The Weekly Matterboard, Missing Mitch edition
We rate the importance of Mitch McConnell's disappearance, Donald Trump's fictional death, Mick Jagger's aging woes, and the quest for a moon cross.
The Matterboard is our weekly assessment of what’s worth your attention and what isn’t. Here’s last week’s edition, here’s an overview of the project, and here’s the full archive.
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Here’s what’s new on The Matterboard:
PAY ATTENTION ⚠️
The Iran war is likely to continue for months. President Trump can’t find an exit ramp and Iran seems intent on threatening shipping in the Strait of Hormuz at least until the US midterm elections in November. Expect gasoline prices to stay in the $4 range for at least that long.
Ukraine has newfound mojo in its war with Russia and its barbaric leader Vladimir Putin. Ukraine has been battering Russia’s energy infrastructure with drone strikes and bringing the impact of the war back home to ordinary Russians. President Volodymyr Zelensky’s July 28 meeting with Trump was private and “productive,” according to news reports—a complete 180 compared with the performative dressing down of Zelensky at the White House last year. Trump seems to be realigning himself with what may ultimately be the winning side in this ghastly war.
The Russian energy crisis is becoming a global problem. Russia has banned the export of some petroleum products, worsening the supply crunch caused by Trump’s Iran war. Russia needs the cash from energy exports, so it will start exporting again as damaged facilities come back online. Ukraine will keep at it.
Wildfires are everywhere. Dozens of Canadian fires are still burning, while France and Spain are now dealing with an unusual spate of fires fueled by unprecedented heat waves. Yes, it’s global warming. We’ve set our own biosphere on fire.
MIGHT GET SPICY 🤔
The Pentagon is running drastically short of defensive weapons meant to shoot down missiles and drones, thanks to the Iran war and gaps in the military-industrial complex. This is an alarming vulnerability undoubtedly noted by adversaries such as China and Russia. Drones are cheap and easy to build by the thousands. Interceptors are expensive and complex. Asymmetric warfare is here to stay.
Journalist Kurt Andersen has a novel coming out in which Trump dies at the age of 89 and his supporters deem it a deep-state assassination. Riots ensue. Seems plausible.
The Federal Reserve is unlikely to raise interest rates until September at least. Rate-hike odds are getting more attention than necessary.
[See the Democratic Socialists’ awful branding problem]
Circular financing is unnerving investors who think big companies helping finance purchases by their own customers is a risky move that could backfire, as it did during the dot-com bust in the early 2000s. Nvidia, Alphabet, Anthropic, OpenAI and other tech firms are inking these types of deals. The risk is that a slump at one company could affect others and create a systemwide wipeout.
RESULTS MAY VARY 🤷♂️
The singularity is here, according to Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. That means AI is surpassing human intelligence in its ability to self-improve and assert control. To many, this sounds like a nightmare right out of science fiction. Altman thinks it’s a good thing, and will improve life for humans.
Drones are operating as police officers in China and other repressive places. In a social-media video that went viral, a drone hovers over a man in the ocean surf in Qingdao because he violated a nighttime ban on swimming. The drone shines a spotlight on the man while a voice on a loudspeaker tells him to get out of the water. Drones also handle traffic incidents in some Chinese cities and even give out tickets for infractions.
Space evangelicals want to put a religious cross on the moon by 2030. The cross would have to be made of titanium and be drilled into the moon’s surface. The “Cross on the Moon Coalition” hopes to convert SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to its cause so the cross can hitch a ride to the moon on one of Musk’s rockets. The moon-cross people are Trump supporters.
[Americans feel pinched, so Trump piles on with more tariffs]
SAFELY IGNORE 🚫
Where’s Mitch? That’s the latest parlor game in Washington, DC, where Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has been unseen for 45 days. McConnell, who’s 84, apparently had a heart attack at his DC home on June 14, and has been hospitalized ever since. It’s not weird that an eightysomething is in the hospital. What’s weird is that his family and staff won’t say what’s going on with a high-profile elected official. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, has called on McConnell to “verbally address” the public, as if to demonstrate proof of life.
The measles illness is having a banner year, with more than 2,300 cases reported so far in the United States in 2026. That tops the tally for all of last year. Measles was essentially eradicated in the US until anti-vaxxers started shunning the vaccine. The current outbreak is the worst since at least 1991. Humanity sometimes regresses.
Mick Jagger was prescient in 1966 when he wrote about what a drag it is getting old. Mick has been doing interviews to promote the new Rolling Stones album, and describing how he dislikes aging. “There’s nothing good about it,” he told the New York Times. The interviewer asked, what about acquiring wisdom? “You don’t get wisdom,” Mick explained. “You forget everything. I forgot all my wisdom.” Worth a listen.
Former Covid czar Anthony Fauci kept a diary during the pandemic, and Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky somehow got ahold of more than 1,000 pages and released them publicly. In the diaries, the government’s former top infectious diseases specialist mused about his fame and his connections with celebrities such as Barbra Streisand. He expressed doubts about the severity of federal Covid safety guidelines and his own theory that the virus emerged from an animal market in China. Fauci retired in 2022 at the age of 82. He’s still an oddly divisive figure, for a doctor.
Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Masino is leaving next month, which seems to be the last act in a silly rebranding drama that began last year. The schlocky chain redid its logo last August and removed the old guy sitting on a rocking chair, which enraged a large segment of the US population with nothing better to do than cling to nostalgia. So the chain put the old man back. But that wasn’t enough and a head needed to roll. Why anybody cares remains a mystery.