March 21, 2026

Tim Weiner of the New York Times: “Robert S. Mueller III, who led the Federal Bureau of Investigation for 12 tumultuous years, brought politically explosive indictments as a special counsel examining Russia’s attack on the 2016 presidential election, and then concluded that he could neither absolve nor accuse ... [Donald] Trump of a crime, died on Friday. He was 81.” Mueller's AP obituary is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mariea: As you may know, I prefer not to say anything ill of the recently deceased. I have nothing "ill" to say about Mueller. In today's comments, RAS cites Donald Trump's remarks on Mueller's death, and the same comment appears near the top of Mueller's NYT obituary. Trump has thus released me -- has released everyone -- of abiding by polite decorum upon his demise. If Trump goes before I do --and I hope he does -- I will metaphorically dance on his grave.

Alexander Willis of the Raw Story: “... Donald Trump's decision to kick off the U.S. war against Iran last month was motivated, in part, by 'pressure from outside allies,' multiple insiders told Bloomberg in its report Saturday, a revelation that sparked a fierce rebuttal from the Trump administration.... The insiders claimed that Trump was under pressure to strike Iran from at least two individuals outside his administration: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who’s wanted by the International Court of Justice for alleged war crimes – and Rupert Murdoch, the billionaire conservative media mogul and architect of Fox News. '[Murdoch] communicated with Trump several times as he urged the president to take on Tehran, according to one person briefed on their interactions,' Bloomberg’s report reads. 'Meanwhile, some of Trump’s closest advisers were more muted about the prospect of an armed conflict, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, the people said.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The headline of the Bloomberg story, BTW, is, "Trump's Iran War Drive Exposes Limits of 'Yes Sir' Cabinet." Indeed, it does.

Only a thug could think thugs were "brilliant." ~~~

~~~ Erica Green & Michael Gold of the New York Times: Donald “Trump threatened on Saturday to deploy Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to airports as soon as Monday if Democrats did not 'immediately' agree to a plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security. 'If the Radical Left Democrats don’t immediately sign an agreement to let our Country, in particular, our Airports, be FREE and SAFE again,' Mr. Trump wrote, 'I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one has ever seen before.' In a follow-up post hours later, Mr. Trump said that he had in fact decided to go ahead with the move, and that he had told the agency to 'GET READY.' 'I look forward to moving ICE in on Monday,' he wrote. Mr. Trump posted the threat, then the timing of the deployment, in an apparent attempt to break an impasse between congressional Democrats and the White House over immigration enforcement, a stalemate that caused a partial government shutdown last month.” ~~~

~~~ Sophie Brams of the Hill: “Billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk is offering to pay the salaries of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees as the partial government shutdown stretches into another week. 'I would like to offer to pay the salaries of TSA personnel during this funding impasse that is negatively affecting the lives of so many Americans at airports throughout the country' Musk wrote on social platform X.... It was not immediately clear how that process would work, or whether it would be legal, given that federal law generally prohibits government employees from receiving outside compensation tied to their official duties. TSA workers could miss their second full paycheck next week as lawmakers remain deadlocked over funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), seeming no closer to an agreement.”

Jacey Fortin of the New York Times: “On Wednesday, a New York Times investigation revealed that Cesar Chavez, who co-founded the United Farm Workers union, sexually abused women and girls, including the union’s co-founder, Dolores Huerta. In the days since, cities, states and schools have sought to erase their associations with him. Statues have been covered, and festivals canceled. But that is only the beginning, as Chavez’s name is connected with countless buildings, parks and schools. Here are images of the initial steps to tear down memorials to the man, who died in 1993, and instead highlight the movement that he started and that others now carry on.”

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Marie: I have to go out for a couple of hours this morning, but I will be back later this morning to do a bit more here. ~~~

     ~~~ Update: I'm back. Here's some stuff I didn't get to earlier. Below the break, I have also added some links to "free" reports (Politico, AP, etc.) that covered the same subjects to which I earlier had linked NYT & WashPo subscriber-firewalled stories. I've also found a few gift links to stories I linked earlier.

