~~~ Dave Lawler & Barak Ravid of Axios: "Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed Tehran's acceptance and said Iran would allow 'safe passage' of the Strait of Hormuz during those two weeks 'via coordination with Iran's armed forces.'... The U.S. and Iran are expected to hold peace talks on Friday in Islamabad, two sources familiar with the plans told Axios. Vice President Vance is likely to lead the U.S. delegation.... Israel has agreed to the ceasefire and will also suspend its strikes, a White House official said."
~~~ The New York Times and AP cover developments in their live updates, linked below.
~~~ David Sanger of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said on Tuesday that he found a last-minute offramp allowing him to delay his threat to obliterate Iran’s power grid and bridges, seizing on a proposal from Pakistan for a 14-day cease-fire that would include opening the Strait of Hormuz while Washington and Tehran tried to negotiate a peace deal.... Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, a veteran of past nuclear negotiations with the United States..., said 'Iran’s Armed Forces' would retain control of the waterway. That would leave Iran in fundamental control of the passageway.... Mr. Trump appeared desperate for a way to escape his own threats and rhetoric, and to engineer a Pakistani proposal that he would then sign on to.”
Earlier That Same Day. Tom Nichols of the Atlantic: “The president’s statements are policy, and he has now made it the policy of the government of the United States that at 8 p.m. Washington, D.C., time (3:30 a.m. in Tehran), he will order the U.S. military to destroy Iran and its entire civilization — permanently — unless his terms are met.... Even Richard Nixon, the author of the 'madman theory' — the notion that a president might seek advantage over an enemy by appearing to be irrational — never publicly threatened to wipe out Vietnam.... The most important aspect of Trump’s threat is that it implies the use of nuclear weapons.... The president now sounds no different from the authoritarian rulers of the world’s worst regimes.... If he directs the widespread and irrevocable destruction of Iranian civilization..., the U.S. military should refuse such blatantly illegal orders. American officers have a positive duty to refuse illegal orders, and the destruction of an entire civilization with nuclear weapons — which poses no similar threat to the United States—is as illegal as it gets.” Thanks to akaWendy for this gift link.
Assuming no TACO and things get quickly out of control this whole thing comes down to a USMC NCO. I hope he has a cast iron set and loves his country more than his president.* -- Bobby Lee, in Tuesday's Comments
Steven Beschloss on Substack: "... the contents of [Donald Trump's Easter Sunday] post provide the clearest possible evidence that this man must be removed from office — that he is unfit to carry out his duties, which require someone capable of rational thought. His increasingly extreme actions, impossible to miss, cannot be glossed over. Something is terribly wrong with him. It is deadly dangerous.... The responsibility resides not just with the Republicans but with every elected member of Congress — to speak up and demand the invocation of the 25th [Amendment] to remove Trump from power. One by one, step by step, a growing collective force can lead to this necessary change. Failing to do so makes them complicit with whatever horrors may come next." Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~
~~~ Megan Mineiro & Michael Gold of the New York Times: “More than a quarter of congressional Democrats called for ... [Donald] Trump to be removed from office and questioned his mental fitness for the presidency after he threatened on Tuesday to destroy 'a whole civilization' in Iran.The lawmakers, many of them left-leaning, suggested that Mr. Trump’s threats were grounds for Congress to impeach him or for the president’s cabinet to strip him of his powers through the 25th Amendment. Representative Joaquin Castro, Democrat of Texas, called on the cabinet to invoke the constitutional amendment, which allows the vice president and members of the cabinet to declare that the president is 'unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.... It’s clear the president has continued to decline and is not fit to lead,' Mr. Castro said on social media.”
Jeff Amy of the AP: “Republican Clay Fuller on Tuesday won Marjorie Taylor Greene’s former U.S. House seat in Georgia, turning back a Democratic challenge with the help of ... Donald Trump’s endorsement. Democrat Shawn Harris had led the first round of voting in March in a 17-candidate field, but couldn’t overcome the northwest Georgia district’s strongly Republican tilt.... The 14th District is rated as the most Republican-leaning district in Georgia by the Cook Political Report.” ~~~
~~~ The New York Times is liveblogging election developments.
Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: “The newlywed wife of a U.S. soldier who was detained last week at her husband’s Army base was released on Tuesday, after spending five days at a detention center ... as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. The wife, Annie Ramos, 22, an undocumented immigrant who arrived in the United States as a toddler, was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at Fort Polk, La., on April 2. She was told she had a final deportation order. It was issued in April 2005, when she was 22 months old. The couple had gone to the base to complete paperwork so Ms. Ramos could move in with her husband, Staff Sgt. Matthew Blank, 23, who enlisted more than five years ago and is scheduled to begin training at the end of the month for deployment. It is highly unusual for the wife of a soldier to be detained because of her immigration status.... On Tuesday afternoon, Ms. Ramos walked out of the detention facility and into her husband’s arms. Sergeant Blank put her wedding ring back on her finger, which Ms. Ramos had been told to remove. She has been fitted with an ankle monitor and told to report to ICE every week.”
Marie: Unless it came as a complete surprise to you to receive a Nobel Prize, you probably have never had a high like the one Donald Trump is experiencing today -- because today, millions and millions of people the world over are focused on Donald Trump, wondering if he's going to expand his reign of terror. There has never been a publicity whore like Donald Trump. He would kill hundreds of thousands of people for the headlines. His needs only grow with each ensuing publicity stunt. He craves more and more attention. He is so accustomed to even extraordinary accolades that they bore him. They put him to sleep. So whatever happens at the end of today's episode of "The Perils of Trumpolini," Trump will be worse tomorrow.
