In all fairness, let’s start with a real, substantive achievement. The Southern border is more secure than it has been in decades. Biden helped a lot with his belated executive orders, but reinstating Remain in Mexico and ending largely fraudulent asylum claims have been even more effective. In February 2024, Border Patrol picked up some 140,641 migrants between legal ports of entry; this February, it was 8,347. Huge success. And proof that previous administrations actively chose to keep the border open.
But the rest is chaos, malice, revenge, and failure, tinged with levels of indecency never before seen from the Oval Office. https://andrewsullivan.
I haven’t been this focused since Napster. Every morning I turn on my phone and am…
Stunned, horrified.
Not that everybody agrees with me. Kind of like those days back in the beginning of 2000. The label execs told us they had it under control. After all, the law was on their side. You had acts and the industry telling its fans/customers to stop…and nothing did. We never did return to normal. And an outsider saved the recording industry. Yes, that’s what Daniel Ek did, and the labels know this, but acts consider him a pariah because in the process he got rich and they did not.
Trump is the antidote to not only Biden, but the entire Democratic party. You probably saw the Jon Stewart clip wherein he talks about Schumer waiting for Trump’s approval rating to go down to forty and then counters with the fact that the Democrats’ is TWENTY SEVEN!
flashy hotels and upmarket restaurants now dominate the center of Budapest, a city once better known for its shabby facades. New monuments have sprung up in the center of town too. One of them, a pastiche of the Vietnam War memorial in Washington, D.C., mourns Hungary’s lost 19th-century empire. Instead of war dead, the names of formerly “Hungarian” places—cities and villages that are now in Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Poland—are engraved in long granite walls, solemnly memorialized with an eternal flame.
But the nationalist kitsch and tourist traps hide a different reality. Once widely perceived to be the wealthiest country in Central Europe (“the happiest barrack in the socialist camp,” as it was known during the Cold War), and later the Central European country that foreign investors liked most, Hungary is now one of the poorest countries, and possibly the poorest, in the European Union. Industrial production is falling year-over-year. Productivity is close to the lowest in the region. Unemployment is creeping upward. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/05/viktor-orban-hungary-maga-corruption/682111/?utm_campaign=one-story-to-read-today&utm_content=20250331&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=One+Story+to+Read+Today
Today, Wired reported that it had found four more Venmo accounts associated with the Trump administration officials who participated in the now-infamous Signal chat about a planned military attack on the Houthis in Yemen. A payment on one of them was identified only with an eggplant emoji, which is commonly used to suggest sexual activity.
The craziness going on around us in the first two months of the second Trump administration makes a lot more sense if you remember that the goal of those currently in power was never simply to change the policies or the personnel of the U.S. government. Their goal is to dismantle the central pillars of the United States of America—government, law, business, education, culture, and so on—because they believe the very shape of those institutions serves what they call “the Left.” https://heathercoxrichardson.
Monday’s astounding story that the most senior members of President Donald Trump’s administration planned military strikes on Yemen over an unsecure commercial messaging app, on which they had included national security reporter and editor in chief of The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg, has escalated over the past two days.
On 13 March, Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Waltz, who was the policy director for two secretaries of defense and was a member of the House intelligence committee, sent a message on the commercial Signal app: “Team – establishing a principles group for coordination on Houthis, particularly for over the next 72 hours.” “The Houthis PC small group” would oversee a US air attack on the Houthis in Yemen.
They call him an opportunist and a vulture who’s capitalizing on a tragedy to promote his dangerous Medicare for All agenda. Over and over, they invoke his name alongside those of left-wingers the likes of Bernie Sanders. For the target of these attacks, Wendell Potter, it’s a familiar playbook — after all, he helped write it.
“I guess I should be flattered,” he jokes.
