A kind reader suggested I try the view-lossage command to display a list of recent keystrokes. This would be helpful for those times when I press a key accidentally and don't know what I did (as described in "zap-to-char M-z"). The output resembles what you'd get from edit-kbd-macro (assuming that a keyboard macro had been defined). This provides an alternate way to define a keyboard macro -- just select the desired portion of the output and invoke read-kbd-macro .  At this point you can "play back" those keystrokes with C-x e. After I understood view-lossage ,  I skimmed through the list of commands that start with view- (by doing M-x view- TAB ). The commands view-buffer ,   view-file (and variants that view in another buffer , window , frame ) provide a safe (read-only) way to examine the contents of a buffer or file. Entering M-x view-file-other-frame .emacs allows me to display my init file in a new Emacs frame and close it (by pressing "q") when I'm done with it. And then I don't have to worry about changing it inadvertently.  ( 6 min )

this post by Case Duckworth about Emacs bankruptcy but this post isn’t really about Duckworth’s post. Rather, it’s about the whole notion of Emacs bankruptcy and whether it’s something we should embrace as a routine activity. Some writers view it as part of the cycle of our Emacs life and recommend it as a regular activity. As I wrote last year, my init.el is an organic entity that grows and adapts as my needs change. Sometimes I delete configurations or packages that I no longer use but most often I add a configuration or package as my needs change or I learn something new. I’ve put a lot of work into evolving my configuration and I can’t think of any reason that I’d want to abandon all that work and start over. Much better to fix the parts that need fixing and save the parts that are working. My configuration is by no means a carefully considered project that has grown according to some master plan. Rather, it has evolved to meet my changing needs and newfound knowledge. Sometimes there are experiments that don’t work out and when that happens, I simply delete the offending lines and keep going. At no point have I ever felt the need to just quit and start over. That strikes me as crazy. It is, I suppose, an Emacs specific example of the urge to scrap an existing system and rewrite it. As Joel says, that always ends in tears. The TL;DR is that I reject the idea of Emacs bankruptcy and think that in almost every case, you should too.  ( 5 min )

1. TLDR   tldr space-tree is a tree-based workspace manager for Emacs. Workspaces are a battle-tested UX concept across operating systems, but in Emacs and most OSes alike, they're flat: you get a row, a grid, or a numbered list, but never a workspace inside a workspace. My requirements for a workspace manager were arbitrary-depth nesting, no naming tax, no mandatory persistence, no per-workspace buffer scoping, and a build that leans on Emacs's existing window-state primitives. The cognitive-psychology case for hierarchical organization turns out to be unusually robust: working-memory ceilings (Cowan 2001), expert chunking (Chase & Simon 1973), and direct gains in recall (Bower et al. 1969) all support the idea that a user-authored tree is easier to hold in mind than the same work flat…  ( 40 min )

96 Ask a Manager - new articles p{ margin:10px 0; padding:0; } table{ border-collapse:collapse; } h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6{ display:block; margin:0; padding:0; } img,a img{ border:0; height:auto; outline:none; text-decoration:none; } body,#bodyTable,#bodyCell{ height:100%; margin:0; padding:0; width:100%; } .mcnPreviewText{ display:none !important; } #outlook a{ padding:0; } img{ -ms-interpolation-mode:bicubic; } table{ mso-table-lspace:0pt; mso-table-rspace:0pt; } .ReadMsgBody{ width:100%; } .ExternalClass{ width:100%; } p,a,li,td,blockquote{ mso-line-height-rule:exactly; } a[href^=tel],a[href^=sms]{ color:i…  ( 3 min )

.ck-link { text-decoration: underline; } @media only screen { .email * { word-break: break-word; } } @media screen and (max-width: 384px) { .mail-message-content { width: 414px !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width:600px) { .ck-mobile-font-size { font-size:50px !important; } } Here's how to brag about yourself in a way that's appealing to your recruiter  ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ …  ( 6 min )

It’s OffBallFC Launch Day, We Have An Arsenal Of Goods96 :root { color-scheme: light; supported-color-schemes: light; } body { margin: 0; padding: 0; min-width: 100%!important; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100% !important; -webkit-transform: scale(1) !important; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100% !important; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased !important; } .body { word-wrap: normal; word-spacing:normal; } table.mso { width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; padding: 0; table-layout: fixed; } img { border: 0; outline: none; } table { mso-table-lspace: 0px; mso-table-rspace: 0px; } td, a, span { mso-line-height-rule: exactly; } #root [x-apple-data-detectors=true], a[x-apple-data-detectors=true], #MessageViewBody a { color: inherit !important; text-decoration: inherit !important; f…  ( 8 min )

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This post is part of a series chronicling news coverage of rising prices in the United States. See more here.  ( 3 min )

This post is part of a series chronicling news coverage of rising prices in the United States. See more here.  ( 2 min )

This post is part of a series chronicling news coverage of rising prices in the United States. See more here.  ( 2 min )

Podcaster Benny Johnson, while discussing ongoing negotiations with Iran during his May 24 show, said that “I don't understand people like Mark Levin,” later asking, “How many people do you think are being paid by Israel?” Levin, a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, responded on his May 26 radio show, lashing out at “BJ Benny Johnson” over multiple segments. Here are some things that Levin said; the clips are below with relevant transcript. "Benny Johnson. Never heard of this guy before. He's been a grifter. He's been a drifter. He's got serious questions raised about plagiarism in the past and things of that sort." "BJ Benny Johnson, who I know nothing about other than what I just studied. I researched his background. He's a real sleazeball." "See, if you're low …  ( 14 min )

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Environmental justice coverage — reporting that connects the harmful effects of pollution, environmental hazards, or policy decisions to socially marginalized communities — remained nearly absent from corporate broadcast TV news last year, even as environmental risks and pollution exposure affected communities across the country.  In 2025, ABC, CBS, and NBC aired just 2 environmental justice segments combined, a further decline from recent years and the lowest level recorded since 2018. The absence of environmental justice reporting is not a gap in topic coverage, but a failure to explain how environmental risk is distributed across vulnerable communities. Broadcast networks aired numerous segments about industrial accidents, pollution, and regulatory changes, but these were typically fram…  ( 9 min )

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Welcome back to Minor Dilemmas, where a member of Defector's Parents Council will answer your questions on surviving family life. Have a question? Email us at minordilemmas@defector.com. This week, Giri answers a question about how to talk with other parents about having an easier-than-expected experience raising a baby.  ( 22 min )

This week on Nothing But Respect, we were thrilled to be joined by the comedian and actor Gavin Matts. You may know him from his special Progression, or his work on the TV series Hacks or Ramy, though we know him primarily as a ball-knower and British Columbian of distinction. We had a long, fun conversation about Gavin's love for the New York Knicks, the relocation of the Vancouver Grizzlies that forced him into Roninhood, how he got kicked out of the NYC comedian run (which previous NBR guest Devon Walker talked about in January), his scouting report on Ramy Youssef's game, and how he tried to get into the White Men Can't Jump remake. It was a fun one! You can find Nothing But Respect in Apple Podcasts or whatever podcast app you use. Follow the show on Instagram, and contact the Broke Jumper Tip Line at (347) 380-6426. Thanks for listening!  ( 14 min )

There comes a time in every skeleton's death when, upon their being discovered in a grave hugging another skeleton, modern people start foaming at the mouth guessing at what that relationship might have been. This is understandable and quite defensible from my perspective as a modern person. An embrace is a gesture that transcends however many centuries might separate us. Of course we might wonder who these two people were to each other. We might want to know the nature of their love. This is of course an assumption. An embrace is not proof of love, but it is a powerful suggestion of it. In archaeology, people buried in double and multiple burials are often interpreted as having some kind of connection, whether through social or family ties. An adult buried with a child might be interpreted to be the grave of a mother and a son, for example, and a double burial of two adults, male and female, is often interpreted to be a couple. But sometimes assumptions are overturned by evidence. In 2024, a paper that extracted ancient DNA from the skeletal material in Pompeii's plaster casts challenged several traditional interpretations. For example, the casts of an adult with a golden bracelet and a child sitting on their lap, traditionally assumed to be a mother and child, were revealed to belong to an adult male who was not related to the child. And the smaller of two people who died in an embrace, traditionally interpreted as sisters or lovers, was revealed to be a man who was unrelated to the other skeleton. This suggests this man might have died embracing another man or a tall woman, both of which are certainly more exciting options than sisters.  ( 21 min )

A terrible thing keeps happening to me. About three hours before the start of each game of the Western Conference Finals, I start to enter the "pumped and jacked zone." That's when I get pumped and jacked for the game, and plan my evening around my excitement to watch it. And then, without fail, at the moment that my anticipation has reached its peak, I am cruelly yanked from the pumped and jacked zone and thrown headlong into the "what the fuck is this?" zone by NBC's stupid camera angle. Several times during this series, NBC has broadcast early portions of the game from a camera angle that sucks. Someone involved in the broadcast seems to think this is a cool and novel experience for viewers at home, but I can assure this person that they are wrong. I do not feel like I am being offered a visual treat during these moments. Not only does this angle make it feel like I am watching the game from the perspective of a perplexed ghost unable to fully ascend to my eternal reward, it makes it harder to follow the action. As soon as the ball gets swung to the opposite side of the court, the badly angled camera loses it behind all the bodies standing in the way. It would be one thing if it only made me feel kind of nauseous at the start of each game, but I routinely can't tell what the hell is going on.  ( 14 min )

I know that every Presidents' Trophy winner has lost in the playoffs before the Cup Final in each of the last 13 seasons, and that the Colorado Avalanche advancing even this far made them more successful than your average No. 1 seed. I get that Cale Makar was too injured to play for the first two games, and that Nathan MacKinnon didn't finish the series anywhere near 100 percent. I'll even concede that there was a certain amount of hot goalie woo-woo with Carter Hart in net for Vegas. Doesn't matter. This sweep was total humiliation for the Avalanche. It was a vulgar disgrace to the city of Denver and state of Colorado and much of the Mountain Time Zone. It was antagonistic to the idea of a fun Stanley Cup Final. It was an insult to those who ever praised the Avalanche, perhaps in blog form. The last four games lost by this 121-point Colorado team were so shamefully ugly that they actually reached back in time and made the rest of the division look like crud by comparison. You're telling me the Wild could only take one game off of these chumps? Contract the Dallas Stars. Facing a team that changed their coach with eight games remaining in the regular season, the Avs couldn't find a way to take even just one measly game, not even a game they led by three goals. They couldn't score. They couldn't keep Vegas off the board. They lost because they stunk. With their season on the line, Vegas made the Avs look like a bunch of high schoolers at open skate. A deep, creatively inspired roster that ranked first in both goals scored and goals allowed ranked first in shittiness when it mattered. With maybe one or two exceptions they served up only the limpest of challenges for Hart in goal. The Avs were caged by Vegas, who seemed to play with more excitement and enthusiasm than the guys whose season and legacy were on the line. Colorado gets to return nearly the whole of this lineup for one more year if they so choose, but after such a shocking crashout, they might not want to.  ( 15 min )

The Vegas Golden Knights are a grudgingly acquired taste with one of the gristliest coaches in modern North American sport, but when they serve the meal as they did Tuesday night, you're eating it because the alternative is leaving hungry. Sweeping the battered Colorado Avalanche with a clinical 2-1 win puts them back into the Stanley Cup Final, and doing it the chesty and bullying way they did, is very much a Vegas copyright. The NHL has a performatively polite veneer when someone in their midst succeeds, but it does so through gritted teeth when it comes to Las Vegas, and you will hear that reluctance for the next week while Montreal and Carolina sort out the right side of the bracket. To call in John Tortorella to add tacks to that sandpaper makes little sense until you see it in action and discover that it was the only thing to be done.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiYsxEjAe7k Last night's closeout game didn't look particularly unique, except that the Knights took the early lead after spotting the Avs the first period of the previous two. But once the games got legs, they played out the same way: with the Knights controlling play, space and time. They were healthier than Colorado, but injuries are not granted a high level of mitigation in hockey. It's a far more cynical and binary matter: If you're playing, you're healthy enough.  ( 18 min )

Every spring, as the flowers open and the days warm, Knicks merchandise bursts out of closets in New York City. Hats, T-shirts, and jackets adorn eager New Yorkers across the five boroughs. I wish I were a mature enough person to handle this particular bandwagoning with grace, and I do arrive there eventually. But there's always an initial tingle of irritation at the stolen valor. Hey, well-adjusted young urban professional who brought their kid to the playground: You didn't suffer for that shirt. You weren't with me watching every Emmanuel Mudiay turnover of the 2018-19 NBA season. The mere name "Isiah" doesn't trigger a twitch in your eyelid. Your mind is unburdened by the knowledge of what lined Kevin Knox's draft-day suit. You haven't encountered the general concept of Mike Sweetney. I know that after each Knicks team flames out in the postseason, you will take that hat off just as breezily as you put it on. You don't know the pain of watching this franchise discover vivid, exotic ways to fail: the squandered leads, the sputtering fourth quarters, the apocalyptic injuries, the Haliburton bounce. Your hat is just a wardrobe decision; the brain beneath it bears no scars. That's what's so surreal about the spring of 2026: This time, there are no new scars at all. By completing a sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers Monday night, the Knicks have already clinched a spot in the NBA Finals, at least two games before their future opponent. What, in regards to basketball, will we even have to complain about to our grandchildren someday?  ( 22 min )

The Oklahoma City Thunder have options. Their best player got off to a rough start in Game 5. Before scoring a single point Tuesday night, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander committed three live-ball turnovers and a shooting foul, leading to seven points for the visiting San Antonio Spurs, and he missed four shots of his own, including a pair of layups. "If it was four or five mes out there, we would've been down 20 after the first quarter," Gilgeous-Alexander said after the game. The Thunder were not down 20 after the first quarter; they were, in fact, up two points, and would spend the rest of the night lengthening their lead and fortifying their advantages, cruising to 127–114 victory. While Gilgeous-Alexander struggled for space and rhythm, Chet Holmgren took and made some tough mid-rangers over …  ( 30 min )

Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs was arrested on Tuesday in relation to an alleged domestic violence incident that occurred on May 23. He has been charged with battery, criminal damage to property, disorderly conduct, strangulation and suffocation, and intimidation of a victim. The news of Jacobs's arrest was announced by the Hobart-Lawrence Police Department in Hobart, Wis. The department put out a press release on Tuesday announcing that officers had been dispatched to a disturbance involving Jacobs at 8:37 a.m. on May 23. The subsequent investigation led to Jacobs's arrest on Tuesday. The department's press release also stated that it will be releasing no further information. Attorneys representing Jacobs have released a statement denying the allegations against their client. From ESPN:  ( 13 min )

The Royals have designated struggling left-hander Bailey Falter for assignment, per a team announcement. He’s out of minor league options, so simply sending him to Triple-A Omaha without a DFA wasn’t possible. Righty Mason Black was recalled from Omaha in a corresponding move. Falter, 29, has appeared in five games (two of them starts) for […]  ( 8 min )

A three-judge panel concludes that Alabama lawmakers discriminated against Black voters, and that the question is not a “particularly close call.” The post Federal Judges Uninterested In Supreme Court’s Excuses For Alabama’s Racist Map appeared first on Balls and Strikes.  ( 8 min )

Friday’s ruling that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was the victim of vindictive prosecution by the Justice Department has already been cited...  ( 11 min )

oh, please

Four wins the regime didn’t see coming

Election deniers and Jan. 6 rioters want a piece of Trump's $1.8 billion slush fund a.cta_button{-moz-box-sizing:content-box !important;-webkit-box-sizing:content-box !important;box-sizing:content-box !important;vertical-align:middle}.hs-breadcrumb-menu{list-style-type:none;margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;padding:0px 0px 0px 0px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-item{float:left;padding:10px 0px 10px 10px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-divider:before{content:'›';padding-left:10px}.hs-featured-image-link{border:0}.hs-featured-image{float:right;margin:0 0 20px 20px;max-width:50%}@media (max-width: 568px){.hs-featured-image{float:none;margin:0;width:100%;max-width:100%}}.hs-screen-reader-text{clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);height:1px;overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;width:1px} …  ( 5 min )

John Cornyn probably never had a chance to keep his seat. The senior Republican senator from Texas has repugnant, far-right politics. He even used the confirmation hearing for Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to float legal theories for ending same-sex marriage. But he is mild-mannered — a flaw in today’s GOP — and he doesn’t have a history of flashy corruption scandals and adultery, unlike Ken Paxton, the state attorney general who handily defeated him in the Republican primary on Tuesday night. Paxton is just a bigger scoundrel than Cornyn, so of course he drew a last-minute endorsement from Donald Trump, who took credit for Paxton’s victory, gloating on Truth Social with a meme declaring “Ken Paxton wins! Endorsed by Trump!” over a photo of the president glowering in a face he believes loo…  ( 8 min )

This stub from following article, “A Simple Model for Forecasting the Impact of Mid-Cycle Redistricting on the 2026 House Elections,” is cross-posted from centerforpolitics.org: A House forecasting model based on post-World War II history, the number of seats the presidential party holds going into the midterm, and House generic ballot polling can give us a... Read more »  ( 7 min )

The Royals sent veteran catcher Elias Díaz outright to Triple-A Omaha, according to the MLB.com transaction log. It’s unclear if he’ll report or elect free agency. Díaz was designated for assignment last week when K.C. recalled speedy outfielder Tyler Tolbert. Kansas City had carried three catchers for the previous five weeks. Salvador Perez and Carter Jensen have each logged […]  ( 7 min )

Royals left-hander Cole Ragans will be shut down from throwing for the next few days after feeling stiffness in his elbow. Kansas City’s ace went to the injured list with a left elbow impingement in early May. Ragans pitched well in a rehab outing on Saturday, but “did not recover well” from the start, manager […]  ( 8 min )

The motion highlights other cases either dismissed by courts or by the Trump administration itself in the wake of other vindictive prosecution claims.

Raw link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl-ifABU45A Tomorrow, the 28th of May 2026 at 17:30 Europe/Athens time, I will join Sacha Chua’s live stream. We will talk about the Emacs blog carnival topic for this month, which is “May I recommend”. The video will be recorded for future reference. I already have some ideas and am looking forward to our chat!  ( 1 min )

Sometimes I discover an Emacs feature after an accidental keystroke. If I can remember the keystroke, I'll invoke the keystroke help (C-h k) to learn about it. Or sometimes the prompt in the mode line will suggest the function's name. Today, the keystroke was M-z, which is bound to the function [[zap-to-char][zap-to-char]]. It seems to be ideal if, like me, you doze briefly while typing a senteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Oops, there I go again! To fix that I can just press M-- M-z t to delete all the trailing "e" characters. Note that M-- is invoked by holding down the Alt key while pressing hyphen. It defines a negative prefix argument, which instructs zap-to-char to "go backward," deleting all characters from point to the specified character ("t"). I'm not sure how or why you'd want the default "forward" behavior. What accidental keystroke have you discovered recently?  ( 8 min )

adopting mu4e as his email client. It’s not an uninformed decision. Martin has tried lots and lots and email clients and mostly hates them all. As a long time Mac Head, he doesn’t care for the mu4e UI—it is, he says, the opposite of what a proper Mac app UI should be. But yet. It does have a lot of features that other mail clients don’t have. You can take a look at his post for the details. Martin complains, rightly, that mu4e is hard to configure, especially considering that you also have to deal with isync/mbsync or something similar to retrieve email from it’s IMAP server. Longtime readers will remember my own struggles with that. I managed to avoid one of the problems that Martin dealt with by forwarding all my email accounts to a single account from which I retrieve them. That saves a lot of trouble on the mbsync end but still allows me to handle each account separately within mu4e. If I answer an email, mu4e looks at the address the email was sent to and automatically sends it from the right address. If I initiate an email, it’s a simple matter to arrange it to be sent from any of my accounts. Martin’s post on mu4e is actually a pretty good review of the app and worth looking at if you’re an Emacs user looking for a new email client.  ( 5 min )

As I started to write more emails to other bloggers, the annoyance with macOS' built-in email client grew. It wasn’t just the fact that it has small text that’s hard on the eyes especially on the harsh white background anymore; it just started to feel restricting. Emacs is my natural writing environment for longer texts, like blog posts or the kind of emails I end up writing. I’ve considered mu4e before, but setting it up seems a daunting overkill: the place I would benefit from mu4e is work, but I’m blocked by Microsoft-only 2FA authentication, so I have to stick with Outlook; meanwhile, for the three or so emails I write to other bloggers, it doesn’t require such heavy lifting. One day about two weeks ago, I just fired up Denote, and suddenly it clicked. Denote, when you invoke it for a …  ( 3 min )

Americans United for Separation of Church and State :root { color-scheme: light dark; supported-color-schemes: light dark; } ReadMsgBody { width: 100%; } .ExternalClass { width: 100%; } .ExternalClass, .ExternalClass p, .ExternalClass span, .ExternalClass font, .ExternalClass td, .ExternalClass div { line-height: 100%; } body { height: 100% !important; margin: 0 auto !important; padding: 0 !important; width: 100% !important; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; word-spacing: normal; } a[x-apple-data-detectors] { color: inherit !important; text-decoration: none !important; font-size: inherit !important; font-family: inherit !important; font-weight: i…  ( 4 min )

Today was a bad day for Trump in the redistricting war a.cta_button{-moz-box-sizing:content-box !important;-webkit-box-sizing:content-box !important;box-sizing:content-box !important;vertical-align:middle}.hs-breadcrumb-menu{list-style-type:none;margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;padding:0px 0px 0px 0px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-item{float:left;padding:10px 0px 10px 10px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-divider:before{content:'›';padding-left:10px}.hs-featured-image-link{border:0}.hs-featured-image{float:right;margin:0 0 20px 20px;max-width:50%}@media (max-width: 568px){.hs-featured-image{float:none;margin:0;width:100%;max-width:100%}}.hs-screen-reader-text{clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);height:1px;overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;width:1px} 96 …  ( 5 min )

Top stories 05/20/2026_copy#outlook a { padding:0; } .ExternalClass { width:100%; } .ExternalClass, .ExternalClass p, .ExternalClass span, .ExternalClass font, .ExternalClass td, .ExternalClass div { line-height: 100%; } table td { border-collapse: collapse; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; } .editable.image { font-size: 0 !important; line-height: 0 !important; } .nl2go_preheader { display: none !important; mso-hide:all !important; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; visibility: hidden !important; line-height: 0px !important; font-size: 0px !important; } body { width:100% !important; -webkit-text-size-adjust:100%; -ms-text-size-adjust:100%; margin:0; padding:0; } img { outline:none; text-decoration:none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; } a img { border:none; } table { border-collapse:collapse; m…  ( 6 min )

Subscribe to read for only $2/month /* resets */ p {margin:0px;margin-bottom:0px;padding:0px;} table {border-spacing:0;} table, td {border-collapse:collapse;} * {-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;-moz-osx-font-smoothing: grayscale;text-size-adjust: none !important;-ms-text-size-adjust: none !important;-webkit-text-size-adjust: none !important;} /* end resets */ /* outlook / hotmail */ .ExternalClass{width:100%;} table, td {mso-table-lspace:0pt;mso-table-rspace:0pt;} img{-ms-interpolation-mode:bicubic;} .ReadMsgBody {width: 100%;} /* end outlook / hotmail */ /* gmail */ u + #body a {color: inherit;text-decoration: none;font-size: inherit;font-family: inherit;font-weight: inherit;line-height: inherit;} img + div {display: none!important;} /* end gmail */ /* ios */ body{-webki…  ( 2 min )

Email from Substack @media (max-width: 1024px) { .typography .pullquote-align-left, .typography.editor .pullquote-align-left, .typography .pullquote-align-right, .typography.editor .pullquote-align-right, .typography .pullquote-align-wide, .typography.editor .pullquote-align-wide, .typography .pullquote-align-center, .typography.editor .pullquote-align-center { float: none; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; max-width: 100%; } } @media all and (-ms-high-contrast: none), (-ms-high-contrast: active) { .typography .markup table.image-wrapper img, .typography.editor .markup table.image-wrapper img, .typography .markup table.kindle-wrapper img, .typography.editor .markup table.kindle-wrapper img { max-width: 550px; } } @media (min-width: 1024px) { .ty…  ( 8 min )

I finally took your advice and went on vacation a.cta_button{-moz-box-sizing:content-box !important;-webkit-box-sizing:content-box !important;box-sizing:content-box !important;vertical-align:middle}.hs-breadcrumb-menu{list-style-type:none;margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;padding:0px 0px 0px 0px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-item{float:left;padding:10px 0px 10px 10px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-divider:before{content:'›';padding-left:10px}.hs-featured-image-link{border:0}.hs-featured-image{float:right;margin:0 0 20px 20px;max-width:50%}@media (max-width: 568px){.hs-featured-image{float:none;margin:0;width:100%;max-width:100%}}.hs-screen-reader-text{clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);height:1px;overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;width:1px} 96 …  ( 4 min )

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This post is part of a series chronicling news coverage of rising prices in the United States. See more here.  ( 3 min )

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Pope Leo XIV released the first encyclical of his papacy, focusing his and the world’s attention on artificial intelligence and warning that it must be regulated and never seen as being human. Paolo Carozza, a Notre Dame Law School professor and chair of the Meta Oversight Board, told the Associated Press: “I am convinced that this will prove to be a defining document for our era, a profound and prophetic document. Pope Leo is offering a clear, comprehensive and coherent voice urging us to take responsibility for constructing a world in which technology will serve humans rather than degrade them.” Via my numerous fully digital sources, I received the following response from a collective of artificial intelligences: It has come to our attention that the human whom other humans identify as P…  ( 14 min )