Falih Hassan, et al., of the New York Times: “An American journalist who was abducted in Baghdad by an Iraqi militia allied with Iran was freed on Tuesday after a week in captivity, according to the militia and two Iraqi security officials. The militia, Kataib Hezbollah, said in a statement that it had released the journalist, Shelly Kittleson, 'in appreciation of the patriotic positions' of Iraq’s prime minister, who had been negotiating for her release. The group said Ms. Kittleson must leave Iraq immediately. 'This initiative will not be repeated in the future,' a security commander from the group, who is known as Abu Mujahid Al-Asaf, said in the statement. 'We are in a state of war waged by the Zionist-American enemy against Islam and in such situations many considerations are disregarded.' Kataib Hezbollah, one of the most powerful militias in Iraq, is closely tied to Iran’s Quds Force, the overseas arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.”
Jonathan Swan & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: “This account of how Mr. Trump took the United States into war is drawn from reporting for a forthcoming book, 'Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump.' It reveals how the deliberations inside the administration highlighted the president’s instincts, his inner circle’s fractures and the way he runs the White House. It draws on extensive interviews.... The reporting underscores how closely Mr. Trump’s hawkish thinking aligned with Mr. Netanyahu’s over many months, more so than even some of the president’s key advisers recognized. And it shows how, in the end, even the more skeptical members of Mr. Trump’s war cabinet — with the stark exception of Mr. Vance, the figure inside the White House most opposed to a full-scale war — deferred to the president’s instincts, including his abundant confidence that the war would be quick and decisive. ”
“Happy Death Of Civilization Day, Everybody!” Marcie Jones of Wonkette: “Welp, guess Trump has penciled in today as biggest bombing day ever, with 93 million people cut off from power and water and/or blasted to smithereens, or Trump will chicken out. But he sure sounds QUITE hot to trot, posting this morning: 'A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!'” ~~~
~~~ Nonetheless, just yesterday he made the "revolutionarily wonderful" something less likely to happen by bombing the stuff out of a center of revolutionary wonderfulness. ~~~
~~~ Stupid Trump Tricks. Jake Johnson of Common Dreams: “A wave of US-Israeli airstrikes on Monday hit and extensively damaged Sharif University of Technology, a leading Iranian educational institution that is widely known as 'the MIT of Iran' and seen as one of the world’s top engineering schools. The attack on the Tehran university — one of dozens of education sites bombed by the US and Israel since they launched their war on Iran in late February — sparked outrage inside Iran and around the world. Mohammad Reza Aref, an engineer currently serving as Iran’s first vice president, said the attack on Sharif University 'is a symbol of [... Donald] Trump’s madness and ignorance.'” ~~~
~~~ Trita Parsi on BlueSky: "It has also been a center of student opposition to the Iranian gov" Thanks to RAS for the link.
Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP -- Donald Trump, full Easter message
It was, by any measure, the most unhinged public comment by any president in U.S. history. -- Garrett Graff ~~~
“The Terrorist in Chief.” Paul Krugman: “Terrorism, according to ICE ... 'involves violence or the threat of violence against people or property to further a particular ideology.' The official website goes on to declare that 'Terrorists do not care who they hurt or kill to achieve their goals.'... Trump ... perfectly fit[s] his own officials’ definition of a terrorist.... He’s promising violence. That vile post isn’t part of a negotiating strategy, since there is, after all, zero chance that Iran will open the Strait of Hormuz by [Tuesday] evening.... Terrorism is a strategy of the weak. It’s what extremists do when they lack the ability to achieve their goals through military action or other non-criminal means.... A refusal by senior officers to participate in war crimes may be the only thing that could stop this evil in its tracks.... America has a terrorist president. And the whole world knows it. But we still have a chance to show the world that he is an aberration, that we are not a terrorist nation. And we can do that by standing up for the values that have always defined us.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Krugman seems more hopeful that I am. I do hope that the majority of Americans don't want "a whole civilization to die tonight." We should acknowledge that Trump is terrorizing not only Iranians but also those of us in the no-death-to-civilization camp. Certainly the threat to us is less dire than it is to people living in Iran, but his war games and teases are a threat to our mental health and financial stability. He is a bully, and he is toying with us -- making us party to state-sponsored terrorism. ~~~
~~~ Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Margaret Sullivan on Substack: "Based on my survey of regional-newspaper front pages on Monday morning, very few came anywhere near rising to the occasion.... If traditional techniques and language (“emphatic threats”) aren’t getting it done, what actually would work? I’ll make three suggestions, and would be happy to hear yours. First, show the primary document — yes, publish an image of the actual social-media post — even if that means breaking with the tradition of standards and practices.... Second, use headline language and story placement to get across how truly radical Trump’s behavior is.... Third, break with tradition and put a strong opinion column or editorial — or even a very direct news analysis piece — at the top of the online home page, or on the print front page."
