March 8, 2026

Jon Gambrell, et al., of the AP: “Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of Iran’s late supreme leader, has been named his successor, Iranian state TV announced early Monday.... The younger Khamenei, who had not been seen or heard from publicly since the war started, had long been considered a contender for the post, even before an Israeli strike killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and despite never being elected or appointed to a government position. The announcement came after signs of a rift among Iranian officials as the country awaited a decision by the 88-seat Assembly of Experts, a group of clerics that selects the supreme leader. State TV ... broadcast scenes of people celebrating in parts of Tehran....

“A secretive figure, the 56-year-old Khamenei now stands at the heart of Iran’s theocracy and will have final say over all matters of state. He will serve as commander-in-chief of the military and powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. He also has authority over a stockpile of highly enriched uranium that could be used to build a nuclear weapon.... 'Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me,' ... Donald Trump has said. 'We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran.'.... Trump told ABC News on Sunday he wants a say in who comes to power once the war is over; a new leader 'is not going to last long' without his approval.” The Washington Post's report is here.

Eric Schmitt & Helene Cooper of the New York Times: “Another American service member has died in the war with Iran, the Pentagon said on Sunday, bringing the number of American troops killed in the conflict to seven. The service member, who was not publicly identified while the military notifies relatives, was seriously injured on March 1 when Iran struck a Saudi military base where American troops were stationed, U.S. Central Command said in a statement. The service member died on Saturday night from those injuries while military health officials were preparing a transfer for more advanced medical care at a U.S. military hospital in Germany, officials said.” MB: I just turned on MS NOW & heard the hosts speaking of eight service members killed in the war, but I can't find a print story about that at 7:40 pm ET.

The Dictator Decrees: My Way or the Highway. Ashleigh Fields of the Hill: Donald “Trump on Sunday threatened to not sign any bills into law until the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act is approved by the Senate, doubling down on his push to change voting requirements ahead of the midterm elections. 'I, as President, will not sign other Bills until this is passed, AND NOT THE WATERED DOWN VERSION – GO FOR THE GOLD: MUST SHOW VOTER I.D. & PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP: NO MAIL-IN BALLOTS EXCEPT FOR MILITARY – ILLNESS, DISABILITY…,' the president wrote in his Sunday morning Truth Social post.” 

Nick Corasaniti & Richard Fausset of the New York Times: “Facing the possibility of big losses for Republicans in the midterm elections..., [Donald] Trump has reiterated his unfounded assertions of electoral fraud. He has also begun speaking of the need to 'nationalize' elections, and for Republican officials to 'take over' voting procedures in parts of the country. This rhetoric is often vague.... But a map of potential targets may be coming into focus and includes the swing states Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina and Arizona. Voting experts, government officials and others have identified a host of conditions that could make those places ripe for meddling from the Trump administration or its allies....

“Most significant, in Georgia, the F.B.I., acting on a search warrant that relied on debunked claims about the 2020 race, seized hundreds of boxes of ballots from a government warehouse in late January, an extraordinary intrusion into the American electoral process. The fear is that pro-Trump forces in these states could begin pushing dubious pretexts to try to change election rules, take over local voting systems or otherwise find ways to give Republicans unfair advantages....”

The Undignified Transfer. When Trump Can't Behave, State Teevee Covers It Up. David McAfee of the Raw Story: "Fox News over the weekend apologized and admitted to an 'error' after failing to air footage of Donald Trump wearing what some deemed a controversial choice of attire to the dignified transfer of deceased soldiers. On Saturday, Trump came under fire for his behavior during a solemn moment in which six fallen soldiers killed in the president's onslaught against Iran were honored. The president was seen during the event standing upright while others bowed their heads. He was also wearing a white baseball cap during the typically solemn event. Instead of playing that video for its audience, Fox News said it played an old video from a different dignified transfer. A host later apologized." Update: I see RAS picked up this story earlier. ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the POTUS* fiddling with his jacket during the ceremony  or looking at his penis, as others stand in solemn attention: ~~~

 ~~~ That's the trees. Here's the forest: ~~~

~~~ ⭐David Rothkopf on Substack: "Not since Adolf Hitler blew his brains out in a bunker beneath the garden of the German Reich Chancellery on April 30, 1945, have the lives of so many people around the world been so buffeted by the psychosis of a single man. It is not that there have not been mad men in power since.... But, at this moment in history, the fate of virtually everyone on the planet is being impacted by the toxic cocktail of character flaws, insecurities, and pathologies that are shaping the actions of the President of the United States.... Why? Why? Why? Because he’s insane. Because he’s venal. Because he’s a malignant narcissist. Because he’s a sociopath. Because he has a fragile ego. Because those around him exacerbate and play to those traits to advance their own interests. Because CEOs and investors do likewise to fill their coffers. Because to some people, whether he is insane or malevolent or repugnant or not matters less than whether his actions will feather their nests, increase their power." Thank you to akaWendy for the link. 

