Sam Goldstein

John Oliver (on right) gestures with his hands as he speaks. On left, a ProPublica headline from December 15, 2025 reads: “Trump Officials Celebrated With Cake After Slashing Aid. Then People Died of Cholera.” An article excerpt below says: "... turning rows red, yellow or green every few seconds, never asking a single question.”

1/ On yesterday’s @lastweektonight.com about USAID, John Oliver cited several of our investigations.

First up was our reporting about how DOGE operatives had arbitrarily cut aid programs, in some cases by literally clicking through a spreadsheet: propub.li/4cCsSKP

Post your favorite "Lord of the Rings" character. Wrong answers only. (mine is also a nod to a longstanding "inside" joke 😂)

After 240 hrs of running participants in the bar lab, and years of writing, I am delighted to share that I have successfully defended my dissertation, titled “Assessing State Emotions and Acute Alcohol Intoxication on Sexual Assault Risk Perception”! Dr. Reina Kiefer feeling very proud 🤩

This is so inspiring to see! 🥹🫶🏼

Oh man, his looks soooo good.

"Just after starting on Cars 2, I was told by a superior that I would be uninvited from all weekly art department meetings because Lasseter 'has a hard time controlling himself' around young women... It was clear that the institution was working hard to protect him, at the expense of women like me."

I’m sorry, doing this in a baseball cap sold by your campaign store is deliberately disrespecting the dead.

Scene from Lord of the Rings: Return of the King when Eowyn kills the Witch King.

A much welcomed and Happy #WomensHistoryMonth! #girlsruleboysdrool

Ahhh, she did it! 🤩 Congrats, Dr. Kiefer! @reina-kiefer.bsky.social

this is like

the thesis statement of our times

Ben Stiller is calling out the White House after it used a clip from Tropic Thunder in a video promoting the Iran war.

“We never gave you permission and have no interest in being part of your propaganda machine. War is not a movie,” Stiller wrote.

Harry Styles in a blue, glittery, streamer like coat lying back in a photo.

Happy Harry Styles New Album Release Day to all who celebrate! 💃🏼🤩🪩💋

🫠 Good looking out! Didn't even catch it. Ahhhh!

Turns out lawlessness is not a winning strategy. See you at Nuremberg 2.0

If you're at the airport and Kristi Noem is doing the ominous little message from the TSA screens, you no longer have to do anything she says. Leave your laptop in the case, whatever.

when we wrote about this pew data on trust in science came out, some outside experts wished pew had data on figures in the current admin

this @appc.upenn.edu survey released today has data comparing trust in several professional societies, agencies, and officials

A brown/tan pitbull mix who resembled a sea lion is half resting (his upper body) on his mom's pregnant belly while she lies on the couch.

Spotted: a cute and friendly land sea lion.

A picture of a pregnant belly in the foreground of the photo while the main focus is the background with a TV featuring Robin Williams as Mrs. Doubtfire with the cake cream on his face or his "nightly meringue mask."

I hope our little Robin will be as kind and funny as one of his main namesakes. 🥰 #RobinWilliams

I know that I am not the first or even the 50th person to make this observation, but genuinely, I don’t think the founders of this country could’ve ever imagined a future where Congress would so readily abandon it’s own power in service of a tyrant.

Minnesota is mourning the loss of Sergeant First Class Nicole M. Amor of White Bear Lake who was killed in Kuwait on Sunday.

She answered the call to serve and gave her life in service to our state and nation. Minnesotans are wrapping our arms around her loved ones.

A screenshot from a live update feed on AP about the war in Iran that mentions Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, a service member killed in the conflict. It has quotes from her husband about the escalating tensions she felt where she was stationed and constant concern she experienced.

Now I can almost see Sgt 1st Class Nicole Amor sitting there. She was days away from returning home to her husband and children. Instead, after texting back and forth hours before her death...her husband just never got a response from her again.

The "fallen comrade" table pictured and symbolism explained in the form of the traditional toast.

We had a fallen comrade table and toast on Saturday. It felt much more poignant than it ever has before given what is happening in Iran and seeing the names/faces of those service members we senselessly lost.

Rubio Today: It’s false to say I said the U.S. had to attack because Israel was going to attack. That’s not what I said.

Rubio Yesterday: We knew Israel was going to strike Iran, and that would trigger attacks on U.S. forces. If we didn’t act first, Americans would suffer higher casualties.

For years on my old blog I published the names of servicemembers who died in Iraq & Afghanistan. No other outlets were.

These are the first 4 Americans to die in the Iran War.
Capt. Cody A. Khork, 35
Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens, 42
Sgt. 1st Class Nicole M. Amor, 39
Sgt. Declan J. Coady, 20

A man in dinner dress blues naval uniform and a woman in formal wear pose together in a kitsch bar.

"To the Mess!" Dining Out: his last and my first. Been to plenty of the Navy Balls though! We were all sent to the grog, but mine was non-alcoholic 😜. I even witnessed a senior officer ride a rocking horse with a tiny cowboy hat. Good times.

🫠🫠

"That's the way it is," says the five-time draft dodger to our military families who fear their loved one in uniform could be next.

What a disgrace.

“war of choice” is a too kind way, in this case, of saying “war of aggression” — and aggression is itself a war crime that generally results in many others.

The defining feature of the Trump administration is glee at the suffering of girls.

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