The Worst Part, The Zyn Economy
After 100 days of jackhammering America’s norms, values, laws, finances, allies, and what’s left of the psyche of the average news curator, it’s hard to narrow things down to Trump’s worst affront so far. But there is one transgression that seems to best encapsulate where we’ve been dragged: The sending of potentially innocent Venezuelans to a gulag-like prison in El Salvador. The story includes the simultaneous disappearing of people and due process. The glad-handing, jubilant Oval Office meeting with a leader who has referred to himself as “the coolest dictator” by an American president who said he’d love to send American “homegrown criminals” to a similar prison abroad. The ignoring of a series of court orders and the wanton flouting of a 9-0 Supreme Court ruling. The presidential displaying of a clearly doctored photo that makes it seem like Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a man sent to the CECOT terrorism confinement center by mistake, was a member of a dangerous gang. The firing of the Justice Department lawyer who made it clear that Garcia’s fate was due to a clerical error. The sadistic photo ops from the US head of Homeland Security posing in front of CECOT prisoners. The ceding of America’s high ground when it comes to due process and the rule of law. The refusal to apologize for any mistakes. The refusal to rectify any of those mistakes. The celebration of cruelty. And, like any terrible scandal, the more we learn about the story, the worse it gets. “New details deepen questions about the deportations, showing that El Salvador’s president pressed for assurances that the migrants were really members of the Tren de Aragua gang.” The NYT (Gift Article): Behind Trump’s Deal to Deport Venezuelans to El Salvador’s Most Feared Prison.
+ NYT (Gift Article): Trump Says He Could Free Abrego Garcia From El Salvador, but Won’t. “Mr. Trump’s comments not only undermined previous statements by his top aides, but were a blunt sign of his administration’s intention to double down and defy the courts.”
+ The Verge: Donald Trump might actually believe these Microsoft Calibri labels are real MS-13 tattoos. (He fabricates so much, even he’s bound to be fooled by some of the lies…)
+ There’s one more aspect of this story that encapsulates our American moment. Some of our fellow citizens are loving every minute of it. “At his rally in Michigan, Trump played a propaganda video of prisoners having their heads shaved at the Gulag in El Salvador to big cheers from the crowd and U-S-A!’ chants.”
Honey, I Shrunk the Economy
“Figures released by the Commerce Department Wednesday show that the United States’ gross domestic product contracted at an annual rate of 0.3% in the first quarter of the year, after growing at a solid pace of 2.4% in the final months of 2024.” The U.S. economy shrinks as Trump’s tariffs spark recession fears.
+ Where does the buck stop when it comes to all the bucks we’re losing? “President Donald Trump on Wednesday blamed former President Joe Biden for the U.S. economy contracting in the first quarter of 2025 — and suggested he will blame Biden again for the second quarter’s results.”
Flourishful Thinking
“For decades, research showed that the way people experienced happiness across their lifetimes looked like a U-shaped curve. Happiness tended to be high when they were young, then dipped in midlife, only to rise again as they grew old. But recent surveys suggest that young adults aren’t as happy as they used to be, and that U-shaped curve is starting to flatten.” NYT (Gift Article): A Global Flourishing Study Finds That Young Adults, Well, Aren’t.
Message in a Bottleneck
“The public is not simply asking for louder performances. They are asking for something harder: a real reckoning with the failures of the old order. Yet much of the mainstream political class — campaign consultants, television pundits, party strategists — continues to mistake the appearance of fighting for real action. A fiery speech on MSNBC, a viral fundraising email declaring a once-in-a-lifetime ‘fight for democracy,’ a triumphant Twitter clip of a senator ‘owning’ the opposition: these are treated as victories in themselves. They confuse performance with renewal, noise with transformation. But the public knows the difference. And they are running out of patience.” Interesting take from Evelyn Quartz: The Public Wants a Reckoning, Not Another Performance. “Consultants, pollsters, media strategists — many of them earnest — operate within a system that treats public trust not as something to be earned through outcomes, but as something to be engineered through messaging. The internal logic is simple: if the right message is delivered in the right tone, to the right demographic, legitimacy will follow … This kind of technocratic language is, frankly, B.S. It’s the same ‘game plan’ that has so thoroughly divorced politics from real meaning that it now operates more like a spectator sport. “
Extra, Extra
MAGArthyism: “Ruling that Mr. Mahdawi should be released on bail, Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford of Federal District Court in Vermont said he did not pose a danger to the public and he was not a flight risk. The judge drew parallels between the current political climate and McCarthyism, saying it was ‘not our proudest moment.'” Columbia Student Who Was Arrested at Citizenship Interview Is Freed.
