The purples are getting increasingly unhinged. #connections

Ranting and raving about fraud and abuse in the welfare system while blithely ignoring fraud and abuse in the White House doesn’t make you a conservative (or a liberal). It makes you an asshole.

To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin:

I’d rather 100 welfare scam artists enrich themselves than 1 child go to bed hungry.

I watch a lot of college football and have seen a handful of Capital One ads dozens of times and it wasn’t until Week 4 of 2025 that I realized they were trying to push this dude as their version of “Jake from State Farm“. (I just thought he was a random MLB star I didn’t recognize.)

Holy hell. I just saw Seth Meyers new segment, Introducing the Interns and How They Mock Me, and I am dying at his commitment to the foam cinder block bit.

I have to be honest, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to process a new Taylor Swift album this week.

• An oral history of Industrial Light and Magic
• Always Invite Anna
• Don’t cry for millennials or Gen Z. Save your pity for those in their 50s. Why Gen X is the real loser generation.
• Fat Bear Week is here.
• This is now incredibly the 16th consecutive year I’m linking to this: It’s Decorative Gourd Season, Motherfuckers
• The truth is not always beautiful nor beautiful words the truth. – via @swiftonsecurity.com
• I’ve always loved the Jabberwocky.
• For more than a century in the 18th & 19th centuries, an edited version of Romeo & Juliet, with “a 67-line final conversation between Romeo and Juliet“, was more popular than Shakespeare‘s original. – via kottke
• And now for the bad news:
  • A little chat about genAI is well worth your time. Don’t be the kind of person who says, “I hear you. I understand. But also, I don’t care.”
  • He’s Been On Louisiana’s Death Row for Decades. A Judge Just Vacated His Conviction.
  • “A former director of the North Carolina Republican Party – who resigned amid election fraud and corruption scandals – has been appointed to a new role overseeing North Carolina’s state and local election officials…” – via @maddow.msnbc.com
  • Bear shot, killed after wandering into Central Florida home
  • POTUS Fired a U.S. Attorney Who Insisted on Following a Court Order
  • Hollywood Union Files Complaint Against Use of James Earl Jones’ Darth Vader Voice—Which He Sold Before His Death

“I never realized how much I hated every single one of my friends and relatives.”
– Homer Simpson, At Long Last Leave, S23:E14

• Twitch streamer Kai Cenat gifted a home and car to a mother and her son after they were evicted.
• Del Shannon, best known for his 1961 hit Runaway, hired Tom Petty on as his producer for the 1981 album Drop Down and Get Me.
• “Pasta alla Cacio e pepe” is a traditional Italian dish made with pasta, pecorino cheese, and pepper. Despite its simple ingredient list, achieving the perfect texture and creaminess of the sauce can be challenging. – via kottke
• This is not the first time I’m urging you to learn about the paradox of tolerance.
• “I think it’s embarrassing, where they’re at. […] Like, they have no pride. They have no gut. They’re embarrassing. They’re an absolute shame and a dark mark on the University of Florida right now. Billy Napier should be gone. [But he] is not public enemy number one. He is not enemy number one of me, at all. That falls on the spineless, greedy losers that aren’t willing to make the call that needs to be made because they’re padding their own pockets, and because they don’t care about winning.” – via Brandon Olsen, Locked on Gators
• Related: SEC annual opponents revealed. Call me crazy, but I don’t like the new format and miss having divisions.
• Good news for people who love bad news:
  • Confirmed: Fascism is worse than UV rays.
  • This time around is different; things are actually getting materially worse each day, and the human brain is unequipped to notice, let alone process, all of it. – via The Handbasket
  • Here’s a very comprehensive overview of all the many indefensible things the current administration is doing to terrorize… our food.
  • Every year thousands of Americans die on the roads. Individuals take the blame for systemic problems.
  • In the olden days, a kingdom threatened by a strangely-tinted, tiny-handed, fire-breathing beast might opt to attempt to buy it off with a princess or two. Now we offer him a night at Windsor Castle.
  • We Already Know a Way to Save a Bunch of Lives. Thanks to insurance companies, we’re not doing it.