Madonna has a plan to make you watch this video more than once.

Madonna, 67, turning heads as she steps out in a blue dress in Paris pic.twitter.com/gamqCWmx8m

— TaraBull (@TaraBull) June 24, 2026

"For many years, these works have inspired audiences around the world by conveying values such as courage, friendship and perseverance."

"Because of this, many fans feel concerned when images from these works appear to be used in political or military contexts that may differ from the intentions of the original creators or rights holders. This petition seeks to convey the voices of fans who, precisely because Japanese manga and anime are so widely loved around the world, hope that their cultural value and context will be respected."

Says an online petition seeking an end to the use of anime in political satire, quoted in "Trump draws anger in Japan with ‘disrespectful’ cartoon fakes/Fans of anime have called for action against the US president, who posts AI-generated clips of himself as their comic-book heroes" (London Times).

I'll just express my opinion in blog tags: "free speech" and "lawsuits I hope will fail."

This made me think of the old Walt Disney Productions v. Air Pirates case. Wikipedia:

I just wanted to get a look at the refilling of the newly blue Reflecting Pool.

But I couldn't avoid seeing this video, shared by Trump:

🚨 LMAO!! President Trump just dropped this absolute GEM: He's filling the newly improved Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool with leftist tears

Straight from the source 🤣🤣

📽️ @TheRicanMemes pic.twitter.com/NJrOdFR750

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) June 4, 2026

I guess that's an effort to visualize what has become the stock joke: The pool will be filled with "liberal tears."

ADDED: Actual footage, showing how the color will work out:

 

"The WHCD Viral ‘Salad Eater’ Is Wolf Blitzer’s Agent."

Wow, that's one of my favorite headlines ever.

In New York Magazine, here.

Context: "The man filmed casually eating a salad as everyone else ducked for cover after shots rang out at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner is speaking out. CAA Agent Michael Glantz told TMZ that he never felt unsafe at the event, and remained seated and eating because he wanted to see how law enforcement responded. 'Not every day you see something like that go down,' he said. Glantz was at the dinner because he is CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer’s agent."

I love that his name sounds like it means a quick look — glance — but he's the one who wanted to maintain a steady gaze. 

The Trump-as-Jesus meme rages on.

These 2 gems came up on my for-you feed on TikTok today. Don't watch if you're actually appalled by this sort of thing. Watch if you think it can be funny/intriguing/worth keeping track of:

"I hadn’t intended to offend anyone, but the B-roll I posted to an account with a scant 100 followers was evidently being promoted as rage bait for the masses — and still is."

Writes Tammy Teclemariam, in "'U Went Viral for the Wrong Reasons Honey'/After I posted a video of some garlic bread, TikTok took over" (NY Magazine). She's getting excoriated by commenters who are mad at her for saying, bossily, "You didn’t ask if you could do that," when her tablemate, who'd ordered the bread, started cutting into it with a spoon.

"Within 23 days of posting, the video surpassed a million views.... Whatever machine learning was needed to push this onto the FYP of so many people, it seems to have worked as designed. Everyone I showed the video to in my real life couldn’t understand the controversy. But everyone leaving comments seemed willing to ignore any reasonable context to insist I must be a horrible person. 'You must be fun at parties,' commented LucyInTheSky. Lucy, I am fun at parties.... Some friends, understandably, suggested I just delete it. While that might seem like a quick escape from nuisance behavior, it doesn’t change the threat of this happening again. In order to speak freely on the internet, you have to take the haters for granted...."

"I worked in a warehouse. It's where I felt so free. Then HR saw that video and terminated me."

I was good. I was great. I was busy moving freight. But I wanted to be funny, now the trucks will have to wait. I miss that icy freezer. I know that must sound odd, but now the smoke has cleared and my testicles  have thawed. I used to pick up pallets and I used to lift them high. It used to lift my spirits up. I felt like I could fly....

That's Blake Porter, via this Metafilter post by CrunchyFrog.

