Good morning. It is June 17th. Conditions here in New York City are soggy and chilly and stifling all at once. And this is your Indignity Morning Podcast. I'm your host, Tom Scocca, taking a look at the day and the news. 

Asbestos. That's right. Were you running low on things to worry about? The New York Times writes “the Trump administration plans to reconsider a ban on the last type of asbestos still used in the United States, according to a court filing on Monday. The move,” the Times writes, “which could halt enforcement of the ban for several years during the reconsideration, is a major blow to a decades-long battle by health advocates to prohibit the carcinogenic material in all its forms. Known as white asbestos, Chrysotile asbestos is banned in more than 50 countries for its linked to lung cancer and mesothelioma. White asbestos, however, has been imported for use in the United States for roofing materials, textiles, and cement, as well as gaskets, clutches, brake pads, and other automotive parts. It is also used in chlorine manufacturing.” 

The Times' subsidiary, The Athletic, is reporting that FIFA, in preparation for putting on a World Cup, in Donald Trump's United States of America, in 2026 has, the story said, “decided not to show any videos, signage or marketing assets in venues hosting the Club World Cup in the United States, which explicitly mentioned challenging racism or discrimination.” Once again, the Times' choice to delegate sports coverage to the Athletic without raising the editing at the Athletic to basic New York Times standards, shows through, as that modifier is left gravely dangling out there. What they meant to say was that FIFA is not showing any videos or signage or whatever marketing assets means, if you've translated it from jargon to English, that explicitly oppose racism and discrimination. The story continues, “according to multiple sources briefed on FIFA's planning for the tournament, the world football governing body did develop promotional materials in the months leading up to the tournament for their no racism and no discrimination campaign, but it is not invisible during the opening round of fixtures at the tournament in stadiums or on social media platforms. Again, the editing is godawful. Using that weird bad news writing device whose name I forget, where instead of explaining what something is, in this case, FIFA, you just insert the explanation in the guise of a synonym. So you just call it the “world football governing body.” And I guess this usage of the word “fixtures” is a piece of exclusively British English for the events that Americans would call “games” or if they were trying to sound cosmopolitan, maybe “matches.” Sorry, fixtures ain't the word for that here. Put it in your lorry and drive it back across the pond. Anyway, “this approach,” the Athletic writes, “represents a significant change from previous competitions, such as the Women's World Cup in 2023 in Australia and New Zealand, and the Men's World Cup in 2022 in Qatar, when messages were shown in the stadium on big screens and on social media.” 

“Messages” here presumably means anti-racist messages. We've got more intolerant standards or a more tyrannical government than Qatar, apparently now. And the Athletic, despite its enterprise in getting the story, continues to have no standards for its copy at all. 

Donald Trump left the G7 summit in Alberta, Canada, a day ahead of schedule yesterday, ostensibly to deal with the ongoing conflict started by Israel's attack on Iran. Bloomberg writes “Trump's exit from the G7 followed another 24 hours of intense bombardments with Iran firing ballistic missiles and Israel striking targets across the Islamic Republic, including the capital of Tehran. USS Nimitz aircraft carrier strike group is now sailing to the Middle East ahead of schedule, marking the first significant move of American military assets to the region since Friday.” Bloomberg continues, “‘simply stated, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.’” That last, but in all caps, “Trump wrote in an earlier social media post, ‘I said it over and over again,’” exclamation point. “’Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran,’” exclamation point. 

Mike Huckabee, Trump's ambassador to Israel, put up a long social media post, beseeching Trump to listen to the voice of God. “No president in my lifetime has been in a position like yours,” Huckabee wrote, “not since Truman in 1945.” Leaving out the Cuban missile crisis there is a pretty horrifying choice in terms of which presidential decisions Huckabee appears to be trying to indicate. “I don't reach out to persuade you,” Huckabee says, “only to encourage you. I believe you will hear from heaven. And that voice is far more important than mine or anyone else’s.” And that is how the United States’s current administration is approaching a military crisis precipitated by a nuclear-armed ally.

