10 Sunday Reads

The weekend is here! Pour yourself a mug of Danish Blend coffee, grab a seat outside, and get ready for our longer-form weekend reads: • VC isn’t VC anymore — understanding the rise of Cancer Capital: There’s a huge disconnect between what most people think of VC, where an investor has a big fund and cuts checks to help a founder build a company, and the current reality, where a handful of billionaire extremists use the cover of “VC” to advance an outrageous agenda where they’re accountable to no one. (Anil Dash) • Trump’s Gift to the Money Launderers: Treasury isn’t merely shutting down an anti-corruption database. It’s deleting the data so future investigators can’t use it. Catherine Rampell on the destroyed institutional capacity that let biological, social, and financial parasites flourish — a golden age for white-collar crime. (The Bulwark) • The Crypto Scam Victims Fighting the U.S. to Get Their Money Back: Even when stolen money is found, some victims have found that getting it back can be another ordeal entirely. The government seized $225 million in Operation Big Tuna; hundreds of victims have filed claims, and an online gaming company says the wallets are its. (Wall Street Journal) • How Big Pork takes money from small farmers — then uses it to lobby against them: Inside the pork industry’s $66 million piggy bank. The long saga of redirected pork-industry dollars shows how the interests of industrialized farming can find ways to overwhelm the interests and values of smaller-scale producers — and operate with relatively little government scrutiny. It also raises meaningful questions about whether the USDA is protecting the interests of American food consumers and farmers across the country, or just guarding the specific agenda of the largest players in the ag industry. (Vox) • LG TVs caught spying even when offline or on standby: Gamers Nexus gives you another reason to never connect your smart TV to the internet. Dominic Preston on the Gamers Nexus report — the sets scan Wi-Fi for nearby devices and log data about owners’ homes nearly constantly. (The Verge) • A War of Assassinations: The U.S. and Iran are engaged in a conflict that is massive in scale but personal in nature. Threats of assassination have, from the start, been dark and disruptive subplots of the U.S.-Iran war. Both sides have made the tactic central to their national strategies, though the executions have been rather one-sided, as President Trump and his Israeli allies have overseen the widespread killing of Iran’s senior leadership. The impact on the American government has nonetheless been profound. “We are aware of ongoing threats from the Iranian regime and its proxies and take them extremely seriously.” Michael Scherer on the tactic both sides have made central to the U.S.-Iran war — with the executions decidedly one-sided, and the impact on the American government profound. (The Atlantic) • How Ron DeSantis politicized Florida’s higher education by placing his loyalists at the top: Term-limited, hard-right governor instituted an ideological infiltration of universities by placing allies in powerful posts. Richard Luscombe on the hand-picked appointees who will outlast the governor’s eight-year “anti-woke” assault on the state’s universities. (The Guardian) • Texas’ first study of maternal deaths since banning abortion won’t be ready by Sept 1 Deadline — it will be published after the midterms: “DSHS told us in December that this report would be published by Sept. 1. They laid out a work plan that had case review ending in May and recommendations being completed in June. So what changed? What work remains? And why should Texans have to wait until after they elect a governor to see findings about preventable maternal deaths?” Benjamin Wermund on health officials punting the fullest accounting of pregnancy-related deaths since the abortion ban took effect until after November. (Houston Chronicle) • The hidden dangers of Musk’s votesafe.org The slick voter registration website, currently being promoted to millions of people, is a digital surveillance machine. Judd Legum on the slick voter registration site being promoted to millions — a digital surveillance machine. (Popular Information) • The Muted Response to Trump 9/11 Fantasy Is a Media Failure: Lisa Needham on the president’s increasingly bizarre Ground Zero claims — and the coverage that shrugged. It’s not “disputed.” He’s delusional. (Public Notice) Video of the day: Has Taking the Perfect Photo Ruined Tourism in “The Spectacle”? Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Seth Bernstein, CEO of AllianceBernstein and Head of Asset Management of Equitable Holdings, the 69% owner AB. The firm manages $905.5B. Previously, he spent 32 years at JPMorgan Chase, where he eventually became the Global Head of Managed Solutions & Strategy at JPAM, responsible for all discretionary assets for Private Banking clients, and Global Head of Fixed Income & Currency. He eventually became CFO of JPM’s Investment Management & Private Banking division. President Trump has added more to the national debt than to economic output in his first 17 months in office Source: @SteveRattner Sign up for our reads-only mailing list here. ~~~ To learn how these reads are assembled each day, please see this.