David Brooks, writing for the New York Times, has put together an important essay of our times. You should read it.

Dennis Overbye, writing for The New York Times, described the first photo of a supermassive black hole in quite the pop culture way.

The image, of a lopsided ring of light surrounding a dark circle deep in the heart of the galaxy known as Messier 87, some 55 million light-years away from here, resembled the Eye of Sauron, a reminder yet again of the power and malevolence of nature. It is a smoke ring framing a one-way portal to eternity.

Nicely done. Peter Jackson must be proud.

Cody Fenwick, writing in Salon, says, “Donald Trump still doesn’t really know how to be president.”

Sigh.

Are we just now figuring this out? I mean he really didn’t want to be president back when he was running. He wanted $300 million from a building project in Moscow, not having to deal with all the bullshit a President has to do. He wants to play golf and screw porn stars.

Fenwick writes:

Trump just doesn’t understand his role as president. He thinks he can bully those around him into getting his way by sheer force of will — a strategy that, along with the con man’s toolbox, may have served him well in Manhattan real estate. But as president, he actually has a constitutional duty to enforce the law whether he likes it or not.

He doesn’t care about his duties. He wants to play golf and screw porn stars.

Fenwick ends his piece thusly:

Mostly, this is a sign of weakness. The courts and Congress can stop him from going too far. But it’s also a real danger for the country as it exposes Trump’s authoritarian streak, hinted at in his admiration for dictators abroad who rule through violence. Right now, the institutional guardrails seem strong enough to contain his most unlawful acts. He’ll keep trying, though, and it’s impossible to predict where this road will take us.

Come. On. I know where we are going. We will be talking ad nauseam about how unfit, uncaring, unwell, unpopular, and unusual this presidency is until he leaves the office. Hopefully, we will have a country afterwards.

Neil Gaiman on the Tim Ferriss podcast:

Part of what I discovered, particularly about being a novelist, is writing a novel works best if you can do the same day over and over again. The closer you can come to Groundhog Day, you just repeat that day. You set up a day that works for yourself.

This is incredibly difficult for me. I want to set up routines and habits and yet I don’t even find the time to attempt some organization.

Star Wars has dominated my life since I was nine years old. The only other “thing” that impactful was probably hearing KISS Alive! at my friend Mark’s house quite possibly that same year.

Since the sequel trilogy kicked off, I’ve been wondering how the whole saga might end. Unsurprising to no one who knows me, I have several ideas and scenes where J. J. Abrams will go with the final film in the sequel trilogy. These are not spoilers because the film doesn’t come out for several months and I’m just guessing and hoping here. These are educated assumptions. At best.

It may turn out that all my ideas are shite and J. J. has it all covered. It may also turn out that I’m going to like my ideas better than whatever Disney has conjured up. In any case, here are my tidbits and teases of what I want to see in Star Wars Episode IX (in no particular order).

• I doubt we are going to get the title before Friday, but my three title choices are THE FINAL COMMAND, THE FIRST SKYWALKER, and REQUIEM OF THE JEDI.
• The film opens with the Knights of Ren storming Canto Bight and killing the stableboy who we saw had Force abilities at the end of The Last Jedi, solidifying this movie is going to upend the last one. It also establishes the Knights of Ren are baaaad.
• My two Rey predictions: Rey will chase Kylo Ren to Kamino, where she will learn she is a female clone derived from the DNA in Luke Skywalker’s hand lost at Cloud City. Yes, she’s a Luuke. OR We never learn anything about her parentage, they truly were nobodies, but she adopts Skywalker as a surname and prepares a generation of Force-users by naming them all Skywalkers (hence my title, The First Skywalker).
• Finn finds that he has some Force ability and joins Rey at the end of the movie and adopts the Skywalker last name.
• We will see a rainbow of lightsaber colors
• Lando will board the Millennium Falcon and say, “I’m home,” echoing Han from The Force Awakens.
• Maz and Lando are “business” associates
• Maz was on Cloud City during the Vader/Luke lightsaber battle and found Luke’s severed hand and lightsaber, preserving both (maybe just the lightsaber).
• Maz created Rey via the cloners of Kamino OR not.
• Poe, Rose, and Finn together will be one of the main storylines, with Rey anchoring the other one. They will converge and then will end up going off on separate missions.
• Rose Tico will die saving Finn.
• Poe will say, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
• We will see a flashback/Force-vision of Luke, Leia, and Han with young Ben Solo
• Leia will be in hiding most of the film
• The planet Batuu, the star of the new Disney park Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, will be featured at the end, which is where the major space battle will be.
• Luke will appear to Rey as a Force ghost
• Anakin will appear to Kylo as a Force ghost
• I would love for a young Ben Kenobi to appear also to Kylo, but I doubt it.
• At some point, Chewie, Rey, Finn, and Poe will be flying the Falcon.
• We will see a pretty epic fight between Kylo and the Knights of Ren
• Someone is going to lose a limb. I’m guessing Kylo Ren early in a fight with the Knights of Ren
• I really, really want to see Rey with a dual-bladed lightsaber, but I bet we don’t get it.
• Kylo hires a bounty hunter to find Rey
• Kylo visits Mustafar
• The Knights of Ren turn on Kylo. One of them will have a double-bladed lightsaber.
• Leia will say, “I am your Mother.”
• We see Lando’s son/daughter. Maybe… I don’t know. Better Lando’s kid than Finn’s sibling.
• In the end, Chewbacca and Lando will leave for new adventures in the Falcon.