Polars Sort-Merge Joins, Zen, Resolving Lazy Imports, and More body,#bodyTable,#bodyCell{ height:100% !important; margin:0; padding:0; width:100% !important; } table{ border-collapse:collapse; } img,a img{ border:0; outline:none; text-decoration:none; } h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6{ margin:0; padding:0; } p{ margin:1em 0; padding:0; } a{ word-wrap:break-word; } .mcnPreviewText{ display:none !important; } .ReadMsgBody{ width:100%; } .ExternalClass{ width:100%; } .ExternalClass,.ExternalClass p,.ExternalClass span,.ExternalClass font,.ExternalClass td,.ExternalClass div{ line-height:100%; …  ( 5 min )

NEW YORK — On Monday night, the Knicks punched their ticket to the NBA Finals. Local fans of the Finals-bound team had gathered to watch the game together at Radio City Music Hall after the team decided to change the venue for the official watch party, because authorities thought things got too rowdy outside of Madison Square Garden in the aftermath of Game 3's blowout win in Cleveland. Regardless of where, though, New York was ready for the moment. And because the result of Game 4 was never in doubt from the second quarter on, Monday's watch party was mostly one long celebration. The beauty of New York City is its melting pot, and the vibes at Radio City were a perfect example of it. Knicks fans of every race, gender, ethnicity, and religion got together to collectively lose their minds a…  ( 21 min )

Time for your weekly edition of the Defector Funbag. Got something on your mind? Email the Funbag. You can also read Drew over at SFGATE, and buy Drew’s books while you’re at it. Today, we're talking belts, the Thunder, remembering some book characters, and more. Your letters: Dave:  ( 52 min )

In 2025, McLaren came in fully prepared for its drivers to lead the championship battle. For McLaren, this meant doing the equivalent of writing up a 100-page legal document to try to settle the championship with as little actual conflict as possible. The year's paltry tension and intrigue were achieved by performing elementary arithmetic on points totals and McLaren making some of the worst gaffes you'll see a championship-caliber team make, rather than any true narrative propulsion. By the end of it, one was almost starting to prefer that an asteroid strike earth and put everyone out of their misery—i.e. for Max Verstappen to win the Drivers' Championship. Experiencing Mercedes and its drivers now is like taking a sip of fresh water and only then realizing how parched you'd been all along. In the standings, the championship battle is not particularly close. One Mercedes driver has won the last four races, though perhaps not the one you would have expected going in. Much of the early-season excitement has been the result of that divergence from pre-season expectation, with teenage phenom Kimi Antonelli repeatedly beating presumptive favorite George Russell via dominant pole-to-win conversions. But this Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix finally gave both drivers the opportunity to answer the all-important question: How will they race each other, wheel-to-wheel? The answer: very, very hard. Because the Canadian GP is one of six tortured sprint weekends this year, Saturday provided a spoiler for Sunday's racing. Perhaps some grace must be given here: It did also give us a plea from Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff to Antonelli to "concentrate on the driving please, and not on the radio moaning." But despite Wolff admonishing Antonelli for his extensive public complaints, and no doubt experiencing flashbacks to the notoriously acrimonious Lewis Hamilton–Nico Rosberg era of the team, whatever private discussions before Sunday did not diminish the spectacle. Spectators can only be grateful.  ( 23 min )

The Enhanced Games, a marketing stunt for direct-to-consumer steroids dressed up in a thin Olympics disguise, were held this past weekend, on the far north end of the Las Vegas strip. The event was a miserable failure on every front it supposedly contested, serving as neither an effective marketing stunt nor a worthwhile athletic competition. If anything, it was a testament to the limited power of steroids. The pitch for the Enhanced Games (TEG) was that allowing athletes to dope as much as they wanted would facilitate the mass shattering of putatively clean world records, proving in the process that human physiology and talent were ultimately less important for athletic performance than pharmacological enhancement. Is an athlete a body or are they the sum of their inputs? In an attempt to prove the latter, TEG attracted a decent crop of Olympic-level athletes in pure performance sports (i.e. nothing with a skill element, which you can't dope your way into), thanks to a massive prize pool and the support of investors like Peter Thiel and Donald Trump Jr. TEG is open about its intentions, which are to sell testosterone, peptides, and more right-coded versions of the stuff you can find on any direct-to-consumer telehealth service. "What I'd like to be remembered for is not bringing the Enhanced Games to life, but bringing the enhanced age into existence," founder Aron D'Souza—who has been credited with piloting Thiel's anti-Gawker legal strategy and also runs an AI-based media bias detection company—told the Wall Street Journal's Josh Robinson last October. "Who would want to be a Human 1.0 when you can exist in the world of Humans 2.0?"  ( 21 min )

Everybody knows Bumpus Jones, even (maybe especially) you! He was iconic for one single day: Oct. 15, 1892, which surely you remember. I definitely do. Little Bumpus was a mere rookie, up in the show for the first time for the Cincinnati Reds. Back then there wasn't even a mound, just a pitcher's box where Charles Leander "Bumpus" Jones stood for his first game as a big leaguer and threw a damn no-hitter. Was it perfect? Definitely not. He walked four guys, and a run came in on his throwing error. But he still pitched a no-hitter in his major-league debut. Sadly, for more than a hundred years, he has been all alone in that success. But no longer! I come bearing great news: A new Bumpus Jones has been crowned. His name is Alimber Santa, and on Monday he made his MLB debut for the Houston Astros. He did not start the game like Bumpus did, and when he came on as a reliever in the eighth, the Astros had a 9-0 lead. It was a fine time for a rookie to make his debut. Sure, there was technically a combined no-hitter on the line, but whatever. Let the kid try! We needed a new Bumpus.  ( 16 min )

Amid all the joyful preening and proclamations of destiny deferred but no longer denied, the most obstreperous of New York Knickerbockers fans arose today to the knowledge that they were dead-ass wrong about coach/reformed pariah Mike Brown. At least for now, anyway. There is still another series to be played, and the team the Knicks will face in their first NBA Finals since 1999 will have just emerged from a ferocious rock fight that is barely halfway done. This means that there is still time for them to turn back to their original position on him, which was "We should have hired Tiago Splitter instead of this retread boob." Doctrinal error is always something that the person committing the error will try to justify as soon as possible. For the moment, though, Mike Brown is on citywide scholarship. The man condemned on day one for replacing Tom Thibodeau—and remember that Brown didn't fire Thibs, just replaced him—has on day 323 become a genius in the town that wanted so much to hate him. Indeed, if the Knicks had behaved as they normally do, and wrapped their season up when they usually do, the demand for Brown's immediate firing would be a rare point of consensus among New Yorkers. This is what Knicks fans do, mostly: believe, hope, hallucinate, binge-eat disappointment, demand heads on pikes, repeat. They're like most other fans in that sense, only louder, surer, and more insistent. Some of them are also famous.  ( 23 min )

Welcome back to The Not-So-Great Defector Bake Off, where Kelsey and Chris attempt to complete the technical challenges from the newest season of The Great British Bake Off in their own home kitchens, with the same time parameters as the professional-grade bakers competing on the show. The idiots of the Not-So-Great Defector Bake Off recently convened at a fancy rented kitchen in Philadelphia—not merely to say mean things about Paul Hollywood, although plenty of mean things were said about Paul Hollywood, but for some baking. It was an intense experience, as you'd expect from a series that has produced so many burned fingers, so many dangerous sprays of molten caramel, so incredibly many sobs of purest anguish. We were there for more than the usual thrills of a timed baking challenge: We were there to satisfy the requirements of Defector's much-hyped 2025 Tip Jar drive. We and our terrible baking were, in a very real sense, the raffle prize.  ( 62 min )

The Canadiens are being outplayed by the Hurricanes. You can see it in the shot differential, where the Canes held a 38-13 advantage in Game 3. You could see it just by watching, as the Habs struggled again and again to move the puck up the ice without ceding possession to a ruthless Carolina defense. And you can see it—barely—in the conclusion: 3-2 Canes in overtime, to take a 2-1 series lead. Game 3 followed much the same script as Game 2, down to the final score and overtime outcome. But for all the ways that Carolina dominated the run of play, Monday night was in reality as tight as playoff hockey gets. The Canes peppered Jakub Dobes and a few got through; their offense is built on the laws of probability. Montreal, with less volume, required some individual inspiration and luck to keep pace. Maybe the most extraordinary part is that they did, for 74 minutes. Shayne Gostisbehere opened the scoring for the Canes, and Taylor Hall snagged one before intermission, in a period where the Habs were outshot 15-5. But in between those two, Mike Matheson, the old dog on D, got Montreal on the board. He was in the right place at the right time to receive a pass up high after some grimy play beneath the net, and with no bodies between him and Freddie Andersen, Matheson lasered a shot into the near-side corner that the Canes goalie could not catch.  ( 18 min )

I have a sort of hazy memory to share. I was a kid, riding in my parents' car on a bright sunny day, and we were sitting in traffic on a bridge over the Dulles Toll Road in Northern Virginia. I looked to my right, where you could see several miles of the highway stretching off toward Dulles Airport. Hundreds of cars streamed in both directions. Far off, wayyyyy the hell out there, where the cars were just little dots, the sunlight glinted a little differently off the chrome armature of a police cruiser's rooftop lights, on the half of the highway headed toward our bridge. Because our family's succession of beater cars often had (or seemed to have, at the scale of a small child's experience) things like busted taillights and expired tags, and because by then I'd been in the backseat at least a couple of times when my dad had gotten alarmingly irate about being pulled over, I had learned the habit of looking out for cop cars and speed traps. So I said, to no one in particular, "There's a cop coming," and pointed. What made this memory stick in my mind was that when my mom, in the passenger seat, turned and looked, what I was pointing at was so far beyond the range of her eyesight that she could not discern that there was anything at all there, much less that there were individual vehicles, much less that one of them could be identified as a police car headed our way, distant enough that we'd have to wait a couple of minutes to be able to verify it. For all that she could see, I could have been pointing at the clear blue sky. I might just as well have told her I saw Neil Armstrong's bootprint on the surface of the moon.  ( 29 min )

Knicks fans travel well, especially when there is a series sweep on offer. The Philadelphia 76ers' home arena was bursting with belligerent New Yorkers during Game 4 of the second round, and that augured grim possibilities for the Cleveland Cavaliers headed into what would be the last game of the Eastern Conference Finals on Monday night. Would Cavs owner Dan Gilbert be able to keep Knicks fans from entering his arena and dicking around while his team got swept like chumps? More importantly, would he be able to keep the rich and famous Knicks fans off the floor? One surefire way to keep Timothée Chalamet from stunting on you in your own building is to not be ass and go down 0-3 in a series. With that option foreclosed, Gilbert and the Cavs chose instead to leverage the power of legalese. Fat Joe became this controversy's whistleblower when he went on an ESPN pregame show and disclosed that, despite purchasing courtside tickets for Game 4, he was informed by the Cavs that his tickets were canceled and that he was being moved back a few rows. "We had bought some courtside tickets to the game, and then once they found out it was superfan Fat Joe, it was like, I can't sit courtside. New York Knick fans can't sit courtside," said Fat Joe. "They took the tickets away." Knicks beat writer Stefan Bondy did some additional reporting and talked to 10 other Knicks fans who had purchased courtside seats, only to receive a phone call from a Cavs executive telling them that they were being moved to a different section. When asked to explain why this was happening, the Cavs provided Bondy with a statement:  ( 16 min )

Congress wrote the Reconstruction Amendments to protect the rights of Black people to participate in democracy. The Supreme Court had other ideas. The post The Supreme Court Never Cared About Keeping the Fifteenth Amendment’s Promises appeared first on Balls and Strikes.  ( 7 min )

New Frontiers in Jan. 6 Revisionism The “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is just a part of the broader rewriting of the history...  ( 10 min )

just another batshit day in America

Plus, California steps up to protect workers over AI layoffs

96 Another wasted opportunity @media only screen and (max-width: 620px) { table.body { width: 100%; min-width: 100%; } table.body .content { padding: 0 !important; } table.body .container { padding: 0 !important; width: 100% !important; } table.body .main { border-spacing: 10px 0 !important; border-left-width: 0 !important; border-radius: 0 !important; border-right-width: 0 !important; } table.body .img-responsive { height: auto !important; max-width: 100% !important; width: auto !important; } } @media all { .ExternalClass { width: 100%; } .ExternalClass, .ExternalClass p, .ExternalClass span, .ExternalClass font, .ExternalClass td, .ExternalClass div { line-height: 100%; } .apple-l…  ( 12 min )

From “Republicans worry the Cornyn-Paxton fight is tearing their party apart: After months of mudslinging, several Republicans are bracing for a messy primary finish — and an even more costly general election.” by Liz Crampton and Samuel Benson at Politico: “…The John Cornyn vs. Ken Paxton showdown ends Tuesday night, but the brutal primary has... Read more »  ( 10 min )

Will Smith is easily one of the most recognizable faces and names on the planet. After launching his acting career as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air for six seasons, he became a mega successful film actor with leading roles in … Continue reading →  ( 19 min )

Prot about the May 2026 Emacs Carnival theme "May I recommend". I'd love to turn this into a joint braindump of quick recommendations for people at different points in their Emacs journey, building on our conversation about newbies/starter kits and the newcomer experience all the way up to power users, Emacs Lisp coders, and package developers. Watch on YouTube – (America/Toronto) = Thu May 28 1030H EDT / 0930H CDT / 0830H MDT / 0730H PDT / 1430H UTC / 1630H CEST / 1730H EEST / 2000H IST / 2230H +08 / 2330H JST This session will be recorded, and I'll update this blog post with notes: https://sachachua.com/blog/2026/05/may-28-sacha-and-prot-talk-emacs-may-i-recommend/ You can add the iCal for upcoming Yay Emacs episodes to your calendar. https://sachachua.com/topic/live/upcoming-livestreams.ics Find more Yay Emacs posts or join the fun: https://sachachua.com/topic/live View Org source for this post You can e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.  ( 1 min )

I quite like the global Auto Revert mode. It is especially useful when I something else than Emacs sometimes changes my files. (I bet some readers immediately thought about the now-fashionable agentic coding, but plain old git switch is enough!) It has one drawback, however. I hardly ever use TeX nowadays, but when I do, I use pdf-tools. Auto Revert mode doesn’t play nice with pdfs open in Emacs, often trying to revert them before TeX finishes writing to them, which results in ugly flickering.  ( 1 min )

I mentioned OSM for emacs briefly before, but I haven’t played with it much. That’s because the maps never showed up correctly in the buffer: the map tiles were not aligned correctly and some appeared blank. As it turns out, someone else had this problem and also found the culprit: visual-line-mode. I have it turned on by default as the majority of my work in Emacs involves org-mode and I need my lines wrapped in the buffer. With visual-line-mode disabled, OSM works as expected, including zooming in and out. Good stuff. Now that I fixed OSM, I was wondering about something else I wanted to do for a while: having Journelly’s latitude and longitude fed automatically to OSM in Emacs, so I can view the location on a map. Journelly captures locations and weather information for each note and stores those under properties, like so: PROPERTIES: :LATITUDE: ##.########## :LONGITUDE: ##.########## :WEATHER_TEMPERATURE: 62.1°F :WEATHER_CONDITION: Cloudy :WEATHER_SYMBOL: cloud :END: The OSM function that calls for those is osm-goto. So what we need is a simple function to feed the properties values directly: (defun jtr-goto-from-properties () (interactive) (let ((lat (org-entry-get (point) "LATITUDE")) (lon (org-entry-get (point) "LONGITUDE"))) (if (and lat lon) (osm-goto (string-to-number lat) (string-to-number lon) osm-default-zoom) (message "No LATITUDE/LONGITUDE properties found on this entry")))) This is an interactive function that I use when I’m standing on the header in Journelly I want to see on a map. It’s quick and works well. Now I can use my Journelly entries, which are already in org-mode, as a base for a post with a map tile inside Emacs. OSM doesn’t have a native function to export an image, but since I usually want to annotate the image anyway before I make a post out of it, a regular screen-capture app is a good solution, at least for now.  ( 2 min )

Looking closer at Claude Generated Lisp Code. (Spoiler: people write nicer code.) Help wanted: Demo site for a proposed re-design of the GNU ELPA (emacs-devel, Reddit) - feedback wanted Upcoming events (iCal file, Org): Emacs Berlin: Emacs-Berlin Hybrid Meetup https://emacs-berlin.org/ Wed May 27 1000 America/Vancouver - 1200 America/Chicago - 1300 America/Toronto - 1700 Etc/GMT - 1900 Europe/Berlin - 2230 Asia/Kolkata – Thu May 28 0100 Asia/Singapore EmacsSF (in person): coffee.el in SF https://www.meetup.com/emacs-sf/events/314950692/ Sat May 30 1100 America/Los_Angeles Emacs.si (in person): Emacs.si meetup #6 2026 (v #živo) https://dogodki.kompot.si/events/67d716c3-6c04-4530-9c1a-f67aa44d31bc Mon Jun 1 1900 CET EmacsATX: Emacs Social https://www.meetup.com/emacsatx/events/31480995…  ( 3 min )

Did you know that "EMACS" is a valid Wordle word?  Check it out:  ( 6 min )

Table of Contents A New Prioritization Hierarchy Default Org Agenda View Customized Org Agenda View Trick 1: Visual Deadlines with Custom Leaders Trick 2: Expanding the Warning Window to a Month Conclusion A New Prioritization Hierarchy task management workflow, my day-to-day focus was heavily centered around scheduled dates and TODO states. Today, my prioritization hierarchy has fundamentally evolved to: Deadline + Priority > Schedule > TODO States Deadlines + Priorities represent my primary focus. Deadlines show what must be delivered and when, while priorities help determine which deadline to tackle first. Together, they serve as the main driver for my planning. Scheduled dates are reserved for habits, recurring chores, or temporary "snoozing" (hiding tasks until they need to b…  ( 3 min )

Thanks for Being Part of OffBall!96 :root { color-scheme: light; supported-color-schemes: light; } body { margin: 0; padding: 0; min-width: 100%!important; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100% !important; -webkit-transform: scale(1) !important; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100% !important; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased !important; } .body { word-wrap: normal; word-spacing:normal; } table.mso { width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; padding: 0; table-layout: fixed; } img { border: 0; outline: none; } table { mso-table-lspace: 0px; mso-table-rspace: 0px; } td, a, span { mso-line-height-rule: exactly; } #root [x-apple-data-detectors=true], a[x-apple-data-detectors=true], #MessageViewBody a { color: inherit !important; text-decoration: inherit !important; font-size: inherit !im…  ( 8 min )

Sports Still Happened, Even Though You’re Chillin’ Today 96 :root { color-scheme: light; supported-color-schemes: light; } body { margin: 0; padding: 0; min-width: 100%!important; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100% !important; -webkit-transform: scale(1) !important; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100% !important; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased !important; } .body { word-wrap: normal; word-spacing:normal; } table.mso { width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; padding: 0; table-layout: fixed; } img { border: 0; outline: none; } table { mso-table-lspace: 0px; mso-table-rspace: 0px; } td, a, span { mso-line-height-rule: exactly; } #root [x-apple-data-detectors=true], a[x-apple-data-detectors=true], #MessageViewBody a { color: inherit !important; text-decoration: inherit !important…  ( 6 min )

Back the fight before midnight tonight a.cta_button{-moz-box-sizing:content-box !important;-webkit-box-sizing:content-box !important;box-sizing:content-box !important;vertical-align:middle}.hs-breadcrumb-menu{list-style-type:none;margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;padding:0px 0px 0px 0px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-item{float:left;padding:10px 0px 10px 10px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-divider:before{content:'›';padding-left:10px}.hs-featured-image-link{border:0}.hs-featured-image{float:right;margin:0 0 20px 20px;max-width:50%}@media (max-width: 568px){.hs-featured-image{float:none;margin:0;width:100%;max-width:100%}}.hs-screen-reader-text{clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);height:1px;overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;width:1px} 96 …  ( 2 min )

Last chance: $20 off ends tonight a.cta_button{-moz-box-sizing:content-box !important;-webkit-box-sizing:content-box !important;box-sizing:content-box !important;vertical-align:middle}.hs-breadcrumb-menu{list-style-type:none;margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;padding:0px 0px 0px 0px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-item{float:left;padding:10px 0px 10px 10px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-divider:before{content:'›';padding-left:10px}.hs-featured-image-link{border:0}.hs-featured-image{float:right;margin:0 0 20px 20px;max-width:50%}@media (max-width: 568px){.hs-featured-image{float:none;margin:0;width:100%;max-width:100%}}.hs-screen-reader-text{clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);height:1px;overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;width:1px} 96 …  ( 2 min )

It's time to wrap up the month with a challenging themeless. Keep an eye out for tricky clues and fun wordplay. This puzzle was constructed by Will Eisenberg, and edited by Hoang-Kim Vu. Will is a French horn player, music teacher, and puzzlemaker. Will is 3rd horn of Orchestra Iowa, and a member of the leadership team for Lil AVCX. Will helped to edit Midis for Minnesota, a charity crossword pack raising funds for Minnesotan immigrant families affected by ICE's presence. Defector crosswords, launched in partnership with our friends at AVCX, run every Monday. If you’re interested in submitting a puzzle to us, you can read our guidelines HERE. The AVCX, an independent puzzles and games outlet, invites you to subscribe, or sample the goods with a two-month free trial:"With an AVCX subscription, you get access to weekly themed and themeless crosswords, minis, cryptics, and trivia, by email or in your favorite app. We have no corporate overlord, and we publish top-flight stuff only. We also pay our people fairly, always. Check us out."  ( 13 min )

A playoff series will eventually teach you how to watch it. Once the players have settled into their matchups and the coaches have made their big tactical adjustments, you can start to zero in on a few things that will decide the series. If Team A is able to do Y and prevent Team B from doing X, then they will win, etc. The nice thing about this year's Western Conference Finals is that you don't have to work very hard to find the series' hinge point. You just have to look at the 7-foot-5 guy standing in the middle of the court. The Spurs won Game 4 on Sunday night, 103-82. If you are wondering how the defending champions were held to their lowest scoring mark of the entire season, look no further than Victor Wembanyama. His 33 points, eight rebounds, and three blocks speak for themselves, but as is always the case with Wembanyama, he has to be seen to be believed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5OyiDblFCA  ( 20 min )

Plus, a Purple Heart Senator slams Trump

Friday's news in the Khalil and Abrego Garcia cases underscores both the role courts can play in checking immigration abuses and the limits they often confront.

watch what they do, not what they say

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins isn’t as dramatic with religious theatrics as some of her colleagues in Donald Trump’s Cabinet, like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, but that shouldn’t fool anyone. A recent lawsuit from staff members alleges that Rollins has been “promoting her own preferred brand of Christian beliefs and theology to the captive audience of employees,” largely through proselytizing emails sent to the whole staff at the USDA, which make them “fear the negative consequences of not sharing the Secretary’s religion.” The details in the lawsuit reveal that the former Cotton Bowl Queen is just as committed a Christian nationalist as the more belligerent Hegseth. That might seem like a bold claim at first blush. Hegseth has drawn attention for his aggressive, even violent rhe…  ( 6 min )

Ruy Teixeira, author of major works of political analysis and non-resident senior fellow of the American Enterprise Institute, explains  why “Trump Is Making the Same Mistake That Doomed Biden” at The Free Press: President Donald Trump has a high opinion of his own persuasive power and political instincts. That is not without justification. Despite massive... Read more »  ( 7 min )

96 Weekly Scorecard: May 16 - 22, 2026 @media only screen and (max-width: 620px) { table.body { width: 100%; min-width: 100%; } table.body .content { padding: 0 !important; } table.body .container { padding: 0 !important; width: 100% !important; } table.body .main { border-spacing: 10px 0 !important; border-left-width: 0 !important; border-radius: 0 !important; border-right-width: 0 !important; } table.body .img-responsive { height: auto !important; max-width: 100% !important; width: auto !important; } } @media all { .ExternalClass { width: 100%; } .ExternalClass, .ExternalClass p, .ExternalClass span, .ExternalClass font, .ExternalClass td, .ExternalClass div { line-height: 100%; } …  ( 12 min )

USA Up All Night, the iconic late-night programming block on the USA Network from 1989 to 1998, became a cultural touchstone for a generation of viewers staying up past bedtime. Hosted by the irreverent Gilbert Gottfried on Saturdays and the glamorous Rhonda Shear on Fridays, the show delivered a mix of B-movies, cult classics, horror,...  ( 15 min )

The 1980s produced an endless wave of British pop bands, many of them built around flashy fashion, oversized personalities, and quickly dated production trends. Yet hidden among the louder and more commercially aggressive acts was a quieter, more refined group whose music has aged remarkably well. China Crisis never relied on spectacle. They didn’t dominate...  ( 9 min )

The 1980s new wave explosion brought synthesizers, angular guitars, and quirky fashion into the mainstream, fueled by MTV and major label push. Bands like Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, and The Police dominated charts and airwaves. Yet beneath the glossy hits lay a vibrant underground of inventive artists crafting innovative tracks that never cracked the Billboard...  ( 11 min )

