Thursday, March 05, 2026

Old Man Shouts At Clouds

Everything he knows he learned from Venezuela:
They are wasting their time," Trump said. "Khamenei's son is a lightweight."

"I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy [Rodriguez] in Venezuela," he added.
Has absolutely no idea what he’s doing.
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Go Ahead And Shoot The Messenger

RFK Jr: "President Trump understands that we're engaged right now in spiritual warfare and that the malevolent forces want to drive us apart and end our connection to each other. One of the ways we can remedy that is by reinstituting this sacred ritual of eating with each other and cooking."
He’s crazy as a shit house rat, and doesn’t mean a thing he says.

And I expect him to start shilling pots ‘n’ pans blessed by Jesus, because they’re washed inside and out.  (Let those who have ears, listen!)
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I’m Old Enough To Remember…

... when Trump off-handedly said the cost of his war might be a rise in gas prices for awhile. He’s also casually dismissed American casualties. And nobody in the Administration seems to care about Iranian casualties; or damage and casualties in other countries in the region.

Frankly, I can’t figure out what they do care about.
I keep coming back to the image of a man in a round room, frantically making the circuit as he tries to find a corner to piss in. It’s an image of the entire Administration. This is fine. No, really, they think it is.
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I Guess Now We Know Why It’s Stalled In The Senate

1. ALL VOTERS MUST SHOW VOTER I.D. (IDENTIFICATION!).



2. ALL VOTERS MUST SHOW PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP IN ORDER TO VOTE.


3. NO MAIL-IN BALLOTS (EXCEPT FOR ILLNESS, DISABILITY, MILITARY, OR TRAVEL!).

4. NO MEN IN WOMEN’S SPORTS.

5. NO TRANSGENDER MUTILATION SURGERY FOR CHILDREN, WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN APPROVAL OF THE PARENTS."
Surgery on minors already requires the written consent of a parent or guardian. I’m surprised he didn’t add a ban against litter boxes in public schools.

None of this is within the purview of the federal government. Even if all of it is in the bill the House passed (never take Trump’s word for it). The act would be suspended by the courts almost immediately after passage.
😈
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Money Makes The World Go ‘Round

NEWS Trump triple whammy: could rake in more than $37 billion est’ed getting the U.S. Dept of Finance to insure ships and cargo in Strait of Hormuz; keeps oil from zooming to $100, commodity trading sources say; takes business away from marine insurers like UK’s Lloyd’s of London.

War-risk premiums for ships transiting Hormuz in a crisis can rise from 0.01 % of ship value to 1–3% in high-risk times. On a $100 million vessel, 1% war-risk premium would be $1 million per transit.

If the U.S. underwrote/provided coverage for, say, 100 transits/day at $1 million: $100M/day = $36.5B/year.

This is hypothetical and would be heavy risk exposure for the government, not a straightforward profit — and it assumes carriers choose U.S. coverage instead of private.

Also if the U.S. Navy escorted convoys and charged a fee per transit, even a modest $50,000 per escorted transit × 100 ships/day → $5 million/day = $1.8 billion/year.
This gets complicated fast. First, Lloyds is not an insurance company; it’s a reinsurance company. It finds insurers to cover policies issued by other companies. Spread the risk, so to speak. It’s how insurance works. Second, this is an ad, but it’s an ad for an analysis, not an insurance company:
On March 1, 138 vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz.

By March 2, that number was 28.

Iran didn't block them. No sovereign authority declared the Strait closed.

Seven insurance firms in London filed paperwork. That's what shut down one-fifth of the world's oil supply.

Here's how that's possible:

Between March 1 and March 2, seven of the twelve P&I clubs that collectively insure roughly 90% of the world's commercial shipping issued 72-hour cancellation notices for war risk coverage in the Persian Gulf.

When those clubs withdraw coverage, ships stop sailing.

Without P&I cover, no port will accept the vessel, no cargo owner will load it, no bank will finance the voyage, and no charterer will contract it. The ship is commercially dead.

One-fifth of the world's oil supply, shut down by spreadsheet.

Now here's why the effects reach far beyond the war itself:

Everyone from Wall Street to the White House is pricing this as a military disruption. Four to eight weeks, bombs stop, oil flows, back to normal. That model works for military blockades, but not for what actually happened here.

A military blockade ends when the military stands down. An actuarial blockade ends when the insurance market decides it has ended.

