The case of Luigi Mangione reveals an uncomfortable truth we don’t like to talk about in this country: justice is not blind. It’s broadcast.

Mangione, who shot and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in broad daylight, now faces the death penalty under federal charges. On the surface, some might argue that’s the proper consequence for premeditated murder. But when you strip away the headlines and emotions, what you’re left with is something much uglier: a justice system that punishes not by the severity of the crime, but by the visibility of the crime.

In April 2025, Donald Trump stood at the podium and proudly declared grocery prices had dropped—eggs down 87%, gas down to $1.98. On the surface, it sounds like a win. If you’re a voter who just wants cheaper bills, it plays well. But if you zoom out even slightly, that claim starts to unravel. Because presidents don’t lower grocery prices. They don’t raise them either. They just wear them—and weaponize them.

I’ve been watching the developments around Washington’s $12 billion tax package, and I’ve got mixed feelings—not because I oppose taxing the wealthy or making the tax code fairer, but because I believe this isn’t how you do it. It’s bold, yes. But it’s also reckless. It’s reactive instead of strategic, and worse, it’s being sold to the public as something it’s not.

Let’s start with Senate Bill 5813, which proposes adding a 2.9% surtax on capital gains over $1 million. On its face, that sounds reasonable—make the ultra-rich pay more. But context matters. Washington already has a 7% capital gains tax on gains above $270,000. Stacking another 2.9% on top of that brings the effective state-level tax on long-term capital gains to 9.9%, not including federal rates. That’s a huge deal. If someone realizes $5 million in gains—say, from selling a company or liquidating stock—that’s nearly half a million dollars just in state tax. Can they afford it? Sure. Will they want to? Of course not. That’s the problem.

People love pretending the Constitution is bulletproof. That its words are sacred, unbendable, incorruptible. But that’s a fantasy. A comfortable one. The truth is far messier. Words mean nothing until someone with power decides what they mean. And that someone, in this case, is the United States Supreme Court.

People think it’s a joke when Trump says he’s going for a third term. They laugh it off. Say it’s just ego. A line for the base. But when a man who’s already broken many political norm says “There are methods you could do it,” we should stop treating it like performance and start reading it as intent.

Setting Up the Yahoo Finance API

The Yahoo Finance API, accessed through the yfinance Python library, will serve as the primary market data provider. It provides historical and near-real-time OHLCV data (open, high, low, close, volume) for stocks, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies. While this API is publicly available, it does not have official documentation on rate limits, requiring optimization strategies such as caching, automated retries, and alternative storage solutions to ensure reliable data retrieval.

A key challenge is long-term data storage. Since we will collect and store vast amounts of data over time, this section introduces alternative storage options that are scalable, free, and fast while ensuring seamless integration with GitHub Actions for automated updates.

The Journalists Mic a Security Oversight Waiting for Disaster

During an interaction with the Press at Joint Base Andrews on March 14, 2025, Trump got hit in the face with a boom mic. Not hard, not enough to cause damage—but enough to make him pause. The microphone, covered with one of those fuzzy “dead cat” windshields, brushed his mouth, and for a split second, he just stared at the reporter holding it. Then came the response: “She just became a big story tonight.” At first, I brushed it off as just another awkward political moment—one of those clips people would meme to death and move on from. But as I scrolled through the reactions online, something caught my attention. People weren’t just laughing. Some were asking a serious question: What if that mic had been laced with something? It sounds ridiculous until you realize journalists have a history of exposing security gaps in ways no one expects. Take Jeffrey Goldberg’s 2008 TSA stunt—he wasn’t trying to kill anyone, but he waltzed through airport security with box cutters, fake boarding passes, and a 12-ounce bottle labeled “saline solution” that could’ve been anything. TSA didn’t blink. Now apply that same logic to a press event with the president. A mic in the face isn’t just a blooper—it’s a vulnerability staring us down.

Tonight, it’s not about politics—but, self-reflection. Often in personal life, I find myself overreacting and not truly listening. Even when I ask for nuance, it’s rarely to understand—it’s to prove I’m right, and that narrows my perspective, leaving blind spots that I can’t ignore. If we’re always the smartest person in the room, we’ll never know true enlightenment. Overconfidence doesn’t just limit you; it cuts you off from what others offer. Shift your focus from winning alone to growing together and listen, really listen, embrace “I don’t know.” Admitting that, isn’t a weakness, it’s courage that shadows pretending you’ve got it all figured out.

When President Joe Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act (SSFA) on January 5, 2025, I bought the pitch for a minute: fix what many saw as an unfair system. The repeal of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) meant that public-sector retirees—teachers, firefighters, and police officers—would no longer see their Social Security benefits reduced because they also had government pensions.

