Erica Green of the New York Times: Woodrow Wilson, “the first Southerner to win the presidency after the Civil War..., packed his cabinet with white supremacists, whom he allowed to segregate the federal work force and dismiss, demote and demean Black employees. He hosted a screening of 'The Birth of a Nation,' a film glorifying the Ku Klux Klan.... More than a century later..., historians and critics of ... [Donald] Trump ... see distinct parallels between Wilson’s abandonment of promises to Black Americans and Mr. Trump’s policies and politics since he took office a second time last year. Mr. Trump’s gutting of the federal government, his assailing of diversity policies and his occasional use of racist imagery have made Wilson’s administration especially relevant now, they say.... Mr. Trump’s treatment of Black Americans is not the only parallel to Mr. Wilson’s presidency, historians say.” The link is a gift link. ~~~
~~~ Marie: One big difference between Wilson & Trump is that Wilson had a distinguished career as an historian & political scientist & as president of Princeton, whereas Trump is as dumb as a post. So Wilson had no excuse for his bigotry; Trump's excuse is stupidity. Green points to other parallels between Wilson & Trump. Maybe there's another one on the horizon: in his second term, Wilson had a debilitating stroke. As Art Intel puts it, "First Lady Edith Wilson acted as a 'secret president,' controlling access to her bedridden husband and deciding which matters of state to bring to his attention. She managed the executive branch's day-to-day work until March 1921, making her a de facto chief executive." What if something happened to Donald & his foreign-born wife became our "secret president"?
Cheyanne Daniels of Politico: “House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said ... Donald Trump could get 'somebody killed' after the president accused Democrats of being the country’s 'greatest enemy' after Iran. On Sunday, the president posted, 'Now with the death of Iran, the greatest enemy America has is the Radical Left, Highly Incompetent, Democrat Party!' Trump also said Saturday that 'Radical Left Democrats have hurt so many people with their vicious and uncaring ways' and that 'Fascist Democrats will never protect America.' In an interview with CNN’s State of the Union, Jeffries replied, Donald Trump should keep his reckless mouth shut before he gets somebody killed.'” Good for Jeffries.
Kara Voght of the Washington Post reports on the annual Gridiron dinner in Washington, D.C., which took place last night. Neither Trump nor his sidekick attended, but Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker was there & -- unlike Trump -- knows how to tell self-deprecating jokes. Journalists did sketches, including this song parody:
This land is Greenland, this land is Trump’s land,
From Nova Scotia to the Faroe Islands,
From the shrinking glaciers to the melting ice sheet,
This land was made for Trump to seize.
~~~~~~~~~~
The New York Times' live updates of developments in the Iran war are here. From the pinned item at 2:45 am ET: “Trump’s bellicose comments [about obliterating Iran's power plants -- see WashPo & AP stories linked below] came after days of inconsistent messaging. He told reporters on Friday he had no interest in a cease-fire, but posted hours later on social media that we are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East. Tehran, however, showed no sign it intended to back down.... Late Saturday, Iranian missiles evaded Israel’s formidable air defenses and struck Dimona and the nearby city of Arad, shattering buildings, injuring dozens of people and demonstrating that Tehran can still inflict damage even after three weeks of devastating airstrikes from the United States and Israel.... Dimona ... is eight miles from Israel’s main nuclear research center, which is believed by researchers to be connected to the country’s nuclear weapons program.... Iran’s state broadcaster said early Sunday that the strike on Dimona was intended to target the nuclear facility, though U.N. officials said there was no evidence it had been damaged.” ~~~
~~~ AFP in the Guardian: “An Iranian missile has hit the Israeli town of Dimona, home to a nuclear facility, in what Iran said was retaliation for strikes on its own nuclear site at Natanz. Dimona hosts a facility just outside the main town widely believed to possess the Middle East’s sole nuclear arsenal, although Israel has never admitted to possessing nuclear weapons. Iran’s atomic energy organisation earlier accused the US and Israel of hitting the Natanz enrichment complex, but noted there was “no leakage of radioactive materials reported'.” ~~~
~~~ Samy Magdy, et al., of the AP: “Iran also targeted the joint U.K.-U.S. Diego Garcia military base in the Indian Ocean about 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) away, suggesting that Tehran has missiles that can go farther than previously acknowledged — or that it had used its space program for an improvised launch.”