Those are two completely different timelines.

China has massive leverage over Iran. A $400 billion cooperation agreement. They buy 80% of Iran's shipped oil. If anything can pressure Tehran, it's Beijing.

But China has zero leverage over Lloyd's of London.

Even if Iran capitulates tonight and every weapon goes silent, and the IRGC stands down, not a single reinsurer reinstates Gulf war risk coverage because Beijing made a phone call.

Reinstatement requires rebuilt risk models. Voyage-by-voyage re-underwriting. Repriced treaty capacity across the entire reinsurance chain. A threat environment that actuaries can actually quantify.

None of that exists right now.

The global maritime insurance system is not a normal competitive market. It's a concentrated oligopoly layered three deep. Twelve P&I clubs at the surface. Five to ten treaty reinsurers beneath them, mostly London-based. And beneath those reinsurers, nothing.

The retrocession market and catastrophe bonds systematically exclude war risk. When a marine war risk reinsurer takes on Gulf exposure, they bear it net. No deeper pool of capital behind the curtain. A single large vessel loss in the Hormuz approaches could exceed the entire regional war risk premium pool.

So when seven clubs withdrew simultaneously, they didn't leave behind a market that could reprice. They left behind a void.

Making it worse: European insurance regulation actually made this inevitable. Solvency II requires capital reserves against modeled worst-case scenarios. When conflict escalates, modeled losses spike mechanically. Reinsurers face a binary choice: raise additional capital (takes months) or cancel coverage (takes 72 hours).

The system is architecturally designed to collapse at the worst possible moment.

And it was already fragile. Two years of Houthi attacks in the Red Sea had driven war risk premiums up twentyfold and hollowed out the capital buffer. By February 2026, the capital supporting marine war risk globally was at its thinnest point in the modern era.

Hormuz didn't hit a robust system. It hit one already bleeding out.

The closest parallel is September 2008.

The interbank lending market didn't freeze because every bank was insolvent. It froze because the cost of verifying which banks were solvent exceeded the return on the overnight loan. When verification costs exceed transaction value, the market doesn't reprice. It seizes.

In 2008, it took TARP, the Federal Reserve's lending facilities, FDIC guarantees, and 12-18 months of the largest government intervention in history to restart interbank lending.

The maritime insurance system has no TARP. No Fed equivalent. No backstop at global scale. No government has ever replaced the global reinsurance architecture from scratch during an active crisis.

The military campaign may end in weeks. The actuarial blockade will persist for months.

The country with the most to lose and the most leverage over the belligerent cannot fix the mechanism that actually closed the Strait, because the mechanism is not geopolitical. It's actuarial.

And actuaries don't take calls from the Politburo.
I don’t mean to stand on this analysis, so much as to point that this is a very complex issue. It is not a simple matter of: “Was your ship broken? Please file a claim through our app.”

I don’t think the U.S. government understands this. The U.S. government certainly can’t fix this by throwing no money at it, any more than they fixed Iraq by flying in pallets of cash; which quickly disappeared with barely a ripple.

War has consequences. Trump never prepared for them.
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Ideas Don’t Matter. Things Don’t Matter. People Matter.

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The World, The Flesh, And The Devil

Miller: The president believes America's awesome military should be used to protect and defend America's interests. Not to surrender the world to our adversaries.. not to surrender the world's resources

America first means America will be the greatest, most unquestioned unmatched power in the world
Mission accomplished. Now what?
Pence: I've had opportunities to spend time with the Iranian diaspora around this country. I can tell you there there are people who are prepared to move immediately in to establish a free and democratic and nuclear free Iran and I think our obligation is to create the conditions where the people of Iran can do that..
More vague and glittering generalities. 🤦‍♂️

Fetterman thinks all that matters is that the Ayatollah is dead. Miller thinks power alone matters. Pence passively offers vague generalizations about the group of people that, to him, really matter.?They all ignore the reality:
Ansari: So beyond the fact that this is a costly, illegal war — that American service members have already died, that American lives are at risk — this administration does not care about the Iranian people. They’re bombing indiscriminately as we speak.

I brought these issues up yesterday in the briefing that members of Congress had, asked questions regarding what the plan is for the future of the Iranian people, and was told directly that is not part of this mission.

