Robert Reich

What we must do now
(And what I said at Berkeley)




Friends,

If the Trump regime can dictate what the universities of America teach or research or publish, or what students can learn or say, no university is safe.

Not even the truth is safe.

If the Trump regime can revoke student visas because students exercise their freedom of speech on a university campus, freedom of speech is not secure for any of us.

If the Trump regime can abduct a permanent resident of the United States and send him to a torture prison in El Salvador, without any criminal charges, no American is safe.

What do we do about this?

We stand up to it. We resist it. We denounce it. We boldly and fearlessly reject it —regardless of the cost, regardless of the threats.

As columnist David Brooks writes in his column yesterday (I’m hardly in the habit of quoting David Brooks):


It’s time for a comprehensive national civic uprising. It’s time for Americans in universities, law, business, nonprofits and the scientific community, and civil servants and beyond to form one coordinated mass movement. Trump is about power. The only way he’s going to be stopped is if he’s confronted by some movement that possesses rival power.

But what does a national civic uprising look like?

READ MORE...

At A Glance

One in five Americans has no religious affiliation.

Sony's 2025 World Photography Award winners.

All of the things the US exports to China—in charts.

Rico the sloth believed to be first to undergo rare tooth surgery.

Study finds crows can identify shapes.

Rare Nirvana album sells for over $20K.

Fifty-year-old message in a bottle washes ashore.

See small portals of paintings in trees.

Clickbait: World's first sperm race. (via Instagram)

Good Morning

 

The 5 Meals Anyone Can Make

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In The NEWS

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> NHL regular season wraps up tonight; see latest playoff scenarios and schedule (More) | Trump administration files lawsuit against Maine's education department over failure to comply with ban on transgender athletes in girls' sports (More)

> Wink Martindale, iconic radio personality and TV game show host, dies at age 91 (More) | Former MLS player Aaron Boupendza dies at age 28 after falling from his apartment building in China (More) | "Gossip Girl" actress Michelle Trachtenberg's cause of death determined to be complications from diabetes (More)

> The 2025 Tribeca Film Festival (June 4-15) lineup revealed; includes 118 feature films from filmmakers across 36 countries (More) | Comedian Nate Bargatze tapped to host 2025 Emmy Awards (More)


Science & Technology
> James Webb telescope identifies Zhúlóng, a candidate for the universe's most distant spiral galaxy, which closely resembles the Milky Way from a billion years after the Big Bang; challenges theories about how quickly large galaxies can form (More) | Learn more about the James Webb telescope (1440 Topics)

> Study of rare meteorite suggests Earth's water originated from hydrogen-rich materials present during the planet's formation, upending theory that water was delivered later by asteroids (More)

> New research on genetic and archaeological data suggests domestic cats spread from Tunisia to Europe in two waves, driven by cultural practices and trade, beginning thousands of years later than previously thought (More)


Business & Markets
> US stock markets close lower (S&P 500 -2.2%, Dow -1.7%, Nasdaq -3.1%), dragged down by chip stocks, including Nvidia (-6.9%) and AMD (-7.4%), as Fed Chair Jerome Powell warns tariffs could raise inflation (More) | Nvidia faces $5.5B charge as US restricts chip sales to China (More) | ... and chipmaker AMD flags $800M hit (More)

> Hertz Global shares jump 56% after billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman's firm discloses 4.1% stake, valued at roughly $46M, in the car rental company (More)

> US retail sales rose 1.4% in March to a 26-month high as consumers rushed to buy big-ticket items, particularly cars, ahead of US tariffs on imports (More)


Politics & World Affairs
> Federal judge finds probable cause to hold Trump administration in criminal contempt for violating order by deporting Venezuelan men to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act without allowing them to challenge their removal (More)

> Israeli defense minister says troops will remain in so-called security zones in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria indefinitely, potentially complicating ceasefire and hostage release talks with Hamas (More) | See war updates (More)

> UK top court rules in landmark case the legal definition of a "woman" refers to biological sex and excludes transgender people under equality laws; court further states laws still protect transgender people from discrimination (More)

SOURCE:  1440 NEWS

Politics & the World

 

In 2025, there are lots of Americans who are interested in Politics because of the HATRED towards President Trump.  While I don't particularly care for his personality, I believe very strongly that he would not do anything to HURT THE USA...

