Dear Virginians,

Y'ALL FUCKING ROCK!!

Sincerely
Me

Inside the DOGE Takeover of the Federal Government In early 2025, Americans first learned about the takeover of the federal government by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). DOGE had been operating under a veil of secrecy, with l...

Thrilled, honored, and so proud of @wired.com for winning the 2026 Hillman Prize for Magazine Journalism:

"WIRED’s stories were not only groundbreaking; they were singular."

The right gambled, tried to rig the election, lost, and now it’s excuses and tears.

Thanks for everything, Virginia. 🙏🏽

He seems nice

Alright, I’m home now so here’s the Norm update. Yesterday at 4pm, I got a text from a family I’ve been helping who had a loved one abducted a couple of days after Renée Good’s murder. This was the family that Norm Nation kept from being evicted (and you delivered). ICE had released their loved one.

Incredible thread. The level of in person community-building and mutual aid that came out Minneapolis is unprecedented in modern American times.

A reminder while Republicans bitch about Dems finishing the redistricting fight they started: they have full control of gov’t— they can pass a law banning gerrymandering any time they want. They won’t. Republicans aren’t mad gerrymandering exists; they’re mad that they’re not the only ones using it.

Russian drones struck Zaporizhzhia rail yard overnight. At the moment of impact, a train with an electric locomotive was on the tracks.

The assistant driver was killed, and the driver himself was hospitalized‼️

Testing finds toxic metals where Tesla discharges wastewater The drainage district that commissioned the testing has sent a cease-and-desist letter to the company, which says it is in compliance with all requirements for its state wastewater discharge permit.

I’m shocked. www.texastribune.org/2026/04/21/t...

🔥🔥🔥 DO NOT BE DISTRACTED & STAY LOUD

TRUMP IS GOING DOWN — BIBI, PUTIN, BONDI & MELANIA KNOW!

TRUMP & EPSTEIN ARE SEX TRAFFICKERS & I’m gonna post this every day so nobody forgets exactly who Pedophile Trump is and why the Epstein files have suddenly disappeared 🔥🔥🔥

🩸🩸🩸 I'm going to post this video every day so we never forget what the 34x POS convicted felon who incites political violence, adjudicated rapist & pedophile Trump did on J6 🩸🩸🩸

THIS IS WHAT AN INSURRECTION LOOKS LIKE ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Maybe Trump Shouldn’t Visit Xi After All When Donald Trump visits his Chinese counterpart in Beijing next month, “President Xi will give me a big, fat, hug,” the American president predicted the other day. “Doesn’t that beat fighting??? BUT REMEMBER, we are very good at fighting, if we have to — far better than anyone else!!!”

Trump can't ask Xi to concede anything big. But Xi will ask Trump — and Taiwan could end up the loser (via Bloomberg Opinion)

The fall of the theorem economy How AI could destroy mathematics and barely touch it

A fascinating read on what AI is doing to mathematics, and what that means for mathematicians davidbessis.substack.com/p/the-fall-o...

The icing on the cake in Trump/Abbott’s gerrymandering scheme will be when a couple of Republicans lose their elections in Texas in the midterms specifically because their districts were weakened by the dummymander.

Satellite Data Reveal Scope and Scale of US-Israeli Strikes on Iran New data analysis shows the level of destruction in Tehran and across the Islamic Republic — and the heightened stakes of a return to all-out war.

New Bloomberg satellite data analysis reveals the scale of US-Israeli strike damage and the heightened stakes of a return to all-out-war.

www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

The Unfading Mirage of Negotiation - International Centre for Defence and Security For more than four years, the spectre of negotiation in Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine has hovered persistently over the reality of war itself.

icds.ee/en/the-unfad...

How FIFA used dynamic pricing to milk millions more out of 2026 World Cup tickets

FIFA trying to squeeze every last dollar out of fans. FIFA-off. www.nytimes.com/athletic/716...