And there are reports that the CIA is arming groups — separatist groups in Iraq and on the border of Iran — that could cause civil war and mass chaos and instability for years to come. There are also reports that the Trump administration is looking at making a deal with somebody else in the IRGC. So it is just so, so poorly planned — unplanned — and just a very, very dark time for this country and the world.
PabloReports: Do you agree with Senator Blumenthal that there’s a possibility we might get U.S. troops on the ground in Iraq by the time it’s over?

Ansari: We absolutely could. You have an administration that, again, changes the timeline. At first they said this would be a couple of days. Today, Pete Hegseth said that death and destruction are going to rain all day long from the sky. This could go on for eight weeks. And they have 50,000 troops in the Middle East right now with no approval by Congress. This is unconstitutional, and it’s illegal.
PabloReports: Do you have any more information about the girls’ school that was bombed over the weekend? What went on there?

Ansari: It’s reported that it was either U.S. or Israeli strikes and that more than 150 children were killed. It’s devastating. These are the casualties of war. Again, right now they’re saying over 1,000 civilians have already been lost. And this is coming after tens of thousands were already killed. So I just urge the administration to please think about the Iranian people in this. Think about their future. Think about the trauma and devastation they’ve already been through. And come up with a real strategic plan to transition to democracy and end the bombing as soon as possible.
In human affairs, reality is always about people. But people are just so damned inconvenient. Better to regard them as eggs that need to be broken; or the proper recipients of military might; or as insignificant and unimportant because they are not the leader we have assassinated; or not the more convenient people we want replacing them.

When elephants fight, the grass gets trampled. And the best way to fight a war, is to ignore the simple truth, that all flesh is grass. Easier to convince ourselves the grass doesn’t matter. After all, we are not grass; the grass doesn’t matter. Only power matters. Right?

Ideas don’t matter. Things don’t matter.  People matter.
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Turning The Tables

Talarico: I want to start off by thanking Congresswoman Crockett. She is a colleague and a friend. I am so grateful for her voice and her leadership. It was an honor to run this race with her.

To the congresswoman's supporters, I know I wasn't your first choice, but I hope to earn your trust and earn your support and your Democratic nominee. It's on me to ensure you feel welcomed in, represented by, and proud of this campaign
Toth is right. This is damgerous stuff.
Talarico: They want us focused on how we're different, instead of on how we're the same. Because our unity is a threat to their wealth and their power. So they so they divide us on an hourly basis, by party, by race, by gender, by religion. So we don't notice that they are picking our pockets, they are closing our schools, they're gutting our health care, they're raising taxes on all of us while they cut taxes for themselves.

The real fight in this country is not left versus right. It's top versus bottom. Those billionaires want us looking left and right at our neighbors instead of looking up at them.
Talarico: I am tired of being pitted against my neighbor. I'm tired of being told to hate my neighbor. It's been more than ten years of this kind of politics. Politics as bloodsport, politics as trolling and owning politics as total war. It tears families apart. It ends friendships, and it leaves us all feeling terrible all the time.

We cannot defeat the politics of division with more division. We can't win their game. We have to change the game. This campaign is rooted in a fierce love for this state, for this country, and most importantly, for all of our neighbors.
Radically dangerous stuff. When God starts moving, the Devil gets busy.
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Wednesday, March 04, 2026

Of Trump Administration Officials And MAGA

Ukraine. He means Ukraine, which has been dealing with drone attacks for, oh, about 4 years now. This administration couldn’t organize a two-car funeral procession.

But hey, Biden scared Clooney at a fundraiser, and eggs were expensive. Amirite?

Or, you could reasonably say:
Sen. Mark Kelly: "You could pick a random group of people off the street tonight here in Washington DC and they could probably do a better job than our government is doing right now. They don't have a goal, there's no strategic plan. And what this is likely to lead to is, again, a long war with a lot of dead Americans."
Coming all the way back home:
Just spoke with Steve Toth who defeated Dan Crenshaw in TX-02 Republican primary last night. He's served with Dem. Senate nominee James Talarico in the Texas House, and held NOTHING back:

"I served with James Talarico from 2019 to today. This guy is as evil as they come. There is a darkness to this man's life. If you doubt that there is a wickedness and evil and a demonic presence in the world, you only have to look at James Talarico. He's an awful, awful person."
I had a pastor friend who liked to say, when God starts moving, the Devil gets busy.” I know it’s terribly religious language in probably the worst way possible, but I’ve seen in my own life that this is the way evil reacts in the presence of good. It’s no less extreme an assertion than Toth’s. It’s perfectly clear Talarico scares the shit out of him because Talarico doesn’t fit his model for being human in the world. Because Talarico is as sociopathic as Trump? Or because Talarico is a genuinely good and reasonable person? I’ve seen that inflame people into language like this.

