Stack the Week

Today the Wall Street Journal printed a detailed account of the decision-making in the run-up to the Iran war. It shows, as the New York Times and others have, President Trump receiving explicit warnings about many of the dangers that have since materialized. He went ahead anyway. The great American national-security blunders have taken different forms: the groupthink behind the Bay of Pigs, Lyndo...

Confirmation hearings in the modern era are largely exercises in evasion. Senators deliver speeches disguised as questions. Nominees repeat rehearsed assurances. Everyone leaves carrying the opinion they brought into the room. By that contemporary standard, the confirmation process for Attorney General nominee Todd Blanche did something unusually useful. Instead of producing answers about his inde...

Spanish troops and police deployed in Ceuta on Friday after roughly 60,000 people crossed from Morocco into the Spanish territory. The Associated Press reported that at least 57 people died. Because Ceuta belongs to Spain, the crossing placed the migrants inside the European Union’s asylum system even though Ceuta sits in North Africa. That does not make the migrants EU citizens or give them an au...

The United States and Iran exchanged fresh missile barrages Thursday. Jordan’s air defenses intercepted five Iranian missiles Thursday without casualties. That was the second consecutive day that Jordan had to play whack-a-missile. Kuwait’s military said an Iranian strike hit a Chinese company’s building, killing a worker. Iran’s official news agency said an American strike on Qeshm (pronounced “G...

Welcome to Stack Stories Daily for the 29th of July. We’re trying a little bit something different here today, so hang with us. You can read it or listen to it as a podcast. Let’s get to it. The Iran war moved again from background to foreground. Iran launched missiles at U.S. forces in Jordan; U.S. Central Command said the missiles were shot down. The systems doing this work are the same scarce a...

1. Netanyahu visits presses his advantage Benjamin Netanyahu met for 90-minutes with President Trump Tuesday. He declared near-total agreement on Iran and called the meeting one of their best. The administration was equally upbeat. The public display obscured consequential disagreements. Israel wants the United States to resume the war if Iran refuses to dismantle its nuclear program, including at...

Welcome to Stack the Week for Monday July 27th. Thank you to our paying subscribers and our Apple podcast reviewers. Food for the larder and the soul. This is also a podcast, so you can listen to it while you read along or while you slowly tap your summer bag of wine. Let’s start. 1. IRAN The United States paused strikes on Iran for a second night while Iran refrained from retaliation. Last week w...

Welcome to Stack the Week for Friday, July 23 The daily experiment continues. Thank you for the subscriptions, notes and Apple podcast reviews which spread the word about how this product can also be listened to as you pass the time cleaning your gutters, updating your terms of service or engaging in musketry before the setting sun. Okay, let’s start. More Is Creating More Iran’s retaliation is sp...

Welcome to Stack the Week for Thursday, July 23 The daily experiment continues. Thank you for the subscriptions, notes and Apple podcast reviews which spread the word about how this product can also be listened to as you negotiate a durable peace, update your look for fall or simply look for a way to free and extend your emotional life. Okay, let’s start. The Other Exit Is Closing Brent crude, the...

Welcome to Stack the Week for July 22, 2026. The daily experiment continues. Thank you for the subscriptions, the feedback, the emails, and the notes. And the Apple podcast reviews help keep us from hiding under a bushel. (They introduce us to a wider audience.) Remember, this is a podcast too. Listen while you sail through Copenhagen, reorder your holy cards or plan your ascent, vaulting on the b...

The daily experiment continues. Thank you for the subscriptions, the feedback, the emails, and the notes. And the Apple podcast reviews are helpful. They introduce us to a wider audience. Remember, this is a podcast too. Listen while you sand down that one drawer that never closes, deadhead the roses or re-caulk the tub. So here we go: The Strait Stayed Closed Ten weeks ago, The New York Times’ Da...

Welcome to Stack the Week for Monday, July 20 The daily experiment continues. Thank you for the subscriptions, the feedback, the emails, and the notes. And those Apple podcast reviews help introduce us to a wider audience. Remember, this is a podcast too. Listen while you polish your door knocker, trim back the basil or try to put the screen door back on the track. So here we go, with what mattere...

Welcome to Stack the Week for Friday, July 17 The daily experiment continues. Thank you for the subscriptions, the feedback, the emails, and the notes. And the Apple podcast reviews are helpful. They introduce us to a wider audience. Remember, this is a podcast too. Listen while you organize the new bookshelves, weed the garden bed or arrange briquets to get moving on that brisket that everyone lo...

