What comes down must go up
The DoJ is investigating E. Jean Carroll over her assault litigation against Trump, who still wants the Supreme Court to review Carroll’s $5 million verdict. / Associated Press, SCOTUSblog
Why Republicans are having an existential crisis over James Talarico: He knows how to go viral and isn’t taking the “Democratic-consultant-approved” angle of not talking about Trump. / The New Republic
Unrelated: If history is any guide, for the left to win elections it needs to hold more events with bouncy castles. / Labor Politics
The bad news is some parts of America are seeing historically high gas prices. The good news is it’s making more Americans finally take public transportation. / Jalopnik
Stellantis is considering assembling Chinese EVs in a shuttered Canada factory—though not for the US market. / Inside EVs
Recent clean tech IPOs in geothermal, nuclear, and storage have one thing in common: They’re not wind or solar, and therefore have hope of making it by the Trump admin. / MIT Technology Review
Even as the economy may be delivering for many Americans, inequality, inflation, and polarization mean the “vibecession” has given way to a “permacession.” / The Atlantic [$]
Related: Adjusted for inflation, personal income is now 0.4% lower than it was last April, and it’s worse for the bottom 50% of households. / Bluesky
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Why the AI bubble isn’t like the internet bubble: “No one had to force workers to find ways to integrate the web into their workflows.” / Pluralistic
See also: Workers overseeing AI agents are experiencing “AI brain fry”—“a ‘buzzing’ feeling or a mental fog with difficulty focusing, slower decision-making, and headaches.” / Harvard Business Review
Even after the New York Times found AI had inserted fake quotes into his book, Steven Rosenbaum isn’t going to stop using the technology for future books. / Ars Technica
“It’s our job, unlike AI’s, to be annoying.” A fact-checker puts chatbots through a battery of fact-checking tests. / WIRED
See also: Five things I got wrong in my first novel, according to my dad. / Literary Hub
On frictionmaxxing—i.e., opting for inconveniences, such as physical media instead of streaming—to reinvigorate a creative life. / It’s Nice That
“One of them drove a front-end loader up to [his] bunker and challenged him to a fistfight.” Life in a luxury prepper community isn’t so different from most HoAs. / The Wall Street Journal [$]