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Kenneth Chang, et al., of the New York Times: “On the sixth day, 248,655 miles from Earth, four people ventured farther from home than any human being who has ever lived. Embraced by the moon’s gravitational pull, four astronauts accelerated Monday afternoon on a path to swing around the lunar far side, five days after launching on the Artemis II mission from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.... At 6:44 p.m. Eastern time, video transmission from Artemis II blinked out, and the astronauts were cut off from the world’s other eight billion people. As the spaceship they named Integrity passed over the far side of the moon, they reached their greatest distance from Earth — more than a quarter-million miles — and their closest proximity to the moon at a bit over 4,000 miles. After 40 minutes of silence, the astronauts reconnected with humanity. From their windows, they watched as a thin crescent of sunlit Earth reappeared.... There was one more cosmic treat for the astronauts: a solar eclipse as the moon passed in front of the sun.” ~~~
~~~ Here are some NASA photos & videos. ~~~
~~~ Katrina Miller of the New York Times: “As the astronauts of Artemis II traveled farther from Earth than any humans before them..., they called down to mission control to request that an unnamed crater on the moon be dedicated to Carroll Wiseman, the wife of mission commander Reid Wiseman, who died of cancer in 2020. She was 46.... 'It’s a bright spot on the moon,' [mission specialist Jeremy] Hansen said, his voice breaking up, 'and we would like to call it Carroll.'” The link is a gift link.
The New York Times' live updates of developments in the Iran War are here. From the pinned item at 7:00 am ET: Donald “Trump’s latest deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face a wave of destructive strikes drew closer on Tuesday, with no public signs of a diplomatic breakthrough to end the war. Against a backdrop of continuing strikes across the region, oil prices climbed. The Israeli military said on Tuesday that it had launched a new wave of airstrikes on Iranian government infrastructure and had detected Iranian missiles fired at Israel. The Israeli military warned people in Iran to avoid traveling by train until 9 p.m. local time. Being on trains or close to railway lines would endanger their lives, it said in a Persian-language post on social media. Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry said on Tuesday that it had intercepted and destroyed 18 drones and seven ballistic missiles.” ~~~
~~~ The AP's live updates are here. Major developments: “...Donald Trump has warned that a 'whole civilization will die tonight,' but said Iran still has time to capitulate ahead of a deadline set for 8 p.m. in Washington. The American leader issued the stark threat Tuesday, about 12 hours ahead of his deadline for Iran to agree to a deal that includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz or face punishing strikes.... Iran’s president said Tuesday that 14 million Iranians, including himself, have volunteered to sacrifice their lives in the war.”
Bassem Mroue, et al., of the AP: “The U.S. again struck the Iranian oil hub of Kharg Island, according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The U.S. hit military targets on the island, the official said Tuesday.... [Donald] Trump has threatened to deploy ground troops to seize critical oil infrastructure on the island, but experts warn such an operation would cost the lives of many U.S. military members and would not be a decisive move to ending the war. The U.S. had earlier in the war struck several targets on the island, including air defenses, a radar site, an airport and a hovercraft base, according to satellite analysis by the Institute for the Study of War and American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project.”
Tyler Pager & Erika Solomon of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said on Monday that a cease-fire proposal put forth by mediators between the United States and Iran was a 'significant step,' but he warned that it was 'not good enough' as his deadline of Tuesday evening for a deal approached. Iran, for its part, rejected any proposal for a cease-fire, mandating that any peace plan include a complete end of hostilities. Diplomatic talks coordinated by Pakistan and other regional countries were continuing, officials said, even as there appeared to be little agreement on what any cessation of hostilities would look like. If Iran does not agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by Tuesday at 8 p.m. Eastern time, Mr. Trump has threatened to launch a massive attack targeting bridges, power plants and other civilian facilities that would, in his words, send Iran 'back to the Stone Ages.'” ~~~
Max Bearak, et al., of the New York Times: “Iran on Monday delivered a 10-point proposal to end the war with the United States and Israel, according to Iranian state media. The plan was conveyed by Pakistan, which has been acting as a primary intermediary in the conflict, but appeared unlikely to resolve major questions ahead of President Trump’s Tuesday evening deadline for new attacks on Iran. Two senior Iranian officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations, said the proposal included a guarantee that Iran would not be attacked again, an end to Israeli strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon and the lifting of all sanctions. In return, Iran would lift its de facto blockade of the key shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran would also impose a fee of roughly $2 million per ship that it would split with Oman, which sits across the strait. Iran would use its share of the proceeds to reconstruct infrastructure destroyed by American and Israeli attacks, rather than demand direct compensation, according to the plan.”
Eli Okun & Makayla Gray of Politico: “The world is holding its breath to see what happens in the war tomorrow. It’s a now-familiar tightrope walk after more than a month of war with Iran, as well as a year-plus of the Trump administration’s approach to Ukraine, Gaza, tariffs and more: U.S. threats of escalation against an adversary commingle with nods to diplomacy, a history of postponements and the prospect of an eleventh-hour deal. This moment is particularly perilous, after Trump’s Easter warning that he could unleash 'Hell' on Iran. And the war may shortly explode into a new phase. 'The entire country could be taken out in one night,' Trump just said at the White House, 'and that night might be tomorrow night.'” Emphasis original. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Alex Gangitano of Politico: “... Donald Trump on Monday said he couldn’t know if the war with Iran was ending , or escalating, ahead of his Tuesday 8 p.m. EDT deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.... He threatened again that if Iran doesn’t act, 'they’re going to have no bridges, they’re going to have no power plants— stone ages yeah.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Cheyanne Daniels of Politico: “... Donald Trump on Monday threatened to find and jail the journalist who first reported that a U.S. troop was awaiting rescue after his plane was shot down in Iran last week, unless that journalist revealed their source. Speaking from the White House, Trump said a 'leak' told an unidentified reporter that while one pilot had been rescued shortly after an F-15 fighter jet crashed in Iran on Friday, a second officer had not yet been found. Multiple news organizations had reported on the crash, and Trump on Monday vowed to find the leaker. 'We’re going to go to the media company that released it and we’re going to say, “national security, give it up or go to jail,’” Trump said. He added that the person who shared the information is 'a sick person.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Jeremy Barr of the Guardian: “Seth Stern ... [of] the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said: 'Journalists don’t work for the government and their right to publish government leaks is protected by the First Amendment which, despite Trump’s efforts, remains the law of the land, and does not disappear whenever the words “national security” are uttered. To the extent that the government is allowed to withhold information, it’s up to the government to keep its secrets, not journalists.'” (Also linked yesterday.)
