today in tabs: everyone wants a piece of #rushtok

ALSO: people are obsessed with watching strawberry picking on TikTok, the side hustle that Dem members of Congress are flocking to, things are spicier in the US, and more

Aug 19, 2025

Happy Tuesday, August 19th.

Just a reminder: every Tuesday and Friday, I’ll be in your inbox with the latest in politics, tech & social media, culture, and other relevant topics – and I’ll share some notes and tips on what I’m keeping my eye on.

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Trump vows to try banning mail-in voting before 2026 midterm elections — can he do that?

President Trump promised Monday to work to end mail-in voting and said work is already underway on an executive order to ban it before the 2026 midterm elections, although the Constitution does not give him this power. (CBS News, 8/19)

Lucy’s note: The headline, once again, isn’t as strong or clear as it could be, given that they answer ‘can he do that?’ in the first paragraph (no, he can’t!).

With an eye on midterms, the DNC is overhauling the tech that powers its outreach

The new tools, which include a platform that helps Democrats host and attend their own political events, were placed in an open request-for-proposal (RFP) process in April to secure vendors who can provide the amalgam of services. (NBC News, 8/19)

Lawmakers Earn Big Money from Author Side Hustles

In 2024, about two-dozen federal lawmakers made extra cash from their authorship gigs, according to a NOTUS analysis of new congressional financial disclosures. In three cases, the money from senators’ book-writing rivaled the value of their $174,000 annual salary. Most lawmakers appear to pocket their earnings, although a few donate the money to charity. (NOTUS, 8/18)

The left gets a new publication

Many of The Argument’s writers have supported (or, in Thompson’s case, authored) the ideas of Abundance, a recent book advocating for reforms to improve government efficiency, lower the cost of housing, and improve public transportation, among other initiatives. (Semafor, 8/17)

Strawberry Picking Is Thankless Work. That’s What Makes It Worth Watching.

The work the laborers were doing was underpaid, disregarded and threatened by automation. But it was indeed the kind of work that undergirds everything else in this country, and the world, and there was an art to it — real craft and expertise — that had been hidden away from everyone who simply swanned into a store and picked up a box of perfectly ripe strawberries. (NYT Magazine gift link, 8/13)

He Sold His Likeness. Now His Avatar Is Shilling Supplements on TikTok.

Mr. Jacqmein, who is now represented by an agent but was not when he agreed to work with TikTok, said he wished he had negotiated for more money or put guardrails around the products that his avatar could promote. It was hard to understand how his image might be used when he was filmed for the project last year, he said. (NYT gift link, 8/17)

Making cash off ‘AI slop’: The surreal video business taking over the web

Many university students, stay-at-home moms and the recently unemployed now see AI video as a kind of gig work, like driving an Uber. The average small creator she interviewed did their day jobs and then, at night, “spent two to three hours making AI-slop money,” she said. A few she spoke with made $2,000 to $3,000 a month at it. (WaPo, 8/18 – free version)

Sorority Girls Are the Right's Latest Obsession

A post on X from Fox News about the phenomenon reads in part: "The viral 'RushTok' trend is making waves once more, with some calling it proof that "America is back," describing sorority girls as "warriors on the frontline of TikTok" pushing back on lockdown-era culture and showing renewed Gen Z patriotism." (Newsweek, 8/17)

Lucy’s note: And they aren’t the only ones (although arguably the most creepy and off-base). Everyone from Kim Kardashian to Alix Earle wants a piece of RushTok.

Are we in a crisis of rudeness?

According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, nearly half of the country believes people’s behavior is more impolite than before the pandemic. Enter any public space and you’re bound to encounter someone having a phone call on speaker, fellow passengers mixing up egg salad on a plane, or students leaving class unannounced. (Vox, 8/19 – free version)

Who Killed the Narrative Podcast?

The fall of the industry has been so vertiginous that it’s been hard to fully comprehend its decline. But in many ways, this collapse was baked into its spectacular rise, when a flood of dumb money, pollyannaish entrepreneurs, and hungry journalists rushed to build an industry that would soon turn into a house of cards. (Rolling Stone, 8/18 – free version)

The Revenge of Millennial Cringe

One TikTok simply features a series of yellow-tinted photos taken at Starbucks in 2010; it has nearly a hundred and fifty thousand likes. Millennial commenters express a desire to rewind to that era of their lives; younger posters wish that they could have lived through it in the first place. Like “Home,” these other relics hark back to an unencumbered life outside of our performative digital panopticon. (The New Yorker, 8/13)

Americans Pull Back From an Epic Credit-Card Binge

After a surge in credit-card spending that pushed Americans’ card balances above $1 trillion, growth is now moderating. Credit-card spending has been growing more slowly than debit-card spending since late last year, the first such stretch in nearly four years, according to the latest spending data from Visa and Mastercard. (WSJ, 8/16 – free version)

Why Is Everything Spicy Now?

America is setting its mouth on fire. According to an analysis provided to me by Datassential, a food-and-beverage-industry consultancy, more than half of American consumers are likely to buy an item described as spicy, up from 39 percent in 2015. (The Atlantic, 8/18)