How the rich get richer: Evade taxation, grease trillion-dollar tax breaks, jack interest rates, then seize depressed assets
Air Traffic Control and Med Spas: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Edmund White, pioneer of gay literature, dies at 85
Loretta Swit, Maj. Margaret Houlihan of TV’s ‘MAS*H,’ Dies at 87
Frederick Forsyth, Author of ‘The Day of the Jackal,’ Dies at 86
Valerie Mahaffey, Actress on ‘Northern Exposure,’ ‘Desperate Housewives’ and ‘Young Sheldon,’ Dies at 71. I loved her on The Powers That Be.
Alf Claussen, Emmy-Winning Composer for ‘The Simpsons,’ Dies at 84
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Crisis, Kindness, and Change; interview with Katie Couric; she was also on CBS Sunday Morning
The Hidden History of the Nazi U-Boats That Prowled the Gulf Coast
10 States With the Most Expensive Toll Roads
Lin-Manuel Miranda teaches us some of the slang terms used on Broadway.
Don Glut, Sheldon Mayer to Receive 2025 Bill Finger AWARD
Andy Huggins, king of the one-liners. A comedian older than I am…
The Curious Case of the Pygmy Nuthatch
Pocket Watch From Lake Michigan’s Deadliest Shipwreck Returned After 165 Years
500 days since Mark Evanier broke his ankle (I LOVE the picker-upper)
Follow the rule of adjective order!
How to eat a burrito
Now I Know: Can a Flying Potato Read This Email? and The Ancient Roman Pee Tax and The Great Bread Squeezing Crime Spree of the Late 1990s and Why a Boy Brought a Microwave to School
Bunny boiler
Hegseth Lays Out a Case for Troop Deployments in ‘Any Jurisdiction in the Country’ cf. Hitler Used a Bogus Crisis of ‘Public Order’ to Make Himself Dictator. “The first paragraph [of the decree] suspended civil liberties, providing Hitler the means to suppress political opposition in advance of the upcoming elections on March 5 [1933]. The second paragraph gave Hitler the power to trample states’ rights: ‘If any state fails to take the necessary measures to restore public safety and order, the Reich government may temporarily take over the powers of the highest state authority.'”
Gabbard is considering ways to revamp FOTUS’s intelligence briefing. One idea is to make the briefing, which, according to his schedule, he has been taking less often than his predecessors, into a video that resembles Fox News.
Shiny new AI contradicts EPA chief’s do-nothing climate change stance
RFK Jr. Ousts All of CDC’s Vaccine Advisors. “Citing studies that don’t exist is NOT an ‘error.’ It is lying.”
The gutting of medical research. There are nearly 2,500 NIH grants that have ended or been delayed.
‘Completely Unworkable’: Sculpture Experts Say $34 Million Statue Garden Has Major Problems.
Kennedy Center hopes coupons will fix the toxic takeover
Borowitz satire: Travel Ban Unnecessary After Rest of World Shows Zero Interest in Coming to S***hole Country
Big, Ugly Bill
From my Congressman, Paul Tonko:
The GOP’s so-called “big, beautiful bill” is a historic transfer of wealth from the poorest Americans to the richest — providing $4.5 trillion in tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations while slashing essential services and raising costs for those who can least afford them.
Independent researchers at the University of Pennsylvania estimate that the GOP budget will cost the poorest households more than $1,000 per year, even as the wealthiest 0.1% reap an annual windfall of more than $389,000.
And according to the independent, nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) most recent projections, their plan would strip health insurance from 16 million Americans while adding $2.4 trillion to the deficit. This isn’t “fiscal responsibility” — it’s cruelty, plain and simple.
John Green
John explains how $20 per person per year has helped save 91 million human lives since 2000.
Truthout
Bill Will Lead to 51,000 Preventable Deaths Each Year and Would Limit Investigations Into Abuse, Neglect of Disabled People. Annual cuts to Medicaid would average $70 billion, roughly the same amount the wealthy will save in tax cuts.
MUSIC
Symphony No. 5 by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Arthur Hamilton, “Cry Me a River” Songwriter, Dies at 98; Cry Me A River – Julie London
Green Fields Of France – Dropkick Murphys.
Handel’s Op. 6
In My Room – Julien Neel
You Won’t Dig My Grave -Josh Ritter
Love – OK Go
K-Chuck Radio: The Musical Legacy of Terry Knight and the Pack
Everybody Wants To Rule The World – Tears for Fears
Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra by John Williams
Have A Nice Day– World Order
Good Lovin’ – the Olympics
Coverville 1536: Covering Our Tracks Back To June 1985
Whistle While You Work from the live-action remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
For Your Eyes Only – Sheena Easton
The Scott Joplin Problem
Billboard Presents 24 Hours with “Weird Al” Yankovic
Hamilton Original Broadway Cast: Where Are They Now?