New York Times Editors: “From his first announcement of the attack on Iran on Feb. 28..., [Donald] Trump has issued a stream of falsehoods about the war. He has said Iran wants to engage in negotiations, though its government shows no sign of it. He has claimed that the United States “destroyed 100% of Iran’s Military capability” when Tehran continues to inflict damage throughout the region. He has said the war is almost complete even as he calls in reinforcements from around the globe. Lying is standard behavior for Mr. Trump, of course.... Yet lying about war is uniquely corrosive.... Mr. Trump ... has lied about the reasons for the war and about its progress, in an apparent attempt to disguise his poor planning and the war’s questionable basis.... Whatever short-term gain Mr. Trump thinks he is getting by lying about the war in Iran is far exceeded by the cost, for him, the country and the world.”

Marie: Much has been made of Joe Kent's far-right extremism, bigotry, and penchant for conspiracy theories. Rightly so. Somebody with that history should never hold a top government job. People who make important decisions affecting many of us must be, at minimum, level-headed. But I'll say this for Joe the Counterterrorism Guy (even if, as Trump says, he is not so good on security): at least he never claimed he was teleported to a Waffle House: ~~~  

~~~ Dharna Noor of the Guardian: “A far-right conspiracy theorist turned high-ranking official at the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) claims to have once teleported to a Waffle House. Gregg Phillips, who in December was appointed to lead Fema’s office of response and recovery, has spoken on “multiple podcasts” about being teleported against his will, CNN reported on Friday. On a January 2025 podcast appearance, Phillips claimed that his car was 'lifted up' while he was driving and transported 40 miles (65km) away into a ditch near a church. And in another instance on the same episode, Phillips said he was teleported 50 miles away to a Waffle House in Rome, Georgia, CNN detailed in a deep dive into Phillips’ past public statements.... On other podcast appearances, Phillips suggested that both Covid-19 and the vaccine for it were designed to kill people, and also claimed that Department of Homeland Security officials were 'planning the next assassination attempt' of Donald Trump after a failed attempt on the US president’s life in 2024.”

Kate Conger & Natallie Rocha of the New York Times: “Elon Musk is responsible for some losses experienced by Twitter investors after he threatened in social media posts to abandon his purchase of the company four years ago, a jury determined on Friday. Lawyers for the plaintiffs said Mr. Musk might be forced to pay Twitter’s former shareholders roughly $2.5 billion. The details of the damages will be determined in the coming weeks. The shareholders sold their Twitter stock after Mr. Musk said he would put his deal to buy the company on hold, but the billionaire later paid $44 billion for the social platform in October 2022. The shareholders sued Mr. Musk that same year, claiming he had tried to drive down the share price of the company, now X, to force a renegotiation of his offer. Investors pointed to Mr. Musk’s posts about the deal, in which he said that Twitter was riddled with fake accounts and that the purchase was 'temporarily on hold.' Those posts prompted some shareholders to unload their stakes in the company at significantly lower prices than they would have gotten when the deal closed, according to the lawsuit.” A CNBC story is here.

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The New York Times' liveblog of developments in the Iran war is here. From the pinned item at 4:25 am ET: Donald “Trump said in a social media post on Friday that the United States was considering 'winding down' the war with Iran as it was 'getting very close' to meeting its objectives. His remarks came even as U.S. officials said they were ramping up aerial assaults against Iranian drones and naval vessels in an effort to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Earlier, Mr. Trump told reporters on the White House lawn: 'I don’t want to do a cease-fire. You know, you don’t do a cease-fire when you’re literally obliterating the other side.' The president has said multiple times that the war was nearly over, only for U.S. attacks to intensify.... 'I think we’ve won,' Mr. Trump said, saying of Iran that 'all they’re doing is clogging up the strait.' Later, in his social media post on Friday, he wrote: 'The Hormuz Strait will have to be guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it — The United States does not! If asked, we will help these Countries in their Hormuz efforts, but it shouldn’t be necessary once Iran’s threat is eradicated.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If a normal leader made conflicting statements about war plans, you'd chalk it up to strategy to confuse the enemy. But this is Trump, so it isn't strategery; it's just lying layered upon his own confusion. 

Evan Halper of the Washington Post: “.. the Treasury Department on Friday lifted sanctions on 140 million barrels of Iranian crude already loaded onto vessels, which the Trump administration says will help ease prices — but which is also likely to provide revenue for Iran’s war effort.... Administration officials argue that such oil is already making its way to China at a discount, and lifting the sanctions will allow it to flow to other nations.... But the action was met with bewilderment by many lawmakers and analysts, who said it will provide the Iranian regime a cash infusion as it actively tries to kill U.S. soldiers on the battlefield.” Politico's report is here.

Barak Ravid & Marc Caputo of Axios: "The Trump administration is considering plans to occupy or blockade Iran's Kharg Island to pressure Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, four sources with knowledge of the issue tell Axios.... Trump can't end the war, at least on his terms, until he breaks Iran's chokehold on shipping through the strait.... But an operation to take over Kharg Island, which sits 15 miles offshore and processes 90% of Iran's crude oil exports, could put U.S. troops more directly in the line of fire.... Thus, such an operation would only be launched after the U.S. military further degrades Iran's military capacity around the Strait of Hormuz.... Such an operation, if approved, would also require more troops. Three different Marine units are on their way to the region. The White House and the Pentagon are considering sending even more troops soon, a U.S. official said." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Gordon Lubold & Courtney Kube of NBC News: Donald "Trump is weighing whether to send possibly thousands of U.S. troops into Iran as he looks for a way to achieve some of his key goals and end the war.... Trump’s considerations come as he faces a looming global energy crisis, increasing political backlash at home from some of his own supporters, and emerging disagreements between the U.S. and its Middle East allies over the direction of the war. There are several options under discussion.... One would be aimed at freeing up passage in the Strait of Hormuz by deploying troops to Iranian ports or small islands in the Persian Gulf to mitigate the threat to vessels.... Others include an operation to retrieve Iran’s highly enriched uranium or using troops to seize Iranian oil facilities to cut off a key financial lifeline and attempt to extract concessions from the regime...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Jennifer Jacobs, et al., of CBS News: "Pentagon officials have made detailed preparations for deploying U.S. ground forces into Iran, multiple sources briefed on the discussions told CBS News. Senior military commanders have submitted specific requests aimed at preparing for such an option as ... [Donald] Trump weighs moves in the U.S.-Israel-led conflict with Iran...." (Also linked yesterday.)

