Everything is part of the culture wars, even milk cultures. But identifying your political milk ilk is a little more complicated than choosing sides in other partisan battles. A couple decades ago, raw, unpasteurized milk was mostly popular among Whole Foods shopping, boxy Volvo-driving, hippy-clinging lefties who liked to use it wash down the personal blend of GORP they custom mixed by scooping just the right ratio of organic, artisanal, raw pumpkin seeds, sun-dried chia-powdered chard, carob-covered banana chips, and all-natural sugarless, tasteless granola from fairtrade plastic grocery bins into their hemp-based reusable shopping bag. At the time, reversing this trend would have seemed like milking a duck, but in a condensed period of time, this group's love for raw milk evaporated and an entirely different group of voters, let's call them the Milk Men—intolerant of everything but lactose—were chugging the raw stuff double-fisted on the hood of a gun-racked, gas-converted Tesla cybertruck—partly to quench thirst, partly to own the libs, and partly because the milk mustache hid the fact they couldn't grow a natural one—and were milking legislatures to allow unpasteurized goods to bypass science and adopt a new American socio-dietary movement: Teat to Table. Was there a moment when these two groups briefly met and found common ground. Alas, udder disregard persevered. Think, I'm milking it? Trust me, you'll be hitting the tiger's milk by the time you get done reading Marc Novicoff's piece in Politico Magazine: How Raw Milk Went from a Whole Foods Staple to a Conservative Signal. "So how did raw milk go from the darling of the organic liberals, deserving of sympathetic coverage in the New York Times, the Washington Post and the New Yorker, to the conservative culture war signal that is a sweetheart of deep-red state legislatures? First, liberal elites gave up on it ... At the same time, conservatives discovered that raw milk fit neatly inside a worldview that was increasingly skeptical of credentialed expertise." American politics, where the cream never rises to the top.

2

Thirst Trap

Last week, we discussed the ways AI is creating so much demand for energy that our electrical grids may not be able to keep up. Well, the computers aren't just sucking up our energy, there also gulping down our water. Thirsty Bots Are Drinking Our Scarce Water.

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Words, Sticks, Stones

It turns out political speech geared towards an increasingly rabid base can have real world impacts. WaPo (Gift Article): In states with laws targeting LGBTQ issues, school hate crimes quadrupled. "At the same time, calls to LGBTQ youth crisis hotlines have exploded, with some advocates drawing a connection between the spike in bullying and hate crimes, and the political climate." Ya think?

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Round Here

"We've all been there: A store cashier asks if you'd like to donate money to the local food bank. Or the PIN pad at the checkout counter prompts you to round up your payment for charity — spare a little change for a worthy cause. Those 'round-up' campaigns have become ubiquitous in recent years — at grocery chains, gas stations, retail stores and online merchants." Well, keep opting in. That spare change you donate at checkout is adding up to millions for charities.

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Extra, Extra

Seen But Not Hur: If you can stomach it (full disclosure: I can't), the House Judiciary Committee is grilling Robert Hur, "the special counsel who impugned Joe Biden’s age and competence in his report on how the president handled classified documents." Only one candidate faces criminal charges related to classified documents. And in terms of cognition? Biden remembers that the constitution is good and Hitler is bad. He wins the memory battle. Seriously, we're gonna spend six hours listening to testimony about Biden when Trump just announced that one of his first acts as president will be to "free the January 6 Hostages being wrongfully imprisoned!"

+ The Gangs All Here: "Mr Henry is currently stranded in Puerto Rico after being prevented by armed gangs from returning home." Haiti's prime minister Ariel Henry resigns as law and order collapses. AP: Why is Haiti so chaotic? Leaders used street gangs to gain power. Then the gangs got stronger.

+ ProPutin Endaround: "The White House has been scrambling to find ways to send more military assistance given the situation on the battlefield and the resistance to the funding from Republican hardliners." US to send $300 million in new weapons package for Ukraine.

+ Bling Sting: "A Brooklyn preacher who was known for his flashy lifestyle, made headlines after being robbed of $1m in jewelry during a service being broadcast online and boasted of his friendship with New York City’s mayor was found guilty in federal court on Monday of wire fraud, attempted extortion and lying to the FBI." Shocking that a guy nicknamed the "bling bishop" would be up to no good.

+ Crime Wave Undertow: "Asher identified 14 states that have released their Uniform Crime Reports publicly. The data has not been completely finalized and could be adjusted slightly before formally submitting it to the FBI. But this data is the best early look at violent crime trends last year. Asher found that both murder and violent crime declined in 12 of 14 states."

+ Bit Happens: "Bitcoin once again hit a new record, surging to more than $72,000 Monday morning after the U.K.’s finance watchdog said it would allow investment exchanges to list crypto-linked exchange-traded notes (or ETNs)."

+ Ken Do Attitude: Here's a pretty fun, interesting look at how the choreographer behind the Eras Tour and La La Land put together the I'm Just Ken Oscars performance. If you missed it yesterday, here's my Oscars roundup.

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Bottom of the News

AirBNB has banned indoor cameras and outdoor ones that point at things like saunas and outdoor cameras. Oh well, looks like I'm gonna have to go back to packing my own video equipment.

+ Toupees are now so realistic that young balding guys are wearing them.

+ Hundreds of rolls of toilet paper litter I-5 after boxes fall from truck. Four years ago, this would have been like gold falling off a truck.