What people who are opposed to Trump are concerned with are the following points:

ONE - they do not want Trump to remove illegal immigrants

TWO - they do not want Trump to remove wasteful spending from government

THREE - they do not want Trump to build up a strong military

FOUR - they do not want Trump to raise money through tariffs and equalize the trade imbalance

FIVE - they do not want Trump to reduce taxes for the general public

In my opinion, what the people who hate Trump believe...  is that they do not see CHINA as a THREAT.

• China wants to be the WORLD LEADER
• China owns ONE THIRD of US debt
• China has a bigger military than the USA
• China steals intellectual property from USA
• China wants to destroy USA currency
• China currently supplies major components of medicine, EV engines, Solar Energy, and Electronics
• China finances cyber-attacks against the USA

Put your HATE aside and start looking at the GLOBAL REALITY that is all around you...

Somewhat Political

 

Mathematicians Wrote a Proof for a 100-Year-Old Problem—and May Have Just Changed Geometry

Two mathematicians now say they’ve made progress on a very old unsolved math problem. The problem involves a subfield called geometric measure theory, in which sets of objects are generalized in an advanced way using properties like diameter and area. According to the duo’s recent research (which is not yet peer reviewed), it turns out that examining things through the lens of geometry can shake loose other interesting qualities that objects may share, which has high value in the increasingly inter-subdisciplinary field of mathematics.

                       READ MORE...

Ten Years Later - I'm Going Home - 5/19/1978 - Winterland (Official)

Good Night

 

Old Folks

The Amber May Show

 

Lara Trump

 

Brookings Brief

The community investment fund: An efficient, scalable vehicle for tax-incentivized place-based investment

Robert Reich

Trump’s Three Unwinnable Wars: China, Harvard, and the Supreme Court
The Trump regime overreaches




Friends,

It was bound to happen.

Encouraged by the ease with which many big American institutions have caved in to their demands, the Trump regime — that is, the small cadre of bottom-feeding fanatics around Trump (Vance, Musk, Vought, Miller, and RFK Jr.) along with the child king himself — have overreached.

They’ve dared China, Harvard, and the Supreme Court to blink.

But guess what? They’ve met their matches. None of them has blinked — and they won’t.

China not only refused to back down when the Trump regime threatened it with huge tariffs. It retaliated with huge tariffs of its own, plus a freeze on the export of rare-earth elements that America’s high-tech and defense industries depend on.

Harvard also pointedly defied the regime, issuing a clear rebuke to the regime’s attempt to interfere with academic freedom. The regime is trying to strike back — at Harvard’s grants, and its tax-exempt status — but the federal courts will surely reject these efforts.

READ MORE...

At A Glance

Time magazine's 100 most influential people in 2025.

The 10,000-year history of chewing gum.

Colossal squid filmed in deep ocean for first time.

Panama City Beach is calling it quits with spring break.

Potatoes, marshmallows become Easter egg alternatives.

A visit to Costco in France.

Sleep training is no longer just for babies.

Visualizing America's oldest companies.

Clickbait: Millions tune in for Sweden's "moose-see" reality show.

Good Morning

 

$14 Fancy Date Night Dinner At Home | But Cheaper

Quick Clips

 

In The News

Sports, Entertainment, & Culture
> "Good Night, and Good Luck," starring George Clooney, hauls in $3.7M to break its own weekly box office record for a Broadway play (More)

> Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium tapped as baseball venue for 2028 Summer Olympics as LA28 organizers unveil complete venue plan for Olympic Games (More)

> Backstreet Boys' Nick Carter accused in lawsuit of sexual assault; Carter has now been accused by four women of sexual assault (More)


Science & Technology
> OpenAI reportedly considering its own social media platform to compete with Elon Musk's X, tied to its newest image-generation feature (More) | Everything you want to know about OpenAI (1440 Topics)

> AI startup Anthropic's premium Claude chatbot now integrates with Google Workspace, enabling it to reference emails in Gmail, search documents in Google Docs, and schedule events in Google Calendar (More)

> Brain imaging study reveals dogs with elongated brains exhibit stronger connections in olfactory brain regions than dogs with rounder-shaped brains, impacting their sense of smell (More)


Business & Markets
> US stock markets close lower (S&P 500 -0.2%, Dow -0.4%, Nasdaq -0.0%) (More) | Hewlett Packard Enterprise shares rise 5% after activist Elliott Investment Management takes $1.5B stake (More)

