Ronda Kaysen of the New York Times: “The Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly passed the largest piece of housing legislation in 36 years, as Republicans and Democrats banded together to tackle a major cost-of-living issue just months before midterm elections in which affordability is expected to be a main focus. But the bill still faces major hurdles, as Republicans feud over what should be included and President Trump, who backs the measure, signals that it is not a priority. The package, which passed by a vote of 89 to 10, aims to boost the supply of new housing, a critical step toward bringing down housing costs, by removing regulatory barriers, providing incentives and preserving the existing supply. It would also set new limits on the role institutional investors play in the single-family housing market, a top goal of Mr. Trump, who signed an executive order on the issue in January.”
Katherine Tully-McManus & Jennifer Scholtes of Politico: “For the fourth time in so many weeks, senators voted down a bill Thursday to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security, then left town for the weekend — ensuring the agency remains shuttered past the one-month mark come Friday. The Senate voted 51-46 against moving ahead with the House-passed measure to fund all of DHS, failing to meet the 60-vote threshold necessary to move forward. Senate Majority Leader John Thune voted 'no' for procedural reasons, allowing him to bring the motion back up at a later date.”
Patrick McGeehan of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Thursday said that the Trump administration had paid what it owed on the rail tunnel project being built under the Hudson River and largely dismissed a lawsuit over the federal government’s temporary hold on more than $200 million in funding. Now that the federal Department of Transportation has provided all of the money it had promised for the tunnel project, known as Gateway, the agency overseeing the work no longer has much of a claim against the department, said the judge, Richard A. Hertling of the Court of Federal Claims in Washington.”
White House: Sports & Killing People Are Fun Things that Americans Are Good At. Robert Klemko of the Washington Post: “A Trump administration social media video montage that juxtaposes collisions in pro and college games with military attacks [has drawn] criticism from former players.... [Some former players featured in the football clips] said they believed the White House should remove the video, and if it doesn’t, the rightsholders including the NFL should achieve removal through legal means. Having the video removed on legal grounds may not be an option for the broadcasters and the NFL, said Rebecca Tushnet, a First Amendment professor at Harvard Law School.... Courts have historically been hesitant to let copyright owners assert infringement in political ads and political speech, she said. 'Once you’re making an argument, no matter how offensive an argument it is, courts are much more willing to find fair use,' Tushnet said. 'The argument here seems to be: Sports and killing people are fun things that Americans are good at. That is, although repulsive, an argument.'”
Cheyanne Daniels of Politico: “Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) on Thursday shared a social media post calling Muslims 'the enemy,' joining a growing number of sitting GOP members to share Islamophobic rhetoric. Tuberville on Thursday retweeted a post that showed a picture of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani sitting cross-legged on the floor surrounded by people that was juxtaposed with a photo of the Twin Towers in New York burning on Sept. 11, 2001. The caption of the original post read, 'Less than 25 years apart.' Tuberville added his own caption: 'The enemy is inside the gates.'”
Praveena Somasundaram of the Washington Post: “A person apparently rammed a car into a Michigan synagogue Thursday, starting a fire, and was found dead after security engaged him with gunfire, officials said. A security guard was injured in the attack at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan, and the alleged perpetrator was found dead inside the car, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said. Children and staff inside the temple were not hurt, he said.”
Jonathan Mattise & Olivia Diaz of the AP: “The suspect who killed one person and injured two others at Old Dominion University on Thursday has been identified by authorities as Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, who pleaded guilty in 2016 to attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State, according to the FBI. The shooting is being investigated as an act of terrorism, FBI Director Kash Patel said in a social media post.... Jalloh, a former member of the Army National Guard, was sentenced to 11 years in prison and was released from federal custody in December 2024.”
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The New York Times' live updates of developments in the Iran war are here. From the pinned item at 6:30 am ET: “Iraq and Oman closed oil terminals on Thursday after two tankers were attacked and left burning off Iraq’s coast, as the war in the Middle East continued to disrupt energy markets. Oil prices surged despite a coordinated effort by the United States and other major economies to calm markets by pledging on Wednesday to release 400 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves.... Iraqi officials said that they believed that Iran was responsible for the attack on the tankers off Iraq’s coast, which killed one person.... Several Persian Gulf countries said they intercepted attacks from Iran on Wednesday.... The Israeli bombardment in Lebanon, which started after Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel in support of Tehran, has killed more than 600 people and displaced more than 800,000 over the last several days, according to Lebanese officials.”
Mohamad El Chama, et al., of the Washington Post: “The U.S.-Israeli war against Iran has engulfed Lebanon, pushing the beleaguered country to a new precipice after retaliatory rocket and drone strikes on Israel by Hezbollah, Tehran’s longtime proxy, drew a ferocious bombing campaign and further incursions by Israeli ground forces into border areas of south Lebanon.... Lebanon’s government, 'desperate' to stave off a disaster that threatens to overwhelm it, has appealed to U.S. and European leaders to intervene, officials said, even offering to engage in once-taboo talks with Israel. Israel rejected the proposal, according to two people.... Lebanese authorities, in a diplomatic scramble from Beirut to Paris to Washington, have called for an immediate ceasefire, support for the Lebanese army to seize Hezbollah’s arsenal, and eventual direct peace talks with Israel 'under American sponsorship,' according to an adviser to President Joseph Aoun.”
