Good morning and Happy Friday. Thanks for starting your day with me. Don’t worry, we’re gonna get to Kristi Noem.

Earlier this week, in a bid to avoid the increasingly-manic newscycle, I went looking for a good documentary. I happened upon The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young on Prime. Despite being someone who hates running unless I’m chasing a soccer ball, I have a fascination with ultrarunners that started way back when I read Born to Run a decade ago. I thought I was going to watch a quick movie about people who run 100 miles for fun (weirdos). Instead, I spent 90 minutes learning about how to push through what limits us — a skill that can be applied to batshit ultramarathons, personal struggles, or, say, living through the second Trump administration.

If you’ve never heard of the Barkley Marathon, it’s an infamous ultramarathon that’s held annually in Tennessee’s Frozen Head State Park, where James Earl Ray infamously escaped, for three days, from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in 1977. The marathon was initially created to mock Ray, and part of the race involves travelling under the notorious prison. The Barkley Marathon (in its current iteration) began in 1995, and, to date, only 20 runners have finished the course, though nearly 800 have attempted it.

Why only 20, you ask? I would love to tell you. The Barkley Marathon, you see, takes place only partially on a course. The remainder of the marathon takes place off-trail in some of the roughest bush and highest mountains in Tennessee. To finish the Barkley Marathon, one must complete five "loops” of what organizers claim are 20 miles each, but runners inist is closer to 25 miles each. Completing three loops means you’ve finished the “fun run,” but to be able to say you’ve finished the Barkley, you have to finish all five, totally something like 130 miles up and down mountains. Did I mention that you have to complete all five loops in under 60 hours?

As I said, most of the “loop” isn’t on a trail, and each time the runners take it on, they have to ascend and descend tens of thousands of feet through rough terrain, steep inclines, and briars that leave competitors looking like body doubles in The Last Temptation of Christ. If they complete all five loops, they’ll have run the equivalent of ascending and descending Mt. Everest. Twice. Almost no one manages all five loops.

As one of the Barkley’s creators, Gary “Lazarus Lake” Cantrell, said in the film, “For some people, to finish the ‘fun run’ is the accomplishment of a lifetime, and for some of them, to finish a loop is the achievement of a lifetime. And some people, just to get back to camp alive is all that they want in the world.”

When each runner returns to the start, they have 30 minutes to rest, eat, and get medical attention before setting off on another loop. Even at the beginning of the race, when everyone is fresh and well-rested, it takes anywhere from five to ten hours (or more) to complete a single loop. And most people limp across the finish line after the first loop. The first woman to complete the Barkley was Britain’s Jasmin Paris in 2024. No one finished in 2025 or 2026.

There are a lot of fun little things about the Barkley — it costs $1.60 to apply for the race and a license plate from your home area to enter, they play “Taps” whenever a runner taps out, you prove you completed a loop by tearing out pages of a book and presenting them at the gate — but I couldn’t help but see the whole marathon as a metaphor for surviving things you never thought you could. Like Donald Trump.

At the beginning of Trump’s second term, when the bad news was flying as fast as it ever had, the wisest among us warned the Resistance to pace ourselves, prioritize self-care, and treat our activism as a marathon, not a sprint. Over a year into Trump’s reign, that advice has never been more meaningful. Each day, we watch the Trump administration roll out policies that seem to exist for no other reason than cruelty and greed. And we watch our elected officials stand by and make little effort to obstruct it. Yesterday, for example, 53 Democrats voted in favor of a resolution “reaffirming that Iran remains the largest state sponsor of terrorism.” The hits just keep on coming.

As hard as it is to be a “regular” American who consumes the news, it’s harder to be someone who lives in the news cycle 24/7, as activists and journalists do. Seeing the abject brutality of the Trump administration, up close each day, takes a toll, and there is only so much a good book, a massage, or a long walk can do for your mental health. At some point, we just have to push through.

Not a day goes by that I don’t think, “I’m too emotionally exhausted to do the newsletter today,” and I’m sure you feel the same. Every time it feels like we’ve hit rock bottom, a false bottom opens up, and we fall further into the abyss. Every time I have to watch DOJ lawyers make disingenuous arguments that contradict the Constitution, or watch GOP lawmakers call activists like Renée Good and Alex Pretti “domestic terrorists,” or hear about children living in ICE facilities, a little more of my soul dies. I wonder if we’ll be the same people at the end of Trump’s term as when we started it. Or will we be shadows of ourselves? Resilient and strong, but undeniably broken.

Nevertheless, we persist. We have not yet completed our loops. We haven’t even finished the “fun run” portion, which ends at the midterm elections. We still have so much further to go. Our legs may be weak, our spirits shredded by the brambles, and our feet blistered, but we trudge on. There is no other option.

This is one ultramarathon we all have to finish.

As the news media landscape continues to disintegrate around us, please consider supporting independent media by becoming a paid subscriber to LMP. You can also help me keep the lights on here by clicking through on the ad below or leaving a tip.

You don't have to read everything — just the right thing. 1440's daily newsletter distills the day's biggest stories from 100+ sources into one quick, 5-minute read. It's the fastest way to stay sharp, sound informed, and actually understand what's happening in the world. Join 4.5 million readers who start their day the smart way.

Join for free today!

In other news: Kristi Noem is tweeting through it; Oliver North pops up; We are not talking enough about a sitting US Senator breaking a veteran’s arm; and The High Note.

Here we go.

There was a brief and glorious moment on the interweb yesterday when the entire world knew that Trump had fired Kristi Noem, except, apparently, for Kristi Noem, who was on stage at an event.

It was a brief moment of levity in what has otherwise been a horrific tenure for Noem, marked by the brutal, criminal, and un-American tactics used by ICE and CBP, which Noem refused to acknowledge, put a stop to, or apologize for. But it wasn’t the deaths of Alex Pretti, Renée Good, Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, Keith Porter Jr, or others that got Noem fired. It wasn’t that she loosed Nazi LARPer Greg Bovino on US cities or that 6 people have died in ICE custody this year alone. No, it was that she told Congress that Donald Trump approved her $220 million ad campaign.

For her part, Noem tried to play it off like she was getting promoted.

”Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas” definitely sounds like a real job and not something Trump just made up yesterday. Anyway, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), the guy who can’t define “war” and thinks a 123-year-old man was leading Iran, is now taking over DHS. At least the confirmation hearings should be fun. Also:

I hate it here.

Oh, that’s rich.

Ready for me to blow your mind? Oliver North and Fawn Hall got married in 2025. (This is a very Gen X story - if you know, you know.)

We are not talking about this story enough. On Wednesday, US Senator Tim Sheehy (R - MT) “assisted” Capitol Police in forcibly “removing” a Marine veteran protesting the war in Iran from a subcommittee hearing. Warning — this video is graphic.

This is one of the most infuriating things I’ve ever seen, and the fact that the media isn’t reporting it anywhere is maddening. Interesting from the party that always claims to be “supporting the troops.” Disgusting.

Each Day, I do my best to leave you with a smile on your face, a song in your heart, and the will to fight another day.

Let’s all take a moment to forget about the news and listen to Hozier and Lake Street Dive (both of whom I adore).

Hey, survive and advance out there today, kids. Don’t let the bastards get you down. Have a great weekend!

Follow Julie on Bluesky and Instagram so she can get another book contract. Tips? [email protected].