Dolly Parton on her Imagination Library program that Republicans defunded:
"[My daddy] was the smartest man I have ever known, but I knew [...] his inability to read probably kept him from seeing all of his dreams come true. Inspiring kids to love to read became my mission."
President Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine were officially nominated for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize today. We all know that the cats deserve it too. @ZelenskyyUa 💙🐱💙
We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of saxophonist Sonny Rollins. Known as the “Saxophone Colossus,” Rollins was among the finest improvisers on the tenor saxophone to appear on the instrument since the mid-1950s.
Rollins was a master of intelligent and provocative spontaneity combined with an excellent technique. He displayed an interest in unaccompanied saxophone improvisation and manipulations of tone color long before such techniques became common in modern jazz.
In a seven-decade career, he has recorded over sixty albums as a leader. A number of his compositions, including “St. Thomas”, “Oleo”, “Doxy”, and “Airegin”, have become jazz standards.
🚨 With all the craziness last week I missed that Prez Trump issued another executive order targeting immigrants, this time within the context of financial services. This had been rumored for a while but now we have it.
the premise is: remove access to banking, mortgages, loans, credit ---> self deportaiton.
The EO falls short of the worst-case scenario, but depending on how banks respond, it could have devastating consequences for people seeking to legalize their status and even for long-term residents, including H1Bs and J status holders ...🧵
The Department of Justice is acknowledging it has removed from its website news releases about criminal cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, calling the information about the prosecutions “partisan propaganda.” https://t.co/0IhIU0SwWo
“Last night, CBS's Late Show with Stephen Colbert went dark and with it close to 200 good paying union jobs disappeared as did a vital platform for performing artists for whom even just one appearance on the show could be a career maker.” https://t.co/T2vWfE0YIq
"You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman...you cannot become a German or a Turk... But anyone from any corner of the world can come to America to live and become an American."
-Ronald Reagan on one of our greatest strengths, which we seem eager to destroy
Sen. Kennedy says he has “a lot” of questions about Trump’s $1.8B “anti-weaponization” fund:
“I need to know where the money is going to come from. I need to know who would qualify. I need to know the definition of weaponization. I need to know who's been weaponized against?”
The Star launches in June with dramatically expanded coverage of Washington politics and policy — and new coverage of D.C. itself. The District isn’t just the place where politics happens. It’s home to the people who pull the levers of power. It’s where they live and work and commute and eat and vote and navigate the unique intersection of politics and real life.
The Star will cover all of it, from Donald Trump’s stamp on the District to the ambitions of its first new mayor in more than a decade. Who’s wielding power in D.C.? What’s driving them? What impact are they having on housing, schools, transportation and the District’s neighborhoods? What’s next for Home Rule? For statehood? And will the Nationals ever be good again?
We’ll do it with the same rigor we bring to our coverage of national politics and policy, and we’ll do it with the best local reporting team in D.C. We’re excited to announce the start of that team today — veteran journalists you know and trust, plus newcomers who will bring fresh eyes to the vibrant and sometimes vexing place we all call home.
New: A rule change pushed by White House officials would slash benefits or end support for as many as 400,000 Supplemental Security Income recipients with Down syndrome, dementia and other disabilities whose parents or relatives receive SNAP benefits. https://t.co/c6jfo6Nz57
Seven weeks after Hitler takes power, he sends SS troops to march into a meeting of the German parliament, Berlin, which approves the notorious Enabling Act, opening way for full Nazi dictatorship without any need to seek approval from legislature--today 1933:
Statement by President George W. Bush on Robert Mueller:
"Laura and I are deeply saddened by the loss of Robert Mueller. Bob dedicated his life to public service. As a Marine in Vietnam, he proved he was ready for tough assignments. He earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart before returning home to pursue law. In 2001, only one week into the job as the 6th Director of the F.B.I., Bob transitioned the agency mission to protecting the homeland after September 11. He led the agency effectively, helping prevent another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Laura and I send our heartfelt sympathy to his wife of nearly 60 years, Ann, and the Mueller family."
BREAKING: A unanimous 9th Circuit just ruled that first graders have First Amendment rights at school. A 6-year-old was punished for giving a classmate a drawing about Martin Luther King Jr. The court said this violated the student's free speech rights.
He's not just defending AI energy use. He is smuggling in a whole anthropology where humans are basically inefficient meat computers that you have to pour food and years into before they become useful. And once you accept that, the next move is obvious. If people are just costly biological training runs, then burning mountains of electricity to build synthetic intelligence starts to feel not only equal, but superior, even if it negatively impacts actual humans.
That is the dystopian. It makes human development sound like a bug in the system, and it makes sacrificing human and creational flourishing for more computational power sound logical. To him, the grid gets strained, prices go up, ecosystems get hit, but hey, humans eat too, so what's the difference?
The difference is that humans aren't an inefficient line item. They're the point. If your worldview can look at a child growing into an adult and describe it as energy spent to train intelligence, you haven't said something profound. You've revealed a horrifically rotten worldview.