Eight *kids* and I had to ask my wife about it when it scrolled by on local news. We're a nation with massive brain-poisoning.

A short academic paper about how a comparatively tiny number of online influencers have wildly disproportionate effects on what gets attention in media. And they're pushing bullshit & lies. It's bad.

It’s National Library Week, so support your fucking libraries people. Use them, fight for their funding, fight for your librarians. Don’t let your most reliable third space go to waste.

New @nbcnews.com poll:

33% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the Iran war.

67% disapprove.

A majority “strongly disapprove.”

www.nbcnews.com/politics/don...

Mayor Mamdani and President Obama read a picture book to a group of children.

Mayor Mamdani and President Obama chat and laugh with a group of children.

Mayor Mamdani and President Obama chat and laugh.

Children hug Mayor Mamdani.

Today, President Barack Obama and I read to a group of toddlers at Learning Through Play Pre-K Center in the South Bronx. 

In between singing wheels on the bus, we discussed our administration’s vision for this City — one where New York’s Cutest have the strongest start possible.

In Angola, Pope Faces the Legacy of Colonialism

The Pope is visiting Angola, where 45% of all slave ships departed Africa during the era of the slave trade.

Most of the last voyages in the history of the slave trade - 1850s and 1860s - began in U.S. ports and sailed to Angola for captives.

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/w...

Virginia Ex-Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax Kills Wife and Self, Police Say

Horrific news today. Virginia Ex-Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax Kills Wife and Self, Police Say. Worth noting, his career ended with accusations of sexual assault. The couple was divorcing but still living in the same house. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/16/u...

Ye Just Made $33 Million in Two Nights. Will His Comeback Last? The music industry is tentatively embracing the artist formerly known as Kanye West

Lets be real. For male stars at least, cancel culture is a myth. See Trump, Louis CK and the infamous Kanye West who is raking in many millions www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

Texas State Rep. James Talarico just announced his campaign for U.S. Senate raised more than $27 million in the first quarter of 2026 — the largest amount ever raised by a U.S. Senate candidate in the first quarter of an election year.

"The effort comes in response to longstanding criticism that Harvard’s faculty leans overwhelmingly liberal."

Golly, I wonder why faculties tend to be overwhelmingly liberal? Are liberals more drawn to teaching? Have conservatives been engaged in a long war on science and knowledge? WHO KNOWS?

Threats to Library Funding End With Settlement by Trump Administration

'This settlement protects life-changing library services for communities across the country'

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/a...

Top 2 as I learned them:

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.

Pope Leo: "I have no fear" of Trump The president issued a disturbing, insult-driven attack against the pope, labeling the Catholic leader "weak" and "terrible."

Pope Leo XIV: “I have no fear of the Trump administration, or speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do.” www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

An ai image posted on truth social by Donald Trump shows him in the heavens touching a man’s glowing forehead. An American flag in the background. Cloaked in robes with light surrounding him and a glow in his hand, Trump looks like a holy man or deity.

I’d love to get the word idolatry trending. It’s a sin.

As Hungarians have shown they want a better future, I also hope we see the death of the negative stereotype of "totalitarian dictatorship Eastern Europe." The close relationship b/t Orban and the US (incl. CPAC) should tell us authoritarianism is not just a domain of the former Eastern Bloc.

Hungary’s Orban, a Beacon to the Right Wing, Concedes Election

LOVE TO SEE IT!!!!!! A beacon of hope.
Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/12/w...

Opinion | Beware conservatives promoting “intellectual freedom” Victor Ray: This conservative lie about schools like mine is furthering authoritarianism

Making tenure count, for MSNOW I wrote about my employer, The University of Iowa, creating a center for intellectual freedom. It's a reactionary project built on decades of conservative propaganda about higher ed.

Aerial view of enormous crowd. Haven’t managed to source picture credit. Will post when I do

This is the massive turnout for last night’s “anti regime” concert in Heroes Square, Budapest, ahead of tomorrow’s crucial Hungarian elections. Tens of thousands chanted “Russians go home”. #Orban

If you think Killmonger was the good guy while he is practically twirling his moustache and talking about world conquest, just because he uses a few phrases that sound radical, you are actually not media literate enough to discuss this movie made for people 13 and over.

Today is the USF #Florida Studies Book Festival in St. Pete, featuring talks from such authors as Dr. Hilary Flower (THE KITE AND THE SNAIL) and Pulitzer-winner Gilbert King (BONE VALLEY). Admission is free. www.stpetersburg.usf.edu/academics/ar...

Really encouraging study on the impact of young voter interventions. Rigorous design, large scale n, and meaningful results.

This is great. Thanks Jenn.

Worth noting: the intra -MAGA rift is growing. Trump denounced right-wing royalty in an epic post that begins, “I know why Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones have all been fighting me for years…they have one thing in common, Low IQs” POLITICO: www.politico.com/news/2026/04...

Protoje, One of Reggae’s Premier Ambassadors, Doubles Down on His Roots

🔥🔥🔥Protoje, One of Reggae’s Premier Ambassadors, Doubles Down on His Roots www.nytimes.com/2026/04/10/a...

Bari Weiss’s CBS News? Hegseth is toast lol

Okay this isn’t really happening anymore so I can tell you how l had “internal ICE sources”: the 3000 very stir-crazy ICE agents were all going wild on Minneapolis Tinder. Local girls would match with them and string them along for intel. They loved to brag about what they were doing all day

What a great list in the Entertainment category. My Heated Rivalry, but also Adolescence, Andor, The Pitt, Mo, Dying for Sex, The Rehearsal!
And now wanna look up the rest to see.

$2 million per ship — to cross a Strait that was free six weeks ago.

@nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/06/w...

Trump was elected to wipe the trauma of the first black president from American history, a task which included scrapping the nuclear deal that had the US in a much better strategic position than before this needless, unconstitutional war of choice against Iran

I'm reading the alt text in Werner Herzog's voice...