May 25, 2026 · Memorial Day, what today is actually for

Today is Memorial Day. The day Americans set aside for the men and women who died serving in the military. Many of you are listening from a barbecue. The dead would, on the whole, prefer it. But before whatever else today holds — ten minutes for what today is actually for. Then the news. - **What today is for** — the 1868 Decoration Day observance at Arlington under General Logan's order, how it became Memorial Day under the 1971 Uniform Monday Holiday Act, and the rough count it commemorates: approximately 1.3 million Americans across the country's wars, from the Revolution through Afghanistan - **The Moment of Remembrance** — Public Law 106-579, three p.m. local time, one minute, no instructions; the law asks only that you pause - **One observation** — what it means that the Department of Defense is now, formally, the Department of War — on Memorial Day, of all days - **Gold Star at Fort Bragg, and SOF Week in Tampa** — the Memorial Day moment from inside the Special Operations community, plus Rep. Kathy Castor's House resolution this past week recognizing SOF Week from the Tampa congressional seat - **The White House AI executive order that almost was** — a voluntary 90-day pre-launch review framework for frontier AI models, with NSA involvement in classified testing, scrapped on May 21 hours before the signing ceremony; per CNN, the President cited not wanting to slow the U.S. lead over China, and Anthropic's *Mythos* cyber model was named as a factor — the capability the review was designed to assess is the reason cited for not assessing it - **OpenAI files for IPO** — per Axios and CNBC, OpenAI began confidentially filing a draft IPO prospectus with the SEC on Friday May 22; Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley steering; September public-debut target; valuation reportedly could top $1 trillion — same week Anthropic's funding round was at $900 billion - **Anthropic v. Department of War, under advisement** — Judges Henderson, Katsas, and Rao heard oral argument May 19; a ruling could land any day this week, and on the merits it would be the most important AI-policy ruling of the year - **Jack Clark's Cosmos Lecture at Oxford** — Anthropic's co-founder forecasts a Nobel within 12 months, bipedal robots in trades within 2 years, AI-run companies generating millions within 18 months, and a 60%+ chance of recursive self-improvement by end of 2028 — the same week his company is in federal court - **At Arlington today, and Congress back Tuesday** — the noon wreath, the 158th National Memorial Day Observance, the FY26 NDAA carrying AI provisions Congress is moving while the White House yanks its own framework, and Trump's mid-speech reference to "the republic that I am fixing" walked back inside the same speech - **Florida this weekend** — DeSantis announces Operation Tidal Wave has crossed 10,000 arrests (largest joint federal-state immigration enforcement operation in ICE history, announced on the holiday weekend) and signs a bill restricting "foreign influence from countries of concern" — including a prohibition on surrogacy contracts with Chinese nationals More analysis at [Power Moves Before Policy Does](https://annardudley.substack.com).