An American Story, Continued.
Let’s review. America is a gun maniacal society where there are few limits when it comes to getting weapons of war into the hands of citizens. America has a uniquely disturbing school shooting problem, and so far, none of those shootings, no matter how devastating, have altered the long term trajectory of selling increasingly deadly guns. We have decided as a nation that the need for these guns outweighs the cost of nearly 50,000 gun related deaths a year. The tone of our political exchanges is heated, terrible, and often violent. This starts right at the top, with regular incitements of and praise for violence against opponents, and even the making fun of victims of heinous crimes. This violent rhetoric has not abated, even as we’ve suffered a recent series of politically motivated attacks. With a focus on engagement and the bottom line, our social networks encourage divisiveness, hate, and fear of the other. It’s so bad that the hate, violent rhetoric, and dangerous conspiracy theories being directed toward our fellow Americans immediately increased after the latest political assassination; the bile spewing long before a suspect was apprehended—with everyone within thumbs-reach of a connected device weighing in on the broader meaning of one shot fired by one person before we even knew who that person was. And instead of tamping down this social networkization of American discourse, many of our virality-starved so-called leaders adopt it, bringing the often anonymous venomous hate speech once limited to the dark basement of the internet onto the floor of the Capitol. If you tasked a super-computer powered AI with developing an environment conducive to political violence, it’s hard to imagine it could do much better than American humans have done on their own. Like other acts of murder, political or otherwise, featuring a high-powered weapon shot across a school campus, the latest example is another tragic, and in some ways inevitable, chapter in one of America’s longest running stories. Because of our reaction to it, from the Oval Office to the bubbling social media cauldron of misinformed rage it mirrors, it’s also sadly predictive of more violence to come.
+ “It doesn’t know what side of the aisle you’re on or what your ideology might be, who your allies are or what your vision for the future includes. It doesn’t know what brand of media you consume or how many ardent followers you have. Political violence doesn’t know and doesn’t care about such things. Like an infectious disease, it simply – and efficiently – finds more and more victims. It isn’t picky about who they are.” Charlie Kirk’s killing is a tragic marker of the indiscriminate nature of political violence.
+ George Packer in The Atlantic: The Tragedy of Charlie Kirk’s Killing. “No one should feel anything but horror and dread at the murder of Charlie Kirk. And no one should use the killing of a man known for his defense of free speech to muzzle others or themselves from speaking the truth about the perilous state we’re in.”
+ Packer’s take makes obvious sense. Trump, unsurprisingly, has another view. “For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now. My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law-enforcement officials, and everyone else who brings order to our country.” Predictably, “Trump’s list goes back to the 2017 shooting of Steve Scalise, but omits the shootings of two Democratic legislators at their homes earlier this summer. It does not mention the 2020 attempted kidnapping of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, or the brutal attack on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband in 2022 (which Trump has used as a punch line to mock the victim).” The Atlantic (Gift Article): Trump’s Dangerous Response to the Kirk Assassination.
+ Trump Orders Flags Half-Mast for Kirk, but Didn’t for Melissa Hortman. (Gun violence is so prevalent in America, maybe we should just leave them at half-mast…)
+ Here’s the latest on the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk and the hunt for the perpetrator, from the NYT and CNN.
Democracy Decides Coups Are to Be Frowned Upon
“Brazil’s Supreme Court has found former president Jair Bolsonaro guilty of attempting a military coup to stay in power after his 2022 election loss, a plot that included plans to assassinate President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the man who defeated him, in a case that has roiled this young democracy and strained its relations with President Donald Trump.”
Kingdom Comes Around
“The kingdom is betting that sunshine can transform its economy and bolster its coffers. It needs electricity for new tourism resorts, factories and AI data centers. Green energy could also squeeze more value from the fossil fuels that made the kingdom rich. Saudi Arabia burns oil to generate electricity; embracing alternatives frees up barrels for export. The spread of glass across the desert is one of the starkest illustrations yet of how the plummeting cost of Chinese-made solar panels and batteries is changing how the world generates power, even as the U.S. takes aim at renewables.” WSJ (Gift Article): Oil Giant Saudi Arabia Is Emerging as a Solar Power.
