Weekend Reading
What fresh hell is this? #Incompetence #Corruption
“This conflict was brewing for reasons that run deeper than Musk and Trump's competing egos or Silicon Valley's dependency on government funding, which their leaders disparage. The atheistic world of pseudo-intellectualism that Musk and his minions come from was always going to have friction with the Christian nationalists who actually run the MAGA-ified Republican Party. The most recent sign I've seen that there's trouble in fascist paradise came late last month, from a YouTube video that, at first blush, seems like it's not related: Jordan Peterson's ill-fated effort to ‘debate’ 20 atheists at once. Peterson is a former psychology professor remade into a MAGA culture warrior, and was a huge player in radicalizing a lot of young, secular men to the right for years before Musk got into the game … These are those young men who voted for Biden in 2020 and switched to Trump in 2024, helping Trump barely win the election. With the help of Musk and Peterson, they convinced themselves they can buddy up with people who believe in demon possession and think porn should be banned, all without risk to themselves. Ultimately, the college-educated, secular nerds convinced themselves the rest of MAGA are dumb sheep who are easy to control. They underestimate their new allies, though. On Thursday, Musk complained that Trump was showing ‘ingratitude,’ claiming Trump would have lost the election without his support. (Which is probably true!). This budget fight exposes how delusional that ‘we can handle the sheeple’ attitude always was. It's not about religion, per se, but the culture clash between the Musk fanboys and the Christian nationalist debate is driving much of this. Musk and his acolytes envision a technofascism that sucks all the money out of social services and puts it into the tech industry, even as it pursues goals typically disliked by the Christian right, such as clean energy production. Meanwhile, the Christian right wing of the party, while happy to pass huge cuts to Medicaid and Obamacare, is largely leaving untouched Social Security or Medicare, which their working-class and aging base depends on.” (Amanda Marcotte/Salon)
“Without fanfare, something remarkable has happened. The noxious practice of aborting girls simply for being girls has become dramatically less common. It first became widespread in the late 1980s, as cheap ultrasound machines made it easy to determine the sex of a fetus. Parents who were desperate for a boy but did not want a large family—or, in China, were not allowed one—started routinely terminating females. Globally, among babies born in 2000, a staggering 1.6m girls were missing from the number you would expect, given the natural sex ratio at birth. This year that number is likely to be 200,000—and it is still falling. The fading of boy preference in regions where it was strongest has been astonishingly rapid. The natural ratio is about 105 boy babies for every 100 girls; because boys are slightly more likely to die young, this leads to rough parity at reproductive age. The sex ratio at birth, once wildly skewed across Asia, has become more even. In China it fell from a peak of 117.8 boys per 100 girls in 2006 to 109.8 last year, and in India from 109.6 in 2010 to 106.8. In South Korea it is now completely back to normal, having been a shocking 115.7 in 1990 … In some regions, meanwhile, a new preference is emerging: for girls. It is far milder. Parents are not aborting boys for being boys. No big country yet has a noticeable surplus of girls. Rather, girl preference can be seen in other measures, such as polls and fertility patterns. Among Japanese couples who want only one child, girls are strongly preferred.” (The Economist)
“As the war between Donald Trump and Elon Musk worsens, what’s truly odd about this whole spectacle is that the actual substantive disagreement between them seems to be of little interest to media observers. And when you strip away the trolling and shitposting, here’s what becomes clear: This is really a battle over how comprehensively to screw over poor and working people, largely to the benefit of the wealthy … The House GOP bill would entail a large upward transfer of resources. The bill, which would continue Trump’s 2017 tax law and add new tax giveaways for wealthy investors, heirs, and others, would deliver a big tax cut to those in the highest income brackets. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the tax cuts enjoyed by those in the bottom 20 percent in 2027 would be one seven-hundredth the size of those reaped by the top 1 percent. Worse, those relative table scraps for the bottom could be erased by other changes. The bill’s massive cuts to Medicaid and other health care changes would result in over 10 million people losing health insurance. Add in other cuts to the safety net, and you see why the bill ultimately would lower household resources for the bottom 10 percent while raising them for the top 10 percent—a sizable redistribution upward. As Paul Krugman notes, the bill’s ‘cruelty is exceptional even by right wing standards.’” (Greg Sargent/TNR)