Israel's war on Iran also dominates the front of the print edition of the Times this morning. “Israel expands Iran's strike targets. Blast at state TV as thousands flee to Iran.” Again, this is another one where the lead is basically the same information as the headline. The Times then writes, “some of Israel's attack was televised. On Monday evening, an anchor for the Iranian state news broadcaster was live on air when an explosion shook the scene, causing falling debris amid the sound of screams and breaking glass.” The state media said the blast injured some employees, disabled its website, and forced the broadcaster briefly off air. “In what is likely to be a more consequential strike,” the Times writes, “Israel also bombed the Tehran Command Center of the Quds Force, one of the most important and covert arms of Iran's military. The force largely runs foreign operations, including training and arming proxy groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, and any disruption could be a significant blow to Iran's military capabilities and regional reach.” The story goes on to say, “Israel appears to be taking an opportunity to pounce on an Iran weakened by nearly two years of blows against its military might, including assassinations of top Iranian commanders, bombings of air defenses, and the decimation of the militant groups who were its strongest allies across the Middle East. Asked in an interview with ABC News on Monday about a possible attack targeting Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and how that could escalate hostilities. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said, ‘it's not going to escalate the conflict. It's going to end the conflict.’ The question came in response to reports that President Trump had vetoed an Israeli plan to kill Mr. Khamenei. Mr. Netanyahu,” the Times continues, “later told reporters that there was a possibility that Israel's strikes could topple the Iranian government. ‘It's impossible to predict, but it could be the result of our mighty action,’ Mr. Netanyahu said, adding, ‘we are changing the face of the Middle East.’” 

On the left-hand side of the top of the front page, Peter Baker is engaging in some news analysis on the 10-year anniversary of Donald Trump's original campaign announcement, “A 30-Second Descent, A 10-Year Roller Coaster / The Trump Era Enters Its Second Decade.” Baker writes, “the trip down that escalator took less than 30 seconds, but it opened a much longer journey for the man and his country. It has been 10 years now, as of Monday, since Donald J. Trump descended to the lobby of his namesake tower to announce his campaign for president. 10 years of jaw dropping, woke busting, scandal defying, status quo smashing politics that have transformed America for good or ill in profoundly fundamental ways.”

Not just profound, not just fundamental, but profoundly fundamental. This is the Times, writing once again, to its imagined audience of people who find drastic change alarming and thereby painting Donald Trump as exactly the bold man of history shaping action that he wants himself to be and that his fascist movement depends upon casting him as. “In those 10 years,” Baker continues, “Mr. Trump has come to define his age in a way rarely seen in America, more so than any president of the past century, other than Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, even though he has never had anywhere near their broad public support.” See, the Times is shaking its head in dismay there, right after calling him a colossus astride the century. “Somehow the most unpopular president in the history of polling has translated the backing of a minority of Americans into the most consequential political force of modern times, rewriting all the rules along the way.” Yes, among those rules that he is boldly rewriting has been the premise of majority rule. Also, if I were a leading political reporter and analyst for the New York Times, I might sit down and think a little bit about the “somehow” in “somehow he has translated minority support into political domination,” but if I thought thoughts like that, I wouldn't have Peter Baker's job, which I guess I do not. But so then there's a couple more paragraphs of that stuff followed by Baker writing, “even voter repudiation and criminal conviction did not slow him down or diminish his hold on the national imagination on the way to his comeback last November. The presidency of Joseph R. Biden Jr. turned out to be just an interregnum between Mr. Trump's stints in power. And power has become his leitmotif.” Power has become his what? Power is not a leitmotif, babe. Power is the thing. His power has become his power. While you're talking about leitmotifs, the inset on your story pointing to pieces inside the paper says, “VACCINES Critics fear the new advisers chosen by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will roll back guidance. News Analysis. PAGE A11. “ABSENCES SOAR After immigration raids, California parents kept children from school. PAGE A8. Below that you got a headline on a front page news story, “Suspect Charged in Minnesota After Shootings of Lawmakers.” And next to that you got Inside DOGE’s Chaotic Social Security Takeover / Misinformation About Widespread Fraud.” That's not a leitmotif. That's just a motif. That is the news. Thank you for listening The indignity morning podcast is edited by Joe MacLeod The theme song is composed and performed by Mack Scocca-Ho. You, the listeners keep us going through your paid subscriptions to indignity and your tips and Tomorrow morning schedule is kind of hectic and unresolved. So it's a coin flip right now, as to whether we will talk again tomorrow or talk again on Thursday.