Late last week, a few days after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, and just a couple days before Team Kamala knocked Biden out of the coconut tree, a single software update pushed from Crowdstrike took down hospitals, banks, and flights across the country. With billions in financial damages, and thousands of Americans stranded for days, it was the largest IT failure in human history, and… it barely cracked front page news. Given the recent insanity, I guess I sort of get it. And look, we obviously survived. But it’s alarming how totally we’ve normalized enormous failures of this kind. In 1965, a blackout took down the American northeast for 13 hours. People talked about it for decades. Now, another major catastrophe with critical infrastructure paralyzed for days? Must be Tuesday. The grounded flights are annoying, but I’m pretty sure our expectation of the grounded flights is killing us.

The global anti-tech tilt has spread from Europe to Africa. Nigeria is levying a $220 million fine against Meta, citing infringements of the country’s consumer data and antitrust laws, while seven countries on the continent have blocked or shut down access to Starlink internet, with many citing national security as their reason. More likely, however, African countries are taking cues from the EU, which has looted massive sums from Big Tech for years. As if to underscore how extreme this arbitrage is for the continent, Nigeria is asking Meta to pay not just the $220 million fine, but also the $35,000 that their investigation cost them. Their scam artist prince of legends would be proud. But I think they’ve miscalculated: Zuck’s a new man in a gold chain now, and he’s been shutting markets down left and right. The third world is playing a game of chicken with no leverage. Good luck.

Monday, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle appeared before Congress to discuss last week’s assassination attempt on President Trump. Though she took “full responsibility” for the security lapses, which she called the agency’s “most significant operational failure in decades,” she refused to resign. This is because she’s still, in her own impartial estimation, “the best person for the job.” All in all, a frustrating display. We almost saw a president killed on national television, and Cheatle’s position is basically “oops, could have happened to anyone.” But I have to marvel at the sheer nerve. This is someone who not only did a historically terrible job, but acknowledges as much — yet somehow she still believes she’s entitled to a paycheck. Behold, the bureaucratic mind: fail upward until retirement, then enjoy that lifelong pension. Honestly, we should probably just give it to her in exchange for her departure. It’s clearly all she cares about, and our politicians would be safer. 

this week, we’re joined once again by comfortably smug who gives us a live report from the republican national convention. plus: we talk the trump assassination attempt, jd vance being selected as vp, elon’s donations to trump, and more.

dan hendrycks, an executive at a firm that co-sponsored scott wiener's ai bill, co-founded an ai safety compliance company that launched on tuesday

pirate wires #123 // attempt on trump’s life, mainstream discourse in the crosshairs, the blueanon distraction from accountability, and thank god for conspiracy theories: the price we pay for truth

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