Turkiye Today: ”The Pentagon acknowledged Tuesday that the number of U.S. troops wounded in the war with Iran is far higher than it initially suggested in an unusual break from long-standing transparency norms about casualties in combat.....” ~~~
~~~ Steven Beynon of ABC News: "The Pentagon said Tuesday that about 140 U.S. service members have been wounded in conflict with Iran. 'The vast majority of these injuries have been minor, and 108 service members have already returned to duty,' Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in an emailed statement. Eight are currently 'severely injured,' Parnell added. These numbers are the first insight into the broader toll of injuries sustained by U.S. troops after a barrage of retaliatory rocket and drone strikes from Iran that also killed seven soldiers in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.... According to Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesperson..., 'the vast majority of these injuries have been minor.' Of that, 108 have been returned to duty. The acknowledgment came only after ABC News and other news organizations pressed the Pentagon about its casualty figures, as sources with knowledge of the situation said the number of wounded troops appeared to be significantly higher than what it had publicly disclosed."
Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: “Pentagon officials told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday that they estimated the cost of the war against Iran had exceeded $11.3 billion in the first six days alone, according to three people familiar with the briefing. The estimate did not include many of the costs associated with the operation, such as the buildup of military hardware and personnel ahead of the first strikes. For that reason, lawmakers expect the number to grow considerably as the Pentagon continues to calculate the costs that accumulated just in the first week. Still, it appeared to be the most comprehensive assessment Congress had received so far amid mounting questions about the objectives, scope and time frame for the war.” The link may be a gift link. An AP item is here. ~~~
~~~ AND, as Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) pointed out on MS NOW last night, these figures don't include general economic costs, like the spike in oil prices.
Paul Krugman: "It becomes clearer with each passing day that the people who took us to war with Iran had and have no idea what they’re doing — that they’re adolescents who think they’re playing video games while thousands die and the world careens toward economic crisis.... One big question is, who put The Gang That Couldn’t Think Straight in power? In an immediate sense, Trump was put over the top by low-information voters — defined by G. Elliott Morris as voters who don’t know which party controls Congress. But the groundwork for the MAGA takeover was laid well before by the Roberts Supreme Court and by right-wing billionaires that the court enabled.... And ... explicit money flows [from billionaires to campaign coffers] don’t capture the immense effect of other deployments of billionaires’ wealth, notably the subversion of both conventional and social media.... [But why choose Trump the Incompetent?] To actually take over the U.S. government requires more than money — it requires politicians who are utterly corrupt.... Corruption and incompetence go hand in hand.... [Also,] he vast wealth of tech billionaires has made many of them unconcerned with the little people’s lives — and deeply unpatriotic."
W.J. Hennigan of the New York Times: Donald “Trump’s aims in joining the air war against Iran are beginning to rub against the long-term objectives of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. While Mr. Trump has said in recent days that America’s military goals are nearly complete — even though the ayatollahs remain in power — Israel seeks an end to the regime and to crush its regional influence. In short, Mr. Trump wants to bend Iran. Mr. Netanyahu seeks to break it.... The U.S. and Israeli objectives overlap in their short-term goals: destroying Iran’s missiles, nuclear program, navy, weapons production and military command-and-control.... Two nations started this war together. It’s hard to see how they can join forces to end it.”
⭐Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: “An ongoing military investigation has determined that the United States is responsible for a deadly Tomahawk missile strike on an Iranian elementary school, according to U.S. officials and others familiar with the preliminary findings. The Feb. 28 strike on the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school building was the result of a targeting mistake by the U.S. military, which was conducting strikes on an adjacent Iranian base of which the school building was formerly a part, the preliminary investigation found. Officers at U.S. Central Command created the target coordinates for the strike using outdated data provided by the Defense Intelligence Agency, people briefed on the investigation said. Officials emphasized that the findings are preliminary and that there are important unanswered questions about why the outdated information had not been double checked. Striking a school full of children is sure to be recorded as one of the most devastating single military errors in recent decades. Iranian officials have said the death toll was at least 175 people, most of them children....