I have never heard such gut-punching opening lines. Lamar is not just a lyrical genius but also profoundly aware of the undercurrents simmering beneath the surface of America whilst remaining totally removed from our modern propaganda-filled social simulacra, giving him an uncanny level of prescience. Go back and listen to ‘euphoria’ again — he predicted everything Drake and his fans would do months ahead of time. His victory over Drake not only put Black music and culture back into the hands of those who created it but also gave Lamar a truly national stage for the first time. And upon taking that stage, those were the first words Lamar uttered. Another telegraphed prediction of the future; this time, not of a pop star’s descent, but of a nation’s. And he is right.
People want to TALK about it!
Now you know what it was like going to the movies in the late sixties and seventies. It was not high concept entertainment, it was food for thought, the movies were STIMULATING!
No one says they saw “Adolescence” and shrugs.
And maybe you haven’t seen it yet, but if so, you will. Because you’ll feel the societal pressure, your friends will testify, INSIST that you watch it.
This is the modern paradigm. Promotion/publicity/success comes from the bottom up, not the top down. The gatekeepers try to anoint winners. And sometimes they succeed. They’re in cahoots with the PR people… There’s the anticipatory hype, then the hype about each and every star, then analysis after the project launches.
The gatekeepers missed “Adolescence.”
But it’s more than that. Multiple people have told me that Stephen Graham is the best actor of the century. Your opinion may differ, but one thing is for sure, Graham is not a conventional movie star, young and good-looking.
And unlike an American series, there are only four episodes.
And “Adolescence” is not comedy or fantasy, but real life.
https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
Netflix adds original programming at such a steady clip that it can be hard to keep up with which of its dramas, comedies and reality shows are must-sees. And that’s not including all the TV series Netflix picks up from broadcast and cable networks. Below is our regularly updated guide to the 30 best shows on Netflix in the United States. Each recommendation comes with a secondary pick, too, for 100 suggestions in all. (Note: Netflix sometimes removes titles without notice.) https://www.nytimes.com/
A passer-by stopped and asked,
"Fishing" replied the old man.
Feeling sorry for the old man, the gent says,
In the warmth of the pub, as they sip their whiskies,
MAKE THE WOMAN HAPPY!Do something she likes, and you get points.Do something she dislikes, and points are subtracted.You don't get any points for doing something she expects.SIMPLE DUTIESYou make the bed. (+1)You make the bed, but forget the decorative pillows. (-10)You throw the bedspread over rumpled sheets. (-3)You go out to buy her what she wants (+5) in the rain (+8)But return with Beer. (-5)PROTECTIVE DUTIESYou check out a suspicious noise at night. (+1)You check out a suspicious noise, and it is nothing. (0)You check out a suspicious noise, and it is something. (+5)You pummel it with an iron rod. (+10)It's her pet Poodle. (-30)SOCIAL ENGAGEMENTSYou stay by her side for the entire party. (+1)You stay by her side for a while, then leave to chat with an old school friend. (-2)Named Tina (-10)Tina is a dancer. (-20)Tina has breast implants. (-40)HER BIRTHDAYYou take her out to dinner. (+2)You take her out to dinner, and it's not a sports bar. (+3)Okay, it's a sports bar. (-2)And its all-you-can-eat night. (-3)It's a sports bar, it's all-you-can-eat night, and your face is painted the colors of your favorite team. (-10)A NIGHT OUTYou take her to a movie. (+1)You take her to a movie she likes. (+5)You take her to a movie you hate. (+6)You take her to a movie you like. (-2)YOUR PHYSIQUEYou develop a noticeable potbelly. (-15)You develop a noticeable potbelly and exercise to get rid of it (+10)You develop a noticeable potbelly and resort to baggy jeans and baggy Hawaiian shirts. (-30)You say to her, "It doesn't matter, you have one too." (-80)THE BIG QUESTIONShe asks, "Do I look fat?" (-5) (Yes, you lose points no matter what)You hesitate in responding. (-10)You reply, "Where?" (-35)You give any other response. (-40)COMMUNICATIONWhen she wants to talk about a problem, you listen, displaying what looks like a concerned expression. (+2)You listen, for over 30 minutes (+50)You listen for more than 30 minutes without looking at the TV. (+500)She realizes this is because you have fallen asleep. (-4000)