“There was much that felt off-kilter and disorienting in the Wednesday gathering that marked the latest effort by the Center for American Progress Action Fund to reckon with the vexed question of the Democratic Party’s future. To begin with, consider the title of the forum: ‘Representing Working Class Voters.’ The phrasing here suggests that the class agenda before the Democrats is a fairly straightforward matter of improving services for an already bought-in constituency, when in reality the party has been hemorrhaging support from working-class supporters to an alarming degree … And, as is so often the case in DC, the setting for this blue-collar confab was more than a little jarring: The Center for American Progress (CAP) is a lavishly appointed center-liberal think tank, which regularly clocks more than $40 million in annual revenue, and occupies a gleaming glass tower in downtown DC. When the afternoon session kicked off in CAP’s multistory meeting area, working-class voters were themselves distinctly underrepresented; instead, the modest crowd was made up mostly of smartly turned out members of DC’s lanyard class. The fact that the enormously pressing question of Democrats’ loss of support and credibility among workers drew but a half-hearted trickle of knowledge workers was also telling. All three stories of the CAP meeting space had been filled a few months ago with people keen to see billionaire Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker auditioning man-of-the-people talking points ahead of an expected 2028 presidential run.” (Chris Lehmann/The Nation)
“An archaeological discovery in Guatemala has uncovered a complex of three cities of the ancient Maya, offering unprecedented insight into one of Mesoamerica’s earliest ceremonial centers. The Los Abuelos, Petnal, and Cambrayal cities were unearthed in the Petén jungle, approximately 13 miles from the renowned Maya city of Uaxactun. The largest of the three, Los Abuelos, is believed to date back an incredible nearly 3,000 years, to the Middle Preclassic period (800–500 BCE), according to an announcement by Guatemala’s Ministry of Culture and Sports. ‘Los Abuelos,’ or ‘The Grandparents,’ is named after two very old ancestral statues that were found at the site, designated as ‘5A’ and ‘5B.’ This ancient city was once a major ceremonial center. These stone figures of a man and woman are thought to be symbolic of an ancestral couple, which lends cultural and symbolic meaning to the site. The city spans about six square miles and is adorned with pyramids, sacred sanctuaries, and monuments, full of unique iconography. According to the Guatemalan Culture Ministry, the discovery of the city of Los Abuelos is exceptional for being ancient in character and for its distinctive features of historical value … All three cities had the same trajectory of history: flourishing in the Preclassic period, subsequently abandoned, and reoccupied in the Late Classic. Across the sites, there is evidence of human burials, feline remains, altars, and ritual offerings like shells and arrowheads, all serving to underscore the spiritual, political, and functional aspects of early Maya urban life. ‘These three cities form a previously unknown urban triangle,’ Guatemala’s Ministry of Culture stated.” (Dario Radley/Archaeology)
“While Ukraine just pulled off an audacious and effective attack on Russia’s bomber fleet, Vladimir Putin is slow-walking Donald Trump’s effort to nudge the warring countries toward peace talks and continuing to kill Ukrainian civilians, irritating the American president. Soon, Trump could have on his desk a sanctions bill that would do grave damage to Russia’s capacity to fund the war by targeting the countries still buying Moscow’s oil and gas, the lifeline of their economy. The measure, co-sponsored by Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), has amassed a remarkable 82 sponsors and both Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson this week vocalized their support for confronting Russia … Thune this week said publicly, and in private to his GOP colleagues, that he’s willing to bring Graham’s bill to the floor before the July 4 recess. The White House hasn’t offered encouragement, I’m told by people close to the discussions, but has said they won’t stand in the way if the Senate wants to pursue the measure. It was a ‘‘If you guys feel you need to do it…’ message, per Republicans. Of course, neither West Wing aides nor Republican lawmakers know what Trump will say on any given day about Putin. There is, however, real sentiment among Senate Republicans in favor of passing the measure, for leverage purposes if nothing else. ‘We should just do it,’ Senator Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), a staunch pro-Trump lawmaker, told me. ‘Donald Trump can stop it or slow it over there [in the House]. But we can make our point, offer the muscle of the Senate so Donald Trump has the ability to say to Putin, ‘Don’t make me do this.’’” (Jonathan Martin/Politico)
“Yesterday was a busy day for the vindictive elves channeling the oaf-in-chief’s retribution fantasies… The timing of this outburst of headline-grabbing hatefulness is no accident. It provides cover for extremely bad news that will, if Americans are paying attention at all, cost MAGA the midterms. This week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office confirmed what numerous other independent economic analysts have found: Trump’s budget will increase the deficit by $2.4 trillion over the next decade, give the top one percent a $600 billion tax break, a gift paid for in part by throwing almost 11 million Americans off health insurance. It is said to be the largest transfer of wealth from poor to rich in U.S. history. Your Freakshow Guide has previously spotlighted the two men most likely behind the flurry of diversionary executive activity yesterday: lifelong DC critter Russell Vought – Trump’s wan, transparent seaworm of an Office of Management and Budget chief – and Trump’s deputy White House chief of staff Stephen ‘Goebbels'‘ Miller. If you wish, you can revisit our Freak of the Week profiles of these two conniving creeps here and here. We could expend energy examining all the weird impulses – racism, projection, vengeance, and misogyny, just to name a few – behind each of yesterday’s assaults on American norms and human decency. But I’ll confine myself to the part of the program foremost on my mind lately: the Trump administration is really sticking it to women.” (Nina Burleigh/American Freakshow)