“[Donald] Trump’s attempts to sidestep the blame for the strike have also already complicated the inquiry, leaving officials who have reviewed the findings showing U.S. culpability expressing unease. The people interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitive nature of the ongoing investigation and Mr. Trump’s assertion at one point that Iran, not the United States, was responsible.... Asked about this article as he left the White House on Wednesday..., Mr. Trump replied, 'I don’t know about that.'” The link appears to be a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Tara Copp, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Iranian elementary school building where scores of children were killed as the U.S. and Israel began their massive aerial campaign was on a U.S. target list and may have been mistaken for a military site, multiple people familiar with the strike told The Washington Post.... It is still not clear why the building was hit, but one person familiar with the school strike said the building had been identified as a factory and had been an approved strike target. A second person familiar said there was an arms depot target located in the same area and did not know if the United States hit the school by mistake, or if U.S. officials had the wrong intelligence and thought the building was the arms depot.” ~~~
~~~ Gordon Lubold, et al., of NBC News: "Outdated intelligence likely led to a deadly missile strike on an elementary school in Iran, according to a U.S. official and three sources familiar with the preliminary findings.... The ongoing investigation has so far found that the munition did not go off target, but rather hit the school because old intelligence showed it to be a military target, the four sources said. Witnesses and an Iranian Education Ministry official said previously that the school was located on a compound that was a base for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps until about 15 years ago."
Barak Ravid of Axios: Donald “Trump told Axios in a brief phone interview Wednesday that the war with Iran will end 'soon' because there is 'practically nothing left to target.' 'Little this and that... Any time I want it to end, it will end,' Trump said during the five-minute call." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Do not take the word of Mr. I-Can-Do-Whatever-I-Want that he will decide when the war ends. Because ~~~
~~~ Patrick Wintour of the Guardian (March 10): “Iran has spurned two messages from Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, seeking a ceasefire as its leaders sense it is not losing the war and the US president is at the minimum feeling the political pressure. The foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has further said a unilateral declaration from Trump that the US had won the war would not bring an end to the conflict. The implication is that even if the US announced a willingness to end its attacks, Iran might be willing to continue the conflict in some form, or keep its chokehold on shipping seeking to navigate the strait of Hormuz. Iran believes there can be no end to the conflict until it believes Trump has been shown the economic, political and military cost is so high that it is not worth repeating. It is instead insisting on a permanent deal that includes a US commitment not to attack Iran again.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: That is, Trump already tried to end the war. He failed. Twice.
It turns out that stupid, narcissistic, chest-thumping warmongers often are philistines. ~~~
~~~ Farnaz Fassihi of the New York Times: The United States & Israel have struck a number of iconic cultural heritage sites in Iran. “The images of renowned historic sites shattered by missiles has left many Iranians enraged.... 'UNESCO is deeply concerned by reports of destruction affecting cultural heritage sites in the Middle East, notably in Iran and neighboring countries,' said [an agency] spokeswoman, Monia Adjiwanou. In a statement last week, UNESCO said 'cultural property is protected under international law.' It said it had contacted all parties in the Iran conflict and shared the geographical coordinates for sites on its world heritage list, as well as for national symbols. The hope was that they might be spared.” Thanks to akaWendy for highlighting this story earlier Wednesday. (Also linked yesterday.)
 |
| Ugly Pete at a March 2 briefing. |
~~~ Here's what you do when all of your makeup artists & hairdressers and other plumpers & groomers who toil in your Pentagon makeup studio just can't make you look like a happy warrior: ~~~
~~~ Scott Nover of the Washington Post: “The Defense Department has barred press photographers from briefings on the ongoing U.S.-Israeli military conflict with Iran after they published photos of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that his staff deemed 'unflattering,' according to two people familiar with the decision who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation.... Several outlets including the Associated Press, Reuters and Getty Images sent photographers to [a March 2] briefing from Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But after they published photos [which Hegseth's staff disliked]..., Hegseth’s aides decided to shut out photographers from the two subsequent briefings at the Pentagon, on March 4 and March 10.... The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) ... condemned the Defense Department’s decision in a statement after this article was published, and called upon the Pentagon to restore access to banned photographers. The group also said retaliation against photographers raises fresh First Amendment concerns.” ~~~
~~~ digby is totally unconvinced that staffers were put off by the photos of Angry Crazy Stupid Drunk Pete. Read on for news of Dictator Don's weird shoe fetish. ~~~
~~~ Clown Shoes, Ctd. See Akhilleus' commentary on Trump Shoes in today's thread. And do check out the link at the bottom of Akhilleus' comment. It's kinda perfect. Here's a photo of Little Marco wearing a pair of $145 Florsheims Trump gave him. I would say that despite his ambitions, Marco just can't fill Trump's shoes: ~~~
~~~ Greg Jaffe of the New York Times attempts to explain why the SecDef appears in photos as Angry Crazy Stupid Drunk Pete: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s bellicose and vengeful rhetoric describing the military’s war in Iran grew out of his experience in Iraq.... [He believes] hat the United States’ lofty goals in Iraq and Afghanistan caused the military to lose focus on its main task, killing the enemy, and led to costly defeats in both wars. In his view, the U.S. military’s strength is not rooted in its high ideals, humanity or moral purpose, but rather its ability to punish adversaries. Anything that distracts from that singular mission, he has said, is weakness.”
