How to Enter the US With Your Digital Privacy Intact. “Crossing into the United States has become increasingly dangerous for digital privacy. Here are a few steps you can take to minimize the risk of Customs and Border Protection accessing your data.”
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Entries for April 2025
On the Episode That Changed Ira Glass’s This American Life Forever. Or, On the Importance of Fact-Checking. “There was only one problem. In almost every salient detail, the story was a fabrication.”
Torpedo Bats and the Physics of the Sweet Spot. They invented a new legal-for-now baseball bat shaped like “an elongated bowling pin” and the Yankees are using it?
Thomas Zimmer: “If you are feeling overwhelmed by the stupidity, the chaos, the vile fanaticism, the immeasurable damage and suffering, the specter of global turmoil, just know that I am feeling that too. Because this is just an insane situation.”
America’s Future Is Hungary
Anne Applebaum writes about how Trump, Bannon and other MAGA conservatives love what Hungarian Prime minister Viktor Orbán is going to his country.
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. Despite the ruling party’s loud talk about traditional values, the population is shrinking. Perhaps that’s because young people don’t want to have children in a place where two-thirds of the citizens describe the national education system as “bad,” and where hospital departments are closing because so many doctors have moved abroad. Maybe talented people don’t want to stay in a country perceived as the most corrupt in the EU for three years in a row. Even the Index of Economic Freedom — which is published by the Heritage Foundation, the MAGA-affiliated think tank that produced Project 2025 — puts Hungary at the bottom of the EU in its rankings of government integrity.
Oh, and the corruption:
The Hungarian businessman and a Hungarian economist I spoke with — both of whom insisted on anonymity, for fear of retaliation — had separately calculated that NERistan amounts to about 20 percent of the Hungarian economy. That means, as the economist explained to me, that 20 percent of Hungary’s companies operate “not on market principles, not on merit-based principles, but basically on loyalty.” These companies don’t have normal hiring practices or use real business models, because they are designed not for efficiency and profit but for kleptocracy—passing money from the state to their owners.
An organization called Direkt36 has made an hour-long documentary about the corruption enabled by Orbán…it’s free on YouTube:
Three key points on how economic crises can lead to the breakdown of authoritarian regimes. “1. Regimes break down when elites turn on each other about how to deal with an economic crisis.” It becomes a matter of “who needs to avoid bankruptcy”.
Rebecca Solnit on the importance of Preaching to The Choir in activism. “‘Have we thought critically about why we agree?’ It’s a call to go deeper, to question yourself.” It’s also good to hear “the great stories more than once”.
“If we want to bring the world back from the brink, we have to deal with him.” Quick quiz: is that a quote from the latest Mission Impossible movie trailer or about the current inhabitant of the White House? (Also, Mr. Milchick!)
Tesla’s Cybertruck Is The Auto Industry’s Biggest Flop In Decades
Move over Ford Edsel, Pontiac Aztek, and AMC Pacer, there’s a new automotive flop in town: the dumpster-forward Tesla Cybertruck.
After a little over a year on the market, sales of the 6,600-pound vehicle, priced from $82,000, are laughably below what Musk predicted. Its lousy reputation for quality — with eight recalls in the past 13 months, the latest for body panels that fall off — and polarizing look made it a punchline for comedians. Unlike past auto flops that just looked ridiculous or sold badly, Musk’s truck is also a focal point for global Tesla protests spurred by the billionaire’s job-slashing DOGE role and MAGA politics.
“It’s right up there with Edsel,” said Eric Noble, president of consultancy CARLAB and a professor at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California (Tesla design chief Franz von Holzhausen, who styled Cybertruck for Musk, is a graduate of its famed transportation design program). “It’s a huge swing and a huge miss.”
It’s impossible for me to drive past one of these things without laughing at and/or mocking it. I was out driving with my daughter last week and a Cybertruck came into view and before I could even say anything, she said, “it’s just so *bad*”. (via @mims.bsky.social)
An editorial in Nature: “A brain drain would impoverish the United States and diminish world science”.
