Extra, Extra
250 Ways To Leave Your Govern: “Inevitably, the Trump administration has destroyed the nation’s 250th-anniversary celebrations. I was 11 in 1976, during the bicentennial, and that July 4, I was at a summer camp in North Carolina. I remember celebratory flag-raising and patriotic songs, as well as sparklers in the evening. At the time, we didn’t think there was a permanent cultural divide between red states and blue states. In retrospect, I’m sure some of my fellow campers came from families with views different from mine. It didn’t matter to our celebration of the bicentennial, mostly because we were 11. But it also wouldn’t have mattered even if we were adults, because everyone knew that the bicentennial was for all of us. The tall ships, the fireworks, the Freedom Train that carried a moon rock around the country—all of these were symbols we shared, no matter which part of America we came from. President Gerald Ford didn’t try to make the events of that year about himself or his base, or his tribe, or his bank account. This year is different, because the White House is inhabited by people who don’t believe in the ‘abstractions’ that we usually celebrate on the Fourth of July. And this affects the rest of us, whether we want it to or not.” Anne Applebaum nails it in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Trump’s Anti-Patriotic Trap. (I think the best bet is to focus on the local and enjoy your friends and family this Fourth. I’m going to watch the SF fog light up in different colors the same way I do every year. Hopefully, America’s 252nd-and-a-half birthday is going to be the greatest party in history.)
+ Strike Struck: As the Pentagon stays quiet, AP reconstructs a US strike that killed over 100 Iranian children. “In almost any other conflict, these haunting truths would be seared into national memory. Yet more than 120 days since at least one U.S. missile struck an Iranian primary school, there remains no final accounting of what happened.”
+ Deport to a Storm: “The plane carrying 146 Venezuelans deported from the United States arrived at Venezuela’s main airport last Wednesday — just eight hours before the ground began to violently shake. Venezuelan officials welcomed the deportees — 120 men, 19 women and 7 children — and recorded carefully staged videos celebrating their arrival after spending weeks in U.S. detention centers. Most, if not all, were then ferried away from the cameras to a state-run holding facility, where they settled into bunk beds and were told they would be released the next day, after being processed.” Killed by the Venezuelan Quakes Just Hours After Being Deported From U.S.
+ Unnatural Disaster: “Venezuela’s man-made disasters didn’t take long to exacerbate the natural one. For 28 years and counting, Venezuela’s rulers have stolen or squandered much of the oil revenue of the most oil-rich country in the world. Oligarchs pocketed the petrodollars of the late-aughts oil boom and left the nation somehow poorer and more indebted. In the hours just before the earthquakes struck, the regime released a total figure for the amount that it owed its creditors: $240 billion. The humanitarian consequences of this wastefulness were well documented before last Wednesday. Now they have acquired a fresh urgency.” The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Vultures Arrived Before the Rescue Teams. “The lack of preparation is unforgivable. Worse, the regime led by Delcy Rodríguez—under the heavy-handed management of the Trump administration—has taken active steps to make matters worse. The government deployed the military to the disaster areas not to help but to diffuse any expression of public discontent.”
+ Establishing a Trend: First, it was New York. Now it’s Colorado. Politico: Anti-establishment avalanche buries a pair of Colorado Democratic stalwarts.
+ Anthropics Or It Didn’t Happen: “The Trump administration and Anthropic have reached an agreement to restore access to the company’s most recent general-access artificial-intelligence model, resolving a fight that showed how the White House is intervening to address security concerns in the fast-growing industry.”
+ City on a Mission: “Mission Dolores was founded by Spanish missionaries the same year the U.S. declared its independence. It has borne witness to its own version of the American story—not the one you learned in school but one with much to say about what it means to be American.” Esquire: The San Francisco Church That Holds America’s Secrets.
+ A Tough Cell: “Scientists have long dreamed of discovering the alchemy by which chemicals can be turned into life. On Wednesday, a team at the University of Minnesota announced that it had taken a major step toward that vision. Blending together dozens of ingredients, the researchers have synthesized simple cells that feed, grow, reproduce and compete with one another for food. If these cells are not yet fully alive, they have most of the hallmarks of life.” NYT (Gift Article): This Cell Feeds, Grows and Reproduces. And It’s Manmade. (Call me when it can distill the news…)
