10 Sunday Reads

Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures:

• Trump and prediction markets are building a society of suckers: The gamification of everything — politics, policy, sports — is producing a population that confuses betting with understanding. Prediction markets aren’t wisdom; they’re spectacle with a price tag.  The convicted felon in the White House loves shadowy financial schemes that benefit insiders (Stop The Presses)

• For Taylor Swift, Madison Square Garden’s Controversial Cameras Briefly Went Dark: MSG’s facial recognition system was quietly turned off for Swift’s concerts. The question of who gets surveillance and who gets privacy is now a celebrity perk. (Wired) see also Madison Square Garden Kept a List of Gay Celebrities: Wired’s investigation into MSG’s surveillance archives — including a list categorizing celebrities by sexual orientation. (Wired) see also The Shocking Secrets of Madison Square Garden’s Surveillance Machine: The full investigation — Jim Dolan built one of the most sophisticated private surveillance systems in the country. (Wired)

• A Brief History of the Internet’s Favorite Scam: MIT Press traces the evolution of the Nigerian prince email through three decades of internet fraud — from crude spam to AI-powered social engineering. The scam evolved; the psychology it exploits didn’t. Fraudsters have long told stories of imprisoned nobles and hidden fortunes, with desperate pleas for help. Email simply gave their messages a perfect medium. (The MIT Press Reader)

• What just happened to TheNumbers.com should worry us all: A major film industry data site was quietly acquired and gutted. What happens when public knowledge infrastructure gets bought and switched off.  The inside story of how one of film data’s most trusted sites vanished overnight, and why every website you rely on is more fragile than you think. (Stephen Follows)

• The false claims, chaos and coverups behind the Trump administration’s killing of two American citizens: “Someone’s going to get killed.” The warning, from an agent of the federal Homeland Security Investigations division, sent a chill through the other officials in the room. It was early January 2026.  The HSI agent explained how the team was afraid about what was coming, about what seemed preordained as the Trump administration sent Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Customs and Border Protection officers, Border Patrol agents and controversial Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino into Minneapolis for what the administration called Operation Metro Surge. (CNN) see also ICE is lying about body cams. These documents prove it. “As soon as they had funding they bought them” (Popular Information)

• U.S. measles cases hit 35-year record with months left in 2026: Data from Johns Hopkins University’s U.S. measles tracker shows the nation reported 2,295 cases as of Tuesday. That count surpasses last year’s total of 2,289. (Washington Post) see also Hospitals See Diseases Resurge as Vaccinations Decline: Measles, whooping cough, and other diseases we’d essentially conquered are coming back because vaccination rates have cratered. This is what happens when you let misinformation win. (NYT)

• At the Tour de France, One Family Wins Every Year: The Amaurys of Paris own the race, but won’t share any of the $170 million in media revenue. Sponsors and riders say their resistance is dooming the sport. (New York Times)

• Senior Living Facility in Distress as Immigrant Caregivers Are Forced Out: Retirement communities already grappling with labor shortages are being forced to terminate caregivers at a time when more Americans are living longer.  Senior Living Facility in Distress as Immigrant Caregivers Are Forced Out Retirement communities already grappling with labor shortages are being forced to terminate caregivers at a time when more Americans are living longer.. ](New York Times)

• Mary L Trump: The Trump Family War Grift: They are not even hiding it anymore. (Mary L Trump)

• Suspicion and Doubt at the National Civics Contest: America’s finest young scholars competed tomark their country’s birthday. It led to a disputed finish in the age of mistrust.  (Notus)

Video of the day: David Dunning Presentation and Conversation – 2025 Induction Weekend American Academy of Arts & Sciences

Be sure to check out our latest Masters in Business interview with Lori Heinel, Global Chief Investment Officer of State Street Investment Management, the money management arm of investing giant State Street. She oversees over $5.7 trillion in assets (as of year-end 2025), which includes everything from index funds and ETFs to active strategies, multi-asset solutions, and alternatives. She was named to Forbes’ 2025 “50 Over 50” list.

How much of Reddit is AI-written? 20,000 long-form posts scored with an AI detector

Source: Reddit

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