Just as I was complaining that I'm weary of the topics in the news, I run across "Jeffrey Epstein’s Sperm May Have Survived Him."

I thought Hormuz and Platner and the slush fund and Jill Biden were getting tedious, and then I see, in The New York Times, "Jeffrey Epstein’s Sperm May Have Survived Him/Mr. Epstein banked his sperm several years before his death and said that if he died, it should be left in the control of his estate."

Why is this news?

"But it’s a familiar thought that new technologies lead to de-skilling, the erosion of capacities people used to cultivate."

"Socrates wasn’t wrong to worry that the widespread adoption of writing would take a toll on our powers of memory and attention...."

Writes the NYT Ethicist in "My Partner’s Dependence on Chatbots Is Becoming a Problem. How Do I Tell Him? One reason I love my partner is his sharp mind and critical thinking. Using A.I. for every decision is something I don’t understand."

"[O]ne risk in downloading deliberation to a machine is that your life will, in a certain sense, cease to be yours, because it won’t be your reasoning and judgment that guide it.... [And] your partner is degrading his relationships with real people.... It’s understandable that you’re feeling crowded out.... [H]e’s brought a third party to this two-person relationship, and it’s talking too much."

She's advised to just talk with him directly. She had to go to a third party — the NYT Ethicist — to figure that out. Why didn't she use her sharp, critical mind to get there — or somewhere! — on her own?

"It was now almost impossible for me to make a decision without getting A.I.’s opinion. By Friday evening, I was starting to worry that the interest in our house..."

"... was a little too strong. We had nearly 20 viewings scheduled for the weekend. I confessed to the chatbot my anxiety that we had underpriced the home. It offered some needed reassurance, saying that by pricing low, I had stumbled into an 'accidental strategy' that could result in multiple offers. 'When you get 1,100 views and 91 saves, you haven’t just listed a house; you’ve started a localized "gold rush,"' it wrote.... I had started this experiment thinking that the chatbot would create a superpowered version of myself — combining my own judgment with its vast knowledge. But once I started relying on A.I., witnessing its know-it-all competency with basically everything, my shortcomings started to feel enormous and even risky. I had thought I was elevating my own skills. In reality, I was replacing them...."

From "I Tried to Sell My House With a Chatbot/Over five frantic days, I gambled my family’s life savings on a hunch that A.I. could outperform a real estate agent" (NYT)(gift link, because this is really useful).

The top-rated comment over there: "When we sold our house in Hawaii, the realtor was excited to get the listing, but provided little actual service. We did the market research to set the price (her opinion — 'Whatever you think'). We decided what preparation was needed to make the listing more attractive (her only real contribution was recommending a great local painter). We staged the house. We negotiated the counteroffer. And we paid a 6% real estate commission. Let the AI revolution roll through the real estate monopoly. Power to the People!"

"His alter ego on 'The Thick of It,' Stewart Pearson, was portrayed as a clownish figure who tries to push 'thought circles' on bewildered Tories and utters pablum like 'knowledge is porridge.'"

"The real Mr. Hilton became a larger-than-life figure, infamous among colleagues for walking the corridors of Downing Street shoeless and in shorts and proposing idiosyncratic ideas that made headlines, like using cloud-bursting technology to make Britain sunnier and abolishing maternity leave.... 'The actual policy proposal was to reduce the maternity to somewhere between six and four months; instead of the maximum yearlong leave in Britain, and to increase paternity leave, he said. 'A year is just way too long'.... By 2011, he became so widely known for his unconventional dress that American diplomats gave special instructions ahead of a visit from President Barack Obama. They said Mr. Hilton must either wear a suit or leave the building.... After being given a 'severe talking to,' she recalled, 'he did, in fact, put on proper clothes.' (Mr. Hilton remembered it differently. 'I think it was, "Yeah, you come to the meeting, you have to wear a suit." I was like, "Yeah, no, I don’t want to do that."') But it was Brexit, Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, that overshadowed Mr. Cameron’s tenure. Mr. Hilton was for it, and Mr. Cameron staked his career against it...."

From "He Was Satirized on British TV. Now He’s Trump’s Pick to Lead California. Steve Hilton grabbed headlines when he worked in conservative politics in Britain. His American political renaissance in the California governor’s race has bemused former British colleagues and rivals" (NYT).

"The German economy, once known for its efficiency, orderliness and stability, is in a terrible mess."

"It’s not just that the numbers are dire.... No, the worst of it is that our dynamic economy gave postwar Germany a sense of identity. For all our flaws, we had a country that functioned better than others...."

I'm reading "Germany Has Lost What It Did Best," a guest essay by Konstantin Richter, in the NYT.

"There is an active Bluetooth network labeled 'BOMB'..."

"... one self-identified passenger wrote on TikTok.... Another Reddit post of someone who claimed to be the spouse of a passenger similarly reported that the word in question was 'bomb' and that the device was a teenager's speaker. The flight eventually reboarded and landed in Palma de Mallorca at 3:47 p.m. local time on Sunday, about 9 and a half hours late."

NPR reports on a United flight that had to turn around. 