Here’s the Rub
“Gallant, sleeveless and heavily tattooed, began slowly smoothing a white sheet atop his model’s shoulders. He wore pink pants and a belt holding massage oil. A German man dressed in black lit the blanket covering his recipient on fire; orange flames danced briefly and went out. Voilà: blanket warmed. A Hungarian woman in a white jumpsuit began spreading a green substance onto a man’s bare back. Harris perched like a dancer in her hammocks, tilting toward her model’s shoulders, a beatific expression on her face. Music like a synthetic sunrise began playing. It was hard to tell who was winning.” The New Yorker: Rivals Rub Shoulders in the World of Competitive Massage.
Extra, Extra
Cane Unable: “Subtropical oceans across the planet, including regions of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, have surged to record levels of warmth, and that may be having the counterintuitive effect of contributing to fewer tropical storms.” This helps explain why people in San Francisco have been sweating through some very unusual (and unwelcome) humidity. More importantly, it seems to be impacting hurricane season. WaPo (Gift Article): It’s the typical peak of Atlantic hurricane season. Where are all the storms?
+ Give and Rake: “The problem with evaluating this administration’s economic agenda is that Trumponomics is about Trump far more than it is about economics. There is no clear theory of growth steering the U.S. economy, just one man’s desire to colonize every square inch of American attention and experience, which happens to include international markets. Trumponomics, then, is best understood as Trump’s formula for controlling everything around him, rather than an ideology with a telos. That formula has three main components. The first is declaring an emergency to justify intervention. The second is making threats to force private actors to do his bidding. The third is demanding tribute.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Era of Step-on-a-Rake Capitalism.
+ Train Wreck: NYT “These events were the latest display of how Mr. Trump is using the negotiations over trade to pursue his agenda, despite the diplomatic, political and economic consequences for America’s closest allies.” (Gift Article): In South Korea and Japan, Fury at U.S. Fuels Backlash Over Trade Deals. Meanwhile, after the administration made a big show of arresting South Korean workers at a Georgia plant, they asked them if they wanted to stay in the country and train American workers. WaPo (Gift Article): Trump offered to let S. Korean detainees stay, train U.S. workers, Seoul says.
+ Consequences? “The emails show that the depth and extent of Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is materially different from that known at the time of his appointment.” Peter Mandelson was fired as UK ambassador to the US because of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Bloomberg (Gift Article) with the backstory. UK Ambassador Told Epstein ‘I Think the World of You,’ Emails Reveal.
+ Negotiate a Complis: “A former Mossad officer captured the sentiment among Israeli security experts, and no doubt many exhausted Israeli citizens, who are desperate for an end to the war but unsure how to find any lasting peace with Hamas: ‘The targets are evil. The world is a better place without them. The timing is political and stupid.'” When You Try to Kill the Negotiators, Negotiations End. (It’s worth considering that Netanyahu wanted just that outcome.)
+ Single Handed: A single exercise session may slow cancer cell growth, new study shows. (I’m beginning to think exercise is pretty good for you.)
+ Can You Hear Me Now? “It’s been a long time coming but Spotify is finally getting lossless audio. Rumors have been circulating about a high-fidelity offering since as early as 2017. In 2021, Spotify claimed it was ‘coming later this year.’ And by May of 2024 it was ‘almost ready.'” I’ll believe it when I hear it. Although, they waited so long, my ears might be too old to notice the difference.
+ Achieving Flo State: Polly Holliday has died at the age of 88. You might not recognize the name. But those of a certain age will definitely remember her most famous tagline. Kiss my grits.
Bottom of the News
“The thoroughbred mare, known for donning a pink Hello Kitty face mask while racing, was once dubbed ‘the shining star of losers everywhere.'” Horse famed for losing every single race is mourned.
