One of my favorite works by Schubert -- his Impromptu No. 3 in G-flat major -- played superbly by German pianist Elisabeth Brauß: www.ardmediathek.de/video/ard-kl...

I love these words of Victor Hugo: Oh, what heartache! My troubled soul just wished to know whether this cool cask still held some drops of liqueur -- to find out what this pleasant countryside had done with all that I had left behind here of my heart . . . Set to music by Gabriel Fauré:

An artist's conception of how Leo Tolstoy looked at the age of 21, based on a daguerreotype portrait made by V. Schoenfeldt in 1849. For excerpts from the Tolstoy's diaries at that time, see the link below: soaringtwenties.substack.com/p/shocking-b...

El-Sayed: "My commitment to Jewish safety is the same commitment that I have to the safety of my own daughters. Because if there is one question of political philosophy that ought to animate us all, it's what would we do if we treated all our kids like they were all of our kids?"

Abdul El-Sayed was outspent 9-to-1 by AIPAC and corporate Super PACs in the most expensive Senate Democratic primary of all time. Last night, he proved that organized people can beat organized money.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Abdul El-Sayed wins Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Michigan.

Face it. The Court is captured by right-wing billionaire interests, just the way railroad barons used to capture the railroad rate commissions, or mining barons the mine safety commissions. Look up “regulatory capture” or “agency capture.” thehill.com/opinion/judi...

Just admit it: The Supreme Court is political

Let’s face it, the Supreme Court has dug itself into a hole, and it just keeps digging.

thehill.com

One of my favorite works by Schubert -- his Impromptu No. 3 in G-flat major -- played superbly by German pianist Elisabeth Brauß: www.ardmediathek.de/video/ard-kl...

Israel is burning the forests of Wadi al-Slouqi and Houla in South Lebanon. Not military targets. Forests, valleys, hills and entire ecosystems. This is not only an environmental crime. It is the deliberate erasure of a piece of Lebanon’s natural heritage. 💔😢💔😢🤬🇮🇱🤬🇮🇱♾️

'The aching soul is healed in holy singing: harmony's inexplicable power redeems misguided and deluded thought and masters the rebellious hour . . . Words: Yevgeny Baratynsky Music: Valentin Silvestrov Translation: Frank Beck (Second stanza in Comments)

Hélène Grimaud – Silvestrov: Silent Songs (5 Songs) - No. 1, Song Can Heal the Ailing Spirit

YouTube video by Deutsche Grammophon - DG

youtube.com

I wrote about the Trojan horse, and what we can learn from her mouth about different cultural attitudes towards deception and violence. As someone comments below, the phrase GIFT ARTICLE is pretty scary in this context.

Chris Suellentrop@suellentrop.bsky.social · yesterday

Turns out @emilyrcwilson.bsky.social knows a lot about ancient epics www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Especially if you live in Michigan, please vote today. It's your chance to show that PAC money doesn't run our country.

Caitlin Yarsky@caitlinyarsky.bsky.social · yesterday

If voting didn’t matter, the right wouldn’t be trying so hard to disenfranchise us right now. Go vote your little butts off, babes 😎

My editor asked me to write about what happened to summer:

We launched a war on nature. Now we are in a climate warzone | Rebecca Solnit

Summer is not what it once was. We have been robbed of one of life’s great joys

theguardian.com

'Marie in Ravello' -- Peder Severin Krøyer did this portrait of his wife, who was also a painter, during their honeymoon trip to Italy in 1890. The work is now in a private collection. That same year, the couple did a dual portrait of one another. (See comments.)

Over 600 structures lost as tens of thousands evacuate in Washington state wildfires www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

Over 600 structures lost as tens of thousands evacuate in Washington state wildfires

Officials have yet to determine how many of the destroyed structures were homes, businesses or schools. No injuries have been reported.

nbcnews.com

Wildfires forcing evacuations in Washington and Oregon are among 99 large fires burning across the U.S. as the wildfire season exceeds the 10-year average.