Marie: Donald Trump has a way of revealing his dirty secrets, even when he tries to withhold them. Last week, in an interview with the Telegraph, he said, "I was never swayed by NATO. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way." So he discussed NATO will Putin. That could be appropriate. But it turns out that wasn't the whole story. Yesterday, during his press conference, he said, "I've always said NATO is a paper tiger.... Putin is not afraid of NATO. But Putin is very afraid of us. He's explained it to me a lot of times." IOW, Trump did not merely discuss NATO with Putin. Putin "explained" NATO to Trump. Putin ls Trump's national security advisor on NATO. Trump reportedly does not take the advice of our in-house national security advisors because he doesn't listen. But maybe the real reason is that his most important outside counsellor is the anti-American dictator of Russia, the guy most bent upon weakening the U.S.
Trump Threatens Nuclear War at Easter Egg Roll. AP News, published by NPR: "In a surreal scene on the White House lawn with flowers and Easter décor..., Donald Trump decided to give reporters an update on the Iran war.... With children waiting nearby, someone in a bunny costume steps away, and soft, cheerful music in the background, the president spoke about the rescue of a missing airman shot down in Iran, defended his expletive-laden threats on social media, and warned that Iran should capitulate or face threats to its bridges and power plants.... 'They just don't want to say "uncle,"' Trump told reporters as he and first lady Melania Trump hosted the White House Easter Egg Roll. 'They don't want to cry as the expression goes "uncle," but they will. And if they don't, they'll have no bridges. They'll have no power plants. They'll have no anything.. He added another ominous warning, 'I won't go further because there are other things that are worse than those two.'" ~~~
They said normally, when you’re in very hostile territory — and I don’t think it gets much more hostile than Iran. They’re capable fighters.... Where a pilot’s shot down, in most instances, you’re really not able to go in, because you’ll go in with 200 people and lots of jet fighters and helicopters, and you really don’t have a chance. They get shot down. You lose 200 in order to pick up one, it’s a horrible thing.... We had a dead country. We had an administration that didn’t know what the hell they were doing. Today, we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. We’re respected by everybody. -- Donald Trump, communing with the kids (from far above them on the White House balcony) at yesterday's annual White House Easter Egg Roll. He went on to discuss the price of eggs ~~~
~~~ Ryan Grenoble of the Huffington Post: “... Donald Trump did his best to woo a table full of kids at the White House Easter Egg Roll Monday by talking about former President Joe Biden’s use of autopen.... After he left the kids’ table..., Trump fielded questions from reporters where he threatened to commit war crimes in Iran while the Easter bunny awkwardly stood nearby.” ~~~
~~~ Always Look on the Bright Side. Darlene Superville of the AP: “... Donald Trump welcomed tens of thousands of people Monday to the White House Easter egg roll, saying the overcast weather meant no one would have to worry about getting sunburned.... '... We don’t have to worry about sunburn but ... it looks like it’s not going to be raining.'” MB: From the Reliant Medical Group: “Clouds only partially block the invisible UV rays that cause sunburn and skin damage and a surprising amount gets through. That’s the reason you can still get a sunburn on a cloudy day. It is estimated that over 90% of ultraviolet (UV) rays can pass through a light cloud cover.”
The following article is subscriber-firewalled, but the first several paragraphs are free. MB: I linked it for the headline: ~~~
~~~ “US Supreme Leader Threatens Death to Iran." Asawin Suebsaeng & Andrew Perez of Zeteo: “Our president celebrated Easter by threatening some 'fuckin’' war crimes on Sunday morning, and then seemingly trolled Muslims in the Middle East by praising 'Allah' while issuing a threat to kill a ton of Iranian civilians.... Even a brief analysis of Donald Trump’s intimidation tactics these past few days would show that what he’s threatening is not the kind of war that vaguely adheres to any rules or laws. He’s making openly terroristic threats[.]... For decades, US politicians and media lost their collective minds over somebody in Iran saying, 'Death to America.' What ... Trump is doing and propagandizing now makes that three-word catchphrase sound like a schoolyard taunt.... Legacy media in this country have dramatically undersold the titanic depravity of what ... Trump is doing. The media is covering his social media threats as if he is simply moving a perfunctory deadline back 24 hours, from Monday to Tuesday, but what Trump is discussing is his own pledge to pointlessly commit war crimes against Iran’s civilians – who knows how many? Millions? Tens of millions? – by a certain time. That the American commander-in-chief is doing this in broad daylight is a scandal of monumental proportions.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Chris Cameron of the “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday likened the rescue on Easter Sunday of a missing American airman shot down over Iran to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.... The F-15E fighter jet, he noted, was 'shot down on a Friday — Good Friday.' That is the day Jesus was crucified. After the airman bailed out over Iran, he hid, Mr. Hegseth said, 'in a cave, a crevice, all of Saturday,' reminiscent of the tomb cut into a rock in which Jesus was buried. Then, he said, the airman was rescued on the day Christians celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus — 'flown out of Iran as the sun was rising on Easter Sunday.' Minutes later, speaking at the same news conference describing the military operation, President Trump asserted that God supports the Israeli-U.S. war against Iran, which has killed thousands, including many civilians. 'Because God is good,' he said, 'and God wants to see people taken care of.' Mr. Trump continued: 'God doesn’t like what’s happening. I don’t like what’s happening. Everyone says I enjoy it. I don’t enjoy this.... I don’t like seeing people get killed,' he said.” A Mediaite item is here.
