Monday, March 09, 2026
Endgame
Oh No Is Biden Trump Very Disappointed In Israel
Israel's strikes on 30 Iranian fuel depots Saturday went far beyond what the U.S. expected when Israel notified it in advance, sparking the first significant disagreement between the allies since the war began eight days ago, according to a U.S. official, Israeli official and a source with knowledge.It's mildly notable, if not very important, that they think that message should be out there.
The only way it might be slightly true is that Mr. Deals and the gang do have a problem with basic cause and effect, because they are idiots who understand nothing. I am sure it never occurred to them hat blowing up a bunch of oil assets might cause a toxic hell rain. Or lead to an oil price spike.
Not that I think they care about the toxic hell rain and its consequences, precisely, but the optics aren't great!
Line Go Down
Sunday, March 08, 2026
Don't Invite The Vampire In
Pressure
And Now
SIDNER: Will you vote to authorize this war?REED: I will vote to invoke the War Powers Act, which would give the president 30 days to terminate the operation, except for activities defending the state of Israel, which is critical to our reliance and alliance on Israel.
Saturday, March 07, 2026
How Are Things In Venezuela
My broader point is that all of the "humanitarian interventionists," who always have a little list of "bad guys" who need to go, but not these other bad guys for some reason (they fund the think tank, usually), push for these things to happen. Then, when they do, they just stop caring.
Sure Why Not
Life In The Cuck Chair
WASHINGTON — Bryon Noem‘s family members are hoping he finally leaves his wife, embattled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, after the ultimate “humiliation” from her alleged affair with a top adviser — but fear he’ll continue to stay in his marriage due to his Christian faith and commitment to his vows.
Members of the extended family of Bryon Noem told The Post on Friday that the South Dakota businessman has long felt it was his religious duty to stand behind his wife — even as the very public scandal rocks their marriage.
Insurance
I don't doubt that some shipping Cos might be thrilled to take that "risk" for a guaranteed payoff for themselves, but that doesn't mean they'll find many takers.
For commercial seafarers like Salgado, there’s little President Donald Trump could say right now that would convince them to sail through the Strait of Hormuz. Trump has promised to provide government-backed insurance policies and naval escorts to keep ships moving. But threats from Iran to attack any ships in the region outweigh the promises of support.
“As long as they keep firing rockets or drones to merchant vessels, this unsafe feeling will remain there,” he told CNN from a tanker in the Persian Gulf.
Friday, March 06, 2026
Sure Why Not
he Trump administration on Friday announced a $20 billion reinsurance program for oil tankers and other maritime traffic in an effort to get vessels moving through the Strait of Hormuz.
Seems Bad
Especially with Hegseth's view that logistics planning is for pussies.
Not just for that reason, of course.SCOOP: The Army in recent days canceled a training exercise for the headquarters element of the 82nd Airborne Division, fueling speculation among soldiers that they may be called upon for a still undefined mission as the war with Iran widens.
— Dan Lamothe (@DanLamothe) March 6, 2026
The Art Of War
Donald Trump’s decision not to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve drained by his predecessor Joe Biden has left consumers exposed to an oil price shock following US and Israeli attacks on Iran, analysts have warned.
...
The reserve currently contains 415mn barrels of oil, or about 20 days of total US consumption — well below its 714mn-barrel capacity. Drawing down too much of the oil too quickly could damage the salt caverns holding it, say experts. It would cost more than $20bn to refill, according to the US Department of Energy.
Reassuring
At least there is a lot of clarity about why this is necessary.
Asked whether Americans should be worried about retaliatory attacks at home, Trump acknowledges the possibility. “I guess,” he says. “But I think they’re worried about that all the time. We think about it all the time. We plan for it. But yeah, you know, we expect some things. Like I said, some people will die. When you go to war, some people will die."
Later, Assholes
Never posted about this positive news from Tuesday.
North Carolina Democrats who’ve crossed the aisle to vote with Republicans since Donald Trump returned to office were handed resounding defeats last night in the state’s early, benchmark primary, the Charlotte Observer reports.
At least four Democrats who supported measures to ban trans student-athletes from play, support ICE, and declare a gender binary in line with the president’s demonization of the LGBTQ+ community went down to defeat, some by extraordinary margins for incumbent lawmakers.
These are state, not national, Dems, but I do think the incredibly disheartening thing about 2025 versus 2017 was that "siding with Donald Trump is bad, probably" was the CW in 2017, while "the American people are demanding that we be more like Donald Trump and try to work with him" was the initial consensus in 2025.
Sure he won the popular vote this time but, my brothers in Christ, could you not understand that he was historically unpopular when he started office? And that likelihood of Donald Trump becoming more popular was not very high?
(Gallup approval ratings)
Says It All
The interview captures that Congressman Greg Landsman (D-OH) is too stupid to tie his shoes, but he is just expressing badly the basic reasoning of decades of justifications for every stupid Middle-East-and-adjacent (Libya) military adventure.