I enjoyed that. It was sweet and quirky, and I felt for the guy (even though I also think employers do need some rules about making your own videos at work, especially if you're working with heavy equipment like forklifts).

But it also got me wondering about Metafilter. I remember years ago, it had hot debate about political and social issues, but now it seems that everyone has agreed amongst themselves only to talk about sweet little quirky things and to be really nice to each other. It's a gentle pleasant atmosphere, but what the hell happened? What sapped all the vigor out of the place? If you go over there now, you'll see a post about what Isaac Asimov wrote about "1984" in 1980, how Jhumpa Lahiri is finding "quivering energy" in the works of Thomas Hardy, the rescue of a sea turtle, a walk to see (hear?) a sound sculpture, a bird that has relearned an old birdsong, a cat in a library, what rock art might be saying about Tasmanian tigers, etc. etc. 

Attempting to use Grok to explore my wonderment, I encountered the word "cozification." My search based on that word might have led me down various sweet quirky paths, but in the interest of keeping myself sharp and fast-moving, I decided to end this post with this screen shot (from Urban Dictionary) which I deem found art:

"These videos are an unintended result of a law passed by Congress in 2016, mandating that providers give patients full access to the entirety of their medical records..."

"... as quickly as possible. The law went into effect in 2021, and ever since, 'raw' test results have arrived on our screens the instant they’re processed at the lab. This may be a victory for patients’ rights. But it also has the potential to be extremely unsettling. Information that was once delivered via live conversation with a human being, one trained in medical interpretation, is now frequently encountered first as decontextualized data on the screen. This unmediated medical data is now arriving at random moments in our lives. It can come any time of day, when you’re surrounded by people or all alone. Suddenly, you’re faced with a private decision — open? ignore? wait? It is out of the strangeness of this moment that the genre of medical results videos was born. People don’t know what to do with the experience of getting their data, and so they turn their cameras on...."

From "Why Am I Watching People Get Their Medical Results? What was once discussed with a doctor is now frequently encountered first as decontextualized data on a screen" (NYT)(gift link, with links to examples of these videos).

"If you use chopsticks to pick up apple slices, begin the day with hot water and goji berries before meandering down to a nearby park for a dose of t’ai chi..."

"... there’s a chance that this is a 'very Chinese' time in your life. If you’re under 30, you won’t be the only one. One of the more unusual cultural trends to sweep Gen Z recently has been among TikTok users who share wellness tips typically associated with China.... Chinamaxxing, as the social media trend is known, is all the rage in the US...."

From "I taught America how to be Chinese, says 23-year-old TikTok star/Gen Z is mastering chopsticks and t’ai chi, thanks to Sherry Zhu from New Jersey" (London Times).

You can sample the TikToks of Sherry Zhu here. I'll embed 2 of them:

1. "You didn't know it, but you are Chinese."

A woman holding a baby is trending on X.

The report on the trend is title "Woman Who Didn't Want Kids Melts Holding Baby for First Time." And: "The TikTok video from @daniela.brkic shows the friend who swore off kids sobbing with joy...."

Sample response:

We all laugh, but what’s happening here is holy.

An instinct no ideology can suppress forever. Holding a baby rewires everything: your politics, your priorities, your purpose.

We’ve spent decades teaching women to resist this. Imagine a world where we stopped. pic.twitter.com/Kevz1N7hy4

— Josh Wood (@J_K_Wood) February 8, 2026

If that's true, it should also be true that men who observe that woman also experience rewiring. They see her as the beautiful ideal and long to center their life on a woman like that. If men don't respond like that, it is no wonder that women have put effort into resisting that and warning other women to resist.

I hit the Grok button over there and asked: "is the video a genuine response from a real woman or is this a setup with acting?" Grok says it seems genuine, and I'll assume that it is, but I won't assume that woman's reaction represents something inside all women that is pure and uncomplicated. It's hard to take care of a baby, a toddler, a school kid, a teenager, and many other emotions will well up — suddenly or chronically — and mother will need to soldier on, usually without anything close to the emotional high seen in that viral video. 