+ Recuse Me? “The justice did not provide an explanation for her recusal, but it may have to do with her close friendship with Nicole Stelle Garnett, a professor at Notre Dame Law School who was an early adviser for St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, the school involved in the dispute.” NYT (Gift Article): Justice Amy Coney Barrett Recuses Herself in a Charter School Case. (This seems both right, and really surprising.)
+ Auto Biography: “The Michigan steel travels across the border to the Lanex’s Windsor plant, which shapes it into striker plates. The components are then handed off to another Canadian company, in nearby Brampton, for heat treating. Afterward, Lane drives the parts back over the border to Warren, Michigan, for plating, a process that applies a rust-protective coating. Finally, he brings them once more to Windsor, for inspection and packaging in his warehouse. Only then are the striker plates shipped to a vehicle assembly plant in the United States, where they’re mounted onto door frames.” This one auto part crosses the border four times on its way to your car. (“Roughly 30,000 individual parts that go into a single vehicle.”)
+ Unsettling Settlement: “The thousands of claims tell the story of a county government that did little to screen for abusers, allowing a sprawling network of facilities for young people to become hunting grounds for predators. Victims said staffers were seldom disciplined for preying on vulnerable kids.” L.A. County approves $4-billion sex abuse settlement, largest in U.S. history.
+ Zyn Master: “Philip Morris is up nearly 40% this year amid broader market turmoil fueled by tariff fears.” Two reasons: Tobacco is mostly a domestic operation. And Zyn. Philip Morris already sold enough Zyn in 2025 to span Route 66.
+ Bad News, Bears: “The 35-year-old McDowell is a North Carolina lobbyist who never worked for Congress, the White House or any other Washington institution. He is instead parlaying his background as a self-described government skeptic, who made his children baby food out of dandelion root and bear meat he hunted himself in an effort to avoid additives, into a power broker for the new administration where Kennedy, the health secretary, is reconsidering the role of pharmaceuticals and food ingredients.” WSJ (Gift Article): The MAGA Lobbyists Upending Washington With McDonald’s and Bear Hunting. Meanwhile, the person he lobbies the most: Kennedy Advises New Parents to ‘Do Your Own Research’ on Vaccines.
+ Papa Don’t Preach: There were two recent father-son stories in pro sports. Neither one was good. “The Atlanta Falcons have been fined $250,000 and defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich has been fined $100,000 as the result of Ulbrich’s son participating in a prank call to Shedeur Sanders during the NFL draft.” And Tyrese Haliburton scolds his father for sparking postgame fracas after Pacers eliminate Bucks.
Bottom of the News
“In Magill’s view, 100 men in their twenties and excellent physical condition could ultimately defeat a gorilla if they ‘are committed and go in united.’ That doesn’t mean it would be pretty. The human assault force ‘would have to expect severe collateral damage that could easily include death from broken necks, severe arterial bite wounds, massive concussions leading to fatal brain bleeds, and asphyxiation from other men piling on top of them,’ Magill says. ‘It could be a kamikaze mission for the men closest to the gorilla.’ Even some who survive might be left paralyzed or disfigured. ‘If they are willing to accept this,’ he says, ‘the group should be able to overtake the gorilla and inflict enough blunt force trauma combined with severe twisting of the head and neck while simultaneously inflicting severe abdominal punches, that the gorilla would eventually succumb to either a broken neck, internal organ damage, or asphyxiation.'” The latest question consuming the internet (and sports talk radio). Could 100 men beat a gorilla in a fight? Here’s what primatologists say. (This all buries the lede a bit. The real story is that the only way this fight could possibly take place is if the humans started it.)