“The biggest contributor to President Trump’s inauguration was chicken processor Pilgrim’s Pride, which gave $5 million. In April, its Brazilian parent company, JBS, received government approval for a U.S. stock listing that it had long sought. The second largest donor was the cryptocurrency company Ripple, which gave about $4.9 million. In May it reached a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve a long-running lawsuit, sending its coin soaring. Trump’s record inaugural fundraising of nearly $250 million totaled almost as much money as the last four combined. That was built in part on big political spending by companies that had little track record of giving outsize sums, recently released campaign finance records show. Some of those companies are benefiting from favorable government actions early in Trump’s second term.Four of the top 10 donors, all of whom gave north of $1 million, were nominated to prominent posts in the administration. One, Elon Musk associate Jared Isaacman, had his nomination to be National Aeronautics and Space Administration administrator pulled Saturday, after Musk announced that he was leaving the White House. Oil companies, several of which gave $1 million or more, were able to avoid tariffs after meeting with Trump early in the administration. The White House referred a request for comment to the inaugural committee.” (Josh Dawsey and Patrick Thomas/WSJ)
“Trump’s people have no experience negotiating agreements rather than deals. Achieving diplomatic accord is an aesthetic exercise, different from The Art of the Deal. Diplomacy is about the little things, which sometimes lead to big things—not the reverse. It does not involve braggadocio. It is not about ending the war in Ukraine ‘on Day One,’ but spending months negotiating a cease fire—as Holbrooke did in Sarajevo—that might, or might not, lead to a full scale peace accord. It is about the knobs and levers to be adjusted in ‘jaw to jaw’ conversation, as Churchill actually said, some economic, some military, some cultural, some psychological. It is about understanding the people we’re talking to, and their cultures. And listening to them. Carefully. It’s about Bill Luers seeing the future of Czechoslovakia in a playwright, Vaclav Havel. It’s about Frank Wisner understanding that the military would demand a role in the future of Egypt. It is about patience. Warren Christopher said that listening to Hafez al-Assad was the sternest test his bladder ever encountered…to no discernible effect, by the way. But he had to sit there, and listen, on the off chance that Assad might change a position, or his body language, or his phrasing in a way that might lead to a glimmer of a possibility. All too often the advances are minuscule, and followed by setbacks. All too often it is just about keeping the door open a tiny crack. All too often it is no more than moving a comma in a codicil. An experienced diplomat might crack a bottle of wine to quietly celebrate a comma’s migration, or a border moved 50 meters in the right direction, or a few hours’ cease fire to retrieve the bodies … Diplomacy is adult work. Adolescents just can’t do it.” (Joe Klein/Sanity Clause)
“The war in Ukraine has become the first international conflict in which the opposing sides have actively developed and used AI for military purposes. During the war, Ukraine has benefited from allies and partners providing AI technologies. A key element of the war has been the massive amounts of data generated by a plethora of sources. The huge and growing volume of data is larger than humans can analyze quickly and accurately. AI has therefore become an increasingly useful capability for data analysis to aid Ukrainian and Russian decision-making in this war. Between 2014 and 2022, Ukraine’s tech-savvy workforce developed and introduced multiple new situational awareness and battlefield management systems to the Ukrainian military. Many were unofficial and unsanctioned, but the volunteer groups had direct communication with front-line operational forces, allowing them to focus their development efforts on high-priority military needs. One of the initiatives, the situational awareness system Delta, was eventually adopted and formally integrated into the Ukrainian military and also achieved NATO certification. Delta has recently been enhanced with AI/machine learning-enabled capabilities.81 The use of Delta, and the tactical equivalent called Kropyva, has now been normalized at every level of military activities in the Ukrainian Armed Forces.” (Mick Ryan and Peter Singer/New America)