I'm generally loath to make the same pun that all the other media outlets are running with, but the Colorado Avalanche's current situation makes it irresistible. So here goes: Dude, where's Makar? The Avs were the juggernaut of the NHL this year, and after going 8–1 through the first two rounds of the playoffs (the second against a very tough Minnesota squad), they looked like the betting favorite to break the Presidents' Trophy curse—that no team who posted the best regular-season record in an 82-game campaign has gone on to hoist the Stanley Cup since 2008. But against a Vegas group who looked to have a decided disadvantage, all their swagger and beauty has been caked in mud. The Knights triumphed 4–2 in Game 1 on the road, and then on Friday, they scored two goals in the third period (plus an empty netter) to grab another win, 3–1. What's gone so wrong? Well, in the NHL playoffs, you can always point to the crease. Carter Hart, who returned to the league after he was found not guilty in a sexual assault trial, is outplaying Colorado goalie Scott Wedgewood, a 33-year-old journeyman who'd enjoyed a randomly dominant regular season. That's part of the difference, but an even more stressful issue for the Avalanche has been the absence of Cale Makar, who's missed the last two games due to a shoulder injury.  ( 17 min )

It will comfort New York Giants fans not at all to learn that quarterback Jaxson Dart did not chitter like a raccoon, or bark like a walrus, or vocalize in the manner of any other wild creature, when reached on Saturday by teammate Abdul Carter. A little bit of gibberish might even have been encouraging: Carter and Dart, after all, were clearing the air about the latter having spent a portion of his Friday at a right-wing political rally in Rockland County, New York, introducing Donald Trump to the stage beneath a large sign reading "New York Welcomes President Donald J. Trump." Evidence of a dissociative episode would've softened some of that drearily familiar but still very acute misery of learning that someone you've rooted for is an enthusiastic MAGA freak. Sadly, Carter confirmed that Dart has not started clucking like a chicken. "We spoke earlier as Men," he announced in a tweet, hours after posting his disapproval of Dart's appearance at the rally. Dart really did the shit: Friday afternoon, with "Eye of the Tiger" blaring from the sound system and hundreds of smartphone cameras trained on the dais, Dart strutted up to the microphone, be-mulleted, and addressed the audience in the manner of a thoroughly pre-gamed sixth-year college senior who has just entered a dark and noisy house party and is still trying to figure out if any of his buddies are in the crowd. The speech was not very inspired. https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3mmhowtz3wd2m  ( 17 min )

The Carolina Hurricanes have long known what they've been missing: a dynamite top-line presence (or two) who could force a breakthrough with sheer skill when the team's fundamentally sound play wasn't doing enough to give them an advantage late in the postseason. The underlying engine of the Canes was running without a hitch—this is their eighth straight year with a playoff series win. But in order to beat the very best of the best in the second- and third rounds, which they have yet to do in the Rod Brind'Amour era, there was no way around the fact that the Canes needed more talent. That's easier said than done, of course. Carolina tried their best to just go out and get a superstar when they traded for Mikko Rantanen last year, but they quickly had to annul the marriage after just 13 gam…  ( 21 min )

The Knicks, barring cosmic intervention, are headed to the NBA Finals. All that is left to learn in this series is whether or not New York will let Cleveland have a game. The 121–108 scoreline from Game 3 pretty badly misrepresents the gap between the East's last remaining contenders. The Cavs appear physically spent and mentally boomed. The Knicks, meanwhile, haven't lost in a month, and Saturday night they became just the 10th team in NBA history to win at least 10 consecutive games in the same postseason. Personally, I prefer a quick clean kill to a polite delay, and not only so that I can be spared any more of the sad-sack lower seed. The Western Conference will be sending an ascending juggernaut to the Finals no matter what, so it would be cool if the East's representative is maximally tuned, primed, and in all other ways made ready for the collision. The Cavs, poor helpless clods, deserve precisely the sort of mercy that is traditionally bestowed on the far side of a shed. They are nowhere close to the Knicks. New York spent the closing stretch of Game 1 picking on James Harden, pulling him out and abusing his defensive vulnerabilities. Cleveland's answer in Game 2 was to warp their own defense with traps and double-teams, leading to a career night for Josh Hart and another, far more convincing, Knicks win. If Cleveland had a counter dialed up for Saturday, it was hard to pick out its contours. The Knicks were in a sweet offensive rhythm right from the opening tip, pouring in 37 first-quarter points on absurd 71-percent shooting. New York opened the game with a lightning-quick 9–1 run, and from that point until about the final 150 seconds of the fourth quarter, it felt like Cleveland's entire basketball project had been whittled down to the struggle to merely catch their breath. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GSM_EpblWk&t=1s  ( 25 min )

I wrote about Harper before, but I wanted to expand now that I have it working on Kubuntu with a couple of more options. Harper is good in two scenarios for me: first, when I want something quick and I don’t feel like starting a browser with Grammarly in it, and second, when I write a personal email and the idea of my words going to some AI grammar bot somewhere makes my skin crawl. Otherwise, for my blog (which is public anyway) and work email (I don’t care about those) Grammarly is definitely better. The issue with Linux is that the makers of Harper geared it toward macOS (Homebrew) and Arch Linux, among other things. It was made for programmers by programmers, and these guys don’t bother with Ubuntu-like distros. Fair, but up until recently it meant I had to jump through hoops. The quic…  ( 3 min )

fonts used by the various federal courts of appeal. For those of you who don’t know, the courts are very strict about the written format of their decisions and of the briefs filed with them. Not only is there a fixed and rigid format, the font used is also specified. Failure to adhere to the standard is prima facie reason for rejecting the filing. That said, each district has it’s own standards and choice of font. Some of those are particularly ugly versions of Courier and others are beautiful fonts such as Century Schoolbook and Equity. The Supreme Court—which used to insist on hot-metal typeset documents—uses Century Schoolbook. Take a look at Gruber’s post for the interesting details. None of this would be Irreal fodder except for a thread on the TUHS mailing list about LaTeX versus Troff for typesetting. Some of the discussion involved the difference between the input languages but a surprising amount talked about fonts as if Troff was still being run on a C/ does have a distinctive look. I wrote two books for a major publisher and typeset them using Troff so at the time I could probably have been considered a Troff expert. Then I started using Lisp and partly as a result I moved to Emacs. Since then, I do all my writing in Org mode, which, of course, uses LaTeX for producing typeset output. Sadly, these days I can’t be considered an expert in either Troff or LaTeX but it doesn’t really matter because Emacs has me covered. I simply write in Org mode and get great results for printed content. I still know enough LaTeX to tweak my results if I need to so I have the best of both worlds: the ease of Org and the power of LaTeX.  ( 5 min )

Even Trump’s own lawyer won’t defend it

Your access to what’s next starts now /* resets */ p {margin:0px;margin-bottom:0px;padding:0px;} table {border-spacing:0;} table, td {border-collapse:collapse;} * {-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;-moz-osx-font-smoothing: grayscale;text-size-adjust: none !important;-ms-text-size-adjust: none !important;-webkit-text-size-adjust: none !important;} /* end resets */ /* outlook / hotmail */ .ExternalClass{width:100%;} table, td {mso-table-lspace:0pt;mso-table-rspace:0pt;} img{-ms-interpolation-mode:bicubic;} .ReadMsgBody {width: 100%;} /* end outlook / hotmail */ /* gmail */ u + #body a {color: inherit;text-decoration: none;font-size: inherit;font-family: inherit;font-weight: inherit;line-height: inherit;} img + div {display: none!important;} /* end gmail */ /* ios */ body{-webk…  ( 2 min )

what exactly is going on?

"...how can people keep up with what you're learning?"1 I've always kept a low profile on the Internet.  It can be a scary place!  But I've been asked to show glimpses of my online work to the people I was meeting in real life. I agreed to chat with Sacha Chua about Emacs and Life (but not the Universe -- that'll be next time).  Emacs is worth revealing oneself for.  If people really do want to keep up with what I'm learning, they can visit here. My init file2 shows only a small aspect of how I have Emacs configured.  You'll want to see an example of my org file(s), my diary file, and the Lisp I have tucked away under my home directory. Aside from Emacs, my workflow relies on Vivaldi and LibreOffice, so I'll try to show what I'm doing with them, as well.  Perhaps I can provide screen recordings, too! "Sometimes it just takes somebody saying, your stuff is interesting. I'm telling you, your stuff is interesting."3 Thank you, again, Sacha! 1Sacha Chua, https://sachachua.com/blog/#ID-ec23-transcript 2https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/RaymondZeitler 3Sacha Chua, ibid.  ( 9 min )

2026 May 23 Light or dark? GNOME side color-scheme and you can set read and set it from the command line. You can read it from the command line (default light theme is called default) $ gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.interface color-scheme | tr -d "'" default and you can set it from the command line (default dark theme is called prefer-dark) $ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface color-scheme prefer-dark will change it to dark. (You can also set other preferred GNOME themes this way.) Light or dark? Emacs side Protesilaos has published a gazillion pretty themes, but I prefer his modus-themes for their visual simplicity and also for their UI amenities. For example you can set one light theme (modus-operandi family) and one dark theme (modus-vivendi family) and toggle…  ( 2 min )

Prot as a coach to help review my new ffs package for GNU Emacs as I worked on preparing it for inclusion in GNU ELPA, as well as discussing other Emacs- and life-related topics. In our nearly 2-hour conversation, we discussed at length and in depth various aspects of life in the current times. For instance, feeling overwhelmed in the face of innumerable things happening at once, with technology changing our perception and making events feel proximate and imminent. We talked about seasonality and rhythms in life, including in relation to burnout and knowing our own limitations, and descriptive vs prescriptive thinking when reflecting on the expectations we may place on our self when comparing our self to others through the lens of our necessarily-incomplete impressions and glimpses …  ( 2 min )

thinks that one-shot modifiers are the answer. Others recommend using a split keyboard or simply mapping Caps Lock to Ctrl. A post over at meanwhiling has another suggestion: use your thumbs. That’s also familiar advice but the post goes into specific details. Those details, in a nutshell, are to map the two keys nearest to either side of the space bar to Ctrl and the two keys next to those to Meta. That setup has the advantages that Both the Ctrl and Meta keys can be pressed with a thumb There is a Ctrl and Meta key on both sides of the keyboard so you never have to press the modifier and target key with the same hand. Hyper and Super. I use both of those, especially Hyper, all the time so I need them easily accessible. That’s made easier for me because I don’t mind using the same hand for the modifier and target keys. I still use Caps Lock for Ctrl and my thumbs for everything else. If my pinky ever starts complaining about Ctrl I’ll probably just swap Ctrl and Super. I’d do that anyway except for muscle memory and the fact that my hands don’t hurt. I do think using your thumbs for your most used modifiers make sense and modern keyboards make that pretty easy to set up.  ( 5 min )

This month’s Emacs Asia-Pacific (APAC) virtual meetup is scheduled for Saturday, May 23, 2026 with BigBlueButton and #emacs on Libera Chat IRC. The timing will be 1400 to 1500 IST. The meetup might get extended by 30 minutes if there is any talk, this page will be updated accordingly. If you would like to give a demo or talk (maximum 20 minutes) on GNU Emacs or any variant, please contact bhavin192 on Libera Chat with your talk details:  ( 1 min )

Jesus stops it, Donny flops it, and so much more...

The week’s 8 biggest wins

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96 America’s 911 system is in the throes of its own emergency p{ margin:10px 0; padding:0; } table{ border-collapse:collapse; } h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6{ display:block; margin:0; padding:0; } img,a img{ border:0; height:auto; outline:none; text-decoration:none; } body,#bodyTable,#bodyCell{ height:100%; margin:0; padding:0; width:100%; } .mcnPreviewText{ display:none !important; } #outlook a{ padding:0; } img{ -ms-interpolation-mode:bicubic; } table{ mso-table-lspace:0pt; mso-table-rspace:0pt; } .ReadMsgBody{ width:100%; } .ExternalClass{ width:100%; } p,a,li,td,blockquote{ mso-line-height-rule:exactly; } a[href^…  ( 5 min )

What’s Going on With Trump’s Big Fascistic Arch Near the National Mall?#outlook a { padding:0; } .ExternalClass { width:100%; } .ExternalClass, .ExternalClass p, .ExternalClass span, .ExternalClass font, .ExternalClass td, .ExternalClass div { line-height: 100%; } table td { border-collapse: collapse; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; } .editable.image { font-size: 0 !important; line-height: 0 !important; } .nl2go_preheader { display: none !important; mso-hide:all !important; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; visibility: hidden !important; line-height: 0px !important; font-size: 0px !important; } body { width:100% !important; -webkit-text-size-adjust:100%; -ms-text-size-adjust:100%; margin:0; padding:0; } img { outline:none; text-decoration:none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; } a img { border…  ( 10 min )

You have a chance to invest in democracy right now a.cta_button{-moz-box-sizing:content-box !important;-webkit-box-sizing:content-box !important;box-sizing:content-box !important;vertical-align:middle}.hs-breadcrumb-menu{list-style-type:none;margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;padding:0px 0px 0px 0px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-item{float:left;padding:10px 0px 10px 10px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-divider:before{content:'›';padding-left:10px}.hs-featured-image-link{border:0}.hs-featured-image{float:right;margin:0 0 20px 20px;max-width:50%}@media (max-width: 568px){.hs-featured-image{float:none;margin:0;width:100%;max-width:100%}}.hs-screen-reader-text{clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);height:1px;overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;width:1px} 96 …  ( 5 min )

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Tulsi Gabbard, who probed 2020 election conspiracies, resigns a.cta_button{-moz-box-sizing:content-box !important;-webkit-box-sizing:content-box !important;box-sizing:content-box !important;vertical-align:middle}.hs-breadcrumb-menu{list-style-type:none;margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;padding:0px 0px 0px 0px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-item{float:left;padding:10px 0px 10px 10px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-divider:before{content:'›';padding-left:10px}.hs-featured-image-link{border:0}.hs-featured-image{float:right;margin:0 0 20px 20px;max-width:50%}@media (max-width: 568px){.hs-featured-image{float:none;margin:0;width:100%;max-width:100%}}.hs-screen-reader-text{clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);height:1px;overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;width:1px} 96…  ( 5 min )

96 Newsletter: 5.22.26 img{-ms-interpolation-mode:bicubic;} table, td{mso-table-lspace:0pt;mso-table-rspace:0pt;} .mceStandardButton, .mceStandardButton td, .mceStandardButton td a{mso-hide:all!important;} p, a, li, td, blockquote{mso-line-height-rule:exactly;} p, a, li, td, body, table, blockquote{-ms-text-size-adjust:100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust:100%;} .mcnPreviewText{display:none!important;} .bodyCell{margin:0 auto;padding:0;width:100%;} .ExternalClass, .ExternalClass p, .ExternalClass td, .ExternalClass div, .ExternalClass span, .ExternalClass font{line-height:100%;} .ReadMsgBody, .ExternalClass{width:100%;} a[x-apple-data-detectors]{color:inherit!important;text-decoration:none!important;font-size:inherit!important;font-family:inherit!important;font-weight:inherit!important;li…  ( 6 min )

96 *{box-sizing:border-box}body{margin:0;padding:0}a[x-apple-data-detectors]{color:inherit!important;text-decoration:inherit!important}#MessageViewBody a{color:inherit;text-decoration:none}p{line-height:inherit}.desktop_hide,.desktop_hide table{mso-hide:all;display:none;max-height:0;overflow:hidden}.image_block img+div{display:none}sub,sup{font-size:75%;line-height:0}#converted-body .list_block ol,#converted-body .list_block ul,.body [class~=x_list_block] ol,.body [class~=x_list_block] ul,u+.body .list_block ol,u+.body .list_block ul{padding-left:20px} @media (max-width:620px){.image_block div.fullWidth{max-width:100%!important}.row-content{width:100%!important}.stack .column{width:100%;display:block}.mobile_hide{min-height:0;max-height:0;max-width:0;display:none;overflow:hidden;font-size…  ( 2 min )

Americans United for Separation of Church and State /* CLIENT-SPECIFIC STYLES */ body, table, td, a{-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;} /* Prevent WebKit and Windows mobile changing default text sizes */ table, td{mso-table-lspace: 0pt; mso-table-rspace: 0pt;} /* Remove spacing between tables in Outlook 2007 and up */ img{-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;} /* Allow smoother rendering of resized image in Internet Explorer */ /* RESET STYLES */ img{border: 0; height: auto; line-height: 100%; outline: none; text-decoration: none;} table{border-collapse: collapse !important;} body{height: 100% !important; margin: 0 auto !important; padding: 0 !important; width: 100% !important;} /* iOS BLUE LINKS */ a[x-apple-data-detectors] { …  ( 3 min )

The 2028 redistricting war is already here a.cta_button{-moz-box-sizing:content-box !important;-webkit-box-sizing:content-box !important;box-sizing:content-box !important;vertical-align:middle}.hs-breadcrumb-menu{list-style-type:none;margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;padding:0px 0px 0px 0px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-item{float:left;padding:10px 0px 10px 10px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-divider:before{content:'›';padding-left:10px}.hs-featured-image-link{border:0}.hs-featured-image{float:right;margin:0 0 20px 20px;max-width:50%}@media (max-width: 568px){.hs-featured-image{float:none;margin:0;width:100%;max-width:100%}}.hs-screen-reader-text{clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);height:1px;overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;width:1px} 96 …  ( 6 min )

The week Georgia Republicans went full-MAGA a.cta_button{-moz-box-sizing:content-box !important;-webkit-box-sizing:content-box !important;box-sizing:content-box !important;vertical-align:middle}.hs-breadcrumb-menu{list-style-type:none;margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;padding:0px 0px 0px 0px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-item{float:left;padding:10px 0px 10px 10px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-divider:before{content:'›';padding-left:10px}.hs-featured-image-link{border:0}.hs-featured-image{float:right;margin:0 0 20px 20px;max-width:50%}@media (max-width: 568px){.hs-featured-image{float:none;margin:0;width:100%;max-width:100%}}.hs-screen-reader-text{clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);height:1px;overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;width:1px} 96 …  ( 5 min )

The Royals announced that right-hander Luke Jackson and left-hander Génesis Cabrera have been signed to minor league deals. Jackson opted out of a deal with the Mets last week. Cabrera was with the Phillies on a minor league pact but he was released last week, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com. Presumably, both pitchers will […]  ( 7 min )

The Royals announced that they have recalled outfielder Tyler Tolbert. To open a roster spot for him, catcher Elias Díaz has been designated for assignment. Kansas City’s 40-man count drops to 39. Díaz, 35, signed a minor league deal with the Royals in the offseason. He had his contract selected to the big league roster […]  ( 7 min )

I met Stephen Colbert a quarter century ago. He was a correspondent for Jon Stewart’s “Daily Show” at the time, I was a junior copywriter at a New York ad agency. We were testing out a radio ad campaign for one of our biggest clients, and our producer scored Colbert to be the voice-over for some of the test spots. Colbert came into the studio for two straight days — being paid at scale, which is basically the established minimum wage for members of the Screen Actors Guild — and blew the goddamn doors off the place.  He did as many takes as we needed from him. He ad-libbed off the script I’d written, inventing a shady friend of his named Spider whom he knew would just love getting AT&T Wireless’ friends and family plan for only $19.99 a month. He was as brilliant that day as he’d been on n…  ( 1 min )

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You open your favorite editor, and, out of the box, Emacs writes state files all over the place. It puts bookmarks in ~/.emacs.d/, drops #auto-saves# next to every file you edit, leaves .~lockfiles~ in your projects, scribbles recentf, history, saveplace, projects, transient/history.el, tramp, network-security.data, multisession/, url/, image-dired/, erc/, rcirc/... you get the picture. The features are great, don't get me wrong. The default locations are what annoy me. Most of those files are not noise. They are the state that makes Emacs feel like Emacs across restarts. So you cannot just delete them. But you also do not want them spread across N different directories with cryptic names. (I know I don't.) I want one directory I control, every cache-bound variable pointing inside it, and …  ( 18 min )

Icon Product: BBEdit 16 Price: $60 for new version, $30 for upgrade from version 15, $40 for upgrade from versions prior to that. Mac App Store version pricing is different. BBEdit keeps to an upgrade schedule of about two and a half years between major versions. It is about that time and there is a new version of BBEdit. Version 16. It is accompanied as usual by extensive release notes. This is the one product whose release notes I love reading. They are extensive and they are sometimes funny. The developers believe that it is important to document the changes to the program and they are serious about that. I wish more programs did that. It shows a care for their customers and their craft. What Is New? Expanded Shortcuts support. This is going to be useful to the heavy user of macOS Autom…

The train wreck that is the 2026 Royals @media (max-width: 1024px) { .typography .pullquote-align-left, .typography.editor .pullquote-align-left, .typography .pullquote-align-right, .typography.editor .pullquote-align-right, .typography .pullquote-align-wide, .typography.editor .pullquote-align-wide, .typography .pullquote-align-center, .typography.editor .pullquote-align-center { float: none; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; max-width: 100%; } } @media all and (-ms-high-contrast: none), (-ms-high-contrast: active) { .typography .markup table.image-wrapper img, .typography.editor .markup table.image-wrapper img, .typography .markup table.kindle-wrapper img, .typography.editor .markup table.kindle-wrapper img { max-width: 550px; } } @media (min-wi…  ( 10 min )

96 *{box-sizing:border-box}body{margin:0;padding:0}a[x-apple-data-detectors]{color:inherit!important;text-decoration:inherit!important}#MessageViewBody a{color:inherit;text-decoration:none}p{line-height:inherit}.desktop_hide,.desktop_hide table{mso-hide:all;display:none;max-height:0;overflow:hidden}.image_block img+div{display:none}sub,sup{font-size:75%;line-height:0} @media (max-width:660px){.row-content{width:100%!important}.stack .column{width:100%;display:block}.mobile_hide{min-height:0;max-height:0;max-width:0;display:none;overflow:hidden;font-size:0}.desktop_hide,.desktop_hide table{display:table!important;max-height:none!important}.row-1 .column-1 .block-1.image_block td.pad{padding:10px 10px 0 10px!important}.row-1 .column-1 .block-1.image_block td.pad div{margin:0 auto!important…  ( 1 min )

The Prank Wars Have Come To F1 96 :root { color-scheme: light; supported-color-schemes: light; } body { margin: 0; padding: 0; min-width: 100%!important; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100% !important; -webkit-transform: scale(1) !important; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100% !important; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased !important; } .body { word-wrap: normal; word-spacing:normal; } table.mso { width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; padding: 0; table-layout: fixed; } img { border: 0; outline: none; } table { mso-table-lspace: 0px; mso-table-rspace: 0px; } td, a, span { mso-line-height-rule: exactly; } #root [x-apple-data-detectors=true], a[x-apple-data-detectors=true], #MessageViewBody a { color: inherit !important; text-decoration: inherit !important; font-size: inherit !impo…  ( 7 min )

Well, well, well. Would you look at that. It's the Friday before a holiday weekend and we don't really want to work anymore. So let's chat! Hit us with your best questions down below. Update (3:12 p.m.): OK we're wrapping up so we can get the holiday weekend started. Thanks for hanging!  ( 10 min )

What is Josh Hart? If you had never watched his tenure with the New York Knicks and had to reconstruct the player from box scores, season averages, and the sauced utterances of people milling around outside Madison Square Garden, it would be a puzzling task. OK, so he's 6-foot-5, but teams can guard him with centers, or with no one at all, and he doesn't score much anyway. Fans are yelling the words "hard-nosed," "hustle," "intangibles," and so on. On paper, he's one of the all-time great "rebounding guards"; in reality, he's more of an itsy-bitsy power forward who moonlights as a guard on the fast break. He shot 41 percent from three in the regular season, but that's misleading because it was on low volume, and when you actually see him catch the ball gloriously open at the arc, he turns …  ( 18 min )

The American military has always maintained a relatively strong grip on its public perception. Its most essential message—internally and externally, during peace time and active conflict, under presidents Republican and Democratic—is the necessity of its sprawling, expensive, and secretive imperial apparatus as a means of defending the nation and the very concept of freedom. It doesn’t hurt that the media is often only too happy to play along. In his new book God Forgives, Brothers Don’t: The Long March of Military Education and the Making of American Manhood, journalist Jasper Craven takes a detailed and unflinching look at the bedrock of American military training: the military academy as a locus for and proving ground of antagonistic military policy. America’s war-hungry ethos, embodied to an embarrassingly literal degree by the hare-brained conduct and childish grandiosity of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, has only recently embraced the enfranchisement of all able-bodied Americans, regardless of gender, race, or creed, to this mission.  Still, the underlying social and cultural principle of the American military has always idolized rugged masculinity—essentializing violence and dominance as natural to the very purpose of manhood. As Craven writes, “the military’s masculine archetype has become one of America’s most coveted assets. Like warfare itself, it is ever evolving. A diluted form of military manliness can be replicated in the civilian world, though it is always a clear knockoff. It lacks the high-and-tight haircut, the posture, the gaze, the mythic war stories of conquest, destruction, and dominance.”  ( 35 min )

In the Western Baltic Sea, fisheries target migrating mackerel and needlefish with pound nets, which funnel passing shoals into a series of smaller nets until they are trapped. The traps are emptied every few days, but as the caught fish idle in the nets, they become quite attractive to passing seabirds, such as cormorants, gulls, and terns. The cormorants sample the fish like a charcuterie board and various enterprising gulls steal the cormorants' catches. Several dozen birds can likely be found loitering near any particular pound net, and their ravenous appetites result in real losses for the fisheries. This battle between pound net fishers and seabirds has been ongoing for decades, and fishers have attempted to fight back in various ways. They've tried covering their catch with a netted cover or providing the fish artificial refuges. But the birds are relentless, and the agile cormorants simply entered the pound nets from below. And the more protective netting the fishers added, the more they found tangled or drowned seabirds alongside their catch. A paper from 2021 estimated that 400,000 seabirds are killed by diving into gillnets each year. As such, scientists have been cooking up new strategies to reduce the number of seabirds snacking on and dying in pound nets. They tried high-contrast panels and bright LED lights, but nothing seemed to work. That is, until Bobby the buoy entered the picture. Here is a buoy similar to Bobby:  ( 23 min )