U.S. wildfire season exceeds 10-year average as 99 large fires burn

Thousands have been forced to flee fast-moving wildfires in Washington and Oregon.

axios.com

"Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all God's children." —Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The climate emergency kills,” he said on Monday. “And that’s why it’s not enough to address the consequences, which we do; what we have to do is reduce its causes, anticipate its effects, and, consequently, better prepare our country to protect people’s lives.”

‘Climate change kills’: Pedro Sánchez speaks plain truth to Spain’s deniers

PM has long history of speaking out on realities of global heating but political opponents remain unnmoved

theguardian.com

I’ve been thinking about a couple I met, Larry and Wendy, from Galveston, Texas and how their postcards written by hand to people in North Carolina and Texas are acts of patriotism in these dark times.

Sunday thought: Real Patriotism

From Texas to North Carolina

robertreich.substack.com

“The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.” — James Baldwin, born on this day in 1924.

"You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read." Happy birthday, James Baldwin!

On the anniversary of James Baldwin's birth, here's a reminder of the wit and wisdom of one of our most important writers. He saw hope for America's divided society in our emerging willingness to see ourselves and our history honestly. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjGz...

This must be one of the most famous photographs in literary history: Lou Salomé whipping Paul Rée and Friedrich Nietzsche into shape in a Lucerne photo studio in 1881. Cordula Kablitz-Post imagined the scene in her 2016 film about Andreas-Salomé: www.youtube.com/results?sear...

I love these words of Victor Hugo: Oh, what heartache! My troubled soul just wished to know whether this cool cask still held some drops of liqueur -- to find out what this pleasant countryside had done with all that I had left behind here of my heart . . . Set to music by Gabriel Fauré:

An artist's conception of how Leo Tolstoy looked at the age of 21, based on a daguerreotype portrait made by V. Schoenfeldt in 1849. For excerpts from the Tolstoy's diaries at that time, see the link below: soaringtwenties.substack.com/p/shocking-b...

'[In art] love becomes at once the most physical thing and, it seems, the most spiritual -- the most fanciful thing that haunts us.' Lou Andreas-Salomé -- novelist and psychoanalyst (From Andreas-Salomé's 1910 essay 'Die Erotik'; the 1984 French translation is by Henri Plard)

Sciences Humaines@scienceshumaines.bsky.social · last wk.

💬 CITATION – Femme de lettres, qui fut aussi l’une des premières psychanalystes, Lou Andreas-Salomé a inspiré Friedrich Nietzsche et Sigmund Freud qui s’étaient épris d’elle. Source : Lou Andreas-Salomé, Eros (1984).

Kyiv. The afternoon after the night attack. As of now, nine people have been killed. I barely slept. Already went on a guided tour of an exhibition. Having a warcoffee and cold water in my favourite bookstore.

Took an Uber today and left my phone under the armrest. I panicked when I realized it was gone. So I borrowed a phone to call mine to see if it was in the room. The Uber driver picked up. She had come back and was in the lobby trying to find me. There *are* good people amongst us.

The Greater Manchester mayoral results are in, and they tell a fascinating story. It isn't that Reform is dead and buried. It's that, for maybe the first time, a party that has thrived on an aura of inevitability has been measured against reality - and was found to be not that scary at all.

Turns Out Reform Isn't Inevitable After All

Reform came second, Labour won comfortably, the Conservatives somehow finished fifth, and the political story everyone expected never quite happened.

bearlypolitics.co.uk

The GOP's War on the Poor continues. In defense of Head Start, I'd quote Swedish writer Ellen Key, who pointed out -- more than 100 years ago -- that the children of a nation are too important to the nation's future for their wellbeing to rely solely on the resources of their parents.

Trump Administration Plans to Upend Head Start by Deregulating It (Gift Article)

The White House tried but failed to block funding for preschool for poor children. Instead, it will seek to strip away standards on health, literacy — and brushing teeth.

nytimes.com