet, like Edible Arrangements parent Edibles Brands’ decision to launch a D2C digital platform for… well, edibles.”