America Is Watching the Rise of a Dual State. “For most people, the courts will continue to operate as usual — until they don’t.” Great piece on how autocrats both use and flout the law to suppress & control while keeping capitalism humming along.
Silence is Collaboration: Academics Must Speak Out Against Fascism. “We will call these arrests what they are: abductions by ICE cowards in plainclothes and facemasks.”
I’m a Free-Thinking Centrist with Only Right-Wing Ideas. “I voted for Trump, but I respect Democrats like John Fetterman who are willing to reach across the aisle to promote ethnic cleansing.”
Travel maven Rick Steves made a great hour-long documentary about the history of fascism in Europe. “We’ll see the horrific consequences: genocide and total war.”
This Is the Holocaust Story I Said I Wouldn’t Write by Taffy Brodesser-Akner defies easy explanation but is very much worth reading. “Does a life have to be meaningful? Can’t it just be a life?”
Photos of the Hands Off! Protests
On Saturday, millions of Americans flooded the streets of cities, small towns, and every other sized municipality in the nation to protest the illegal and damaging actions of the Trump regime. These photos published by a number of media outlets show the scale, enthusiasm, and creativity of these peaceful protests, in the US and around the world.
- Photos: Nationwide Protests Against Trump and Musk (The Atlantic).
- Anti-Trump protests hit cities worldwide — in pictures (The Guardian).
- Photos: See demonstrators around the country rally in ‘Hands Off!’ protests (NPR).
- Scenes and Signs From Saturday’s Mass Anti-Trump Protests (New York msagazine).
- In photos: “Hands Off!” protesters rally against Trump across the U.S. (Axios).
- PHOTO COLLECTION: Trump Hands Off Protests (AP).
- A pair of threads on Bluesky from @jbendery.bsky.social and @kremlplots.bsky.social.
- Anti-Trump protesters gather in Washington, other US cities (Reuters).
A rare interview with Tracy Chapman. “But I grew up across the street from a public library, and it was the only place my mom would let me go on my own. It was my second home, and I read everything that I could get.”
Season Three Trailer for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
I am still stinge watching my way through the second season of Strange New Worlds, but the third season of the show premieres sometime this summer, so I’d better finish it up before then. Anyway, I love this show and crew and the trailer looks appropriately kooky and wacky so let’s goooo!
They’re gonna do a season three of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. I enjoyed both seasons, but the second one was definitely better.
There’s a new Frank Lloyd Wright house that was just built in Ohio. The home was constructed according to plans completed by Wright just before his death.
The extended trailer for Mario Kart World, the new Kart title launching on Nintendo Switch 2 in a couple months. Love a new Kart.
50 Ways to Rest. “Wander slowly around the block. Look at the trees. Look at the clouds. Look at the moon. Stand barefoot on grass.”
NYC is getting a new subway map, based on the 1972 Unimark/Vignelli map. I know this puts me in the minority of design aficionados, but I have never cared for the Vignelli map — too much style over substance IMO.
The championship match of the 2025 Tournament of Books pits Percival Everett’s James against Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! What a matchup! I won’t spoil the result…you’ll have to click through.
It Is All Just So Very Very Stupid
Folks, I can’t even today. I gotta tap out. I hope to be back with you tomorrow.
M. Gessen: Unmarked Vans. Secret Lists. Public Denunciations. Our Police State Has Arrived. “The United States has become a secret-police state. Trust me, I’ve seen it before.”
Nature poll of 1600 US scientists: 75% are considering leaving the country, “many said they were looking for jobs in Europe and Canada” or “anywhere that supports science”.
Clickens! Judge paintings of chickens based on characteristics like persistence, altruism, petulance, clairvoyance, and friendliness.
Lots of great comments from students, parents, and faculty in “The End of College Life?” thread about how they’re thinking about the changes to higher education in the US under the Trump regime.
Timothy Snyder: “The American imperialism directed towards Denmark and Canada is not just morally wrong. It is strategically disastrous.”
An E-Bike Transformed My Family’s Life. “I felt connected to our neighborhood in a way I hadn’t ever experienced.”