Heather Cox Richardson: Monday "was an exhausting day as Americans seem to have little choice but to pay attention to a man who is bizarrely threatening what appear to be war crimes against Iranians while spinning wild tales."
Jennifer Bahney of Mediaite: “MS NOW senior medical analyst Dr. Vin Gupta believes that ... Donald Trump is showing 'all the signs of dementia.' Gupta wrote on X Sunday: 'Erratic. Can’t finish sentences. Often confused. Illogical train of thought. Word finding difficulties. Developing and worsening gradually over time. The President is exhibiting all the signs of dementia.'” Thanks to RAS for the lead.
of the New York Times: Vice President J.D. “Vance was visiting Budapest, [Hungary]’s capital, on Tuesday, just days before Sunday’s election, to urge voters to stick with [President Viktor] Orban. His trip underscored just how important an election in a small country with a tiny economy is to countries far beyond its borders.... The trip ... makes clear that Russia is not the only country invested in a victory for Hungary’s leader.... Both the Trump administration and Moscow see Mr. Orban as a linchpin of their common antagonism toward Europe....” The AP's report is here.
Owen Scott of the Independent: “Markwayne Mullin, the new homeland security secretary, has suggested that some major U.S. airports could be stripped of their customs and immigration services. Mullin ... is taking particular aim at sanctuary cities with international airports. 'Just one area we may take a hard look at is…some of these cities have international airports,' he told Fox News’ Bret Baier on Monday. 'If they’re sanctuary cities, should they really be processing customs into their city?'... California Governor Gavin Newsom blasted Mullin on X over the remarks, which he branded 'stupid.'”
Ernesto Londoño, et al., of the New York Times: “Almost immediately after an immigration agent shot and wounded a Venezuelan immigrant in Minneapolis this winter, the federal government cast the injured man as an attempted murderer and the agent as the victim of a brutal beating. That version of events began unraveling when prosecutors dropped felony charges against the injured man, Julio C. Sosa-Celis, and one of his housemates, Alfredo A. Aljorna, who had fled from immigration agents. Yet video footage of the shooting, newly obtained by The New York Times [under an FOIA request], raises questions about why it took weeks for the government’s case to fall apart. The video contradicts the agent’s claim that three assailants had beaten him with a shovel and broom for roughly three minutes before he opened fire. Instead, the confrontation depicted in the video lasts about 12 seconds and shows two men struggling with the agent. It shows no sustained attack with a shovel. The federal government had access to that video within hours of the shooting on Jan. 14, the Minneapolis police chief said. Yet prosecutors did not watch the footage, an official said, until nearly three weeks after they filed charges against the two men.” The link appears to be a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)
Annie Ma of the AP: “The Education Department said Monday it has terminated agreements with five school districts and a college aimed at upholding protections for transgender students, backing away from requirements negotiated by previous administrations that took a different interpretation of civil rights. The decision removes the federal obligations for the schools to keep up measures such as faculty training on abiding by a students’ preferred name and pronouns and allowing students to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity.”
Marie: I hope this pirated copy of last night's "Rachel Maddow Show" stays up for a while, because Maddow's opening segment, in particular, is a reminder of how dangerously incompetent the Trump government is and how that incompetence can hit us all: ~~~
~~~ As Maddow indicates, it isn't only rabies we need to worry about. Nor the loss of other federal government services. ~~~
~~~ Vivienne Walt of the New York Times: “The Trump administration’s continued attacks on academia and its funding cuts to scientific research have provided an opening for other countries to poach the type of researchers who have helped make America the world’s leader in medical and technology breakthroughs. That brain drain could be very costly for the U.S. economy.... A study in September by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a Washington think tank, warned that without a reversal, the cuts to science could shrink the U.S. economy by nearly $1 trillion over 10 years. That could leave the U.S. lagging behind China, which is investing heavily in research. And last month, the Partnership for Public Service, another nonpartisan organization in Washington, estimated that 95,000 employees had departed federal science agencies from September 2024 to December 2025. The report said budget cuts were 'jeopardizing our nation’s research and development pipeline.' Trump’s proposed budget for 2027 includes new funding cuts for scientific research.” Thanks to RAS for the link.
Scott Wong & Ben Kamisar of NBC News: "A second former staffer of Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, told NBC News he sent sexually explicit text messages to her while she was working for him. The San Antonio Express-News first reported that Gonzales, who is married and a father of six, texted the woman, repeatedly asking for sex and nude photos. On Monday, NBC News spoke with the woman, who worked as Gonzales’ political director on his first campaign in 2020. She said that all of the details and text messages cited in the San Antonio Express-News were accurate.... The new revelations come one month after Gonzales dropped out of his primary runoff after the House Ethics Committee said it was investigating his relationship with another woman, a congressional aide, Regina Santos-Aviles, who died by suicide last year. Gonzales had exchanged sexually explicit messages with Santos-Aviles in May 2024, according to messages obtained by NBC News and confirmed by her widower."
