Minnesota’s global warming injury: “The fire season is changing in Canada because the climate of Canada is changing. Canada’s north is warming at a rate two to three times the global average.”

https://www.startribune.com/canada-forest-fire-smoke-minnesota-air-quality/601376477

In an anonymous poll Minnesotans would vote for CO2 increases. But even in MN there are consequences …

“On Tuesday, June 3, the air quality index hit … 800 in Grand Portage … worst air quality ever recorded globally occurred in New Delhi, India, on Nov. 11, 2022, when the AQI reached 999.”

What broke America: Noah Smith’s list

https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/social-media-destroyed-one-of-americas?publication_id=35345&post_id=165845738&isFreemail=false&r=bzxnl&triedRedirect=true

“housing crash and Great Recession, the rise of China, racial diversification, and the rise of smartphone-enabled social media”

My list: IT, globalization, rural collapse, rise of women. (I think we broke in late 90s, well before his 2010 date.)

“Trump administration is vowing to get rid of the democratically elected government of California by using military force”

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/june-12-2025

According to Noem. No Kings march Sat June 14.

Raskin: “We have no kings here, we have no queens here, we have no emperors, we have no dictators, we have no despots, and we have no serfs and no slaves and no subjects, and none of us is a subject to Donald Trump. None of us is a subject to Mike Johnson.”

“AI to analyze San Francisco’s 16-million-word municipal code and regulations and identify outdated or duplicative reporting requirements—resulting in a legislative proposal to eliminate or consolidate 36% of reports”

https://www.niskanencenter.org/virtual-event-modernizing-municipal-code-with-technology-how-the-city-of-san-francisco-used-ai-to-cut-red-tape/

AN interesting example; basically enhanced semantic search. Not a big AI tech challenge, but does a useful thing that is not cost-efficient without AI.

iOS 26 to support federal passport identification?!?!

https://9to5mac.com/2025/06/10/ios-26-apple-wallet-digital-id-passport-support/

“According to Apple’s website, you’ll be able to use it at TSA checkpoints, online, and in person.”

No need to carry your wallet/state ID when you go to a bar. This is a big leap and bypasses the complexity of state ID support. As is typical of Apple the important updates are done quietly, the liquid glass stuff is BS to cover their AI failure.

“You’re a fraud. You’re a total fraud,” Bessent supposedly said. At that point Musk body-checked the Treasury secretary, who hit back, and White House staff had to break up the fight.”

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/if-you-lie-with-doge-you-get-fleeced

via Bannon. So 50/50 at best unless someone talks.

“America will spend years paying the price for Musk’s fraudulence.” If we are very lucky.

Funding journalism- “… government give individual tax credits to people, who could then support the news outlet(s) of their choice. The model for this already exists: the charitable contribution tax deduction”

https://cepr.net/publications/saving-journalism-will-require-some-new-thinking/

Someone agrees with me.

“every adult in the country would have the right to give $100, regardless of whether they owed taxes or not”