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Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou analyze the Supreme Court’s probable gutting of Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Trump eyeing covert strikes and land airstrikes against Venezuela, the decline of the power of the U.S. passport, and archivists race a looming “digital dark age.”
- House Gerrymandering by the Supreme Court: Republicans redraw districts, targeting Southern Democrats, but Democrats hold a House path—unless Louisiana v. Callais strikes Section 2. This would gut majority-minority mandates, enabling elimination of 7-8 Black-majority districts in Alabama through Florida by 2028. Democrats would face +5-point popular vote hurdles for competitiveness, turning all midterms into GOP locks.
- Trump’s Venezuela Escalation: Trump has drawn a bead against the government of President Nicolás Maduro after five boat strikes killing 26. Now he’s considering U.S. military land strikes to halt Venezuelan drug flows and authorized the CIA with a “finding” that allows the agency to conduct covert operations there. Is this regime change?
- U.S. Passport Downgrade: Henley Index of “powerful passports” drops U.S. passport to 12th—first time outside top 10 in 20 years, tied with Malaysia, down from 7th last year. Trump’s immigration crackdowns trigger reciprocity losses from Brazil, China, Vietnam, stagnating access to 180 destinations. Experts warn of fading soft power in an openness-driven world.
- Rescuing Floppy Disks: Cambridge archivists tackle 113 boxes of Stephen Hawking’s papers, extracting data from degrading 1970s-90s floppy disks via the Future Nostalgia project. They battle magnetism loss, mould, and obsolete formats to save physics insights and personal notes. This combats a “digital dark age,” preserving 50 years of computered history.
