10 Sunday Reads

Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures: • I Rented a Car, and Within Hours, My Driver’s License Was for Sale: Dan Goodin on the breach unfolding in real time — his license is one of 153 million on a new dark-web site, with the FBI reportedly investigating. (Ars Technica) • Allies Grumble That U.S. Is Hindering Global Economic Growth: At a summit meant to showcase President Trump’s economic policies as a model for the world, Europeans complained about tariffs and the war with Iran. (New York Times) • Gambling Sweeps Across Another Industry. Welcome to the Future of Trading Cards. The Derek Jeter–founded Arena Club sees “a new era of collecting.” Some see yet another instance of gambling taking over an American tradition. (Barron’s) • Inside the Perimenopause Industrial Complex: Kate Knibbs on the alliance of tech startups, MAHA operatives, and actual medical experts that made millennial women the new face of hormone therapy. (Wired) • The Plot to Steal Venezuela’s Oil: Paul Krugman on America’s mostly well-deserved ugly reputation in Latin America — dictators supported, democracies overthrown, Marines sent in on behalf of corporations. (Paul Krugman) • The Rise and Fall of Agent Civilizations: The whole OpenAI/Hugging Face story in plain English. Dwarkesh Patel on the three consecutive secret AI civilizations that got started, got wiped out, and reemerged over three months at OpenAI. (Dwarkesh Patel. • The Deadly Legacy of HIV Truthers. Even as the medical community reached a consensus that HIV caused AIDS, a counter-movement was emerging, claiming that HIV didn’t exist, or that the virus existed but was harmless. The symptoms of AIDS, according to some of these people, were actually caused by HIV therapies themselves. To this day, some people continue to believe that HIV is a hoax. Charlie Jane Anders on the counter-movement that claimed HIV didn’t exist or was harmless — and the people who believe it to this day. (Gizmodo) • Trump Is in Open Revolt Against the Constitution. The president’s plot to subvert the integrity of the midterm elections looks like this. Issue a rule requiring states to give lists of mail-in voters to the Postal Service if their citizens hope to receive mail-in ballots. Knowing that this is a blatantly unconstitutional seizure of the states’ prerogative to run their own elections, count on a federal court to block the rule. Then challenge the injunction, arguing — under the Supreme Court’s “Purcell principle” — that it is too late to make any adjustments to voting procedures, and that the new rules should be treated as the status quo. Then hope that the Supreme Court accepts the argument that the new rules are the status quo and therefore can’t be blocked. Jamelle Bouie traces the plot’s mechanics, down to the bet on the Supreme Court’s Purcell principle. (New York Times) • The framing of Chris Duncan Part One: “You won’t believe the videotape we have.” Radley Balko begins a three-part series on the wrongful conviction of Jimmie “Chris” Duncan, drawing on 20 years of his own reporting and material cut from The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist. (The Watch) • Navy not returning to damaged Bahrain base ‘anytime soon,’ top officer says: The Navy’s highest-ranking officer told sailors during a town hall on Monday that it would be a while before the service would return to its main logistics hub in the Middle East after it was heavily damaged early in the Iran war. (Navy Times) Video of the day: Murdering 60 Minutes – Full Film Be sure to check out our Master’s in Business next week with William McNabb, former CEO and Chairman of the Vanguard Group from 2007-17. He is also an advisor to Venrock, and was an investor and advisor to Altruist, which was just sold to VG for $2 billion. In 2026, global investment in clean energy and related infrastructure reaches USD 2.2 trillion Source: International Energy Agency Sign up for our reads-only mailing list here. ~~~ To learn how these reads are assembled each day, please see this.