Will Leitch, writing for New York Magazine, explains why yesterday’s NCAA Men’s Basketball final game was great and those who wanted to bash college basketball are wrong.

He starts his argument this way:

In fact, for most of Monday night’s title game, the general consensus was that the sport, and this game, was terrible. That the teams in the title game, which Virginia won 85–77 in overtime, were two of the most notoriously defensive-minded in all of basketball led to an undeniable takeaway: This Final Four, which could have had Zion Williamson and Duke but instead had Virginia, Texas Tech, Michigan State, and Auburn, stunk.

It seemed to take forever for onlookers to notice they were watching one of the best championship games of all time.

Then further down Will unleashes this monster of a paragraph:

But, even before the game got crazy at the end, it is also worth pointing out that college basketball diehards loved Monday night’s matchup. Coaches Tony Bennett and Chris Beard are two of the most respected, strategically inventive coaches in the game (and, not for nothing, are both considered potential NBA coaches someday). The idea that these are the only two teams in all of basketball who play defense is absurd — the NBA plays the best defense in the world, don’t you know — but they are both particularly great at it, and some people do, in fact, like watching defense: They’re called college-basketball fans. Also, in case this matters: It was in fact a fantastic game that came down to the final seconds, the seventh time in the last eight years that the national title game has been within six points or less. Meanwhile, you likely fell asleep during the Super Bowl this year, and everyone already knows who is going to win the NBA Finals this year. Virginia’s championship is itself its own terrific story too; it’s the first in school history, and it came a year after they became the first №1 seed in tournament history to lose to a №16 seed. This game might not have pleased people who only watch one college basketball game a year. But the way each team kept unleashing haymakers at each other in the biggest game any of them will ever play made those of us who do watch college basketball downright giddy.

Honestly, I don’t watch a lot of college basketball other than Illinois and the Big Ten, but when I do and when I don’t have a dog in the fight (like last night), I love watching it.

Also, Charles Barkley is “turribull” and needs to stay off the broadcast.

Kyle Korver, writing at theplayerstribune.com, put together a pretty powerful piece on him understanding his racial blindspots and the difference between guilt and responsibility.

Two concepts that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately are guilt and responsibility.

When it comes to racism in America, I think that guilt and responsibility tend to be seen as more or less the same thing. But I’m beginning to understand how there’s a real difference.

As white people, are we guilty of the sins of our forefathers? No, I don’t think so.

But are we responsible for them? Yes, I believe we are.

And I guess I’ve come to realize that when we talk about solutions to systemic racism — police reform, workplace diversity, affirmative action, better access to healthcare, even reparations? It’s not about guilt. It’s not about pointing fingers, or passing blame.

It’s about responsibility. It’s about understanding that when we’ve said the word “equality,” for generations, what we’ve really meant is equality for a certain group of people. It’s about understanding that when we’ve said the word “inequality,” for generations, what we’ve really meant is slavery, and its aftermath — which is still being felt to this day. It’s about understanding on a fundamental level that black people and white people, they still have it different in America. And that those differences come from an ugly history….. not some random divide.

Go read the whole thing. It’s good to reflect on this topic, especially in this day and age. Still, his point isn’t to just think about it, but to do something about it too.

I have been jokingly introducing my wife as my “ex-girlfriend” because it’s technically true and funny.

And now @Little_kg76 has started to introduce me as her “first husband”...which is also technically true but not funny. pic.twitter.com/b4QvVpjdXA

— Jason Little (@BobIsInMyHead) April 7, 2019

My brother-in-law and sister-in-law have a wonderful relationship.

I’m a big fan of Twilight Zone/Black Mirror-type anthology shows, so when I come across a really great short video with that same kind of vibe I get excited.

Have you ever noticed how Amazon always seems to have recommended products you were just in the market for? The short Recommended for You takes it to the next level. The app has a mysterious knack for anticipating exactly what our protagonist is about to need and that’s when it takes a turn for the worst.