> Johnson & Johnson says it expects $400M in tariff-related costs this year, mostly related to China (More) | Apple airlifted iPhones worth a record $2B from India last month as US tariffs loomed (More) | ... and China is reportedly ordering its airlines to stop accepting deliveries of Boeing jets in response to US import tariffs (More)

> Federal judge scraps US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule capping credit card late fees at $8, says rule prevents card issuers from imposing fees that are proportionate to violations (More)


Politics & World Affairs
> Measles cases linked to Texas outbreak rise to 561, with 20 new infections confirmed over the last five days and at least 58 people hospitalized so far, per new data from Texas health officials (More) | See nationwide CDC data (More)

> Singapore dissolves Parliament, sets general elections for May 3; the People’s Action Party, which has ruled Singapore since the country's independence from Malaysia in 1965, is expected to maintain control (More)

> US Justice Department unseals drug trafficking charges against two leaders of Mexican drug cartel La Nueva Familia Michoacana Organization, offering up to $8M for information leading to their arrest (More)

SOURCE:  1440 NEWS

Debt Free

 

At the age of 62, my wife and I became debt free...  that was 15 years ago in 2010.    The only debt we had back then was our mortgage.  While we used credit cards, we always paid off the amount before any interest was due.  Back in 2000, we arranged it so that we had no vehicle debt either.

From 1975 until 2000, we were just like any other couple, struggling with our debt, deciding which bill to pay and which bill to let ride for another month...  sometimes, working a second job to pay off the debt so we could live like we perceived other people lived.

The problem was that we were well educated but living in the south in a low wage jurisdiction which meant our desires exceeded our means.

One of the ways that one gets debt free is to reverse that concept and have one's means exceed one's desires.

That is typically easier said than done.

For us, it was cutting back on cost of a vehicle and the cost of a house, while working second jobs to pay down as much debt as we could as quick as we could.

For instance, instead of buying a $300,000 house, you buy $150,000 or 1200 square feet instead of 3000 square feet.  Another example might be a $30,000 vehicle instead of a $50,000 vehicle.

One (or couple) must decide what's important...  For us, we thought no debt and saving for retirement was more important that a fancy car and large house.

Today, the money that we have been able to save is now invested in a CD (not the stock market) and generates $4,000/month.  This money along with our social security, gives us plenty of money to live like we want without having to do without anymore.

Somewhat Political

 

Boston Dynamics' next leap: Humanoids built for the real world

Boston Dynamics isn’t building humanoid robots because they’re flashy; they’re building them because they’re necessary. “We humans have designed our world around us,” Aaron Saunders said. “And until we redesign the world, the fastest way to bring robots into it… is to make them more like us.”

Aaron Saunders, CTO at Boston Dynamics, isn’t shy about the ambition behind the company’s latest innovations. “AI by itself on a cell phone is only so useful,” he said in his keynote for the Dutch National Congress on Autonomous Systems. “But if you put AI inside a robot, now you can interact with the physical world.” That’s where things get truly interesting.

Boston Dynamics has long been known for its dynamic robots: Spot, the dog-like robot, and Atlas, the humanoid that flips, dances, and runs. But today, the company is entering a new phase: moving from research icons to real-world applications. And the humanoid robot is at the center of that mission.

READ MORE...

The Charlie Daniels Band - The Devil Went Down To Georgia - 11/22/1985 -...

The Amber May Show

 

Robert Reich

Office Hours: What to do if your old friend becomes a Trumper and asks you to dinner?




Friends,

Today’s Office Hours involves a more personal question than most, but I decided to ask it because it may be one you’re struggling with as well.

An old college friend of mine will be in town next week. He just emailed and asked if we could get together for dinner.

We’ve been good friends over the years, but several months ago he emailed me to say he’d become an enthusiastic supporter of Trump. I was appalled, of course. But now that he’s coming to town and wants to have dinner with me, I frankly don’t know what to do.

I decided to share this conundrum with you and seek your advice because I suspect some of you might find yourself in a similar position with regard to old friends or even family members.

Here are the options I’ve considered:

READ MORE...

At A Glance

See NASA's detailed image of a dying star.

Mapping the highest and lowest tax refunds by state.

Ranking the best states for older workers.

First woman competes in Army Ranger contest.

See miniature models of the city of London.

How scents influence our choice of friends.

Nonprofit provides solar-powered tricycles. (via YouTube)

Why we have wisdom teeth.

Clickbait: The case for no phone cases.

When cooking healthy meals feels overwhelming

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