Josh Margolin, et al., of ABC News: "The FBI warned police departments in California in recent days that Iran could retaliate for American attacks by launching drones at the West Coast, according to an alert reviewed by ABC News.... The information about Iran’s aspirations for a surprise drone attack on the West Coast came before the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran, and a senior law enforcement official said it's believed the 12-day bombardment has severely degraded Iran's capabilities to carry out such an attack.... U.S. intelligence officials have also grown concerned in recent months about the expanding use of drones by Mexican drug cartels and the chance the technology could be used to attack American forces and personnel near the Mexican border."
An Inconvenient Friend. Motoko Rich of the New York Times: “... as an American war with Iran causes economic pain throughout Europe, [Italian Prime Minister Giorgia] Meloni’s once vaunted friendship with Mr. Trump is proving to be a liability, just as she is seeking to win a tight referendum later this month over a contentious judicial change.... Ms. Meloni has ... been forced to triangulate between placating Mr. Trump by avoiding outright condemnation of the war; trying to fulfill defense cooperation agreements with Arab countries in the Persian Gulf; and assuaging Italian public opinion, which is firmly against the war.” MB: Don't worry, dear. Donald Trump would drop you, deride you, undermine you, punish you -- whatever -- with alaricity should it be convenient for him to do so.
Rebecca Falconer of Axios: "A United Nations watchdog on Wednesday criticized 'intensified immigration crackdowns' in the U.S. and accused ... [Donald] Trump and other American leaders of using 'racist hate speech' — both of which it said had 'sparked grave human rights violations.'... The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination's report marks an unprecedented singling out of a U.S. leader by a United Nations body — and it prompted the White House to accuse the global intergovernmental organization of 'extreme bias' in response."
Anatoly Kurmanaev, et al., of the New York Times: “The United States is negotiating the extradition of a billionaire businessman linked to Nicolás Maduro, the detained Venezuelan president, according to seven Venezuelans and Americans familiar with the matter. U.S. prosecutors in Miami filed a sealed indictment against the businessman and former government official, Alex Saab, on corruption charges in January, soon after the U.S. Special Forces captured Mr. Maduro.... Venezuela’s government, at Washington’s request, detained Mr. Saab in early February.... Mr. Saab, 54, is a friend of Mr. Maduro’s whom U.S. prosecutors for years have accused of enriching himself through lucrative government contracts....
“In 2021, Mr. Saab was detained at the request of the U.S. government in the West African nation of Cape Verde while traveling on business to Iran, a close ally of Mr. Maduro’s government. He was later extradited to the United States, where he spent nearly two years behind bars on money-laundering charges before being pardoned by the Biden administration.... He was returned to Venezuela in a 2023 prisoner swap.... [Some] people familiar with Mr. Saab’s case have ... said the Trump administration’s pursuit of Mr. Saab is partly driven by a desire to inflict political damage on Democrats since the businessman was pardoned by a Democratic president, Joseph R. Biden Jr.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Hailey Fuchs of Politico: “Jeffrey Epstein’s accountant Richard Kahn provided a House panel with the names of individuals who allegedly contributed to the late convicted sex offender’s fortune, Rep. James Comer told reporters Wednesday — further expanding the circle of possible witnesses the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee could subpoena for testimony as part of its ongoing Epstein investigation. Those people include former Victoria’s Secret CEO Les Wexner, former Apollo Global Management CEO Leon Black, former Microsoft Windows Division President Steven Sinofsky and hedge fund investor Glenn Dubin, according to Comer, the committee chair. he Kentucky Republican said Khan, during his closed-door interview, also implicated 'the Rothschilds,' a historically prominent banking family.... In a prepared opening statement..., Kahn said he had no knowledge of Epstein’s abuse of women and girls, and that he only 'provided [Epstein] outside accounting and bookkeeping services.'... Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.) noted that Kahn told the committee that a non-American 'head of state' had conducted financial transactions with Epstein and that a person who accused ... Donald Trump of misconduct was provided a settlement from Epstein’s estate.”
Ja'han Jones of MS NOW: “House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer told Fox News that Donald Trump’s Justice Department scuttled a state investigation of Jeffrey Epstein’s New Mexico ranch during his first presidency. The ranch has come under renewed scrutiny by state officials in New Mexico because of an unverified allegation in the Epstein files that the now-deceased sex offender had bodies buried nearby. The state’s Justice Department searched the ranch on Tuesday. The late Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre alleged in her memoir that she met politicians and CEOs at the ranch. Epstein also reportedly had plans to use the ranch in a eugenics-inspired plot to 'seed' the world with his DNA (though there’s no evidence he followed through). Comer made his comments on Tuesday during a rant to host Jesse Watters about what he essentially framed as a government coverup.... Rather conveniently, Comer made no mention of who was president in 2019: Donald Trump.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: The news here is Comer's remarks. We learned a couple of weeks ago that the FBI put the kibosh on New Mexico's investigation of the ranch.