Andrew Sullivan, in his article in New York Magazine, outlines the striking contrast between Donald Trump and Pete Buttigieg.

Trump would be the oldest president in history at 74; Buttigieg would be the youngest at 39. Trump landed in politics via his money and celebrity after years in the limelight; Buttigieg is the mayor of a midsize midwestern town, unknown until a few weeks ago. Trump is a pathological, malevolent narcissist from New York, breaking all sorts of norms. Buttigieg is a modest, reasonable pragmatist, and a near parody of normality. Trump thrives on a retro heterosexual persona; Buttigieg appears to be a rather conservative, married homosexual. Trump is a coward and draft dodger; Buttigieg served his country. Trump does not read; Buttigieg does. Trump’s genius is demonic demagoguery. Buttigieg’s gig is careful reasoning. Trump is a pagan; Buttigieg is a Christian. Trump vandalizes government; Buttigieg nurtures it.

To put it simply, Mayor Pete seems almost designed to expose everything that makes the country tired of Trump.

It’s really interesting to see where all of this ultimately lands. I still think Kamala Harris and Beto O’Rourke is the best ticket to beat Trump, but damn if Mayor “Booty Judge” doesn’t have something strong to offer.

More from Nicholas Bate –

…we will consider: how could we ever have been too busy for music, cooking or conversation?

Every few years a variation of this story comes up into the blogosphere. This time Elizabeth Atkinson, writing for Eater, has just discovered the original Burger King is in Mattoon, Illinois.

The Burger King in Mattoon, Illinois, is not your typical Burger King. You won’t find Whoppers or chicken fries on the menu, and while there is a drive-up window, it won’t resemble almost any other modern drive-thru with a two-way speaker. Instead, you’ll find fresh burgers with beef straight from the meat market, a single window, and employees who run out to cars with a paper and pencil in tow when the line gets too long (a la Portillo’s, fellow Midwesterners). The biggest difference, though, is that this Burger King isn’t affiliated at all with the fast-food chain owned by the $28.65 billion Restaurant Brands International group, and it’s the one restaurant in the U.S. with a trademark that Burger King’s parent company has been unable to wrest away.

It’s one of those decent, hometown stories people love. You probably will too and when you take a scenic drive through southern Illinois, you should stop and eat at the real Burger King. It’s pretty great.

So, Nicholas Fandos, Michael S. Schmidt and Mark Mazzetti, writing for The New York Times, has a report that investigators for Mueller’s team finds the Barr pamphlet misleading.

Some of Robert S. Mueller III’s investigators have told associates that Attorney General William P. Barr failed to adequately portray the findings of their inquiry and that they were more troubling for President Trump than Mr. Barr indicated, according to government officials and others familiar with their simmering frustrations.

Cue your favorite SHOCKED gif. Go on.

At stake in the dispute — the first evidence of tension between Mr. Barr and the special counsel’s office — is who shapes the public’s initial understanding of one of the most consequential government investigations in American history. Some members of Mr. Mueller’s team are concerned that, because Mr. Barr created the first narrative of the special counsel’s findings, Americans’ views will have hardened before the investigation’s conclusions become public.

….The special counsel’s investigators had already written multiple summaries of the report, and some team members believe that Mr. Barr should have included more of their material in the four-page letter he wrote on March 24 laying out their main conclusions.

So summaries were already written and Barr didn’t use them? That seems… troubling. It’s like Barr doesn’t want to show everyone what’s actually in the report.

Ellen Nakashima, writing for the Washington Post, adds her reporting on this SHOCKING story.

Some members of the office were particularly disappointed that Barr did not release summary information the special counsel team had prepared, according to two people familiar with their reactions. “There was immediate displeasure from the team when they saw how the attorney general had characterized their work instead,” according one U.S. official briefed on the matter.

Summaries were prepared for different sections of the report, with a view that they could made public, the official said. The report was prepared “so that the front matter from each section could have been released immediately — or very quickly,” the official said. “It was done in a way that minimum redactions, if any, would have been necessary, and the work would have spoken for itself.”

Mueller’s team assumed the information was going to be made available to the public, the official said, “and so they prepared their summaries to be shared in their own words — and not in the attorney general’s summary of their work, as turned out to be the case.”

This whole thing is pretty ridiculous. I don’t understand why they thought Barr wasn’t going to simply protect the President. Ben Mathis-Lilley had the best summation of this story for Slate.

Trump selected Barr to become attorney general after Barr defended Trump’s right to mess with the Russia investigation both publicly and privately; Barr had also held the same office under George H.W. Bush, during which time he recommended pardoning four individuals close to Bush who’d been convicted of lying to investigators about the sale of weapons to Iran. Also, Donald Trump is Donald Trump. I’m not the first to point this out, but on what world could anyone be surprised that this particular president–attorney general tag team would “weaponize” any given piece of information in a partisan way? Neptune? Sure, maybe the special counsel’s office was on Neptune.

