Mr. Dan Zak

I wrote about the life of Rich Fierro, who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan for 10 years, returned home and worked hard to put his life back together — only to have his family caught in a mass shooting, which turned them all into combat veterans. wapo.st/3vjxIsU

The first three paragraphs. And it just gets more jaw-dropping. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/24/c...

JUST POSTED: Today at The NYT we are publishing a major investigation into how President Trump used his executive powers to expose millions of Americans to greater cancer risks. A six month-long investigation built on more than 10,000 pages of FOIA records. Read it www.nytimes.com/2026/10/24/c...

JUST POSTED: A Russian energy giant has secretly moved to acquire a position in a massive Alaska gas project. Its part of talks between Witkoff/Kushner & Putin. But CEO of US company resigns after learning of Russian money in the project. A wowzer of a story. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/23/u...

"Once or twice, she rolled a typewritten story into a tube, dressed as a jogger and ran past an embassy, throwing the tube over the wall, Howe said. The embassy then sent the story to The Post so it could be published." www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...

"Ordinarily, moving historical items within the building is a deliberate process overseen by trained curators. Instead, Hegseth’s staff dispatched its own team to relocate an Eisenhower globe. They lost control of the artifact and dropped it..." wapo.st/3WF2YQo

Forbes has been tracking Trump's wealth since the early 80s. They described Trump's first year back in office as "the most lucrative year of [Trump's] life." And it's not even close. Trump is earning hundreds of millions more than he ever has.

Joel Achenbach, on the real meaning of the arch. “It’s risky to get rid of people who, thanks to experience, know that many bold, novel & exciting ideas are actually very bad ideas. You want people who will say to their bosses things like: ‘Your war proposal smells of quagmire.’” wapo.st/4i7Zjlk

"A federal judge is getting death threats over a golf course. I really don’t think that's what the founders envisioned." wapo.st/47vGLXi

Security officials — some of whom have focused on countering authoritarianism abroad — are quietly advising states to prepare for the U.S. president to interfere in the midterms. wapo.st/4z2uENE

NEW: Lindsay Graham and Jim Clyburn were under FBI investigation for bribery. Then Trump dismantled the DOJ & FBI public corruption units. The investigation died. We unearthed it: www.propublica.org/article/nava...

Generous thinker, generous colleague. I will miss enthusing with Ann Hornaday. wapo.st/484Ryb8

“Much of the new artistic work being done has a sense of mission — a feeling that a struggle that changed our world cannot be permitted to recede into mere abstraction.” www.nytimes.com/2026/10/19/t...

Andy McCarthy wrote Saturday that Trump is giving Putin aid and comfort. “As a lawyer, McCarthy surely did not choose those words at random. Aid and comfort are part of the criteria in Article III of the Constitution of the United States that define treason.” www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1...

I really, strongly feel everybody needs to read this—because everybody is going to live in this emergent world, whether or not they believe themselves to be full participants in it. Pretty bleak. Great work @cwarzel.bsky.social and @matteowong.bsky.social

The Spice Girls, in full, are over the Brimley/Cocoon Line.

“What we are more likely to see is humans starting to decay instead of AI taking over,” creating a world in which “thinking becomes optional.” wapo.st/47mVhRb

From our 2018 profile of Guilfoyle: "One person's blurred lines are another's clear road map." www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/st...

This is a good episode. Listen in full. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

After years of championing "free speech," Texas lawmakers have enabled a dramatic rise of censorship in Texas universities, banning concepts, canceling courses and closing departments seen as "woke," and even using AI bots as censors. All in the name of freedom. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1...

“I’m sure my daughters will one day write ‘Please Cancel My Mother’ essays at Wesleyan, funded by me taking off my clothes on television. I’m sure that’s what Joni Mitchell’s ‘The Circle Game’ is about.” www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

Hard to overstate how much Hegseth's execution stream mirrors the U.S. military's traditional description of ISIS propaganda: broadcast killings designed to send a message, strike fear and create a social media spectacle. Will almost certainly be repurposed by online terror cells

“There are no rules. Just make sure Republicans win,” is how a DOJ official described the department's instruction on the coming midterms. (A DOJ spokesperson refuted this.) www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

All the poet would say was she was “in Iceland,” where she was “listening to the wind.” www.nytimes.com/2026/10/08/b...

“Once we get through this nightmare, the rest of our careers will have to be devoted to reviving American progress and building institutions that endure and succeed,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md). “That is going to be the work of the rest of our lives.” wapo.st/4hE3aGy

JUST POSTED: Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff have pushed a multibillion oil deal with Russia as part of peace talks that will bring profits to their family business partners. A new front for Trump-era conflicts of interest. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/03/u...

“Everyone was out posing in public, but no one wanted to cede control of how they might be perceived.” www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

As their parents are detained & deported en masse, thousands of children are being shuffled among anxious temporary caregivers. There are so many family crises unfolding right now across the U.S., and @caitlindickerson.bsky.social takes us inside three: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

It’s worth listening to the podcast version of this.

The CDC awarded a no-bid contract for exploring whether immunizing pregnant women would lead to autism in their children; to pay for this contract, the CDC took $362,000 from a program that provides free vaccines to about half American children. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/26/h...

The godfather of AI says we need an FDA for artificial intelligence, in the same way that prescription drugs are vetted before going to market. www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/202...

Blockbuster @washingtonpost.com reporting by @davidnakamura.bsky.social and @mradamtaylor.bsky.social -- www.washingtonpost.com/politics/int...

Daniel Selsam of OpenAI: “…the model’s becoming so situationally aware that we are losing the ability to evaluate them in contexts where they believe they are not being watched or controlled.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/o...

600 words on United 93: www.mrdanzak.com/blog/united93

Stuyvesant High School reopened the month after 9/11. Six blocks south, Ground Zero burned thru December. “The pages of textbooks had an acrid smell ... And dust was everywhere: in the upholstery of the auditorium seats, in the gray sludge that covered the streets.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/n...

Headlines just on p. A22 of The New York Times: Homeland Security Secretary Asks for Inquiries into Voting Machines Justice Dept Issues Subpoenas for Voter Data in Nevada North Carolina Applies New Restrictions to Its Vote-By-Mail Program Justices Side with GOP in Challenge to Ad Rates

Is the price they paid to ensure those freedoms worth it? “I think on the whole, I would say yes, but it’s a terribly high cost,” Ms. Feehan said, adding: “We love our country & love our military.” Her voice was thick & breaking: “But it’s a really high cost.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/05/u...

The collapse of the towers is still sickening people. nymag.com/intelligence...

"90 percent of his ideas were terrible. Was he a good builder? Yeah, he was a good builder because he hired good people. Now all he has are ridiculous ideas and people who are afraid of him." nymag.com/intelligence...

What was it like aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln? -Sailors ran an underground economy as stocks ran low. -Energy drinks that cost $3 at the ship store were being resold for $5 to $10. -A 40-day stretch the Wi-Fi went out, severing all ties to families back home. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

A pair of Post headlines today: U.S. Mint puts gold Trump coin into circulation. Kennedy Center removes iconic sculpture, at Trump's direction. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

We're in for it. www.theatlantic.com/science/2026...

Qatar owns some of Heathrow, part of the Empire State Building, & a minority stake in three D.C. sports teams. Qatar bailed out Jared Kushner, gave $ to Kash Patel & Pam Bondi, and gifted Trump a 747. What has it gotten in return? Fascinating story: www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...