ADDED: I'm reminded of the time I held a little dog: "I love this little dog. I think this is the first time I ever held a dog on my lap." Yes, holding the dog released a distinctive feeling in me, 12 years ago. That might be seen as a reason to immediately acquire a dog (which is much easier to do than to have a baby). The instinct to possess a dog required fulfillment. No, it did not! I see other people's dogs every day. Sometimes I even interact with them. But I am quite happy not to have pre-committed so much of my time to a canine creature. 

"Advocates of Fafo say it teaches their child independence and the consequences of their actions, even if those consequences are uncomfortable or..."

"... at the extreme end, harsh. Critics say it relies too heavily on fear and humiliation, and that while children might comply as a result, it damages trust. Done properly, however, there isn’t much to separate the styles: true gentle parenting embraces boundaries and consequences, and Fafo doesn’t have to be punishing. But this is online-influenced child rearing, where extremes are pushed, nuance is out and polarisation is in...."

From "The rise of Fafo parenting: is this the end of gentle child rearing?" (The Guardian), which links to this widely shared example of the parenting style:

I watched this so you don't have to. Do. Not. Watch.

"The White House has responded to questions over Mr. Trump’s use of A.I. imagery by suggesting it was part of his successful social media strategy."

"'No leader has used social media to communicate directly with the American people more creatively and effectively than President Trump,' Liz Huston, the White House’s assistant press secretary, said Friday in an emailed statement. Mr. Trump’s use of the technology has evolved alongside the tools, which have rapidly improved from producing obviously fake images in 2022 to more lifelike renderings — including video and audio — this year."

From "How Trump Is Using Fake Imagery to Attack Enemies and Rouse Supporters" (NYT)(free-access video, because there are so many embedded videos to peruse).

Once there were fantastic political cartoons. Now, the graphic humor is AI slop. What can you do but hope your side produces cooler, funnier, more compulsively sharable material than your opponents? The NYT may deplore what Trump is sharing, but I suspect they mostly wish Democrats had better things to share. I think they pine for the glory days of Dark Brandon.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Joe Biden (@joebiden)

In short, the answer is no. The question is "Should California voters feel confident that there aren't any more 'Katie Porter videos' out there?"

I'm watching "Frontrunner for California governor Katie Porter sat down with Inside California Politics host Nikki Laurenzo for her first interview since two now-viral videos called into question the former congresswoman's temperament."

The question is asked — and evaded — 4 times:

Why doesn't she even say "I don't think there are any"? She must know there are! I can only think of 2 other explanations: 1. She's just compulsively opaque and uncooperative, a real bullshitter, or 2. She knows she's behaved that way on various occasions, but she hasn't kept track of whether there was video and whether any such video has been preserved. In any case, she is so unappealing! 

The answer has got to be no, California voters should not feel confident that there aren't any more 'Katie Porter videos' out there. 

Isn't it funny that we understand the term "Katie Porter videos"?

There are so many old songs that might soar into viral popularity with young people... if they'd only listen.

I'm reading "The Song Was a Hit 20 Years Ago. It Just Got a Video. Decades-old tracks by artists including Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, LL Cool J and Talking Heads are finding younger fans. Record labels hope new videos will feed their interest" (NYT).

But some of these videos sound like what AI would concoct. They're "overly literal" presentations of the lyrics: "In the video for Lynyrd Skynyrd’s 'Free Bird,' an older man remembers his carefree younger days before taking his motorcycle out for one last ride; the video for Bob Marley’s 'No Woman, No Cry' features a struggling Jamaican mother and her husband, who works in a faraway city...."

Here's an example, discussed in the article, of a more artful approach:

That came out 4 years ago and has gotten over 10 million views. We're told it's inspired new Peggy Lee fans to make their own videos out of Lee's recording — not only of "Fever,” but also  “Is That All There Is?” and “Big Spender.”

