“The one fundamental fact about Donald Trump is, as my late friend and great Trump chronicler Wayne Barrett famously put it, he’ll say whatever he needs to say to wriggle through the next 10 minutes. He said what he said about wars to get elected. Period.”

Talk about a timeline cleanse. This guy’s videos are such an antidote to the fresh national and international horrors we face every hour.

"His loss is felt deeply not only by those who knew him here at the University, but also everyone who understands his potential to have contributed to breakthroughs in science that would have positively impacted people around the world." -Dean of Engineering Karen Thole

ADU for You share.google/W3zLdvL52ByV...

Elon Musk is now worth over $800 billion. Tesla reported paying ZERO federal income tax on $5.7 billion of U.S. income in 2025. Meanwhile, millions of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck and household debt has risen to a record high. This is what I mean when I say the system is rigged.

Surprise. Surprise.

Not so long ago, when Russia was targeting hospitals in Syria, that it was widely denounced as a war crime.

You know how they say, “It’s not the end of the world.” In this case, they might be wrong. www.nytimes.com/live/2026/04...

I would like to live in a country where we have housing policy, where we build public housing for a range of incomes, and where we don’t make our cities less affordable to make them more affordable. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/04/n...

“The group recently released its $1.5 billion plan, which includes 750 new apartments and possibly condominiums, at least 645,000 square feet of office space and 278 hotel rooms…” Another shopping mall is being converted into a neighborhood. Curious to see how this one turns out.

The winner of this year's WaPo Peeps Diorama Contest is "A Shaming of the Shoes." www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/0...

A college student with no criminal record. About to move into base housing with her new husband. DHS says they arrested her “after she attempted to enter a military base.” I struggle to picture all but the most racist MAGA shitheel thinking this is a good policy. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/05/u...

Nice if true and in any way meaningful. (And not a fabrication meant for market manipulation.)

“It’s entirely possible that basically by this time Tuesday, America will have established itself as one of the world’s great villains. I don’t want to be here, but, you know, be warned. This is happening. This is real.” open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

The good news is that the redesign of the Sunday Times Magazine isn’t half bad, and there’s even a proper back-of-the-book. The bad news is pretty much everything else.

It’s finally Infrastructure Week.

“‘Time is of the essence!’ Justice Department lawyers wrote, saying that the planned 90,000-square-foot addition…is being designed to defend against ‘hostile attacks via drones, ballistic missiles, bullets, biohazards’ and other potential threats to the President.’” Bad time to start WWIII.

“Far from acknowledging defeat, Mr. Miller appears to have simply adjusted his strategy in an effort to minimize political fallout.” Which make him even more dangerous. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/05/u...

Got what appeared to be a Paperless Post invite from a cousin yesterday to “Easter Dinner.” Clicked on the link, did a Captcha, and hit a page with a request for my Gmail login (and a Russian email address at top). Fled. Beware the Paperless Post scam!

Shark Week?

In times of heightened threats (created by the actions of you-know-who) it might be wise to simply stop hosting large gatherings.

Hegseth canned Gen. George and replaced him with the General who placed a video call to Trump’s innaugurtion: “LaNeve, backed by about 40 members of his staff, congratulated Trump on his election victory and said, ‘Welcome back, Mr. President.’ Trump gushed: ‘Is this man central casting or what?’”

“And Alcatraz, which has not housed an inmate in more than 60 years, is largely in ruins. It has no running water or sewage system. Much of the island, known as “The Rock,” is covered in bird droppings. All supplies must be brought in by boat.”

I wonder why.

The obscenity of a budget that cuts the forest service to fund the re-opening of Alcatraz as a prison.

I’m glad NYC is starting an ADU program. (My fave, of course, is the one that can be built for as little as $100,000…in theory, at least.) www.nytimes.com/2026/04/03/r...

Committing it? I thought that was a Trump family franchise.

“Some economists lay the blame on President Donald Trump.” Just some of them? www.thecity.nyc/2026/04/03/j...

“ICE agents have arrested 811 immigrants in NYC since Aug. who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Of these “collateral” arrests — as the agency calls them — 85% involved people with no criminal history…” (When they say “collateral,” it guarantees they’re doing something awful.)

Seems like we’re building some of our human rights abuses on a foundation of Israel’s human rights abuses. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/02/u...

The Trump ethos: You break it. Then you break something else. And something else… Until you’ve broken absolutely everything.

“Inspired by her parents’ stories about the forests of Lithuania — and reading, at age 6, ‘Curious George,’ the first in a series of classic children’s books about a monkey by Margret and H.A. Rey — young Biruté dreamed of life as an explorer…” An amazing life inspired by Curious George.

Today in metaphors… www.nytimes.com/2026/04/02/n...

“The medical examiner in Buffalo has ruled that the death of a nearly blind man left alone by Border Patrol agents on a frigid night was a homicide, a finding that could lead to criminal charges.” Let’s hope it does. A little accountability, please. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/01/n...

“…Ms. Bondi tried to shore up her position by moving more aggressively against investigative targets singled out by Mr. Trump, including…former White House aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, whom the president has accused of lying about his actions on Jan. 6, 2021…” The worst AG ever, but not bad enough.

Also: “Senior Army officers reacted with anger and frustration to the news of General George’s dismissal, characterizing it as the latest blow to a service that already feels under siege by Mr. Hegseth.” Can you imagine? www.nytimes.com/2026/04/02/u...

“Mr. Hegseth had been pressing Mr. Driscoll and General George for months to remove the officers from the promotion list. But Mr. Driscoll and General George refused, citing the officers’ long records of exemplary service.” 2 black officers and 2 women, natch. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/02/u...

Instills confidence, doesn’t it? wapo.st/3OfHHck

Raskin: "It doesn't give me a lot of comfort that Todd Blanche is now the acting AG. This is the guy who transferred Ghislaine Maxwell from the higher security prison to the low security prison camp in Texas."

Womp womp. Sounds like Gabbard might be on the chopping block too.

Good morning. Last night, the president of the United States gave a speech from the White House about his spiraling war in the Middle East. This morning, he is feuding with Bruce Springsteen.

“It will just open up naturally,” Trump says about the Strait of Hormuz. He also once said, at the beginning of the pandemic, that COVID would end by itself. "One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear"

“Mr. Trump has floated the idea of replacing Ms. Bondi with Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, the people said.” Not exactly an improvement. (Although it would be hard to find someone worse to head the EPA, finding the worst people is Trump’s forte.)

Meanwhile, in the land of the free and home of the brave… www.nytimes.com/2026/04/01/u...

“We are going to hit them extremely hard. Over the next two to three weeks, we’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong. In the meantime, discussions are ongoing.” Makes perfect sense. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/01/u...

The Josh Marshall piece below reminds me of Trump’s obsession with the bullshit conspiracy theory regarding Obama’s birth certificate. It’s like his attempt to cancel birthright citizenship is part of an ongoing effort to somehow disqualify or deport Obama talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/a-few...

Let a thousand lawsuits bloom…

“The suit seeks to represent a class of more than 50 employees of the F.B.I. who have been terminated since Mr. Trump returned to the White House and any others who might fall prey to what it described as a campaign of retribution by the administration…” Sounds winnable.

Damn. I recently bought my first pair of Allbirds, wool slippers. (The German company who made my previous wool slippers was no longer selling to US customers.). And they’re wonderful. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/31/b...