Among other embarrassing moments during the now infamous Oval Office meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, Donald Trump famously explained, "You don’t have the cards right now." It helps explain how Trump bankrupted casinos when you consider just how bad the author of a book called The Art of the Deal is at assessing the state of a metaphorical card game. Trump's analysis was a few cards short of a deck as it turns out Zelensky still had a card (and a lot of drones) up his sleeve. After more than a year of planning, an attack called Operation Spiderweb deployed more than 100 drones from within Russian territory, delivering a level of damage most experts (and at least one non-expert) thought unthinkable. 'Operation Spiderweb’: How Ukraine destroyed over a third of Russian bombers. "Drones were smuggled into Russia and placed inside containers, which were later loaded on to trucks. With the trucks positioned near Russian bases, the roof panels of the containers were lifted off by a remotely activated mechanism, allowing the drones to fly out and begin their attack." The Guardian: Operation Spiderweb: a visual guide to Ukraine’s destruction of Russian aircraft.
+ In addition to being a welcome success for Ukraine, this drone attack marks another chapter in the story of modern warfare and the leveling of the playing field. That doesn't just impact Russia. The leadership of every major military knows this transformation has been in the cards. But it's another thing to actually see an attack like this play out from within a powerful country's borders. WaPo (Gift Article): Ukraine just rewrote the rules of war. "If the Ukrainians could sneak drones so close to major air bases in a police state such as Russia, what is to prevent the Chinese from doing the same with U.S. air bases? Or the Pakistanis with Indian air bases? Or the North Koreans with South Korean air bases? Militaries that thought they had secured their air bases with electrified fences and guard posts will now have to reckon with the threat from the skies posed by cheap, ubiquitous drones that can be easily modified for military use. This will necessitate a massive investment in counter-drone systems. Money spent on conventional manned weapons systems increasingly looks to be as wasted as spending on the cavalry in the 1930s."
+ "Every branch of the service and a host of defense tech startups are testing out new weapons that promise to disable drones en masse. There are drones that slam into other drones like battering rams; drones that shoot out nets to ensnare quadcopter propellers; precision-guided Gatling guns that simply shoot drones out of the sky; electronic approaches, like GPS jammers and direct hacking tools; and lasers that melt holes clear through a target’s side. Then there are the microwaves: high-powered electronic devices that push out kilowatts of power to zap the circuits of a drone as if it were the tinfoil you forgot to take off your leftovers when you heated them up." MIT Tech Review: This giant microwave may change the future of war.
The pace of antisemitic attacks and flashing warning signals in America continues to a accelerate as "eight people at an outdoor mall in Boulder, Colo., calling for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza were injured on Sunday by a man police say attacked a crowd with makeshift incendiary devices and a flamethrower."
+ "The victims, four men and four women between the ages of 52 and 88, were attacked while they peacefully participated in a 'Run for their Lives' walk to show solidarity with the Israeli hostages still being held captive by Hamas." The 88 year-old survived the Holocaust.
"'I voted for Donald Trump, and so did practically everyone here,' said Vanessa Cowart, a friend of Ms. Hui from church. 'But no one voted to deport moms. We were all under the impression we were just getting rid of the gangs, the people who came here in droves. She paused. 'This is Carol.'" NYT (Gift Article): A Missouri Town Was Solidly Behind Trump. Then Carol Was Detained.
+ The targets have surprised people. So have the methods and the lawlessness. "Cornejo—who has no criminal history in the United States or in Venezuela and had no final order of removal—has not only been disappeared to a foreign gulag from where he might never be released, but has also been erased by the US immigration courts." MoJo: Trump Disappeared Them to El Salvador. Now, They’re Being Erased by Immigration Courts. (Meanwhile, ignored or flouted orders from courts including SCOTUS seem to be getting erased from our headlines.)
WTF With Marc Maron was one of the first truly massive podcasts. Basically, everyone has a podcast now. So you'll still have something to listen to after Maron signs off. Marc Maron to End Groundbreaking ‘WTF’ Podcast After 16 Years. "The podcast, which will turn 16 years old on Sept. 1, has become one of the most influential shows in podcasting history, with more than 1,600 episodes featuring interviews with everyone from Barack Obama to Keith Richards to Carol Burnett." 1,600 episodes. I don't think I've talked to 1,600 different people in my entire life. (On the other hand, I consider the first 1,600 editions of NextDraft to be part of my warm-up era.)
Losing Another Win-Win: "Mr. Flamm, a farmer from a conservative stronghold, became an unlikely activist fighting to save a Biden-era program that had helped him and his neediest neighbors." NYT (Gift Article): A Peach and Apple Farmer’s Uphill Quest to Feed Poor Families, and His Own. "When you’re talking about providing nutritional assistance to low-income families, what is more nonpartisan than that? There’s poor people on both sides, and everybody needs a meal."
+ Pole Poll: "If nationalism were a stock, its performance might look a bit like the actual stock market: euphoric in November after the reelection of Donald Trump, and then highly volatile in the months since his return to the White House. In elections around the world, most candidates espousing versions of the Trump platform lost steam by the time voters got to the polls. Sunday’s election in Poland was an exception." Bloomberg (Gift Article): Nationalism Ticks Higher With Polish Election.
+ Spaced Out: Trump says he will withdraw nomination of Musk associate Jared Isaacman to lead NASA. It's either because of his ties to Musk, his past support of Democrats, or the suggestion that he believes in gravity. (If past is predictor, Trump will probably nominate Tim Allen because he voiced Buzz Lightyear.)
+ You Rang? "A little more than four months into his second term, the president’s personal cellphone has become, in many ways, the most pivotal technological device in the federal government, directly linking Trump to the outside world. Lawmakers, friends, family members, corporate titans, celebrities, world leaders, and journalists regularly use it, knowing that, unminded by aides, Trump remains open to picking up the phone, even when he does not recognize the number." The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Secret History of Trump’s Private Cellphone. (Luckily, he may not be sharing much classified info as he mostly skips intel briefings. "Tulsi Gabbard has solicited ideas from current and former intelligence officials about steps she could take to tailor the briefing, known as the President’s Daily Brief, or PDB, to Trump’s policy interests and habits." One idea: a video briefing that resembles Fox News. I suppose cartoons are out of the question?)
+ PSG TNT: 200 injuries. 300 hundred arrests. Two deaths. Is this really what winning looks like? 2 fans dead, hundreds arrested after celebrations in France from PSG's Champions League win.
+ Feeding Frenzy: "As seen in photos that quickly went viral, runner — and new mom — Stephanie Case sat down at three points along the demanding race course to breastfeed her six-month-old daughter. Case not only finished the race; she placed first among the female competitors." Ultramarathon runner breastfeeds her baby 3 times on her way to a surprise win. (I've used having a newborn as an excuse not to exercise and exercise as a way to avoid my kids.)
"A judge at Newcastle crown court on Monday told Mazyar Azarbonyad, 20, it was 'nothing short of a miracle that no one was more seriously injured or that there were not multiple fatalities' in the incident that led to seven officers needing hospital treatment and caused traffic disruption across the north-east of England." Five police cars were wrecked. Did I mention the driver was on a first date?
+ Sydney Sweeney is selling soap that contains her actual bathwater. (I'm not going to work myself into a lather about this...at least not in public.)
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