Palantir manifesto described as ‘ramblings of a supervillain’ amid UK contract fears Alarm caused by posts of Alex Karp, tech firm’s CEO, championing US military dominance and of AI weapons

Turns out that the planet's Bond "supervillain" is straight outta Philly's Central High and Haverford College. What a black mark on our city www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

World food systems ‘pushed to the brink’ by extreme heat, UN warns Severe heatwaves in commonly hot regions could leave farmers unable to work outside, with livestock mortality rates expected to rise Extreme heat is threatening the world’s food systems, with farmers unable to work outside, livestock experiencing stress and crop yields falling, putting the livelihoods of more than a billion people in peril, the UN has warned. Experts said food supply in some areas was being “pushed to the brink” by increasingly common and severe heatwaves, on land and at sea, in a major report written jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Continue reading...

World food systems ‘pushed to the brink’ by extreme heat, UN warns

Opinion | ‘Easily the Worst President in U.S. History’

Trump’s legacy is sickness, death and thievery. Read this list of what must be repaired www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/o...

Zelenskyy to crash EU summit after calling Orbán’s bluff in €90bn loan row Also in this newsletter: EU mutual defence without ‘irritating’ US

Operationalizing Article 42.7 is exactly what the EU should be doing given lack of US reliability. If the Trump adm wants burden shifting it should be encouraging this. Instead, it will be half-assed b/c "we shouldn’t irritate the transatlantic relations and our partners" www.ft.com/content/0894...

Crypto Billionaire Sues Trump-Linked Project Alleging Extortion Crypto billionaire Justin Sun and his companies sued World Liberty Financial, a crypto project co-founded by President Donald Trump, accusing the company of extortion and an “illegal scheme” to seize ...

Trump's crypto scam, World Liberty Financial, pressured crypto billionaire Justin Sun into giving it more money and when he didn't, it froze his tokens and prevented him from selling any while seizing the power to burn Sun’s tokens in his wallet, among other things.
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Trump rages at 'moron' WSJ editor who called him a 'sucker': 'Iran doesn't think so!' President Donald Trump raged at one of the Wall Street Journal's editorial board writers on Tuesday in a new Truth Social post. Trump directly addressed Elliot Kaufman of the WSJ's editorial board in ...

Trump rages at 'moron' WSJ editor who called him a 'sucker': 'Iran doesn't think so!'

www.rawstory.com/trump-iran-2...

Trump Will Attend The White House Correspondents' Dinner. We Sure Won't. Trump’s entire presidency is an affront to a free press.

HuffPost Editor in chief: Trump Will Attend The White House Correspondents' Dinner. We Sure Won't. www.huffpost.com/entry/a-line...

Over the past day, russia has attacked 29 settlements in
Sumy Oblast, wounding 33 people, damaging 50 residential buildings, a school, and other civilian infrastructure.

Help stop this terror — support air defenses:
u24.gov.ua/sky-defense?...

Judge dismisses Kash Patel's defamation lawsuit over claim he frequented 'nightclubs' The lawsuit against Frank Figliuzzi was dismissed a day after FBI Director Kash Patel sued The Atlantic magazine over claims he abused alcohol.

Congrats to my friend @frankfigliuzzi.bsky.social on winning defamation lawsuit brought by Kash Patel. Frank said Patel had “been visible at nightclubs" more than at FBI HQ. Patel sued Frank to intimidate others into not criticizing him. Big win Frank AND for 1st Amend!
www.cnbc.com/2026/04/21/k...

’Terwijl wij uitleggen wat ‘woke’ wél betekent, zijn we geen fascisme aan het bestrijden’ 'Woke' komt uit de Zwarte cultuur, schrijft columnist Asha ten Broeke, maar is door rechts opgeklopt tot links complot.

Zoals Toni Morrison al zei: de functie van racisme is afleiding. En voor die afleiding zorgen rechtse mensen die liegen over wat ‘woke’ betekent, schrijft taalcolumnist @ashatenbroeke.bsky.social. ‘Maar er is zoveel belangrijker werk te doen dan verzinsels en apekool weerleggen.’

Trump & Corporate Media: if US stops funding Ukraine, Putin will quickly triumph!

Reality: Ukraine continued to hold out without US, and threat unified EU to help secure Ukraine's finances without US.