"In times like these, exactly what I need:
»Let the more loving one be me.« — W.H. Auden"
Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Cohen asks us to calm down because Trump isn't Hitler. I find that unpersuasive. Every country gets its own fascism. But they all produce infinite suffering. ICE agents, masked, unmarked cars, no ID. And the system outlasts the man.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
If we’re talking fairy tales: Hans im Glück (Grimm’s ‘Hans in Luck’) trades his gold away until he’s left with nothing but a stone and still thinks he’s lucky. Trump in the Iran war does the same with oil, threats, and sanctions, and ends up with the stone too.“
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_in...
Great list, but it’s missing the most fitting one: "The Emperor’s New Clothes."
MAGA Moral: The suit isn't invisible; it’s just so elite that only "true patriots" can see it. Anyone pointing out the nudity is clearly a Deep State operative spreading Fake News.
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
"....A stranded whale seems like a massive rebuke for our collective sins......"
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Just binged S1 of Paradise. The 'only the right people survive' bunker fantasy feels like a Silicon Valley pitch deck made flesh. Add Trump as the guy in charge down there. Creepy.
youtu.be/QsjSIwQr7yw?...
Brooks explains the global traditionalist surge better than anyone. One blind spot: regions where modernity never really arrived. The AfD in the former GDR didn't rise from spiritual emptiness. It rose from humiliation.
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
Why does this instantly make me think of Iron Sky in these times?
After the conflict, we’re facing a world of blackmailers and posers, not cooperating nations. That’s why the EU model matters. Not just for Europe, but as a global alternative to power politics without rules
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
A heart-breaking moment captured in an SS photograph of a group of Hungarian Jews at Auschwitz II-Birkenau in or around May 1944.
A child found a flower & is giving or showing it to an older boy.
All the people in the picture were murdered in a gas chamber moments later.
#YomHaShoah
The Atlantic says Trump treats religion as a power tool. Closer: narcissism leaves no room for empathy, and empathy is what religion is built on. He's not using faith strategically. He just can't do what it demands. Maybe that's why he resonates. A narcissist in a narcissistic world.
Trump once suggested injecting disinfectant against Covid. Got re-elected. Now even Marjorie Taylor Greene wants the 25th Amendment. From Germany, we stopped asking what happened to Trump years ago. The question was always: what happened to America?"
gift article from The New York Times.
A president posing as Jesus after gutting healthcare, striking Iran and invoking prayer, a blasphemy against all faiths that preach compassion, and everyone who believes in basic humanity. He's not joking. He believes it.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Hypothetical: a president uses war as pretext to cancel elections. He bribes the military with a 50% defense hike. Purges principled officers. Sounds like fiction? Timothy Snyder says the structural conditions are in place.
open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p...
Dolly Parton has +65 favorability. Trump has -18. America knows what it wants.
www.uml.edu/news/press-r...
Finally, Hungary we will be sovereign, not a vassal of Russia
Europe exhales. Orbán spent 16 years capturing media, courts, elections — and still lost by a landslide. Autocracy's real weakness: it can't fix potholes or hospitals. Turns out reality wins eventually. Autocracies have an expiry date. About time.
Trump: From 'Iran annihilation' to Hormuz toll-deal in days – ailing Kaiser Wilhelm 2.0? Hybrid wars (drones/mines) render expensive fleets irrelevant, like 1914. Vance as successor? Paradigm shift! Europe learned from 1914, old ghosts live on in the US.
youtu.be/Dr8qLBvHNrA?...
AI avatars replacing influencers isn't disruption. It's the logical conclusion. A system driven purely by clicks, likes and consumption, never validated against reality ,can't tell human from AI. Influencers are Google Maps for politics. Without the territory.
www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/202...
Apollo 8 flew to the Moon. William Anders: "We came to explore the Moon and discovered the Earth." Frank Borman called the Moon "a vast, lonely, forbidding expanse of nothing." Some detours change everything. Will Artemis II?
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
Trump first begs allies to secure the Strait of Hormuz, then acts like the US is still the unchallenged global power. NATO remains the real benchmark for security; the militaries know it, but Trump plays by politics, not military logic.
www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...
A robotic hand and a human hand reaching towards each other, reminiscent of "The Creation of Adam." They are framed by a circle of glowing pink and blue stars. Below, white text reads "EUROPE The AI continent," with the European Commission logo in the bottom right corner.
We are making Europe a leader in AI.
One year into our plan, we've 19 AI factories running to boost our tech power.
We also launched an AI Skills Academy to boost digital skills. Plus, we are providing €1 billion to help businesses across EU use AI safely ↓
link.europa.eu/nj3VH9
Not only China was watching. Putin, eyeing the Baltics, took notes too. The lesson: American red lines are negotiable, resolve is market-dependent, posture is brittle when gas prices spike. Steroids build mass, not endurance.
Universe in a Computer: Math suggests we might live in a simulation. Hide this from Trump, or he'll claim he's inevitable for purely mathematical reasons.
phys.org/news/2025-12...
Opinion
The Opinions
Did Wokeness Leave Us Worse Off?
The debate over words we can and can’t say.
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/o...
NYT debates which words we're allowed to say. I stumbled onto 2 Broke Girls. Breaks every rule imaginable. More diverse than any campus seminar. And the characters actually have each other's backs. Turns out empathy doesn't require a style guide.
youtu.be/G3blWoO5KJs?...
This outcome was rooted in the war's chaotic start. While infrastructure was hit, the strategic result is a shift in Tehran’s favor: they now claim control over the Strait of Hormuz, a position they didn't hold before. A tactical escalation that led to a new geopolitical reality.
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