The Underdog
November 11, 2019
This is Tim Hsia, The Daily Pnut’s publisher. At Daily Pnut we root for the underdog. This Veteran’s Day we salute and honor Pat Tillman: an athlete, a soldier, and a hero with the legacy of the ultimate underdog. This piece on Pat Tillman was written by Jeff Yoder who runs our sister publication, The Sportsletter.
I’m very grateful and thankful for the entire Tillman family. The Pat Tillman Foundation helped me with my transition from the military to civilian life. The Foundation has turned something heartbreaking into a legacy of inspiration and lasting impact. It’s organizations like the Pat Tillman Foundation that makes America an incredible nation.
One more Veteran’s day note. A few months ago we asked Daily Pnut readers to consider supporting Service to School, a nonprofit I cofounded. Many of you did and I’m very grateful. A few days ago, Harvard University wrote about Service to School and how we are helping veterans earn admission into that school. Several of the veterans in that article used Service to School during their transition. I hope part of my legacy is that I helped other veterans with their journey. And that I left things better than I found them.
“War is always about betrayal, betrayal of the young by the old, of idealists by cynics and of troops by politicians.”
“But the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude….”
– Jon Krakauer, Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman
The Art of the Trade & Drug Deal
President Trump vowed to tackle America’s opioid crisis, but his most visible plan to do so has been to blame China for failing to crack down on the production of cheap drugs, especially fentanyl. About 130 people die daily in the US from opioid-related overdoses. In 2017 more than 28,000 synthetic opioid-related overdose deaths were recorded; fentanyl-laced pills have figured in several high-profile deaths, including musicians Prince and Tom Petty.
Cracking down on fentanyl has been a key issue underlying US-China trade negotiations. It first emerged in November 2017 when Trump warned China’s leader Xi Jinping that stopping the flood of fentanyl into the US was a “top priority.” Trump pressed Xi on the issue at the 2018 G20 summit, after which China agreed to list fentanyl and its derivatives as a controlled substance.
The subject has gained in importance as Trump campaigns for reelection. Derek Scissors, a pro-market scholar, said: “Fentanyl matters a lot in US politics, because it could be politically devastating among suburban housewives in swing states if fentanyl-related deaths are blamed on Trump’s political inaction on the issue.”
Progress finally showed last Thursday when China’s National Narcotics Control Commission held a press conference about a fentanyl smuggling case cracked in a joint operation between US and Chinese authorities. Nine men were arrested and tried; eight received sentences ranging from a few months to life in prison. One man received the death penalty. “The [Trump] administration knows they have to neutralize fentanyl as a political issue … and the Chinese have figured out they have to cooperate on this if they want a [trade] deal with the US,” Scissors said.
- Trump Says China Wants a Deal With U.S. ‘Much More Than I Do’ (Bloomberg)
- ‘US creates monsters’: Trump talk of war on Mexico cartels echoes past failures (Guardian)
Race to Find the Next Dalai Lama
- The 14th high priest and spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, the Dalai Lama, is now 84 years old and ailing. Many of his faithful followers believe their leader will be reincarnated when he dies, just as it has been for more than 600 years.
- Traditionally, the Dalai Lama himself gives instructions to aides on where to look for a child who will next embody his essence, i.e., succeed him, but one expert explains why this time could be different.
- “The Dalai Lama’s reincarnation is a civilizational struggle between China and Tibetans over who controls Tibetan Buddhism,” he said. “It’s not merely about one individual. It’s about who truly heads the Tibetans.” For the past 60 years, the current Dalai Lama has sought to do so from exile in northern India, where he escaped after a Chinese crackdown in his native Tibet.
- Beijing has controlled Tibet ever since, and says the Dalai Lama lost his legitimacy when he and his followers fled decades ago. The Chinese government now claims the right to name the Dalai Lama’s successor. (NPR)
Social Media Abuse: More Than Just Chatting
- Millions of photos and videos of children being sexually abused exist on a wide range of platforms, from Dropbox to Facebook Messenger, which can be seen by criminals around the world.