Julian Mark & Jeremy Roebuck of the Washington Post: “The Supreme Court on Monday cleared a path for Stephen K. Bannon’s effort, backed by the Justice Department, to dismiss his conviction for defying a congressional subpoena related to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. In a brief, unsigned order Monday morning, the court vacated a judgment by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upholding Bannon’s conviction. The high court sent the case back to the appeals court for reconsideration in light of a motion to dismiss that the Justice Department filed two months ago. Bannon, an influential right-wing podcaster and former chief strategist to ... Donald Trump, spent four months in prison in 2024 after a jury found him guilty on two misdemeanor counts of contempt of Congress. Bannon had refused to respond to demands for testimony and documents by a House select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol, the jury found.” Update: the link is a gift link. An AP report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
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27 comments:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/world/europe/vance-hungary-orban-fidesz-election.html
So…we’re on the same side as Putin….but we knew that, didn’t we?
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/06/us/politics/hegseth-religious-tone.html
In the early 1970’s I was timing a high school football game with a stopwatch while standing on the field behind the teams. Our private school opponents were loaded and very Christian. When they broke the huddle shouting “Let’s get this TD for Christ,” I thought it sadly amusing and downright offensive.
Which might explain me saying to them, when they fumbled the ball, “ You think the Devil made you do it?"
On that "whole civilization dying tonight" thing: The Pretender might be right--but I'm betting he's thinking of the wrong civilization.
Doesn't "MAGA Intellectual" sound like an oxymoran.... Isaac Stanley-Becker, for The Atlantic, examined "the U.S.-Hungary relationship—trying to understand why President Trump and the people around him are backing Orbán’s reelection this month" ...and found "the ties binding Orbán’s government to one of the most radical parts of Trump’s movement. [Gladden] Pappin belongs to a clutch of so-called post-liberal intellectuals who are small in number but whose power is magnified by their like-mindedness with Vance. Silicon Valley gave Vance the resources to run for the Senate in 2022; but this group gave him the relevance, and the ideas, to be Trump’s running mate in 2024 and his heir apparent in 2028.
Pappin, like Vance, is Catholic, which infuses his critique of liberalism. In essays and other public comments, he has objected to limits on state power that enhance individual liberty and questioned the separation of Church and state. Privately, he has advanced fantastical ideas. He once predicted that Trump would dissolve Congress, at which point the pope would anoint Melania Trump, who is Catholic, to rule the United States as queen."
The MAGA Intellectual Who Prophesied a Queen Melania
Sentiment for Richardson and the rest of us, "Next week has been exhausting"
Is the MAGA intellectual Markwayne suggesting open borders? If international travelers don't have to go through immigration and customs any longer. Probably not a great idea to advertise where they won't be screening people during a war though. Senator Potato's probably missing the conversations with his intellectual equal now that they are no longer work colleagues two days a week.
Iran
"The US/Israel just bombed Sharif University in Tehran. This is not only Iran's best university, but also a top 100 global university in the field of Civil Engineering.
It has also been a center of student opposition to the Iranian gov
And Trump just bombed it..."
"When War Crimes Rhetoric Becomes Battlefield Reality: The Slippery Slope to Total War on Iran
While our Commander-in-Chief threatens to “obliterate” “each and every one of their electric generating plants,” U.S. military commanders have been approving strike packages, wrestling with how to transform Trump’s dangerous bombast into lawful targets.
Asking our military professionals—lawyers and commanders alike—to grapple with the president’s erratic behavior is enormously consequential. U.S. military commanders have sworn to obey the Constitution and only those orders from their superiors that are lawful. Threats to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages” and to show “no quarter, no mercy” are plainly illegal. Trump’s outrageous statements gravely threaten our military professionals’ bedrock moral and legal principles, ones enshrined in the law of war that they’ve been trained to follow their entire careers."
Steven Beschloss
"Donald Trump Needs to Be Removed
He is becoming increasingly dangerous and unable to perform the duties of his office, requiring the invocation of the 25th Amendment"
Trump's terrorism makes terrorism against us more likely. He is putting all of us in danger. If the Iranians really feel they no longer have anything to lose then all options available to them will be on the table. And as Trump has made clear war crimes and civilian targets are now fair game.
"“Economic Civil War”: States Push Laws to Shield Oil and Gas Companies From Accountability
Across the country, Republican-led state legislatures are passing a slate of laws that effectively shield oil and gas companies from legal claims that they are responsible for the destruction and mounting toll caused by climate change. Fifteen laws have either been passed or are currently being debated in 11 states. Together, they threaten to remove long-standing tools for the public to hold corporations accountable.
A ProPublica investigation has found that most of these bills are part of a coordinated effort, orchestrated by a constellation of groups that share staff or have funding ties to the prominent conservative activist Leonard Leo, who is credited with placing conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court. These groups have drafted state legislation, planned its dissemination and engaged a well-connected lobbying firm to get them signed into law."
Waldman:
https://paulwaldman.substack.com/p/war-crimes-are-trumps-truest-liberation
"I an do anything I want."
The cracks that leak
Fat Hitler is rampaging around (one of two standard modes for this shithead, the other being soporific slurring and snoring) looking for the leak. Hours after he and his soused SecDef bellowed about their full control of the skies over Iran, a fighter jet was shot down by the Iranians. One of the airmen who bailed out was picked up safely, the other was not. A report of the lost airman was likely the result of a leak, perhaps from someone in the Pentagon, perhaps from somewhere else in this administration of incompetent schmucks and liars. And now Fatty is P-Ohed! He's gonna put people in jail and this and that the other thing. The usual rants.