And the subheading is nicely done.
The other part (in the interview) is a repeat of the basic Sensible pundit view from the Bush era which was, "Do I trust George Bush not to fuck this up? Certainly. not. But we should do it anyway, you traitorous hippie." Applied to Trump now, of course.
I don't think the too much Dem support (any support is too much, you can argue about how much there is, actual and obscured) for this has much to do with electoral considerations. But, as was the case in the Iraq era, the independents and Republicans who might vote for Democrats are the ones who are against this shit.
And, unlike then, this shit is already not popular.
Sure Why Not
This is what you do on the school bus when you are 9.
“We were in the clothes we’d been wearing for like 24 hours,” Kappy says. “We get on this bus, and it’s a couple-hour bus ride and people were kind of leaning on their spouse’s shoulder and falling asleep. And this idiot starts walking up and down the bus with his camera and anyone who fell asleep, he would put his finger in their nose and take a picture.”
“I said [to myself, ‘If] that idiot comes near me when I fall asleep, I’m going to punch him,’” Kappy told us. “And I said to Dave: ‘This is a U.S. congressman?’”
That congressman? Markwayne Mullin.
An annoying 9.
Thursday, March 05, 2026
Director Of Homeland Security
Markwayne flashback.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) said he does not wear a seatbelt while driving in Washington, D.C., lest doing so prevent him from acting quickly in case he’s carjacked.
Why are these tough guys always so scared, and what does he imagine "acting quickly" would involve (brave Sir Mullin, I expect).
Does She Get Her Old Face Back
The replacements are almost always worse, but at least we can laugh for 5 minutes.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, already frustrated with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, was incensed by her performance this week during congressional hearings and is considering firing her, lawmakers and people familiar with the discussions tell NBC News.
Never blame The Boss.
...already!Sen. John Kennedy tells us President Trump called him after DHS Sec Noem testified that the President signed off on her $200 million ad campaign in her contentious hearing. “Put it this way, his recollection and her recollection are different.”
— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles.bsky.social) March 5, 2026 at 3:38 PM
A Perfect Job For Kid Rock
I actually appreciate the directness. "We" usually obscure this stuff.
President Trump told Axios in an interview Thursday that he needs to be personally involved in selecting Iran's next leader — just as he was in Venezuela.
Not Just Being Snarky
You cannot get the Dems to actually oppose a war in a way that matters. And they truly believe that "the war is bad, but we gotta support droney I mean the troops" is very clever stuff.
The Schumer Special
Wednesday, March 04, 2026
There Is No Place For Fringe Extremists In The Democratic Party
Tuesday, March 03, 2026
Forever War
I am not going to pretend to know anything about this stuff, but shooting down $20K drines with $5 million missiles probably can't keep going for ever.
Today Is The Day Donald Trump Became President
Use Your Power
Good to see.
The New York attorney general’s office has ordered a major Manhattan hospital to resume providing puberty-blocking medication and hormone treatments to transgender adolescents, just two weeks after the hospital had stopped doing so.
The hospital, NYU Langone Health, had closed its Transgender Youth Health Program after the federal government threatened to pull federal funding from hospitals that provided gender-transition treatments for adolescents. For more than a year, the Trump administration has sought to prevent hospitals from helping adolescents transition, asserting that many of the children are impressionable and confused and that the medical treatments maim and sterilize them. In response, many clinics and hospitals in the United States have scaled back or stopped providing gender-related treatments to children.
Monday, March 02, 2026
Your Boss Is Already Bored
Inside the Pentagon, and among some members of the Trump administration, there was deepening concern Sunday that the Iran conflict could spiral out of control, said people familiar with the situation.“The mood here is intense and paranoid,” one person said.There is anxiety among senior leaders that the fighting will extend for weeks, further stressing limited U.S. air defense stockpiles, people familiar with the situation said.
Whatever, Man
The Iraq war rationale shifted - and pundits made up their own - but not hourly.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said today that the US strikes on Iran is not meant to be “regime change,” while he acknowledged that the leadership in the country has changed.
“This is not a so-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change and the world is better off for it,” Hegseth said.
President Donald Trump has, however, pushed for regime change.
Bored Now
Trump will get increasing frustrated about all of this as it spirals out of control and get very mad that he can't unshit the bed .
I don’t know what happens next.
Sunday, March 01, 2026
Pew Pew Pew
War does, of course, have serious consequences.
Few pretend they think of Palestinians as anything other than subhuman, but now that we are back, sort of, sometimes, in the peeance and freeance game...
Gravitas
Saturday, February 28, 2026
Illegal Wars
The perfect sweet spot for a certain type of hawkish centrist. They get to signal oppositij (to the process) while supporting the actions.
Confidence Inspiring
WASHINGTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine are monitoring the U.S. operation in Iran from President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where Trump is currently located, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
No Choice But To Print His Next Statement Without Any Skepticism
(Not a criticism of these reporters, just the general tendency to headline Elon's bullshit uncritically)
In 2020, Elon Musk announced he was moving to Texas from California and embarking on a personal austerity campaign to strip his life of belongings.
