Our Eye Candy du Jour is described thusly at Getty Images:
US Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent shows a proposed $250 bill featuring President Donald Trump during a press briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 28, 2026. President Donald Trump could soon appear on a new $250 bill, in the Republican's latest move to shatter US traditions by putting his personal stamp on national institutions. A proposal for the new bill, featuring a glaring Trump, was first reported Thursday by the Washington Post.
Here's that WaPo story: Trump appointees push $250 banknote with his portrait. (WaPo gifted link)
Trump administration officials have pressed the office responsible for printing the nation’s money to design a $250 bill featuring the president’s portrait, according to four current and former employees, in what would be the first appearance of a living person on U.S. currency in more than 150 years.
Starting last year, two political appointees at the Treasury Department — U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach and his senior adviser, Mike Brown — repeatedly urged staff at the agency’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing to prepare prototypes of the note, according to the employees, who said the move raised concerns because federal law currently allows only deceased people to appear on bills.
Further fun fact:
No living person has appeared on U.S. currency since 1866, when it was outlawed after the image of a mid-level Treasury bureaucrat showed up on a 5-cent note. Legislation that would allow Trump to appear on a $250 bill was introduced in Congress last year to commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary but has languished.
And a further not-at-all-fun fact: The director of the printing bureau, Patricia “Patty” Solimene "repeatedly explained to Beach and Brown that there were legal and procedural obstacles to producing the note and that it would take years longer than they envisioned[.]" For her troubles, she was "abruptly reassigned" to a position where she would be less annoying.
Google's AI provides more background on that 5¢ note and names that self-immortalizing bureaucrat:
During the Civil War, coins were heavily hoarded for their metal value. To solve the coin shortage, the Treasury printed paper "fractional currency." Congress intended to feature William Clark (of Lewis and Clark fame) on a 5-cent bill. However, Spencer Clark, the Superintendent of the National Currency Bureau, used the vague wording of the authorization to put his own face on the note.
Over at Reason, Billy Binion is not amused: Trump's Proposed $250 Bill Is Everything the Founders Despised.
How far we have come. President Donald Trump's administration is pushing to put his face not on a shirt but on U.S. currency, pressing for the creation of a $250 bill that would feature him front and center. There are a few problems with the proposal, including that it is illegal without an act of Congress; current law prohibits putting any living person on "the bonds, securities, notes, or postal currency of the United States." But on a deeper level, it is directly at odds with the spirit of the American project. Nothing better captures that tension than the anniversary it is supposed to commemorate.
America's 250th is a celebration of the Founding, an experiment defined, at its core, by a rejection of monarchs and leader worship. It is why George Washington opposed the U.S. Mint putting his face on coinage—that sort of adulation was incompatible with what he was trying to build. He was not alone. As the plan was debated by the U.S. House, one early representative cautioned against "imitating the flattery and almost idolatrous practice of Monarchies with respect to the honor paid to their Kings, by impressing their images and names on their coins." Lawmakers settled on the emblem of liberty instead.
It is hard to know if Washington et al. would be disappointed that U.S. currency has since evolved to feature past leaders who made significant contributions. But the law's constraint—that they no longer be living—is in keeping with the reservations the first president expressed about indulgent reverence for the top office, and whoever is in it at any given time. America was leaving that nonsense behind. A $250 bill dedicated to the current president is the exact sort of egomaniacal vanity project the Founders detested.
Unlike Billy, I will try to stay amused. Although Trump and his cronies make that increasingly difficult.
Also of note:
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Suppose you don't have an extra $250 bill in your wallet? Well, Scott Lincicome has advice for you at the Dispatch: How to Eat Well on the Cheap. And further good news for those on a strict budget: Scott's article doesn't seem to be paywalled!
Scott's article is long on stats, too. (For example, I learned to my shame that by going to Hannaford instead of (say) Walmart, I'm probably paying an additional 13.2% for groceries! But eventually he gets to the kitchen:
The final stage is cooking and prep. In general, you can divide weekly cooking into two categories: advance and immediate. Back in the day, I’d do my big weekly shopping on a Saturday after lunch and then head home to bag and store most of the day’s haul. The rest I’d cook Sunday evening for dinner and a few lunches for the coming workweek, cleaning up along the way. A few of my staples were 1) grilled chicken breasts (bone-in, skin-on) marinated in lemon juice, olive oil, garlic salt, basil or savory, Dijon, and red pepper flake (teriyaki or soy/honey is also good); 2) slow-cooker pork loin with garlic and a chipotle pepper or two (look for the small can); 3) baked “value pack” salmon cut into single servings, marinated in honey, soy, and garlic; 4) one-pot Mexican soup with olive oil, boneless chicken, onion, canned black beans, chili powder, cumin, garlic salt and chicken broth (from the dried bouillon cubes, of course); or 5) spicy chili with ground beef and canned kidney beans (and lots of cumin, chili powder, and cayenne—plus the obligatory can of beer). I’d combine these entrees with a frozen veggie and rice, potatoes, or couscous—all microwaved with just a little salt and butter—and would be all set for several good, inexpensive workweek lunches.
Hm, my spell checker thinks "chipotle" is a mistake!
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Spoiler: it's "Give Uncle Stupid more money and power." The wonderful WaPo editorialists observe: Elizabeth Warren’s AI plan is the same as her plan for everything else. (WaPo gifted link)
President Ronald Reagan said in 1986, “Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) is quickly speeding through steps one and two on artificial intelligence.
Her new idea is to tax AI. By that she means raising the corporate tax and instituting a wealth tax — both old ideas she has supported for years — along with an excise tax on energy used by data centers. She is more of a moderate on the issue compared to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), who wants a moratorium on data centers.
The WaPo goes on to observe: "Warren has never been one to let the data inhibit her demagoguery."
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No, it's not your imagination. The WSJ tells us A Day on Earth Is Getting Longer as the Planet’s Rotation Slows.
Ever feel like the days are dragging on longer? Turns out you’re right.
We think of a day as 24 hours, but recent research indicates that days are lengthening—ever so slightly. Over the past two decades, day length grew by a rate of about 1.33 milliseconds per century, according to a study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth.
The change is happening because the Earth’s rotation is slowing down. The culprit? Melting ice.
I assume (however) that one of Pun Salad's crackpot ideas, Artificial Photosynthesis, will be up and running at scale within the near future. That will allow us to adjust the climate, and refreeze enough ice, so that Earth's rotational day is exactly 86400.00000000 seconds long (where a "second" has been defined to equal precision.)
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