Supporters framed it as long-overdue justice, correcting a system that had penalized public employees for decades. But here’s the problem: fixing one unfairness doesn’t mean you don’t create another in its place.

In 2023, U.S. companies dumped $900 billion into stock buybacks—more than they spent on wages or R&D combined. At their core, a stock buyback happens when a company uses its own money to repurchase shares from the stock market, reducing the number of outstanding shares. This benefits existing shareholders by increasing the value of the remaining shares, making it a common strategy for corporations looking to boost stock prices.

But while some argue that buybacks stabilize stock prices and return value to investors, others see them as a legalized form of market manipulation, disproportionately benefiting executives and wealthy shareholders while diverting money that could be spent on wages, R&D, or long-term growth.

I didn’t expect to go down this rabbit hole, but here we are. It started when I saw a take on X (Twitter) calling the Panasonic EV battery plant in De Soto, Kansas, a perfect example of government waste. That was enough to get me curious. Is this just a big corporate handout, or is there a real economic win here? I went deep into the details, and honestly, I can see both sides of the argument—and I think people aren’t realizing the full financial weight of what’s happening.

Pramila Jayapal has positioned herself as a champion for progressive values, representing Washington’s 7th Congressional District with a strong stance on healthcare, immigration, and social justice. She’s an outspoken critic of Donald Trump, frequently challenging his policies on Medicaid cuts, federal funding freezes, and immigration enforcement. But beyond the rhetoric, how effective is she? Is she truly fighting for Washington’s best interests, or is she just another politician playing the game of influence and lobbying?

Big businesses don’t pay taxes the way you do. While the average person’s paycheck gets taxed before it even hits their bank account, corporations use loopholes, deductions, and legal maneuvers to shrink their tax bills—sometimes down to nothing. It’s called aggressive tax planning—not illegal, but certainly not something the everyday taxpayer can pull off. From offshore tax havens to stock buybacks and depreciation tricks, here’s how the biggest companies legally avoid paying billions.

Mathematics and Physics of Light: Introduction to Light

Chapter 1: Introduction to Light

Light is one of the most fundamental and fascinating phenomena in the universe. It is responsible for our ability to see, it fuels life through photosynthesis, and it plays a crucial role in technology, from fiber optic communication to laser surgery. However, despite its everyday presence, light is an incredibly complex and multi-faceted subject that has challenged scientists for centuries.

To truly understand light, one must first understand the broader concept it belongs to: electromagnetic radiation. Light is not an isolated phenomenon—it is part of a vast spectrum of energy waves that travel through space, known as the electromagnetic spectrum. This spectrum includes familiar forms of energy like radio waves, microwaves, X-rays, and gamma rays. Each of these, including visible light, consists of oscillating electric and magnetic fields that propagate through space at the speed of light.

Godot 4.3 Using ColorRect for Simple 2D Backgrounds

This paper presents an efficient method for procedurally generating and interpolating a 2D background color in Godot 4.3 using GDScript. The implementation relies entirely on scripting, eliminating the need for manual adjustments in the Godot editor. By leveraging linear interpolation (LERP), the system smoothly transitions between predefined color values over a fixed duration, ensuring a seamless visual experience. This approach is particularly beneficial for procedurally generated environments, menu screens, and dynamic aesthetic modifications in 2D games.

Breaking Down Interpolation (Lerp)

What is Interpolation (Lerp(A,B,t))?

Interpolation is a way to estimate values between two known points. Think of it like filling in the gaps between two numbers, positions, or colors smoothly instead of jumping straight from one to the other.

Another way of interpreting interpolation is to try, “guessing the values in between two known points.” If you have two points on a graph, interpolation helps you estimate what lies between them based on patterns.

Godot 43 Creating UI Elements

If you’re coding exclusively in Visual Studio Code (VSC) and developing a game in Godot, you’ll need to create and manage UI elements like Labels, Buttons, Health Bars, and Score Counters entirely through GDScript. This guide will walk you through setting up a fully script-driven UI system, ensuring it scales properly and remains organized.

1. Setting Up UI Elements with Code

Since we’re not using the scene editor, we must instantiate UI elements programmatically. UI nodes in Godot fall under the Control class and include elements like:

Godot 4.3 Adding Basic Keyboard Input

Now that we’ve successfully set up a 3D scene, imported a custom 3D model, and made it rotate, it’s time to add user input. In this guide, we’ll modify our script so that pressing the spacebar makes the model jump.

Final Code Structure

Project/
├── Models/
│   └── 000_Snowpuff.glb   # Custom 3D Model
├── Scripts/
│   ├── main.gd       # Root scene script
│   └── skybox.gd     # Skybox configuration
├── Textures/
│   └── default_sky.hdr  # HDRI skybox texture
└── project.godot

1. Understanding Input in Godot 4.3

Before writing code, let’s discuss how Godot handles input.