God Is on Pete's Side. Greg Jaffe & Elizabeth Dias of the New York Times: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has imbued U.S. military actions with a Christian moral underpinning that suggests they are divinely sanctioned. ... At a time when the U.S. and Israeli militaries are dropping thousands of bombs on a majority-Shiite Muslim nation, the explicitly Christian nature of Mr. Hegseth’s call [to pray 'on bended knee ... in the name of Jesus Christ' --] stood out.... Mr. Hegseth’s descriptions of U.S. military actions as divinely sanctioned ... run counter to the views of many prominent leaders in different Christian traditions.... Pope Leo XIV ... called for an end to the fighting in Iran. 'Violence can never lead to the justice, the stability and the peace that peoples are awaiting,' he said.... 'I was saved by God to make America great again,' Mr. Trump said at his 2025 inauguration, referencing a sense of divine mission after surviving an assassination attempt. And last month in Munich, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said America and Europe were bonded together as civilizations by 'Christian faith.'”

Marie: Philip Kennicott of the Washington Post largely agrees with me on the contrast between the Trump coin & George Tames’ photograph of JFK. (See my commentary yesterday.) But Kennicott has a lot more to say about the “chilling” message the Trump coin sends: it “demands assent to [the idea] that the president, like the historic desk that has been scrubbed away, is the personification of resolution. It symbolizes power untroubled by doubt or hesitation.... He stares down the viewer, forcing a choice between accepting his authority or becoming his enemy.” Kennicott also writes, “When Jesus said 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s,' it was after being shown a Roman coin, with Caesar’s image on it. He wasn’t just answering a question about taxation and duty, but responding to a deeply rooted dislike of having to participate in the circulation of Caesar’s image.” The story, like almost everything in the New Testament, is apocryphal, but -- again, like a lot of the New Testament -- it carries a message we can appreciate & honor. The link to Kennicott's column is a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)

Alan Blinder, et al., of the New York Times: “The Trump administration sued Harvard University on Friday over claims that the school was violating the civil rights of Jewish and Israeli people, an escalation of the government’s yearlong clash with the Ivy League university. The administration has spent months investigating Harvard and trying to force a settlement on the university, the largest target in the White House’s campaign to remake American higher education. But the lawsuit Friday — more than six months after a judge blocked the administration’s opening push to strip Harvard of federal research funding — represented a new threat to the nation’s wealthiest university. In its lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Boston, the Trump administration said that Harvard had 'turned a blind eye to antisemitism and discrimination against Jews and Israelis.' The administration said Harvard had strictly enforced policies against other forms of bias, but had allowed anti-Israel protesters to violate rules 'with impunity' after the war in Gaza in 2023.” (Also linked yesterday.) A Guardian story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ A timely protest and essay about it remind us how we know the premise of the suit against Harvard is fake: ~~~

     ~~~ Rebecca Solnit: "... a letter signed by 132 Jewish faculty and staff at UCLA reject[ed] the Trump Administration's definition of antisemitism while pointing out what's dangerous about this right-wing definition of antisemitism: it's an attack on free speech and legitimate opposition to the policies of the Israeli government. They might have added that it's an attack by the same administration that has been making nice with actual Nazis and open antisemites, which is how we know that this pretense to defend Jews is in bad faith. It's trying to use Jews to advance a right-wing agenda. And in so doing it harms Jews by pretending that to oppose the Israeli government and/or its policies is antisemitic, which spreads the calumny that somehow all Jews are aligned with this government and its policies." Thanks to akaWendy for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Bigotry is fundamentally stupid. It comes as the result of being too ignorant to distinguish a person from what we decide is his "group," whether racial, ethnic, geographic, religious, whatever. So if an Italian person does a bigot a disservice (or a kindness), the bigot think all Italians are bad (or good). That's mighty stupid. It's true that some cultures encourage behaviors that might appeal to us or might repulse us. But that doesn't mean that an individual steeped in a particular culture will follow its preferred or traditional behavioral patterns. Our own experience tells us that our culture is complex, and that individuals within our own "group" behave, well, individually and uniquely. So it is stupid not to realize that people whom we identify as belonging to some other "group" are also unique individuals.

Chris Cameron & Carol Rosenberg of the New York Times: “The U.S. military struck a boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Thursday, sinking the vessel and leaving three men adrift at sea, the Defense Department said on Friday. Hours later, the U.S. Coast Guard said it recovered two dead bodies and one survivor from the same area and turned them over to Costa Rica’s Coast Guard. A Coast Guard spokesman did not directly connect the rescue operation to the boat strike, instead saying that U.S. Southern Command notified them of 'three individuals in distress,' a phrase usually used in a peacetime and civilian context. In its own statement, Costa Rica’s Coast Guard said that a shipwreck occurred 126 nautical miles off Costa Rica’s most southern port town, Golfito. The statement said that the survivor, who was seriously injured, was taken to Golfito for medical treatment. It added that the bodies of the two dead men, who have not been identified, were turned over to Costa Rican law enforcement for investigation.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Here again, this looks like the U.S. Coast Guard shooting ducks in a barrel for sport. If this were truly an operation to inhibit drug trafficking, why wouldn't the U.S. Coast Guard want to recover the survivor & turn him over to interrogators to find out who he was working for, what his routes and routines were, etc.? 

Those who drafted the First Amendment believed that the nation’s security requires a free press and an informed people and that such security is endangered by governmental suppression of political speech.... That principle has preserved the nation’s security for almost 250 years. It must not be abandoned now. -- District Judge Paul Friedman, opinion ~~~

