We’ll be off on Monday for Labor Day, and will see you again on Tuesday!
Lake America, the Dept. of War, nicknames for political enemies: President Trump’s renaming obsession would be outright dumb if it didn’t have sinister, Orwellian connotations. / The Ringer
Under new proposed regulations, the IRS will revoke the tax-exempt status of universities that offer initiatives supporting Black and other minority students. / The New York Times [$]
In a comparison of corporations’ effective tax rates globally, US companies pay a fraction of what their peers in other countries do, and Americans hate that. / Roosevelt Institute
See also: Billions of tax dollars went uncollected last year in the US due to DOGE cuts at the IRS, as the Trump administration lays plans to cut even further. / NPR
Scams have reached a record high, with the FTC estimating $550 million is lost to scammers every day in the US alone. / Associated Press
Drivers licenses for more than 153 million Americans and Canadians turned up on the dark web, and one thing many victims share is that they rented a vehicle from Hertz. / Krebs on Security
Hundreds of US cities are canceling their Flock contracts, while cops ask Axon to design a camera that looks different from the ones associated with Flock. / Futurism, 404 Media
If you enjoy these headlines, please join us as a Sustaining Member to support what we do and unlock access to paywalled links.
In a lawsuit alleging it broke California law, Sony claims “reasonable” customers know purchasing a game digitally doesn’t mean they own it. / Engadget
It’s that time of year, when Amazon raises the prices on its house brands so it can “discount” them for the holidays. / WIRED
How Anna Wintour’s plan to rehabilitate John Galliano’s image with a Met exhibit next year came crashing down. / The Wall Street Journal [$]
A report on test-driving LLMs on identifying poisonous mushrooms, or why Qwen3.8 wants you dead. / Quesma
Earth has been spinning faster since about 2015, and by 2035 we may need to add a negative leap second, which could wreak havoc on digital time systems. / Financial Times
On the difficulties of donating the brain of a loved one who’s dying with dementia. / Vox [$]
Breaking the Backyard Ultra record means 40 minutes of running followed by 15-minute naps for 152 hours straight, with a cheeseburger to the rescue. / The Guardian
“Everybody meets each other... and then you go be by yourself and be quiet.” The club that’s field-recording the sounds of Los Angeles. / LAist
Play sketch artist and draw a suspect based on witnesses’ accounts. / Neal dot fun
Facts Only
* President Trump is renaming entities, including "Lake America" and the "Dept. of War."
* The IRS has proposed regulations to revoke tax-exempt status for universities with initiatives supporting Black and minority students.
* U.S. companies pay lower effective global tax rates than peers in other countries.
* Billions in U.S. tax dollars went uncollected last year following DOGE cuts at the IRS.
* The FTC estimates $550 million is lost daily to scams in the U.S.
* Driver's licenses for over 153 million Americans and Canadians appeared on the dark web; many victims rented from Hertz.
* Multiple U.S. cities are canceling contracts with Flock; police are requesting different camera designs from Axon.
* Sony is litigating a claim that digital game purchases do not constitute ownership.
* Amazon is increasing prices on house brands prior to holiday discounts.
* Earth's rotation speed increased starting around 2015, potentially requiring a negative leap second by 2035.
* A Backyard Ultra record was broken involving 152 hours of running and naps.
Executive Summary
Current events reflect a period of significant institutional volatility across governance, finance, and technology. In the United States, the executive branch is pursuing a series of symbolic and structural changes, ranging from the renaming of federal departments to the targeting of university diversity initiatives through tax-exempt status. These shifts coincide with fiscal tensions, as U.S. corporations maintain low effective tax rates while the IRS faces funding cuts that have resulted in billions of uncollected revenue.
Simultaneously, digital security and consumer rights are under pressure. Massive data breaches involving driver's licenses have linked rental car services to dark web exposure, and the FTC reports record-high financial losses to scams. In the private sector, the definition of digital ownership is being challenged in court by Sony, and retail pricing strategies continue to leverage holiday "discounts" via pre-emptive price hikes. These trends suggest a broader friction between corporate/state authority and individual protections, though the long-term impact of these regulatory and digital shifts remains uncertain.
Full Take
The strongest version of this narrative is that we are witnessing a simultaneous erosion of trust across three pillars: the state, the corporation, and the digital interface. From the symbolic restructuring of government departments to the legal insistence that "buying" a digital product is not "owning" it, there is a consistent movement toward centralized control and the reduction of individual agency.
The pattern here is one of systemic instability. We see the "Authority Game" playing out in the renaming of institutions to project power, and in the use of tax regulations to enforce ideological conformity in universities. When combined with the reality of massive data leaks and the FTC's scam statistics, a picture emerges of a society where the infrastructure of safety (the state and the law) is being hollowed out or repurposed, while the infrastructure of exploitation (scams and dark web leaks) is thriving.
The root cause is a paradigm shift toward "access-based" existence rather than "ownership-based" existence. Whether it is the government redefining the "War" department or Sony redefining "ownership," the goal is to move the individual from a position of stakeholder to a position of temporary licensee. This diminishes human dignity by replacing permanent rights with conditional permissions.
Bridge Questions:
If ownership is replaced by licensing in all sectors, what remains as a safeguard for individual autonomy?
How does the degradation of institutional trust affect the ability of citizens to respond to objective crises, such as the potential digital chaos of a negative leap second?
Counterstrike Scan: A coordinated campaign would use these disparate grievances to fuel a narrative of total systemic collapse to justify an authoritarian "reset." The current content remains a curated list of headlines rather than a directed ideological push.
Patterns detected: none