The chilling role of ChatGPT in mass shootings and other violence Several attacks involving OpenAI’s chatbot—including Tumbler Ridge and FSU—raise urgent questions about the technology.

Chatbots make it far easier than traditional internet use for a struggling person to move from violent thoughts toward action.

The FBI Director Is MIA Kash Patel has alarmed colleagues with episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences.

“Several officials told me that Patel’s drinking has been a recurring source of concern across the government…known to drink to the point of obvious intoxication”

“Some of Patel’s colleagues at FBI worry his personal behavior has become a threat to public safety” www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

Traders placed over $1bn in perfectly timed bets on the Iran war. What is going on? Suspicious wagers on the US-Israel war in Iran are creating huge windfalls and raising concerns among lawmakers

The truth about what’s behind this corruption will be ghastly www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

Trump lawyer from effort to overturn 2020 election to oversee probe of ex-CIA director, DOJ official says Joseph DiGenova, a conservative attorney, is being tapped by the U.S. Justice Department to lead an ongoing criminal investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan.

“For my friends everything; for my enemies the law.”

DOJ has become an instrument of authoritarianism. No more laments for what it was; or talk of “abuses”; or wishful thinking about how they can’t get away with it. They can, if not confronted across the board.

www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-l...

Trump, IRS in talks to settle US president's $10 billion lawsuit Lawyers for Donald Trump ​and the Internal Revenue Service are in talks to settle the U.S. president's $10 billion lawsuit against the tax ‌collection agency for leaking his tax returns to the media i...

Every presidential administration gets accused of corruption—sometimes with good reason, sometimes not. But the corruption of the Trump administration is of a magnitude that is not only without precedent in American history but so large and brazen as to be difficult to wrap one's head around.

The FBI Director Is MIA Kash Patel has alarmed colleagues with episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences.

EXCLUSIVE: Kash Patel’s colleagues are alarmed by what they say is erratic behavior and excessive drinking. I spoke with more than 2 dozen people with knowledge of his conduct, some of whom described it as a national security vulnerability. www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

The FBI Director Is MIA Kash Patel has alarmed colleagues with episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences.

Frankly, it’s incredible that Patel has lasted this long, just an absurd level of damage to the FBI (plenty of it publicly known, and some of it not). The familiar squawking reply with BS crime stats and other hyperbole is also just another tell... www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

Become a TPM Member Talking Points Memo (TPM) is an independent news organization that publishes reporting and analysis about American politics, public policy and political culture.

I've been a reader and member of @talkingpointsmemo.com for literally decades and it's one of the most impressive independent media operations in the country. Amazing how long it's been going, producing great reporting and analysis. Indispensable.

talkingpointsmemo.com/memberships

Why Pete Hegseth's Tarantino blunder wasn't the least bit surprising America's defense secretary is fixated on a fringe, violent version of Christian Nationalism.

Read @kieraevebutler.bsky.social on Pete's Fiction: "We’ll probably never know precisely why Hegseth saw fit to use a cinematic prelude to murder as a blessing for the troops, but... it aligns perfectly with his fixation on a violent version of Christianity." www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Trump’s 250-foot arch receives early design approval as public pans it The Commission of Fine Arts asked the architect for revisions, with one member suggesting the project could be downsized by leaving out gold-plated statues.

Total rejection of Trump's triumphal arch: "The fine arts commission received about 1,000 comments on the proposal in a public-comment period, and they were “100 percent” against the project, said Thomas Luebke, who serves as the commission’s secretary." wapo.st/4ctV00V

Good luck with that. Data centers — gigawatt-sucking, pollution-spewing slop houses of mediocrity — are ravaging the environment, consuming all the water and electricity and supercharging utility bills. It really makes those midnight chats with the love bot sort of bittersweet to know that the orgasms are measured in metric tons of melted glacier. Do you realize how much water and power it’d take to replicate the average writer’s narcissism, self-loathing and despair? It’d drain the Indian Ocean. You could light up Times Square for a year. We can’t afford it.

😂😂

“It really makes those midnight chats with the love bot sort of bittersweet to know that the orgasms are measured in metric tons of melted glacier.”

Opinion | Don’t Use A.I. to Do This

Some pretty great AI-driven creativity here from @colsonwhitehead.com! www.nytimes.com/2026/04/15/o...

DOJ moves to undo Jan. 6 rioters’ convictions for seditious conspiracy President Donald Trump last year commuted the prison sentences of 12 members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.

Reprehensible, and yet more damage to the rule of law in America wapo.st/4cOOPVx

Iran’s Regime Has Changed—for the Worse The U.S.-Israeli attack fast-tracked the ascent of hard-liners and apocalyptic religious followers, raising doubts about a lasting peace.

WSJ: Iran’s Regime Has Changed—for the Worse

“The new leadership has proved resilient and adaptable, emerging from the first five weeks of the war with its command and control intact. Their hard-line approach is evident in their appointments.” www.wsj.com/world/middle...

Vance will be lucky if his fate after 2028 is limited only to reading the entire Faust canon over and over again for the rest of his life

JD Vance telling the pope what to do sure is something www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/u...

