Pages 12-13 from The Overstory, by Richard Powers, which I have briefly reviewed in a separate post. There are of course entire books on this subject, but I thought this page brought the disaster into shart focus. The chestnut blight was one of the greatest ecologic disasters ever to hit North America.
And I've just discovered that the world's largest remaining stand of genetically pure, mature American chestnut trees is near West Salem, Wisconsin. I believe that's the town where one of my aunts was born. Perhaps I can find an excuse to visit the trees this summer.
In 2016, University of Buenos Aires computer science student Gonzalo Ciruelos worked out that the roundest country in the world is Sierra Leone, with a roundness index of 0.934 on a scale of 0 to 1.
“My fellow Americans, our nation is back—bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever before.” — Donald Trump during his State of the Union
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My fellow Americans, I stand before you tonight to make one thing very clear: we are richer than ever before. You aren’t, of course. But we are. My friends and I are just, like, incredibly rich and only gonna get even richer. So. That’s basically my announcement.
My fellow Americans, despite what everyone else says, we are living in the golden age of America. Not your golden age, though. My golden age. As in: I am very old, and everything I own is either solid gold or gold-plated or painted in gold to make it seem like it’s real gold.
My fellow Americans, the stock market has skyrocketed since I took back the office. It’s been very lucrative for us. Not for you, obviously. Because you didn’t know when things would go up and down. But it’s been very lucrative for us, because we get to decide when things go up and down.
My fellow Americans, when I last spoke to this chamber twelve months ago, I had inherited a country that was on the brink of economic collapse under the weight of all the jobs it kept adding. Too many jobs and you’ll collapse, folks. That’s why we’re getting rid of jobs. No more jobs. Why? Because jobs have to pay people, and that costs money. Instead, we’re gonna do a thing called “AI Does It.” Here’s how it works: Is it your job? AI does it now.
My fellow Americans, we’re no longer going to have to pay taxes. You will, still. You’ll have to pay a lot of taxes, actually. But not me and my guys. We’re done with taxes. We beat taxes. Taxes lost very badly, and now we don’t have to deal with them—you do.
My fellow Americans, we’re bringing money back to our country. We’re using a thing called tariffs. Here’s how it works: You have to pay more for things, and that money becomes the people’s money. (The people are my family and me.)
My fellow Americans, we are going to get even richer over the next three to twelve years of my presidency. And when I saw “we,” I’m using the royal we. You understand? Not the grammar thing. The king thing.
My fellow Americans, we’re going to be able to afford a home. Not you—you will never own a home. But we will own many homes. Each of us will own a whole bunch of great big homes, so many that a lot of them will just be empty. That’s our American Dream. Not your dream, clearly. Our dream.
My fellow Americans, a short time ago, we were a dead country. Now we are the hottest country anywhere in the world. The hottest, and getting hotter and hotter until it’s too hot to live here anymore. For you, of course. Too hot for you. I’ve got a great, ice-cold bunker. The best bunker ever. I guess this one isn’t about money. It should be. So, the bunkers are also absolutely covered in gold.
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The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics started off strong, with multiple Team USA athletes speaking out against ICE. But it ended with a groan when the U.S. men’s hockey team won gold and invited podcaster-turned-FBI director Kash Patel into their locker room to chug beers and slam his fist on the table. He also put Trump on speakerphone so he could invite them all to Tuesday’s State of the Union, and joke that he’d have to invite the gold-medal winning women’s team, too, because “they’d probably impeach me,” if he didn’t. The entire locker room erupted in laughter.
On Monday, the women’s team turned down the invite, albeit with what felt like a way-too-polite rejection. “Due to the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments following the Games, the athletes are unable to participate,” a spokesperson for USA Hockey said. “They were honored to be included and are grateful for the acknowledgment.”
However, during his State of the Union address on Tuesday night—which was chock-full of outright lies and baffling claims—Trump declared that the women’s hockey team “will soon be coming” to the White House. But it’s unclear where he got that confirmation, as that’s not quite what the spokesperson suggested. They did use words like “honored” and “grateful for the acknowledgment,” which makes me slightly less optimistic that they’ll officially turn down an invite to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. But I still believe.
Trump made this very brief mention of the women’s team after welcoming the men’s hockey team into the chamber for a standing ovation. He introduced them by shouting, “We’re winning so much that we really don’t know what to do about it. People are asking me, ‘Please, Mr. President, we’re winning too much! We can’t take it anymore! We’re not used to winning in our country! Until you came along, we were just always losing.'” Republicans then started their second, but far from their last, “USA” chant of the night.
Both U.S. teams beat Team Canada in overtime to win Olympic gold. This marks the men’s first Olympic gold since 1980 and their first Olympic medal since 2010. It’s the women’s first Olympic gold since 2018, though they’ve medaled at every Winter Games since the sport was added in 1998. Jezebel reached out to USA Hockey for comment and will update if we hear back.
"...the U.S. men’s hockey team won gold and invited podcaster-turned-FBI director Kash Patel into their locker room to chug beers and slam his fist on the table. He also put Trump on speakerphone so he could invite them all to Tuesday’s State of the Union, and joke that he’d have to invite the gold-medal winning women’s team, too, because “they’d probably impeach me,” if he didn’t. The entire locker room erupted in laughter."