The Plot Thickens. Earlier today, RAS linked this story: ~~~

~~~ Shawn Cohen & Phillip Nieto of the Daily Mail: "Donald Trump’s White House is blocking top US intelligence agencies from warning law enforcement across the country about rising threats to the homeland tied to his war with Iran.... The FBI, Homeland Security, and the National Counterterrorism Center were preparing to put out a joint intelligence statement on Friday to state and local authorities alerting them of a heightened threat due to the ongoing war in Iran, a senior DHS official said. The bulletin, which was reviewed by the Daily Mail, details 'elevated threats by the government of Iran to US military and government personnel and facilities, Jewish and Israeli institutions and their perceived supporters, and Iranian dissidents and other anti-regime activists in the United States.'... Top Trump officials ordered [the bulletin] placed on 'hold'." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Why would the "White House" (Stephen Miller) do this? It can't be that they are concerned about frightening the peeps, because the bulletin was to go to local law enforcement agencies, not to the general public. Perhaps this essay by Timothy Snyder answers my question: ~~~

~~~ Timothy Snyder on Substack: “A purpose of the war on Iran might well be to provoke a terrorist attack inside the United States. This would provide Donald Trump with a pretext to try to cancel or 'federalize' the coming Congressional elections. Self-terrorism might not have been the initial aim; but as time goes by, and failures and atrocities mount, its appeal will grow. Trump could think that he has much to gain; the war itself makes terrorism more likely; there are plausible vectors of terror; and the United States has let down its defenses.... The Department of Homeland Security has deprioritized domestic terrorism and is no longer keeping up its database. An unqualified but right-wing recent college graduate is in charge of its program designed to prevent domestic terrorism.... Tulsi Gabbard, who is in charge of the agency that coordinates intelligence, has no qualifications. She was last observed taking part in the federal seizure of ballots in Georgia: this has nothing to do with her job description, and strongly suggests an intention to 'federalize' the coming election.... Kash Patel..., also lacking in qualifications...., treats his job as the infrastructure of celebrity. There is currently no director of Homeland Security. The last one was fired for a scandal of titanic self-absorption. The presumptive successor, Markwayne Mullin, has no relevant experience.”

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The New York Times is liveblogging developments in Trump's war on Iran. From the pinned item at 6:30 am ET: “Fuel depots near the Iranian capital, Tehran, were engulfed in flames early Sunday as U.S. and Israeli forces expanded their bombardment of the country, and Iran’s de facto leader vowed to make its adversaries 'pay the price.' The attacks appeared to be the first targeting energy infrastructure since the joint U.S.-Israeli air war on Iran began last weekend. Enormous fires turned the Tehran skyline orange overnight, before filling the sky with black, dense, oily smoke.... A top Iranian leader, Ali Larijani, rejected ... [Donald] Trump’s demand for Iran’s unconditional surrender. He vowed on Saturday that Iran was determined to avenge the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the opening blow of the U.S.-Israeli air war with Iran.... Iranian attacks targeted civilian infrastructure against U.S. allies throughout the Persian Gulf.”

Hugo Lowell of the Guardian, reporting from Air Force 1! “Donald Trump on Saturday offered only a vague description of what he meant by his demand for an unconditional surrender by Iran’s current regime, while leaving open the possibility of deploying American troops on the ground but ruling out asking Kurdish forces to mount an invasion. 'I said unconditional. It’s where they cry uncle or when they can’t fight any longer and there’s nobody around to cry uncle — that could happen too,' Trump said when pressed by the Guardian aboard Air Force One. The lack of specifics in Trump’s response made it difficult to ascertain his political endgame for the conflict, an issue that has dogged the White House as it faces scrutiny about what the president wants from Iran and how he would play a role in selecting its next leader.... 'I don’t want the Kurds going in,' Trump said. 'They’re willing to go in, but I’ve told them I don’t want them going in. The war’s complicated enough without getting the Kurds involved.'”