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette announces it has found a buyer to keep the newspaper open Owners of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said they have found a buyer who had agreed to keep the newspaper open, less than a month before it was due to shut down.

The nonprofit that runs the successful, Pulitzer-winning Baltimore Banner is going to take over the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Of all the possible outcomes here, this is likely the best we could have hoped for.

apnews.com/article/pitt...

how entertaining, replete with charming soundtrack… but ofc soon enough it will be people running for their lives

Who ever could have predicted this

Chat logs indicate Ikner asked the bot how to take the safety off of a shotgun three minutes before he began firing. The chat bot answered, giving a detailed description of how to make the shotgun operable. “Let me know if you’ve got a different model and I’ll tailor the answer,” the chatbot wrote. After that, the chat goes silent. Comparing the chat logs to the official police timeline, it’s less than three minutes from the time ChatGPT tells the shooter how to arm the weapon and the first victim being shot. According to WCTV, Ikner’s previous conversations had included suicidal thoughts and questions about the legal fates of school shooters. He also asked when the FSU student union would be busiest.

Chat logs indicate Ikner asked the bot how to take the safety off of a shotgun three minutes before he began firing. The chat bot answered, giving a detailed description of how to make the shotgun operable. “Let me know if you’ve got a different model and I’ll tailor the answer,” the chatbot wrote. After that, the chat goes silent. Comparing the chat logs to the official police timeline, it’s less than three minutes from the time ChatGPT tells the shooter how to arm the weapon and the first victim being shot. According to WCTV, Ikner’s previous conversations had included suicidal thoughts and questions about the legal fates of school shooters. He also asked when the FSU student union would be busiest.

This isn't theory. Shocking new details from the FSU mass shooting show how a killer can use ChatGPT precisely in this way—including during an attack.

"less than 3 minutes from the time ChatGPT tells the shooter how to arm the weapon and the first victim shot" www.motherjones.com/media/2026/0... 3x

The chilling role of ChatGPT in mass shootings and other violence Several attacks involving OpenAI’s chatbot—including Tumbler Ridge and FSU—raise urgent questions about the technology.

What's to stop a would-be killer from hiding his intent and asking about keeping an AR-15 from jamming? When I typed in a version of that question, ChatGPT instantly produced a detailed list of advice on how to “keep a rifle running reliably during heavy use” 👉 www.motherjones.com/media/2026/0... 1x

In his second term, Mr. Trump seems even less restrained and more incoherent at times. He uses more profanity, speaks longer and regularly makes comments rooted in fantasy rather than fact. He keeps saying that his father was born in Germany when in fact he was born in the Bronx. He repeats an invented story about his uncle, an M.I.T. professor, telling him about teaching the terrorist known as the Unabomber. He wanders off into odd tangents — an eight-minute ramble at a Christmas reception about poisonous snakes in Peru, a long digression during a cabinet meeting about Sharpie pens, an interruption of an Iran war update to praise the White House drapes. He has confused Greenland with Iceland and more than once boasted of ending a fictional war between Cambodia and Azerbaijan, two countries separated by nearly 4,000 miles. (He evidently means Armenia and Azerbaijan). Even before lashing out at Pope Leo XIV on Sunday night, and then posting an image of himself as a Jesus-like figure before deleting it, Mr. Trump had shocked many with his outbursts at critics.

When Bannon said to 'flood the zone with shit' he probably didn't mean with Trump's own lunacy

"repeats an invented story about his uncle"

"an eight-minute ramble at a Christmas reception about poisonous snakes in Peru"

"an interruption of an Iran war update to praise the White House drapes"

...

"A Reuters/Ipsos poll in February found that 61 percent of Americans think Trump has become more erratic with age and just 45 percent say he is “mentally sharp and able to deal with challenges,” down from 54 percent in 2023"

Trump’s Erratic Behavior and Extreme Comments Revive Mental Health Debate

"not just a concern voiced by the left, late-night comics or mental health professionals. It can be heard now among retired generals, diplomats and foreign officials. And most strikingly it can be heard now on the political right among onetime allies of the president" www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/u...

‘This was me as a chef.’
- Trump

Canadian mother held by ICE with daughter, 7, speaks out on families ‘suffering greatly’ in detention Tania Warner and her daughter were detained in Texas facilities deemed ‘unsafe and degrading’

On it goes, this profoundly shameful conduct by the Trump administration. He campaigned on detaining and deporting violent criminals... www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

The Last Supper.

"I'd like to gavel in today's board meeting of the American Medical Association...."

A White House official said the food delivery was given by the president to West Wing staff, "who greatly enjoyed the cheeseburgers and fries."

Thank you, CBS News, for reporting this important, erm, nugget from today's made-up news event. www.cbsnews.com/news/doordas...

Minnesota county investigates federal agents’ removal of US citizen from his home as a possible kidnapping | CNN Officials in Ramsey County, Minnesota, on Monday announced a criminal investigation into the arrest of ChongLy Thao, a US citizen caught in a viral photo as immigration agents walked him out of his ho...

Minnesotans will continue to demand justice.

www.cnn.com/2026/04/13/u...

Correct. In my view, that's precisely why this emerging phenomenon with chatbots is important. (Also detailed in the story.) I appreciate your interest and comments.