The thing is, Trump is not a madman. He’s just ignorant, impulsive, and easily distracted and manipulated.

The buffet would incapacitate them

if the Iranians try to board a Carnival ship they will get beaten up by drunks

James Cameron already writing the script about the Carnival Cruise line that goes down and some lady survives by floating on an oversized flamingo from the pool

Whatever close enough

>European cruise lines are the only ones willing to run the Hormuz blockade

Someone help me I think I’m having a stroke

In the same manifesto, Palantir's owners argued that we need a national military draft, that soft power is over, and that we were too hard on Germany and Japan after World War II. I don't think that company should be allowed to exist anymore.

Live updates: Iran vows swift response after US seizes vessel President Donald Trump said U.S. negotiators will be in Pakistan on Monday for round two of talks with Iran as tensions rise over passage in the Strait of Hormuz.

People are treating this like it isn’t really happening apnews.com/live/iran-wa...

U.S. Navy destroyer repeatedly warned an Iranian-flagged cargo ship to stop over a six-hour period on Sunday before firing on the ship's engine room, disabling the Iran-bound vessel to allow helicopter-borne Marines to board and seize it, U.S. Central Command said in a statement. When the crew of the Touska, the Iranian ship, ignored the American warnings, a destroyer fired its MK 45 gun into the cargo ship's engine room, Central Command said. On Sunday, Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit were conducting a search of the vessel, which is now in American custody. 1 hour ago

One of the most blatant examples of sane-washing I've ever seen from the NYT.

This was an unarmed cargo vessel in international waters, crewed by noncombatants!

An even bigger worry here is the American public simply stopping paying any attention to the situation or treating like a total nothingburger. That’s how things like Pearl Harbor happen.

I want enough safety net that if you faceplant or the system shifts, you can get back up. Get buggy whip makers back to school, keep the failed entrepreneur housed, get the recovered cancer patient an interview suit that fits.

People like working when they're valued!

Oh. Wait. That last bit. Oops.

It's not murder. It's suicide.

Women have the same rates of autism as men – but get diagnosed less A new study on autism prevalence in both genders suggests that ‘clinical biases contribute to under-recognition of women and girls’

New research finds that women and girls have similar rates of autism as men and boys. The study found that the reason why girls are less likely to be diagnosed is because of clinical biases. www.independent.co.uk/news/health/...

If you feel certain this challenge will be limited to a few disciplines, you have more epistemic confidence than I.

So I think we need everything to work. Students need to know that universities can give them irl experiences they wouldn't get online — and also put them on the cutting edge re: AI.

If you look at math, CS, and molecular bio, it's easy to see how advances could start to depend on proprietary tools that academics can neither build nor fully analyze.

Personal human attention is part of what makes us competitive. But so is ability to explain the production of knowledge. +

I don't worry that residential higher ed will be outcompeted at *instruction* by something like the Khan TED academy. The in-person experience will hold value as it did against MOOCs.

But to be more than glorified camps, universities need to retain intellectual leadership, & about that I worry. +

Syrian Billionaires Needed a Favor in Washington. They Invoked the Trump Name.

Is US foreign policy still meant to benefit Americans? Or peace? Or international prosperity? Those were the questions I asked after reading this article
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/19/u...

BREAKING: In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the U.S. Navy intercepted an Iranian-flagged cargo ship that was moving past the blockade by "blowing a hole in the engineroom."

Akayla Gardner reports.

I’m not sure the Iranians will want to negotiate if it’s just Witkoff & Kushner on the other side of the table.

It would be a humanitarian act if an alliance were to oust our government so that stabilization might occur. We’ve done it to nations in the past whose people couldn’t rise up en masse. The problem is people aren’t able to conceive of the USA being just another competitive authoritarian disaster.

Also key to note what Trump is threatening here: a global war, some would say a world war.

1. It would affect almost every country on the globe, at least economically.

"Dear America" letters from people who work at the besieged US Department of Housing and Urban Development:

dearamericaletters.org

I commented on a video on IG about the CNN reporting on the group sharing tips on how to drug & rape their wives. There are multiple men in the replies to my comment mansplaining how the numbers are actually much lower.

FFS! two men sharing that horror w each other is too many. I'm so disgusted.

The United States is destroying itself | Rebecca Solnit The daily news can’t adequately convey the administration’s sabotaging of our government, economy, alliances and environment

“The United States is being murdered, and it’s an inside job. Every department, every branch, every bureau and function of the federal government is being fatally corrupted or altogether dismantled or disabled.”

Trump says Iran talks will resume, threatens power plants and bridges if no deal The president accused Iran of violating the ceasefire as ships reported attacks in the Strait of Hormuz but said U.S. representatives would be back at the table this week.

Trump says he may end Iranian civilization again (bridges and power plants), for I guess like the fifth time? wapo.st/41J4LTV

finished reading Mr President and in the context of uh, everything, thinking a lot about dictatorship as carnival

Can anyone name another dictator who would melt down when told bad news? Or who’s staff tried to limit his involvement (unsuccessfully) in military decisions?

Anyone?

Listening to the Sunday sermon while having seen this leaves me in disquiet. This cancer on our society needs to be resolved. It will consume in ways we can’t predict.

Asymmetric response by Iran against the USA could get interesting. Could Iran hit US interest elsewhere in the world? Could a token incident occur in the US mainland? The Iranians still have the ability to act and can disrupt an ossified, sclerotic beast like the US through relatively small acts.