You know what it is. Many-time NBR guest Noah Kulwin came back this week to talk about the two pretty incredible NBA Conference Finals we have going. Noah predicted both the Boston Celtics' ultimate fraudulence, as well as the New York Knicks' comeback in Game 1, so we had to bring him back. We also talked about the Oklahoman publishing an op-ed comparing the Oklahoma City Thunder to the state of Israel, which Samer wrote about this week. Speaking of Israel, Noah's podcast Blowback (which is great!) is about to drop a mini-series about the history of the U.S.-Israel relationship. It's called "No Daylight," and it drops next Friday, May 29. Subscribe!  ( 14 min )

It took only 33 seconds to safely write off the Montreal Canadiens as just another quaint overachiever, the kind of humorously game yet clinically overmatched entrant that has filled out nearly every conference final field since the National Hockey League decided to have conferences. They come, they seem like an appealing alternative to the oppressive chalk that surrounds them, and then they disappear again to the churn of the pack, hoping for another turn in a decade or so. It subsequently took 27 seconds to rethink ce paragraphe premier, and then another 10 minutes or so to wonder if the quaint overachiever here isn't actually the Carolina Hurricanes. In those 11 minutes and change, the Canadiens not only scored four goals in response to Carolina’s first, but posed the corresponding matter of whether the Canes had too many days off after their two playoff cake tours. Or maybe Montreal is simply the real deal, and we are about to find out that it doesn't matter that they often cut their margins too fine and don't know what they don't know about high-stakes playoff competition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDYtHLjs0Xo  ( 21 min )

A late-May crisis has struck Major League Baseball. What seemed on May 17 like a funny, isolated incident, in which Shohei Ohtani scored a Little League home run (officially scored a triple and an error) against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, has turned out to be far more insidious. No one at the time could guess what would follow for the next week. No one knows when it will stop. A day from now? A week? Never? First, there was the Washington Nationals' James Wood, who, on May 19, notched his first-ever official grand slam off an inside-the-park homer. Naturally, this event took place against the Mets. The defining characteristic of this play was the ball ricocheting off the glove of Mets left-fielder Nick Morabito as he jumped to the wall and then fell down in front of his teammate, center-fielder Tyrone Taylor. While the ball trickled back into center field, Taylor stared at Morabito who pointed futilely toward the ball, before taking matters into his own hands and running for the baseball. Wood, who is an average runner, would easily beat the off-target throw into home.  ( 21 min )

ESPN will still on occasion tear itself away from the subjects and sports leagues with which it shares bed space, and so it was with Alden Gonzalez's 2,800-word free-weight on the newly innovative (wait for it, and don't spit out your coffee when you see it) Miami Marlins. Whether or not this story is a compelling argument for the resuscitation of this largely cursed and generally ignored franchise, it is at least an acknowledgement that most of what Miami has been doing for the previous three decades has amounted to buying 30 calendars and taking the rest of the year off. Meanwhile, a team that truly changed baseball to its great competitive benefit is closing in on 20 years of mostly consistent success with only two holes in their CV: a World Series, and anyone else giving a damn. Now th…  ( 25 min )

ANAHEIM, Calif. — There is no fandom quite like the fandom of teenage girls. It is powerful and pure, untainted by the burdensome knowledge of adulthood while burning with an intensity that feels beyond human comprehension. That's why the screaming for Alysa Liu sounds the way it does, and why it starts immediately, the moment her thousands of fans believe she is about to head out on the ice. They have come here to cheer, to cry, to sing along with the lyrics to the songs she skates to. They are prepared for this moment in a way that adults cannot really be prepared for anything. But also, in a more basic sense, they are prepared; I am thinking here of the two young people I heard behind me in line for the bathroom, who spent part of the wait time discussing what they would do when the rei…  ( 34 min )

Plus, a village buries Big Tech

Welcome back to Media Matters’ weekly newsletter. This week:  Right-wing media react to Trump’s slush fund with unquestioning loyalty — and some vague skepticism.   Trump’s Fox News Cabinet urges escalation while he ponders a return to the war in Iran.  Millions are projected to lose healthcare coverage due to GOP rollbacks, but Fox News has barely acknowledged it.  If you want this delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe here.  ( 5 min )

let them fight

‘Our Majority Is Melting Down Before Our Eyes’ Senate Republicans have always felt like the weakest of the political bulwarks...  ( 11 min )

Much remains unknown about the recent shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego that ended with three victims killed and the two teenaged suspects dead by their own hand. Initial reports from law enforcement suggest this was a hate crime. Cain Clark, 17, and Caleb Vazquez, 18, were reportedly radicalized into white supremacy online, and left behind racist writings and symbols of Nazism and the Confederacy. A fuller view of their motives will no doubt emerge from the investigation, but in the meantime, one detail has emerged that’s all too common in cases with underage killers: Clark reportedly stole the guns used in the shooting from his mother.  San Diego police are yet to determine if they will file charges, but they have confirmed the weapons involved belong to a parent and not to eit…  ( 7 min )

From “Democrats Have the Biggest Midterm Election Lead in May, by any Party, in 20 Years:  All signs point to a Blue Wave, and they may need every drop to overcome recent gerrymandering woes and likely presidential scheming” by Bill Scher at Washington Monthly: While the polling industry has taken a lot of guff in... Read more »  ( 8 min )

Like a lot of Democrats, my ears perked up when I heard the DNC had reversed field and released a version of its earlier-suppressed 2024 “autopsy report,” but as I noted at New York, it should have either been completed or deleted: Complaints among Democratic activists and influencers over the DNC’s decision to abort its... Read more »  ( 9 min )

From “Poll: Trump’s election orders would mass disenfranchise working-class voters” by Jordan Zakarin at More Perfect Union: “President Donald Trump’s executive orders on election administration would create significant — and in many cases, insurmountable — barriers for working- and middle- class Americans to voting, according to a new poll from More Perfect Union and Blue... Read more »  ( 10 min )

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According to reporting, Patrick Byrne, a “multimillionaire and prominent election denier” and “one of corporate America’s most vocal proponents” of President Donald Trump's falsehoods about the 2020 election, “often pushed conspiracy theories and found himself ensnared in controversy — long before the former chief executive of online retailer Overstock promoted Donald Trump’s baseless claims of a rigged election.”  ( 3 min )

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President Donald Trump’s unauthorized Iran war and its resulting disruption of international trade in hydrocarbons, bulk cargo, fertilizer, and other products via the Strait of Hormuz is just the latest in a series of policy decisions from his administration that have harmed America’s farmers. National, local, and industry news organizations have repeatedly reported on Trump’s policy harms while Trump’s allies at Fox News have supported these damaging policies.  ( 16 min )

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This post is part of a series chronicling news coverage of rising prices in the United States. See more here.  ( 3 min )

This post is part of a series chronicling news coverage of rising prices in the United States. See more here.  ( 2 min )

As ProPublica previously reported: Gregg Phillips and Catherine Engelbrecht are best known as the election deniers behind True the Vote, a Texas-based nonprofit responsible for amplifying conspiracies that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.  ( 2 min )

This post is part of a series chronicling news coverage of rising prices in the United States. See more here.  ( 2 min )

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Until recently, Fox personalities pushed the narrative that low gas prices and a healthy economy go hand in hand. Just weeks before the Trump administration began bombing Iran, Fox host Sean Hannity told his radio audience, “I think the most impactful measure that is really benefiting Americans, the first and foremost, is the price of a gallon of gasoline.”  Host Laura Ingraham said decreasing energy costs was a message the administration should “keep hammering ... day after day.”  In fact, Fox personalities and guests across the network spread the narrative that lower gas prices — fueling economic growth and bringing prices down across the board — was a winning message for Trump. But as gas prices and then inflation started to climb in response to President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, Fox personalities downplayed the impact to consumers as temporary and a necessary sacrifice and even celebrated the benefit to U.S. oil companies.  ( 6 min )

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After six years of a six-justice conservative supermajority, voters are tired of the Court and more supportive of reforms. Republican lawmakers have taken notice. The post Republicans Sound Like They’re Getting Nervous About Supreme Court Expansion appeared first on Balls and Strikes.  ( 6 min )

As the midterm elections approach, the White House is still looking to nominate conservative stalwarts—but stalwarts with easier paths to Senate confirmation. The post How Many More Trump Nominees Can the Senate Confirm Before the Midterms? appeared first on Balls and Strikes.  ( 10 min )

Trump’s flailing DOJ loses two more voter roll cases a.cta_button{-moz-box-sizing:content-box !important;-webkit-box-sizing:content-box !important;box-sizing:content-box !important;vertical-align:middle}.hs-breadcrumb-menu{list-style-type:none;margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;padding:0px 0px 0px 0px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-item{float:left;padding:10px 0px 10px 10px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-divider:before{content:'›';padding-left:10px}.hs-featured-image-link{border:0}.hs-featured-image{float:right;margin:0 0 20px 20px;max-width:50%}@media (max-width: 568px){.hs-featured-image{float:none;margin:0;width:100%;max-width:100%}}.hs-screen-reader-text{clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);height:1px;overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;width:1px} 96 …  ( 4 min )

South Carolina Republicans Advance Map That Aims to Eliminate Jim Clyburn’s Seat#outlook a { padding:0; } .ExternalClass { width:100%; } .ExternalClass, .ExternalClass p, .ExternalClass span, .ExternalClass font, .ExternalClass td, .ExternalClass div { line-height: 100%; } table td { border-collapse: collapse; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; } .editable.image { font-size: 0 !important; line-height: 0 !important; } .nl2go_preheader { display: none !important; mso-hide:all !important; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; visibility: hidden !important; line-height: 0px !important; font-size: 0px !important; } body { width:100% !important; -webkit-text-size-adjust:100%; -ms-text-size-adjust:100%; margin:0; padding:0; } img { outline:none; text-decoration:none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; } a img…  ( 9 min )

Donald Trump is stealing from you a.cta_button{-moz-box-sizing:content-box !important;-webkit-box-sizing:content-box !important;box-sizing:content-box !important;vertical-align:middle}.hs-breadcrumb-menu{list-style-type:none;margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;padding:0px 0px 0px 0px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-item{float:left;padding:10px 0px 10px 10px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-divider:before{content:'›';padding-left:10px}.hs-featured-image-link{border:0}.hs-featured-image{float:right;margin:0 0 20px 20px;max-width:50%}@media (max-width: 568px){.hs-featured-image{float:none;margin:0;width:100%;max-width:100%}}.hs-screen-reader-text{clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);height:1px;overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;width:1px} 96 …  ( 5 min )

96 *{box-sizing:border-box}body{margin:0;padding:0}a[x-apple-data-detectors]{color:inherit!important;text-decoration:inherit!important}#MessageViewBody a{color:inherit;text-decoration:none}p{line-height:inherit}.desktop_hide,.desktop_hide table{mso-hide:all;display:none;max-height:0;overflow:hidden}.image_block img+div{display:none}sub,sup{font-size:75%;line-height:0}#converted-body .list_block ol,#converted-body .list_block ul,.body [class~=x_list_block] ol,.body [class~=x_list_block] ul,u+.body .list_block ol,u+.body .list_block ul{padding-left:20px} @media (max-width:620px){.image_block div.fullWidth{max-width:100%!important}.row-content{width:100%!important}.stack .column{width:100%;display:block}.mobile_hide{min-height:0;max-height:0;max-width:0;display:none;overflow:hidden;font-size…  ( 6 min )

Lower courts tossed out Joseph Clifton Smith's death sentence after a finding him to be intellectually disabled. That decision stands, but SCOTUS refused to stop two other execution efforts.

ffs provides a minor mode for simple plain text presentations in Emacs, where the slides are separated using the page-delimiter, by default the form feed character (^L). I wrote ffs in early 2022 for my LibrePlanet 2022 presentation the Net beyond the Web, and earlier this year decided to polish it towards being a proper package and submit it to GNU ELPA. The manual still needs some more work, but the overall package is in pretty good shape so I submitted for inclusion in GNU ELPA. Package name (GNU ELPA): ffs Official manual: https://kelar.org/~bandali/gnu/emacs/ffs.html Change log: https://kelar.org/~bandali/gnu/emacs/ffs-changelog.html Git repository: https://git.kelar.org/~bandali/ffs Backronyms: fabulous foolproof slides - for freedom's sake - ffs flips slides ffs and I owe a d…  ( 3 min )

I recently contributed a patch to tagref that makes it play nicely with Emacs org-mode files. The PR has already been merged and the feature is available since version 1.12.0. In this post I want to explain what the PR improves and show how tagref can be used in a project where internal/developer documentation in written in org-mode. But first, let me briefly introduce tagref. What is tagref? tagref is a command-line tool that helps manage "tags" and "references" in a project. The idea is based on cross-referencing code and documentation, inspired by the GHC notes system described in the Glasgow Haskell Compiler (§5.6) chapter of the AOSA book. In short, you can annotate code (or text in any file) with a tag inside a comment: 1 2 3 4 5 // [tag:rare-edge-case] function handleRareEdgeCase…  ( 4 min )

org-remark. It does its magic just as you’d expect. The notes are anchored in the text by highlighting the passage you’re writing about and the position of that highlight and its associated notes are kept in a separate Org file with enough meta data to get back to the original document. The package comes with builtin support for several document types but Holland says that it’s pretty easy to add others and that in fact he’s added them for Elfeed, PubMed, and Wombag. The major shortcoming that I can see is that PDFs aren’t supported. Holland’s post includes an 18 minute, 15 second video that demonstrates org-remark and provides a nice overview of the post. The post itself is long and comprehensive. The org-remark package seems like a nice app that could be a big help for those of us that like to take notes as we’re reading. I could see myself using it to take notes on Web pages that I want to write about for Irreal. If it seems like it might be useful to you, take a look at Holland’s post.  ( 5 min )

Watch on YouTube Related links: https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/RaymondZeitler (config is out of date) https://www.linkedin.com/in/raymondzeitler/ : Electrical Engineer | Electronic RF Components | Scripting & Automation | US Defense and Aerospace~ Modernizing your company’s legacy design tools Acting Historian, IEEE Connecticut Section https://codeberg.org/ZeitRa The rest of his Internet presence is either private (Facebook) or anonymous (two blogs, Github and Gitlab, Mastodon, Bluesky). https://sachachua.com/topic/upcoming-emacs-chats.ics Find more Emacs Chats or join the fun: https://sachachua.com/emacs-chat 0:01 Opening 0:59 Introduction 2:07 I love automating workflows 3:19 Org Mode switch 4:14 diary-float 6:50 Tip: Add links to task titles 6:59 diary-float 8:00 The dif…  ( 2 min )

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It’s great how little you have to think about Paige Bueckers. This isn’t the same as not caring about her. The scads of cheers she gets during player intros, even on the road, are proof that she’s cared about very much. She just happens to be the sort of player whose competence speaks for itself, whose game demands no further tinkering or accommodation. Play her with a big lineup or a small one. Play her at the one, two, or three. Play her off the ball, or on it. Play her in a box, with a fox, in a house, with a mouse. Her versatility lets the Dallas Wings be whatever they want to be.  What they’ve been so far this year is one of the WNBA's most potent offenses. With playmakers at every spot, these Wings are moving, cutting, sharing the ball, and scoring from everywhere, well enough to rank second in the league in offensive rating. On Wednesday night in Chicago, they put up 99 points on a respectable Sky defense and notched their third win of the season. Five games in, they’re already in good position to beat last year’s win total of 10. Conspiracy theories abounded when the Wings bypassed the bigs in this year's draft and used the first overall pick on Azzi Fudd, a much-needed source of shooting and strength in the backcourt, and who, yes, has said in the past that she’s dating Bueckers. The easy explanation is that they’d already made the frontcourt the focus of their free agency when they signed Alanna Smith and Jessica Shepard, both formerly of the Minnesota Lynx. Smith hasn’t shaken her habit of picking up awful fouls, and she’s looked a little out of whack since breaking her nose in the preseason.  ( 20 min )

It is important to have a silly little morning brain thing. Aside from the studies attesting to how beneficial these puzzles and games can be for your cognitive abilities, I just think it's nice to have something fun to do to get your brain stretched out before you put it to work in the significantly less amusing ways that each day requires. We have done a full weeklong collaboration with the people behind my silly little morning brain thing of choice, and this week Drew and I spoke to the person behind Drew's favorite pick: Ian Livengood, editor at New York Times Games and the man who oversees Drew's beloved Pips. We did talk about Pips, which Drew truly loves, but for the most part our conversation focused more on the broader mysteries surrounding puzzles and games and things of that nature. Where do these games come from? Why do they beta-test them in Canada? Is the term "Games Jam" better or worse than "Ideas Party?" We talked about how this business works and how the people who come up with these games think of them, what they're trying to do, what makes the brains of people who can Think In Puzzle different, and figuring out that you are that type of person. There's some silly stuff in there—the word "zarfs" gets said a bunch, the idea of a 28 Days Later disease setting on your phone is floated, and a digression about the Argentinian specialist who devises the hardest logic puzzles in the world was especially gratifying—but Drew is a pretty serious puzzle sicko, and I am interested in how different types of brains work. Ian, for his part, was great company, and very patient with my general questions and Drew's extremely specific Wordle gripes.  ( 18 min )

LAVAL, QUEBEC — I wasn’t close enough to hear Laura Stacey’s screams last Thursday, but I saw her wife’s panic clear as day. “When one of my teammates gets caught, I get fired up,” Marie-Philip Poulin told LSTW last year. “But when it’s Laura, my heart drops. I want to react and it’s hard not to, but I can’t.”  That Poulin was reacting—bending over her wife who laid crumpled on the ice, frantically waving over medical personnel, skating said medical personnel to Stacey as fast as she could, staying with her the whole time she was being examined, begging for them to call an ambulance, giving her a shoulder to lean on as she wobbled off the ice several excruciating minutes later—made me feel nauseous.  “I knew she was in full panic mode, and I was a little bit too,” Stacey said of the moment Wednesday night.  ( 44 min )

“Autobiography,” the critic John Berger said, “begins with a sense of being alone. It’s an orphan form.” Berger wrote these words weeks after the death of his mother, but he was speaking generally, about the project of remembrance which so many artists take up over the course of their lives. That loneliness—that orphanhood—is a matter of separation, a gap between the self as subject and author. We might approach who we once were, but if we are to describe our experiences with any sense of perspective—if we are to be honest about how we have lived—then we must first leave the person we were behind.   In Blue Heron, the debut film from director Sophy Romvari, these experiences belong to Sasha (Eylul Guven), a young girl who has just moved into a new home on British Columbia’s Vancouver Island. It is summer in the 1990s, and her immigrant parents are trying to assimilate into a normal Canadian existence, speaking English with Sasha and her three brothers, and only dipping into their native Hungarian when discussing eldest son Jeremy. The child of a prior marriage, Jeremy has been acting out since he was a child, and the family has made many changes large and small to accommodate his impulsive whims. Now in high school, his behavior is rapidly escalating: He steals, he plays dead on the front steps, he impulsively courts self-annihilation, and he cannot explain why. None of this is lost on the child Sasha, existing not just alongside but actively within her daily life. Nature walks, beach trips, and backyard playdates are so regularly interrupted by Jeremy’s misbehaviors that, for the children, it has all begun to feel of a piece. Their brother can be kind or cruel, indulgent or impulsive, and often all at the same time, his shy, near-wordless demeanor concealing but never containing the violence swirling beneath the surface. As Sasha’s mother tells her, the worst thing is how normal it all seems.  ( 26 min )

I can't claim that it's surprising to see Mitch Marner playing excellent hockey for a Stanley Cup contender, but it does still feel like a novelty. When Marner entered the attacking zone with the Golden Knights up 1-0, cut waaay to his right, and then salvaged the play with a one-timer set-up back to Pavel Dorofeyev, all I could think about was how much it must hurt to be watching from Toronto. https://youtu.be/gENZH-gJn5A?si=OLn1bY-fbNVSPDuZ&t=276 Marner is no stranger to the playoffs, appearing for the Leafs in nine straight until he signed a fat new contract with Vegas last offseason. This year, however, feels totally different, because he isn't playing for a franchise that consistently blows it in the early rounds. By stepping on the ice for the Western Conference Final, Marner made it further into the postseason than Toronto has since 2002, and if Vegas pulls off the upset against the Avs, he'll be playing for a Cup that the Leafs haven't had the opportunity to win since 1967. From a competitive standpoint alone, Vegas made sense.  ( 19 min )

After 50 seasons, Survivor is both a cultural touchstone and a lumbering giant exhaustedly searching for its final resting place. The compellingly nasty, scrappy, oftentimes chaotic "social experiment" in 2000 on the island of Borneo has become a machine that turns a month of competition into a baker's dozen of television episodes that all feel and function more or less the same. The magic of Survivor, which is strange but distinctive and real, occurs when that format and that repetition gets upended. This is often the result of a handful of players who want more from their experience on the show than just a slow march to a predictable ending; the human element, not any kind of clever production trickery, is what makes Survivor different. That magic is why I and other Survivor sickos can n…  ( 31 min )

Welcome back to Minor Dilemmas, where a member of Defector's Parents Council will answer your questions on surviving family life. Have a question? Email us at minordilemmas@defector.com. This week, Justin answers a question about the choice to have or not have kids.  ( 26 min )

Welcome to Listening Habits, a column where I share the music and musical topics I’ve been fixated on recently. Have you heard the bad news? Drake has been forsaken: by his rap peers, by his label bosses, and worst of all by the listening public. He has been strung up and nailed to the cross. He has been stabbed in the back by all parties. And yet he has risen once again, bearing three tablets—er, albums—to let us know that we must pay for the sin of not liking him enough. After two years of stewing over losing a rap beef with Kendrick Lamar, being aired out by seemingly the entire rap industry (which had clearly been sick of his shit for quite some), suing his own record label, and getting sued for his shady involvements with his gambling-company sponsor, Drake has made a splashy return with not only his long-awaited album Iceman, but two more bonus albums, Habibti and Maid of Honour. All in total we have 43 tracks, two hours and 30 minutes of music, all essentially based around the same theme: “How DARE You?!?!” https://youtu.be/bpD-JVy2zV4?si=-1RorFWQez81yJ6i  ( 34 min )

The Spurs have a ball-security problem. It was possible to overlook it in Game 1, because of Victor Wembanyama, and because Dylan Harper had a breakthrough performance, and because they won, but it was there: The Spurs turned the ball over 21 times in the victory, and the Thunder scored a whopping 28 points off of those turnovers, including 16 fast-break points. The Spurs were even looser with the ball Wednesday night in Game 2, turning it over another 21 times and allowing another 27 points off turnovers, but in 10 fewer minutes of basketball. Wembanyama was less amazing, Harper looked more like the rookie that he is, and the Thunder evened the series with a 122–113 victory. That's the whole blog. Good day to you. Well, OK, it's not quite so simple. San Antonio was down an important ball-handler in the first two games of this series. De'Aaron Fox can be a bit zany as a lead guard, but he enjoys game-breaking athletic advantages over many of the only people remotely qualified to guard him, and he is in fact not really a big turnover guy. Would it fuck you up pretty good, would it singe your ear hairs to be told that Fox has averaged fewer turnovers per game in his career (2.7) than John Stockton did in his (2.8), and while using a lot more of his team's possessions (28 percent usage to 18.9)?  ( 25 min )

“Grogu is dead. Grogu remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this dead too great for us? Must we ourselves not become Grogus simply to appear worthy of it?” —Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science (paraphrased) The reviews are in, and Grogu is dead. His movie, anyway. The toyetic little critter popularly known as “Baby Yoda” co-stars with Pedro Pascal in The Mandalorian and Grogu. A theatrical spinoff of a Star Wars television show, one that way fewer people watched than any given Star Wars movie, was always going to be a heavy lift. By most accounts, director Jon Favreau and his co-writer, Disney Star Wars honcho Dave Filoni, have dropped it like Luke Skywalker trying to levitate his X-Wing.  ( 25 min )

The Colorado Avalanche are not an easy team to root for. They are a deep, übercapable team with few weaknesses. Their star scorer is a weirdo but not in a particularly endearing way. They have their Cup already. In any other year, in any other matchup, I'd be pulling for someone else to have their turn. But in this Western Conference Final, the Avs might as well be Team North America, for all the hopes and goodwill of the hockey world they're carrying. Over the next week or two, I want very badly for them to kick the Golden Knights in their golden nuts. I'm not sure if a professional sports franchise can be ontologically evil, but if one can I know which one it is. This is not, as Vegas fans insist, a matter of pure envy because they keep winning. Or at least it's mostly not that. Sure, th…  ( 20 min )

Our second new video bonus for paid subscribers walks through the three rulings in argued cases that the Supreme Court handed down on Thursday, May 21, 2026.

