Thomas Bartscherer

Once again....

Trump: "Maybe I won't have a news conference santamataldum"

Mesmerizing visualization of music. Vivaldi's Spring. youtu.be/wLoGw5p4vJ4?...

BREAKING: Federal agents searched Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar's home as part of a criminal investigation, AP sources say.

"We need wisdom to figure out how to even think about alignment....", David Robinson, formerly of OpenAI. www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIMX...

Those Democratic senate candidates are looking good tonight. Ossoff against Collins looks like Ali against Liston.

"We need wisdom to figure out how to even think about alignment....", David Robinson, formerly of OpenAI. www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIMX...

Very curious what Trump thinks of the Anne Carson win

I don’t think everyone realizes how bad things are for US science: For the fiscal year that just ended, the Trump regime withheld $1.4 billion from the National Science Foundation’s research budget, which is about 1/5 of its primary research budget.

Negotiations to end the war in Ukraine "have expanded to include a multibillion-dollar oil deal that would benefit Middle Eastern business executives with ties to the two main U.S. negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner" reports @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/10/03/u...

Spectacularly shameful, this. Good way to dissuade highly competent people from wanting to have anything to do with public service. www.c-span.org/program/sena...

Another defeat for Trump in court: His egregious lawsuit against the Des Moines Register and pollster Ann Selzer has been dismissed on First Amendment grounds. www.news10.com/news/ap-iowa...

Noteworthy, and encouraging, that this kind of journalism still happens here.

Exceptional journalism from @newyorker.com on Jared Kushner's catastrophic diplomacy, conflicts of interest, arrogance. He represents "a new kind of Washington figure, for whom public office serves as a means to extraordinary wealth" www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Among other things, this means that, even if #SCOTUS *grants* a stay of Judge Talwani’s earlier injunction against the USPS rule (which seems increasingly unlikely), the rule would *still* not go into effect; the Court would have to freeze *this* injunction, too.

The contractor that renovated the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has told the Trump administration that errors in its own work and flaws in the repair plan, not vandalism, caused the pool’s new blue liner to peel and break loose, documents show.

Deadline Today - Toronto Documentary Film Festival filmfreeway.com/TorontoDocum... We have created a hybrid festival with 4 tiers to enhance your film and your festival experience. All accepted films receive all four tier options: audience feedback & interviews. —— #documentary #docfilmfestival

"This would imply, at least theoretically, that the laws of physics themselves would break down under certain conditions: that, for example, water could be made to spontaneously explode." www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/s...

Who's the publicist for this film? They're killing it! www.nytimes.com/2026/09/07/m...

The Trump administration is using the “domestic terrorism” label and other tools to go after people and groups it views as political opponents — from anti-ICE protesters to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Here’s how. bit.ly/4h4cm7Y

Hélas. A powerful artist, whose reinterpretations were revelations.

The highest-ranking officer in the U.S. military says there are no plans to send troops to polling places during November's midterm congressional elections, addressing concerns among Democrats that the Trump administration could use the military to interfere with the vote. https://to.pbs.org/4gJaUGI

Here’s hoping someone is writing a piece— it could even be a book— about the grand march of the Kristol father and son from left to right to left. A story about liberalism, about inheritance, about “intellectuals” & pundits, about media, about 100 years of American political history.

We used to sing that, accompanied by some fancy handclapping.

Breaking News: Dolly Parton, the country singer, songwriter, entertainer and entrepreneur known for her outsize persona and prodigious vision and talent that placed her in a class by herself, has died at 80. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/25/a...

[Exit Queen.]

It is not up to the president what Penn Station is called. It is not up to the president what Dulles Airport is called. It is not up to the president what battleship classes are called. It is not up to the president what Flag Day is called.

It is not up to the president what the Kennedy Center is called. It is not up to the president what the Department of Defense is called. It is not up to the president what the Gulf of Mexico is called. It is not up to the president what Lake Ontario is called.

The central problem with Chief Justice Roberts’s Friday afternoon “administrative” stay in the White House ballroom case isn’t just the lack of any clear standards for such relief; it’s that it’s hard to see how, *whatever* the standards are, this case could satisfy them. Me in today’s “One First”:

Hard to know whether the "national security" claim is cover for the vainglorious, wasteful, and incongruous ballroom, or the ballroom is cover for a sinister plot to create a Führerbunker from which to command an authoritarian coup.

"the poets and the painters who reflect their given time" becomes "the poet and the painter far behind his rightful time"

🚨BREAKING: President Donald Trump signaled Tuesday he’s willing to declare a national security emergency in an attempt to take over American elections. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

this is why there's national guard in the nation's capital

Glen Hansard in conversation with Iarla Ó Lionáird. www.rte.ie/culture/2017...

So Trump is now saying the "ballroom" is actually "the desperately needed Military Center, required for the National Security of Washington, D.C., and our Country, itself" He's also extended soldiers in D.C. until Jan. 20, 2029, his last day It's impossible to not to imagine the very worst

Glen Hansard in conversation with Iarla Ó Lionáird. www.rte.ie/culture/2017...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw1E...

Well it's about time.

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com "The longer that Trump remains in power, the more I’m convinced that it is only an unambiguous electoral landslide that will rebuke Trump and his movement," our columnist David French writes.

U.S. to Withdraw Subpoenas Issued to New York Times Journalists www.nytimes.com/2026/07/23/b...

Telemachus: But you have no weapons. Odysseus: Don't worry. Ann hath a way.

Strand at Strand