Picture of an angry group of macaroni penguins in front of rapidly declining stock market indices, with the caption “Lesson #1: Don’t fuck with the penguins”

Trump forgot lesson #1

VP Vance saying “Just say thank you” backgrounded by a graph of global stock market indices plummeting in the first quarter of 2025

A horse running through a hospital corridor with a flamethrower attached to its head.

[in the voice of Don LaFontaine]: Trump 2. The horse is back in the hospital and this time, it’s got a flamethrower.

Institute of Education Sciences was a George W Bush innovation

Republicans made it happen, as part of NCLB

Education Sciences Act of 2002

Idea was to provide a research base for its accountability: here are scientifically-tested methods than can improve education

Justice Dept. Tells Prosecutors to Drop Eric Adams Corruption Case: Live Updates (Gift Article) The dismissal of the charges would, for now, end the case against New York City’s mayor, and raise questions about the administration of justice under President Trump.

Trump’s no ideologue. He is totally willing to cross party lines if there’s a grift to be had. Adams knew just how to work him, too. No doubt there will be some sinecure in the Trump admin waiting for him if he loses the Dem primary in June. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/02...

I use Shokz OpenRun and like them a lot.

There's always been a lot of professional courtesy, personal friendship, and assumption of good faith among DC education policy people of different political persuasions.

This is healthy in normal circumstances.

Now is not normal.

Time to stand up and be counted.

yes, and it will feature mostly Norwegian and Icelandic actors, which will further piss off the future Kalaallisut-Americans.

I guess asteroid strikes, if you take the “existential” qualifier literally and believe that while it may be devastating to humanity, climate change is survivable.

Can’t think of another plausible one. Perhaps he is counting multiple forms of AI-initiated armageddons?

Of course, it’s possible that Trump isn’t so much anti-Denmark as he is pro-Nuuk.

Now go away or we shall taunt you a second time!

Old and new coats of arms for Denmark. King Frederik updated the coat of arms in December 2024.

The updated rampant polar bear on the Danish coat of arms, symbolizing Greenland, is now larger and langued.

In response, the Danish king calls on the royal graphic designer to enlarge the Greenlandic polar bear and give it a scary red tongue. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

I can’t imagine that ginning up military conflict with Denmark was high on the list of motivations for Trump voters, but tbf, I’m not sure it was ever polled.

Make America Incandescent Again!

Wait, wasn’t that Rusted Root?

A December 28th that falls on a Saturday has a decent claim to be the chillest day of the year.

4. Who famously and floridly mocked opponents of US involvement in Vietnam as "an effete corps of impudent snobs" and "nattering nabobs of negativism", only to later plead no contest to income tax evasion, subsequently withdrawing from office & public life?

FOGHORN LEGHORN

#LL103 #bestwronganswers

10th place Spurs with 2nd highest goals scored and 3rd best goal differential. Just doing a worse job distributing them efficiently.

But can they blow 3-0?

a cartoon character from south park sitting on a table Alt: Ike Brofkovski from South Park saying “yay”

Krugman: Wonkier, Snarkier, and Uncut. Here for it.

Fwiw, the “In Our Time” episode spotlights a different Loredan doge—Pietro—whose decision to substitute inferior millet for wheat in the Venice granaries led to widespread resentment from the populace. Maybe a lesson for Musk and Ramaswamy?

The Venetian Empire

Krugman’s illustration, a Bellini portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan, also reminded me of something I learned from a recent “In Our Time” episode - that the doge was more ceremonial than powerful. open.spotify.com/episode/2DQR...

Decent chance that DOGE will be similarly be mostly for show.

I’m happy to hear that Paul Krugman, unshackled from NYT’s op-editors and column length restrictions, intends his Substack to be wonkier and snarkier, two of his best traits.

a man is smoking a cigarette in a black and white photo with the words `` good job '' written below him . Alt: Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane from the classic film “Citizen Kane”. He is applauding vigorously and the words “Good Job” are overlaid on the image.

Connections
Puzzle #549
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Loved this Connex! Three categories that required some lateral thinking, and a couple of clever blind alleys.

Nikki Giovanni and James Baldwin. This piece is crucial.

Well, one of the teams is tearing the other to shreds so far, anyway! 😉

Must have been hitting the horse placenta this week

The Bridge: Yacht Or Nyacht? Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia · Episode

I’ll have to check out that documentary! I’d heard the term in passing earlier, but didn’t really get the shape of the genre until hearing this episode of the Hit Parade podcast interviewing the creators of the Yacht Rock term and related web series: open.spotify.com/episode/1d94...

If only there were a hypothetical Department of Government Efficiency tasked with saving the government money, led by someone who understood why transitioning to EV’s would save the USPS money in the long run over gas-powered delivery vehicles.