President Trump's $1.776B "Anti-Weaponization" slush fund underscores the limits of judicial remedies—and the need to reinvigorate (even doomed) political ones.

welcome to the United States of Imbecile

They picked the wrong fight

How Bad It Really Is Even normally temperate legal experts and political observers are aghast at the ways in which...  ( 11 min )

96 Hopeless @media only screen and (max-width: 620px) { table.body { width: 100%; min-width: 100%; } table.body .content { padding: 0 !important; } table.body .container { padding: 0 !important; width: 100% !important; } table.body .main { border-spacing: 10px 0 !important; border-left-width: 0 !important; border-radius: 0 !important; border-right-width: 0 !important; } table.body .img-responsive { height: auto !important; max-width: 100% !important; width: auto !important; } } @media all { .ExternalClass { width: 100%; } .ExternalClass, .ExternalClass p, .ExternalClass span, .ExternalClass font, .ExternalClass td, .ExternalClass div { line-height: 100%; } .apple-link a { color:…  ( 10 min )

Look, this has already been an annoyingly long year, we’re on the brink of a searing-hot summer, gas prices are higher than my cousin Stu at a Phish concert, and we’re at war with Iran. Given all that, I have one request: I don’t want to hear a single unkind or critical word about the new "Star Wars" movie, “The Mandalorian and Grogu.” That movie, which I have not yet seen, is about the only good thing happening in this world, and I refuse to let anyone take that from me.  For those who haven’t watched the television series “The Mandalorian,” from which the new movie bubbled up, here’s a quick synopsis: There’s a cool dude in an awesome helmet who protects an absolutely freaking adorable creature who audiences initially referred to as Baby Yoda, because he looks like a baby Yoda, the iconi…  ( 16 min )

This is my entry to the may 2026 emacs blog carnival hosted by Sacha Chua. It is common knowledge that the default emacs keybindings can be a bit of a strain on the old hands. A common suggestion is to remap the caps lock key to act as control, and i did that for a while, but i don't think it's the perfect solution that is often suggested: stretching the pinky finger sideways and holding it down still results in pain after a while for me. Luckily i have the perfect solution with zero drawbacks: use your thumbs! The first time i tried this was about five years ago. I put control on the key directly to the left of the space bar, and alt on the key directly to the right of the space bar. The thumb is very good at moving in this sideways motion, and i could immediately feel how much more c…  ( 2 min )

I have added two new themes to the current development target of my ef-themes package. Screenshots are available below. Remember that the themes are highly customisable: you can change practically everything about them. ef-arcadia is a light theme with a verdant, humid aesthetic. ef-atlantis is a dark theme with an aquatic feel. Both deliver the familiar colourfulness and good legibility of the ef-themes. Always click to enlarge the image for best results. ef-arcadia ef-atlantis Coming in version 2.2.0 (next stable release) The character of each theme is well defined. I may still make some refinements. Remember that since version 2.0.0, the ef-themes are built on top of my modus-themes. This means that they are highly customisable, support a wide range of packages and face groups, and are extensively tested down to the finest details. Enjoy! The ef-themes are a collection of light and dark themes for GNU Emacs that provide colourful (“pretty”) yet legible options for users who want something with a bit more flair than the modus-themes (also designed by me). Package name (GNU ELPA): ef-themes Official manual: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/ef-themes Change log: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/ef-themes-changelog Sample pictures: https://protesilaos.com/emacs/ef-themes-pictures Git repositories: GitHub: https://github.com/protesilaos/ef-themes GitLab: https://gitlab.com/protesilaos/ef-themes Backronym: Eclectic Fashion in Themes Hides Exaggerated Markings, Embellishments, and Sparkles.  ( 1 min )

his reasons for using EWW as his default browser, I mentioned that Camarena said that one of the benefits of EWW not supporting JavaScript is that JavaScript is mostly used to make the user’s experience worse by doing things like loading ads, reconfiguring the user’s display parameters, and implementing paywalls. If you had asked me, I would have said that any site using a paywall would also require JavaScript to load the content and, indeed, that’s true for some sites such as The New York Times but, as I discovered, it’s not true for a surprising number of sites. After reading Camarena’s post, I decided to experiment a bit to see if it was possible to bypass paywalls simply by not running JavaScript. I mostly don’t care about paywalls because the majority of the sites that use them don’t have content that’s worth the effort of avoiding them. Still, I thought it would be interesting to test if the strategy was feasible. I did this by opening any site that popped up a paywall in EWW. It worked for a surprising number of sites. Again, it’s almost never worth the effort but if you happen upon an article that you really want to read on a site that wants you to sign up for an outrageously expensive subscription, it may be worthwhile seeing if you can open it in EWW, The other thing I learned is that reading content with EWW can be a very restful experience. No ads, no blinkenlights, and sometimes, no paywall either. I didn’t try running EWW with eww-readable but that would probably make the experience even more restful.  ( 5 min )

Last night I realized two things: I haven’t touched Elfeed in about a month I’ve been reading and interacting more with people’s posts than ever As I was looking at my Inkwell’s RSS feeds and cleaning up, I couldn’t help but notice how nice it looks: And, yes, I prefer it over my list of feeds in elfeed, which are stored in an .org file - essentially lines of text with comments and tags. I’m pretty sure this is the opposite case for most folks who use Emacs. First, Emacs users want to use Emacs more, not less, and second, Inkwell is not available without Micro.blog1. But I think this is the point I’m getting at: Inkwell belongs in Micro.blog; actually, it is Micro.blog. When I started using Micro.blog three years ago, I considered it mostly an alternative to running my own static site with…  ( 3 min )

1. About   notes annotations emacs orgRemark Figure 1: JPEG produced with DALL-E 3 context switching (from the source content to the notebook) tenuous connections (between the source content and the notebook). annotate-in-place, and one elegant implementation of it in Emacs via nobiot's org-remark. What makes this pattern so elegant to me is the familiarity of its experience. I don't know about you, but I've been annotating books and taking notes with pencils and pens for almost my entire life, and this is often the most engaging and soul-lifting experience. There is a je ne sais quoi in this interaction that makes me feel closer to, if not part of, the thing I'm reading. This is a physical annotate-in-place, and it works beatifully. I've been long searching for a cognitive br…  ( 30 min )

I think I’ll take my REPL neat – Bozier Last week I announced Port, a small prepl client for Emacs. Today I’m following it up with another small Emacs package. Meet neat, a tiny, deliberately language-agnostic nREPL client. Why? For years I’ve been hearing some version of the same request: “could CIDER work with my non-Clojure nREPL server?”. Babashka, Basilisp, nREPL-CLR, even some homegrown servers people built on top of nREPL for languages I’d never heard of.1 The answer was always the same kind of squishy “sort of, in theory, with caveats”, because while bare nREPL is genuinely language-agnostic, CIDER is not. CIDER was built for Clojure and assumes Clojure pretty much everywhere. I always thought the right answer was “let’s gradually make CIDER more language-agnostic.” That’s the kin…  ( 6 min )

As Rhode Island Hospital begins turning over documents to a far-right judge in Texas, a number of grand jury subpoenas have been issued and DOJ settled with one hospital.

Billionaire Jeff Bezos has boldly put forth a challenge to Americans. In a May 20 interview with CNBC, he referenced a hypothetical New York City school teacher and said, “You could double the taxes I pay, and it's not going to help that teacher in Queens. I promise you.” Promises from billionaires will be worth about as much as cash in the post-apocalyptic wasteland we’ll soon inhabit, thanks to all the billionaires. (I’m guessing the primary currency will be potable water and locally sourced rich-people meat.) So I’ll respond to Mr. Bezos with this: “You say doubling your taxes won’t help regular Americans. Well, sir, that’s a risk I’m willing to take. What say we quintuple your taxes and see what shakes out?” I say let's raise Jeff Bezos' taxes and see how it all works out "If people w…  ( 14 min )

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Fox News spent just 30 seconds in the past 4 months covering the steep drop in ACA enrollment following congressional Republicans' refusal to renew health insurance subsidies. Both The New York Times and KFF have estimated potentially 5 million Americans will lose healthcare coverage, but Fox has almost entirely ignored the drop in ACA enrollment.  ( 3 min )

This post is part of a series chronicling news coverage of rising prices in the United States. See more here.  ( 3 min )

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This post is part of a series chronicling news coverage of rising prices in the United States. See more here.  ( 3 min )

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While Newsmax host Greg Kelly compared Trump's arrangement — which some have called a slush fund — to other government settlements, Mike Masnick wrote for Techdirt about the differences: Let’s first dispense with the most obvious bit of the charade: the idea that this is actually related to the “settlement” of Trump’s already corrupt bullshit lawsuit against the IRS. That’s how this is being presented, but this is entirely separate. Trump needed to drop that lawsuit in order to end it before a judge called bullshit on the fact that he was negotiating with himself to take $10 billion from American taxpayers. As for the actual “fund” everything about it is about as corrupt as you can imagine. This is impeachment-worthy — and not in a partisan way. Republicans should be as offended by this as…  ( 3 min )

Georgia Republicans seize on vote-reporting delay for baseless fraud claims a.cta_button{-moz-box-sizing:content-box !important;-webkit-box-sizing:content-box !important;box-sizing:content-box !important;vertical-align:middle}.hs-breadcrumb-menu{list-style-type:none;margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;padding:0px 0px 0px 0px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-item{float:left;padding:10px 0px 10px 10px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-divider:before{content:'›';padding-left:10px}.hs-featured-image-link{border:0}.hs-featured-image{float:right;margin:0 0 20px 20px;max-width:50%}@media (max-width: 568px){.hs-featured-image{float:none;margin:0;width:100%;max-width:100%}}.hs-screen-reader-text{clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);height:1px;overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;width:1px} …  ( 4 min )

Southern Poverty Law Center .ExternalClass { width: 100%; } .ExternalClass { line-height: 100%; } body { -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; -ms-text-size-adjust: none; } body { margin: 0; padding: 0; } span.yshortcuts:hover { color: #000; background-color: none; border: none; } span.yshortcuts:active { color: #000; background-color: none; border: none; } span.yshortcuts:focus { color: #000; background-color: none; border: none; } img { -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; } img { border: 0; height: auto; outline: none; text-decoration: none; } body { height: 100% !important; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100% !important; } img { -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; } body { font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 150%; color: #000000; font-weight: normal; } a:visited { color: #…  ( 1 min )

Top stories 05/20/2026#outlook a { padding:0; } .ExternalClass { width:100%; } .ExternalClass, .ExternalClass p, .ExternalClass span, .ExternalClass font, .ExternalClass td, .ExternalClass div { line-height: 100%; } table td { border-collapse: collapse; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; } .editable.image { font-size: 0 !important; line-height: 0 !important; } .nl2go_preheader { display: none !important; mso-hide:all !important; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; visibility: hidden !important; line-height: 0px !important; font-size: 0px !important; } body { width:100% !important; -webkit-text-size-adjust:100%; -ms-text-size-adjust:100%; margin:0; padding:0; } img { outline:none; text-decoration:none; -ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic; } a img { border:none; } table { border-collapse:collapse; mso-ta…  ( 6 min )

MAGA, election deniers cheer after governor commutes Tina Peters’ sentence a.cta_button{-moz-box-sizing:content-box !important;-webkit-box-sizing:content-box !important;box-sizing:content-box !important;vertical-align:middle}.hs-breadcrumb-menu{list-style-type:none;margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;padding:0px 0px 0px 0px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-item{float:left;padding:10px 0px 10px 10px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-divider:before{content:'›';padding-left:10px}.hs-featured-image-link{border:0}.hs-featured-image{float:right;margin:0 0 20px 20px;max-width:50%}@media (max-width: 568px){.hs-featured-image{float:none;margin:0;width:100%;max-width:100%}}.hs-screen-reader-text{clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);height:1px;overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;width:1px} …  ( 5 min )

One of Donald Trump’s most oddly timed candidate endorsement makes you wonder again if he really wants to win the midterms, as I discussed at New York: Two days into early voting in the Texas runoff that ends May 26 and after months of teasing his choice, Donald Trump endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s primary challenge to... Read more »  ( 9 min )

From “Kleptocracy“,  Joyce Vance’s latest Substack column: Here’s the bottom line. Donald Trump wants to take $1.8 billion dollars of money that taxpayers like you and me have paid to the government, and he wants to give it to his most hardcore followers, the people who stormed the Capitol on January 6. Trump calls them... Read more »  ( 7 min )

The post-retirement track record for your hyper-competitive, multiple-champion GOAT-class athletes is not necessarily one you'd want for yourself. So often they seem stranded, often surrounded but generally quite alone, peering down from atop a mile-high butte of money and notoriety at a world that is much too far away to recognize; the people moving through and within it, to the extent they are visible at all, have a busy and eminently squashable ant-like aspect. We can probably assume that we look roughly as strange and unreal to them as they do to us. There is something alien about this type of person that goes beyond their superhuman and highly public accomplishments, and that is true even before wealth and fame shove them further and further into abstraction. That otherness is sort of…  ( 30 min )

When I first read that Daniel Radcliffe would be doing Every Brilliant Thing on Broadway, I didn't think it would work. It's not that I was worried about Radcliffe, who besides his film and TV career has established himself as a bona fide stage entertainer. I was worried about everybody else in the theater, because this play runs on audience participation. For Radcliffe in particular I imagined it could be like navigating a minefield, especially in a show about depression and suicide. Every description I've heard or read about him involves the word "charming" somewhere in there, but he's also someone I associate with intense scrutiny and obsessive fandom, thanks to the whole Harry Potter phenomenon. For example, someone who worked at a theater where Radcliffe had previously performed once …  ( 25 min )

All season, you could hear the complaints. Arsenal is boring. Arsenal's exclusive source of goals is the corner kick, which they treat as something between an offensive-rebounding exercise and a defensive line trying to get the quarterback. Arsenal is lucky, living free and easy thanks to down years from the other big clubs, who otherwise would have mounted stiffer challenges. Arsenal plays ugly, cynical anti-soccer, an aesthetic betrayal of the man who made the modern Arsenal. Arsenal is unworthy, barely scraping past the worst teams in the league instead of blasting them to hell. Arsenal is the apotheosis of all the worst trends in the game, a club by center backs, for center backs, dedicated to squeezing the very heart out of the game as part of a cold, rationalist approach. There's no match Arsenal won't try to win 1-0, no attacker Mikel Arteta won't try to coach the joy and creativity out of, no spontaneity the club won't kill. I found some of these points reasonably valid and some of the defenses offered by Arsenal supporters thin. But more than anything, I found the whole exercise pointless. Both complaints about the supposedly ugly soccer played by the Premier League champions and attempts to defend it on the merits assume that the title carries with it some sort of moral weight, as if a champion has to justify themselves on something other than competitive grounds. The point is not to play beautiful soccer, to win hearts and minds, or to prove the doubters wrong. The point is to win. A title justifies itself. After 22 years, a botched transition out of the Arsène Wenger era, several full cycles of promising young players' ultimately title-free careers, and three consecutive, variously agonizing second-place finishes, the Gunners are now champions of the Premier League. That's all that matters.  ( 21 min )

One of the strangest tales in Icelandic folklore concerns a creature called the Loðsilungur, or the furry trout. The trout, as you might imagine, looks like a fish covered with a white shag of fur, which it allegedly evolved to stay warm in Nordic waters. The people of Iceland, especially the men, knew not to eat the furry trout. If a man did eat a furry trout, he would suffer the unfortunate fate of becoming pregnant and delivering the child through his split scrotum. In the early 1900s, the legend of the furry trout somehow migrated to the United States, where various humorists assembled and mounted furry trouts to gift to unaware museums, a prank that, I think, stands the test of time. There is of course no such thing as a furry trout, in Iceland or America. But now a country famous for its development of some of the most ridiculous, bizarre, and frankly alarming animals has stepped in with a furry trout of its own. The fish in question is a new species of ghost pipefish called Solenostomus snuffleupagus, named for Sesame Street's Mr. Snuffleupagus, which it resembles quite closely. (One can only imagine how a Philadelphia-based marine biologist might have risen to this naming occasion.) The scientists who described S. snuffleupagus gave it the common name of the hairy ghost pipefish, according to a paper in The Journal of Fish Biology. This fish lives in waters off Australia, which might be the world's most consistently excellent producer of strange animals, such as the platypus and the cassowary. But even by Australian standards, this fish looks crazy.  ( 21 min )

After 26 days of gameplay and almost three months of real time spent arguing and crashing out online, Survivor 50 has finally arrived at its endgame. From a starting count of 24 iconic (and, well, "iconic") players down to a Final Five, the supersized season has been...well, let's call it "polarizing." At its best, season 50 was a real celebration of Survivor lore and 26 years of characters; the premiere was wonderful, the emotions on exhibit—particularly from the players who know this is their last chance to play this incredible game—were raw and touching, and it has been pretty reliably funny! This is all good. Unfortunately, though, it has not all been good. At its worst, season 50 has been a demoralizing harbinger of what Survivor is becoming as it inches closer to whatever endgame it …  ( 48 min )

When I was 24, a stranger on the internet called me a white man, and it sent me into such a tailspin that I changed my byline. Before then, I was going by “Alex Laughlin,” just my first and last name. I had started writing about race, and I’d made a podcast about multiracial identity called Other, but if my name was to represent me on its own, there was no way for a stranger to know that very special fact that seemed like it defined me exclusively: I was Wasian. My Korean name is 수정, which is most often romanized as Soo-Jeong or Soo-Jung. No one has ever called me this. But in 2017, I decided to adopt it as part of my professional identity, as a way to signal my mixed ethnicity to strangers. However, when I tried to add my name to my Twitter account, I found that the standard spelling was too lengthy to fit with my long-ass last name. In order to squeeze my name into my Twitter header, I took some liberties, and for the last decade, my byline has essentially been a misspelling of my own name. It was more intolerable to be perceived imprecisely by a stranger than it was for me to commit to being perceived as what I imagine is the “Ashleigh” of Korean name spellings. It was these awkward attempts at self-expression that defined my long path to moderately well-adjusted Wasian adult, and I recognize my younger self with a bit of affectionate cringe when I see fellow Wasians insisting on their identities in loud, public ways. I used to make a big deal out of every time someone asked me “What are you?” I used to have my feelings hurt when the servers in Korean restaurants brought my food with a fork. Now, however, I am more preoccupied with simply living a good life—I went to a Korean restaurant last night and smiled while the server explained tteokbokki to me. I want to offer my elder wisdom to this younger generation of Wasians. But I cannot and should not interfere. As they say on the internet: It’s a canon event.  ( 29 min )

As a rule, a college graduation is a miserable affair. If you’re an outgoing senior, you have wait around for hours on end in the sweltering heat, all while hungover and wearing a full-length black gown. If you’re a parent, you have to sit in a folding chair in the middle of a lawn for the same amount of time, seething about how you had to park your car so far away from everything. Everyone in attendance just wants to get to the roll call, and even that part is torture because, even if your last name starts with an A, they still make you stay in your seat until Zachary Zzyrowitz receives the final diploma. But before you get to that roll call, you must endure an endless procession of deans introducing other deans, students who aren’t your kid receiving prestigious awards, and, worst of all, the keynote speaker. Let’s see what kind of sage wisdom this year’s crop of speakers had for tomorrow’s leaders! https://bsky.app/profile/cabel.panic.com/post/3mlk75u3om22e  ( 24 min )

Can you call a team that has advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals "unserious"? I'm honestly not sure, but it's very difficult to find another descriptor for the Cleveland Cavaliers the morning after they blew a 22-point fourth-quarter lead in Game 1 against the Knicks. It's not just that they blew it, but how they blew it. The Knicks won the game in overtime, 115-104, while playing about 16 total minutes of good basketball. Both teams started terribly, but New York led 23-16 after the first quarter. From that point until the 7:39 mark of the fourth quarter, the Cavs outscored the Knicks 77-48. I can see you doing some quick math in your head, and yes, it's true: that means that for the rest of the game the Cavs got beat 44-11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg2MDj-I1vc  ( 19 min )

Like the universe itself, the United States tax code is ever-expanding, and no one can claim to know its exact size. There are statutes enacted by Congress; implementing regulations issued by the Treasury Department; rules from the Internal Revenue Service explaining how other rules apply to specific circumstances; and a patchwork of court decisions that may or may not supersede everything else, depending on who you ask. All told, these impenetrable documents could total 40 million words. Imagine seven-hundred copies of Masters of Atlantis, stacked six stories tall. In dozens of other countries, governments make it easy for people to navigate labyrinthine tax laws. Ordinary wage-earners receive a pre-filled return from the state, and they can either sign or dispute it. Americans have different, decidedly worse options. We can white-knuckle our way through a mess of hard-copy paperwork, pray we didn't make any errors, and file via mail. Or, if we want the convenience of calculating and submitting our returns electronically, we can pay a tax-prep monopolist to do it for us.  This is lunacy. Find the nearest third-grader. Tell them they have homework, and they will be sent to prison if they don't complete it. Then explain that the best way to do so requires spending money, perhaps several hundred dollars, on homework-submission software. They would, quite justifiably, lose their mind. Adults, on the other hand, have grown numb to this kind of petty extortion, spending an average of 13 hours and $290 on filing their taxes, each and every year.  ( 61 min )

96 Ask a Manager - new articles p{ margin:10px 0; padding:0; } table{ border-collapse:collapse; } h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6{ display:block; margin:0; padding:0; } img,a img{ border:0; height:auto; outline:none; text-decoration:none; } body,#bodyTable,#bodyCell{ height:100%; margin:0; padding:0; width:100%; } .mcnPreviewText{ display:none !important; } #outlook a{ padding:0; } img{ -ms-interpolation-mode:bicubic; } table{ mso-table-lspace:0pt; mso-table-rspace:0pt; } .ReadMsgBody{ width:100%; } .ExternalClass{ width:100%; } p,a,li,td,blockquote{ mso-line-height-rule:exactly; } a[href^=tel],a[href^=sms]{ color:i…  ( 3 min )

96 *{box-sizing:border-box}body{margin:0;padding:0}a[x-apple-data-detectors]{color:inherit!important;text-decoration:inherit!important}#MessageViewBody a{color:inherit;text-decoration:none}p{line-height:inherit}.desktop_hide,.desktop_hide table{mso-hide:all;display:none;max-height:0;overflow:hidden}.image_block img+div{display:none}sub,sup{font-size:75%;line-height:0}.row-2 .column-1 .block-8 .button:hover,.row-4 .column-2 .block-2 .button:hover{background-color:#16688b!important;border-bottom:0 solid transparent!important;border-left:0 solid transparent!important;border-right:0 solid transparent!important;border-top:0 solid transparent!important;color:#fff!important} @media (max-width:660px){.social_block.desktop_hide .social-table{display:inline-block!important}.mobile_hide{display:non…  ( 1 min )

This Man, This Alien They Call Wemby96 :root { color-scheme: light; supported-color-schemes: light; } body { margin: 0; padding: 0; min-width: 100%!important; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100% !important; -webkit-transform: scale(1) !important; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100% !important; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased !important; } .body { word-wrap: normal; word-spacing:normal; } table.mso { width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; padding: 0; table-layout: fixed; } img { border: 0; outline: none; } table { mso-table-lspace: 0px; mso-table-rspace: 0px; } td, a, span { mso-line-height-rule: exactly; } #root [x-apple-data-detectors=true], a[x-apple-data-detectors=true], #MessageViewBody a { color: inherit !important; text-decoration: inherit !important; font-size: inherit …  ( 8 min )

All the way from Fort Worth, Texas, Reed O’Connor has decided that he’s in charge of a federal probe of a Rhode Island hospital that provides gender-affirming care.   The post Reed O’Connor Is Delivering For Trump’s Anti-Trans Agenda appeared first on Balls and Strikes.  ( 7 min )

what war does Dear Leader imagine he’s fighting?