Sammy Westfall of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump threatened to strike Iran’s power plants if the country does not fully open the Strait of Hormuz by Monday, escalating his attempts to force Iran to reopen the waterway as energy prices surge. 'If Iran doesn’t FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!' Trump said Saturday night on Truth Social.... The International Energy Agency has called the war 'the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market,' and it has pushed up gas prices about 33 percent in just three weeks. The nationwide average gas price hit $3.91 this week, the highest in almost four years.... Trump’s warning comes as the International Atomic Energy Agency said it is looking into reports from Iran that a nuclear site was attacked on Saturday. Its director, Rafael Mariano Grossi, called for 'military restraint to avoid any risk of a nuclear accident.'” The AP's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Planning the Kleptocrats' Ball. MEANWHILE. Barak Ravid & Marc Caputo of Axios: "... the Trump administration has begun initial discussions on the next phase and what peace talks with Iran might look like, according to a U.S. official and a source with knowledge.... Trump's envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are involved in the discussions around potential diplomacy, sources say.... There has been no direct contact between the U.S. and Iran in recent days, though Egypt, Qatar and the U.K. have all passed messages between the two, a U.S. official and two additional sources with knowledge said. Egypt and Qatar have informed the U.S. and Israel that Iran is interested in negotiating, but with very tough terms.” MB: So once again, "peace" will be contingent upon what's in it for Jared & Steve -- and their capo dei capi.
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.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: The headline of the Bloomberg story, BTW, is, "Trump's Iran War Drive Exposes Limits of 'Yes Sir' Cabinet." Indeed, it does.
A President and a President* share their views on war:
... we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. -- Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, 1863
Kharg island has been decimated, though we may hit it again just for fun. -- Donald Trump, to Kristen Welker of NBC News, March 2026 (slight paraphrase) ~~~
~~~ Phil Clay in a New York Times op-ed: “The justifications for the war have been stunningly incoherent.... And yet, as I watched a video posted by the White House in which a group of angry, rifle-wielding bowling pins labeled 'Iranian Regime Officials' are struck by a Stars and Stripes bowling ball that turns into an airplane, followed by actual combat footage of U.S. airstrikes, I realized how one rationale for this war has remained clear and consistent: the administration’s delight in displays of violence and domination. The bowling video is one of many sizzle reels posted on White House social media accounts celebrating the war by mixing images of death and destruction with footage from video games or sports highlights. The president declared that military officials told him 'it’s more fun to sink' ships than to capture them, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth exulted, 'We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be.'... America’s founders asserted universal principles that should make such an attitude unthinkable.”
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.” (Also linked yesterday.) Update: the link has been changed to one that may be a gift link. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Notice how Donnie Soprano thinks "negotiating" is threatening to rough up the public. Trump did send Tom Cash-in-a-Bag Homan over to Capitol Hill to negotiate with senators, but evidently the senators did not offer enough cash in a bag to satisfy Tom. ~~~
~~~ Alexander Bolton of the Hill: “Senate Republicans on Saturday voted against an unusual procedural gambit by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to suspend the Senate rules and advance a bill through the Rules Committee to fund the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The motion failed by a party-line vote of 41 to 49. It needed 60 votes to succeed. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) dismissed the proposal as a 'convoluted' attempt to circumvent the Senate Appropriations Committee, which is engaged in talks with White House border czar Tom Homan to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, which saw its funding lapse on Feb. 14.” ~~~
~~~ AND YET. Alexander Bolton of the Hill: “Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a leading Senate conservative, is proposing to colleagues the idea of splitting off Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from the rest of funding for the Department of Homeland Security to end growing chaos at airports around the country. The proposal appeared to be gaining momentum within the Senate Republican conference on Saturday as GOP lawmakers grow increasingly pessimistic about reaching a deal with Democrats to reform federal immigration enforcement operations.... '... let’s fund ICE and CBP through reconciliation. That Republicans can do with just 50 votes, we can do that relatively quickly and the Democrat lunacy on open borders can be put to an end,' [Cruz said].” ~~~