“‘Strong jawlines and prominent chins are de rigueur in Washington,’ says Dr. Tina Alster, a dermatologist who treats high-powered patients at her K Street practice. In the past couple of years, she says, the portion of her male clients who come in seeking well-defined jaws has more than doubled, from about 20 percent to 50 percent. Strong chins and jaws have long had bipartisan appeal, Alster and other D.C. doctors say, driven more by the need to look youthful on social media and high-definition cable news than by the whims of any particular presidential administration. ‘No one wants to look weak,’ Alster said in an email, ‘on camera (or on stage)!’ Still, some suspect that a strong chin could be especially valuable today, when you never know if a certain TV-obsessed commander-in-chief is watching your cable hit — and when said president has voiced, again and again, his admiration for a handsome face. Strong jaws also fit into Donald Trump’s pugilistic Washington: When your job is to be an attack dog, you probably want to look more like a Rottweiler and less like a Shih Tzu.” (Joanna Weiss/Politico)
“Recent data from the UN’s trade and development body Unctad reveals that 54 countries spend over 10 per cent of their tax revenues on interest payments alone. The average interest burden for developing countries, as a share of tax revenues, has almost doubled since 2011. More than 3.3bn people live in countries that now spend more on debt service than on health, and 2.1bn in countries that spend more on debt than on education. This is not a path to sustainable development — this debt is a roadblock. Meanwhile, borrowing costs are rising sharply. Debt contracted in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, when interest rates plunged to near zero, is now being rolled over at far higher interest rates. Even as spreads have eased since the pandemic and outbreak of war in Ukraine, the cost of rolling over debt in today’s capital markets remains prohibitively high for many LLMICs. Compounding the crisis is a weakening global economic environment. Slower growth further undermines debt sustainability, deepening the crisis. Today’s crisis reflects a systemic failure, which lies in the persistent asymmetry of global capital flows. Whereas capital tends to flow counter-cyclically to advanced economies — supporting them in downturns — it flows pro-cyclically for developing countries, worsening shocks. The result? Net external transfers have turned negative. In 2023 alone, low- and middle-income countries (excluding China) experienced a net outflow to the private sector of $30bn on long-term debt — a slight improvement from almost $50bn in 2022, but still a major drain on development.” (Joseph Stiglitz/FT)
“If you were poor and online last year, the ads were inescapable: flashing images of cash and Amazon boxes, narrated by AI-faked celebrities such as (Taylor) Swift, podcaster Joe Rogan or game-show host Steve Harvey. Each described a secretive government program that handed out money—all you had to do was ask. The ads were deceptive, but they weren’t trying to con people out of their money—at least not directly. The goal was to sign them up for actual government-subsidized health-insurance plans, whether they wanted them or not. People responding to the ads were routed through a network of middlemen to call centers, many of them in South Florida. Telemarketers there would wave off questions about cash giveaways and sign up customers for health insurance instead, sometimes without their knowledge. The plans were free after federal subsidies, but they nevertheless upended many lives. Some people were switched off their old plan without their knowledge, finding out only when they were turned away by a doctor who didn’t accept their new coverage. Others had to repay subsidies they hadn’t actually qualified for. Hundreds of thousands of people complained to federal regulators that they’d been duped. One of the largest call centers selling the plans was outside Fort Lauderdale, in a three-story building flanked by palm trees and guarded by hulking men wearing body armor and carrying assault rifles. The Batmobile-esque motor trike belonging to the boss was often parked outside. Flush with cash, he commissioned a diamond-encrusted necklace with a saucer-size pendant in the shape of interlocking M’s, for his nickname: Money Matt. His business, Enhance Health LLC, was in his telling one of the most prolific brokers of Affordable Care Act-compliant health plans in the country, collecting more than 1 million signups in 2023 alone. Money Matt, whose real name is Matt Herman, wasn’t the operation’s main financial backer, nickname notwithstanding. That was Bain Capital LP, the Boston-based private equity firm, which had staked him $75 million to create Enhance.” (Zeke Faux and Zachary R Mider/Bloomberg)
“A woman federal prosecutors are calling a victim of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs took the stand at his federal trial in lower Manhattan on Thursday, telling the court that during their three year relationship, which lasted up until his September arrest, 90 percent of their time together was during drug-fueled, days-long ‘freak-offs’ where she was coerced into performing sex acts with male sex workers. The woman, who is being referred to as Jane Doe during the trial to protect her identity, is the latest woman brought forth by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York to explain how the feds say the once powerful rap and fashion mogul used his companies and loyal staff as a criminal enterprise to coerce and control women, whom he would blackmail and manipulate into performing in ‘freak-off’ sex marathons, which the near-billionaire would often film while masturbating.” (Kevin Dolak/THR)