In a post below, we learn that Trump the Vulgarian was rude to his South American guests at Mar-a-Lardo yesterday. But to be fair to Trump, he was even more rude to friends with whom we once had a “special relationship.” Sean James of Mediaite writes that Trump posted this on his dippy social media site: “The United Kingdom, our once Great Ally, maybe the Greatest of them all, is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East. That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer — But we will remember. We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!” MB PS: Since we've already won, can't we stop spending more than a billion dollars a day bombing Iranians?

The Best Thing to Do When You Commit a War Atrocity? Deny It. Twice. Thrice (see Hugo Lowell's Report). Ben Johansen of Politico: “... Donald Trump on Saturday denied U.S. involvement in a strike that killed more than 165 people at a girls’ elementary school in Southern Iran, instead placing the blame on Iran. When asked aboard Air Force One Saturday whether the U.S. conducted the Feb. 28 strike, Trump said, without evidence, 'No, in my opinion, based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran.' Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, standing next to the president, took a more cautious tone, saying the government is still 'investigating' the attack but adding, 'The only side that targets civilians is Iran.' Following Hegseth’s statement, Trump asserted: 'It was done by Iran.'... The ... comments come as satellite images, expert analysis and information released by U.S. and Israeli militaries suggest the strike was likely the result of U.S. airstrikes that also hit a nearby compound controlled by the Iranian regime’s Revolutionary Guard. Democratic lawmakers have condemned the strike, which was the highest reported civilian death toll since the war began last week, suggesting the U.S. bears responsibility.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: To be clear, when Drunk Pete is the guy cited for "taking a more cautious tone," the person who spoke with a "less cautious tone" is bonkers.

Barak Ravid & Mark Caputo of Axios: "The U.S. and Israel have discussed sending special forces into Iran to secure its stockpile of highly enriched uranium at a later stage of the war, according to four sources with knowledge of the discussions.... Preventing Iran from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon is one of President Trump's stated war objectives. The regime's 450 kilograms of 60%-enriched uranium — convertible to weapons grade within weeks — is one key to that goal.... Any operation to seize the material would likely require U.S. or Israeli troops on Iranian soil, navigating heavily fortified underground facilities in the middle of a war." ~~~

     ~~~ W.J. Hennigan & Massimo Calabresi of the New York Times: “Somewhere in the mountains of Iran lies a hidden stockpile that is poised to define the future of America’s war against the theocratic regime: 18 to 20 scuba-tank-like canisters, each of which contains up to 55 pounds of highly enriched uranium, the main material for making a nuclear weapon.... If ... [Donald] Trump ends the war without getting control of the canisters, Iran will almost certainly speed toward going nuclear. Grabbing it, on the other hand, would entail huge risk and the inevitable deployment of American or Israeli ground forces.... The other approach is diplomatic. Weeks of bombing might force Iran to surrender its enriched uranium and other elements of its program.”

Mark Mazzetti, et al., of the New York Times: “Even as senior administration officials in the United States spent the week trying to narrowly cast the war’s goals around denying Iran any chance of gaining a nuclear weapon..., [Donald] Trump has bounced between wildly divergent explanations for what he hopes to achieve.... The changing narratives have whipsawed the American public, which polls show broadly opposes the war. At the same time, the spreading violence is triggering rising oil prices and other economic shocks that could bring further election-year political problems for Mr. Trump and the Republican Party at home.... Interviews with dozens of officials in the United States, Israel, Iran and across the Middle East suggest that while American and Israeli military capabilities have proven to be overwhelming during the war’s first seven days, the violence that has metastasized across the region could yield all manner of fraught outcomes.” Update: the link has been changed to one that might be a gift link.

Anton Troianovski of the New York Times: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last Monday that the United States 'didn’t start this war, but under ... [Donald] Trump, we are finishing it.' After he invaded Ukraine in 2022, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia put it this way: 'We didn’t start the so-called war in Ukraine. Rather, we are trying to finish it.'... Some similarities are uncanny, starting with the White House and the Kremlin both trying to avoid calling their actions acts of war. Asked last week if 'this is war,' Speaker Mike Johnson responded: 'I think it’s an operation.' 'This is a special military operation, Mr. Johnson’s Russian counterpart, Vyacheslav Volodin, the State Duma speaker, said two months into his country’s invasion, sticking to the Kremlin’s official terminology.” And so on. Troianovski cites quite a bit of Trump's copycat language. MB: But it seems as if everybody on Team Trump has been schooled in Kremlin-speak. So let's add another “explanation” for Trump's war: “Because I want to be just like Vlad.” (To be fair, the language of warmongering is somewhat limited, so it's not as if Vlad is an original jingoist.) 