"Tennessee bars journalists from witnessing the intravenous line insertion process, the first major step of the lethal injection protocol."

"I noted the time we entered the chamber. After about seven minutes of searching for a vein, they were able to insert an IV into his right arm. Then, following protocol, they also tried to set an IV in his left arm. That failed, so they moved on to his left hand, poking him over and over again. Cycling through needles, the executioners communicated mostly through tense glances and head shakes.... About 30 minutes in, a doctor entered and... told the executioners to remove Mr. Carruthers’s socks and search for veins in his feet.... After that didn’t work, the doctor asked whether anyone in the room knew how to gain access to Mr. Carruthers’s jugular vein. Then, the doctor decided to attempt to establish a central line... puncturing the neck, chest or groin.... Eventually, the doctor said he was not able to set a central line.... By then, an hour had passed. Still, the execution team continued probing his body for another access point....The state’s constructed illusion of precision had collapsed, revealing something far more chaotic and brutal...."

Writes Maria DeLiberato, in "In a Tennessee Execution Chamber, I Saw Chaos" (NYT).

The chaos ended because the governor acted, delaying the execution for another year. It's already been a long time. Carruthers was sentenced to death in 1996. 

"Hey everyone, it’s Amy. Um, I wanted to make a statement today and—oh, sorry, I’m getting eaten by bugs."

"Um, I wanted to make a statement today in response to a couple of news articles that are out there about my marriage to Graham."

A message from my wife Amy: pic.twitter.com/dbDqjssevp

— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) May 30, 2026

"Um, if anybody knows me and Graham personally, you know that we got married in 2023. Um, we live in Sullivan. We’ve got two dogs and we love each other deeply. So it makes me really angry, um, disappointed, and I find it really shameful that there’s a group of media outlets and people who are willing to spread gossip instead of talking about real issues that Graham is running on—like healthcare and education and childcare. Um, I’m walking up and down my road right now and this is like my 20th take. This is very hard to do, but um, I just really wanted to make sure that everyone knows that Graham and I have a great marriage. Um, being married is hard.  Being newly married is hard. Being newly married and going through infertility is hard. Being newly married, going through infertility, and a Senate campaign is hard. Um, I don’t even know if I have the right words to describe what we’ve been going through, but um, our marriage counselor helps. Uh, my personal counselor helps. Graham’s personal counselor helps. Um, and we work on our mental health every day. Um, no marriage is perfect and I—I don’t want a perfect marriage. I want my marriage and I want to be married to Graham. Sorry, blackflies. Um, I knew the man that I married is wonderful and dynamic and probably a genius. Um, I knew the man that I married had been through an immense amount of violent active combat and um, he’s been in therapy for years. I just—I admire the fuck out of him.Um, so when there are news articles about our marriage, it’s just extra shitty. Can I say that online? I hope I can. Um, it’s extra shitty because people in Maine want affordable gas. They want to be able to see their doctor when they’re sick. Um, they want to be able to send like their kids to a nice school, uh, a nice daycare facility, um, and raise families the way that they want to. So I think I’m feeling angry today. Um, and I don’t normally make public statements, but it’s really important for me to tell all of you out there—especially people who are voting in Maine—that I think it’s shameful behavior to spend time and energy and resources on negative ads and negative stories on Graham when all he’s trying to do is improve the lives of people who work for a living. Um, and that’s it. He doesn’t have any other agenda, which is what I think people are trying to dig up. Um, and this is a long video, so uh, I hope my editing team isn’t too frustrated with me. Um, I hope that everyone’s having a good Saturday. Graham and I really care about the state of Maine. We really love it. We were born and raised here and I think we deserve better. I think Mainers deserve better. And I don’t know what else to say. So if you’re editing this video, I’m really sorry. Thanks for watching."

Check the box that's closest to your reaction.

That felt raw and honest and kind of beautiful.

It was evil to force her out there like that, stammering through repeated takes, pestered by insects, subordinated to her man, who... what kind of man is he who won't stand up for himself but sends out his wife, a wife who's obviously fragile and in need of a warm embrace and masculine protection?

 

pollcode.com free polls

West Wing?

I'm reading this Axios piece: "Ex-Biden aides give Jill's new book a frosty review":

View from the West Wing!

I know Trump has demolished the old East Wing, so there's no taking a view from it right now, but Jill Biden purports to give readers a "View from the East Wing." That's the title. (And that's a commission-earned link.)

I understand the Axios slip, because who would read a book about what went on in the East Wing? I'm sure Jill's view was what Melania articulated so well: "Who gives a fuck about the Christmas stuff and decorations?"

That's a "commission earned" link for the book, by the way. It comes out tomorrow. It's #1 at Amazon in the category "Sociology of Marriage and Family" and look at the competition:

Crazy stuff, no? Betty Friedan is still hanging on, there's something called "The Ethical Slut," and it's fits in "Marriage and Family," and why is orange the color of marriage? "Fair Play" is up there twice — once as a book and once as a deck of cards — but there's also "It Begins with You" and — clicking around — I'm confronted with....

Sunrise.

Write about whatever you like in the comments.