~~~ Jay Blackman & Phil Helsel of NBC News: "More than 400 Transportation Security Administration workers have quit since a partial government shutdown that began on Feb. 14 has left them working without pay, the Department of Homeland Security said.... There has also been a national callout rate of 10% at TSA on more than half the days of the last week, Lauren Bis, acting assistant secretary for public affairs at DHS, said Saturday in response to questions. TSA, which is under DHS, has around 65,000 employees. Of that number, 50,000 are front-line officers who are is responsible for security at the nation’s airports." ~~~
~~~ 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.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Julie K. Brown & Claire Healy of the Miami Herald: “Less than a week after Jeffrey Epstein was found dead inside his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, something was afoot inside an office where the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ After Action Team had set up a probe into what had happened to their most high-profile inmate. The FBI was told that there were people shredding documents. Bags of them. An inmate at the jail was ordered to take the bags of shredded material to MCC’s rear gate and throw them in a dumpster on Thursday, Aug. 15, and again on Friday, Aug. 16, days after Epstein’s Aug. 10 death, records show.... 'They are shredding everything,' the inmate told one of the guards.... A corrections officer at the detention facility called the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center that same night, a Friday..., to report that he had 'never seen this amount of bags of shredded documents coming out to be put in the dumpster at the rear gate of MCC.'
“[Another officer,] a back gate corrections officer ... also ... wrote to investigators three days later, on Monday, Aug. 19. 'I believe that this conduct may be inappropriate for [an] investigative team to be shredding paperwork related to the investigation....'... The discovery was only one of many suspicious events that unfolded in the days and weeks both before – and after – Epstein’s death, the Miami Herald has found from an analysis of thousands of pages of documents released by the Justice Department. In fact, there were so many irregularities discovered at the Manhattan jail that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) opened three separate probes into the case, with different case numbers, records and emails show.”
Kyla Guilfoil of NBC News: "An Underground Railroad museum in upstate New York alleged in a lawsuit Friday that the Trump administration unlawfully terminated its federal grant on the basis of race, pointing to ... Donald Trump's efforts to dismantle diversity-focused initiatives. The Underground Railroad Education Center, located in Albany N.Y., alleges in its lawsuit that the National Endowment for the Humanities' cancelation of a $250,000 grant amounted to viewpoint and racial discrimination, violating the First and Fifth Amendments, respectively.”
Hamed Aleaziz, et al., of the New York Times: “Over the last year, [DHS Secretary Kristi] Noem’s top aide and confidant [Corey Lewandowski] hosted meetings in the office without her present, grilling agency officials and issuing orders as he flexed his vast influence over ... [Donald] Trump’s efforts to detain and deport millions of immigrants.... Presiding over gatherings in the secretary’s office was just one way Mr. Lewandowski exerted power far beyond the scope of his role as unpaid adviser. While he joined the department early last year in what was supposed to be a limited, part-time role, the longtime Republican operative used his perch to build an expansive portfolio in which he had wide influence over personnel, contracts and the department’s operations on the ground, according to nearly 20 current and former administration officials....” The link may be a gift link.
Paul Kane, in his valedictory column for the Washington Post, after nearly two decades of covering Congress: Congress, “almost everyone agrees, is a weakened legislative branch that gets steamrolled by the president (Democrat or Republican) and a Supreme Court that has taken an openly hostile tone to lawmakers.... Quite possibly, the institution has gradually decayed to the point where it may remain permanently weakened, a far cry from its designation in the Constitution as 'article one,' the first branch of government.... Today’s House and Senate Republicans have rejected even holding public hearings to discuss the objectives in the war against Iran, an attack that was launched Feb. 28 with no input from Congress.... In terms of legislative futility, last year easily came in with the lowest number of laws passed in the first year of a presidency going back to at least 1989.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Even when the Senate does defy the Worst President* in U.S. History, it's apt to be on a party-line (or near-party-line) vote like this one: ~~~
~~~ Maegan Vazquez of the Washington Post: “The Senate on Saturday rejected an amendment to a far-reaching voting bill that would have barred transgender females from playing in girls’ and women’s sports, a provision that ... Donald Trump had demanded be ncluded in the legislation. The amendment to the Save America Act, which the chamber has been debating since Tuesday, would have amended Title IX, the landmark 1972 law prohibiting discrimination based on sex at education institutions that receive federal funding. The amendment was sponsored by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama), a Trump ally who has repeatedly pressed the issue. Saturday’s vote to advance the amendment required 60 votes under Senate rules. It failed in a party-line vote, with 49 Republican votes in favor and 41 Democrats against it. Several members of both parties were absent.”
