Happy Hour

Get happy.

The Lies We Tell

I don't think any of the Trumpers - Pete included - are people you would expect to have much concern for the truth, but having to (you can always resign, of course) go out there every day and lie for the boss will quickly erode any resistance they might have had.  And, like Trump, they soon feel no need to distinguish between lies and truth.

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met privately Wednesday with the families of six service members who died in the Iran war and, in a press briefing the next morning, said the message he got was consistent and supportive.

“What I heard through tears, through hugs, through strength and through unbreakable resolve was the same from family after family. They said, ‘Finish this. Honor their sacrifice. Do not waver. Do not stop until the job is done,’” Hegseth said.

One of the people he met at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware was Charles Simmons. His 28-year-old son, Tech. Sgt. Tyler H. Simmons, was among the six crew members killed when their refueling plane crashed in Iraq last week.

Simmons recalled his exchange differently.

“I can’t speak for the other families. When he spoke to me, that was not something we talked about,” he told NBC News in an interview Thursday.

Sure Why Not

I would expect nothing less.

Resurfaced comments made by Gregg Phillips, the head of FEMA's Office of Response and Recovery, have sparked concern about the new leader's competency and mental state.

Phillips, a conservative activist who spread voter fraud conspiracies, was appointed to lead the federal government's storm disaster response under the Department of Homeland Security in December. Previously, he oddly claimed that he involuntarily teleported to a Waffle House in Georgia that was 50 miles away.

“Teleporting is no fun,” Phillips said on one podcast last year. “It was real.”

My addition to "everybody is 12" theory is "everybody is 12 and blasted out of their minds on various things." 

The Crisis In High Education

Many issues. One is overpaid adminstrators spending money on anything that isn't good.

The University of Minnesota’s new tagline — “Leave a Future” — is leaving people scratching their heads.

...

Officials from the U were unavailable to comment for this story. The U’s foundation, which paid for the majority of $15 million contract with marketing firm Rise and Shine and Partners to help the U with branding over five years, also did not respond to a request for comment. Rise and Shine and Partners said it could not comment on active work.

Somebody explained this well to me. For a top admin, the "initiative" is like "the book" for humanities professors, in that it's your ticket to the next promotion/job.

"Led a $15 million initiative to rebrand the university for the 21st century."

Except nobody really cares what the initiative is, or if it did anything useful, because the admin is off (hopefully) to the next more lucrative job. You just have to make it sound expensive and fancy.

Which Is It

Now:

Regional strikes: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country will heed Trump’s call not to repeat attacks on key Iranian energy sites like the South Pars field. Netanyahu said Israel acted alone in striking a facility linked to the gas field. 

Then:

WASHINGTON — Israel coordinated its Wednesday strikes on Iran’s South Pars natural gas field with the US, a US official and a second source familiar with the matter tell The Times of Israel.

The source familiar with the matter says the US was aware of the attack, but did not take part in it.

 

Also:

An Israeli strike on Iran’s South Pars gas field was coordinated with the Trump administration in advance, according to three Israeli officials, despite President Trump’s initial assertion in a social media post that the United States “knew nothing about” it.

"The United States knew nothing about this particular attack,” Mr. Trump wrote in the social media post late Wednesday, saying that Israel had “violently lashed out.”

A day later, Mr. Trump appeared to have changed course.

Speaking to reporters Thursday at the White House, Mr. Trump implied that he had spoken about the strike ahead of time with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.

“I told him don’t do that,” Mr. Trump said. He went on to say, “we’re independent. We get along great. It’s coordinated.”

I'm sure the real story is Israel said they were gonna do it, people in the Trump administration (whether or not Trump himself) said fine, go for it, and then suddenly they realized it was a bad idea.

Pope Bob

If Pope Bob was a Trump-loving conservative Catholic, the way prominent religious figures are supposed to be, according to our political journalists, his every pronouncement would have front page emphasis.  Every Catholic Democrat would be asked daily about why they don't love Trump as much as Pope Bob says they should love Trump.

I'm sure many of you remember how when Kerry ran for president, there was a daily "is Kerry a bad Catholic because of abortion" segment on NPR (exaggeration, but...).  Dem Catholics were long treated as illegitimate, probably-not-deserving-of-communion fakes who might combust if they walked into a church.

He's an American Pope! One would've thought THE AMERICAN POPE would receive nonstop coverage.  And yet...

