At the Sunrise Café...

... you can talk all night.

"Wealthy Republicans were first to form a daisy chain of nonprofit giving to funnel anonymous money into the political system."

"But recently, this path has been exploited to a far greater degree by wealthy Democrats, many of whom are seeking anonymity to avoid reprisals from President Trump, even as they donate tens of millions of dollars at a time to defeat Republican candidates. In the 2024 election cycle, over 40 percent of the nearly $2 billion raised by the largest Democratic super PACs came from entities that did not disclose their donors, according to the Times analysis. That was twice the rate of the largest Republican super PACs that cycle. Alexandra Acker-Lyons, an adviser to several prominent progressive donors, said that liberals had to use everything in the campaign finance arsenal to fight Mr. Trump. 'When we get power, we can change all of the rules so that everyone plays nice,' Ms. Acker-Lyons said. 'But until we have power, we can’t do that.'"

From "Wealthy Donors Are Hiding Political Money in Secretive Nonprofits/Using philanthropy for campaign donations is illegal. But an exception for some nonprofits has allowed Democratic billionaires like Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg to remain anonymous when they want to play politics" (NYT)(gift link).

"A Visit to the Unabomber Cabin, 30 Years After the Arrest/A complicated piece of American heritage and culture sits intact in the F.B.I. headquarters."

This NYT article is inspiring 2 types of response response from commenters over there.

The first type:

Although this was quite the story 30 years ago, I have no interest in preserving this structure and potentially romanticizing or mythologizing it like we did with the outlaw murderer, Jesse James. Please don't speak of this killers hut in the same breath as Thoreau's or Lincoln's cabins. I say put a match to it and post the video. 

 The second:

Saying this may put me on a list, but everyone should read his manifesto, "Industrial Society and its Future." It's one of the most compelling and profound analyses of what ails the modern world I've ever read. Just to be clear: just because his ideas are worth engaging with doesn't remotely justify his barbaric crimes.

Insect baseball.

A praying mantis landed on his hat, and instead of freaking out, he gave the little guy an update on the game 😂pic.twitter.com/4tvP4z3huj

— Interesting things (@awkwardgoogle) April 2, 2026

This made be reminisce about "Campus Mantis: Non Compos Mentis."

"The big-picture reality is that many novels are poorly written."

"They can still succeed with readers because fiction, like music, is a forgiving art form. Just as a good song can have a groovy beat but a predictable melody, so a piece of fiction can work on some levels but not others. Partial success can be enough, as long as readers find something that moves them—suspense, beauty, realism, fantasy, even just a sympathetic protagonist in whom they can recognize themselves...."

Writes Joshua Rothman, in "Is It Wrong to Write a Book With A.I.? The nature of authorship isn’t as straightforward as it seems" (The New Yorker).

"Food can sew the seeds of love...."

I'm reading this in The New York Times: "Are You in a Restaurant Gap Relationship? You check Resy by the hour. Your date couldn’t care less. A misalignment in dining tastes is the ultimate test of compatibility."

I've got a homophone gap in my relationship with The New York Times.

ADDED: The trendy use of the word "gap" began in the 1950s, with anxiety over the Cold War. There was talk of the "bomber gap" and the "missile gap." This was satirized in "Doctor Strangelove" (1964):

"I think it would be extremely naive of us, Mr. President, to imagine that these new developments are going to cause any change in Soviet expansionist policy. I mean, we must be increasingly on the alert to prevent them from taking over other mineshaft space, in order to breed more prodigiously than we do, thus, knocking us out of these superior numbers when we emerge! Mr. President, we must not allow a mine shaft gap!"

We boomers remember the talk of the "generation gap" in the 1960s, but that got started with a Look magazine article in 1967 titled  "The Generation Gap" — in a deliberate play on "missile gap." 

At the Rainy Day Café...

... you can talk all night.

"Pam Bondi is a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year. Pam did a tremendous job..."

