... you can talk all night.
April 1, 2026
"In the tiny town of Castlewood, S.D., where everyone knows the Noems, the prevailing sense was that people can’t help but feel bad for Bryon Noem after a tabloid photo leak."
I'm blogging the NYT article, "In South Dakota, Neighbors Feel Sorry for Kristi Noem’s Husband," written by Shawn McCreesh.
I've avoided blogging this story until now because I too felt sorry for Kristi Noem's husband. What a cruel invasion of a person's privacy!
“Must be A.I.,” a burly cattle rancher named Kevin Ruesink said as he inspected pictures of his neighbor Bryon Noem that had been published by The Daily Mail on Tuesday morning.... The rancher squinted at them with a mixture of suspicion and pity. “I grew up playing ball with Bryon,” he said. “I’ve never known him to be part of stuff like that. I don’t believe that at all.”...
In response to multiple requests for an interview, Mr. Noem wrote in a text message on Tuesday: “I will at some point. Today is not the day. I appreciate your heart.”
While the pictures of Ms. Noem’s husband with what appear to be enormous inflated balloons under his spandex shirt ricocheted across the internet, becoming a political punchline for her many, many enemies, the reaction back on the proverbial ranch was a little more … tenderhearted....
As the yard signs in my neighborhood say: Kindness is everything.
Another newspaper expressed puzzlement over the statement "I appreciate your heart." But the statement was made to the NYT writer Shawn McCreesh, whose article earned that sentiment.
"Key Justices Skeptical of Limiting Birthright Citizenship."
A majority of the Supreme Court appeared skeptical of President Trump’s efforts to limit birthright citizenship during arguments on Wednesday. Key conservative justices raised doubts about the constitutionality of the president’s executive order that would end automatic citizenship for children born on U.S. soil to undocumented immigrants and some temporary foreign visitors.
But in an argument that lasted more than two hours, several of the court’s conservative justices also asked tough questions of a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the legal challenge, making the outcome of the legally complicated and hugely consequential case not fully clear....
Here's the live chat that happened on SCOTUSblog. Excerpt from the end:
"The delicate problem is restoring a sense of historical truth to the place to better convey a deeper understanding of who Monet really was. I don’t want it to become Disneyland. We’re not going to put in things that did not exist."
Said Alain-Charles Perrot, director of the Maison et Jardins de Claude Monet, quoted in "For the love of Monet: record crowds threaten impressionist’s centenary/In Giverny, up to a million visitors are expected this year but can the village balance the artist’s legacy with the pressures from mass tourism?" (London Times).
Giverny, now with its bus parks and columns of art pilgrims flowing over Monet’s green Japanese bridge, became the epicentre of the modern mania for impressionism soon after la Maison Monet was opened to the public in 1980. A recent social media-era surge was compounded when Emily strolled... over the water lily bridge... the Netflix series Emily in Paris.
Critics are often rude about the “Monetisation” of the art world, referring to its merchandise, immersive shows and the way the impressionists as a brand have eclipsed that of other art movements. “Claude Monet has become the sacred and milk cow of the art world,” Marianne magazine noted.
"The best experiences I’ve had have been going to swingers’ parties held in the West End and stately homes in the countryside, but you don’t find out the venue until hours before..."
"... either through the WhatsApp group or posted on the event’s socials. It’s way better than a nightclub. You might live in the middle of nowhere and have big, bold or boring lives, but on this night you get to be with 150 people who are all up for it.... The next party I’m going to has... [a rule that] if your outfit isn’t good enough, you have to take it all off at the door. There are body painters inside who can make anyone look good — they even do vajazzling. I remember being at a party where a beautiful blonde girl got out of a taxi wrapped in a silver cloak. She passed through the entrance hall, shrugged off the cloak, and walked into the party completely naked. I also have a friend who has been going for years and always does the same joke — when he gets in, he strips to nothing but a codpiece and walks around going, 'This is so embarrassing — no one told me there was a dress code.'"
"Father God, dispatch your angels to encamp all around them."