Sates have a moral obligation to develop universal health care systems, Pope Leo XIV said, stating that "health cannot be a luxury for the few."

"On the contrary, it is an essential condition for social peace," he said March 18 at a conference on health care inequality in Europe organized by the European bishops' council, Italian bishops' conference and the World Health Organization.

Curious how Archbishop Russert would've handled all of this.

Morning

 Fatuous Friday.

Thursday Evening

Get your evening on.

Pope Bob And Cardinal Pizzaballa

At least the Catholic Church is evolving into a better version of itself.*

“The abuse and manipulation of God’s name to justify this and any other war is the gravest sin we can commit at this time” said Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa at a webinar on the conflict ravaging the Middle East.

“War”, he continued, “is first and foremost political and has very material interests, like most wars. We must do everything we can to leave no room for this pseudo-religious language, which speaks not of God, but of ourselves”.

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem was commenting on the words of the U.S. Secretary of War who, during a briefing, quoted Psalm 144 to invoke a divine blessing on the ongoing U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran.

*I'm not religious or Catholic, so many things are not my business, but the Church is also a political actor, so it's bit like me praising the government of Spain despite not being Spanish.

Despair

One difficulty I face every day is that there are very few "professional Democrats" (broadly defined, I don't just mean electeds) I have any respect for after the past few years. There are too many people who failed to meet the moment - many simply because they are cowards worried about their career status, some because they are just shitty people more broadly - and therefore very few whose leadership I have any faith in going forward.

I find it very difficult to be in active coalition with people who would push "me" under a bus for a fancier title, with people who consider their personal success and even feelings to be much more important than the causes they espouse.

Oh, but Atrios, don't you suck, too? Sure, but I am a bit less important than most of these people.

Seems Bad

What's the statute of limitations on that, Corey? Are you still under the presumptive pardon umbrella?

Some DHS contractors told White House officials they were asked to pay Corey Lewandowski

Some companies complained to the Trump administration that Lewandowski has stood to personally profit from the DHS contracting process. Lewandowski denies the allegations.

Our Allies

 (Google translated)

When Danish soldiers were flown to Greenland in January of this year, they brought explosives with them so that they could destroy, among other things, the runways in Nuuk and Kangerlussuaq.

This would prevent US military aircraft from landing soldiers on the island if President Donald Trump ultimately chose to take Greenland by force.

Sure Why Not

WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. may soon remove sanctions from Iranian oil that is stranded on tankers to help lift global supplies and reduce prices, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday.

— Tala Ramadan (@TalaRamadan) March 19, 2026

Who Can Say

But How Will We Pay For That

Weird how that question is important when it is "spend $2 billion to build a light rail" and not this...

The Pentagon has asked the White House to approve a more than $200 billion request to Congress to fund the war in Iran, according to a senior administration official, in an enormous new ask that is almost certain to run into resistance from lawmakers opposed to the conflict.

I know this is cliché snark at this point, but "we have infinite money for the military-cop-industrial-complex and no money for anything else" should never be left unchallenged, especially if it comes from "objective" journalists who will rediscover the deficit just in time to criticize any Democratic campaign proposals.

It is unclear who "the Pentagon" is here, whether Whiskey Pete specifically or others.

Related:

Hegseth: "Iran should be an energy-rich country. Instead, like so many other places driven by a radical ideology, they've spend that money, instead of investing in their people. That's why you had millions of Iranians protesting."

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 19, 2026 at 12:32 PM

Wednesday Evening

enjoy

Sure Why Not

Um, what? Mullin is claiming that as a congressman, he was selected for some sort of mission that required training that was "hell," and was then sent somewhere where he "smelled war." But it's all classified. And only four people know about it. And he can't share any more details.

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— Radley Balko (@radleybalko.bsky.social) March 18, 2026 at 5:22 PM

They dressed him up and ran him through some sort of military "haunted house" with some firecrackers going off. Why? Who knows.

It. Was. A. Tie.

While I think that declaring victory and going home is a better strategy than anything Trump is likely to do, I also worry it won't be that simple.

BURGER KING PIVOTS AWAY FROM BURGERS

Same vibe.

Making Messes That Other People Are Supposed To Fix

Donald doesn't just do this because he's a bungler. He enjoys the whole dynamic! The mess puts him at the center of attention, other people helping him prove how important he is, and ultimately he is the hero of the story (in his mind), fixing the problem that he created.