Steve Eder & Devlin Barrett of the New York Times: Emails exchanged among FBI agents beginning in late July 2025 are “part of the trove of investigative documents involving [Jeffrey] Epstein released by the government, show how the Justice Department scrambled last summer as the F.B.I. sought to understand what, exactly, its files said about Mr. Trump and others close to Mr. Epstein. It was an early sign of the department’s frantic effort to prepare the records for release. But the department’s handling of the files has only fueled questions about its commitment to transparency, painting a portrait of an agency under intense political scrutiny that failed to make public key documents, even after officials sought to identify tips involving Mr. Trump....
“The agents ordered up the hastily written notes on July 24, the same day that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche was in Florida to interview Ghislaine Maxwell....In the days that followed, the F.B.I. converted the summaries on the prominent men into a slide that was part of a 21-page internal presentation on the Epstein case. In early August, an unclassified version of the presentation was shared with the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, the newly released emails suggest. A draft of the presentation released by the Justice Department exposed the names of alleged victims.... At the same time, emails show, F.B.I. agents were collating in a table a wider list of complaints[/tips] that the agency had received about Mr. Trump.... In December, Mr. Blanche pledged that the administration would not remove or withhold mentions of the president, declaring, 'We are not redacting information around President Trump.' But in at least two cases, The Times could not initially find any related records underpinning the tips.” (Also linked yesterday.)
~~~ Marie: I wish I could remember who it was, but someone suggested the other day that those FBI communications were the reason Blanche went to "interview" Maxwell. Blanche knew the FBI had turned over those communications to Maxwell in the discovery phase of her criminal case. So he knew she was privy to their contents, and he wanted to know what she would say about them. Now that we know he went to visit her at the very same time the agents were putting together the notes for somebody -- it seems irrefutable that the purpose of Blanche's meetings with Maxwell was to cover up Trump's crimes.
Pooja Salhotra, et al., of the New York Times: “Officials said a 23-year-old Texan [-- Ruben Ray Martinez --] had intentionally run over an officer, a claim his family and friend denied. Newly released footage leaves the truth murky. Nearly one year after the fatal encounter, the Texas Department of Public Safety released video, witness accounts and police reports that recorded a chaotic and confusing scene unfolding in the middle of the night.... Mr. Martinez, who worked at an Amazon warehouse and had nothing more serious than traffic violations on his record, was the first of at least three Americans fatally shot by federal immigration agents during ... [Donald] Trump’s second term.”
Abbie VanSickle & Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: “The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to allow it to end a program shielding hundreds of thousands of Haitians from deportation. In a court filing, Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the justices to block a lower court decision that found the Trump administration had violated the law when it terminated Temporary Protected Status, a program that allows some 350,000 Haitians to live and work legally in the United States.”
Our Incredibly Inadequate Healthcare System, Ctd. Daniel Wu of the Washington Post: “Americans are driving less, skipping meals and putting off big life moves, like buying homes or having children, to keep up with health care costs, according to two Gallup polls released Thursday. Roughly one-third of Americans are cutting back on daily spending to cover medical costs, and about half of middle-income households said they have delayed a major life event because of the same expenses, the polls found, as premiums rise and the federal government cuts Medicaid spending.”
Ellen Barry & Jason DeParle of the New York Times: “The Trump administration on Wednesday announced a new effort to initiate legal guardianships for hundreds of veterans, including some who are homeless or 'at risk of homelessness,' that could be used to force more of them into involuntary or institutional care. Under the new arrangement, the Justice Department would give officials at the Veterans Affairs Department authority they currently lack to initiate guardianship proceedings in state courts for veterans who have no family and are 'unable to make their own health care decisions.' If a state court determines that a veteran is incapable of making health care decisions, it would appoint a third-party guardian not employed by the V.A., who would be charged to act in the veterans’ best interests, said Pete Kasperowicz, the V.A. press secretary. The initiative comes amid a push by the Trump administration to compel more homeless people into institutional treatment for mental illness and drug addiction.” The link may be a gift link.
Tim Balk of the New York Times: “Joe Rogan, the influential podcast host, said on his show Tuesday that the war in Iran was 'crazy' and had left Americans feeling 'betrayed' by ... [Donald] Trump, describing the conflict as a sharp reversal from the policies that the president had campaigned on. 'It just seems so insane,' said Mr. Rogan, who endorsed Mr. Trump in 2024 and said he still texted with him on occasion. 'He ran on no more wars: End these stupid, senseless wars. And then we have one that we can’t even really clearly define why we did it.' Mr. Rogan gave Mr. Trump a boost in the final days of his 2024 campaign, taping a friendly three-hour interview with him and then delivering an endorsement on the eve of the election. But he has sometimes criticized the president since he returned to office and has appeared increasingly skeptical of the administration in recent months.... Mr. Rogan’s show, 'The Joe Rogan Experience,' is the most popular podcast on Spotify.... Opinion polls show that the conflict is unpopular with most Americans, and a surge in oil prices driven by the war has put Republicans on the defensive.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Vimal Patel & Stephanie Saul of the New York Times: “Several states sued the Trump administration on Wednesday over its mandate that colleges share with the federal government detailed student and admissions data, which the government has said is meant to ensure schools are not using racial preferences. The Trump administration announced in August that schools would be required to report disaggregated data on the race, gender, test scores and grade point averages of applicants.... The states say the effort has been rushed into place to target diversity efforts and creates an undue burden on schools. In the lawsuit on Wednesday, filed by the attorneys general of 17 mostly left-leaning states, including New York and California, the states argue that the Trump administration was attempting to turn the National Center for Education Statistics, a nonpartisan agency, into a 'mechanism for law enforcement and the furthering of partisan policy aims.'” (Also linked yesterday.)