It’s going to make Talarico a very interesting political target/opponent. I mean MAGA is going to have a hard time opposing him. 

Which is what scares Toth to such hyperbole.

Or, you know, Toth is just a MAGAt looney. There’s always just that. I don’t know anything about Toth; maybe this is just the way he talks. But I do think a genuinely good person like Talarico, scares the crap out of a genuinely crazy person.

In the words of Harry Truman: “I didn’t give ‘em hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.” Like this: You can see how that would be upsetting to MAGA.
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In Bald Language…

In drafting this proposed rule, the Department considered that State bars have interests that are different from those protected by the Department. For instance, the Department is limited to reprimanding, suspending, or terminating the employment of a Department attorney who has engaged in misconduct, whereas the bar disciplinary authorities may suspend or revoke an attorney’s license to practice law. The proposed rule therefore does not prohibit the State bar disciplinary authorities from imposing additional sanctions if the Department determines that an attorney violated an ethics rule. But it does allow the Department, which has access to information unavailable to any State bar due to various statutory and constitutional privileges, to determine whether such a rule was violated in the first instance. It also deters bad actors from turning the State bar disciplinary process itself into a tool to punish department lawyers and impede an unpopular initiative.
In layman’s terms, the DOJ asserts the authority (the grounds for which are stated elsewhere in the order; and utterly specious) to determine whether a DOJ lawyer has actually committed an ethical violation (which is the ground for bar discipline or disbarment), and only then will it allow the relevant state bar to act on disciplinary actions for DOJ lawyers.

State bars provide objective tribunals (Texas requires a trial for disbarment actions). Because of alleged “weaponization” in the order, the DOJ reviews its own lawyers first.

Which is perfectly fair, right?*

Federal judges can be disbarred after they are impeached and removed from the bench, because they are no longer part of a coequal branch of the federal government. DOJ lawyers are not “coequal.” They are part of the administrative branch, but their positions are established by, and overseen by, Congress. They are employed subject to the condition of being duly licensed in the state where they practice, and in the federal courts (district, appellate, Supreme Court) where they appear. The latter also rests on the proper state license. That licensure is the authority and prerogative of the respective states and courts. The executive branch has absolutely nothing to do with it, and Congress has not indirectly (or even directly) given them that authority.

Mostly because Congress doesn’t have it, either. And Congress can’t delegate authority it doesn’t have.

*There’s another argument, that this “rule” would not allow for due process of law, which is why state bars have to establish third party tribunals for proceedings like disbarment. This rule short circuits due process by allowing DOJ to oversee and determine the conduct of its lawyers.
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Wait A Minute…

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we have almost always been at war with Eastasia. So you didn’t obliterate their capacity to make nuclear weapons? Bibi told him so. Or the voices in his head. Same difference, really. Wait, what? Nuke Israel? Or bomb them? Well, now I feel better. Meanwhile, Congress engages in a vigorous discussion of the sunk cost fallacy as a Constitutional doctrine:
Raskin: I heard one of our colleagues across the aisle just say, “Well, yes, Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 does give Congress the exclusive, plenary, comprehensive power to declare war and not the president. And we could be debating it, but the president has already taken us to war, so it’s too late. It would undermine the cause for us to debate it.”

What a humiliating, self-defeating argument for a member of the Article I branch of Congress to be making. Don’t you understand? That destroys our power to declare war if any president can plunge us into a war and thereby defeat our exclusive, plenary power over it—
"We don’ need no steeken’ evidence! The President’s word should be enough for any patriotic American! Even if that word is: “Elecshake-- uuhsayuhr electric.”!
JEFFRIES: President Trump claims that Iran poses an imminent threat to the United States through its development of intercontinental ballistic missiles that could perhaps someday reach our shores. If Iran is actually on the verge of having that capability, the president should provide the evidence. But no such evidence has been presented to this Congress or to the American people. We can only assume that it does not exist.

