Why do so many Americans have to go so far to get to the nearest grocery store? The problem is especially bad in rural America. "Tens of millions of Americans live in low-income communities with no easy access to fresh groceries, and the general consensus is that these places just don’t have what it takes to attract and sustain a supermarket. They’re either too poor or too sparsely populated to generate sufficient spending on groceries, or they can’t overcome a racist pattern of corporate redlining." But it turns out that, like many problems, food deserts are the result of a policy decisions. In fact, the phrase Food Desert didn't even show up until the mid-nineties, shortly after the widespread emergence of the reality it describes. Stacy Mitchell in The Atlantic (Gift Article) on The Great Grocery Squeeze. "Food deserts are not an inevitable consequence of poverty or low population density, and they didn’t materialize around the country for no reason. Something happened. That something was a specific federal policy change in the 1980s. It was supposed to reward the biggest retail chains for their efficiency. Instead, it devastated poor and rural communities by pushing out grocery stores and inflating the cost of food. Food deserts will not go away until that mistake is reversed."

2

Flush With Kash

"Patel vowed to sever the FBI’s intelligence-gathering activities from the rest of its mission and said he would 'shut down' the bureau’s headquarters building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., and 'reopen it the next day as a museum of the ‘deep state.' ... In a separate interview with conservative strategist Steve Bannon, Patel said he and others 'will go out and find the conspirators not just in government but in the media.'" Yes, it's true that, even given the current lineup of nominees for key posts, Kash Patel is a particularly bad and dangerous pick to lead the FBI. But it's worth backing up a bit to remind ourselves that a president firing an FBI director before their term is up is itself a particularly bad and dangerous move. David Frum in The Atlantic (Gift Article): A Constitutional Crisis Greater Than Watergate. "Something that was regarded as outrageously unacceptable in 2017—treating an FBI director as just another Trump aide—has been semi-normalized even before President-Elect Trump takes office. The firing of Wray is the real outrage. The obnoxious nomination of Patel slathers frosting and sprinkles on the outrage."

+ Meanwhile, in case you missed it over the Thanksgiving weekend, the NYT (Gift Article) reported that Pete Hegseth’s Mother Accused Her Son of Mistreating Women for Years. "I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth." (She later said she regretted the email.)

+ In The New Yorker, Jane Mayer reports on Hegseth's other challenging characteristics. Pete Hegseth’s Secret History. "A whistle-blower report and other documents suggest that Trump’s nominee to run the Pentagon was forced out of previous leadership positions for financial mismanagement, sexist behavior, and being repeatedly intoxicated on the job." (Beyond these stories, it's worth noting that Hegseth is also wildly unqualified for a job that is one of America's most important.)

+ Trump press secretary pick removed post praising Pence on January 6, then ran for Congress as an election denier. (OK, now this is someone perfectly suited for her role.)

3

Hunter Slatherer

"President Biden ultimately believed his son was 'singled out politically' and they 'tried to break his son in order to break him.'" How President Biden came to the decision to pardon his son Hunter. There has been a lot of criticism of Biden for making this decision, including some from his own party. It's a topic worthy of debate. But the notion that this pardon gives Trump a greenlight use pardons (especially as they relate to family members) more liberally is nonsensical. In 2020, Trump pardoned Charles Kushner (Jared's father) and over the weekend, he nominated him to be ambassador to France.

4

'Tis Folly to Be Wise

"Aristotle taught that all human beings want to know. Our own experience teaches us that all human beings also want not to know, sometimes fiercely so. This has always been true, but there are certain historical periods when the denial of evident truths seems to be gaining the upper hand, as if some psychological virus were spreading by unknown means, the antidote suddenly powerless. This is one of those periods." Mark Lilla in the NYT(Gift Article): The Surprising Allure of Ignorance. "Mesmerized crowds follow preposterous prophets, irrational rumors trigger fanatical acts and magical thinking crowds out common sense and expertise. And to top it off we have elite prophets of ignorance, those learned despisers of learning who idealize 'the people' and encourage them to resist doubt and build ramparts around their fixed beliefs." (Other than that, we're pretty clear headed...)

+ The Oxford University Press word of the year is Brain Rot, defined as the "supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging." (The last time I might have had a cogent response to this would have been just before I logged onto Compuserve for the first time.)

5

Extra, Extra

Syrian Pound: "Russia’s indiscriminate bombing, in particular, turned the tide against the rebels. It also transformed then rebel-held cities such as Aleppo and Homs into moonscapes of rubble and rebar. In all, the U.N. has documented more than 350,000 deaths but says this is 'certainly an undercount. Today, however, Russia, Iran and Lebanon are distracted and depleted." What’s happening in Syria? How an old conflict in the Middle East erupted again. The rebels are betting that a distracted Russia and a depleted Iran/Hezbollah created an opportunity. What to know about the complex, long-simmering civil war.

+ Breaking Worse: "In their quest to build fentanyl empires, Mexican criminal groups are turning to an unusual talent pool: not hit men or corrupt police officers, but chemistry students studying at Mexican universities." NYT (Gift Article): Mexican Cartels Lure Chemistry Students to Make Fentanyl. "The cartels also have a more ambitious goal: to synthesize the chemical compounds, known as precursors, that are essential to making fentanyl, freeing them from having to import those raw materials from China."

+ Pain and Buffering: "Doctors have long taken for granted a devil’s bargain: Relieving intense pain, such as that caused by surgery and traumatic injury, risks inducing the sort of pleasure that could leave patients addicted." But what if drugmakers could decouple the pain relief from the addictive qualities? The Atlantic(Gift Article): Imagine a Drug That Feels Like Tylenol and Works Like OxyContin.

+ Flag Football: "Amid a host of college football rivalry clashes, the Michigan-Ohio State fracas kickstarted a day full of jawing coaches, postgame punches and flag-planting field assaults. Left hooks were landed. Helmets were thrown. Fans, coaches and players exchanged words, shoves and, yes, flags." Does college football have a flag-planting problem? (America has a winning with grace and losing with dignity problem. Actually, the problem is that people think failing on both counts is presidential.)

+ Schmear Campaign: "Apollo Bagels in the West Village is drawing lines out the door — and most of the way down the block. Now it’s in a legal fight to stave off eviction." The Hole in This Bagel Shop’s Business Model? It’s Too Popular.

+ The Bridge Chorus: "Engineers have been working to quell the Golden Gate Bridge’s “song,” which is produced when gusts of wind pass through 12,000 sidewalk slats on the western handrail, transforming the landmark into an 840 million pound instrument." San Francisco officials say an end is coming to the Golden Gate Bridge's eerie song. This is such a waste of time and money. The song is the coolest thing and they're treating a feature like a bug.

+ Photo Finish: Associated Press 100 Photos of 2024: An epic catalog of humanity.

6

Bottom of the News

"In China, there are a registries of haunted apartments. If you’re willing to live somewhere with a sinister history, you can get a discount of 30% ... Avatar Robot Cafe Dawn in Tokyo is staffed by robot waiters that are remotely controlled by workers with disabilities working from home ... Photographs of sporting events in the 1960–70s have a blue haze in the background that’s absent in modern photos. It’s because everyone was smoking in the arena." Tom Whitwell's always interesting list of learnings. 52 things I learned in 2024.

+ "Over the summer, when Duncan McCabe would tell his co-workers at his Toronto-area software company that he was heading out for a run, they would ask him whether he was training for a race. 'No,' he would tell them, 'I have to go work on my stickman.'" When your workouts turn into a work of art.