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Washington State. Anna Griffin of the New York Times: “Lawmakers in Washington State have agreed to create an income tax on high earners, called a 'millionaires’ tax' by its supporters, that could generate close to $4 billion annually if signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson, a Democrat who has said he backs the bill. Critics worry it could lead to a wealth exodus — a concern underlined this week when one of Seattle’s wealthiest residents, the former Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz, said on social media that he was moving to Florida, following the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who left Washington in 2023. The measure to create the state’s first income tax passed on Wednesday evening, one day before the end of the 2026 session. It would impose a 9.9 percent annual tax on personal earnings over $1 million, which is projected to affect about 20,000 households.” MB: Ultra-wealthy people who knock themselves out to avoid taxes are slime. Massive wealth should be against the law. It's obscene.
18 comments:
About those Iranian terrorist sleeper cells...
Reports of possible retaliation for the Trump-Epstein-Bibi War of Whim by Iranian terrorists embedded as sleepers in the US have Fat Hitler doing what he always does. Blaming someone else then moving on.
When asked about sleeper cells, Fatty claimed to know all about them, who they are, where they are, and what they had for breakfast. Great. Now what? Wait until they blow up a school and blame Joe Biden?
"A president suggesting that hostile Iranian operatives are scattered around the country while the government keeps a watchful eye on them is not a throwaway boast. It is either an alarming admission about the state of domestic counterterrorism or a fabrication delivered with presidential authority during an active foreign policy crisis."
So the question now is "What are you gonna do about it? Huh?" No one asked that question however, on pain of being exiled from the royal presence.
If we know these people are out there, know where they are, why aren't they being arrested? Or at least brought in for questioning? Lies are one thing, but incompetence and indolence, two of Fatty's most prevalent qualities, put American lives at risk. Oh, wait. We have that 23 year old kid Fatty hired to oversee terrorist plots, you know, the one who was a grocery store clerk and lawn maintenance worker until a few months ago. I'm sure he's right on top of things.
What the actual fuck?!? Sleeper cells. Terrorists in our midst, in the middle of a war on their country. And we do nothing? Just imagine if Joe Biden had said "Yeah, we know all about it, but I have to go do a fund raiser right now, so don't bother me."
The calls for immediate impeachment would be deafening.
You know those giant floppy shoes clowns wear? You know why they wear 'em? Well, because they look funny. Also because they're clowns.
And here's Little Marco, with his own clown shoes, handed to him by his lord and master, Fat Hitler, who apparently handed out the same style of Florsheim shoe he favors to a bunch of clowns in his cabinet. He didn't actually care if they fit, or if they were the right size. It's a test.
"'All the boys have them,' said a female White House official.
'It’s hysterical, because everybody’s afraid not to wear them,' another official remarked."
A classic dictator test. The test is whether his clowns will obsequiously wear shoes that make them look ridiculous in order to demonstrate what complete lackeys they are, how little self respect they have, and how they'll do whatever the King Roly Poly tells them to do. Clowns. T'hat's who we have running things. Frightened clowns.
If only Little Marco were more like Jack Nicholson, he might have the balls to say this.
As if this will work wonders and bring oil prices down instantly, Fatty keeps saying he can stop the war any time he wants.
Oooohh-kaaaay. Sure. But will Iran be fine with that? Something I haven't seen much of is the fact that the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, might not be all that amenable to going along with whatever Fat Hitler decides. Why? I mean, his country is getting bombed to shit. Wouldn't he like all that to end?
First of all, Fatty might say the war is over, but will Bibi? As I mentioned yesterday, Bibi's idea of winning is genocidal annihilation (see Gaza). He's not going to stop because Fatty sez so. This is his chance to X out Iran. Khamenei knows this. But he also knows that the bombing raid that killed his father also killed his mother, his wife, his son, and several other family members. He's likely not in the mood to let bygones be bygones, no matter what King Donald decides.
Someone should inform the Dear Leader that he isn't god almighty. He'll be shocked to hear it, I know.
So Drunk Pete is concerned that the US military loses focus and forgets about lethal war fighting stuff.
Where does the private makeup office in the Pentagon and temper tantrums over unflattering photos enter into that refocusing plan?
Does the right combination of foundation, highlights, hair products and approved cover boy photos get those lethal killer juices flowing?
Oooh! Where’s my Rambo knife? “I’m ready for my close up now, Mr. DeMille!”