Donald Trump said that he wanted to achieve regime change. Donald Trump is an individual who promised Americans on the campaign trail that launching regime change wars in the Middle East has been one of the most foolish and costly things that the United States has ever done. Those are his words.

Candidate Trump said that if elected, he would never get our country into an endless regime war. President Trump has now done the exact opposite.
Besides, Trump doesn’t need Congress. He said so. There is absolutely no bottom. So, violating the war powers clause and the appropriations clause? Sure, why not? 

No bottom at all.
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The Silence WAS Deafening

That wasn’t going anywhere. It was ridiculous that it was even explored. Yeah, he can’t do that, either. Attorneys may work for the federal government, but they are licensed to practice law by states, just as doctors are (for one). Licensure is a “police power” explicitly reserved to the states (if I recall my ConLaw classes correctly). This is as pointless as an EO taking over federal elections. Except the power to license professions doesn’t even lie with Congress. Not even the Commerce Clause reaches it.
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Random Observations

Swalwell: As he was following the orders of the court and going to the proceedings. He was arrested and sent to Mexico over a judge's objection that he not be sent to Mexico.

Noem: Did he have a criminal record?

Swalwell: In 1995, he pled to a lesser nonviolent charge.

Noem: I wish people would do things correctly. If they are not a legal status in this country, they can return home. We will pay for them to return home. I hope he got to $2600 he could have gotten.

Swalwell: You think that makes up for not being with his family? The president also, by the way it is a convicted felon if you want to talk about criminal records.
How many more non-European nations does Trump plan to attack, then? Blunt contradiction is the only thing that makes any sense. 🤷🏻‍♂️  🤦‍♂️ So we’re going full Orwell? When does Johnson call Trump “Big Brother”?  We have always been at war with Eastasia. Very reassuring. Comer is so dumb, he has no idea how dumb he is. Neither does Hegseth.
Former CIA officer with ample experience in standing up and running paramilitary ops. I asked about press reports that CIA is now arming disparate Iranian Kurdish factions: "Probably the best case scenario is causing a big issue for regime. They're likely unable to actually take over the country."

The best case may also encompass a worst case for northern Iraq. Note CNN reporting that the Kurdistan Regional Government is terrified by this plan but won't defy Washington.

What if Iran concentrates its attacks on Erbil, where our closest Kurdish allies are and our hyperactive U.S. consulate is? All for a policy Erbil wants nothing to do with.
Someone is addressing the paradox.
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What Happens Next

Now that Trump and his admin betrayed their campaign promises of No More Foreign Wars/No More Regime Change and Republicans in the majority in the House and Senate are flat out refusing to pass key legislation, voter outrage was shown in yesterday’s Texas primary.

More Democrats showed up to vote than Republicans in yesterday’s Texas primary.

If that happens in November’s general election, Texas will be flipping it’s Senate seat blue.

By the way, a Democrat has not won statewide in TX since 1994.

Whatever Trump’s new twisted perversion of MAGA is, is going to LOSE in the midterms.

Clearly Levin, Lindsey Graham, Loomer, and Netanyahu highjacking MAGA and flipping it to MIGA is not working out so well.

People do not want to vote for this shit show and didn’t turn out in Texas.

Maybe they will wake up now and realize Armageddon is not what we voted for.

We voted for America FIRST and that means AMERICANS FIRST AND AMERICANS ONLY.
I remember an old MAD Magazine cartoon about the 1966 midterms. It was a parody of TV political coverage, so cameras went to the White House, where they found only a janitor, who explained nobody there was watching the election returns.

Times have changed, but the impact of who’s in the White House on midterms is mostly negative. Elections still turn, however, on the individuals on the ballot.

What MTG is speaking to, is that MAGA is broken. From her lips to God’s ears, says I.
For the first time in over two decades, Democratic early voting in Texas eclipsed Republicans (roughly 1.33 million to 1.1 million). While the GOP base was bogged down in a fractured Senate primary that just forced John Cornyn and Ken Paxton into a May runoff, Democratic voters mobilized at record 2026 midterm levels to push James Talarico to the nomination. When the opposition is highly energized and the incumbent base is actively disillusioned, the result is exactly the kind of flashing red light seen in this primary.

