Friday, March 06, 2026

Trump Wants To Fight A TeeVee War

President Donald Trump has privately expressed serious interest in deploying U.S. troops on the ground inside of Iran, according to two U.S. officials, a former U.S. official and another person with knowledge of the conversations.

Trump has discussed the idea of deploying ground troops with aides and Republican officials outside the White House while outlining his vision for a post-war Iran in which Iran’s uranium is secure and the U.S. and a new Iranian regime cooperate on oil production similar to how the U.S. and Venezuela are, the sources said.
I watch a lot of action movies/TV series on Netflix. I like the background noise, and I don’t have to pay attention. It’s alcohol without the hangover and, besides, I prefer coffee.

I know exactly what he’s thinking. He’s thinking our guys will kill ten bad guys apiece every time there’s an encounter, and the bad guys can’t hit the broad side of a barn. And it only takes a few good men to overthrow a government and carry the day.

That, and everything he knows, he learned from Venezuela.

This is such a clusterfuck.
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I’m Sorry I Missed This

"Yeah, Doocy! The topic is college football!🏈 This is serious!”

In case you missed that topic:
When the FUCK! does it matter?
Trump on why he wants to talk about college sports instead of his war in Iran: "We're talking about colleges that are gonna go out of business. Many, many colleges. This isn't just about student athletes. This is about our whole educational system is gonna go out of business because of this. So I understand what you're saying in terms of the level of importance, but to me this is very important."
MUCH more important than soldiers dying in war! (And colleges make money on football, because of TeeVee contracts and alumni with more money than goddamned sense. And the majority of the colleges with serious football programs are public, not private. And frankly, would be better off without major football programs. But the genie left that bottle a long time ago.) No wonder he got pissed at Doocy. Well, the Iran war is running itself, and this college football thing can be fixed with an EO (that’ll show them pesky courts!), so: next?
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Finger On The Pulse

Or not. Now are they? Or are we waiting until oil hits $100 bbl again?
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Being A 🏈 Hero

Yup; that’s what he’s doing. Fucking Constitution. Fucking rule of law.

College football is part of the executive branch, right?

The Speaker of the House is there. The Governor of Florida is there. The Secretary of State is there.

I guess Hegseth was in the gym. I can’t imagine what else they’d all have to do.

Or is Trump just counter programming the Jesse Jackson memorial?
Probably why Johnson is there. There is no spoon war.
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Building That Off-Ramp

Leavitt on what Trump means by demanding Iran's unconditional surrender: "When he as commander in chief determines that Iran no longer poses a threat to the US and the goals of Operation Epic Fury have been fully realized, then Iran will essentially be in a place of unconditional surrender whether they say it themselves or not"
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On Whose Side?

Yeah, about "providing what they need”: Funny that never includes providing the leadership the military needs. That’s a Congressional responsibility, too. You know, like “advise and consent” on Cabinet Secretaries, such as SecDef.
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Beginning To Make Sense

 Beginning to see a pattern here:

"You're fighting for light," Johnson said while introducing Moore. "Christians throughout the world, quite frankly, under persecution. Christians always are the ones who get persecuted, beheaded, slaughtered."

"They're always the ones who get trod under and nobody ever talks about them and it's evil," he continued. "You're a man of faith yourself that is actually talking about it."

For his part, Moore claimed that protesters had demonstrated outside of his church in West Virginia, but did not allege they broke the law.

"I had people protesting me outside of my church. My family and I going on," he explained. "They showed up from wherever the hell they're from. And, you know, me and my family were just trying to go to Mass. And here they are. You know, I mean, no, no space is sacred to them."
Sounds like they respected the worship space, and even all the interior space of the building. How do you feel about churches as “sanctuary” from ICE agents?
"Now we just got to make sure that James Talarico doesn't get into the Senate," Johnson said before ending the interview. "I mean, that guy saying that Jesus loves abortion and loves transing of the kids and that God is non-binary. I feel dirty, Congressman, just repeating his blasphemes and heresy on my show. I'm telling you what he says. It is antithetical to the Bible. It's actually anti-Christian. It's actually Antichrist's ideology."

"I think he is demonic," Moore remarked. "And I think we need to keep an eye on that and watchful eye because there are other forces of work in my view."

Johnson replied: "It's a defiling of God's order. It's a defiling of God's nature. Yeah. And it's pretty simple. It's nice. Even a even a, even a community college graduate like me can get it, Congressman."
Yes, “Xtian” is being very narrowly defined, there. Julian of Norwich described God as both Father and Mother. And I would remind you that when some of his followers went to Jesus to complain that non-members o the group were casting out demons in Jesus’ name, he told them that whoever was not against them, was with them. Which is a much more inclusive reversal of the more common, “whoever is not with us, is against us.”