Hold on, Mr. Secretary! There’s a hair out of place! And we need a little more blush on that right cheek. Make up!! Where’s Richard Avedon when we need him? What’s that? A call from Centcom? Tell them to wait. Don’t they know this is the Secretary’s personal make up time? The nerve of those generals!
I was wasting some time on a word search app last night and after finishing a puzzle I got an ad with Dr Oz selling some BS supplement. The head of government Medicare is still shilling for quack medical cures while being part of our government. It is so disappointing that all of these losers are selling out everyone and all of our futures while at the same time cashing in on all their shady connections and it is already excepted practice by almost all of our media and MSM reporters. At most it gets a tiny back page mention so that they can point and pretend that they covered the blatant corruption. Another thing that the Republicans have trained and/or bought from the media. Republican grifting is to be expected and mostly ignored as the price of access and toleration in their world.
The idea that this administration wants to help veterans is laughable. These new guardianships are just another money making scheme for the Right. Forced institutionalizing of thousands of people and having the tax payers pay for their "care" as the contracts go to their friend$. And they are incentivized to keep these people locked away for as long as possible or profitable.
"Bondi Testimony Questions Congress Must Ask
Trial lawyer tips to force real answers"
Barb McQuade
Realities of the Real World
"U.S. Plan to Unblock Strait of Hormuz Collides With Realities of Global Insurance
This U.S.-centric insurance idea runs counter to the realities of an international market, according to industry executives"
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse details Trump's Russia-Epstein ties, nearly fifty minutes on the Senate floor. They have been reported here and elsewhere, but Whitehouse puts a lot in one place.
Surviving Hormuz, just a matter of time before someone tries to gamify this.
RAS,
That "meh", laissez-faire attitude of the media to the ubiquitous, quotidian, practically mandatory PoT-Trump style corruption and grifting is the direct opposite of the way they cover suspected corruption on the Democratic side.
Commentators STILL bring up the small potatoes Hunter Biden bullshit (which never involved his father) as proof that both sides do it. It's like a kid on a skateboard is comparable to someone driving a Formula 1 Indy car. Yeah. They're both the same. Actually, when you compare the piddling few thousands Hunter Biden was picking up to the billions hovered up by the Trump Crime Family, it's more like skateboard vs. Atlas rocket.
I STILL read about Whitewater in connection with the Clintons, who LOST money on a perfectly legal real estate investment they made years before the presidency was even in sight. People they invested with did some underhanded things, but after years of political proctology and multiple colonoscopies, not a scintilla of wrongdoing could be manufactured. There was the matter of a tax report of some interest which they paid up (less than ten grand). Fat Hitler pays NO TAXES on ANYTHING, refuses to even let anyone see his tax returns, but the Clintons are compared to Fatty as if they're both doing the same shit.
So I'm not surprised that Dr. Crudités is still grifting, still hawking his snake oil with impunity, zero interest from the press. It's what they do (the R grifters AND the media). But I guarantee you, should it turn out that someone like Zoran Mamdami has a few unpaid parking tickets, there'll be Army-McCarthy style hearings that every paper on the planet will cover. Meanwhile, 666 Jared pulls us into a war to help out his buddies in the Middle East who gifted him billions, and Eightball Junior makes millions in what amounts to insider trading, and there's not even a hint of an investigation.
Same as it ever was.
Dancing with the Douchegags
The increasingly unctuous Kash and Carry is turbocharging his belief that his job is more a celebration of his fame as a Fat Hitler celebrity than any actual law and order investigations.
Now he announces that FBI agents will be "training" with MMA fighters, you know the guys Fatty is bringing to the White House to salute our 250th, because nothing says American Independence like two guys kicking each other in the head on the White House lawn in an exhibition John McCain once called human cockfighting.
Years ago, the patrician writer George Plimpton made a name for himself as a participatory journalist, playing quarterback with the Detroit Lions, getting between the pipes as an NHL goalie, and direction the New York Philharmonic. His work was both funny and revealing. But he was a writer. He wasn't wasting his time doing stupid celebrity tricks or jumping into some Dancing with the (C and D level) Stars stunt.
Kash Patel is reducing the FBI to some crude celebrity stunt. Are FBI agents really going to benefit from two days of learning how to kick a bad guy in the nuts? I'm pretty sure they already get plenty of training in taking down perps. This is just another stunt for Kash and Carry to get his face on camera and act like a tough guy with the MMA douchebags.
How about doing your fucking job for a change, asshole? Go arrest those Iranian sleeper cell terrorists Fatty is yapping about. Or how about finding Savannah Guthrie's mom? This is more weenie ass cowards like Trump and Patel hanging with the hard guys to prove their manhood by association.
Another waste of oxygen in this most useless of all administrations.
Akhilleus,
Yeah, evenly balanced scales of justice meme has been out of whack for a long time. A very bad joke in fact. A weaponized Justice Department? Wanna see one? Every day is a lesson in how to do it right. AS for the Dems, knife to a gunfight says the same thing. Dems strength is their weakness. They are too nice.
