Yashar Ali 🐘 Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered." ~ George Orwell, 1984

Art is everywhere

Heavy rains pummeled the New York City area, shutting roads and flooding train stations, the AP reported.⁠ ⁠ States of emergency were declared in NYC and New Jersey.⁠ ⁠ Photo: Kyle Heiner via Storyful

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee passed a bill banning stock trading in both the legislative and executive offices, 8-7, paving its way for a full Senate vote. Congress: ban congressional stock trading now!  businessinsider.com/congressional-…

Boom is low-key famous for pre-orders and LOIs. The most common question I get from founders is: how did we do this? So I wrote up what I've learned and why I think pre-orders are critical for hard-tech. Thanks to Celine Halioua and Jared Friedman for reviewing drafts of this post.

The scale of Trump's pay-for-access scheme outlined by the The New York Times is mindblowing. Crypto contributions resulting in business deals with the Trump family crypto businesses, oil companies buying influence and later reaping benefits from friendly policies, and a $1 million pardon.

This is how I feel about Trump scaring CEOs into shielding Trump from the negative biz consequences of his policies: it's an own-goal, depriving Trump of a useful early warning system. His echo chamber only hurts him.

The entire earthly world of plastic skis boots spawned from these two original sinners. #SKI bit.ly/4aVdDsJ

Kevin Hassett: "The president wants his own people there, so that when we see the jobs numbers, they are more transparent and more reliable."

Brennan to Jamieson Greer: "The US has a trade surplus with Brazil. So it doesn't seem to be consistent here when you have the president put 50% tariffs on Brazil, one of the highest of any country, and at the same time the president is bringing up things that have nothing to do

Index Ventures are the most impressive firm in venture today. They have more partners who have picked fund returners than any other firm. Figma ($59BN): danny rimer Revolut ($75BN): Martin Mignot Adyen ($44BN) + Robinhood ($82BN): Jan Hammer Scale (14.9BN): Mike Volpi

Killer lede by ⁦Peter Baker⁩ on Trump’s war on stats he doesn’t like: “An old rule in Washington holds that you are entitled to your own opinions but you are not entitled to your own facts. President Trump seems determined to prove that wrong.” nytimes.com/2025/08/03/us/…

"At most, $11 million of the $678 million raised from individuals has made its way to candidates, campaigns, or the national party committees.” open.substack.com/pub/data4democ…

“Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 on this day in 1974. The song features a memorable guitar solo by Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, who left the band the same day to join The Doobie Brothers.

The birth of a multi-trillion dollar market

The man who just fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because their numbers supposedly weren’t accurate just claimed that he lowered drug prices in America by 1500%.

Talking Heads released ‘Fear of Music’ 46 years ago on August 3, 1979 album.ink/talkingheadsFOM

9 years before AirPods, the “iPhone Bluetooth Headset” was announced on January 7, 2007 and was released with the original iPhone that summer. Somebody sent me this one and it’s the first I’ve ever seen in person.