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.” (Also linked yesterday.)
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. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: As you may know, I prefer not to say anything ill of the recently deceased. I have nothing "ill" to say about Mueller. In yesterday's comments, RAS cited 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. ~~~
This is characteristically vile and predictably deranged, but the important thing to remember is that Trump never said anything remotely so negative or definitive about the death of his long-time best friend Jeffrey Epstein. And he wishes Ghislaine Maxwell well. Think about that. -- Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), X post facto ~~~
~~~ Update. Erica Green of the New York Times: Donald “Trump on Saturday celebrated the death of Robert S. Mueller III, the former F.B.I. director who was tapped as a special counsel to investigate Russia’s efforts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election and tip the result in Mr. Trump’s favor. 'Robert Mueller just died. Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!' Mr. Trump wrote on social media, minutes after Mr. Mueller’s passing was announced.... His coarse remarks on Saturday ... were a stark contrast to statements issued by his predecessors. 'Bob dedicated his life to public service,' former President George W. Bush said, praising Mr. Mueller’s combat record and stewardship of the F.B.I. after Sept. 11, 2001. Mr. Mueller helped prevent 'another terrorist attack on U.S. soil,' Mr. Bush added. Former President Barack Obama, who asked Mr. Mueller to stay on for two more years as F.B.I. director, said in a social media post on Saturday that it was Mr. Mueller’s 'relentless commitment to the rule of law and his unwavering belief in our bedrock values that made him one of the most respected public servants of our time.' Mr. Trump’s statement drew rebuke from Republicans and Democrats.” ~~~
~~~ A Politico story by Gregory Svirnovskiy & Ben Johansen highlights Democrats' condemnations of Trump's remarks. ~~~
~~~ AND here is Jamelle Bouie, recorded several days before Mueller's death and Trump's reaction to it, explaining Trump's psychopathy. Bouie just gets it: ~~
~~~~~~~~~~
U.K. Tina Fey introduces "Saturday Night Live -- U.K." Funny enough:
20 comments:
The almost immediate push by the United Farm Workers and subsequently the State of California to take steps to eradicate and cease any and all celebratory images and memorials in honor of Cesar Chavez after what appears to have been serial sexual abuses, including rape, became public knowledge, stands in stark contrast to the entirety of the Party of Traitors and MAGAdom all of which continue to refuse to hold their Dear Leader accountable in any way for his many sexual abuses which include a confession--on tape!--that he routinely grabbed women by "the pussy" for his personal amusement and satisfaction. And keep in mind, that Chavez had never been tried and convicted of sexual assault by a court of law, unlike Trump.
But sure. Republicans and MAGAts are all squeaky clean Christians, the party of morals and family values.
More meditation maybe than sermon, this time:
Part the first.
STUFF
A trip to Goodwill to recycle toys our grandchildren have outgrown got me thinking about stuff. Like many Americans, our family sure has a lot of it. As I waited in the long line, watching the woman ahead of me unload numerous boxes, some furniture, crutches and a walker from her pickup's bed, the ordeal of clearing my mother’s house before I sold it came back to me. We had moved my mother to a care facility, where she didn’t need many of her own things. Everything else in her house and in the garage, which still contained remnants of my father’s long years in the hardware business, she left behind. Before I sold the house a year or so later, it all had to go somewhere, and after many hours of work it did.
There were trips to the local Goodwill and the dump, of course, and because my sisters wanted some of her furniture but couldn’t transport it immediately, I rented and filled a storage unit, too. A lot of packing, hefting and driving, but considering how long my parents had lived and how many things had passed through their hands in their homes and in the hardware store, it could have been worse.