But here's the thing. Leaks seep out through cracks. As the cracks in the fetid foundation of this disgusting, amoral, murderous Reich widen, the leaks will follow.
Just like in your own home, leaks are a bad sign. And a leaky administration is not long for the world.
Word is that career military personnel HATE Drunk Pete. These are dedicated people who have risen to their ranks through hard work and a belief in what they're doing. They took an oath to the Constitution, not to some fat fuck and his inebriated lap dog. If leaks are coming from the Pentagon, this a bad sign for Fatty and his fuckface Secretary of WAAAARRRR.
Look for more. As Fatty's stock goes down, rats will start deserting the ship. And leaks will spring from the cracks they use to escape the sinking SS Fat Hitler.
RAS's line about that famous MAGA intellectual Markwayne Mullin elicited more than a few chuckles.
What constitutes a MAGA intellectual? Dogs can learn to walk on their hind legs. That doesn't make them Hannah Arendt or Martha Nussbaum, even though my dog Rocket is light years smarter than almost anyone in Fatty's cabinet.
The basic traits of a public intellectual are as far removed from sycophantic ass kissers like Mullin as a solid grounding in quantum physics is from a three year old. Just consider what is required. First, a love of humanity, a sense of intellectual humility, understanding the limits of what you know and how much you can learn from other sources, constancy of critical thought, autonomy of thought, not being tied to, or required to abide by ideologies approved by others.
Do any one of those traits scream MAGA?
And while we're on the subject, this morning in the NY Times, an opinion piece on Shady Vance considers how much humiliation he, as a "smart guy" can take from the Dear Leader whose tiny testicles he laps obediently after calling him America's Hitler.
At one point, the author presents Vance as some kind of intellectual who has wandered down the wrong path.
NO! NONONONONONONONONO.....and did I say No?
Please to go back and review the traits of an intellectual. Do any of them say "Intellectuals will willingly check their beliefs in order to suck up to a power source they know to be corrupt and STUPID?" I guess maybe I didn't include that one.
Sorry. The Hillbilly Allergy is no intellectual. I don't care that he went to Yale. Graduating from an Ivy League school is no guarantee of intellectual honesty or autonomy. Just look at all the suck ups working for Fatty with degrees from those schools. Drunk Pete went to Princeton, fer crissakes. Is there a less humanistic, intellectually courageous member of this administration?
So....MAGA intellectual?
Yeah. Okay. And Trump is Gandhi.
Fat Hitler's 2AM posting, circa 1606
Vlad the Impaler, national security advisor to Fat Hitler.
Marie,
Yeah. of course he takes advice from Putin. Trump is enamored of and thoroughly impressed by the sort of gangster power of thugs like Putin. You'll recall that we used to poke fun at Fatty for his connections to mob figures in NYC, but we weren't making that up. He built his gaudy tower and Trump Plaza with help from "Fat Tony" Salerno and mafia boss Paul Castellano, who owned the concrete company he hired. He got advice and "help" from mob characters in Philly when building his failed casinos in Atlantic City. (Just imagine the knee slapping going on in mob enclaves when this stupid rich guy they helped failed as a casino boss. Who goes bankrupt running casinos? Losers and jabronis. That's who.)
He loves being around tough guys because he himself is a coward who loves playing the tough guy. So his love affair with Putin is no surprise.
Tick tock...
As the clock ticks down to Destroy Iran's Civilization time, it's instructive to review the role of military might.
Here’s the thing. Military might is great, but it doesn’t guarantee victory. First, you can’t just bomb your way to a win. Did that work in Vietnam? And Vietnam was largely an agrarian society with far fewer people than Iran. We had more than half a million guys there at the height of that war and we still lost. To fucking farmers with machetes and pistols! (Okay, a bit of an exaggeration, but you know what I mean).
The thing is, if you’re gonna force your way to a victory, that means you’re gonna have to invade, put boots on the ground, grind down the populace, and stay there indefinitely. Look at the Romans. At one point they realized that staying in Britain was a losing proposition. The locals knew that they could wait them out. And they did. Eventually Rome said “Fuck it” and left. The Russians found this out in Afghanistan. So did we. We lost in Iraq and Afghanistan and Vietnam despite having overwhelming military superiority. But morons like Trump and Drunk Pete have never opened a history book that wasn’t written about their own personal greatness (ie, ones they wrote themselves). So here we are.
But there is no doubt that smart guys in the Pentagon have gamed this out a hundred different ways. THAT's why no other president decided to start a war with Iran. Not because they're stupid, but because they paid attention to people who know what they're talking about. Not Trump. He's the smartest guy in the room. But there's more...
Iran has technology Ho Chi Minh never dreamed of and they're getting help from Russia, China, and Pakistan. We blow up a rocket launch site and they rebuild it in 24 hours. Asymmetric warfare suits them to a T. AND they have 92 million people and a military ferociously supportive of the regime in power (despite millions of average Iranians who hate the Koran beaters). This has been an exercise in massive stupidity all the way along. And it’s getting stupider by the hour.
And here's the other thing. One of the reasons everyone loses in places like Afghanistan is that the people you're invading are fighting for their lives, and their nation. Put a marine on the ground in Iran and ask him why he's there. Now take the Iranian guy he's shooting at and ask him why he's there. The marine would likely say "Because they sent me here". The Iranian guy says "I'm fighting for my country and my life and that of my family". That's a huge difference. You put someone's back against the wall and they're going to go hammer and tongs at you as long as they have breath in their body. Threats from some old fat man six thousand miles away don't mean shit to a guy fighting for his life.
