1/. A must read.....Andrew Sullivan on our new King.......
It has been a clarifying few days, hasn’t it?
My mind kept wandering to the fable of Hans Christian Andersen about the emperor’s new clothes. Insulated from any reality, surrounded entirely by yes-men, and utterly convinced of his own unique powers of observation, the Emperor struts forth one day sure of his new finery, but in fact, remains completely starkers. It takes one small boy to point out the feeble willy swinging in the breeze, and the exposure is complete. Indelible. Irrecoverable. https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/the-emperors-new-tariffs?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=61371&post_id=160731709&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=2cwgv&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
2/. After the Andrew Sullivan piece, so appropriate......
3/. Another must read.....George Monblot tells us why the world is drifting towards authoritarianism.....
“He’s really gone and done it this time. Now everyone can see what a disaster he is.” How many times have we heard this about Donald Trump? And how many times has it been proved wrong? Well, maybe this time he really has overstepped. After all, his clowning around with tariffs, sparking trade wars, then suddenly reversing his position, could provoke a global recession, perhaps even a depression. Surely his supporters will disown him? But I’m not banking on it, and this is why.
Already, Trump has waged war on everything that builds prosperity and wellbeing: democracy, healthy ecosystems, education, healthcare, science, the arts. Yet, amid the wreckage, and despite some slippage, his approval ratings still hold between 43 and 48%: far higher than those of many other leaders. Why? I believe part of the answer lies in a fundamental aspect of our humanity: the urge to destroy that from which you feel excluded.
4/. Tom Tomorrow with IHOFM......
5/. The writer asks why they are treating the NIH like it's toxic?
By the time their spending accounts were reactivated on Thursday, some scientists at the National Institutes of Health said they were running on fumes.
They had spent weeks scrambling to keep their labs running amid spending freezes, firing rampages and the chaos and confusion brought on by both. They were reusing latex gloves in an effort to conserve supplies. They were borrowing, donating and sharing a long roster of crucial but dwindling reagents with one another, in email threads that had morphed into virtual bazaars. In interviews, several of them said they would have to close up shop in as little as two or three weeks if something didn’t change drastically, and soon.
6/. The only Republican plan is destroy, destroy, destroy......
7/ A chilling story about AI and what's coming, AGI. It's long, and highlights the way this is developing,
with a group of tech bros about to revolutionise our lives whether we like it or not.....
In June of last year, Leopold Aschenbrenner, a 24-year-old former OpenAI employee, published Situational Awareness: The Decade Ahead, an urgent manifesto about artificial intelligence. “You can see the future first in San Francisco. Over the past year, the talk of the town has shifted from $10 billion compute clusters to $100 billion clusters to trillion-dollar clusters. Every six months another zero is added to the boardroom plans,” he wrote. “The AGI race has begun. We are building machines that can think and reason. By 2025/26, these machines will outpace many college graduates. By the end of the decade, they will be smarter than you or I; we will have superintelligence, in the true sense of the word.” What does that mean? Leave that question to your wildest dreams or nightmares, which Aschenbrenner summoned ably: total liberation for humanity or total repression or extinction.
8/. The SNL cold open.....very good.....
9/. And continuing with data, are you aware that the real goal of DOGE is to get ALL of the Gub'mints data to use [initially] to find and deport illegal aliens.
Then after that, who knows, liberals? Heather Cox Richardson spells out what they are secretly up to.....
On April 4, Trump fired head of U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) and director of the National Security Agency (NSA) General Timothy Haugh, apparently on the recommendation of right-wing conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who is pitching her new opposition research firm to “vet” candidates for jobs in Trump’s administration.
Former secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall wrote in Newsweek yesterday that the position Haugh held is “one of the most sensitive and powerful jobs in America.” Kendall writes that NSA and CYBERCOM oversee the world’s most sophisticated tools and techniques to penetrate computer systems, monitor communications around the globe, and, if national security requires it, attack those systems. U.S. law drastically curtails how those tools can be used in the U.S. and against American citizens and businesses. Will a Trump loyalist follow those laws? Kendall writes: “Every American should view this development with alarm.” https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-11-2025?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=20533&post_id=161163412&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=2cwgv&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
10/. An SNL skit that's edgy - the financial report for people living paycheck to paycheck.....quite good!
11/. Real estate in Florida is in free fall......it's worse than you might imagine.....