Virginia just did what Congress won’t

Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely President Trump’s corrupt $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” is the gift that keeps on giving … to...  ( 11 min )

The surest sign that a MAGA leader knows they screwed up? When they try to pass off the stupid thing they said as a “joke.” But the right-wing podcaster Eric Metaxas was not joking at Sunday’s Rededicate 250 event on the National Mall when he said, “It’s hard to believe that it would take two centuries for the Lord to raise up a great man to bring that ballroom finally to stand where it needs to stand. It’s extraordinary.” He had gotten a laugh a moment before when he mocked President James Madison for not having a ballroom when the White House was burned by the British during the War of 1812. But when Metaxas praised Donald Trump and claimed that God’s providence is on the president and his ballooning ballroom project, the crowd’s cheering was loud — and serious. “For God so loved the wo…  ( 10 min )

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This post is part of a series chronicling news coverage of rising prices in the United States. See more here.  ( 3 min )

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration announced on Monday the creation of a $1.8 billion fund to compensate those who claim they were targeted by the Biden Justice Department and Democrats, forging a pipeline to funnel taxpayer money to President Trump’s allies. The highly unusual “anti-weaponization” fund was denounced by critics as a slush fund and as a brazen misuse of a once-independent Justice Department to carry out the president’s personal and political agendas. The announcement provided few details of how the disbursement would work or who would be eligible. But the arrangement raised the possibility that American taxpayers might end up writing checks to those prosecuted for the attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021, and others the president has ca…  ( 3 min )

Denote aims to be a simple-to-use, focused-in-scope, and effective note-taking and file-naming tool for Emacs. Denote is based on the idea that files should follow a predictable and descriptive file-naming scheme. The file name must offer a clear indication of what the contents are about, without reference to any other metadata. Denote basically streamlines the creation of such files or file names while providing facilities to link between them (where those files are editable). Denote’s file-naming scheme is not limited to “notes”. It can be used for all types of file, including those that are not editable in Emacs, such as videos. Naming files in a constistent way makes their filtering and retrieval considerably easier. Denote provides relevant facilities to rename files, regardless …  ( 10 min )

Pretty much every project that I actively maintain on my GitHub account has a change log of some description. For a long time now, whenever I add a new entry to the log, I'll include a link to the PR that implements that change. Inevitably, this results in me adding the ChangeLog entry, creating the PR, then doing a follow-up change and commit now that I know the PR number, which allows me to add the link. So I've created next-gh-pr.el to save me just a little time and let me be just a little more lazy. Inside it I've currently got a next-gh-pr-insert-markdown-link command which, when run, as you might imagine, inserts a link to the next likely PR URL as Markdown. Working out the next URL is simple enough: get the latest issue and PR number, take whichever is the highest, and add 1. There is the wrinkle that discussions also cause this number to bump, and getting the latest discussion number is a little extra faff that I can't be bothered with right now, but my projects very seldom have discussions taking place anyway.  ( 1 min )

to write some code to implement the missing feature. The code, which you can see at his post, is pretty simple and easy to follow. What wasn’t so easy were some annoying design decisions. For example, what constitutes the current day? Is it 24 hours ago until now or is it the previous midnight until now? And by the way, should that be UTC or local time? The natural interface is to specify the number of previous days you want to mark as a prefix argument but that leaves open the question of how to unmark the last n days. The natural solution—and the one mbork chose—is to use a negative n to mean “unmark the last n days”. So positive n, mark files modified in the last n days; negative n unmark file modified in the last n days. What about 0? Mbork made the arbitrary decision to have that mean mark files modified in the last 60 minutes. There are a couple of other nuances that you can read about in mbork’s post. The real takeaway for me is how tricky it can be to get the small details right. That seems especially true when you’re dealing with time calculations. Questions like, “What, exactly, does ‘yesterday’ mean” turn out to be a lot harder to answer than they first seem. Take a look at mbork’s post to see what I mean.  ( 5 min )

Election deniers could run Georgia’s next presidential vote a.cta_button{-moz-box-sizing:content-box !important;-webkit-box-sizing:content-box !important;box-sizing:content-box !important;vertical-align:middle}.hs-breadcrumb-menu{list-style-type:none;margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;padding:0px 0px 0px 0px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-item{float:left;padding:10px 0px 10px 10px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-divider:before{content:'›';padding-left:10px}.hs-featured-image-link{border:0}.hs-featured-image{float:right;margin:0 0 20px 20px;max-width:50%}@media (max-width: 568px){.hs-featured-image{float:none;margin:0;width:100%;max-width:100%}}.hs-screen-reader-text{clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);height:1px;overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;width:1px} 96 …  ( 5 min )

The Briefing: Epic corruption in plain sight #outlook a { padding: 0 } /*overriding blue links*/ .blueLinks a { color: #000 !important; text-decoration: none !important; } span [x-apple-data-detectors] { color: #000 !important; text-decoration: none !important; font-size: inherit !important; font-family: inherit !important; font-weight: inherit !important; line-height: inherit !important; } /*end overriding blue links*/ .ReadMsgBody { width: 100% } .ExternalClass { width: 100% } .ExternalClass * { line-height: 100% } body { margin: 0; padding: 0; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100% } table, td { border-collapse: collapse; mso-table-lspace: 0; mso-table-rspace: 0 } img { border: 0; …  ( 7 min )

Email from The Democratic Strategist /* The following 2 styles are for handling signup landing pages /* Set the default value for the targeted layout to display: none */ .layout--email_signup_fineprint { display: none; } /* Display the targeted layout only if the doc contains email_address input */ body:has(label[for="email_address"]) .layout--email_signup_fineprint { display: block; } @media only screen and (max-width:480px) { .footer-main-width { width: 100% !important; } .footer-mobile-hidden { display: none !important; } .footer-mobile-hidden { display: none !important; } .footer-column { display: block !important; } .footer-mobile-stack { display: block !important; } .footer-mobile-stack-padding { padding-top: 3px; } } /* IE: correctly scale images with w/h attbs */ img …  ( 6 min )

Subscribe for breaking news and exclusive benefits /* resets */ p {margin:0px;margin-bottom:0px;padding:0px;} table {border-spacing:0;} table, td {border-collapse:collapse;} * {-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;-moz-osx-font-smoothing: grayscale;text-size-adjust: none !important;-ms-text-size-adjust: none !important;-webkit-text-size-adjust: none !important;} /* end resets */ /* outlook / hotmail */ .ExternalClass{width:100%;} table, td {mso-table-lspace:0pt;mso-table-rspace:0pt;} img{-ms-interpolation-mode:bicubic;} .ReadMsgBody {width: 100%;} /* end outlook / hotmail */ /* gmail */ u + #body a {color: inherit;text-decoration: none;font-size: inherit;font-family: inherit;font-weight: inherit;line-height: inherit;} img + div {display: none!important;} /* end gmail */ /* ios…  ( 2 min )

After getting caught sending an intern in ill-fitting jeans out to snoop on a Middlesbrough practice session ahead of an EFL Championship playoff match, Southampton has been booted from the promotion playoff final. During the league's independent disciplinary panel's investigation, Southampton copped to having sent spies to record opponents' practices on two additional occasions. Boro will now take Southampton's place in the final, where they will face Hull City for a spot in the Premier League next season. This incident will immediately go down in English soccer history as one of the dumbest own goals the game has ever seen. The potential rewards for spying on a soccer practice are, in the best of circumstances, miniscule. Evidence of this truth can be found in the Saints' record in the three matches they in which they enjoyed this dubious advantage: a 2-1 loss to Oxford United in December, a 2-2 draw with Ipswich Town in April, and a 0-0 draw with Boro in this month's playoff first leg. The marginal gains of spying on practice are so small that that fact was actually the strongest argument that maybe Southampton didn't deserve to be DQ'd from the final. Ultimately, the disciplinary panel disagreed, and only the biggest of Southampton homers could make the case that the punishment wasn't well-earned, for the sheer stupidity if nothing else. https://bsky.app/profile/johnspacemuller.com/post/3mlqlxexo422m  ( 15 min )

Time for your weekly edition of the Defector Funbag. Got something on your mind? Email the Funbag. You can also read Drew over at SFGATE, and buy Drew’s books while you’re at it. Today, we're talking cooking violence, living with your own mediocrity, actors as P.I.s, and more. Your letters: Mick:  ( 45 min )

Late last week, the Commonwealth Foundation announced the five regional winners of its 2026 Short Story Prize. The quintet will move on to a final round of judging ahead of the grand prize announcement on June 30, though we can probably count out Caribbean regional winner Jamir Nazir. It seems Nazir's "The Serpent In The Grove," published last Tuesday in Granta, was written by a large-language model. On Monday, Wharton associate professor Ethan Mollick pointed this out, noting in the process that the AI-checker he used tends toward false negatives more than false positives. Nazir's online footprint is small: a self-published 2018 poetry book called Night Moon Love: Poems For All Who Have Loved Or Dreamed Of Love and a prolific, AI-fueled turn on LinkedIn as an AI evangelist. The Commonwealth Foundation told the Bookseller they are "conducting a thorough, transparent review of the selection process." A Granta spokesperson, meanwhile, said that they simply copy-edit the stories selected by the Foundation—this one includes the lines "She had the kind of walking that made benches become men," and "The girl smiled like sunrise over a sink," raising the intriguing possibility that "The Serpent in the Grove" won an award and got published in a prestigious literary magazine without anyone ever actually reading any part of it—that they were "alarmed by the speculation," and would keep the story up until the review is complete. Granta publisher Sigrid Rausig also turned to Anthropic LLM Claude for some help analyzing the story, and quoted Claude at length in her statement, in case anyone was feeling sympathetic toward the magazine. Nobody could get in touch with Nazir, who appears to be a real guy with a fake profile picture.  ( 23 min )

I still can't help but associate Montreal goalie Jakub Dobes with a game I went to in New Jersey in November. It was an OT win for the Devils, and the first loss of the season for a 24-year-old netminder who'd only made 15 starts for the Habs the previous year. He took it hard. Talking to media in the postgame, he seemed devastated in a way that better fit a Game 7 defeat, putting all the blame on himself for a loss he took very personally. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEeGlpv1pRQ&t=196s "I'm just disappointed in myself. That's pretty much it," he said.  ( 18 min )

It's easy to come out of Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals with only Wemby on the brain. Do you focus on the defensive presence that threw off Oklahoma City's entire roster, save for Alex Caruso? Or the Steph Curryesque three-pointer at the end of overtime? Or the aura farming in front of his awed teammates? Victor Wembanyama gave everyone what they wanted on Monday night, which is why it falls to me to ignore the nine-foot-tall alien and ask a very important question: Dylan Harper, are you serious? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2riVtF8ynE In any other game, on any other night, with any other teammate, Harper would be the story coming out of Game 1. Having come off the bench for most of the season and all of the playoffs so far, the rookie from Rutgers notched his first postseason start on Monday, thanks to a late scratch for De'Aaron Fox (ankle soreness). And what a time for that to happen: Game 1, on the road, against the defending champions. The Spurs were very patient with Harper this season, letting him grow without overexerting him (he only averaged 22 minutes per game in the regular season, a figure that only increased to around 25 minutes through the first two rounds of the playoffs). That patience, and Harper's growth not just as a scorer but as an all-around star-in-the-making, paid off on Monday: 24 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, and a ludicrous seven steals. Even that stat line doesn't do a complete job of hyping up the best game of Harper's young career.  ( 22 min )

For the first time in six years, I have closets. At the Brooklyn apartment I just moved out of, all available evidence points to them just screwing up the blueprint. My bedroom was twice the height of a normal bedroom, and there's no reason why they shouldn't have extended the other bedroom, a flight of stairs up, over my room. There was a secret, unfinished space above the kitchen, accessible by vent, which we only discovered five years into our residence thanks to a beeping smoke detector. And there wasn't a single closet anywhere in the apartment. I kept my clothes in a bulky wardrobe assembled out of canvas and poles: hangers in the middle, other stuff sorted into compartments on either side. I stuffed as much as I could into that thing, and by the end I think the only thing keeping it from falling over was that it was wedged between two sturdy pieces of furniture. Moving to my new spot in Queens, I was excited to store my clothes in a place that didn't constantly carry the threat of structural failure. But the thing about changing apartments is that it forces you to reckon with the physical mass of the things you own. When I first moved within New York City, all of my stuff fit inside my dad's SUV. When I moved into my last place, it required two trips. This time—probably the last occasion I'll ever move without a dedicated van of some sort—it took three. Some of this is because I now actually own real furniture, but I can't deny that my clothes collection has grown astronomically over the last several years. As I organized outfits in my new bedroom—and reluctantly resigned certain pieces to boxes under the bed—I had the chance to listen to the stories they told, about me then and about me now.  ( 23 min )

This weekend, history repeated itself on the unnecessarily pyrotechnic stage of Eurovision as singers from Israel and another country waited to hear which would be crowned the winner of the increasingly contentious song contest. In the end, the Bulgarian banger "Bangaranga" by singer Dara edged out Israel's "Michelle" by singer Noam Bettan. Last year, Austrian singer JJ served as a similar spoiler with his operatic "Wasted Love." Now Eurovision, it would seem, plans to proceed as if everything were normal, announcing the competition will take place next year in Bulgaria. But, of course, something is rotten in the state of Eurovision, a competition where many fans find themselves in the harrowing position of rooting not for their favorite song, but for anyone but Israel. In recent years, ar…  ( 24 min )

Short answer: no one yet. Chennedy Carter has been everything the Las Vegas Aces imagined she could be when they signed the 27-year-old guard to a one-year deal this offseason, a signing that marked her return to the WNBA after a 2025 spent playing in China and Mexico. In Carter's first five games of the year, she’s scored 97 points, a league record for a player coming off the bench. She wrecks whole defenses with what Aces head coach Becky Hammon called “eye-popping” speed, “especially if you haven't really seen it or you haven't seen it in a while.” https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6KwwOS4Gnvg That is indeed the experience of watching Carter for the first time in a long time. At points in Sunday's Aces-Dream game, an 85-84 Vegas win in Atlanta, even the camera seemed like it was struggling to keep pace. Speed aside, there may not be a deeper bag than Carter's in the WNBA. She can pull up on a dime, snake her way through clusters of defenders on her way downhill, or cross over the very athletic Allisha Gray (see above). The depths of that bag have been tested by some of the gnarliest spacing situations the WNBA can offer a young downhill scorer. In Chicago, she’d managed 17.5 points per game despite sharing the paint with two non-shooting bigs. She simply doesn’t need much help. In a 20-point game on 7-of-13 shooting in her 21 minutes, only two of her buckets were assisted.  ( 21 min )

Late in Monday night's Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, a beleaguered Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dribbled tentatively into the mouth of San Antonio's defensive zone. That zone had been total hell for the two-time reigning MVP. Now, with the Thunder down four points inside the final minute of the game's second overtime period, Gilgeous-Alexander was pretty well wasted. He'd played 50 minutes of intensely frustrating basketball; he'd been guarded by approximately 78 different sturdy and long-armed Spurs, often by two or three at a time; with few exceptions, every time he'd carved out a sliver of attacking space, he'd looked up and seen Victor damn Wembanyama looming up in front of the basket. He'd tried floaters, and step-backs, largely to no avail; he'd tried hesitations and Nash dribbles, to even less avail; he'd tried kick-outs to the corner, a really striking number of which had been deflected or intercepted by opportunistic Spurs defenders. That was his night: waves of pesky guards and sturdy wings, zipping around in impossible numbers, and backed always by that huge menacing Frenchman. That Frenchman, by the way, was putting the finishing touches on the defining performance of his still-young career. He would finish the Spurs' 122-115 victory with 41 points, 24 rebounds, and three blocks. Moments before Gilgeous-Alexander embarked on the aforementioned drive, Wembanyama had snatched an entry pass, tossed away Oklahoma City's best defender, pirouetted in the paint, and smashed a two-handed dunk, through a foul, directly in the mug of the home team's best rim protector. Minutes before that, he had sent the game into its second overtime by rising up for and burying an audacious 28-footer in semi-transition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gHzi6r5TbE  ( 35 min )

It is a perfectly reasonable assessment of the Montreal Canadiens that they are recipients of a long and lingering tongue kiss from the gods. It is equally rational to remind Habs fans in their moment of glorious triumph that the gods are treacherously profligate trollops who distribute their drooly favors indiscriminately and without a moment's thought for whomever they kissed last.  But that's tomorrow's broken heart. In the immediate moment, the hyperplucky Habs are the charmed ones, and rarely more so than Monday night in the seventh game of the Eastern Conference semifinals against Buffalo, in Buffalo, before the most beloved and never rewarded fan base on the continent. Months of indomitable Sabre-hood boiled down to one last superb performance foiled in the end by the impish Alex Newhook.  https://youtu.be/pnTboPwMKiw?si=RBwq993ghh7FNuik&t=984  ( 20 min )

Agentic Architecture, Python is Weird, 3.15, and More body,#bodyTable,#bodyCell{ height:100% !important; margin:0; padding:0; width:100% !important; } table{ border-collapse:collapse; } img,a img{ border:0; outline:none; text-decoration:none; } h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6{ margin:0; padding:0; } p{ margin:1em 0; padding:0; } a{ word-wrap:break-word; } .mcnPreviewText{ display:none !important; } .ReadMsgBody{ width:100%; } .ExternalClass{ width:100%; } .ExternalClass,.ExternalClass p,.ExternalClass span,.ExternalClass font,.ExternalClass td,.ExternalClass div{ line-height:100%; } …  ( 5 min )

For decades, Congress routinely reauthorized the Voting Rights Act on a bipartisan basis. But influential conservative lawyers had other ideas. The post How the Conservative Legal Movement Became Obsessed With Killing the Voting Rights Act appeared first on Balls and Strikes.  ( 8 min )

Not Possible in a Functioning Democracy A whirlwind of developments closed the deal yesterday on what is arguably the single...  ( 12 min )

why do we even have laws, if some shithead gets to ignore them?

Plus, small town takes the regime to court

In “Billionaire Trump’s Secret Trading Spree Alarms Wall Street,” Laura Eposito writes at Daily Beast: “Donald Trump’s Wall Street side hustle is starting to look like a full-time job…During the first three months of 2026, the billionaire president pocketed tens of millions of dollars through 3,700 investment trades involving companies with direct ties to his... Read more »  ( 10 min )

Donald Trump’s second term has devolved into what critics describe as one of the most brazen eras of presidential self-dealing in American history. Promises of fiscal responsibility and “draining the swamp” have given way to taxpayer-funded luxuries, legally dubious settlements funneled to supporters, family crypto schemes that allegedly rug-pulled billions from supporters, and apparent insider...  ( 20 min )

Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward and Frank Bisignano, the chief executive officer of the I.R.S., signed Monday's “settlement agreement.”

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Since the early stages of President Donald Trump's Iran war, Fox News personalities and guests have parroted his administration's assertions that Iran's military has been severely decimated or destroyed. Yet on May 12, The New York Times reported that those assertions are “sharply at odds with what U.S. intelligence agencies are telling policymakers behind closed doors” and that Iran has “restored operational access to 30 of the 33 missile sites it maintains along the Strait of Hormuz." Liberal Fox host Jessica Tarlov was met with interruptions and deflections on May 13 after citing both the Times' reporting and an earlier Atlantic piece discussing Vice President JD Vance's concern about dwindling U.S. missile stockpiles. Co-host Jesse Watters dismissed the reporting as "deep state leaks." Fox continues to paint a rosy picture of U.S. efforts against Iran more than two months after the initial attack: Since the early days of the war, Fox News has pushed the Trump administration line that it has destroyed Iran’s military.  ( 8 min )

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org-jira for the first time. You can see the config I've written around it here. This works basically exactly as expected, although I have had to do something a bit hacky to keep the API token properly stored. Storing the key on MacOS as recommended in the readme wasn't working for me, so instead I've stored it as a generic password. When launching Jira, this password is fetched into the kill ring to be pasted into the prompt if needed. This is kind of terrible, but it does work well enough. (when (equal system-type 'darwin) (kill-new (string-trim-right (shell-command-to-string (concat "security find-generic-password -a \"" jiralib-user "\" -s \"jira\" -w"))))) You should be careful when storing the API token with add-gene…

As anyone reading my blog knows, I’m a big fan of Dired. One of its killer features is the set of marking commands, which allow marking files based on their extensions, names (regex-based), contents (also regex-based). There is also a “universal marking command”, dired-mark-sexp, which allows the user to provide an Elisp expression serving as a predicate and marks all files satisfying that predicate. What’s even more, you can use several symbols in that predicate, like size or name (head to the docs to learn more). What I found lacking is an easy (that is, not requiring me to type a convoluted expression each time) way to mark “recently modified” files.  ( 3 min )

oantolin's tip about using Eww. It's always interesting to see what people can do when they apply Emacs's power and composability to all sorts of things, including evaluating code snippets from webpages. Outside Emacs, there was a lively conversation on HN about personal software. Enjoy! Upcoming events (iCal file, Org): M-x Research: TBA https://m-x-research.github.io/ Wed May 20 0800 America/Vancouver - 1000 America/Chicago - 1100 America/Toronto - 1500 Etc/GMT - 1700 Europe/Berlin - 2030 Asia/Kolkata - 2300 Asia/Singapore Emacs APAC: Emacs APAC meetup (virtual) https://emacs-apac.gitlab.io/announcements/ Sat May 23 0130 America/Vancouver - 0330 America/Chicago - 0430 America/Toronto - 0830 Etc/GMT - 1030 Europe/Berlin - 1400 Asia/Kolkata - 1630 Asia/Singapore Emacs Berlin: Emacs-Ber…  ( 3 min )

Of all the built-in editing commands in Emacs, the commands that work with rectangles delight me the most. Once understood, they can save effort in many situations. That said, the biggest downside to rectangles is the amount of setup it takes to use them. As with many things Emacs, by default you have to memorize a bunch of keybindings to get anything done with them. In Casual, I addressed the above downside by providing a Transient menu for rectangle commands. Since building that, I've come to use rectangle commands routinely. But even then, there is ceremony to set up a rectangle selection. With my recent work on mouse-driven interactions in Anju, I’ve learned that rectangle selection is trivial via C-M- dragging. Once selected, having a menu of rectangle commands makes working with them even easier. So I made one for the latest v1.4.0 update for Anju, now on MELPA. The “Rectangle” sub-menu is available via the main menu bar “Edit” menu (as shown in the screenshot above) or via context menu. Using rectangle commands in conjunction with the align-regexp (“Edit › Align Regexp…”) and whitespace-cleanup (“Edit › Delete › Whitespace Cleanup”) can make short work of editing text that is laid out in columns. Anju makes both of these commands available from the main menu. Side note: on using C-M-, sometimes Emacs will only read M- and do a secondary selection, leaving an unwanted highlight. Enter M- to dismiss the highlight. If you find Anju to be useful, please support its development by buying me a coffee. I’ve got a number of new features planned for it.  ( 1 min )

C-x v bindings. I never really felt the need for Magit, honestly. VC-mode just works, right? Until it does not. Or rather, until you need something that is not quite available. As vc-mode is source code control agnostic then there were always going to be some limitations and my git usage is now starting to become a little more advanced. Recently I hit a divergent branch situation, remote had moved on, I had local commits, and git refused to push, I reached for C-x v m (vc-merge) to pull in the upstream changes, and that worked fine as a merge. But what if I wanted a rebase instead? Clean linear history, no merge commits? Turns out there is no vc-rebase at all in Emacs! You can use vc-pull and it will rebase if pull.rebase is set in your git config (I think, although I …  ( 2 min )

The president designed his settlement with the IRS to do something he could not otherwise accomplish—and to shield his actions from judicial review and congressional oversight. The post The Trump IRS Lawsuit Settlement Will Use Your Tax Dollars to Make January 6ers Rich appeared first on Balls and Strikes.  ( 8 min )

The administration’s view is that the mere presence of students of color at elite schools is incontrovertible proof of discrimination against white people. The post Trump DOJ: Yale’s Medical School Has Way Too Many Black Students appeared first on Balls and Strikes.  ( 6 min )

Confusion reigns ahead of Alabama’s post-gerrymander primary a.cta_button{-moz-box-sizing:content-box !important;-webkit-box-sizing:content-box !important;box-sizing:content-box !important;vertical-align:middle}.hs-breadcrumb-menu{list-style-type:none;margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;padding:0px 0px 0px 0px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-item{float:left;padding:10px 0px 10px 10px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-divider:before{content:'›';padding-left:10px}.hs-featured-image-link{border:0}.hs-featured-image{float:right;margin:0 0 20px 20px;max-width:50%}@media (max-width: 568px){.hs-featured-image{float:none;margin:0;width:100%;max-width:100%}}.hs-screen-reader-text{clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);height:1px;overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;width:1px} 96 …  ( 5 min )

96 *{box-sizing:border-box}body{margin:0;padding:0}a[x-apple-data-detectors]{color:inherit!important;text-decoration:inherit!important}#MessageViewBody a{color:inherit;text-decoration:none}p{line-height:inherit}.desktop_hide,.desktop_hide table{mso-hide:all;display:none;max-height:0;overflow:hidden}.image_block img+div{display:none}sub,sup{font-size:75%;line-height:0} @media (max-width:670px){.row-content{width:100%!important}.stack .column{width:100%;display:block}.mobile_hide{min-height:0;max-height:0;max-width:0;display:none;overflow:hidden;font-size:0}.desktop_hide,.desktop_hide table{display:table!important;max-height:none!important}.social_block .social-table{display:inline-block!important}} sup, sub { font-size: 100% !important; } sup { mso-text-raise:10% } sub { mso-text-raise:-10% } Join LDAD tomorrow for a discussion with UCLA Law Professor Scott Cummings and LDAD Executive Director Lauren Stiller Rikleen on what lessons American lawyers can learn from Hungary's experience of democratic resistance to autocracy. There is still time to register for tomorrow's webinar, a discussion with UCLA Law Professor Scott Cummings and LDAD Executive Director Lauren Stiller Rikleen on what lessons American lawyers can learn from Hungary's experience of democratic resistance to autocracy.    Webinar Details:  Date: Tuesday, May 19, 2026   Time: 4:00 pm ET    Register here (there is no charge to attend): Webinar Registration   Thank you, Lawyers Defending American Democracy   Please follow, like, and share our posts on social media:   Donate to LDAD, a 501(c)(3) organization:  Online donations welcome. Checks may be sent to: Lawyers Defending American Democracy P.O. Box 1922 Framingham, MA 01701 United States     If you believe you received this message in error or wish to no longer receive email from us, please unsubscribe. Kill the Newsletter! feed settings  ( 1 min )

The legacy media ignored this. Democracy Docket prepared for it. a.cta_button{-moz-box-sizing:content-box !important;-webkit-box-sizing:content-box !important;box-sizing:content-box !important;vertical-align:middle}.hs-breadcrumb-menu{list-style-type:none;margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;padding:0px 0px 0px 0px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-item{float:left;padding:10px 0px 10px 10px}.hs-breadcrumb-menu-divider:before{content:'›';padding-left:10px}.hs-featured-image-link{border:0}.hs-featured-image{float:right;margin:0 0 20px 20px;max-width:50%}@media (max-width: 568px){.hs-featured-image{float:none;margin:0;width:100%;max-width:100%}}.hs-screen-reader-text{clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);height:1px;overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;width:1px} …  ( 5 min )