Margaret Sullivan on “the need for straight talk right now. Enough with soft-pedaling from the media. Clarity! Courage! The truth!”
This ProPublica story about ICE deportation flights, with intel from flight attendants who work them, is horrific. “Don’t talk to the detainees. Don’t feed them. Don’t make eye contact.” The Trump admin is treating these people like animals.
Hands Off! A Day of Action and Protest on April 5.
On April 5th, a group of prominent national organizations (including 50501, Indivisible, Hands Off, MoveOn, and Women’s March) and many local organizations are all coming together for a day of nationwide action and protest.
This is a nationwide mobilization to stop the most brazen power grab in modern history. Trump, Musk, and their billionaire cronies are orchestrating an all-out assault on our government, our economy, and our basic rights — enabled by Congress every step of the way.
They want to strip America for parts — shuttering Social Security offices, firing essential workers, eliminating consumer protections, and gutting Medicaid — all to bankroll their billionaire tax scam. They’re handing over our tax dollars, our public services, and our democracy to the ultra-rich.
If we don’t fight now, there won’t be anything left to save.
This is gonna be huge. There are events all over the country on April 5, and if there isn’t one near you, you can plan your own. There are signs you can print out to bring (or design/bring your own).
For more information, you can check out the Hands Off! website, the See You In the Streets site, or this informative collection of info from several sites/orgs.
A two-part online training event on the Fundamentals of Organizing. It kicked off tonight at 5:30pm ET and part 2 is on April 8.
The record for the longest individual speech in the Senate belongs to segregationist Strom Thurmond. He spoke for 24 hours & 18 minutes in a racist and futile attempt to prevent the Civil Rights Act of 1957 from passing.
Mercator Extreme is a fun tool that you can use to choose any point on Earth as the pole and then view the resulting ultra-distorted Mercator map.
With a headline like this, how can you resist? On the Best (Worst) Best Man Speech Ever (at My Super Mario-Themed Wedding). “After he finished his speech, he received applause and cheers from one and a half tables and dead silence from the rest.”
“A fragile 13th century manuscript fragment, hidden in plain sight as the binding of a 16th-century archival register, has been discovered in Cambridge and revealed to contain rare medieval stories of Merlin and King Arthur.”
No One Is Safe From America’s Abusive Immigration Authorities Anymore. “Immigration agents are increasingly using the full statutory powers that they always had, choosing to detain, abuse, and deport these tourists & workers instead of working with them.”
Historian Heather Cox Richardson says that Facebook is removing her posts. Her two most recent posts, both critical of the Trump regime, are not on the platform anymore.
Here’s What Life Was Like Before the Affordable Care Act
From Aubrey Hirsch, It Could Be Much, Much Worse, an illustrated guide to what health care and insurance was like in the US before the ACA.
You can also find this guide on Instagram.
Of Course Trump Will Tank the Economy. It’s What Republicans Do. “They screw up the economy. Later down the line, Democrats get elected and have to fix everything.”
John Lithgow Reads 20 Lessons on Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
In this 10-minute video, John Lithgow reads each of the lessons from Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (Bookshop).
Number two: defend institutions. It is institutions that help us to preserve decency. They need our help as well. Do not speak of our institutions unless you make them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions do not protect themselves. They fall one after the other unless each is defended from the beginning. So choose an institution you care about — a court, a newspaper, a law, a labor union — and take its side.
Snyder himself made a series of 20 videos a few years ago in which he reads each lesson and then provides more context on what it means. Here’s the first episode on anticipatory obedience (he starts reading after a short intro, at about the 2:40 mark):
Lesson number one is: do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.
So, this is the first lesson because it’s about the basic choice we make when we confront difficulty. It’s about the choice of all choices: are we going to go with the new flow or are we going to stand — if only a little bit, only hesitantly — as long as we can against the current?
Again, the whole series of 20 videos can be accessed from this playlist.
Tressie McMillan Cottom: AI is mid tech for mid tasks. “The use cases for artificial intelligence across every domain of work and life have started to get silly really fast.”
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