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Chotiner interviews Jacob Lew, Obama's Treasury Secretary, Biden's  ambassador to Israel.   When you would call them in the middle of the night and say, “What on earth happened?,” what was usually the answer?   The general pattern was that in-the-moment stories were inaccurate, and that the Israeli military and government establishment were not in a position to fully explain yet. We could almost never get answers that explained what happened before the story was fully framed in international media, and then when the facts were fully developed, it turned out that the casualties were much lower, the number of civilians was much lower, and, in many cases, the children were children of Hamas fighters, not children taking cover in places.   Sorry, what did you just say?   In many cases, the original number of casualties—   No, I meant the thing about who the children were.   They were often the children of the fighters themselves.   And therefore what ...

Just finished Ron Chernow’s biography of Samuel Clemens, “Mark Twain.” I had previously read his biographies of John D. Rockefeller and Alexander Hamilton, so I knew I would like this book. In addition, I attended an interview he gave in Harford during his book tour, and he made me look forward to reading the book that came with the ticket. This biography clocks in at over 1000 pages, not counting the acknowledgements and end notes. It is clearly intended as an historical reference and is lavish with unnecessary details. But it is clear that Chernow likes and admires his subject. Even when exposing the dark and even cruel side of the man, he mills down the edges with justifications that temper Twain’s occasional harshness. Twain was a man of his time. Born into American apartheid, he only gradually came to appreciate the plight of Black people in America. He was curiously much more sympathetic to Chinese people and to Jews. On the other hand, he had a lifelong contempt for Native Ameri...

We’ve known for decades that the risk for autism is mostly heritable, i.e., genetics. Certain environmental inputs can enhance the expression of autistic traits, but the cause lies in genetics. “ The rise in prevalence, many researchers say, is predominantly caused by an increase in diagnoses rather than a true rise in the underlying symptoms and traits. “We don’t see an epidemic of autism, but we see an ‘epidemic’ of diagnoses,” says Sven Bölte, a specialist in child and adolescent psychiatric science at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.” There you have it. The cause of autism is autism diagnosis, just like the cause of dawn is roosters crowing. If physicians just stop diagnosing autism, it will go away, right? https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02636-1?utm_source=Live+Audience&utm_campaign=01bdf7753f-nature-briefing-daily-20250827&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b27a691814-01bdf7753f-49589024

I’ve never been to a Cracker Barrel restaurant and can’t remember ever caring about their logo. But Trump is searching daily for another manufactured outrage to distract from the Epstein files, and he’s rescued his fellow geezer in the Cracker Barrel logo. “Cracker Barrel's controversial redesign made its way to the president's desk, and now the company says its reverting to its old logo. “We thank our guests for sharing your voices and love for Cracker Barrel. We said we would listen, and we have. Our new logo is going away and our ‘old timer’ will remain,” the company said in a statement. “ Shares of the restaurant operator rose about 7% in premarket trading on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the stock closed more than 6% higher after President Trump called on the company to change its logo back following a redesign it unveiled last week, which sent shares tumbling amid broad customer backlash.” Trump continues to trivialize the presidency daily. Sad. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cr...

In his latest effort to control the news cycle and distract from the Epstein scandal, Trump wants to re-brand the Department of Defense as the Department of War. That was its original name, of course. It was changed to the Defense Department after WWII. “As you know, we won World War I, we won World War II, we won everything. Now we have a Department of Defense, we’re defenders. I don’t know…,” Trump continued. “Defense? I don’t want to be defense only. We want defense but we want offense too, if that’s OK,” he added. “As Department of War, we won everything, we won everything, and I think we’re going to have to go back to that.” We won everything? Any serious student of WWII military history will tell you that the Soviet Union defeated Germany, the British defeated Italy and the US defeated Japan. WWII was won by the allies, not just by the US. But if “the anti-war president” wants to have a War Department and a Secretary of War, fine. It will end the masquerade. The Vietnam War wasn’...

Socialism is the form of economics in which the government controls the means of production. The Trump administration now controls 10% of Intel and is looking to buy shares in other private corporations. How is that not creeping socialism? “The United States government’s   10 percent stake   in Intel could harm international sales for the semiconductor chip giant.   “The company said in a securities filing on Monday that the new agreement could limit its ability to secure future government grants as White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said that the US could take an equity stake in other companies in the artificial intelligence (AI) and chip industries. That could   include Advanced Micro Devices or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing.” Depend on it. Whatever the right warns of is exactly what they are doing. https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2025/8/25/intel-says-us-govt-stake-could-hurt-sales-white-house-hints-at-more-deals#:~:text=As%20part%20of%20the%20loomin...

Louis DeJoy quit as US postmaster general recently, so the plan to privatize the US Postal Service may be hiatus for now. But the Trump Administration is blowing up international mail as well: “ Postal services around   Europe   announced on Saturday that they are suspending the shipment of many packages to the United States amid a lack of clarity over new import duties. “Under a decree signed by US President   Donald Trump   last month, international goods that were previously exempt from US   tariffs   – those valued less than $800 fell under the global “ de minimis ” exemption – will be subject to import duties from August 29.   “A trade framework agreed by the US and the   European Union   last month set a 15% tariff on the vast majority of products shipped from the EU. But many European postal services say they are pausing deliveries now because they cannot guarantee the goods will enter the US before August 29. “They cite ambiguity abou...