I wonder how that music sounds to young people, given what they've grown up listening to. Peggy Lee sounds good to me, and I grew up listening to 50s and 60s rock and roll. I'm 74, and Peggy Lee was my parents' music. But then I love going back to the 1920s, to what would have been my grandparents' music. The good is more heavily concentrated in the old. It's recorded music. Listen to whatever is best.

Caught on camera.

1. "Coldplay’s ‘kiss cam’ zeroes in on mortified tech CEO Andy Byron and alleged HR-chief mistress Kristin Cabot" (NY Post)("Oh, what? Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy").

2. "Video shows boy, 7, being kidnapped at gunpoint — as dad runs and hides: 'Hell yeah I ran'" (NY Post)("I ran im thinking they tryna rob me not take my damn baby").

"It’s essential to normalize 'no' and understand that no one should be forced to justify something they simply don’t want to do."

"We live in a society where 'no' is often seen as rude or selfish, but this needs to change. Each person has their own reasons, preferences, and limits, and all of this must be respected without judgment."

Said Jeniffer Castro, who has filed a lawsuit, quoted in "Flyer who went viral after refusing to give seat to crying child sues airline, passenger who filmed her" (NY Post).

It's important to remember that you do not need to articulate your reasons or even understand that you have any reasons. You can say "no" and nothing more. 

The NYT stirs up empathy for the man who said "It truly feels we’re on the Titanic and we’re throwing gold bars off the edge."

In "An Offhand Remark About Gold Bars, Secretly Recorded, Upended His Life/Brent Efron’s 'boring' Tinder date wanted to hear all about his work at the Environmental Protection Agency, so Mr. Efron talked. If only he’d seen the hidden camera."

They matched on Tinder shortly after the November presidential election, shared their mutual disappointment about Donald J. Trump’s victory and agreed to meet for a drink. Sitting at a table at Licht Cafe, a bar on Washington’s U Street corridor, Brent Efron and his date, Brady, talked a bit about home and hobbies. But Brady — or at least that’s the name he used — repeatedly steered the conversation back to Mr. Efron’s job at the Environmental Protection Agency.

“It was a boring date,” Mr. Efron, 29, recalled. “He just wanted to talk about work.”...

"Every guy had one picture back then.... In the future, of course, it’ll be different. Fifty years from now..."

"... people will be going, like: 'You want to see 100,000 pictures of my great-grandfather? I got ’em right here! Plus everything he did every day of his life.'"

Said Norm MacDonald, 10 years ago, showing a photo of his great-grandfather to David Letterman. 

MacDonald is quoted in "The Strange Rise of the Before-and-After Tragedy Meme/Online, people pair ordinary bits of video with news of the life-changing shocks that followed. It can be unnerving — or surprisingly moving" (NYT Magazine).

That's the kind of article that gets my "MSM reports what's in social media" tag.

To do the meme, just display whatever ordinary bit of video you have of someone who died suddenly or got badly hurt and add text like:

Can tourists run?

The scene on Mount Etna yesterday:

Tourists and guides run for their lives when Mount Etna suddenly erupts pic.twitter.com/HKhTiUCuUe

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) June 3, 2025

What am I looking at? Are these people running for their life? Are they running fast enough?

Here's "An Eruption at Mount Etna Sends Hikers Scrambling for Cover/Videos circulating on social media showed visitors rushing to descend the mountain as volcanic plumes rose overhead" (NYT).

In recent years, authorities have struggled to control imprudent visitors who failed to appreciate the risks of getting a close look at the island’s most prominent landmark. Mount Etna, a stratovolcano, or a conical volcano with relatively steep sides, shows almost continuous activity from its main craters and relatively frequent lava flows from craters and fissures along its sides..... Hannah and Charlie Camper, a couple from England, were... aware of previous eruptions but thought they would be “completely fine,” since “it’s active all the time”.... 

Apparently, all the tourists were completely fine yesterday.