From the pinned item at 11:00 am ET on Saturday's New York Times liveblog of the Iran war: “Mr. Trump ... said Iran had 'apologized and surrendered to its Middle East neighbors.' His remarks came after a televised speech earlier on Saturday by Masoud Pezeshkian, the Iranian president, who is also a member of the interim three-person council running the country. While Mr. Pezeshkian apologized to Gulf states for shooting scores of missiles and drones at them in retaliatory strikes, he also called Mr. Trump’s demand for unconditional surrender 'a dream that our enemies will take to the grave.'... And later on Saturday afternoon — after criticism from Iranian hard-liners — Mr. Pezeshkian issued another statement. 'We have not attacked our friendly and neighboring countries. Rather, we have targeted U.S. military bases, facilities, and installations in the region,' he said on social media.” ~~~

     ~~~ Here is Trump's full social media post, via Paul Campos in LG&$. Campos writes, "... we have to deal with the knowledge that a certifiably crazy person is the Commander in Chief of the world’s most powerful military, while several of the most important politicians in Congress believe quite literally in the idea that the attack on Iran is the beginning of the Armageddon prophesied in the Book of Revelation.... One big problem on the liberal left is that a lot of people are simply incapable of believing that Mike Johnson et al really do believe what they say they believe, because if you’re not a fundamentalist Evangelical, what these people say they believe sounds utterly insane...." Thanks very much to RAS for the link. RAS correctly paraphrases Trump's post: "The war is over. Iran has surrendered.. Though we are going to bomb them even harder until they surrender."

Isabella Murray, et al., of ABC News: "... Donald Trump joined leaders from over a dozen other countries Saturday morning at a 'Shield of the Americas' summit in Doral, Florida, where he boasted of the United States' military actions and issued warnings against Latin American adversaries. The White House claimed the coalition is committed to cooperating with the U.S. in taking on the cartels and securing the American border following the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.... Trump repeatedly touted the U.S. military's actions during his second term highlighting the military operation to capture Maduro, and warning of imminent action in Cuba.... '"Cuba's at the end of the line.... They have no money. They have no oil. They have a bad philosophy. They have a bad regime that's been bad for a long time.' He added, '... [Cuba will] have a great new life, but it's in its last moments of life the way it is.... [Ousted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi] Noem was at the meeting along with secretaries Marco Rubio, Howard Lutnick and Pete Hegseth, however she was not mentioned by the president when he personally name checked and thanked the Cabinet members in attendance." ~~~

~~~ Aamer Madhani, et al., of the AP: “... Donald Trump said Saturday that the United States and Latin American countries are banding together to combat violent cartels as his administration looks to demonstrate it remains committed to sharpening U.S. foreign policy focus on the Western Hemisphere even while dealing with five-alarm crises around the globe. Trump encouraged regional leaders gathered at his Miami-area golf club to take military action against drug trafficking cartels and transnational gangs that he says pose an 'unacceptable threat' to the hemisphere’s national security.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So Kirsti Noem, our new special envoy to the Shield of the Americas, was there for the inaugural event. (Is there a hostage video?) The stars of the event, however, started with Marco Rubio, who addressed the group in Spanish. Then along came Drunk Pete. Perhaps miffed that multilingual Marco outshone him, Hegseth defiantly declared, "I only speak American." Pete is such a blockhead that he doesn't realize that everybody at the event was American, and everyone there spoke American. Here's a clue, Pete: you were at a meeting of the "Shield of the Americas." Speaking "American," you obtuse nincompoop, is not necessarily speaking English. Then Donald Trump gets up there and tries to outdo Pete's embarrassing insult to all the American guests. Old Donald, he sez, "... I’m not learning your damn language. I don’t have time. I was okay with languages, but I’m not going to spend time learning your language." ~~~

     ~~~ On yesterday's page, I linked a column by Max Boot of the Washington Post, who was troubled by the fact that Trump's ambassadors around the world were insulting and offending the people in the countries to which he had dipatched them. We should not be surprised our diplomats don't "do" diplomacy when the man who picked them doesn't, either. ~~~

     ~~~ P.S. Does our new "special envoy to the Shield of the Americas" speak Spanish? Or Portuguese? One would think that envoying would require at least proficiency in the primary language to which one goes envoying.

Julie K. Brown on Substack: “An FBI 302 interview with an inmate in the Metropolitan Correctional Center where Jeffrey Epstein was found dead on August 10, 2019 told agents that he overheard a prison guard and others talking about covering up Epstein’s death. The inmate, in an FBI interview on August 28 ... claimed that he and other inmates heard the commotion after Epstein’s body was found in his cell. 'Breathe! Breathe!' he recalled officers shouting about 6:30 a.m. Then he said he heard an officer say 'Dudes, you killed that dude.' A female guard then replied 'If he is dead, we’re going to cover it up and he’s going to have an alibi -- my officers,' the FBI notes said. The inmate claimed that the whole tier overheard the exchange. Later, after learning Epstein had died, he said inmates said 'Miss Noel killed Jeffrey.'” MB: Gosh, PamBo, a government-run conspiracy to murder sounds like something worth investigating! And right away, you know you can start with interviewing all those other inmates who were on the cellblock who allegedly heard the perps plotting. ~~~