Welcome to Stack the Week for Thursday, July 16 The daily experiment continues. Thank you for the subscriptions, the feedback, the emails, and the steady stream of notes. And the Apple podcast reviews are helpful. They introduce us to a wider audience. Remember, this is a podcast too. Listen while you mow the lawn, debone a filet, or drive back from the urgent clinic after the rescue dog bites you...

Welcome to Stack the Week for Wednesday, July 15 The daily experiment continues. Thank you for the subscriptions, the feedback, the emails, and the steady stream of notes. And the Apple podcast reviews are helpful. They introduce us to a wider audience. Remember, this is a podcast too. Listen while you mow the lawn, debone a filet, or wipe down the whiteboard on which you’ve been trying to sync th...

Welcome to Stack the Week for July 14th, Tuesday. The daily experiment continues. Thank you for the subscriptions, feedback, the emails, and the steady stream of notes. Oh and the Apple podcast reviews are helpful. They introduce us to a wider audience. If you’re reading this text on a screen instead of listening to the audio, remember that this is also designed as a podcast. You can hear me read...

Welcome to Stack the Week for July 13th, Monday. The daily experiment continues. Thank you for the feedback, the emails, and the steady stream of notes. Oh and the Apple podcast reviews are helpful. They introduce us to a wider audience. If you’re reading this text on a screen instead of listening to the audio, remember that this is also designed as a podcast. You can hear me read it while you’re...

Welcome to Stack the Week for July 10th, Friday. The daily experiment continues. Thank you for the feedback and the reviews on Apple Podcasts. If you’re reading this instead of listening, remember this is also a podcast. You can hear me read it while you’re driving, making dinner, or trying to lessen the cognitive load at the end of the week because frankly you’re a blob of jelly and just forming...

Welcome to Stack the Week for July 9th, Thursday. The daily experiment continues. Thank you for the feedback and the reviews on Apple Podcasts. If you’re reading this instead of listening, remember this is also a podcast. You can hear me read it while you’re driving, making dinner, or concluding that you really haven’t done enough to decide what your new look for summer is going to be. Thank you t...

Welcome to Stack the Week for July 8th, Wednesday, which is still not Friday. The experiment continues. Thank you for the feedback and the reviews on Apple Podcasts. If you’re reading this instead of listening, remember this is also a podcast. You can hear me read it while you’re driving, making dinner, or finally finishing that wooden boat you’ve been building in the basement since the Hoover adm...

Welcome to Stack the Week for July 7th. It’s still not Friday. We here at Stack the Whatever We’re Calling It have a grasp of the totally obvious, if nothing else. But we are pushing our Soap Box Derby car out of the shed and seeing how far it will go before the wheels come off and roll into the abandoned lot with the tires and discarded refrigerator. Thank you to Laura Doan for helping sous chef...

Welcome to Stack the Week for July 6th. Wait, it’s not Friday. No, it’s not. This is a new turn on the experiment. So, let’s give this Monday a nudge and see if it can walk on its halting legs out of the haybed in the barn and into the sunlight. Maybe this is the theme of every day, but if you look at today’s ledger, a repeated theme is that the old speed bumps built to keep the world stable are m...

Intro Welcome everyone to the Stack the Week experiment for June 22 through June 26 . It is available here in text and audio and available in your podcast player. Thank you to Annie Cohen and Laura Doan for help preparing this delicious offering. Measuring Iran, UK PM goes down, the pedestrian’s enemy, The Supreme Court closes doors, more drones than ever hit Russia, Vance says Watergate Shmaterga...

Welcome everyone to the Stack the Week experiment for June 15 through June 19. It is available here in text and audio and available in your podcast player. Thank you for those who have reviewed it on Apple Podcasts. Thank you to Annie Cohen and Laura Doan for help preparing this delicious offering. The MOU with not much U, a G-7 that crosses a low bar, the UK bans social media for growing brains a...

Welcome everyone to the Stack the Week experiment for June 8 through June 12 . It is available here in text and audio and available in your podcast player. Thank you for those who have reviewed it on Apple Podcasts Thank you to Annie Cohen and Laura Doan for help preparing this delicious offering. Declarations that the war is over aren’t over. Inflation isn’t over either. Xi shows even autocrats c...