Central Missouri Ren Faire, May 2, 2026

The Obama Presidential Center has the biggest 'TNG alien planet establishing shot' energy I've ever seen. #StarTrek

There is no Iran deal anywhere close to being finalized. Unless we cave on key points, nothing moves. No ships were entering the Strait of Hormuz, and this looks like damage control after yet another failed effort by this administration.

Hey, that's me!

Apropos of nothing—

Y’all are going to LOVE this one. “T. Kingfisher's upcoming tale of Astarion's early years is part of a new collaboration with Random House Worlds” www.polygon.com/bg3-baldurs-...

this is a great, provocative read. some of the data here (the anglophone unhappiness phenomenon experience particularly) is mind-blowing

Al Jazeera’s Heidi Pett says journalist Amal Khalil received threats from an Israeli WhatsApp number during the last war, warning her to stop reporting or leave Lebanon “if she wanted her head to remain on her shoulders,” before being killed today in an Israeli attack.

Iran’s judiciary said on Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s claims that Iran had canceled the executions of eight women were based on false reports, adding that none of the women had been facing execution.

America’s options with Iran are still humiliation or escalation. Trump got the U.S. into a bad strategic position. That core dynamic hasn’t changed.

"In my view, a full-on global recession is more likely than not if the Strait remains closed for, say, another three months, which seems all too possible." paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-harm-f...

Holy SHIT someone found the test pressing of Robert Johnson's Cross Road Blues and it is clear as a PIN www.openculture.com/2026/04/reco...

We should have never doubted this man

for sale: data center, never used

Bugs Bunny getting Daffy to hold up a DUCK SEASON sign ass empire

We have entered the “you can’t kill me if I commit suicide” phase of American Decline

I was actually quite wrong about this. Trump managed to choose humiliation *AND* escalation.

This is so well done. 👌

Trump posted the statement by the foreign minister of Iran as an “official statement of Iran.” And it is an official statement, but it’s also worth noting that the more authoritative statement is the one from Iran’s Security Council, which is bombastic and declares victory on behalf of the nation.

This is the sort of clip you see in the opening minutes of a deeply dystopian film

I hate having to do the "look, they're normal just like us" post, but sometimes you have to do that when American propaganda tries to convince everyone Iranians are "animals".

The #Artemis II astronauts said they needed more superlatives to describe their view of the eclipse, when the Sun was behind the Moon and its near surface was faintly illuminated by Earthshine

Under international law, "genocide" is such a fraught term because it requires showing 'dolus specialis,' or proof that perpetrators specifically aimed to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. Trump or someone on Trump's team intentionally crafted this to meet that standard.

This fan tribute deserves more than 660 views. #DS9 🖖🏾 youtu.be/OX19qBDSvHg?...

We wanted to know how everyday Judean people felt about the crucifixion of Jesus. So we talked to three Roman soldiers at a taberna in Gadara.

Why is the cross on his dick?

Whoa, quite a pivot: Trump’s speech tonight will inform the public that we may require the use of ground troops to round up uranium in Iran. -FOXNews

Two Iranian officials said Kharazi had been overseeing engagement with Pakistan for a possible meeting between Iranian officials and Vice President JD Vance. The officials said the targeting of Kharazi is being viewed as an attempt to derail diplomacy.-NYT

So what this describes is ethnic cleansing www.nytimes.com/2026/04/01/w...

Kudos to whoever wrote this headline:

Scenes from the third #NoKings march in St. Louis, Missouri. #stl

The "I don't care" quote is bad, obvs, but the fact that the 25th Amendment is on his mind...seems relevant too.

Raul Rivera yelling outside Mamdani presser. Mamdani: “I want that man to be able to afford to keep living in NYC, because the day that I don't hear him yelling at me, it means he got priced out of this place.” “We need to make this a city where it's affordable enough to yell at your politicians.”

Possibility 3 is that both are happening because Trump himself hasn't decided which it is, and the battle among his advisors right now is to see who can be the last to talk to him before he decides. Great way to run a war!

“.. He fought back tears as he explained what was there before: two wooden shelters, an outpost to make cheese, sheds for his equipment. The horse paddock was spared, but the chicken coop was gone.” @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/w...

St. Alphonsus Liguori, Cathedral Basilica and St. Francis de Sales Oratory #stl

a. Trump isn't announcing a pause on strikes. He's saying he's postponing a possible war crime - strikes on Iran's civilian energy infrastructure. b. Also, this isn't a message to Iran. It's a panicky message to the markets: "No war escalation until markets close on Friday".

Iranian state media says "special events" planned for tonight for Tel Aviv, Israel and regional allies of US that will "completely remove hope of negotiations from the minds of the aggressors."

"What kind of TSA PreCheck Member are you"

“.. Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf wrote on X that “No negotiations have been held with the US, and fakenews is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped.” @apnews.com

Remember when people were fired for *reposting* accurate quotes from Charlie Kirk after he was killed.

6 months before bombing Iran and closing the Strait of Hormuz, the Trump admin fired the State Dept. oil and gas experts. The people who modeled exactly this scenario. The ones with contacts at Gulf energy ministries. Now nobody knows who to call. You can't make this up.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Did he say this aspirationally?

$20 billion in lost annual revenue with a 3-5 year expected repair time for the world's largest LNG facility. Iran managed to wipe out ~3.5% of the world's LNG supply in one attack.

However fast Trump ends this war, the fallout for his colossal mistake is going to be around for a long time: Iran’s attack knocked out 17% of Qatar’s natural gas export capacity with repairs expected to take three to five years, according to QatarEnergy's CEO, Reuters reports.

One thing that AI evangelists seem to assume, particularly legal AI evangelists assume, is that the thinking and analysis is quick, and the writing is just tedious busywork that slows us down. But the writing IS the thinking and analysis. You work out the thinking and analysis by writing it down.

im way less joking than yall would like to think

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