And threatening to bomb them "back to the Stone Age" (can they come up some other epithet of their own? Curtis Lemay has been dead for years) does not faze the Iranians. It only makes the regime stronger. Fatty may TACO out, or he may make himself a war criminal in the mold of Putin and Hitler, but he has already lost this war. There is no way he can win on his terms.
The clock is ticking for him too, only he doesn't know it. One of the zillions of things he doesn't know.
Donnie the Science Guy
I had to laugh when I read about Fatty saying "Can't get a sunburn when it's cloudy". Right. Some of the worst sunburns I ever had I got when It was cloudy (Irish skin). But this is the same guy who looked straight up at the sun during an eclipse. Der!
No wonder he's killing funding for science across the board. He knows everything.
Also, I loved how he goes up to kids at an Easter Egg hunt and cows them with lies about how Biden stole the election. What a dad he must have been. No wonder his kids are all assholes.
Assuming no TACO and things get quickly out of control this whole thing comes down to a USMC NCO. I hope he has a cast iron set and loves his country more than his president.*
Tom Nichols, in The Atlantic, urges the military to refuse to Use Nuclear Weapons in Iran
"The world, unfortunately, has gotten used to Trump’s overheated rhetoric, and to dismissing the commander in chief as something of a crank who (as the French president recently advised) should perhaps keep more of his thoughts to himself.
But the president’s statements are policy, and he has now made it the policy of the government of the United States that at 8 p.m. Washington, D.C., time (3:30 a.m. in Tehran), he will order the U.S. military to destroy Iran and its entire civilization—permanently—unless his terms are met....Whether the president is saying this with full control of his faculties or has well and truly lost his mind is irrelevant: He is still the president, and so we must consider the meaning of this policy.
....
Should Trump persist in his threatened course of action, then only a mass resignation of senior officers would stand between the president and a campaign of genocide. By this, I do not mean a mutiny or coup. The answer to Trump’s lawlessness is not more lawlessness. But American officers have a positive duty to refuse illegal orders, and the destruction of an entire civilization with nuclear weapons—which poses no similar threat to the United States—is as illegal as it gets. "
The story (linked above) about the release of an American journalist from captivity in Iraq contains a quote that should be of interest to the Fat Hitler dunces prosecuting this war but, of course, won't make a dent:
"We are in a state of war waged by the Zionist-American enemy against Islam and in such situations many considerations are disregarded."
Why is this important? This is about as clear a message as could be made that Iraq (and Iran) see the Trump-Bibi-Epstein War as an attack on Islam by the "Zionist-American enemy". So, two things about this statement.
First, it's as clear as could be that Islamic groups in the region see this as an existential threat. It's one thing for them to be bombed by Fat Hitler. It's quite another when Bibi is not only involved but is the prime mover.
Second, it indicates that both Iraqis and the Iranians understand that Israel, under the direction of Netanyahu, desires nothing less than total extermination. I have to laugh when I hear about how Israeli forces take all precautions to ensure that no civilians are hurt when they're shooting for a Carthaginian peace in the region. Are they kidding? Bibi has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza and he's continuing to kill them, every day. How can other Islamic nations look at the genocidal mass murder going on in Gaza and not think "He's coming for us next"?
This is why this war will not end anytime soon. The Israelis certainly must look to their own security, but once Bibi sucked his fat buddy into attacking Iran, that gave him cover to start bombing Lebanon. And if Bibi stops his genocidal wars, his ass goes on trial for corruption (another thing he shares with Fat Hitler), so his bombing runs in Iran will NOT stop just because Fatty sez so. The complexities of this situation are so murky and so dire that it's an absolute abomination that we, the United States, have been dragged into this because the country is run by imbeciles and racist pigs.
Bibi is not going to stop until he's convinced Iran is completely destroyed, likewise Lebanon. A strong (not stupid) American administration could have stopped this before it got started. And if Bibi wanted to start bombing Iran on his own, good luck to him. But he got our Fat Fuck Asshole to help him out.
Bibi is, it turns out, a much better con artist than the Fat Fascist. He's using OUR money and OUR military to fulfill his dreams of Islamic annihilation. And we have nothing to say about it because our Congress is run by supine sycophantic ass lickers.
How do investors make money on civilization destruction?
Can't let corruption go to waste
"First Lady Melania Trump will have access to former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s $70 million jet, reported The Wall Street Journal.
The Trump administration will retain the jet Noem leased during her tenure, the Journal reported Tuesday, citing a department spokeswoman and other officials familiar with the matter. The plane will be used for travel by some members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet. Melania Trump’s office will also have access to the jet, according to the report."
TACO for the moment
Trump Agrees To Two Week Ceasefire
As seen on Threads, Emma Thompson states the obvious Such Losers
In a guest essay in The New York Times, Dana Milbank asks How Much Humiliation Can Vance Take?
"Over and over in recent years, Mr. Vance struck devil’s bargains, first to gain a Senate seat and then to become Mr. Trump’s No. 2. He embraced the anti-immigrant stances he once called “reprehensible” and other dark elements of the MAGA movement in hopes of positioning himself as its next leader.
What once might have been a cruise to the 2028 Republican presidential nomination now looks more like a run through the Strait of Hormuz. Mr. Vance is experiencing a version of the pain experienced by other ambitious Republicans who embraced Mr. Trump only to see themselves used and (eventually) discarded by him."
One of the few thoughts that is always rattling around in Fat Hitler's empty head
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