I kept a few things, too. A few dishes and some of my father’s tools and books. I also kept the vintage steel support kit, still wrapped in its dusty package, for a picnic table that my father never built. Years later, I completed his project. When I look at that table now, I think of the close connection between ourselves and the things we own that tighten the tie between our past and our present.
I have a shot glass, as far as I know never used, a memento from 1950’s family trip to Yellowstone; some tools from my father’s employment in Tacoma’s Todd Shipyard during WW II; and one of his fevered anti-Communist books from the post WW II era, when many believed Communists lurked under every bed. All remind me of slices of my family’s life I might have otherwise forgotten.
Plants often serve the same purpose. My father’s Johnny-Jump-Ups still bloom every year, as do the yellow Primroses Mrs. Schreiber, our Coupeville neighbor, gave us many years ago. We plant trees in memory of those who have died, but births can also prompt a planting. Our younger son and the lilac bush we planted at his birth are now in their mid-forties, and both are doing fine.
Part of me is partial to Thoreau’s famous advice that we “simplify, simplify” and reduce life to its essentials, but doing so is hard. Americans live in a sea of stuff and I am an American. I’m no Stan Kroenke, America’s greatest private landowner, who with a recent purchase ran his total to 2.7 million acres, but I’m also not one of the homeless I see carrying a backpack or pushing an overloaded shopping cart along the Conway frontage road or sitting on a Mt. Vernon bench. I suspect the way the lives of the nation’s homeless have been reduced to “essentials” is not what Thoreau had in mind.
Part II
In what should be an embarrassing contrast, many Americans clearly have too much stuff. Per Storage Pro, the United States has over 90% of the world’s storage units. Americans rent space in more than 51,000 storage facilities, and more than half of those renters already have garages and attics. While average home sizes have more than doubled since the 1950’s, they are still not large enough to hold all our stuff.
In an economy that is 70% driven by consumption, when advertising accounts for 20% of our entire economy, it’s small wonder we’ve come to rely on our things to tell us who we are (stlouisfed.org).
But what do our possessions tell us? That clothes really make the man or woman. Does the car or truck we drive really say who we are? If we own more than our neighbor, does that make us a better person? Does a gilded White House with massive ballroom or laying claim to Venezuela’s oil make us a better nation? Do our possessions tell the truth about us? If so, what are they saying?
Do we really own our stuff, or does stuff now own us?
Leo Tolstoy, who knew a thing or two about war and peace, also knew something about stuff. In his story “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” he answered his question this way: About six feet, he said, the length of a man from head to toe.
I think I know what he meant.
Worth a read:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/22/opinion/constitution-trump-courts.html
Satisfying legal victories are often Pyrrhic when the loser holds all the power.....
Heatmap
"The Energy Supply Shock of the Iran War Changes Everything
The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz and destruction of Gulf fossil fuel assets is already having effects we’ll be dealing with in months and years to come.
In Australia, gas stations are running out of diesel. The government of the Philippines adopted a four-day workweek to reduce commuting. Pakistan announced a two-week school closure. Nepal is rationing cooking fuel. Thailand’s prime minister told civil servants to take the stairs, and the government set air conditioning to a minimum 79 degrees Fahrenheit."
How many minutes into the ICE-TSA experiment to do think it will take for them to pull their gun or pepper spray on someone for forgetting to take off their belt or some other inane excuse?
Getting back focusing on their true enemy.
"President Donald Trump has declared “the death of Iran” — and subsequently branded the Democratic party America’s “greatest enemy.”
In a stunning Truth Social post Sunday, the president — who just hours earlier issued a massive threat against Iran — proclaimed their demise has already occurred, and further claimed that America’s single biggest foe lies within its borders."
ICE goons haven’t even been properly trained to do THEIR job. Now their going to be feeling up travelers in airport security lines?
Here’s what normal TSA employees must do prior to being set loose on the public:
“Usually it's 2 weeks offsite. Then shadow training at the airport during the shift you selected during the 1st 2 weeks. Eventually you'll go to FLETC for training where you go for 2 weeks and having testing at the end that you must pass. When you return to your airport you still continue training…”
Can you see Fatty’s SS and Gestapo goons putting up with that? We’re talking about a month, at least, then continued supervised training on site.