If the electorate feels its core directive a hyper-focus on domestic borders, the economy, and zero foreign regime change has been traded away to appease foreign allies and legacy neoconservatives, the Texas turnout will not be an anomaly. It will serve as the blueprint for November.
I do think that’s what’s coming.
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But This Is Not War

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Hoping I’m Right

Talarico ran a very good race. You don’t win without that.

But his appeal is the appeal of AOC; except Talarico casts it in the language of Christianity that Texans understand. Not all of them; not by a long shot. But when Katrina sent refugees from New Orleans to Houston, I went to the largest Southern Baptist church in town for orientation on how to be a volunteer to help the people then sheltering in the Astrodome; and the church members at the event were perfectly sincere in their desire to treat these strangers as the Christ, just as Jesus told them to do in Matthew’s gospel.

Talarico speaks that language, to them. The GOP thinks he’s dangerous because that message is so effective. He is a culture warrior who calmly and reasonably turns aside the fanatics in a way that makes you want to listen to him, rather than react against him. This is no small thing.

I’ve said before that I had no beef with Jasmine Crockett, but I thought her public persona was wearing out its welcome. I think the era of the “bomb thrower” that Gingrich inaugurated, is finally done. Crockett is brash and outspoken and a fighter; but if you’re not with her, you’re against her. That’s not her stance, but statewide in Texas, that would be her effect. She carried East Texas, and most of the urban areas. That’s where her support is, and she’s asked that support, to support Talarico. But his support reached across the state, and deep into rural areas that usually determine elections in Texas. The majority of the population is in DFW, Austin-San Antonio, and Houston. But the rural voters turn out in larger proportion, almost every time. The cities are Democratic, but not enough of them vote to counter the less populous areas. If Talarico carries even some of those areas, and the cities, he wins. He might even prevail over Cornyn, who will have to shed the MAGA crazy talk he had to use to not lose to Paxton. But that could cost him against Talarico, who is a breath of fresh air and talks like he cares about people, while Cornyn loses MAGA who are already splitting over Trump’s war. Talarico also cares about their faith. He cares about it, without making it a litmus test. He doesn’t judge in the name of Jesus. He respects, in the name of Jesus.

And I just suspect the Texas electorate will respond more to respect and care, than they will to standing with Donald Trump, right or wrong. That’s all Paxton has ever been about, and that ship has sailed. And Cornyn against Talarico? Cornyn is an old man, and Talarico is a fresh face. And like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, he’s a politician who doesn’t sound like a politician.

He sounds like he means it.
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Proud Bullies?

Hegseth: "Death and destruction from the sky all day long. We're playing for keeps. Our warfighters have maximum authorities granted personally by the president and yours truly. Our rules of engagement are bold, precise, and designed to unleash American power, not shackle it ... we are punching them while they are down"
"Death and destruction from the sky all day long” is neither bold nor precise. It is indiscriminate and savage. The rain falls in the just and the unjust alike. 

.”Punching them while they are down”? Who is “they” in that sentence? Do the explosives discriminate between civilian and government official? And have we now abandoned the obligations of the Geneva Conventions?

This is the babbling of children.
Hegseth: "This is what the fake news misses. We've taken control of Iran's airspace and waterways without boots on the ground. But when a few drones get through or tragic things happen, it's front page news. I get it -- the press only wants to make the president look bad, but try for once to report the reality"
Six dead soldiers = discarded egg shells. This is sociopathic.
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Tuesday, March 03, 2026

🤔

Talarico has been leading Crockett by 51% to 48% all night. At time of this post, with 66% of the results in, Talarico has 51.6% to Crockett’s 47.1%.  Dallas County has 60% of the vote counted, with Crockett leading by 60.8%. So I hope she won’t make much of this, even while blaming (rightly) the GOP. (I stand corrected. The Texas Supreme Court overruled the lower court, a ruling I can’t fathom right now. Crockett is not out of line at all, IOW. I agree with her, in fact.)

She is, as expected, carrying the black and brown vote, based solely on her margins in urban centers. But Talarico has broader support across the state.

Paxton and Cornyn are headed for a runoff. Democrats think Paxton is beatable, and I still think Talarico is the guy who can beat him. We won’t know who will be the GOP senatorial candidate until after March 27.

Interesting times, indeed.
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The Election Problems They Warned Us About

 Why hand counting of ballots is a bad idea:

Dallas County Judge Staci Williams has signed an order to keep polls open in Dallas until 9 p.m. today — two hours longer than the 7 p.m. closing time.
' That’s after hundreds of Dallas County voters arrived at polling locations where they thought they could vote on primary election day, March 3.