"After Trump’s 11th-hour endorsement of Texas attorney general and all-in Trump sycophant Ken Paxton..."

"...who was impeached for multiple charges of abuse of office, investigated on felony security charges, and dogged by adulterous sexual imbroglios, the slippery MAGA sleazebag still went on to pulverize Senate old-timer John Cornyn in the Republican primary on Tuesday. And yet, liberal cableheads deconstructing the results keep recycling the point that, somehow this was good news. Millions of dollars, they chortled, will now have to be diverted from other imperiled Republicans to defend a Senate seat that, for four terms, had been occupied by the beloved party elder Cornyn and now will be in play against the Democrats’ latest Texan mirage and Colbert candidate James Talarico. When has Trump ever found it difficult to raise millions of dollars, especially against a Senate candidate who tweeted in 2021 that his office was 'the first in the history of the (Texas) Capitol to put pronouns on their business cards?' Paxton was already on a roll in his victory speech, immediately branding his Presbyterian seminarian opponent 'James Talafreako,' 'Six-Gender Jimmy,' and 'Tofu Talarico'...."

From "Trump’s Sweet Vengeance" by Tina Brown (at Substack).

"All the judgy comments here made me feel like I had accidentally wandered into a thread on Bluesky. For cryin' out loud, relax!"

Ha ha. I agree with that commenter about the comments at "David Sedaris/The humorist on art collecting, interacting with fans and a surprising upside of the Upper East Side" (NYT)(gift link, because there are lots of pictures of David Sedaris in his New York apartment, with all its oddball artwork and enigmatic rugs).

The judgy comments are mostly resentful of Sedaris's wealth and his choice to spend what he has on art and on chairs that seem as if they might be uncomfortable. 

And here's Sedaris's new collection of essays: "The Land and Its People" (commission earned). It came out 5 days ago. I've read it and will read it again and again. I love David Sedaris's voice and his books are, by far, my favorite book to listen to while falling asleep. But this new book won't work for that. It's got loud, aggressive clapping/percussion between the essays.

"Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this Institution back, physically, financially, and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey."

Said Donald Trump, quoted in "Trump’s Kennedy Center plans were blocked by a judge. What happens next?/The ruling has thrown the Washington institution’s immediate future into a state of uncertainty" (WaPo)(gift link).

IN THE COMMENTS: Fred Drinkwater said: "The name change was a deliberate 'last straw' intended to provoke this judicial response."

That really does make the most sense. It was insanely hamhanded. I'm going to assume he didn't want to fix this place, and the best — or most entertaining — way to avoid blame for letting it rot was to bait a judge into preventing him from saving it.

ADDED: There's a new piece up at WaPo now, "Trump’s name may come off the Kennedy Center. He could still destroy it. The Kennedy Center saga encapsulates all of the needless destruction of the Trump administration. The center’s troubles may not be over yet." That's by Philip Kennicott. Key insight: "The worst thing Trump could do right now is nothing, simply remain chair and let the center languish. He could decline to authorize budgets or renovations, leave the calendar empty or pocket plans for recovery. The center would be stuck in perpetual suspended animation.... His angry messages since the court ruling prove without a doubt what has been obvious all along: He never cared for the center, for the arts or culture...."

Not obese.

"The 6-foot-3 president weighs 238 pounds, having gained 14 pounds since his physical last year — meaning he is technically 'overweight' and is about 1.6 pounds shy of being classified as 'obese,' according to body mass index calculations. Trump was encouraged to increase his physical activity and pursue continued weight loss, according to the report."

From "Trump’s doctor says he is in ‘excellent health’ after latest checkup/While the president’s medical report says he remains fit to serve, independent physicians have raised questions about the recurrent bruises on his hands and swelling in his legs" (WaPo).

Trump's sunny summary: "Just finished my 6 month physical at Walter Reed Military Medical Center. Everything checked out PERFECTLY."

Why did The Washington Post put "overweight" in quotes and modify it with "technically"? He's simply and straightforwardly overweight. And that's not perfect. Can we get Bobby Kennedy over here for a second opinion?

See "RFK Jr dares governor of America's fattest state to do regular public weigh-ins/'You look like you ate Governor Morrisey,' RFK said on Friday" (Fox News, March 29, 2025).

"The 100 percent tax idea is gaining traction beyond blue strongholds."

"In battleground Wisconsin, Democrats hope to flip the GOP-controlled legislature in the fall and have introduced the No Taxpayer Dollars for Insurrectionists Act.... The states’ strategy of taxing the payouts could face legal challenges. Lawrence Zelenak, a Duke Law School professor with expertise in taxes, noted that the late Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. once said that 'the power to tax is not the power to destroy while this Court sits,' nodding to the tool’s limits."

From "Blue states pitch 100 percent tax on Trump’s ‘anti-weaponization’ payouts/'If you storm the Capitol and you take from this slush fund, too bad, we’re taking it,' one New York lawmaker said" (WaPo).

Why stop at 100%?

The sun, rising just now.

Meade captured that. You know, it's not easy, getting out there every morning. Here I was yesterday, running from ticks: