The genius of The Sopranos' most shocking episode

In 2006, The Sopranos' season six opener gave viewers two of the most startling scenes in television history. Twenty years on, here's why it's time to reconsider Members Only.

Trump isn’t immune from civil claims his Jan. 6 rally speech incited riot

AP:  President Donald Trump is not immune from civil claims that he incited a mob of his supporters to attack the Capitol on Jan, 6, 2021, a federal judge has ruled in one of the last unresolved legal cases stemming from the riot. 

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled Tuesday that Trump’s remarks at his “Stop the Steal” rally, held on the Ellipse near the White House shortly before the siege began, “plausibly” were inciting words that are not protected by the First Amendment right to free speech. The Republican president is not shielded from liability for much of his Jan. 6 conduct, including that speech and many of his social media posts that day, according to the judge. 

But Mehta said Trump cannot be held liable for his official acts that day, including his Rose Garden remarks during the riot and his interactions with Justice Department officials. “President Trump has not shown that the Speech reasonably can be understood as falling within the outer perimeter of his Presidential duties,” Mehta wrote. “The content of the Ellipse Speech confirms that it is not covered by official-acts immunity.”

For context see this previous beSpacific post – A visual archive of Jan. 6, 2021 through the lenses of those who were there.

Hitler’s Edifice Complex

The Atlantic Gift Article: “He wanted it big. He wanted lots of gold, lots of marble. He wanted visitors awestruck by his architectural expansion of the country’s symbolic seat of power. “They should sense the strength and grandeur of the German Reich as they walk from the entrance to the reception hall,” Adolf Hitler told his chief architect, Albert Speer, outlining his plans for an extension to the old Reich chancellery, at Wilhelmstrasse 77 in Berlin. 

The new annex, connected to the chancellery by a marble corridor hung with crystal chandeliers, was part of Hitler’s ambitious plans to align the Berlin cityscape with his vision for the future of the country. Hitler wanted a Triumphbogen, a triumphal arch, twice the size of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. He wanted an “Avenue of Splendor” for military parades. “The Champs-Élysées is a hundred meters wide,” Hitler told Speer. “We will make our avenue twenty meters wider.” 

A planned Volkshalle was to accommodate 180,000. The Eiffel Tower could fit beneath its cupola. This “Hall of the People” was to be topped by the largest swastika on Earth. Berlin itself was to be rechristened as Weltstadt Germania, “Capital of the World.” Speer embellished these extravagantly outsized “Hitler branded designs”—Entwürfe Hitlerscher Prägung—with fascistic flourishes: bundled reeds, or fasces; spread-winged eagles; and enormous twisted crosses. 

In 1938, when André François Poncet, the French ambassador to Berlin, visited Hitler at the Berghof, the Nazi leader’s Alpine retreat outside Berchtesgaden, he was led through a “gallery of Roman pillars” to an “immense glassed-in rotunda” with a dramatic view that gave one the impression of being suspended in the air. “Was this edifice the work of a normal mind,” François-Poncet wondered in his memoirs, “or of one tormented by megalomania and haunted by visions of domination?”…

• Archinect – See also Update March 31st, 2026: In the hours after this article was published, a federal judge blocked the Trump Administration from moving ahead with any further work on the ballroom. “The President of the United States is the steward of the White House for future generations of First Families. He is not, however, the owner!” Judge Richard Leon noted, adding “(U)nless and until Congress blesses this project through statutory authorization, construction has to stop!” Update April 1st, 2026: The National Capital Planning Commission has released slightly revised plans ahead of the April 2 meeting in response to the design criticism published by the NYT. The addendum focuses on reconfiguring the portico stair. President Trump’s controversial plans for a new ballroom on the site of the former East Wing of the White House have faced further criticism from architects and designers. Ahead of an expected National Capital Planning Commission vote to progress the scheme this week, on April 2, The New York Times has published a deep dive into the design criticisms expressed about the scheme. The analysis, whose authors include architect Junho Lee, identifies several apparent design flaws in the scheme, notably a dominant south portico with a grand staircase that nonetheless has no entrance to the ballroom, with a dense cluster of columns that may block light into the interior space. The move will also lead to the alteration of a symmetrical driveway by Frederick Law Olmsted. The piece notes that the ballroom itself is far larger than typical for a 1,000-capacity space, justified by the design team as a move to accommodate TV cameras, journalists, security, and ceremonial processions. An event with fewer than 1,000 attendees could feel “empty,” the piece notes. Overall, the proposed East Wing is 60% larger than the White House residence by floor area, and three times larger by cubic volume. “Viewed from the south, the ballroom’s size will make it the dominant building of the White House complex, with a portico bigger than that of the residence and a lopsided appearance disrupting any symmetry with the West Wing,” the piece argues…”
• And of course – Trump’s ballroom gets the green light from loyalist-stacked commission