- Online predators sometimes stalk victims seen in the photos and videos, and a New York Times investigation found that the technology industry has consistently failed to take coordinated steps to shut down the illegal content. This means that even years later, those images can continue to haunt survivors well into their adulthoods. Two young sisters from the Midwest have explained why they’re unable to escape their horrific experiences because of the internet. (NYT)
- Facebook fought to keep a trove of thousands of explosive internal documents and emails secret. They were just published online in full. (Business Insider)
Additional World News
- Bolivian President Evo Morales resigns amid fraud poll protests (BBC)
- The Hidden Cost of Gold: Birth Defects and Brain Damage (NYT, $)
- ‘I Will Never Be German’: Immigrants and Mixed-Race Families in Germany on the Struggle to Belong (NYT, $) and Angela Merkel on the Fall of the Wall: ‘I Wanted to See the Rockies and Listen to Springsteen’ (Spiegel)
Blue is the New Red in Virginia
- Last week voters flipped a longtime Republican State Senate district and helped deliver the Virginia statehouse to the Democratic party for the first time in a generation. Suburban homes in Loudoun County, in this southern state that was once the heart of the confederacy, are increasingly occupied by residents that were not born in America, are not white, and are more inclined to vote Democratic.
- “It’s a totally different world,” said a retired history professor, whose family has lived in Loudoun County for four generations. His family farm is now dotted with subdivisions filled with large homes selling for $750,000 and up. And the pattern, a new kind of suburbanization sweeping through politics, is repeating itself from Atlanta to Houston.
- The densely populated inner ring suburbs are turning blue while the mostly exurban outer ring is redder than ever. Elections are won and lost along that suburban line. And in some of those places —Atlanta, Denver, Riverside, CA — Democrats have begun breaching the Republican firewalls. (NYT, $)
Additional USA News
- Nikki Haley: Top aides ‘told ex-UN envoy to undermine Trump’ (BBC)
- Who Will Betray Trump? Donald Trump knows there are potential traitors in his midst. His presidency could depend on keeping them at bay. (Politico)
- Arlington cemetery dead remind Trump Jr of his father’s ‘sacrifices’ (BBC)
- How the Insufferably Woke Help Trump Democrats are insulting and condescending to the swing-state voters they need the most. (NYT, $)
- Skeptics Urge Bevin To Show Proof Of Fraud Claims, Warning Of Corrosive Effects (NPR)
- The Whistleblower Complaint Has Largely Been Corroborated. Here’s How. (NPR)
I Predict You Will One Day Die
- Felicity Carter tells the Guardian how she became an astrologer, what she learned about how it really works, and why she had to stop. “Customers marveled at my psychic abilities but was that really what was going on when I told their fortune?” she says.
- In the beginning Carter enrolled in a psychic class, where she learned to say the first thing that popped into her head. “Your first thoughts are the most psychic ones, before your rational mind interferes,” the teacher said. She also learned that all things are connected, and everything is a symbol of something else. She began seeing signs and omens everywhere.
- Astrology, says Carter, is one big word association game. Later, in practicing her “gift,” she learned that intelligence and education do not protect against superstition. Many of her customers were stockbrokers, advertising executives or politicians, dealing with issues whose outcomes couldn’t be controlled.
- “It’s uncertainty that drives people into woo, not stupidity, so I’m not surprised millennials are into astrology. They grew up with Harry Potter and graduated into a precarious economy, making them the ideal customers.” (Guardian)
- Millennials Will Get Sick and Die Faster Than the Previous Generation (Vice)
Additional Reads
- The five: exercises to help avoid an early death (Guardian)
- The Simple Dutch Cure for Stress (Nautilus)
- Apple co-founder says Apple Card algorithm gave wife lower credit limit (Reuters)
- Computers Evolve a New Path Toward Human Intelligence (Quanta)
- The Role of the Artist in the Age of Trump (Atlantic, $)
- The Slowness of Literature and the Shadow of Knowledge (New Yorker, $)