I took on Taylor Lorenz, the Washington Post tech columnist famous for her coverage of emerging social media platforms and the weird and wonderful cultures they’ve spawned. Oh, and by “took on” I mean respectfully engaging her on questions like: why is the media so hated? And why are they so incurious about it? We also talked about the long history of moral panics surrounding virtually every new technological breakthrough (including even the landline phone!) and how things like smartphones and videogames have become the new rock music supposedly corrupting the youth. Where’s the millennial Frank Zappa when you need him? The interview was my first on Substack’s new livestream video feature and is available in this post for you to watch in its entirety. Enjoy! And as always, subscribe below so we can keep doing this work.
Kicked Out of One Country, Back in Another. In the United States’ forever wars in Africa, the Pentagon announced on Thursday that it has withdrawn troops from Niger “without incident.” But the Pentagon also says it’s working to find other ways to maintain a presence in the region. Per AFRICOM commander Gen. Michael Langley:
"U.S. military planners are working with State Department officials to look at the way forward in the region … we are pivoting to some degree of like-minded countries with democratic values and shared objectives and shared challenges across coastal West Africa. We're in talks with Cote d'Ivoire and in talks with Ghana and Benin as well, as we start to reset and recalibrate [sic] some of our assets."
This comes amidst ongoing negotiations between the Pentagon and Iraq about the future of U.S. forces in Iraq. But as the case of Niger shows us, ending our forever wars isn’t just about withdrawing from one place, but about not re-deploying elsewhere in the region. In the case of Iraq, the U.S. already has created its first permanent base in Jordan. We’ll be on the lookout for the constant shenanigans like this where the wool is pulled over the American people’s eyes.
Who won the presidential debate? We wrote two stories on the Trump-Harris debate this week. One was about the idiocy of “fact-checking” theater and boy did that one draw some strong reactions! It was the first time editor Bill Arkin deigned to write here; I’m hoping he’ll do it more often.
My article was about how Trump avoided criticizing the military, whereas Harris praised it. This suggests that whoever wins the White House, it probably won’t be standing up to the Pentagon. Which is a shame because the military’s out-of-control budget, on track to receive $38 billion more in funding than it even requested, sure could use some criticism. Not to mention some scrutiny with regard to the escalating war in Ukraine, Gaza and the broader Middle East.
Since we commented on the debate, a clear winner has emerged: Taylor Swift. The pop star endorsement of Harris was followed by a 400 to 500 percent increase in voter registration, per the data firm TargetSmart. This amounts to roughly 10,000 new voters per hour. No wonder Swift was Time’s Person of the Year. That said, we’ll never quite know if the debate itself or Taylor Swift is responsible for Harris’ boost after Tuesday.
As I’ve previously written, Swift inspires people in a way that politicians just don’t today. I asked the editor of this newsletter what it is about Swift that made her the Hassan Nasrallah of young white women, and his response as the father of two young women stuck with me: “Who the fuck else are they going to look up to, Hillary Clinton?”
Four Americans convicted for conspiracy to act as agents of a foreign government on Thursday. This story hasn’t gotten as much media attention as another Russian influence operation, where the alleged bankrolling of several American political commentators has been wildly exaggerated, as I’ve argued.
Well, if you thought Tenet Media’s content was a joke, Thursday’s conviction makes the dupes look like a viral sensation. The convictions involved members of an obscure political organization called the African People’s Socialist Party. Between this, the Tenet case, and the intelligence community’s breathless press releases about foreign influence operations targeting our elections, there’s a new sheriff in town. And the WANTED posters going up are for the usual suspects: Russia, China, Iran and the like. Just don’t ask about our allies’ influence operations like, say, Israel. As I’ve written, the intelligence community doesn’t like to talk about those. Wonder why!
Election insecurity seems to be the flavor of the month, with the U.S. military carrying out its annual Ambitious Guardian exercise in DC this week. As part of the exercise, the military is rehearsing a riot control operation in preparation for election-related civil unrest. January 6 was obviously bad, but you have to ask yourself sometimes if the cure is worse than the disease. Is the U.S. military really necessary here when there’s domestic law enforcement agencies aplenty to handle security in the Washington area? We’ll have a lot more to come on the federal government’s domestic crackdown in the wake of the January 6 riot, so stay tuned.
Aircraft carrier heads home. The USS Theodore Roosevelt was ordered to depart the Middle East region this week. You’ll recall all the panic about Iran’s inevitable strike on Israel in retaliation for the assassination of Hamas’ political leader, Ismael Haniyeh, in Tehran., As we reported early on, there was never any good evidence that Iran was going to strike in any major way, and certainly not directly against the U.S. itself. But that didn’t stop the Pentagon from acting like the Ayatollahs were ready to expand the regional war. The Roosevelt was scheduled to return to San Diego and was kept on station for two more weeks.
Who Won the Debate. Out of Africa. Iran Doesn't Strike Israel