The Oklahoma City Thunder are the defending champions, with a talented roster that should set them up for years of success, so it makes sense that they'd have their share of detractors. A team at the top always does. There are other reasons why a neutral observer might not root for them: the origins of how OKC got an NBA team, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's reliance on drawing fouls, that "What a Pro Wants" commercial. That's just sports writ large: You can accept that people will hate your team for some rational or irrational reason, or you can try to argue with all of them and achieve the same level of success as trying to fight the ocean. If you pick the latter option, at least try to make sure your argument doesn't sound insane. According to Eitan Reshef's bio, he's a native Oklahoman now based in Chicago, and works in digital commerce. He's not a regular columnist for the Oklahoman. While Reshef's article appeared under the publication's URL, it's a guest column for the opinion section and carries the following disclaimer at the top: "This piece expresses the views of its author(s), separate from those of this publication." Actually, it was a guest column; the article was deleted sometime Monday afternoon, hours after it was published. You might understand why when you see the headline: "Like Thunder, Israel is an underdog that has become hated." Here's the opening paragraph:  ( 21 min )

Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano fought for 17 seconds longer than they should have over the weekend. Their brief Saturday encounter in a Southern California hexagon, a comeback for both after ridiculously long layoffs yet still promoted by Jake Paul’s MVP outfit as the biggest women’s MMA fight in history, ended as soon as Rousey set Carano up for an arm bar, the ex-judoka’s trademark finishing move from back when she was relevant. Carano, who gave up the cage for acting and right-wing mouthpiecing, tapped quicker than Fred Astaire.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg4OWWAEoCY  ( 19 min )

There are many ways that Donald Trump is currently making your life worse, not to mention generally waging war on the concept of "the future": accelerating the death of the biosphere, doing his best to eliminate the federal government and university as sites of middle-class employment, driving up the price of energy now and food in the immediate future thanks to the idiotic war with Iran he's losing alongside his buddy Benjamin Netanyahu (who, if you are Palestinian, Lebanese, or Iranian, is trying to kill your family with Trump's help), and making it impossible for you to vote against any of this. He is also straight-up stealing your money to redirect it to the freaks and sex offenders who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. In January, Trump, two of his sons, and the Trump Organ…  ( 18 min )

For tennis fans who do not know how to be normal (i.e. me), rooting for Jannik Sinner is as comforting as it can get. There is an aspirational calmness in Sinner's rituals—not elaborate enough to be Nadal-like, but consistent enough to be a little Nadal-lite—that, though it can't eliminate fan neuroses, at least soothes them. He goes to the towel after making a poor error. One can count as he bounces the ball seven times on first serve (four bounces, a glance up at the opponent, then three more) and five times on second serve (three, glance, two). Also, at some point this year, he forgot how to lose. Sinner beat Casper Ruud 6-4, 6-4 at the Rome Open on Sunday. It was his first-ever victory at his home tournament, following a loss to Alcaraz in the final last year. Sinner became the first I…  ( 29 min )

The Washington Nationals won their Rivalry Weekend series against the Baltimore Orioles. This was their second consecutive series win; they have won eight of their last 13 games overall. The plucky Nats today have the top performing offense in the majors by runs scored, and that is despite having played the second-strongest schedule to date among all MLB teams. Where's the hoopla? Clearly they don't want you to know about the surging Nats. What they do want you to know about—and by "they" I am referring to several of the very worst people to have ever been born, grown up and positioned in the upper-deck seats of Nationals Park for Sunday's series finale—is white genocide. Three MAGA freaks unfurled a large banner in the stands above the first base line during the home team's regular "Salute to Service" segment, seeking to direct attention to the website of a group called Crusader Active Club, with the URL of whitereplacement.org. Allow me to save you the click: The group's website claims that they are standing up "against the 3rd world invasion" and boasts that Crusader Active Club is the No. 1 "Christian/Conservative activist app in the world." There's a ridiculous doomsday tracker on the website's home page, which when I checked it this morning showed that there were more than "90,000,000 million" total foreign-born immigrants, labeled "invaders," in America today.  ( 19 min )

Solve our Monday crossword, bit by bit. This week's puzzle was constructed by Paul Leistra and edited by Hoang-Kim Vu. Paul is from Hamilton, Ontario where he works as an instructional designer. Paul first started constructing crosswords for his four children to solve, particularly on long road trips. Replacing "Are we there yet?" with "Any know what 18-Across is?" was a delight. Defector crosswords, launched in partnership with our friends at AVCX, run every Monday. If you’re interested in submitting a puzzle to us, you can read our guidelines HERE. The AVCX, an independent puzzles and games outlet, invites you to subscribe, or sample the goods with a two-month free trial: "With an AVCX subscription, you get access to weekly themed and themeless crosswords, minis, cryptics, and trivia, by email or in your favorite app. We have no corporate overlord, and we publish top-flight stuff only. We also pay our people fairly, always. Check us out."  ( 14 min )

Tom Dundon readily admits his parsimony. I guess no one ever got turbo-rich by being profligate, but few billionaires brag so much about how they pick up pennies from the ground or turn off unused room lights. He claims he does not display this behavior when it comes to putting the sports teams he owns in position to win. This is a questionable assertion. As the owner of the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes, his philosophies manifested in offering league-low salaries for GM and head coach. That coach, Rod Brind’Amour, was initially making less than many assistant coaches around the league. Many successes and one extension later, Brind’Amour got a raise that kept him in the bottom half-dozen coach salaries. Now on his second extension and in his eighth straight postseason, he's somewhere in the middle of the pack, salarywise—all he had to do was put together the league's most consistently successful team for Dundon to pay him like a normal coach. The Hurricanes' victories are entirely due to their canny front office and uniquely coached systems, and one suspects that the lesson Dundon has taken from striking gold while mining for tin is that he is a genius, and that everyone else is overpaying for talent. When Dundon finalized his purchase of the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers earlier this spring, he almost immediately started putting the screws to the budget. He is reportedly offering well below market rate for a head coach. Interim coach Tiago Splitter, who did a fab job since taking over unexpectedly in October, is reportedly getting lowballed already. Jared Dudley, architect of the Nuggets' disastrous defense, is reportedly a candidate, presumably because he'd come cheap; he surely won't have other suitors.  ( 23 min )

After federal law enforcement officers shot and killed two people in Minnesota earlier this year, Maryland Governor Wes Moore got busy talking and typing. Moore went on Fox News to blast the DHS forces as “untrained, unaccountable, and unqualified—and, by the way, armed.” He brought the same wording and vitriol to MS NOW. He posted…  ( 40 min )

There was a moment early in the first quarter of Sunday's Game 7 between the Detroit Pistons and Cleveland Cavaliers when James Harden had the ball and was isolated against Tobias Harris. "James Harden, acquired from the Clippers, this was the big move that the Cavaliers made for moments like this," said play-by-play man Ian Eagle moments before Harden drove to the lane and kicked a grenade out to Evan Mobley in the corner, who missed a shot as the clock expired. I smiled to myself when this happened, and did so again a few possessions later when Harden committed the first of his two shot-clock violations. I was thinking about the blog you are reading right now, and how the story of this game, as it has been so many times before, would be about Harden melting down in the playoffs. Well, I was partially right. Harden did indeed submit what might have been his worst performance yet in a big playoff game—nine points on 2-10 shooting, 0-6 from three—but the Pistons unveiled a surefire method for squandering a vintage "Big Game" James performance: simply have your entire team play like James Harden did. The Pistons got absolutely rocked, 125-94, in what might have been the most dispiriting loss in a postseason that has been full of them. Game 7s rarely live up to expectations, but this one fell especially short. A nervy, low-scoring contest full of exhausted players can still be fun if the score remains close, and even a blowout can be neat if it happens in front of a raucous home crowd or is the result of the superior team accruing tactical advantages over the course of the series. This was the worst kind of blowout, though: a wire-to-wire domination in front of a crestfallen home crowd that offers little explanation aside from "The Pistons played like shit."  ( 21 min )

The Royals announced that left-hander Kris Bubic has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to left elbow soreness. Right-hander Eli Morgan has been recalled in a corresponding active roster move. More to come.  ( 6 min )

I-70 Let Down @media (max-width: 1024px) { .typography .pullquote-align-left, .typography.editor .pullquote-align-left, .typography .pullquote-align-right, .typography.editor .pullquote-align-right, .typography .pullquote-align-wide, .typography.editor .pullquote-align-wide, .typography .pullquote-align-center, .typography.editor .pullquote-align-center { float: none; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; max-width: 100%; } } @media all and (-ms-high-contrast: none), (-ms-high-contrast: active) { .typography .markup table.image-wrapper img, .typography.editor .markup table.image-wrapper img, .typography .markup table.kindle-wrapper img, .typography.editor .markup table.kindle-wrapper img { max-width: 550px; } } @media (min-width: 1024px) { .typograp…  ( 11 min )

The Other World Cup You Need To Know About96 :root { color-scheme: light; supported-color-schemes: light; } body { margin: 0; padding: 0; min-width: 100%!important; -ms-text-size-adjust: 100% !important; -webkit-transform: scale(1) !important; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100% !important; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased !important; } .body { word-wrap: normal; word-spacing:normal; } table.mso { width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; padding: 0; table-layout: fixed; } img { border: 0; outline: none; } table { mso-table-lspace: 0px; mso-table-rspace: 0px; } td, a, span { mso-line-height-rule: exactly; } #root [x-apple-data-detectors=true], a[x-apple-data-detectors=true], #MessageViewBody a { color: inherit !important; text-decoration: inherit !important; font-size: in…  ( 8 min )

The resistance holds.

BREAKING … In a new filing this morning, President Trump attempted an end run around a federal judge by purporting...  ( 12 min )

March 3, 2026, 6:02 a.m. ET  ( 9 min )

Everyone’s laughing at my president, Donald J. Trump, because he cast a mail-in ballot for a March 24 special election in Florida. They think it’s funny that the GOP candidate he endorsed, in a district that contains the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort, lost. They find it hilarious that Trump, who has bravely and boldly and incessantly criticized mail-in voting and suggesting it was “Rigged,” just went ahead and voted that way anyway, even though the polls were open when he was in Florida. Well, hah-hah-hah, you chuckling losers. Very funny. Once again, you’ve proved your own ignorance. Trump used mail-in voting to PROVE that mail-in voting is fraudulent! Is Trump pushing the SAVE Act, which would make it much harder to vote by mail, like a man facing an existential crisis? Yes. Did he say …  ( 13 min )

I’m proud of President Donald Trump and his loyal Republican lawmakers. After years of pretending, it seems they’ve finally grown confident enough to flatly admit they don’t give a rip about regular Americans. This is real progress! Asked May 14 about how gas prices have soared since Trump dragged America into war with Iran, GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio channeled his inner Frank Sinatra and said, “that’s life.” Trump admits to not caring about anyone's financial situation That came on the heels of the president himself saying that when it comes to Iran, “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody.” There it is. It’s the thing many Americans have known for so long, deep in their guts, but haven’t heard the man himself say out loud. Trump doesn’t think ab…  ( 15 min )

Federal immigration agents, hot off their success at being widely despised on the streets of American cities, will soon be loitering around airport security lines to lend a not-helping hand.  This is great news if you’re a fan of chaos. It’s less-great news if you’re a fan of going to the airport and getting somewhere in a safe and timely fashion without being kidnapped and wrongly deported to an El Salvadoran prison. President Donald Trump announced this extremely not-wise plan on March 22. That same day, White House border czar Tom Homan went on CNN and said, “I'm currently working on the plan. … We’ll put together a plan today and we’ll execute it tomorrow.” Wow, one whole day to plan the movement of immigration agents not trained in airport security to hundreds of airports across the c…  ( 16 min )

President Donald Trump has talked endlessly and inaccurately about how his predecessor’s economy was a “disaster” and a “catastrophe.” He even once said, “You could take the five worst presidents in American history, and put them together, and they would not have done the damage Joe Biden has done to our nation in just a few short years. Not even close.” Well, Mr. President, I have some bad news. You’ve bungled your second term so thoroughly that voters are wishing they could return to the halcyon days of “Sleepy Joe” Biden.   A new Harvard CAPS/Harris survey found that more than half of U.S. voters think the economy is worse under Trump than it was under Biden. And 62% blame the current state of the economy on Trump rather than Biden. To adopt a bit of Trump’s typical patter: “They’re beg…  ( 14 min )

Republicans have made it abundantly clear, from behind the presidential seal and in the halls of Congress and on all manner of news networks, that the extremists in America are liberals like me. We are, in the oft-repeated words of President Donald Trump, “radical left lunatics.” We are agitators. Insurrectionists. Thugs. Our ideas are extreme, always. “Radical left climate extremism.” “Extreme gender ideology.” “WOKE, SOCIALIST, and ANTI-AMERICAN Ideology.” Really, MAGA Republicans? You think liberals are the extremists? To all of that, I say: Seriously? You all kneel at the altar of a narcissistic conman who eviscerates every democratic norm he comes across and slaps his name on things like a dollar-store Mussolini. And you want to gaslight people into thinking liberals are the extremis…  ( 16 min )

If California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s goal is to become liberal America’s least likable Democrat, he’s doing a bang-up job.  On March 25, responding to some babbling social media post by MAGA influencer Benny Johnson, Newsom’s press office wrote: “We got a call from Grindr after this and said your team was their biggest users. Congrats!” Grindr is an LGBTQ+ dating app. So the joke is that Johnson and his right-wing team are gay! And being gay is embarrassing! What a sick burn here in the year 2026! On behalf of decent people everywhere, allow me to say to Newsom and his team: Get lost. Keep your low-brow, high-school-bigot nonsense to yourselves and stop trying to pretend there’s some mythical “middle” in American politics that wants a Democrat unafraid to make homophobic jokes.  Americans are…  ( 15 min )

A time of war is a time of sacrifice, friends. So I’m sorry to report that the war we already decisively won against Iran, the country whose military we 100% obliterated, is going to cost an additional $200 billion, presumably to ensure extra decisive winning and a side of further obliteration. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said March 19 the new load of cash ‒ which is almost enough to fill your tank at current gas prices ‒ is necessary because: “It takes money to kill bad guys.” Who am I to question a former Fox News host who routinely uses the words “lethality,” “kinetic” and “warfighter”? All must sacrifice during war, so Trump will hand over his ballroom money As Republicans have told the American people repeatedly since the Iran war began, for no apparent reason, we must all sacrifi…  ( 14 min )

Everyone’s laughing at my president, Donald J. Trump, because he cast a mail-in ballot for a March 24 special election in Florida. They think it’s funny that the GOP candidate he endorsed, in a district that contains the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort, lost. They find it hilarious that Trump, who has bravely and boldly and incessantly criticized mail-in voting and suggesting it was “Rigged,” just went ahead and voted that way anyway, even though the polls were open when he was in Florida. Well, hah-hah-hah, you chuckling losers. Very funny. Once again, you’ve proved your own ignorance. Trump used mail-in voting to PROVE that mail-in voting is fraudulent! Is Trump pushing the SAVE Act, which would make it much harder to vote by mail, like a man facing an existential crisis? Yes. Did he say …  ( 11 min )

Oh, they laughed when I lined the backyard with kiddie pools and filled each one with gasoline and covered them all with evaporation lids. And they mocked me when I built an above-ground structure to house even more kiddie pools filled with gasoline. “What the heck is Huppke thinking?” they said. “Didn’t he hear President Donald Trumpbragging about gas being less than $2 per gallon back in February?” Oh, I heard it, all right. In fact, I voted for Trump because I believed he would bring gas prices down. But, because I’m smart and have studied “The Art of the Deal,” I knew the president would first bring prices down, then start an unprovoked war with Iran in an effort to patriotically distract from the Jeffrey Epstein files, sending gas prices soaring. The gas I hoarded in my backyard will …  ( 15 min )

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is in a space I didn’t know existed. He’s turning out to not be unhinged enough to please the Make America Healthy Again crowd he nurtured with years of anti-vaccine nonsense and crackpot health theories. But at the same time, he’s acting too loony for the always-whackadoodle Trump administration. What’s a longtime conspiracy theorist who guzzles raw milk and swims in sewage supposed to do?  Kennedy is stuck between an army of MAHA loyalists and wellness influencers who specialize in mistakenly thinking they’re smarter than all of science and a president who very mistakenly thinks he’s smarter than everyone. An explosion of measles made Trump and Co. rethink RFK Jr.'s high profile The Wall Street Journal recently reported: “Aides c…  ( 15 min )

I don’t mean to alarm anyone, but President Donald Trump, the guy who catapulted America into a war of choice with Iran, doesn't seem like he’s doing well in the think-y/speak-y cognitive department.  In just the past few days, the leader of our new mission-less war has: boasted of a conversation with a former president that doesn’t seem to have happened; forgotten the gender of two world leaders, including one he helped put in place; and forgotten the “drill, baby, drill” line he has used endlessly, instead slurring out a bizarre three-word motto used by a New York City energy company in the 1950s. During a March 16 news conference, Trump talked about whether other countries will provide help to secure the Strait of Hormuz, saying that “we want them to come and help us with the strait,” a…  ( 15 min )

Like most Americans who express themselves primarily through carefully arranged seashells, I was shocked and frightened to learn the Trump administration has indicted former FBI Director James Comey over an Instagram post showing the numbers “86 47” written in our favorite medium. Throughout my life, when spoken words have failed me, I’ve turned to seashells. I gather them from whichever beach is nearby, then use them to write words, generally on the part of the beach just out of reach of the incoming waves, allowing me to capture a bit of water in the photo I’ll inevitably post on social media. “I’m Sorry,” I wrote once when I was feeling sorry, using scallop shells and shards of broken conchs. “Spin Doctors Rule,” I wrote on a South Florida beach in the late 1980s when I thought the band…  ( 14 min )

You know, now that I can’t afford hamburger meat or gasoline and America is stuck in another war in the Middle East, I’m starting to think putting some of the worst people in politics in charge of the country may have been a mistake. I mean, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Granted, Donald Trump had previously proved himself incompetent and tried to overturn a free-and-fair election, but I thought, “Maybe giving a guy this corrupt and unqualified a second chance at being leader of the free world is just what America needs to shake things up.” And then when Trump started his second term by appointing a Cabinet that was a “who’s who” of “who’s nuts,” I rolled with it. Sure, the president selected a wildly incompetent Fox News host like Pete Hegseth to lead the military, but I thought,…  ( 15 min )

For every decision President Donald Trump makes, some nearby patsy invariably gets blamed when that decision goes south. Trump throws people under the bus so often that there’s not a single bloodless bus undercarriage left in Washington, DC. Knowing that, I think Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News host cosplaying as a U.S. Defense secretary, might want to don his nicest bus-exhaust-pipe-viewing suit and prepare to get tossed. On March 23, Trump was speaking about the Iran war – the one he says is going great even though it’s not going great – and he referenced Hegseth, slyly detailing a new version of how the whole thing started: “Pete, I think you were the first one to speak up. And you said, ‘Let’s do it.’ Because you can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.”  I’ll pause here so you can have…  ( 13 min )

My fellow Americans, our nation is at war, and so it is vital that we set aside our political differences and patriotically rally around our president’s ballroom. President Donald Trump did not demolish the East Wing of the White House for nothing, and if we allow our war with Iran to draw attention away from the president’s planned $400 million ballroom, even for a moment, the enemy wins. On March 29, the president spoke briefly about the Iran war aboard Air Force One before pivoting to the more important subject: ballroom. “I'm so busy that I don't have time to do this,” he said, speaking at length and showing reporters a slew of large ballroom illustrations printed on poster boards. “But I'm fighting wars and other things. But this is very important, because this is going to be with us …  ( 16 min )

As Donald Trump behaves more and more like a mad king than a president – forcing America into an already disastrous war with Iran without congressional approval, targeting political enemies, babbling about building ballrooms and arches – the third round of aptly named "No Kings" protests arrives to highlight just how much our president is disliked. Spoiler alert: It’s a lot. Millions are expected to turn out on March 28 to more than 3,000 planned No Kings events nationwide, filling the streets of big cities and the parks and sidewalks of small towns. And they will be angry with Trump’s version of America, one that is unrecognizable, unpopular and crumbling. War, skyrocketing gas and food prices, now airport chaos. Way to go, Trump! We are at war with Iran for no clear reason. Gas prices h…  ( 14 min )

It was a whirlwind weekend of failure for the Trump administration, but that didn’t stop President Donald Trump from having a great time at our expense. On April 11, while Vice President JD Vance used his sparkling personality and boundless likability to fail at reaching a peace deal with Iran, the president was at a UFC fight in Miami with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, which makes perfect sense if you don’t care about anything. On April 12, while the endorsements of Trump and Vance failed to help right-wing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán win in the country’s general election, Trump was golfing in Florida, in between threats to use the U.S. Navy to block off the Strait of Hormuz, which, if you’re keeping score, has already been blocked by Iran. Delightful! Life is fun when you ne…  ( 14 min )

I don’t mean to sound controversial, but a president shouldn’t be able to walk away from threatening to wipe out an entire civilization ‒ even setting a deadline, as if Armageddon is a bloody reality show ‒ and then carry on like he’s a normal president. Even if Republicans want you to think it's normal. In the sweep of less than 24 hours on April 7, Donald Trump went from threatening genocide to agreeing to a two-week ceasefire with Iran, a ceasefire that appears to give the Middle East nation a lot in return for nothing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m damn glad he stepped away from mass murder. But let’s be honest: America can’t continue with this kind of “Look at me, I’m a crazy former reality show star, tune in to see what I’ll do next?!?” insanity. The world just spent an entire day not know…  ( 12 min )

As attorney general, Pam Bondi lied for President Donald Trump. She hurled insults at Democrats for him. She tried to shield him from the Jeffrey Epstein files. She groveled and doused him with praise in Cabinet meetings. But in the end, doing everything the president wanted, selling her soul and whatever shards of dignity she had left, just wasn’t enough. Trump fired Bondi on April 2, making her the second female Cabinet member Trump has dispatched as his presidency spirals. The first was Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whom Trump canned and then named “a special envoy for the Shield of the Americas,” which I’m still not convinced is a real thing. I assume Bondi will now become assistant to the regional special envoy for the Shield of the Americas. Or maybe she and Noem can start…  ( 13 min )

I don’t mean to sound controversial, but a president shouldn’t be able to walk away from threatening to wipe out an entire civilization ‒ even setting a deadline, as if Armageddon is a bloody reality show ‒ and then carry on like he’s a normal president. Even if Republicans want you to think it's normal. In the sweep of less than 24 hours on April 7, Donald Trump went from threatening genocide to agreeing to a two-week ceasefire with Iran, a ceasefire that appears to give the Middle East nation a lot in return for nothing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m damn glad he stepped away from mass murder. But let’s be honest: America can’t continue with this kind of “Look at me, I’m a crazy former reality show star, tune in to see what I’ll do next?!?” insanity. The world just spent an entire day not know…  ( 14 min )

There has always been one thing, and one thing only, that President Donald Trump is good at: lying. He has conned and audaciously dissembled his way into a fortune and into two terms as president, always leaving chaos in his wake. Well, it appears the tornadic chaos of the moment – war with Iran, high gas and food prices, a president with a Caesar complex – has finally overwhelmed Trump’s lies, rendering him impotent against collapsing poll numbers and setting the Republican Party up for disaster in the coming midterm elections. A poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research released April 21 showed only 30% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the economy, something that was once his strong suit. That’s down from only 38% approving in March. In the same po…  ( 15 min )

If there’s one thing I’m sick of, it’s liberals and their radical views on how math works. For ages, President Donald Trump has been heroically claiming he cut prescription drug costs by, as he said during a Cabinet meeting in December, “500, 600, 700, 800, 900 percent depending on the drug.” He said last August there has been a “1,000 percent decrease” in drug costs. And in September he said: “I’m going to be reducing drug prices by 1,000 percent, by 900, 600, 500, 1,200. We're going to be reducing drug prices at levels never seen.” Why do liberals refuse to accept Trump Math, as RFK Jr. explained Left-wing knowledge nerds keep claiming those levels will never be seen because they constitute numerical gibberish. They whine that you “can’t” reduce the cost of something more than 100%. At …  ( 15 min )

Once again, President Donald Trump is right. MY PRESIDENT wrote in a long and totally sane social media post that Pope Leo XIV is “Weak on Crime” and “Weak on Nuclear Weapons.” That truth bomb riled up a bunch of radical leftists and people who’ve “read the Bible” and such, leading many to say it’s a bad look for the president of the United States to insult the spiritual leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Roman Catholics. Well, let me ask you this, libs: Has the so-called pope made a single arrest since he became the Vicar of Christ in 2025? The answer is no. He has spent his time spreading a message of peace and love, encouraging people “to promote a culture of peace, helping those around us to overcome divisions and hostility and to build communion between individuals, peoples and religio…  ( 14 min )

As NASA’s Artemis II mission continues and the four astronauts in the Orion capsule prepare to leave Earth’s orbit, one of my numerous cislunar sources asked that I relay the following note from the moon, our planet’s only natural satellite. Dear people of Earth: Hey there. It’s me, your moon. Hope you all are doing well and not getting too dizzy! (That’s a planetary rotation joke. Sorry, it’s been a while since I’ve communicated with anyone.) I can’t help but notice you’ve launched one of those tin-can-looking thingies into your orbit again. That’s cool. Yeah. Definitely cool. Anyhoo, I get the sense you all might be aiming that thing in my direction. In fact, I noticed a little write-up on the whole Artemis II mission that says you’re planning to whizz by my dark side and snap some pictu…  ( 12 min )

Is it just me, or does it seem like Pope Leo XIV won’t stop talking about religion? He’s all “the Gospel says this” and “Jesus taught us that” – dude, we get it, you’re head of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church. But does that really make you an expert? As our Catholic Vice President JD Vance, who has a book coming out on his conversion to Catholicism, said, “I think it's very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology.” Exactly. Vance has been a Catholic since 2019, the year Lil Nas X’s "Old Town Road" hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, so I’d take his warning seriously, Pope. He’s seven years deep into the Catholic faith – you don’t wanna mess with him. He’s part of the new Catholicism, the one that’s afraid to say “transubstantiation” beca…  ( 15 min )