"... overseeing a massive crackdown in Crime across our Country, with Murders plummeting to their lowest level since 1900. We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future, and our Deputy Attorney General, and a very talented and respected Legal Mind, Todd Blanche, will step in to serve as Acting Attorney General. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP"

Trump, at Truth Social.

The spin at the NYT: "The firing of Ms. Bondi, 60, ends a turbulent 14-month tenure as attorney general in which she tried desperately to appease a boss who demanded unimpeded control of the Justice Department to pursue politically motivated investigations against targets of his choosing, even when prosecutors warned that there was no evidence to do so.... Yet Mr. Trump remained annoyed by Ms. Bondi’s inability to secure indictments of people he referred to as 'scum' during a speech in the department’s Great Hall about a year ago.... He has also complained about her shortcomings as a communicator and TV surrogate — a role he thought would suit her talents.... In mid-March, five Republicans on the House Oversight Committee blindsided their own leadership — and Ms. Bondi — by joining Democrats to vote to subpoena her to testify under oath behind closed doors about the Epstein case...."

The spin at The Daily Mail: "Trump's reasoning for the sudden dismissal comes in part because the President believes Bondi tipped off Eric Swalwell about the FBI's efforts to release investigative documents related to his relationship with an alleged Chinese spy."

"Earlier this year, Musk said that SpaceX was focused on building a 'self-growing city' on the moon..."

"... which could be achieved in less than 10 years. He said SpaceX planned to start building a city on Mars within five to seven years, 'but the overriding priority is securing the future of civilisation and the Moon is faster.'"

From "Elon Musk’s SpaceX prepares for world’s biggest stock market debut/The rocket, satellite and AI company has filed plans with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to float with a potential value exceeding $1.75 trillion" (London Times).

Meade records the pinkness of the day.

"My law clerks would be wasting 30, 45 minutes, an hour, developing a chronology of events. This thing does it instantaneously.... I’m not strictly relying on an AI tool. … It’s just an extra set of eyes."

Says Xavier Rodriguez, a federal judge in Texas, quoted in "Judges are increasingly using AI to draft rulings and prepare for hearings/A study found over 60 percent of surveyed judges have used AI in their work, even as some experts worry AI’s unreliability could compromise their authority" (WaPo)(gift link).

A study found over 60 percent of surveyed judges have used AI — that is to say, over 60 percent admitted to researchers that they've used AI. I've got to wonder what percent have used AI. How was the question asked? Was it "Have you used AI?"? Because what does "use" mean? Maybe things that aren't really substantive don't count. Maybe it doesn't count if you only rely on things you — that is,  your clerks — have double checked.

"When I once interviewed him, he had an orchestra playing live for us. He had the kind of paintings Spain would go to war with [Italy] over."

Said Antonio Mascolo, a journalist in Parma, quoted in "Thieves steal works by Cézanne, Renoir, Matisse in less than 3 minutes/Four masked men are believed to have forced their way through an entry gate, grabbed the paintings and escaped by climbing a fence, Italy’s Carabinieri said" (WaPo).

The museum is The Magnani Rocca Foundation museum in the town of Traversetolo. It was not well guarded. We're told the paintings might be worth $10 million total. 

The paintings are Renoir’s “Fish,” Cézanne’s “Cup and Plate with Cherries” and Matisse’s “Odalisque on the Terrace.” Will we miss them?

Hey, remember the old "Renoir Sucks at Painting" Instagram account?

"For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man...."

That's the precise point, 1 minute and 10 seconds in, where I clicked off the audiobook.

ADDED: I prompt Grok: "Here's a short, enigmatic blog post, but I think anyone, using AI, can now easily discover what book is being talked about."

The answer makes me laugh out loud:

"You can feel it in your chest!"

That was much more affecting than I expected. pic.twitter.com/641gB4OAbU

— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) April 1, 2026

But did he really feel it or was he faking his moongasm?

A viewer demanded I touch the grass behind me to prove it wasn’t CGI on a green screen. pic.twitter.com/XRDJhluMBY

— Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) April 2, 2026

At the Sunrise Café...

... you can talk all night.

"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.