Science fiction writer Jack McDevitt, in his most recent blog post, waxed poetically about newspaper comic strips and comic books of his youth.

How do we learn to read? The reality is that, at least for fiction, we need something we care about.

It certainly echoes my experience with reading and comics at an early age. When I was in grade school, I knew Fe was the chemical symbol for iron because of the Legion of Super Heroes and Ferro Lad. I knew what “invulnerable” meant because of Superman. I devoured my father’s silver age comic book collection and became a proficient reader at a much earlier age.

Do you want to get a young person to read? Give them an age appropriate comic with a character they already know from other mediums. Watch them tear through the book and want more.

Dan Pfeiffer, writing at his Crooked Media site, implores Democrats and their Super PACs to start joining the real battle for the 2020 election right now.

While more than a dozen Democrats are criss-crossing Iowa and New Hampshire talking to Democratic primary voters, Trump is already running a general election campaign. Trump can be beat in 2020, but not if he is allowed to strengthen his position in 2019.

And right now, too many Democrats and progressives are distracted by the primary or Trump’s latest tweet for our own good. If we don’t focus, and soon, Trump may get the berth he needs to bolster his standing and beat us again.

It’s a call to get into the game and start fighting. The Democratic establishment is missing moments constantly because Trump and the Republicans are able to shape the narratives constantly throughout 2019 because he’s going to be the nominee barring some unforeseen event.

The Democratic Party and allied groups need to be in general election mode every day, filling the void as our candidates campaign for themselves. We need to define him, before his campaign, his army of free spending billionaires, and his propaganda apparatus can reset the table. We cannot rely on the media to litigate the case against Trump.

When will they figure this out?

Tom Ley, writing for Deadspin, has an in-depth story about how the Ricketts family purchased a 95% ownership stake in the Chicago Cubs in 2009. It is a fascinating tale of the inner workings of an incredibly wealthy family and how they maneuvered around various tax issues and family squabbling to acquire the Cubs.

Patrick Howell O’Neill, writing for Gizmodo, sings the praises of Real Simple Syndication. He calls it an “ancient and unsexy alternative to Twitter,” which is weird because personally, I don’t see Twitter and RSS really living in the same address.

Twitter is micro-blogging, and you follow a bunch of different micro-blogs to see what they say. Feedly (one of the better RSS readers) is a way for users to follow a wide variety of posts. Personally, I don’t really use my Instagram account, but I follow several Instagrammers via RSS. I could even do the same thing with Twitter accounts, but I don’t because I can’t then mute RTs, and that is one of the secrets to taming one’s Twitter feed.

O’Neill argues Twitter’s value proposition is up-to-the-second news, and I guess that’s right if you simply follow news feeds on Twitter. I prefer to read the actual news on the news websites via RSS in Feedly than just see a link to read the same story on Twitter. RSS isn’t really slow. It just feels slower because Twitter is a continuous stream of hot takes.

I prefer a little of both. I follow plenty of people on Twitter, but I curate who and why and always mute RTs because I only want a specific person or entity’s thoughts, not their curated RTs. Plus, with RSS and Feedly, I get the news with time to actually process.

He also mentions email newsletters as the wave of the future. Curiouser and curiouser.

MG Siegler, writing on his 500ish Words site, presents a full review of “Apple’s truly bizzare ‘It’s Showtime’ event.”

I believe I’ve seen every single Apple event over the past decade-plus. Yesterday’s was without question the weirdest I’ve ever seen. So weird that I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.

He then goes on for just over 4,000 words attempting to do just that.

Honestly, none of this really matters to me. Of course, I joked way back when that “iDidn’t need an iPhone” so take whatever I say with a grain of salt. Apple basically created the cable package and I don’t want a cable package. I mean I pay for a cable package already (and Amazon, Hulu and Netflix), but this service Apple announced doesn’t excite me. What I want is to curate my own entertainment by show.

Let’s say I want to watch Game of Thrones, Star Trek Discovery, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, all the seasons of Criminal Minds, Shameless, Doom Patrol, This is Us, Russian Doll, Cobra Kai and live sports. I’d have to subscribe to nine streaming services and probably a cable package to get it all.

Maybe I’m wrong and the future of television is streaming packages. I’m probably wrong.

Susana Polo, writing for Polygon, has a wonderful interview with comic book power couple Kelly Sue DeConnick and Matt Fraction. They touch upon their lives as comic book creators, parents, and more.

I found it utterly delightful.

More from Nicholas Bate –

…we will realise that we got the core school curriculum wrong. It should never have been the three Rs, but the three Cs: cooking, contemplation and classics (literature, music and landscapes).