Florida condominium owners are increasingly worried about being forced out of their properties by rising fees stemming from a new building safety regulation introduced in the aftermath of the Surfside collapse. "I'm scared," Georgie Pratt, the owner of a one-bedroom condo at Winter Park Woods in northern Orange County, told WESH 2 reporter Justin Schecker.
"My mortgage is a percentage of what these fees are," said Pratt, who has owned the unit since 2006. "My mortgage is about $300 a month, and my fees are now $2,100."
12/. Could this be the future.....for some billionaires maybe......AI is amazing.....
14/. Really interesting - how to identify and defend yourself against sociopaths......
You may recognise someone from the traits they describe....
what just happened?” you’re asking yourself.
You knew the conversation would be tricky because you had to tackle someone about their misbehavior. Maybe it was a colleague who claimed your work idea as their own; maybe it was a new friend who said nasty things behind your back; or maybe it was a romantic partner who was unfaithful. The evidence is incontrovertible—so much so that, had the boot been on the other foot, you would be confessing your error and asking for forgiveness. But that’s not this person’s MO.
16/. After a recommendation from friends, we have started watching "The Pitt'......wow....
Ever have one of those endless days at work? For 15 hours in the Pitt, the emergency room that lends its name to the Max medical drama, a team of doctors and nurses, led by Dr. Michael Robinavitch (Noah Wyle), have been tackling every woe that human frailty and the city of Pittsburgh can throw at them.
What do they treat? You name it. Mass-shooting injuries. Overdoses. Problem pregnancies. Heart attacks. Measles.
What do they really treat? Despair. The flood of opioids. The lack of insurance. The lack of support networks. Male rage. Rage, in general. The breakdown of the public health system. The breakdown of the public.
Over a long, stressful, yet reassuringly competent and entertaining first season, which wrapped up on Thursday, “The Pitt” generated old-school melodrama out of a simple understanding: The E.R. is where people end up when something goes wrong, either with the body individual or with the body politic.
17/. One of the most intelligent shows on the air......"Black Mirror".....
It’s tough being an anthology. While other dramas set up their premise and characters and then lazily dole out a little more of the same in every episode, anthologies must constantly seek our approval anew. If critics and viewers think the latest shiny thing is a dud, they toss it into the void and deem all the expert hard work that went into it to be a waste. Even the hits are only celebrated briefly before everyone moves on to the next fresh story, ready to give it a thumbs up or down.
In season seven of his collection of digital-age fables, Black Mirror writer Charlie Brooker finally cracks and, for the first time, produces a sequel to an old episode. This year’s feature-length finale, USS Callister: Into Infinity, is a straight continuation of season four’s fan favourite. But it’s the least interesting instalment from the new batch, because it can’t replicate the thrill, the hope, of starting without knowing whether this latest adventure will be a success. The other five offerings take that risk, and almost all get their reward.
Today's musical video
Clever, and most entertaining clip of Nicole Pensce playing "Happy Birthday" on the piano as classical composers would have played the song.....
Beethoven, Bach etc.....
Very well done, a nice video.....four minutes....
Today's psychiatric joke
Therapist - what's the problem?
Wife - he replaces words with animal names just to annoy me.
Husband - I don't do it on porpoise!
Today's terrible Minnesota joke
Ole is a farmer in Minnesota. He needs a new milk cow and hears about one for sale over in Nordakota. (That would be North Dakota for you non-Scandahoovians out der).
He drives to Nordakota, finds the farm and looks at the cow. He reaches under to see if she gives milk. When he grabs the tit and pulls...the cow farts.
Ole is surprised. He looks at the farmer selling the cow, then reaches under the cow to try again. He grabs another tit, pulls, and the cow farts again.
Milk does come out however, so after some discussion, Ole buys the cow and takes her home.
He gets back to Minnesota, he calls over his neighbor Sven, and says, 'Sven, come look at dis ere new cow I yust bought. Pull her tit, and see vat happens.'
Sven reaches under, pulls the tits - and the cow farts.
Sven looks at Ole, 'You bought dis here cow in Nordakota, didn't yah?'
Ole is surprised since he hadn't told Sven about his trip.
Ole replies, 'Yah, dats right. But how'd yah know?'
Sven says, 'My wife's from Nordakota.'
Today's Star Wars joke
Therapist - so why do you want to end your marriage?
Wife - I hate the constant Star Wars puns.
Husband - Divorce is strong with this one.....
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