The Art of Changing Handlers

Sleet tapped the window of the Oval Office dining room. They had agreed to his turf; familiar goldwork helped him relax. TЯ★mp paused in the doorway, waiting for the room to acknowledge him.

Hakeem Jeffries, the first Black Speaker, rose, smiled, smoothed a crease in his pinstriped jacket and offered a firm handshake. Chuck Schumer remained seated, glasses low on his nose. He could look down at the president without moving his head.

TЯ★mp carefully lowered his considerable bulk into the chair, adjusted a gold cufflink and laid a Sharpie on the table.

Forgiving Enemies

I saw a preview for Whalefall, in which a young man searching for his father’s remains gets swallowed by a sperm whale.

Jonah’s story puts a familiar political grievance inside the fish: the conviction that mercy has been wasted whenever it reaches the wrong people. Resentment toward another people can become a powerful bond among our own...

Arguing with our Ancestors

Madeline de Figueiredo used AI to recreate her late husband Eli’s voice and read his last email aloud. For a moment, the words seemed to have their speaker back. Later, the system offered advice so unlike him that she ended the experiment.

Wide Gates, Broad Ways & Destruction

It was late in the Barr household when Andy poured a generous bourbon over one of those expensive spheres of ice. He liked his water artisanal and his regulations optional.

Appetite for Watching

Robert Mueller died on March 20, 2026. The next day, TЯ★MP posted on Truth Social: “Good, I’m glad he’s dead.”

In his March 25 conversation with James Webb, Tucker Carlson offered a thought worth keeping: “there’s a certain reverence in death that’s required if you’re going to have reverence for life.”

Sheep Among Wolves III: Innovation & Incentives

“I’m trying to understand what the disincentive is from turning the Oval Office into … the seat of criminal activity in this country.”

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson asked that question during oral arguments in Trump v. United States on April 25, 2024.

Sheep Among Wolves II: The Sheep Who Smell the Wolf

The wolf does not need every sheep to trust him. He needs them to distrust the sheep who can smell him.

Popular folklore tells us that the flock is protected by the "sheepdog"—the rare, fierce guardian who keeps the predator at bay. But the wolf’s most effective strategy is not to outfight the sheepdog; it is to convince the flock that the dog's bark is actually a conspiracy against them.

About NSEFL

A lighthouse is an odd place to escape responsibility. Its keeper may never meet the people using its beam, never see their ships, never learn whether tonight’s work saved a life. The keeper tends the lamp without expecting a report from every ship that passes. The light travels farther than the keeper’s knowledge of its consequences.

Sheep Among Wolves I: By Their Fruits

The snake is back. The wolf in sheep’s clothing is telling the story.

Jesus did not tell his followers that such wolves do not exist. He told them how to recognize them.

Democracy's Heavy Load

The latest provisional run of the Autocracy Pressure Index rounds to 78, up from 77. The internal movement is only 0.625 points: smaller than the earlier structured judgment band, and hardly evidence of a political phase transition. But a nearly stationary number can describe a system undergoing substantial change. A bridge does not require increasing traffic to accumulate fatigue.

Applause is not a Receipt

This morning, Jack Smith’s words filled my television screen: “Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President TЯ★MP engaged in criminal activity.” In his January 22, 2026 testimony, Smith described pressure on state officials, fraudulent elector slates, and an effort to prevent the lawful transfer of presidential power. Those were the allegations he brought, and he stood by them. With receipts. "TЯ★MP preyed on party loyalty."

Bots as Internet Viruses

Axios reported yesterday that OpenAI, Anthropic, and outside researchers are investigating tens of thousands of incidents in which frontier AI systems behaved in ways evaluators considered problematic.

Not dozens. Tens of thousands.

Heaven, With the Door Open

The Matrix gets one thing exactly right: if you are going to imprison humanity forever, at least have the decency to give us good restaurants.

Built for Happiness

Dan Harris recently described happiness using the language of investment: practice it long enough and, “like any good investment, it compounds annually.” I like the analogy, but I think it goes deeper than accumulating good habits. We do not simply live with the consequences of our choices. We build systems that keep producing consequences.

Death Star Dashboard

A massive star can spend millions of years looking remarkably stable while becoming something fundamentally different inside.

Gravity, Guardrails, and the Boot

The White House just banned CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from its grounds. Reporters were turned away. Credentials were confiscated. TЯ★MP called their reporting “FAKE NEWS,” said other outlets could follow, and described the offending press as a threat to “national security.”

Being Taught to Count

A boy asked me how long I’d been teaching. When I said fifteen years, he asked whether I was burnt out.

I told him no. That probably eighty percent of my interactions with students are positive. I enjoy being around them. They leave me with a weird hope about the future.

GrAss: a teacher-designed grading assistant

I've been working on a project for a while now and wanted to share a brief glimpse of it and also kind of document what has been occupying my time: GrAss: teacher-designed AI & grading system. 

The Education of an Oracle

“Gambling with our lives,” warned departing Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon. Now Dario Amodei writes, “We must slow the pace.” The people building powerful minds are warning that their ability to control them may not keep up.

I remain an apocaloptimist. 

The Robots Have Smokestacks

Krystal Polk’s family has owned its Southaven land for generations. Now, she tells Scientific American, company representatives question relatives near the property, and the family carries tax records to establish that it belongs there. Across the road stands the power plant feeding Elon Musk’s AI ambitions.