I think Talarico is following the example of Jesus, who also accepted everybody in 1st century Palestine, which got him in trouble with people who said he was violating “God’s order.” As Jesus also said: “Don’t judge, and you won’t be judged.” That’s a hard one for all of us.

But these reactions to Talarico remind me of Lucy in a Peanuts strip. Mickle in her wroth, she appears chasing her brother Linus, who finally turns and reasons with her about how brothers and sisters should work out their differences. Before he can finish, she slugs him, and explains to another character as she walks away: “I had to hit him quick. He was beginning to make sense.”

That’s what these opponents of Talarico fear the most. That he’s beginning to make sense. They can’t stand that.
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No, He Really Meant It

And he has a firm grasp on reality: "In  4, maybe 5, months. Or two weeks. We’ll see.”
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MIGAs? Now I’m Hungry….

Trump: "There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER! After that, and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s), we, and many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners, will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction, making it economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before. IRAN WILL HAVE A GREAT FUTURE. 'MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN (MIGA!).' Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP"
Like he’s done for America? "Unconditional surrender” of the Axis Powers took 4 years of war by America and its allies, cost unbelievable amounts of blood and treasure, and only occurred by obliterating their power to wage war. It was not just a bombing campaign. And we tried to rebuild Iraq after Hussein. How’d that work out? Focused like a laser beam. Looney as a clockwork orange.
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The Toddler In Chief At War

No plan for refugees at all. The U.S. policy is, that’s somebody else’s problem.
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Dire Straits

What to do, O what to do? Because, of course.
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Thursday, March 05, 2026

Follow The 💸

ETTD. Everything.
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Breaking Eggs

“I’m an old narcissist with intimations of mortality dancing in my head. In the first place, I don’t care if you live or die. In the second place, sucks to be you, and not me. Losers.”
“You were expecting eggs 🥚 in your beer?🍻”

Anybody else think he’s giving up on this whole POTUS thing? I mean, it’s not like he’s going to jail, or anything. He won’t even lose the money he scammed from his crypto fraudulencey. Not to mention he’s still fundraising for no reason except it’s another way to make money.
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Isn’t The Job Of The President To…

To recap - Trump just fired Noem because she revealed he let her do some corruption too... replaced her with the most dimwitted obedient senator he could find... and didn't even tell her, letting her do an event here in Nashville where she was the only one who didn't know she had been canned.

leadership!
... administrate?

Or just know things?
Yeah, well....
According to AAA, the average price for regular unleaded fuel in Houston since has risen from $2.48 to $2.78 per gallon. Over the past month, Houston prices are up $0.35 per gallon. Diesel prices have also risen over the past week, climbing from $3.17 to $3.62, according to AAA. In the past day alone, AAA said diesel has risen $0.15 per gallon.

...

Prices in Houston are still lower than the state and national averages, which as of Thursday were at $2.87 and $3.25 per gallon, respectively, for regular unleaded, according to AAA.


...

In the past five days, crude oil prices have risen nearly $9 per barrel, from $72.50 per barrel to more than $81 per barrel on Thursday. That's the highest price since July 2024, according to Yahoo Finance.
So, it ain’t necessarily so. As with all things Trump, wishing does not make it real.

And “political risk insurance”? He has no idea. At. All.

Isn’t it his job to have the knowledge provided by someone? And the ability to understand it?
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Toddler With A Shotgun

Why does he think killing the Ayatollah of Iran is the equivalent of the Allied forces defeating Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan? The fighting ability of those countries was obliterated. They had no territory left, and their governments unconditionally surrendered.

Iran still has a government and a military force, and is still fighting.

WHY IS THIS MAN SO FUCKING STUPID?!?!???
Bold talk from a deranged fat man. Does he intend to kill every man, woman, and child in Iran? He’s just heard the phrase, he has no idea what it means. So we are going to force them into unconditional surrender? Have you told anyone yet?
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It Occurs To Me That This…

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."
…following this, is not an accident. It is wildly out of character for Kennedy (who was hardly raised with any exposure to “sacred rituals,” either religious or secular). I think it was directed by the White House, who are taking Talarico seriously (as a threat) since Tuesday. Of course, “I can connect/Nothing with nothing,” but I sincerely believe Talarico is scaring all the right people.

Although, just as Obama didn’t dispel American racism (only fools expected him to), neither will Talarico drive the money changers who are the descendants of Jerry Falwell from the political temple. But it will be nice that have him present another idea of Christian service on the public stage, even if I come (as is likely) to disagree with it.

You gotta remember, Jimmy Carter didn’t really change the world by his example, and either. But it’s the example that matters.
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Coincidence?

I think not.
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At Least She Got To Keep Corey

And a lovely parting gift:
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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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