And will the ICE goons be wearing their cosplay camo togs with the masks and Rambo knives, carrying their AKs and shouting “Get the fuck over here!” to members of the public?
I’m guessing at least half of these schmucks are borderline, or actual criminals themselves. They’re Soldier of Fortune, Call of Duty douchebags who joined up for the money and a chance to beat, pepper spray, and shoot anyone who gives them the side eye.
This is an idea with “Horrible” written all over it.
Classic Trump.
I guess the goons won’t be allowed to actually murder anyone. Just shoot them in the leg if anyone gives them any lip.
Someone found the former president that Fat Hitler talked to that wished they'd bombed Iran.
Ken's serman is timely for me since I'm sorting through my father's things some 20 years after he died, distressed about what to do with it if younger cousins don't want it. His family lived in the same Ohio farmhouse for over 100 years before selling it in 1943. There are letters, faded and frayed, illegible or barely legible, lots of receipts....how can you part with a great uncle's receipt from 1865 for four dollars for " commutation for all fines against him for nonperformance of military duty for the year 1865"? or the receipt dated Oct 1, 1924 from Dr. D. W. Hogue, Oculist and Aurist, for $10.00 for my great grandfather's new glass eye? There are the books (my favorite - an atlas from 1875- needs rebinding, otherwise good condition), the miscellaneous stuff - lovely Haviland Limoges china, an Edison record player from around 1905 - still plays the 60 or so cylinder records that have survived intact! And , of course the studio portraits and the piles of photographs - some subjects known, others unknown. Anyone have similar experience? Any suggestions?
Vivian Salama & Sarah Fitzpatrick, for The Atlantic, state that Trump’s Eye Is Already on Cuba
"Donald Trump’s goal appears to be to install more amenable leadership in Havana. Last week, he told reporters at the White House that he believes he’ll have the “honor of taking Cuba,” adding: “Whether I free it, take it—I think I can do anything I want with it.”
The White House is calculating that the island’s extreme economic hardships will provide the leverage Trump needs to force Havana into submission.
....
Trump has sought opportunity in Cuba since his real-estate days. In October 2008, he applied for a trademark in Cuba, according to records from the Cuban Industrial Property Office. The application was approved in March 2010 and was active until its expiration in 2018. Trump held discussions on financial opportunities in Cuba with administration officials and Trump Organization staff during his first term in the White House. One person who met with Trump at the time told us that the president had been most excited about the prospect of Trump-branded hotels or condominiums. “He’s interested in Cuba as a market for him, and completely agnostic about the politics,” this person said. “He didn’t care.”"
Ken,
Wonderful piece on "Stuff". The word itself came into regular use in the 14th century, "...borrowed from Anglo-French estuffe 'provision, stock,' noun derivative of estuffer, estoffer 'to furnish (with supplies, arms), fill'" according to Merriam-Webster.
As a kid, I would rummage around in our cellar unearthing the occasional weird implement, the name and use of which was lost to me. I wished I could have rung up my grandfather to ask what these things were for, why he got them in the first place, and what he did with them. I did find a few things I was able to reconstitute, an old 16mm projector and a Kodak bellows camera from the 1930's both of which I was able to repair only after lengthy searches through libraries and pestering on older gentleman at a local camera shop. But I thought often of the images that camera had produced in its heyday, what it saw and what had become of those pictures.
The same with old books, old shoes, old clothes. As you say, we develop sometimes weirdly mystical connections to certain things. Last week, my wife asked if she could toss a plastic mug I bought freshman year in college, it has the school's emblem and motto on it. I never used it for drinking, but it sat on a number of desks over the years holding various pens, pencils and the like. I couldn't for the life of me justify keeping it, but I couldn't let it go either. I could say the same about the stuff she keeps around, our son's first shoes, itty bitty shirts he wore as a tyke, bibs, and baby blankets. She has a very hard time relinquishing her connection with those things. Can't say I blame her.
For my part, I have an inordinate difficulty getting rid of books. Unfortunately, they number in the thousands at this point. They've taken over several rooms, some older ones are boxed up in the garage and it's like a time traveling excursion to pore through them, recalling when and where certain books were bought, where I read them (my son complained that my copy of "To Kill a Mockingbird", which he is now reading for school, has some water damage, reminding me that it was once a beach book that met with an untimely wave.) and for what purpose. They constitute a large part of my intellectual biography, so it's tough to let them go, but I'm managing (a few hundred will never be allowed to leave, but don't tell my wife).
