Your regular reminder that cops don't actually justify their existence or enormous budgets by solving much crime.

Approximately 11% of all serious crimes result in an arrest, and about 2% end in a conviction.

And then there's this...

Joe Biden threw unprecedented amounts of money at police. More than TWICE what Obama gave them in the wake of the GFC.

Every major police union endorsed Donald Trump.

He looks like his skin is too big

It will be extremely interesting to see what institutions like Fenway Health and NYU Langone do now. The ostensible reason for their ending of youth gender care is now gone - will they resume care for all the trans kids they abandoned?

In the 2017 Blue Wave, Doug Jones was the first democrat elected statewide in Alabama in a decade (and the last one since), and Trump was definitely not as unpopular as he is now. I’m not saying an upset is likely but anything is possible.

Sesame Street v @sesamestreet X.com The word of the day is HABIBI! Happy #ArabAmericanHeritageMonth from Ramy Youssef, Elmo, and all of your friends on Sesame Street! screenshot of elmo asking: Mr. Ramy, what does salamu alaykum mean? 9:10 AM • 4/16/26

i love sesame street so much for not wavering on the values so many of us grew up learning from that show & yes the replies are the dumpster fire klan rally you’d expect them to be on there (like i have yet to find even a remotely funny one)

THREAD: The IEA global energy review 2026

* CO2 record high, but growth nearly ground to halt
* Clean energy shaved 3bn tonnes off CO2
* Fossil-fuel power pushed into reverse
* Age of Electricity "confirmed"
* "Extraordinary" solar growth
* Batteries up 40%
* EVs up 20%
1/10

I didn't previously know of Najwan Darwish's "Who Remembers the Armenians?" so here it is for anyone who was similarly unaware

Reposting with alt text

Wow. This is an insane statement. What is going on here???

NASA astronaut Christina Koch sits in an U.S. Navy MH-60S Seahawk attached to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 23 on the flight deck of the San Antonio Class amphibious transport dock USS John P. Murtha (LPD 26) after returning from space on Apr. 10, 2026.

This picture of Astronaut Christina Koch after the Artemis landing is frankly incredible and beautiful.

Linda Yaccarino replies to a Zohran Mamdani tweet to say that taxing rich people's penthouses is "actually one of the scariest things I have ever seen"

Zohran Mamdani said he's going to start taxing rich people who buy luxury housing in NYC but don't actually live in there, and the former CEO of Twitter/X called it "actually one of the scariest things I have ever seen."

Exactly one year ago today:

rest in power rachel corrie

@amagire@mastodon.social elevated horror: what if you're grieving your loved one TOO MUCH? folk horror: what if a child's disability could EAT PEOPLE? supernatural horror: what if your childhood trauma could EAT PEOPLE? psychological horror: what if your adult trauma could EAT PEOPLE? body horror: what if your gender dysphoria could EAT PEOPLE? slasher horror: what if a random guy was trying to kill you, instead of a cop or your boyfriend?

this one doin numbers on mastodon but bsky doesn't let me have enough characters

would watch a 5 season arc of a prestige TV show about the Chicago Pope's war time consigliere

ROMEO, BAKER M. @BakerMikeRomeo • 2h why would the pope care about your book Rod Dreher @roddreher • 1h Because it was widely denounced by Antonio Spadaro, SJ, and others as "anti-Francis" (which it's not, but that was the line in Civilta Cattolica, which Francis reads and has to approve before publication). And Francis's people called around Italy before my book tour asking... ROMEO, BAKER M. @BakerMikeRomeo Replying to @roddreher ok so here's the thing: he's the pope, right and you're explaining to a cartoon rabbit on the internet why you're important enough that the pope should know who you are

Since we’re all making fun of Rod Dreher, I think about this at least once a week

“The open letter, which has received over 4,300 likes and 2,900 shares as of Friday, appealed to Americans to “stop pretending this is only about one man.” He said, “A leader does not act alone. A leader is chosen, carried, and enabled. And so this is about you.””

Black and white expressionistic illustration in the style of Edvard Munch's The Scream. In the foreground, a bald man in a business suit stands on a distorted bridge, clutching his face with both hands, eyes bulging and mouth agape in a scream of existential horror. Behind him stretches a chaotic, warped cityscape of tilting buildings, factories emitting smoke, a church with a cross, a clock tower, and a construction crane. A car labeled "ABSURDE" drives on the road to the left. The sky is filled with swirling, agitated lines. Bold text in the upper right reads: "work, buy, consume and die."

A WHOLE CIVILIZATION WILL DIE TONIGHT My son needs lunch, and I have to put his backpack together, but a whole civilization will die tonight, so I'm wondering if they've closed their schools. Like, a snow day, maybe, except instead of snow it's "keep your children home so if you die, you die together" — instead of "well open back up once the plows have cleared" it's "we don't know if we'll be here tomorrow, hold your babies tight." It's just "talk" I'm told, which I've been told before. "It's how the president makes his deals." But I've never heard anyone talk about other human beings this way, and I'm not certain I can look my son in the eyes if we all agree to stomach it one more time. A civilization will die tonight, but as I zip up his backpack and kiss him off to school I think: if this is what we call leadership then I'm not entirely sure ours isn't already dead. @michaelfdubois Mukad A QuBoy @michacifdubois

Brutal.

Wishing this fabulously competent—and joyful—crew a safe return to a planet that, frankly, doesn't deserve them.

@schumer.senate.gov @kirstengillibrand.bsky.social

On a serious note —
Pope Leo is asking you to call your Members of Congress

Capitol switchboard
☎️ 202-224-3121

"Schumer takes no action" will be on his tombstone

[The Apollo 11 plaque] reads: "We came in peace for all Mankind." As the United States was dropping 7 ½ megatons of conventional explosives on small nations in Southeast Asia, we congratulated ourselves on our humanity. We would harm no one on a lifeless rock. - Carl Sagan