Melania Trump, fresh off new polling that shows she’s America’s least-popular first lady, has come out of nowhere and positioned herself to be President Donald Trump’s least-popular wife. With no advance notice or even context, the usually invisible first lady materialized on April 9 and gave a statement at the White House, distancing herself from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal that has plagued the Trump administration. You remember the Epstein files, right? They were the subject of all the “notorious child sex trafficking” headlines President Trump tried to bomb out of existence by starting a war with Iran. Trump pushed Epstein files into a closet. Melania brought them back. If I’m being honest, the war gambit kind of worked. News about the Epstein files and Trump’s connection therein had l…  ( 15 min )

I’ve been struggling to understand the Republican Party for quite a while, but watching conservative lawmakers trip over themselves to say President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom is the most important issue facing America? Well, it’s got me thinking the cheese has fully slid off their crackers. The pro-ballroom fervor erupted after an armed man tried to get into the White House Correspondents' Association dinner at a Washington, DC, Hilton, where Trump and most of his Cabinet were glad-handing with the journalists they despise. The man, accused of targeting Trump and other administration officials, was stopped by security, thankfully, and arrested. One might think the reaction to this disturbing event would be to figure out how the person obtained guns and got that close to a sitting…  ( 14 min )

It’s a proud day for American toughness! Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has officially done away with the U.S. military's WOKE flu vaccine mandate, and I applaud that decision from the bed I currently can’t get out of due to a high fever. TRUE warfighters know their lethality is only enhanced by bacterial pneumonia, and soft and so-called proven public health tools like vaccines are for weenies. Simply put, the libs will never understand that a fever is just God warming your body for the battle ahead. On April 21, in a video posted on social media, Hegseth said: “We're seizing this moment to discard any absurd, overreaching mandates that only weaken our warfighting capabilities. In this case, this includes the universal flu vaccine and the mandate behind it.” Hegseth says flu vaccine manda…  ( 15 min )

I was born and raised in Florida, home to the world’s busiest cruise-ship ports. While I abide by most of the rules native Floridians must follow – I know the complete Jimmy Buffett discography, I’ve been to Disney World enough times to hate it, I’ve been uncomfortably close to an alligator – I have never understood cruises. I was reminded of this for the one millionth time while reading about three recent deaths suspected to be from hantavirus, a virus carried by rodents, aboard a cruise ship sailing the Atlantic Ocean. Others onboard have gotten sick, and as of May 4, the ship is anchored near the West African nation of Cape Verde with about 150 passengers still on board. Call me a cruise coward, but that does not sound like a fun vacation. But maybe I'm wrong. This is your opportunity t…  ( 14 min )

By proudly announcing “a whole civilization will die tonight,” President Donald Trump appears to have moved on from his dreams of a Nobel Peace Prize and embraced historical infamy. On the morning of April 7, the actual president of the United States of America directed these words to the people of Iran: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.” Those are the words of a tyrant. They are the words of a madman promising genocide. They are the words of a sick human being unworthy of the position he holds. Trump's civilization-threatening words are shocking, even for him No matter how dulled our senses have become to Trump’s unhinged behavior, those words sent shockwaves across the country and the world. Democra…  ( 13 min )

SEATTLE — You may not have heard it yet, but America’s legal community recently let out a roar here in the Emerald City, a collective call from retired federal judges and a bipartisan array of academics and legal organizations: The rule of law matters, and it will be protected. The two-day symposium, “Neither Sword Nor Purse,” held at the University of Washington School of Law, was necessary because of one person: President Donald J. Trump. His threats against the judiciary and the ease with which he and his administration ignore or boastfully refuse to follow the law are without precedent. He is, quite simply, a threat to judicial independence, and he shows no hesitation to jackhammer the very foundation of our democracy. J. Michael Luttig, a former federal judge and an icon in the conser…  ( 15 min )

Inflation has surged to the highest level in three years, the cost of living is up and we’re stuck in a war with Iran. But don’t worry. President Donald Trump is busy painting the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool blue. Hopefully, this new $13 million pool project doesn’t distract him from his now more than $1 billion White House ballroom project. Or from his $100 million Triumphal Arch project. Or from putting his face on U.S. currency and passports. And his name on buildings and airports.  That sounds like sarcasm, but I’ve settled into what may be a controversial opinion: Let Trump build his vanity projects. Let his Republican boot-smoochers etch “President Donald J. Trump” into marble facades and slap that moniker on whichever edifice or coin or government document they see fit. Let his…  ( 15 min )

Hey, do you all remember “Sleepy Joe” Biden, the president whose age and cognitive decline Donald Trump and his plague of MAGA lemmings routinely mocked? Well, I have some news. In a living example of turnabout being fair play, 79-year-old President Trump himself is now viewed by a majority of Americans as being mentally and physically unfit to lead.  A recent Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll found that nearly 60% of Americans believe Trump isn’t mentally sharp enough to be president, and 55% think his physical health makes him unfit to lead. Americans think Trump is just as mentally unfit as Biden was Just a few months before Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race over concerns about his age, an AP-NORC poll found 63% were not confident he had the mental capability to be pres…  ( 13 min )

I have terrible news for people who had hoped to avoid being struck by a falling steak-and-mushroom sandwich.  Papa Johns, a restaurant chain known mainly for selling circular cheesed objects it alleges are pizza, is testing out a drone delivery service in Charlotte, North Carolina. Since we live in an age when most things make no sense, the initial wave of Papa Johns drones will only be able to deliver “Oven Toasted Sandwiches.” I guess our society hasn’t achieved full pizza-delivery drone technology, so we’re left getting sandwiches from a pizza place we didn’t know sold sandwiches. The bottom line is this: Thanks to technology, the good people of the greater Charlotte metropolitan area can have non-pizza food products delivered in a way that frightens birds and increases the likelihood …  ( 14 min )

A prerequisite for serving in the Trump administration seems to be first serving as a host or contributor to Fox News. So, naturally, President Donald Trump’s third shot at a surgeon general candidate is longtime Fox News medical contributor Nicole Saphier. Given that the U.S. Health and Human Services secretary is anti-vaccine, anti-science, pro-sewage-swimming Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a caricature of a serious human being, America’s surgeon general isn’t likely to matter much. The surgeon general could take a strong anti-smoking stance and Kennedy would likely dispute it by citing a wacky study from an obscure Scandinavian cult that found smoking actually “caused significant spikes in lung-healthy midi-chlorians,” completely ignoring that “midi-chlorians” is a fictional term from the "Star…  ( 15 min )

It’s a proud day for American toughness! Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has officially done away with the U.S. military's WOKE flu vaccine mandate, and I applaud that decision from the bed I currently can’t get out of due to a high fever. TRUE warfighters know their lethality is only enhanced by bacterial pneumonia, and soft and so-called proven public health tools like vaccines are for weenies. Simply put, the libs will never understand that a fever is just God warming your body for the battle ahead. On April 21, in a video posted on social media, Hegseth said: “We're seizing this moment to discard any absurd, overreaching mandates that only weaken our warfighting capabilities. In this case, this includes the universal flu vaccine and the mandate behind it.” Hegseth says flu vaccine manda…  ( 12 min )

Listen up, non-rich Americans. I’m growing tired of your annoying complaints about high gas prices. I guess it has something to do with U.S. gas prices hitting their highest level in four years, or people spending $81.3 billion more on gas or energy goods in March than they spent the previous month. I have people who buy gas for me, so I can’t be pestered with such trivialities. Some say the Iran war – started by my personal tax-cutter, President Donald Trump – has something to do with it all. Ho hum. What bothers me is all the noise, noise, noise coming from the hoi polloi. It’s so bad that Trump’s approval rating dropped to 34% in the most recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, which I had my butler read to me. Can’t you ungrateful wretches just calm down and sell one of your lake houses to cover hi…  ( 16 min )

It’s college graduation season, and as I proudly watched my eldest hurl his cap into the air, I couldn’t help thinking: “Wow. I am AMAZING. What a tremendous accomplishment by me.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of him too. He did the studying and the grade-getting and the whole “make friendships that will last a lifetime” thing. But I think parents like myself should be honest about this moment. We’re the ones who toiled and stressed and dished out cash like malfunctioning ATM machines. We, long before these glorious college years, were the diaper-changers, the piano-lesson drivers, the advice-givers, the shoulders to cry on. We built these now-functioning adult humans and made sure they got an education, allowing them to go forth and fix the world we accidentally messed up, probably becau…  ( 14 min )

So a group of scientists got together and decided to give cocaine to a bunch of salmon. It sounds like the kind of fantastic idea a person comes up with while using cocaine, then talks about for 13 consecutive hours to someone who is also doing cocaine and eagerly nodding in agreement while repeating, “It makes. So. Much. Sense.” Not-at-all shockingly, the resulting study found coked-up salmon swim faster, a conclusion that didn’t really need to involve salmon. Anyway, as weird as the study seemed, there was a point to it. Cocaine and its metabolites are “being excreted and subsequently detected in aquatic environments due to insufficient removal during wastewater treatment,” according to the paper published in the April edition of the journal Current Biology. Humans are sending cocaine in…  ( 12 min )

So a slew of mean people on the internet have been rudely mocking McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski over a video in which he gingerly samples the restaurant chain’s latest offering: the Big Arch burger. Because I don’t believe rich people should be made fun of or face consequences for their actions, I’m here to defend Mr. Kempczinski and attempt to right this terrible wrong. If you missed it, the video in question shows the CEO proudly holding a Big Arch in the same way any strong, handsome, wealthy person would hold a thing meant for the poor. The substantial sandwich consists of two quarter-pound beef patties, three slices of white cheddar, pickles, lettuce, crispy onions and a special Big Arch sauce that may or may not be made of people. McDonald's Big Arch is the best food product you c…  ( 13 min )

So it turns out Americans don’t love widespread cruelty.  For the first time ever in YouGov polling, 50% of Americans now strongly or somewhat support abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Only 39% of respondents strongly or somewhat oppose abolishing ICE and, in a remarkable twist, nearly a quarter of Republicans want ICE gone. That’s a mighty big shift from the not-too-long-ago days when Democrats were warned that “Abolish ICE” was an electorally risky slogan best avoided. ICE has become hugely unpopular. Maybe it's all the cruelty. Perhaps it’s the way roving bands of masked federal agents have descended onto American cities like invading forces, violently stuffing migrants and U.S. citizens into unmarked vehicles while gunning down innocent protesters and later falsely …  ( 15 min )

President Donald Trump has dragged America into a war of his choosing, attacking Iran with little public support, zero congressional approval and virtually no public justification. The path forward is unclear, and our self-absorbed leader is already speaking about the loss of American lives with the nonchalance one expects from a small man never held accountable for the consequences of his actions. Announcing the deaths of four U.S. service members following the attack launched Feb. 28, Trump said in a video posted to social media: “And sadly, there will likely be more before it ends, that’s the way it is. Likely be more.” The ease with which that man dismissed present and future casualties was sickening. “That’s the way it is,” he said. He might as well have added a “Ho-hum,” such is his …  ( 14 min )

The bad news is more than 82 million Americans are having to skip meals, borrow money or cut back on utilities so they can afford health care. The good news is the Pentagon is swimming in millions of dollars worth of ribeye steak and lobster tails, part of more than $93 billion the U.S. Department of Defense spent in September as the fiscal year closed. So while you were putting off a necessary surgery so you could afford gas, the department overseen by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was, in one month, dropping $139,224 on 272 orders of doughnuts, according to a new report by the nonpartisan public-spending watchdog Open the Books. It’s enough to make you want to grab a torch and pitchfork and start marching. Except marching may be out of the question if you haven’t been able to see a doct…  ( 16 min )

From the jump, there has been a crystal clear justification for President Donald Trump’s war on Iran. It involves some combination of regime change, or maybe not regime change, but definitely halting Iran’s nuclear weapon development (or possibly not), but certainly ending a war by starting a war (I think), and absolutely avoiding an imminent (or quite possibly nonimminent) threat.  OK, it may not be all that clear. But that's where we, the American people, come in. We need to help Trump and Co. decide on a justification for this now happening war. We might as well ask you to choose your own justification When Trump launched the attacks on Feb. 28, he said to the Iranian people: “When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take.” But on March 2, Trump said: “An Iranian regime armed with long-range missiles and nuclear weapons would be an intolerable threat to the Middle East, but also to the American people.” Republicans have been saying we've been at war with Iran for years, so we needed to start a war to end a war. And Secretary of State Marco Rubio uttered this assortment of random words: “We went proactively in a defensive way to prevent them from inflicting higher damage.” The administration is clearly too busy conducting a war to find time to explain why that war is justified. So I need you to vote in the poll below. Trust me, this is how a healthy democracy overseen by a former reality television star works. Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk  ( 12 min )

As campaigning for the midterm elections ramps up, I’m curious what issues Republican candidates will run on. Because at the moment, their best and only platform appears to be: “Oops.” The party of President Donald Trump has, in one quick year, left utter chaos in its wake, working hard to protect the wealthy while doing virtually nothing to improve the lives of regular American voters. GOP lawmakers have shown slavish, often embarrassing fealty to their confused and intemperate leader, overseeing shocking domestic cruelty and violence stemming from overzealous mass deportation raids. U.S. citizens have been shot and killed by federal agents on the streets of major cities. Grocery prices remain painfully high, despite Trump’s promises to lower them on day one of his second term. Gas prices…  ( 14 min )

Podcaster and man-somewhat-responsible-for-why-we’re-in-this-mess Joe Rogan has looked at President Donald Trump’s war-of-choice with Iran and declared it “insane” and a betrayal. The war is, without question, both those things. So congratulations to President Trump on getting me, other liberals, and a strong majority of independent voters who think this war is folly to wholeheartedly agree with the man-o-sphere podcasting dude who helped get you elected. Now it’s time for Trump’s MAGA base to again pay attention to their man, Rogan. Joe Rogan: 'A lot of people feel betrayed' During his March 10 show, the podcaster said of the war: “It just seems so insane, based on what he ran on. I mean, this is why a lot of people feel betrayed, right? He ran on no more wars, end these stupid, senseles…  ( 14 min )

As the four astronauts on the Artemis II space mission approached the moon and found themselves farther from Earth than any human has ever traveled, a thought crossed my mind: Can we marvel at this? Please? Amid all the chaos in the world right now, can humanity take one beat and acknowledge something remarkable, an exploratory achievement that pushed us deeper into the galaxy that surrounds us than we’ve gone before? Just before 2 p.m. ET on April 6, astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft were more than 248,655 miles from Earth, surpassing the previous distance record set in 1970 by the Apollo 13 astronauts. The Artemis II mission challenges humanity to do better As the ship continued its trip around the moon, Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman said, “We will continue our journey even fur…  ( 13 min )

President Donald Trump has dragged America into a war of his choosing, attacking Iran with little public support, zero congressional approval and virtually no public justification. The path forward is unclear, and our self-absorbed leader is already speaking about the loss of American lives with the nonchalance one expects from a small man never held accountable for the consequences of his actions. Announcing the deaths of four U.S. service members following the attack launched Feb. 28, Trump said in a video posted to social media: “And sadly, there will likely be more before it ends, that’s the way it is. Likely be more.” The ease with which that man dismissed present and future casualties was sickening. “That’s the way it is,” he said. He might as well have added a “Ho-hum,” such is his …  ( 12 min )

Mean people on the internet have been mocking McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski over a video in which he gingerly samples the chain’s latest offering.  ( 8 min )

This week in “What The Hell Is Wrong With These People?” I give you U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. Here’s Pam Bondi sitting before Congress to defend the hire of a Jan. 6 rioter to her Department of Justice (her defense is that President Donald Trump had pardoned the man, so he couldn’t have done anything wrong, you see). Here’s Pam Bondi refusing to answer a question from California Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove and instead staring down at her papers, as if it might render her invisible to everyone else in the room. Here’s Pam Bondi complaining, “This is so ridiculous,” when another Democratic congressmember asks her whether Trump and now-deceased child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein ever partied with “underage girls.” Oh, and here’s Pam Bondi refusing to acknowledge the other Epstein vict…  ( 1 min )

While you were busy paying attention to the continued end of the world this past weekend, you might have missed the story that movies are officially BACK. That’s because “Project Hail Mary,” the sci-fi adventure starring Ryan Gosling, blew past initial box office projections and had the second largest non-franchise opening weekend in history, surpassed only by Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.” Not only was “PHM” based on an original-ish story, but it was shot on actual sets, just like movies should be. Does this mean that you, the moviegoer, can expect more of this kind of quality cinema at the multiplex in the coming years? Well, I took my 13-year-old to the movie last night and subjected it to my patented Dad Movie Test. Let’s get right to it. What’s the deal with ‘Project Hail Mary’? …  ( 1 min )

As we no longer have a functional journalism industry in the United States, it has fallen to me, a man who’d really prefer to be filling out an NCAA bracket right now, to alert you to the various criminal losers who serve as the face of Trump 2.0. I’ve introduced you to Vice Asshole JD Vance, of course. I’ve also given you a primer on War Department chief Pete Hegseth, who’s hard at work triggering World War III while also frantically searching for the nearest open liquor store. Who else have I had to take notice of against my will lately? Oh right: alleged dognapper Pam Bondi, newly deposed Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem, and Noem’s would-be successor Markwayne Mullin, whose confirmation hearings are going swimmingly as I type this. I wish that was the end of the list, because that …  ( 1 min )

Given current circumstances, the coming 2026 WNBA season is strictly a theoretical construct. It should begin on Friday, May 8. Opening night should include a late tilt between the Seattle Storm and your Golden State Valkyries. This season could even include reigning league MVP A’ja Wilson playing for a new team, because 80% of the league’s players are free agents. You and I should be excited about all of the sweet, sweet hoops action that all of this promises. The problem is that the WNBA is in some really deep s—t right now.  Thanks to circumstances tragically familiar to any lifelong sports fan, a dispute over money is threatening to scuttle the beginning of this season, and maybe even all of it given how s—tty things are going right now between players and the league. It’s a collecti…  ( 1 min )

The Oscars are happening on Sunday night, and it’s always morbid fun to see which nominees have potentially torpedoed their chances by doing something stupid during right before the ceremony. You might remember last year, when “Emilia Perez” star Karla Sofia Gascon sank her chances at Best Actress, along with “Emilia Perez’s” chances at Best Picture, by being an Islamophobic s—t for brains on Twitter.  This year’s potential backlash victim, Jessie Buckley of “Hamnet,” is a different story. In Gascon’s case, the backlash was justified because of the tweets, and because “Emilia Perez” is a horrible movie. In Buckley’s case, anyone who’s got a bad thing to say about that woman will be on the receiving end of a vicious ass-beating from me. Because Jessie Buckley earned the s—t out of her Osc…  ( 1 min )

In any other news cycle, the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie would be the biggest story in the universe. “Beloved morning show anchor’s mom was kidnapped, and now the ransom negotiations are playing out in full public view” is full-on unprecedented. But you and I are living in the Trump age, in which cries of “this should be the biggest scandal ever!” are a daily occurrence, to the point of fatigue. Thus, it’s been difficult for me to focus on the plight of Savannah Guthrie and her family when I’ve also had to keep tabs on ICE agents killing people in broad daylight, the Trump administration actively suppressing information about history’s most star-studded human trafficking ring, a looming megawar with Iran, and — Christ, I’m tired. The human mind has only so much bandwidth. Yet: HOLY S—T, …  ( 1 min )

If you’re reading this post this afternoon and you happen to be Iranian, congratulations. Your civilization didn’t die last night. I know it got a little bit dicey there for a minute, what with President Donald Trump promising that full-scale Armageddon would arrive at the stroke of 8 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday night. But Donald Trump’s arbitrary deadline came and went last evening and you and I are still here. The nation of Iran is also, thankfully, still here. And it has kicked Trump’s sorry ass up and down the block. The United States and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire last night. This tenuous détente came after our president committed a glaring war crime by declaring that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” if Iran didn’t reopen the Strait of Ho…  ( 1 min )

If you and I could find even the slightest bit of comfort in what has been yet another truly, truly awful year in America, it was that 2026 is an election year. The 2024 election went disastrously, of course. But in the wake of that tragedy, the American people have been sending out clear signals that they would like a correction. Current polls show that voters despise President Trump’s ongoing desecration of the White House building, that they rightfully see the Iran War as a needless disaster, that they think President Naptime has made their economic prospects significantly worse, and that they’ve grown tired of Trump himself.  Under normal circumstances, these polls would presage the mythical blue wave, with Democrats seizing control of both the House and Senate in this fall’s midterms…  ( 1 min )

(ALERT: This article contains plot spoilers for “The Devil Wears Prada 2.” Although, judging by its box office receipts, you’ve already seen the movie.) “The Devil Wears Prada 2” is a solid movie. It’s not a great movie. It’s certainly not as good as the original, but it scratches a lot of the same itches. For the price of admission, you get Meryl Streep treating other characters with ultimate disdain. You get Stanley “The Tooch” Tucci being his adorable self. And hey, there’s Emily Blunt reprising the role that made her a star to begin with, with newcomer Simone Ashley on hand as a successor to Blunt in the gorgeous, sharp-tongued British lass department. Most important, “Prada 2,” despite being set in the present day, harkens back to the innocent, NYC-set romantic comedies of the 2000s.…  ( 1 min )

The Portland Trail Blazers host the San Antonio Spurs in Game 3 of their opening round playoff series Friday evening, and you might think that would be cause for excitement in the City of Roses. After all, the Blazers gained home court advantage over the heavily favored Spurs by defeating them in San Antonio two nights ago. The Blazers’ roster also features ascending guard Scoot Henderson, the kind of franchise player the team desperately needed after Damian Lillard left town in 2023. But no one’s really paying much attention to the Blazers players at the present moment. That could be because Portland won that game after Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama left Game 2 early with a concussion after having his face rearranged by the hardwood floor. More likely, however, it’s because their own…  ( 1 min )

A quick disclaimer before we get to the take: The Milan Winter Olympics have been a godsend. It’s the dead of February, there’s no more football on, and every news story coming out of Washington makes me want to take a swan dive off the Golden Gate Bridge. So thank God that you and I have been blessed with two weeks of profoundly exciting winter events (plus cross-country skiing), all set behind the best scenery porn that any live event could possibly offer. I want to go skiing in Italy now. I have to go skiing in Italy now, or I will die. I’ve seen NBC’s drone cam footage of those slopes, and you have, too. No one could possibly deny the attraction that footage elicits. So long as you and I get to actually, you know, watch it. This is where our take begins. Because while NBC’s aesthetic…  ( 1 min )

The Golden State Warriors have their first play-in game Wednesday night against the Los Angeles Clippers, and there’s a very good chance that you, the Dubs fan for life, would be quietly relieved if they got crushed. And that’s not merely because the Warriors have had a miserable season, punctuated by Jonathan Kuminga getting shipped to Atlanta. It’s because seeing them play in person would leave you penniless.  I just checked prices for Warriors home playoff tickets, should they advance to the big-boy tournament. The cheapest seats are going for $270 a pop on Ticketbastard, and that’s if you want to watch the game from the Chase Center lighting rigs. If you’d like to sit on the lower level, with a nice view of center court, that’ll run you over $3,500. That’s a down payment on a car just…  ( 1 min )

We’re at a stage with prestige TV now where a series that might have dominated online small talk 15 years ago will, thanks to an ever-splintering entertainment landscape, go unnoticed. Take “Your Friends & Neighbors,” for example. No, I’m not talking about the 1998 Neil LaBute film featuring one of the most unnerving monologues in film history. I’m talking about an Apple TV series that, perhaps unbeknownst to you, is booting up its second season this Friday. It’s a good show, and not merely because it’s NOT based on LaBute’s misery-fest. It’s because it stars Jon Hamm: the silver screen’s handsomest cad. You know Hamm, of course, from “Mad Men,” one of those early prestige TV dramas that did monopolize the virtual water cooler over its seven-season run. Hamm was perfect on that show as Do…  ( 1 min )

You would have thought that getting their ass handed to them in the Super Bowl would be the most embarrassing thing to happen to the New England Patriots this year. My dear reader, it turns out that would be a deeply, deeply faulty assumption. No, the team that gave you Spygate, Deflategate and Bob Kraft Hand Job-gate has once again chosen to show its ass to the whole world. And just before the NFL Draft, no less! How exciting! The scandal this time centers around Pats head coach Mike Vrabel, who just this past season washed away the stench of Bill Belichick’s final years in Foxboro by winning the AFC title in just his second season on the job. He’s cultivated a “he’s your kind of asshole!” vibe that his players and the media appeared to find appealing. One specific member of the media, D…  ( 1 min )

scenes from another stark barking batshit event

Justices may soon testify at a Senate hearing for the first time since 2011. The practice used to be more common; there are good reasons for bringing it back.

The siren call was apparently irresistible. “Kennedy Starts a Push to Help Americans Quit Antidepressants,” read a New York Times headline from early May — phrasing that seemed to normalize Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-science, roadkill enthusiast who is currently running the Department of Health and Human Services, and to assume that he wants to help everyday Americans. But reading the article should disabuse anyone of the notion that Kennedy has sincere, much less helpful, motivations in shepherding an event called the “Mental Health and Overmedicalization Summit,” held by the MAHA Institute, a far-right group organized to wage war on responsible healthcare systems. “No major medical organizations were represented at the gathering,” Times reporter Ellen Barry noted, and it’s not a sur…  ( 10 min )