As for the "stuff" Wendy mentions....yikes! I'm sure some audio museum or school with a department of audio production would love to get their hands on a 1904 Edison phonograph with intact cylinders. And receipts from the Civil War era? Jayzus, as my Irish cousins would say.
We can't all be like the boy Pharaoh, King Tut, who was buried with a ton of stuff, most of which he probably never used (and according to the custom, most of his servants, which he no doubt did use). I wouldn't insist on being buried with servants, even if I had any, so I suppose we've come a long way in that regard, since people aren't exactly "stuff". Although there are plenty of Trumpets who would disagree, and they have no problem either getting rid of them or burying them,
But editing and curating our stuff is a part of life, in'it? Two other words that came into use in the 14th century were "eschew" and "copious". I suppose the message from the past is eschew copious stuff for a less cluttered future.
But hang on to some of those books.
Sorry... not Trumpets....that should have been "Trumpists". Otto never sleeps.
Poor Donald! Waaaahhhhh....
The depths to which the trainsmagafied morons will stoop to please the moron in charge.
Following Fat Hitler's (I want to say astonishing, but it's not; it's par for the course) insulting comment about how he was happy that Robert Mueller had died, the cult-clan is surrounding the wagons to protect the baby-tyrant from any and all assessments asserting his essential inhuman and disgusting nature.
So here is Scott Bessent claiming that it was proper for that blob of a dictator to attack Robert Mueller and his family just after he died because the FBI searched his Marred a Lardo mansion looking for stolen top secret documents, and that gave poor Donald a big huge sad.
“'Kristen, I was with the president in the green room at Davos and there was a video playing of what may have been an illegal raid on his home at Mar-a-Lago,' Bessent said. 'They are going through his wife’s wardrobe. And I watched the look in his eye, and I think that neither one of us can understand what has been done to the president and to his family.'"
Leave us not forget that Bob Mueller had NOTHING to do with the FBI search of Fatty's gaudy digs, but that doesn't matter a whit to Bessent.
“'Robert Mueller didn’t order that raid,' Welker said. 'Is it appropriate for the president to celebrate the death of any American citizen–'
Bessent cut her off.
'I think that given what has been done to President Trump and his family it is impossible for either of us to understand what he has been through,' Bessent said."
Yeah. Right. Let's all bow our heads in a moment of silence for all the horrible stuff that Fat Hitler has suffered. As he bombs a few thousand more innocent Iranians to death. We just don't get how tough it is for the gods on Olympus.
And not for nothin', but why was a video of the FBI search being played while Fat Hitler was at Davos? He just cannot get over being treated like the criminal he is. And his acolytes like Bessent can't get over having to explain to the rest of his dirty peasants how hard life is for the great god Trump.
Don't know if this has changed by now, but this morning Faux News had protect the sensitive ears of their viewers.
"President Donald Trump’s shocking post celebrating the death of former FBI Director Robert Mueller has not received a single on-air mention over at Fox News. According to a search using the media monitoring service Snapstream, Fox News has not mentioned the president’s statement a single time on its air since Mueller’s passing on Saturday."
Chekhov's Gun = Fat Hitler's Marines?
You've probably all heard the theory behind Chekhov's Gun, a narrative principle that states that if an item (say the rifle hanging over the fireplace) is introduced in a storyline, it must play some role later on. For instance, in the "Odyssey", at some point during the first four books, Homer, when describing Odysseus's home in Ithaca, points out a crapload of shining bronze spears and swords hanging on the walls. Later on, Odysseus will use those weapons to kill the suitors who have been hanging around trying to boink his wife.
The question here is whether Fatty's Marines, the thousands now on the way to the Middle East, will play a part in the ongoing narrative "Fatty's Stoopid War". Will they, like Chekhov's gun, be pulled down off the mantle and fired?