Video going viral of kids going to their pastor’s home asking for prayers after seeing something upsetting. pic.twitter.com/RHlcAwLTbI
— Juanita Broaddrick (@atensnut) March 31, 2026
"President Donald Trump plans to sit in on Wednesday’s Supreme Court hearing on birthright citizenship, making him the first sitting president to attend oral arguments at the nation’s highest court."
It’s not the first time Trump has considered showing up for a high court hearing. Last year, Trump said that he badly wanted to attend a hearing on whether he overstepped federal law with his sweeping tariffs, but he decided against it, saying it would have been a distraction....
“I’m going,” Trump said, when the upcoming arguments in the birthright citizenship case were mentioned. To a follow-up question clarifying that he planned to go in person, Trump said, “I think so, I do believe.”
He sat in court when they were trying him for those crimes they convicted him of. He knows how to sit in court.
From the transcript of the press conference:
March 31, 2026
"A federal judge ordered on Tuesday that construction be halted on President Trump’s proposed White House ballroom... saying work must come to a stop until the project receives a go-ahead from Congress."
The NYT reports.
In a 35-page opinion, Judge Leon wrote that Mr. Trump likely did not have the authority to act without consulting Congress to replace entire sections of the White House — changes that could endure for generations.
We're told there are 19 exclamation points in the opinion.
From Trump's response at Truth Social:
[A]ll I am doing is fixing, cleaning, running, and “sprucing up” a terribly maintained, for many years, Building, but a Building of potentially great importance. Yet, The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a Radical Left Group of Lunatics whose funding was stopped by Congress in 2005, is not suing the Federal Reserve for a Building which has been decimated and destroyed, inside and out, by an incompetent and possibly corrupt Fed Chairman.
Let's judge the architecture of The Donald J. Trump Presidential Library.
🚨 FIRST LOOK: The Donald J. Trump Presidential Library is officially here.
— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) March 31, 2026
Over the past six months, I have poured my heart and soul into this project with my incredible team at @Trump.
This landmark on the water in Miami, Florida will stand as a lasting testament to an… pic.twitter.com/azV1hx0HG2
"Justices Reject Colorado Law Banning ‘Conversion Therapy’ for L.G.B.T.Q. Minors."
"Colorado and more than 20 other states restrict therapists from trying to change the gender identity or sexual orientation of L.G.B.T.Q. clients under the age of 18."
The NYT reports.
The NYT reports.
“Colorado may regard its policy as essential to public health and safety,” Justice Neil M. Gorsuch wrote for himself and seven other justices from across the ideological spectrum. “But the First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.”
Only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, reading a lengthy summary of her opposition from the bench.
Here's the opinion: Chiles v. Salazar.
The Times headline needs to be sharpened up. The Court didn't "reject" the whole "law." The opinion says that the therapist, Chiles, "stresses that she provides only talk therapy, employing no physical techniques or medications." And the case returns to the lower court to apply the correct standard — strict scrutiny.
Jackson's idea:
The horizontality tells you that this video is mine, not Meade's.
A mellow visual, but this is here for the audio:More vivid visuals, including a cloud portending storms:
"The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!"
“All of those countries that can’t get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom, which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, I have a suggestion for you…” - President Donald J. Trump pic.twitter.com/aPYmL0qspa
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 31, 2026
"It’s Not Going to Get Any Easier for Democrats After Trump."
That's a NYT headline for a column by Thomas Edsall.
Key sentence: "The precariousness of the Democrats’ position in the coming decade hit home for me after reading 'The 2026 Midterms Are Critical. But 2032 Could Be Existential,' a March 24 essay that Steve Schale, a Democratic strategist based in Florida posted on The Bulwark."
I have no gift links left to give on this, the last day of the month, but even if I did, I wouldn't use one for this. Just go read Schale's piece at The Bulwark. It's not paywalled. Or don't even do that. The big point is just that the 2030 census is going to be very tough on the Democrats.
I have no gift links left to give on this, the last day of the month, but even if I did, I wouldn't use one for this. Just go read Schale's piece at The Bulwark. It's not paywalled. Or don't even do that. The big point is just that the 2030 census is going to be very tough on the Democrats.
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