Near the end of this CNBC story is the real kicker:

[Donald] Trump, when he entered the encryption discussion, explicitly linked Apple’s willingness to unlock the phone with trade and the “help” he’s given Apple, likely referring to his warm relationship with Cook. He also framed Apple as protecting criminals. That puts Apple in a tough spot.

The surveillance state and cronyism join hands to form authoritarian capitalism.

An incredibly moving story from one of the members of Congress from Massachusetts.

Ezra Klein. Very convincing.

I was so wrapped up in HBO’s Watchmen series, it never occurred to me that Looking Glass’s mask was a CG effect.

Bravo.

Maybe don’t be so evil because you never know if your kid might grow up to be an anarchist and spill your hard drives all over the Internet.

Nathan Mattise writing for Ars Technica:

Whatever you might have admired about Thrones, Watchmen ultimately had it and did it better. Elaborately imagined worlds with deeply intricate histories and rules? Robert Redford has been president for several decades, Vietnam is a state, reparations exist (but cell phones don’t), and squids fall from the sky…. And when it comes to leaving audiences with something to think about, it’s not even much of a comparison. Watchmen not only had the more surprising plot, but it had more philosophical ideas, too…. [T]he show touched on the audacity of privilege (Veidt wanting to “earn” everything himself and telling Trieu to do the same), the inescapability of one’s past, and the negative impacts of choosing masks (literal in their world; more like social media personifications, message board muscles, and the like in ours).

Game of Thrones was great. I loved it. Did not even hate the last season like many folks, but Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen is a genuine triumph.

Agreed.

McKinsey people know how to make evil things sound boring.

– Matt Stoller on Pete Buttigieg