~~~ Jennifer Bahney of Mediaite: “One of the guards responsible for monitoring Jeffrey Epstein while he sat in a Manhattan jail cell Googled him just minutes before he was found dead and made mysterious cash deposits in the days leading up to his death, according to new documents released by the Department of Justice. The DOJ released additional files pertaining to Epstein on Thursday night that included information about Tova Noel, one of two Metropolitan Correctional Center workers charged with keeping an eye on Epstein before he stood trial on federal sex trafficking charges.... The files also showed that Tova made a mysterious $5,000 cash deposit 10 days before Epstein’s death....”

Julie Weil of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration signaled a plan Friday to revoke a two-year-old tax rule designed to crack down on an arcane but highly lucrative tax avoidance tactic used by some of the largest and most complicated businesses. If enacted, the Trump administration’s proposal would mean that large business partnerships no longer need to tell the IRS when they shift assets from one corporate entity to another. Those transactions, called 'basis shifting,' have allowed businesses to dodge tens of billions of dollars in taxes, the Treasury Department alleged in the past, by illegally depreciating the same asset over and over again.... Multimillion-dollar partnerships and their lawyers had been lobbying against the rule from the moment the Treasury Department announced it.... Under President Joe Biden, the Treasury Department announced the crackdown on basis shifting by partnerships in 2024 and estimated that the effort would raise more than $100 billion over the next decade. The posture quickly changed under ... Donald Trump.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Bear in mind that this is one of a number of Trump plans designed to make ordinary, middle-class citizens bear a larger portion of the tax burden. Trump didn't pay any federal taxes at all for about 10 years; if you or your parents were paying taxes in those years, then you were subsidizing Trump's luxurious lifestyle. 

Marie: Here's an interesting follow-up to Kristi Noem's firing. Harry Sisson dug into the file and found an old clip -- which appears to be from a February 2025 CPAC discussion -- in which ICE Barbie discusses in some detail her interaction with Donald Trump about the ad campaign. A whole year ago, Noem described the campaign as Trump's idea. Following that clip, Sisson airs a Daily Caller clip from this week, a clip in which a Daily Caller reporter says the White House worked on the ads with Noem. As Sisson says, it's impossible to know who's lying here and to what extent. But at this point, it appears that Noem may have been telling the truth about Trump's knowledge of the ad campaign. Her "mistake" was not knowing any better than to finger him as the originator of an ill-conceived, taxpayer-funded campaign: ~~~

Another DHS Murder. “Officer-Created Jeopardy.”Robert Klemko & Samuel Oakford of the Washington Post: “Video released by investigators in the fatal shooting last March of a U.S. citizen by a federal immigration agent calls into question a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson’s claim that the victim “intentionally ran over” a different agent before being shot. The investigative material released Friday by the Texas Department of Public Safety shows that Ruben Ray Martinez, 23, was given conflicting instructions as he encountered law enforcement officers from multiple agencies near the scene of a previous vehicle accident in South Padre Island, Texas, in the early-morning hours of March 15. His car moved forward very slowly in the moments before Homeland Security Investigations Agent Jack C. Stevens fired three shots into Martinez’s blue Ford sedan. The footage does not show Martinez speeding up rapidly or appearing to target a second Homeland Security Investigations agent, Hector Sosa....

