Maddie G

Almost every day at this point.

I work as an elder and hospice caregiver, which I am oddly passionate about. I can love on them shamelessly and no one complains about my codependence. It's a win-win situation. Many of my caregiving colleagues complain about the repetitive questions and, sometimes reactions, of the elderly, especially when those patients happen to read the newspaper, especially with the current downward spiral of our country — as if these people haven't lived through enough horror... I love my dementia peeps, but sometimes wonder if there's a Guinness Book World Record for how many times an hour a dementia patient can repeat the same question — it's got to be in the hundreds. At least with small children, they ask different questions. Dementia patients will get stuck on one short question and ask it until you can interrupt their train(carousel) of thought and successfully redirect their attention. That carousel is pretty manic sometimes. A couple days ago, I picked up my mail from the post office and drove over to the nursing home to take (let's call her "Miss Daisy") Miss Daisy out for a drive. Before we took off on our road trip, to the end of The Road and back, in our landlocked little town (Juneau, Alaska), I set my copy of The Onion down in front of her. Over our two-hour excursion, tiny Miss Daisy read that front page at least a dozen times and each time she would snicker, giggle, and guffaw, then put it down on the dash board and, a minute later, discover it anew. I think it was the best afternoon of my life. We don't often hear them laugh and when they do, it's the sweetest thing you've ever heard. ... Thank you, thank you, thank you, for the really important work all of you do. You make the world a better place.

I got permission to share this, and I'm extremely grateful for that.

The Onion got this letter from one of our subscribers in Alaska. She works with dementia patients and decided to leave a copy in the car for each one.

This email made my year. Read it and you'll see what I mean. People are good.

Yes, you did vote to deport moms.

He almost sounds sane if you stop reading after “Happy Memorial Day”

YouTube video by PBS NewsHour NLRB whistleblower claims Musk's DOGE potentially caused significant security breach

"Surprise, Surprise, Surprise."

What a brave guy.

3 things autistic kids will actually never do:

1. Pick up a roadkill bear from the side of the road and put it in their van to eat

2. Realize they could get in trouble for eating the bear

3. Leave it in Central Park to frame a cyclist for its murder

Now I see why they only let Vance write press releases in the Marines.

We’re in the middle of spring tornado season

These guys know like only three songs and will just play them over and over again, no matter how unrelated.

Once widely respected as a symbol of American excellence and a global icon of cultural achievement, the Smithsonian Institution has, in recent years, come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology. This shift has promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive. For example, the Smithsonian American Art Museum today features “The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture,” an exhibit representing that “[s]ocieties including the United States have used race to establish and maintain systems of power, privilege, and disenfranchisement.” The exhibit further claims that “sculpture has been a powerful tool in promoting scientific racism” and promotes the view that race is not a biological reality but a social construct, stating “Race is a human invention.”

There are many wild things in Trump's EO about History but one that especially caught my eye was the complaint that the American Art Museum promoted the view that "race is not a biological reality." It's not! That's a true statement! The idea that race is biological was the foundation of racism!

It’s like Watergate, only in this version Nixon directly mails the tapes to Woodward and Bernstein

It’s worth stating this simply: For literally anyone in the US Govt from 1945 to 2025, Signalgate would require an instant resignation—and a criminal investigation. It would be a matter of personal *honor* to resign. The fact Mike Waltz & Pete Hegseth are choosing to fight it out is a terrible omen.

This is what happens when you have an entire cabinet full of folks who would NEVER pass a regular security clearance.

Led by a president who would never be able to pass one either.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu at the House hearing on sanctuary cities:

"If you wanted to make us safe, pass gun reforms. Stop cutting Medicaid. Stop cutting cancer research. Stop cutting funds for veterans. That is what will make our cities safe."

Mic drop!

🎤

The US will no longer worry about civilians getting in the way of their bombs:
www.nytimes.com/live/2025/03...

(1/3) It needs repeating: in 1994, Ukraine was persuaded to give up its nuclear weapons to Russia in return for the US, the UK, and Russia guaranteeing Ukraine’s sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity.

Some DOGE Staffers Are Drawing Six-Figure Government Salaries Engineers and executives at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency are drawing healthy taxpayer-funded salaries—sometimes from the very agencies they are cutting.

NEW SCOOP: Some staffers at Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency are drawing robust taxpayer-funded salaries from the federal agencies they are slashing and burning, WIRED has learned.

⬇️ Here's how much they're making:

Trump just helped bring Andrew Tate — who is literally charged with rape and human trafficking — into our country.

Pete Hegseth on FOX NEWS with headline chyron that reads: Tracking Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine.

Secretary of Defense Hegseth says he doesn’t know if Russia invaded Ukraine.

This you?

So - I've actually led Ebola outbreak response at USAID.

This is bunk from Elon. They have laid off most of the experts, they're bankrupting most of the partner orgs, have withdrawn from WHO, and muzzled CDC.

What's left is a fig-leaf effort to cover their asses politically.

“That said” is doing Herculean work here

People in the government seem to not know that they are, in fact, the government.

“The thing that I can’t get over is that the actual richest man in the world directed my fucking firing. I make $50k a year and work to keep drinking water safe. The richest man in the world decided that was an expense too great for the American taxpayer.”

Oh noooooo 😭 We went through that last summer. So scary and glad she’s on the mend 💙

a man says there 's something very familiar about all this in front of a diner ALT: a man says there 's something very familiar about all this in front of a diner

reading the news every single day as a former Twitter employee

The AP provides a model of effective press resistance Credibility is more important than access.

“But the AP refused to knuckle under. The organization’s stand provides a model for resistance to tyranny, and a model for free speech, that much of American media needs right now.”
@nberlat.bsky.social @atrupar.com
open.substack.com/pub/aaronrup...

Fun fact: I have to get TB testing annually for my infusions that keep me out of the hospital. Until now I’ve thought it was kind of silly.

Might be a hot take but I’m unable to see how mass layoffs are supposed to help the economy.