~~~ Judge Tosses Petty Pete's Authoritarian Edict. Erik Wemple the New York Times: “A federal judge ruled on Friday that the Pentagon’s restrictions on news outlets violate the First Amendment and issued an order tossing parts of the Defense Department’s policy, handing a victory to The New York Times, which filed suit in December over the restrictions. Judge Paul Friedman, of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, also ordered the Pentagon to restore the press passes of seven journalists for The Times. They had surrendered those passes in October instead of signing the policy, which empowered the Pentagon to declare journalists 'security risks' and revoke their press passes if they engaged in any conduct that the Pentagon believed threatened national security. In his 40-page ruling, Judge Friedman wrote that the Pentagon’s policy rewarded reporters who were 'willing to publish only stories that are favorable to or spoon-fed by department leadership.'” Update: the link has been changed to one that may be a gift link. The AP story is here. Politico's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Charlie Savage of the New York Times: “The New York Times filed suit in the name of one of its national security reporters, Julian E. Barnes. Strikingly, multiple large news outlets declined to risk joining the litigation, although the Pentagon Press Association filed a friend-of-the-court brief. It has been a grim time for press freedom. The Pentagon’s policy ... is just one way in which Mr. Trump and his administration have challenged or undermined norms of independent journalism, penalizing news organizations for articles they deem to be critical and seeking greater control over coverage.” The ruling, via the courts, is here.