I'd like to think the arc of history bends the way I'd wish, and maybe in some ways it does, but the many glaring exceptions (and those of the present corrupt administration are blindingly so) make the myth of even-handedness hard to accept.
What gives? I think it comes down to what I've called the gravitational pull of money, the plain filthiness of lucre. And in the present, that attraction is pulling the nation (and the world) apart.
One more thing about Fatty's clown shoes test.
When reporters say that Trump bought $145 pairs of shoes for all his clowns, what they should be saying is that he used taxpayer money to buy them. And I don't even have to wait for proof of that assertion. Does anyone think Fatty uses his own money for ANYTHING? Not when he's got 24/7 access to US treasury cash, taxpayers' money. He pays for NOTHING. He's the chiseler in chief.
Ken,
Exactly. But in the case of the Trump era Party of Traitors, it's more than just greed. Certainly avarice plays a role in their nastiness, but there's also the urge to complete destruction of the other side. They can't just agree to disagree. 'Dissenting opinions must be eradicated. The original schemes of Newt Gingrich to portray Democrats as sleazy, weak, treasonous, un-American, was (I think) more a vote getting strategy. Over time, those terms metastasized and came to be seen as a true impression of Democrats and liberals. And given the Old Testament leanings (cherry picked, natch) of so many Evangelical types, the only solution for evil is total extirpation, extinction, death. The weaponization is more than just a term or art. When Fatty put out the call to the thugs, they brought actual weapons to maim, to injure, and to kill.
It's become existential.
Proof is pouring in that a US missile is to blame for the deaths of all those little girls in that Iranian school. The usual suspects are now saying that "Oops, faulty intel is to blame. We would NEVER do a thing like that."
Maybe. But we had in place a system to minimize civilian casualties. It seems now that, under the influence of Lethal War Fighter, Drunk Pete, that likelihood of civilian casualties is not a bug, it's a feature.
"[Wes] Bryant, a former special operations targeting specialist, said he couldn’t help but think of what-ifs as he monitored fallout from the Feb. 28 attack.
Just over a year ago, he had been a senior adviser in an ambitious new Defense Department program aimed at reducing civilian harm during operations. Finally, Bryant said, the military was getting serious about reforms. He worked out of a newly opened Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, where his supervisor was a veteran strike-team targeter who had served as a United Nations war crimes investigator.
Today, that momentum is gone. Bryant was forced out of government in cuts last spring. The civilian protection mission was dissolved as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made 'lethality' a top priority. And the world has witnessed a tragedy in Minab that, if U.S. responsibility is confirmed, would be the most civilians killed by the military in a single attack in decades.
Dismantling the fledgling harm-reduction effort, defense analysts say, is among several ways the Trump administration has reorganized national security around two principles: more aggression, less accountability.
Trump and his aides lowered the authorization level for lethal force, broadened target categories, inflated threat assessments and fired inspectors general, according to more than a dozen current and former national security personnel. Nearly all spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
'We’re departing from the rules and norms that we’ve tried to establish as a global community since at least World War II,' Bryant said. 'There’s zero accountability.'"
Except for photographers who take unflattering pictures of the snowflake Lethal Man, Drunk Pete.
Dead kids? Meh. We're LETHAL WAR FIGHTERS! Arrrrgggghhhh! Oops....all that lethality mussed my hair. MAKE UP!
How grand. A bigot drives a pickup INTO a synagogue and of course, the bigot is either shot by security or himself, so we never know what his beef is...but it seems to be completely supported by the Bigot-in chief who IS a special bigot in that he has his underlings mouth supposed support for Bibi (although antisemetism is not the same as anti-Israel feelings) and Jews, but whose followers are really antisemetic to beat the band. They have spent a lot of time deporting supposed Palestinian supporters on behalf of Bibi, but that doesn't really discourage plain ol' bigots who love the Orange Poltroon and will teach others, or radicalize them, and so it goes. So sick of this.
As usual, Dan Froomkin brings it.
Which is why the Washington Post got rid of him. Mainstream media doesn't do truth. At least not when it looks like they'll be pissing off Republicans.
But I digress....
"Let’s say the president is mentally unfit for duty. [This ain't a hypothetical.]
Let’s say that has been pretty clear for a while now, what with his delusion that he won an election he lost, his chaotic imposition of illegal and irrational tariffs, his self-evident lies about how well everything is going, his frequent lapses into incoherence, and so on.
And then let’s say he unilaterally starts a major war of aggression with no clear rationale. He keeps changing his mind about what the goal is, and whether it is being achieved. He boasts about it like a schoolyard bully and makes apocalyptic threats. He says everything is under control when it is not.
Now bombs are dropping and people are dying and tens of millions of people are living in fear.
And it’s all because he’s a profoundly deranged man.
At what point should a news organization devoted to impartiality start stating the obvious conclusion, even if it’s offensive to a small minority of people, most of whom don’t consume their news anyway?"
The Bozos controlled Fat Hitler friendly Post would say "Never".
There's more. God, I miss Froomkin.
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