“Geoffrey P. Alpert, a professor of criminology ... at the University of South Carolina, said the chaotic scene, and its handling by law enforcement, raises 'a lot of red flags.... The contradictory orders are confusing and may have been a strong influence,' Alpert said. 'The speed is slow and doesn’t appear threatening. Could the officer have moved away? At worst, all he has to do is step aside. We call it officer-created jeopardy.'... DHS did not publicly acknowledge that one of its agents had fatally shot Ruben Martinez ... until last month, when a lawsuit brought by a nonprofit government watchdog group unearthed the agency’s narrative of the incident.” A CBS News story is here.

AP: “A federal appeals court this week sided with a lower judge’s ruling against the Trump administration’s efforts to end temporary protected status for roughly 350,000 Haitians living in the U.S. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., issued the 2-1 ruling on Friday. 'The government’s failure to meet its burden of demonstrating irreparable harm alone justifies denying emergency relief that would upend the status quo and increase uncertainty while this appeal proceeds,' the court said.”

Morgan Lee, et al., of the AP: “Fueled by billions of dollars in new funding, ICE operations across the nation have roiled communities, separated families and created a culture of fear in pursuit of ... Donald Trump’s vow to rid the country of unauthorized migrants.... Far from the worst of the worst' that Trump vowed to deport, the data from ICE show that 80% at the camp had no criminal record and were instead caught up in a far-reaching dragnet.... The stories of the conditions at ['Camp Montana' at Fort Bliss, Texas], revealed in data and recordings from more than a hundred 911 calls obtained by The Associated Press — in addition to follow-up interviews and court filings — offer a disturbing portrait of overcrowding, medical neglect, malnutrition and emotional distress.... [A detainee] said he overheard a security guard talking about bets made among the staff over which detainee would be next to die by suicide. The guard said he had paid $500 into a pool, with the total pot riding on the outcome.” Read on. Thanks to RAS for the link.

Minho Kim of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Saturday ruled that the appointment of Kari Lake, the head of Voice of America’s oversight agency, was invalid, voiding mass layoffs that she had carried out at the federally funded news group last year. The decision from Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia was a major rejection of President Trump’s attempts to dismantle the storied government-funded news group, which was founded to combat Nazi propaganda. If upheld by higher courts, Judge Lamberth’s ruling would allow more than 1,000 journalists and support staff members at the news group to return to their jobs. Ms. Lake, who had been leading the U.S. Agency for Global Media, V.O.A.’s parent agency, said that she would appeal the decision.... In his ruling, Judge Lamberth called Mr. Trump’s decision to have Ms. Lake lead the global media agency without Senate confirmation or appropriate procedures required for an acting head 'violence to the statutory and constitutional scheme.'... Ms. Lake called Judge Lamberth, an 82-year-old appointee of President Ronald Reagan, 'an activist judge' who had been 'trying to stand in the way' of Mr. Trump’s push to 'cut bloated bureaucracy, eliminate waste and restore accountability to government.'” Politico's report is here.

In the Still of the Night. Olivia George of the Washington Post: “... more than five years [after the January 6, 2021 insurrection], and three years since Congress ignored its own deadline to install it, a memorial plaque recognizing the service of law enforcement that day is finally on display in the very building they defended from a mob of ... Donald Trump’s supporters intent on overturning his 2020 election loss. In the predawn hours Saturday, around 4 a.m., staff with the Architect of the Capitol bolted the bronze plaque to a granite wall near an entrance on the west front, close to where the armed crowd had amassed and scaled scaffolding set up for the inauguration.... The quiet installation, which Congress ordered completed by mid-March 2023, marks the latest turn in the contested effort to remember Jan. 6, as Trump continues to reframe the riot as patriotic and the rioters as victims of a weaponized justice system....

“Democrats have pressed for implementation in the years since, saying the only thing keeping the plaque from public view was that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) had yet to instruct the Architect of the Capitol — which oversees the complex — to install it. A spokesperson for Johnson at the time argued the project was 'not implementable.'” MB: Not implementable, because Bible Mike is afraid of Donald Trump. Thanks to Ken W. for the link.

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