County election department “navigators” informed between 50 and 100 percent of hopeful voters that they could not cast ballots because they were at the wrong location.

U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett earlier Tuesday released statement suggesting polling hours stay open as a solution to mass voter confusion in Dallas and Williamson counties, where Republicans chose to hold separate, precinct-based primary voting.

The county was in charge of managing and operating early voting countywide locations, which allowed Democrats and Republicans to vote at any location throughout the county.

The Dallas County Republican Party chose to hold separate primary elections after it abandoned its effort to hand-count all primary election day ballots.
I should explain for those of you who are not from Texas (but Texas wants you anyway!). Voting locations in primaries are customarily available to both parties. You show up, you are asked which ballot you want, and you vote, probably next to someone voting in the other party primary.

(Long ago and far away, when I was a callow lawyer in Austin and before early voting existed (that makes a difference, but don’t worry, I won’t get into those weeds), the Lovely Wife and I went to vote in the Democratic primary, after work. So I was in full lawyer regalia (suit and tie; I haven’t regularly dressed like that in 30 years). A lawyer I knew (he didn’t know me) was handing out campaign material . He stepped forward, looked at me, and withdrew his offered paper, muttering “Republican.” I was so insulted I snatched it from his hand and stepped purposefully to the side where the Democratic primary vote was received. Nowadays the ballot is stored in a computer, so it’s just a matter of getting the sign in code for the party you choose).

Primaries are a party affair, so if a county party wants to hand count ballots, they have to produce hand marked ballots at a separate location. My guess is the county GOP changed its mind too late for the volunteers to all get the message.

Now imagine the mess if Trump got his way and insisted on hand counted ballots. (I’m watching primary results come in from
254 counties tonight. I can’t imagine how many days it would take, in the second most populous state, if all ballots were counted by hand. I’ve been voting for over 50 years, and never cast a hand ballot. And that includes a long period before computers were used.)


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Silencing The Silent Majority

The silent majority is not being polled.  Or something.
NEW and BREAKING:

In a major reversal, the Trump admin is NOW trying to walk back its decision to walk away from defending the law firm executive orders in court.

DOJ just notified the four fighting law firms that it now intends to continue defending the legality of the orders in court.

A day ago, DOJ had a very different position.
Trump actually won that one, too. Or something.

Turns out there was a government brief due to the court of appeals, and the DOJ moved to dismiss the appeal rather than file a brief. This was yesterday, the deadline for filing. Now DOJ is asking to withdraw its motion for voluntary dismissal, so it can get an extension to file the brief that was due yesterday.

The DOJ has become a ship of fools.
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They Got Nothin’….

How (not) to deal with a strong woman: 😹 That’s so sad it’s funny. The constitution plays into the hands of our enemies? Trump was referring to the 6 dead Americans. Congratulations! No more than 27% of America (at best!) agrees with you! Have they all decided that self-contradiction makes them sound like they know what they’re talking about? Or are they just doggedly following the lead of Dear Leader. So reassuring. That 27% is going to track lower very shortly.
Perino: I don't blame her for getting mad. The Clintons asked for a public hearing and they were denied a public hearing because they wanted to do it behind closed doors because they were gonna get all of this great information. You can look at the tape, is there great information that came out?

For the Republicans, I would say there are a lot of problems in this country, pick your battles. This isn't one of them.
When will they ever learn?
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Winning Friends…

They’re going to take over the government any time now…. Bill Clinton told us the US economy is always better under Democrats. The GOP is the party of oligarchs. See? Or did he? Rubio: "I am not the droid you are looking for.” <runs away>
Rubio: Listen, let me explain to you guys this in simple English, okay? Iran is run by lunatics religious fanatic lunatics. They have an ambition to have nuclear weapons. They intend to develop those nuclear weapons behind a program of missiles and drones and terrorism. That the world will not be able to touch them for fear of those things. And this is the weakest they've ever been. Now is the time to go after them. The president made the decision to go after them, take away their missiles, take away their Navy, take away their drones, take away their ability to make those things so that they can never have a nuclear weapon. That's why the president made this decision. It was the right decision. And the world will be a safer place when these radical clerics no longer have access to these weapons. You see how they're using them. Now imagine how they would use them a year from now if they had more of these
Choose your adventure. (Running away would have worked better. BTW, Iran is attacking American military bases in the region, because America is attacking them. We invaded Afghanistan because Al Qaeda attacked us on 9/11, and was operating out of Afghanistan. That’s kinda the way it works. As Auden wrote: “I and the schoolchildren know/what everyone must learn/Those to whom violence is done/do violence in return.” And this time, we shot first.) Rubio should have gone with the “It’s not ‘war,’ war” defense. "No one likes us,/I don’t know why./We may not be perfect,/but heaven knows, we try./All around, even/our old friends put us down./Let’s drop the Big One, and see what happens.”—Randy Newman, “Political Science.”