Godot 4.3 Set Up a 3D Project, Skybox & Import Your Custom 3d Model from VSC

This guide teaches you how to create a 3D scene programmatically in Godot 4.3, complete with a custom skybox, using only code (no editor setup). We’ll explain core concepts like WorldEnvironment, Camera3D, and SkyMaterial.

Final Code Structure

Project/
├── scripts/
│   ├── main.gd       # Root scene script
│   └── skybox.gd     # Skybox configuration
└── textures/
    └── default_sky.hdr  # HDRI skybox texture

1. Setting Up the Main Scene (main.gd)

🔹 Code

extends Node3D

func _ready():
    # 1. Configure camera
    var camera = Camera3D.new()
    camera.position = Vector3(0, 1, 3)  # Position (X, Y, Z)
    camera.look_at(Vector3.ZERO)        # Look at world origin
    add_child(camera)
    camera.make_current()  # Activate this camera

    # 2. Add skybox
    var skybox = load("res://Scripts/skybox.gd").new()
    add_child(skybox)

🔹 Explanation

1. Why We Need a Camera:

How to Convert WEBP Files to PNG Using VS Code in Python

If you have a set of .webp images that need to be converted to .png, Python makes the process simple and efficient. In this guide, I’ll walk you through how to convert WebP files to PNG using Visual Studio Code (VS Code) and Python.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, ensure you have the following:

1. Python Installed
   If you don’t have Python installed, download it from python.org and install it.

2. VS Code Installed
   Download and install Visual Studio Code from code.visualstudio.com.

Create Custom 3D Assets Using AI Meshy and Blender for Godot

In this guide, we will go step by step to generate a 2D representation of a 3D object, convert it into a fully textured 3D model, and format it properly for use in Godot.

We will cover:

✅ Using AI Image Generators to create a 2D image of your 3D object.

✅ Removing the background and converting formats for best results.

✅ Importing the 2D image into Meshy AI to generate a 3D model.

Godot 4.3 Understanding Parent and Child Relationships Through an Entity System

In our previous section, we introduced custom classes in Godot by moving the get_properties() function into its own dedicated class, ObjectAnalyzer. This helped us keep main.gd clean while improving code organization.

Now, we’re ready to take a big step forward: understanding parent and child relationships in Godot. This will serve as the foundation for inheritance — a key concept in game development that allows us to structure our projects efficiently.

Godot 4.3 Moving Get_properties to a Separate Class

So far, we’ve implemented a powerful object analysis system that can dynamically inspect and categorize both node-based and non-node objects in Godot. However, keeping all this logic inside main.gd can clutter the script, making it harder to maintain and expand.

To improve code organization, we’ll move the get_properties() function into its own dedicated class. This will:

• Keep main.gd clean and focused on high-level game logic.
• Make get_properties() reusable across different parts of the project.
• Encourage modular programming , making it easier to expand in the future.

Step 1: Creating a New Script for Object Analysis

In Visual Studio Code, we will create a new script to handle object analysis separately.

Godot 4.3 Expanding Object Compatibility Beyond Nodes

In the previous section, we explored analyzing nodes in Godot using get_property_list(). This gave us the ability to inspect a node’s properties and their respective types. However, in Godot, not all objects are nodes. Many essential data types—such as Vector2, Color, Dictionary, and Array—do not have get_property_list(), which means treating them the same way as nodes would lead to errors.

This section builds upon our previous approach by expanding compatibility to all Godot objects. We aim to ensure that both node-based and non-node objects can be inspected, categorized, and returned in a structured format for further use.

Godot 4.3 Basics

In VSC let’s make a new folder in our root directory called Scripts, and then make a new file inside the Sripts folder called main.gd. Once this is made we will go into the Godot Engine and drag and drop the newly made file into the main scenes script found on the right side

Extends keyword

To know what to extend, match your script to the type of node it’s attached to or the functionality you need. In the case of the main.tscn because we made a Node2D to start, we will extend Node2D.

Setting up Godot 4.3 for Visual Studio Code

NOTE: These articles are written using Windows

Requirements:

• Godot 4.3 (https://godotengine.org)
• Visual Studio Code (VSC) (https://code.visualstudio.com)
• VSC Extension godot-tools
  • In VSC go to Extensions (ctrl+shift+x), and search and install godot-tools

Suggested Requirments:

• VSC Extension C/C++
  • In VSC go to Extensions (ctrl+shift+x), and search and install C/C++

Make your project:

Launch the Godot_v4.3-stable_win64.exe and this will bring up the below window. If this is your first time launching the Godot Engine - Project Manager, your project list will likely be empty.