Extra, Extra
To The Left, To The Left: “Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive former public health official, won a razor-thin victory in the Democratic primary for Senate in Michigan that serves as the most significant triumph for his party’s left wing this year.” The Left Wins a Nail-Biter in Michigan: 8 Takeaways From Tuesday’s Primaries.
+ Waterways and Means: “By asserting authority over a critical waterway for global crude-oil flows, Tehran is betting that its ability to inflict pain on the American economy is its best leverage to avoid future military action from the U.S. and Israel. With gasoline prices and inflation elevated, Tehran believes Trump will ultimately accept its terms ahead of fast-approaching midterm elections that could determine the future of his presidency.” WSJ (Gift Article): Iran Is Staking Everything on Controlling the Strait of Hormuz. And from Reuters: Proposed Hormuz deal would give Iran control of inbound traffic.
+ Stirring Crazy: “The war in Iran, however, has shown that Trump’s inability to perceive reality has become truly dangerous. He led the United States into a disastrous conflict because he thought his ‘gut’ was smarter than the advisers who warned him that deposing Iran’s regime was unlikely. He continues to mislead the American people, and perhaps himself, about America’s strategic defeat at the hands of one of its worst enemies. The world economy and the balance of power have been changed, perhaps for many decades to come, because Trump cannot draw links between cause and effect; he does not understand that his actions and the failures that follow are somehow related to each other.” Tom Nichols in The Atlantic (Gift Article) with a message that seems self-evident, but bears repeating. Trump’s Irrationality Is Dangerous.
+ Dis Service: “Trump’s immigration crackdown has detained more than 50 military spouses and parents.” (Feel safer?)
+ Miner Details: “Respiratory therapist Marcy Freeman doesn’t need a research study to confirm for her a return to the dark days of coal mining. She finds evidence in a stack of more than 150 funeral programs.” Black lung rates in Appalachia are as high as the 1970s.
+ The Clark of History: For many of us, sports is an escape, the last refuge from the onslaught of political news. Not so for Caitlyn Clark. Caitlin Clark just wants to shut up and dribble.
+ The Spark of History: “The county’s fire department said the blaze, which killed 19 people and destroyed more than 9,400 buildings, was started by electrical sparks coming off the tower, according to a joint investigation by the department and Cal Fire, the state’s firefighting agency. The tower was out of service at the time.” Officials Say They’ve Found the Cause of a Fire That Devastated L.A.
+ The Humanity of Animals: NYT (Gift Article): Dolphin Carries Dead Calf in What Experts Call Grieving. (I don’t think one needs to be an expert to call it that.)
+ Flipping the Berg: Oh nothing. Just a Massive Iceberg Collapsing and Flipping Over in Ilulissat, Greenland.