Things have changed so much since 1972.
Would they need an ID to buy that gas?⛽️ 
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More Eggs For The Omelette

Do Trump’s words actually mean anything? The man with a plan. All of our friends in Iran are dead? And what makes him think he gets to choose? No. Clue. At. All. "I told Scott to cut off all dealings with Spain." We have treaties with Spain; and trade agreements. And agreements on the use and placement of military bases. None of which he can abrogate or set aside with a word. And if he uses the bases against Spanish agreements, it jeopardizes every base we have in the EU. At least. How to win friends and influence people. And the Supreme Court did what? The man is denser than depleted uranium. Britain isn’t dealing with FDR, either. Trump has absolutely no idea how government works.
Reporter: Thousands of Americans are stranded. Why wasn't there an evacuation plan?

Trump: Well, because it happened all very quickly, we thought, and I thought maybe more so than most. I could ask Marco, but I thought we were going to have a situation where we were going to be attacked. They were getting ready to attack Israel. They were getting ready to attack
How many weeks did it take to get weapons in the region for this attack? And how many ambassadors do we have in the region, outside of Israel and Saudi Arabia? I understand the answer is “none.” We also deeply cut embassy staff, the very people who could help Americans in these circumstances. And that’s not all he said.

You’ll also notice he said nothing about curing this problem. More eggs for the omelette, I guess.
Trump: We have massive amounts of ammunition. We have the high end. A lot of it was given away stupidly by Biden, very stupidly for free. We have unlimited middle and upper ammunition, which is really what we're using in this war. And we have a really an unlimited supply.

We also have a lot of the very high end stored in different countries throughout the world, where we're literally storing it there, which is actually something that I insisted on in my first term
"Unlimited” is a word a child would use. There are bubbles, and there is the impenetrable shield of malignant narcissism. Huh? So we’re back to this problem. Primal forces, Mr. Beale. That’s not going to end well for Trump. If his words mean anything. Stephen Miller is marking them for deportation. I’m guessing, Switzerland.🇨🇭 
Trump: This is not the age of Churchill. I will say the UK has been very, very uncooperative with that stupid island that they have that they gave away and took 100 year lease having to do with perhaps indigenous people claiming the island that never even saw the island before. What's that all about?
Manifest destiny is the white man’s burden. Not what he thinks it means:
Sharia councils – also known as Sharia courts – have existed in the UK since the early 1980s. The Islamic Sharia Council (ISC) based in Leyton, East London, was established in 1982.

Its website states that it was formed to “solve the matrimonial problems of Muslims living in the United Kingdom in the light of Islamic family law”, for example marriages, divorce and inheritance issues. The ISC is a Registered Charity and not a formal court of law, and therefore only deals with the Islamic Nikah marriage ceremony rather than civil marriage contracts.

The ISC lists its broader Objectives as to be of assistance to Muslims in the UK by:

• fostering and encouraging the practice of the Muslim faith according to the Quran and the Sunnah;
• providing Advice and assistance in the operation of Muslim family life;
• establishing a bench of scholars to operate as the Islamic Sharia Council and to make decisions on matters of Muslim family law referred to it;
• promoting an enlightened practice of the Islamic faith by Muslims living in the UK;
• to educate the public generally regarding Islam and to dispel negative stereotypes.

Sharia councils have no official legal or constitutional role in the UK. Their work consists primarily of adjudicating on religious divorces, usually at the request of women. They may also give verdicts on other aspects of day-to- day life, for example on Sharia-compliant finance or on halal food.
IOW, they are established under British law. His favorite epithet. The POTUS has the vocabulary of a grade schooler.
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