What does an arch mean? If Trump, fascism. If Mamdani, warmth and friendliness.

There was this, April 10th, in The Washington Post:

Today, we've got this in The New York Times:

"Iran decided to fire bullets yesterday in the Strait of Hormuz — A Total Violation of our Ceasefire Agreement!"

"Many of them were aimed at a French Ship, and a Freighter from the United Kingdom. That wasn’t nice, was it? My Representatives are going to Islamabad, Pakistan — They will be there tomorrow evening, for Negotiations. Iran recently announced that they were closing the Strait, which is strange, because our BLOCKADE has already closed it. They’re helping us without knowing, and they are the ones that lose with the closed passage, $500 Million Dollars a day! The United States loses nothing. In fact, many Ships are headed, right now, to the U.S., Texas, Louisiana, and Alaska, to load up, compliments of the IRGC, always wanting to be 'the tough guy!' We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran. NO MORE MR. NICE GUY! They’ll come down fast, they’ll come down easy and, if they don’t take the DEAL, it will be my Honor to do what has to be done, which should have been done to Iran, by other Presidents, for the last 47 years. IT’S TIME FOR THE IRAN KILLING MACHINE TO END! President DONALD J. TRUMP"

Trump, on Truth Social, this morning.

Jordan Peterson and akathisia.

We figured out that dad has a psych med induced neurological injury, and has been suffering from akathisia. It’s been 6 years since any psych medications. Last summer his symptoms started, after a flare up likely induced by mold (CIRS) and stress. It was complicated by pneumonia… pic.twitter.com/wPjAz4XsLT

— Mikhaila Peterson (@MikhailaFuller) April 18, 2026

"It takes most college students at least four years to earn a bachelor’s degree. Christie Williams finished in three months."

"The North Carolina human resources executive spent two months racking up credits through web tutorials after work in 2024, then raced through 11 online classes at the University of Maine at Presque Isle in four weeks. Later that year, she went back to earn her master’s — in just five weeks. The two degrees cost a total of just over $4,000. Since then, she has coached a thousand other students on how to speed through the state college, shaving off years and thousands of dollars from the usual cost of a degree. 'Why wouldn’t you do that?' Williams asked. 'It’s kind of a no-brainer if you know about it.'"

From "Students are speeding through their online degrees in weeks, alarming educators/Some online colleges allow students to take unlimited courses on their own time, leading to quick degrees and worries about devaluing credentials" (WaPo).

So, perhaps everyone's degree is devalued, because it becomes too easy to see that what the degree represents is not such a big deal. But another thing that's devalued is the experience of in-person education. Why wouldn't everyone switch to the cheaper, more efficient method? The purveyors of in-person education need to prove what they have on offer is better. We assume it's better, but is it? And is it that much better?

It's a little hard to believe he shaved.

"While the police made light of Mr. Augustine’s pasta-and-switch method, calling it a 'pasta-tively terrible plan,' his scheme was just the latest in a trend of Lego thefts."

I'm reading "Man Charged in Lego Theft Scheme of Replacing Pieces With Pasta, Police Say/A California man was charged with grand theft after the police said he reaped about $34,000 in what an official called an 'off the charts' pasta-and-switch scheme involving Lego kits" (NYT).

Read Hayes, a research scientist and criminologist at the University of Florida and the executive director of the Loss Prevention Research Council, said it was possible that Mr. Augustine’s use of uncooked pasta — which he described as “off the charts” — was meant to simulate the shifting sound of the pieces inside the box.

So this guy was able — at least 70 times — to return boxes and get a refund without it being noticed that the box did not contain the original Legos? It was enough that the box sounded as though it contained Legos. This worked 70+ times?! And the police act like it's cute and make puns.

"A federal appeals court on Friday allowed construction to continue on President Donald Trump’s new White House ballroom until June, just a day after a federal judge halted progress."

NBC News reports.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post has just come out with an "analysis" of the quantity of Trump's "fixation" on building the ballroom: "Trump’s fixation on White House ballroom is increasing, Post analysis finds/The president has publicly highlighted his ballroom project on roughly a third of the days this year."

That's a gift link, so you can check to see how WaPo measured the mind of Trump.