Bovino Booted, The Right to Bear Phones
The Iceman cometh. And the Iceman go-eth. Gregory Bovino, the border patrol official who had become the face of the Trump administration’s blue city crackdowns (and seemed to be competing for worst character of the year with Sean Penn’s portrayal of Lockjaw in One Battle After Another) has lost his job (and perhaps more dramatically, been suspended from his own social media account, “which he had used as a vehicle to publicise his militant commitment to Trump’s anti-immigration agenda”). “Bovino’s appearances in Minneapolis caught widespread attention even before Saturday’s tragic episode. He was captured on film throwing a teargas canister at protesters. Pictures of him striding around the city wearing a long winter greatcoat with brass buttons were also noted by German media, which commented that his appearance – including a closely cropped haircut – seemed intended to evoke fascist aesthetics.” Yes, he looked bad. He behaved badly. And he lied habitually, including his recent insistence that Alex Pretti intended to “massacre” agents. He was, in other words, a perpetual candidate for Trump Administration Employee of the Week, until public sentiment turned against ICE in Minnesota, and even key GOP enablers began to warn the president’s signature issue was quickly becoming his signature disaster. So someone had to go, and it turned out to be Bo’. The Guardian: The rise and fall of Gregory Bovino, US border patrol’s menacing provoker-in-chief.
+ The fall of Bovino hardly equals the fall of ICE. Bovino is being replaced in Minneapolis by border czar, Tom Homan, who is more temperate, professional, and moderate by Trump 2.0 standards, but who was also the architect of the family separation policy (among other hits). And as long as Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem (who Trump described today as doing a “very good job”) are running and carrying out the current policies, it’s no time to celebrate. But it is notable that an administration that prides itself on attacking criticism with more aggressiveness has been forced to take a step back. And for that, we have a whole lot of citizens in Minnesota to thank. Adam Serwer in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Minnesota Proved Maga Wrong. “The secret fear of the morally depraved is that virtue is actually common, and that they’re the ones who are alone. In Minnesota, all of the ideological cornerstones of MAGA have been proved false at once. Minnesotans, not the armed thugs of ICE and the Border Patrol, are brave. Minnesotans have shown that their community is socially cohesive—because of its diversity and not in spite of it.”
+ “Trump’s decision to change course was a stunning shift on a policy that is core to his political identity, especially for a president who has often rewarded advisers for doubling down in the face of vocal opposition.” WSJ (Gift Article): The 48 Hours That Convinced Trump to Change Course in Minnesota. (The shift has less to do with ethics or a concern about the loss of innocent lives, and more to do with how the story was playing on cable news.)
+ Here’s the latest from NBC News.
Candid About Cameras
According to WaPo (Gift Article), “Department of Homeland Security officers have fired shots during enforcement arrests or at people protesting their operations 16 times since July, and as in the recent shootings in Minneapolis, in each case the Trump administration has publicly declared their actions justified before waiting for investigations to be completed.” The difference in Minneapolis was that the shootings were recorded, making the lies more difficult to sell. NYT (Gift Article): The Best Weapon You Have in the Fight Against ICE. “The nation’s founders worried that if the state had a monopoly on weapons, its citizens could be oppressed. Their answer was the Second Amendment. Now that our phones are the primary weapons of today’s information war, we should be as zealous about our right to bear phones as we are about our right to bear arms. To adopt the language of Second Amendment enthusiasts, perhaps the only thing that can eventually stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a camera.”
Spineless
“Within about a year, according to the filings, the company had spent tens of millions of dollars to acquire and slice the spines off millions of books, before scanning their pages to feed more knowledge into the AI models behind products such as its popular chatbot Claude.” How did AI get so smart about so many topics so quickly? It read. Everything. WaPo (Gift Article): Inside a tech company’s secretive plan to destroy millions of books. “Court filings reveal how AI companies raced to obtain more books to feed chatbots, including by buying, scanning and disposing of millions of titles.” (While I’m flattered AI deemed my book worthy of inhaling, I really wish they had bought a copy. I could have used the sales numbers.)
Flow Shart
“I have come to share amazing news. It turns out that despite everything you’ve heard, getting a colonoscopy is wonderful. It’s the most fun I’ve had since the sunniest summer days of my childhood. I would like everyone to experience this bliss as often as possible.” Sam Anderson in the NYT Magazine (Gift Article): Want to Reach Nirvana? Try a Colonoscopy. “I’m not sure I’ve ever lived a fuller day. I achieved a literal flow state. I felt pure consciousness, the sense of presence people spend lifetimes searching for in mountaintop monasteries. It had been waiting, all along, in my upstairs bathroom.” (I’ve always thought the downsides of getting a colonoscopy were dramatically overstated. If you’re worried, don’t be. There are much worse tests, and eventually, you’ll probably have to get them all.)
Extra, Extra
Middle Management: “While a majority of people said that they could afford basics like rent, gas and groceries, most said they worry about the costs, and there was a pronounced sense that it has become more difficult, if not nearly impossible, to get ahead in America today. Majorities of voters said they do not feel confident in their ability to pay for housing, retirement and health care, all traditional staples of a middle-class lifestyle. Separately, more than half said housing and education are now so expensive that both have become unaffordable.” Voters See a Middle-Class Lifestyle as Drifting Out of Reach.
+ Iran’s Crackdown: “Iran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests has killed at least 6,159 people while many others still are feared dead, activists said Tuesday, as a U.S. aircraft carrier group arrived in the Middle East to lead any American military response to the crisis.”
+ House Call: “Starting in early August, the industry began making donations that over the course of weeks would eventually total nearly $4.8 million to MAGA Inc., a super PAC devoted to Mr. Trump and run by his allies. Later that same month, a handful of nursing home executives who had given the biggest donations joined industry lobbyists at Mr. Trump’s golf club in suburban Washington.” NYT (Gift Article): After Donations, Trump Administration Revoked Rule Requiring More Nursing Home Staff.
+ The Matchmaker: “The ink is barely dry on the European Union and India’s historic trade deal but all eyes are now on how President Donald Trump will react to the free trade agreement that’s widely seen as a strategic hedge against the U.S.′ volatile trade policies and tariff threats.” Meanwhile, British PM Starmer courts China amid US unpredictability. (Trump is like Tinder for trade deals for other countries.)
+ Sea Saw: We’ve been so focused on illegal killings at home that we almost forgot the illegal killings abroad. First wrongful death lawsuit filed against Trump administration over drug boat strikes.
+ Immortal Portal: “Three decades ago, Yahoo was known as ‘Jerry’s guide to the world wide web,’ and was designed as a sort of all-encompassing portal to help people find good stuff on an increasingly large, hard-to-parse internet. In the early aughts, the rise of web search more or less obviated that whole idea. But now, Yahoo thinks, we’ve come back around.” Yahoo Scout looks like a more web-friendly take on AI search.
Bottom of the News
There was a time when talking about the weather seemed pretty harmless. Now people are betting on it. “Bettors seeking to cash in on the weekend’s snowstorm flocked to prediction markets to wager millions on how much snow would ultimately accumulate across the U.S., with more than $6 million bet on New York City’s totals alone.” I can’t predict the weather, but the forecast for a world in which everyone is urged to bet on everything is bleak.
+ From the McSweeney’s archive: Tevye From Fiddler on the Roof, Now a Rich Man, Receives a Letter From His Hoa. “The third staircase leading nowhere just for show is a fire hazard.”
+ Hollywood Chamber of Commerce Says Sydney Sweeney Did Not Get Permission to Hang Bras on Hollywood Sign. (I don’t even know what this headline means, but in the before times, I would have probably led with it.)