This isn't to suggest that Fatty is a devotee of narrative structure and principles, the guy is pretty much illiterate. But he is also very attuned to not wanting to look like the coward he has proven to be at so many points in his life. He might want to use those Marines for some stoopid attack just so no one will criticize him for being the slug-brained nincompoop he truly is.
And apologies to any Chekhov fans out there. I'm not comparing Fatty to a great Russian literary figure, merely wondering if this will be yet another way for him to shoot himself in the foot.
@Akhilleus & @RAS: Trump gave Tom Bag-o'Cash Homan about 48 hours to teach a bunch of angry, viiolent, low-IQ thugs how to do TSA checks. Homan was on some Sunday morning show and said something like, "I'm sure they'll help out in any way they can." So I guess that's the "training."
What could possibly go wrong?
Marie,
Ahh...okay. I get it now. 48 hours. And this will be Tom "Bag O Cash" Homan's Training Day.
God help those poor people trying to fly to see grandma for her birthday.
"What in the bag, kid?"
"That's a present for my grandma"
"Not no more it ain't. Hahahaha....this shit is MINE. You got a problem with that Momma? HUH?"
Fatty's nukular problem.
Among the many specious and poorly developed and articulated goals for the Trump-Epstein-Bibi War a major one has to do with Iran's stockpile of fissionable materials. Do we want Iran to be able to develop a nuclear bomb?
Clearly, not. Certainly not with the religious nut jobs in charge (as distinct from the religious nut jobs now in charge in the US). But here's the issue.
The agreement carefully constructed and developed by the Obama administration in coordination with Iran and other countries took this into consideration. In fact, it was the raison d'être for the whole thing. Fatty tossed this out on almost his first day. Why? He ain't gonna be beaten by some darky who made fun of him. No sirree bob. Better to let the Iranian mullahs develop a nuclear weapon than to let everyone see that some black guy could do it better than the great Donald.
The claim is "That agreement sucked! It didn't give us everything we wanted up front! Waaaaahhhhh"
Right. But that's how these things work in the real world, Donald, you fucking idiot. No one gets everything they want up front.
The idea behind that agreement was to allow Iranian moderates to gain a foothold, while not holding a gun to everyone's head. Iran had abided by every single tenet of that agreement, with inspections conducted on a regular basis. It was designed to let Iran develop nuclear power plants but put a stop to developing material that could be turned into a bomb.
Is Iran a trustworthy nation? No. This is why that agreement insisted on regular inspections. But the longterm goal was to allow moderates to come back into political power and bring Iran back into the company of modern nations not beholden to medieval religious bullshit.
Fat Hitler killed all of that. In effect, he stuck it to the moderates and gave the crazies a complete pass to do whatever they wanted toward building a bomb, with no inspections and no hope of rejoining the community of nations not built on terrorism and religious insanity.
And it would be one thing if Trump had the ability, the temperament, the experience, and the wherewithal to work up a much better agreement, but he's lucky he can figure out which button to push to make the elevators go up and down in the White House.
The Obama agreement was the best we were going to get. Fat Hitler tore it up.
And now he's stuck trying to figure out how to get out of the latest mess he has personally caused. And don't worry, he'll figure out some way to get out by declaring victory and blame someone else for the mess, but he will leave in place the maniacs who will do everything they can now to build nukes after being bombed to kingdom come by this idiot and his boss, Bibi.
Good job, Fatty. You fucking moron.
Aunt Pittypat: armchair general and full time moron.
So here’s the War Whisperer, Lindsey Graham, moaning sweet hissing bomb sounds into Fat Hitler’s ear: “Call out the Marines, Donald! It’ll be great. You’ll be a hero! Nobel Peace Prize for sure!”
Pittypat wants Duncecap Donald to send the Marines in to take Kargh Island by storm. Never mind that it’s fifteen miles off shore and the Iranians will see them coming from miles away. And even better (stupider?), Pittypat sez “We took Iwo Jima. We can do this!”
We took Iwo Jima.
Right. We did, actually. It only took a month and cost 7,000 American lives (and 20,000 Japanese lives) with an additional 19,000 wounded.
Great analogy, Pittypat.
Can you see Fox trying to spin even 700 dead Marines coming home in boxes?
Where do these people come from, and why do they have anything to say about anything?
We took Iwo Jima. Christ almighty!
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