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I get it. The drumbeat of bad news these days is so mind-hammering that you're driven to deploy every free minute watching Netflix and Hulu limited series to take your mind off what's happening in the headlines. You're not alone. There's a reason I'm able to recommend new shows to watch every week. But every now and then, a news story comes along that actually reads a lot more like a dramatic series—albeit with a less happy ending than most of them, and one that is probably a little better suited to be a Taylor Sheridan vehicle on Paramount Plus. Here's the setup: "A group of Navy SEALs emerged from the ink-black ocean on a winter night in early 2019 and crept to a rocky shore in North Korea. They were on a top secret mission so complex and consequential that everything had to go exactly right. The objective was to plant an electronic device that would let the United States intercept the communications of North Korea’s reclusive leader, Kim Jong-un, amid high-level nuclear talks with President Trump." Some incredible reporting from the NYT (Gift Article): How a Top Secret SEAL Team 6 Mission Into North Korea Fell Apart. "The shore team swam to the boat to make sure that all of the North Koreans were dead. They found no guns or uniforms. Evidence suggested that the crew, which people briefed on the mission said numbered two or three people, had been civilians diving for shellfish. All were dead, including the man in the water."
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Please Allow Me to Re-introduce Myself
I shouted out 'Who Killed the Kennedys' when after all, it was a Kennedy trying to kill you and me. "Some Republican senators, it seems, have begun to fret that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was not being entirely honest when he sought their votes to confirm him as secretary of Health and Human Services. Back in January, Kennedy reassured lawmaker after lawmaker that he would not limit access to vaccines. But today, before the Senate Finance Committee, he aggressively defended anti-vaccine talking points, alarming Democrats and Republicans alike." But, alas, "At least for the time being, Kennedy looks invincible. He knows it." The Atlantic (Gift Article): A Different RFK Jr. Just Appeared Before Congress.
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Flock of Legals
"Since its founding in 2017, Flock, which was valued at $7.5 billion in its most recent funding round, has quietly built a network of more than 80,000 cameras pointed at highways, thoroughfares and parking lots across the U.S. They record not just the license plate numbers of the cars that pass them, but their make and distinctive features—broken windows, dings, bumper stickers. Langley estimates its cameras help solve 1 million crimes a year. Soon they’ll help solve even more. In August, Flock’s cameras will take to the skies mounted on its own 'made in America drones." Forbes: AI Startup Flock Thinks It Can Eliminate All Crime In America. (Imagine seeing that slide in an investment deck.)
+ 404 Media is doing the most extensive coverage of Flock. Their reporting has actually resulted in some policy changes.
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Weekend Whats
What to Book: Culpability by Bruce Holsinger is novel that uses a family saga to "explore a world newly shaped by chatbots, autonomous cars, drones, and other nonhuman forces in ways that are thrilling, challenging, and unimaginably provocative."
+ What to Nonfiction: At the end of every Ezra Klein show, the guest is apparently asked: "What are three books you'd recommend to the audience?" The excellent Michael Sippey (an old school blogger type like yours truly) made a cool, simple site that lists all of those (mostly nonfiction) books as they're mentioned. Check out 3Books.net.
+ What to Watch: "From the creator of 'BoJack Horseman' comes this animated comedy about a family over time, following siblings from childhood to adulthood and back again." Long Story Short. The first episode is called Yoshi's Bar Mitzvah, and the Jewish themes, that will be very recognizable to many, continue from there.
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Extra, Extra
Operation Warped Speed: "U.S. employers added just 22,000 jobs in August, according to a report Friday from the Labor Department, while revised figures showed a net loss of jobs in June for the first time since 2020, in the midst of the pandemic." (The job numbers could get even worse when Trump fires more of the people who measure the job numbers.) Also, US Manufacturing Activity Contracted in August for a Sixth Month.
+ Shareholder Value, Not Values: Tech leaders take turns flattering Trump at White House dinner. From Wired: All the President’s Tech CEOs. (For a second, it almost sounded like a televised cabinet meeting. It's shocking how quickly this is what we've become.)
+ Hyundai is Cast: "Immigration authorities arrested hundreds of workers for a major South Korean battery maker at a Hyundai plant in Georgia, U.S. officials said Friday, calling it the largest ever Homeland Security enforcement operation at a single location."
+ Netanyahu Goes There: "Netanyahu has the tacit backing of President Trump for this Gaza City offensive, despite hundreds of former Israeli security officials saying Hamas no longer poses a threat and that it's time to end the war." Israel is blasting through Gaza City neighborhoods.
+ Testosterone Infusion: "It is almost impossible to overstate the inanity of this move. The United States has a Department of Defense for a reason." Tom Nichols in The Atlantic (Gift Article) on the soon to be newly named Department of War. Pete Hegseth’s Department of Cringe.
+ Keg Stand: NYT (Gift Article): Chicago Could Be a Powder Keg. "Its incursion into Chicago may begin with pursuing undocumented immigrants, but with its threat to also deploy National Guard troops or active-duty military to combat crime more broadly in the city — over the objections of Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois — the administration risks provoking large-scale civil unrest." (I doubt the administrations sees this as a risk. They see it as a benefit.)
+ Darth Haul: Darth Vader's lightsaber goes for over $3.6 million at movie memorabilia auction. (Damn. Bad guys are really in vogue these days...)
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Feel Good Friday
"On an overcast chilly morning in late August, a group of women gather in a sandy parking lot, nearly all of them sporting a bright orange hat with the letters OLAUG — Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage." At 85, she leads a squad of women who dive deep in ponds for litter.
+ "After the Eaton Fire took his home and nearly his restaurant, Tyler Wells pitched a tent on a regenerative farm—and found a reason to return to Altadena." The Chef in the Tent.
+ WiFi signals can measure heart rate—no wearables needed. (Now if it could just auto-cancel my account once the beating stops.)
+ Teen fishing off New England coast catches huge halibut bigger than him.
+ 'One and done' dose of LSD keeps anxiety at bay. (Imagine what a few hundred doses could do...)
+ The cat mayoral race: meet 11 runners and riders in the most furious – and furriest – election. (This is cute. But the notion that cats are pro democracy is absurd.)