Dan Diamond & Emily Davies of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order intended to block other college football games from airing at the same time as the annual Army-Navy football game, a move sought by the event’s supporters and one that Trump acknowledged could face legal challenges.... The president signed the order as he presented the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy to the Navy football team at the White House.... 'Of course, we’ll probably get sued at some point,' Trump said. He also mused about having 'much more power' in his second term to pursue such changes. Several telecommunications lawyers and media law experts questioned whether Trump’s new order on the Army-Navy game was legal, citing the First Amendment and existing regulations.”

~~~ Marie: What idiots would choose a site for a real estate project than lies between a landfill & a medical waste dump which is now a Roma encampment/ghetto AND which is in the mythical environs of a character who wants to suck your blood? Enter ... Team Trump! ~~~

~~~ Rebecca Ruiz & Andrei Petre of the New York Times: “... [Donald] Trump’s family business is setting its sights on Transylvania, the central Romanian home to literature’s Count Dracula. The company has selected, records and interviews show, a site alongside one of the region’s biggest landfills and a former medical waste dump. The project, which has yet to be announced, would revive a stalled real estate development in the Romanian city of Cluj that had been tainted by government corruption. It would put Mr. Trump’s name on luxury apartments and a golf course not far from an informal encampment where Roma people have been effectively exiled to live beside toxic garbage.... During the president’s first term, the company swore off new deals abroad. It made no such promise when he retook office. Instead, the firm has capitalized on the president’s popularity in particular parts of the world.... Mr. Trump’s family business has collected ample cash as a result.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Friends of Donald. Maegan Vazquez of the Washington Post: “A lobbying firm with ties to top Trump administration officials has signed a contract to represent the leaders of the Libyan Arab Armed Forces, agreeing to advance the interests of military commanders who have been accused of brutality and atrocities by human rights groups. Lobbying disclosure documents published this week show that Ballard Partners recently signed the $2 million services agreement and is 'engaging' with Khalifa Hifter, general commander of the Libyan Arab Armed Forces — a hodgepodge of militias once known as the Libyan National Army — and his son Saddam Hifter, chief of staff for the army’s ground forces.litary commanders who have been accused of brutality and atrocities by human rights groups. The elder Hifter, 82, a longtime militia commander and former CIA asset who spent years in exile in Virginia, has amassed significant power since the 2011 ouster and killing of former Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi, emerging as the de facto leader of large swaths of the country. Hifter has attacked the government in Tripoli — which is recognized by the United Nations and European nations — and is strongly linked to a rival government in Benghazi.”

Mark Berman & Perry Stein of the Washington Post: “The Justice Department on Friday asked a federal judge to dismiss the remaining charges against two former Louisville police officers accused of wrongdoing in connection with the search that led to the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor in 2020. Taylor, a Black woman, was shot and killed by Louisville police who were carrying out a search warrant at her apartment in March 2020. Federal authorities later brought civil rights charges against officers tied to the deadly raid, accusing two of them — Joshua Jaynes and Kyle Meany — of knowingly using false information to obtain the warrant used to justify the search.”

Marie: I guess we're supposed to think that President Obama sent Markwayne Mullin to the Middle East on a top-secret mission (the link is to a NYT report by Charlie Savage) and King Abdullah II rescued Markwayne & his top-secret cohort after the U.S. military, inexplicably, refused to do so. And I am Marie (the Queen) of Roumania.

Trump Builds a Dumb Wall. Arelis Hernandez, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration is building hundreds of miles of border wall through iconic national parks, public lands and ecologically sensitive wilderness, empowered by provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill that provided $46.5 billion in funding and a 2005 law that waived dozens of environmental rules for border security projects. The 'Smart Wall' project calls for a wall in parts of rugged Texas desert that are experiencing historically low border crossings and a second wall across parts of California, Arizona and New Mexico that already have barriers from the first Trump administration, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection documents recently posted online. The aggressive pace — three new miles of wall a week — has alarmed advocates and national parks staff who say the construction will destroy pristine country, threaten endangered species, and cut off access to sacred Indigenous and archaeological sites. And it has sparked an unusual degree of bipartisan pushback, with sheriffs, conservative county judges, environmentalists and Texas state lawmakers lobbying Trump officials to change course.”

