WHAT HE SAID:  UBI is a subscription to existence, paid by a central authority that retains control of the infrastructure you depend on to live. You do not own the AI. You do not own the compute. You do not own the network. You receive an allowance calibrated to keep you functional as a consumer and quiet as a political subject.

X-cancel.

THE JAPANESE ARE FEELING THEIR OATS:  Japanese Destroyer Transit through Taiwan Strait Rattles China.

AS THEY SHOULD:  DOJ sues six states for refusing to turn over voter registration rolls, warns ‘open defiance’ of federal law. Delaware, Maryland, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington accused of violating federal election laws.

IT’S WHO THEY ARE. IT’S WHAT THEY DO:  Disgusting, Deranged, Deplorable Democrats.

ALWAYS WERE:  Intellectuals are F*cking Idiots. Why the Smartest People Get Trapped by Their Own Minds.

LET’S NOT DISAPPOINT THEM:  Speaking as someone inside Iran who stayed connected through Starlink during the total internet blackout, I want to say this loud and clear: President Trump’s recent video on Truth Social — showing Iranian protesters writing “President Trump please help” on walls, waving Lion and Sun flags alongside American flags, replaying raw footage of the revolution and saying “I’m with you, I will fight for you and I will win for you” — is music to our ears.

X-cancel.

ONE CAN HOPE:  The Tape That Just Ended Mahmoud Abbas. He thought nobody was listening. The Saudis heard everything. And the Palestinian Authority will never recover.

GOOD:  Pro-Life Activist Targeted By Biden Walks Away with Massive Lawsuit Payout.

THE REMARKS WERE PREPARED TWO WEEKS AGO, AND WERE IN CAMEROON WHERE I HEAR THROUGH MY CONTACTS, HIS APPEARANCE IS THOUGHT TO HAVE DONE A LOT OF GOOD:  Pope Leo says remarks about world being ‘ravaged by a ​handful of tyrants’ were not aimed at Trump: report. Vice President Vance later thanked the pope for clearing the record.

MOSTLY BECAUSE THEY DID:  ’60 Minutes’ accused of using left-leaning Cardinals to bait Trump into feud with Vatican. Raymond Arroyo labeled the media strategy ‘pope-a-doping,’ saying it was designed to provoke a White House-Vatican clash.

MEMES, MEMES, MEMES!  The Right To Keep And Bear Memes Shall Not Be Infringed.

ALITO NOT RETIRING:

The fact that you who are reading this care as much as you do about prospective SCOTUS vacancies is an indictment of how far afield our Constitutional system has strayed.  There was a time when the Republic did not wait with bated breath every summer to learn whether a justice… pic.twitter.com/A3OUe8ZT8B

— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) April 18, 2026

She’s right, But this still makes a win in the midterms more important than ever.

OPEN THREAD: Ring out the weekend.

WELL, GOOD: Artemis 2’s heat shield seems to have aced its trial by fire. The matter was not free from doubt.

LIFE DOESN’T ALWAYS HAVE TO BE EXCITING: Getting Stuck in a ‘Boring’ Conversation Could Have a Surprising Benefit.

ARTICLE III CONTINUES ITS SWAN SONG: “Unserious Leaders Are Unsafe,” Opines a Federal Judge About RFK, Jr. ‘That’s the opening line from yesterday’s Oregon v. Kennedy, by Judge Mustafa Kasubhai (D. Or.) (the only federal judge I’ve seen who includes pronouns.)”

Plus: “My tentative sense is that, whatever one might personally think about Kennedy’s seriousness, judges’ decisions are more credible when those decisions focus solely on the law, rather than deciding which of our leaders are serious.”

It’s theater kids all the way down.

METFORMIN UPDATE: After 60 Years, Scientists Uncover Unexpected Brain Effects of Popular Diabetes Drug Metformin.

UNEXPECTED HEADLINES: More Brave Cruise Ships Just Thumbed Their Noses at the IRGC in the Strait of Hormuz.

GET IN SHAPE: YOLEO Adjustable Weight Bench for Home Gym. #CommissionEarned

LIFTING WEIGHTS CAN HELP: Osteopenia: Loss of bone mineral density affects millions of people. Here’s what you need to know.