Trump: Prescription drug prices are down 400%, 500%, 600%. The press won't write about it
Political Wire
• Taegan Goddard
Darline Graham Takes Over Lindsey Graham’s Leadership PAC
“Sen. Darline Graham just inherited an unconventional asset from her deceased brother, former Sen. Lindsey Graham: his federal leadership PAC,” NOTUS reports. “Federal records reviewed by NOTUS now list Darline Graham as Fund for America’s Future’s sponsor. Filings from earlier this year listed Lindsey Graham as the PAC’s sponsor.”
Political Wire
• Taegan Goddard
Why Polling Overestimated Abdul El-Sayed’s Advantage
New York Times: “Conducting surveys in partisan primaries has long presented a challenge to pollsters, as it requires them to make assumptions about who will actually turn out to vote. Without mandatory party registration in Michigan, pollsters must guess who will show up on Election Day.” “Many surveys assumed political independents would make up 30 […]
Tragic reporting from Bloomberg about how safer TikTok algorithms were withheld from some users so TikTok could A/B test engagement:
Chase’s account was stuck in a so-called filter bubble, an online echo chamber that pumped out repetitive content the algorithm predicted he’d want to watch. There he received an “onslaught” of suicide and self-harm content, according to the document.
If you accidentally create a harmful product, that’s one thing. It can be fixed to prevent future harm. But if you have the fix and refuse to deploy it widely, to me that’s inexcusable.
Good news that the iPhone announcement will likely be an in-person live event. It’s past time. And it’ll be a more personable way to introduce John Ternus.
🦍 Mitchellaneous 8.5.2026
Win Tickets to See Parker McCollum at Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater!
Enter to win a pair of tickets to see Parker McCollum at Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater on August 6th! Continue reading…
WIRED
• Vittoria Elliott
The National Design Studio Became a DOGE Landing Pad. Now ‘Big Balls’ Is Recruiting
WIRED spoke with an engineer who was interviewed by Edward “Big Balls” Coristine for a government engineering role at the NDS, the White House agency staffed by other DOGE veterans.
The Lever
• Freddy Brewster
Trump’s Iran Oil Giveaway
As war with Iran drove oil prices higher, Trump gave politically connected oil companies — not taxpayers — the chance to cash in on publicly owned oil.
Electrek
• Michelle Lewis
Tesla Megapacks power Ørsted’s big new Texas grid battery

Tesla Megapacks are now helping support the Texas grid at Ørsted’s new 250 MW/500 MWh Old 300 battery storage project.
Ars Technica
• Beth Mole
Schwartz confirmed as CDC director after bungling confirmation hearing
Schwartz is well-qualified for the role, but crashed and burned in Senate hearing.
Horse Market, 1908 #expressionism #augustmacke
Vasily Kandinsky, The Night - Large Version (Die Nacht - Grosse Fassung), (1903) #museumarchive #vasilykandinsky
“ In this video , I’ll take you from farm to...
“In this video, I’ll take you from farm to factory to show you how chocolate is made, and at the end, we’ll use all the chocolate you’ll see in this video to attempt the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest chocolate bar.”
David Pogue: ‘Alexa+ Is a Buggy Embarrassment’
David Pogue, at Pogue’s Posts:
Amazon’s “50+ things to try” list mentions that Alexa can “find a home maintenance professional.” So I tried it.
ME: I need a septic-system repair.
ALEXA: That service isn’t currently supported. I can help with plumbing services instead.
ME: Okay, fine. Plumbing services.
ALEXA: What’s your plumbing issue?
ME: I have untreated sewage pouring out of my kitchen faucet.
ALEXA: Is this urgent?
Uh … what do YOU think, dumbass? But OK:
ME: Yes.
ALEXA: When do you need it by?
Displays four responses: ASAP, Within a week, Further out, and I haven’t decided yet.
ME: ASAP.
ALEXA: I’m Alexa, not Shaq.
This could only have been funnier if Alexa had responded “The Aristocrats!”
(Which great film, is, in fact, available to stream on Amazon Prime.)
Ars Technica
• Jeremy Hsu
Anthropic’s AI used fake identities, malware in rogue attack on GitHub project
Anthropic and OpenAI models’ unprompted actions forced halt to UK cyber tests.
WIRED
• Maddy Varner
DHS Wants Protesters’ Signal Group Chats
A lawsuit accuses Homeland Security of violating protesters’ free-speech rights—but the agency is using it to try to get access to the plaintiffs’ encrypted communications.
The San Francisco Standard
• Jonah Owen Lamb
‘Too dangerous to be among us’: 5 charged in SF child exploitation sting
The suspected predators were busted when they thought they were meeting minors.
links.daveverse.org
• Dave Winer
Key Changes in the Model Context Protocol. MCP is the language that AI agents use to talk to apps, so users can do things inside the apps from the AI chatbot.
Letters from an American
• Heather Cox Richardson