Megan Twohey, et al., of the New York Times: “Last June, [Paolo Zampolli,] the man credited with introducing ... [Donald] Trump to his wife..., [and now a] presidential special envoy, had learned that his Brazilian ex-girlfriend was in a Miami jail, arrested on charges of fraud.... They had been in a custody battle over their teenage son.... He reached out to a top official at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, explaining that his ex was in the country illegally.... The official, David Venturella, promptly called the agency’s Miami office to ensure that ICE agents would pick up the woman from the jail.... During the call, Mr. Venturella noted that the case was important to someone close to the White House.  The woman, Amanda Ungaro, was placed in ICE custody and ultimately deported, an outcome that may well have happened regardless of Mr. Zampolli’s meddling. But the ICE official’s willingness to spring into action for a Trump ally — even one in a low-level, largely ceremonial role — reflects a recurring theme of the second Trump administration: The levers of the federal government can be pulled to settle a personal score.

One of the most fundamental traits of the Trump administration is that it does everything wrong. Here's another case in point: ~~~

Liam Scott of the Washington Post: “The federal government is expected to begin removing bike lanes around the National Mall on Monday, just a few years after they were constructed.... After the project was installed, all roadway crashes along the corridor decreased by 46 percent, and bicycle injury crashes decreased by 91 percent, according to the study. The DDOT spokesperson called those statistics 'a tremendous testament' to the safety impact of protected bike lanes. The 15th Street bikes lanes also improved the flow of traffic.... [Kalli] Krumpos [of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association] said she believes the decision to remove the lanes was a political one. 'This is a demonstration of power.'”

Michael Grynbaum & Benjamin Mullin, et al., of the New York Times: “CBS News eliminated its century-old radio division, which broadcast Edward R. Murrow’s World War II dispatches from London, amid a round of layoffs on Friday announced by the network’s editor in chief, Bari Weiss. More than 60 employees, or roughly 6 percent of the news division, are set to be laid off under the plan, according to a person who requested anonymity to share internal details.... CBS News Radio, which has roots in the Jazz Age, was once among the premier news broadcasters in the country. 'CBS News Radio served as the foundation for everything we have built since 1927,' Tom Cibrowski, the president of CBS News, wrote in a memo.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In furtherance of a very brief exchange akaWendy & I had yesterday, I will add here that I once worked for CBS Radio, or at least a division of it: KNX Radio, a CBS O&O. CBS fired me. Days after my boss gave me quite a glowing review, an on-air personality called me into his office, ostensibly to help him answer some of his fan mail. He closed the door, unzipped his pants & pulled out his dick. I jumped up, told him to put that thing away and fled. The next day, one of the few women in West Coast management came over from the network & fired me. I told her exactly what had happened. She said, "I know. It isn't fair. But you upset the talent."

Gina Kolata of the New York Times: “David Botstein, a molecular biologist who changed the course of genetics by discovering a method for locating genes in human DNA — allowing researchers to find disease-causing genes and to map the entire, sprawling human genome — died on Feb. 27 in Palo Alto, Calif. He was 83.”  

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Cuba/U.S. Fuel for Me But Not for Thee. Adam Taylor, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Cuban government this week refused a request by the U.S. Embassy in Havana to import diesel fuel for its generators, calling the ask 'shameless,' given the Trump administration’s fuel blockade on the island, according to diplomatic cables reviewed by The Washington Post.... The administration’s blockade, intended to pressure the communist government into political concessions, has worsened the crisis.”  

Hungary/Russia. Catherine Belton of the Washington Post: “In the run-up to Hungary’s pivotal election in April, a unit of Russia’s foreign intelligence service last month began sounding the alarm over plummeting public support for Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose friendly ties to Moscow have long given the Kremlin a strategic foothold inside NATO and the European Union. Officers from the intelligence service, or SVR, suggested that drastic action might be necessary — a strategy they called 'the Gamechanger.' In an internal report for the SVR obtained and authenticated by a European intelligence service and reviewed by The Washington Post, the operatives proposed a way to 'fundamentally alter the entire paradigm of the election campaign' — 'the staging of an assassination attempt on Viktor Orban.'... There have been no physical attacks on Orban....” Update: the link has been changed to a gift link.