“I am selling almost all physical possessions,” he posted on social media. “Will own no house.”
But in the years since, Mr. Musk, 54, has quietly built an empire of more than 90 companies and other legal entities in Texas, which have amassed a vast collection of assets, according to an examination by The New York Times.
Mushroom Clouds
The lesson the hawks learned from the Bush years is don't bother putting in any effort.
Trump has claimed Iran is building missiles that could soon hit the US. Sources say that’s not backed up by US intelligence
I bet all the "centrist hawks" are mad. This should have been their moment to raise their profiles, get those book deals. You know, man who has never been to Iran explains Iran.
Friday, February 27, 2026
Shooting Our Own Dudes
The "scary Mexican drone" thing is just some nonsense, but they have all cooked their brains on their own bullshit.
The U.S. military used a laser Thursday to shoot down a “seemingly threatening” drone flying near the U.S.-Mexico border. It turned out the drone belonged to Customs and Border Protection, lawmakers said.
Threatening?
Policy Ideas
Yes we know that wealth taxes are UNPOSSIBLE so how about my little idea of a kajillion % tax on private passenger jet flights.
Somewhat kidding, but I used to think that the fact that 1st class passengers had so share some indignities with the rest of us would minimize those indignities somewhat.
Now the actually rich, and Trump officials, fly private.
This isn’t just about air travel.
Weird
The lobbying company founded by Lord Mandelson discovered during an internal investigation that a “significant” tranche of his business emails was missing.Global Counsel conducted an internal audit of Mandelson’s company emails after the government agreed this month to release tens of thousands of messages relating to his time as the British ambassador to the US.The company was concerned about what would be published about its own business interests under the mass disclosure, and conducted the audit as part of a due diligence process.The investigation was still going on when the company went into administration last week but an initial report said that significant numbers of emails were missing from Mandelson’s account. The company does not know how the emails came to to be missing.The emails that have been kept include a series of exchanges with senior officials and ministers in government, relating directly to Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador.
Thursday, February 26, 2026
Even The Centrists
Well Then
New docs say Jeffrey Epstein collaborated with the Russian mob to loot the New York Daily News, then tried to help Mort Zuckerman discard it when reporting became inconvenient.
Wednesday, February 25, 2026
BYE LARRY
May all the people who ran to his defense over the years be forced to keep him company in retirement.
Former Harvard President Larry Summers will resign from his academic and faculty appointments at Harvard at the end of the academic year, relinquishing his University Professorship — Harvard’s highest faculty distinction — and remaining on leave until that time, a Harvard spokesperson confirmed to The Crimson.
Summers also resigned Wednesday from his role as co-director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School, a position he has held since 2011, according to the spokesperson. He will not teach or take on new advisees.
Maybe one day someone will explain, clearly, why Larry was one of those indispensable men that you just had to have around.
(sorry for worse than usual typos, a combination of phone blogging and THE DAMN HOVERING "AI" BUTTON MAKING IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO SEE WHAT I AM TYPING)When Isn't It Insider Trading
An editor who works for YouTube's biggest creator, MrBeast, has been suspended from the prediction market platform Kalshi and reported to federal regulators for insider trading, Kalshi officials said on Wednesday. It's the first time the company has publicly revealed the results of an investigation into market manipulation on the popular app.
Computer Say Arrest
There will be more and more of this.
Police arrested a man for a burglary in a city he had never visited after face scanning software deployed across the UK confused him with another person of south Asian heritage.
The guy says the cops obviously knew he was the wrong guy but didn’t care. They took him anyway and weren't in any hurry to release him
And of course in our database society, such arrests will follow people forever.
Computer Say Yes
Its "creators" (freaky tech weirdos) are basically an apocalypse cult, so this is no surprise.
Leading AIs from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google opted to use nuclear weapons in simulated war games in 95 per cent of cases
[Insert obligatory WarGames joke here]
The longtermist "effective altruism" guys were all in on destroying civilization so that their group chat could emerge from stasis in a few million years to find paradise.
No this never made any sense.
[I bet The Kids Today don't even watch WarGames]
The Opposition
The reasons are pretty obvious.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats have been working behind the scenes to try to prevent a vote on Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie’s Iran war powers resolution – a measure that would require every member of Congress to go on the record about a potential U.S. war with Iran.
Plenty of Democrats support bombing the shit out of Iran and then forgetting about it 5 minutes later. Another bunch don't want to be on the record either way.
It is extra funny as Dem leadership only makes process arguments (you must ask Congress nicely, Mr. President) against attacking Iran, even though they work to prevent Congressional input.
Leadership at odds with Dem voters isn't sustainable.
Tuesday, February 24, 2026
Trump Has The Opportunity To Do The Funniest Thing
But if he doesn't do that, you sickos are supposedly in for a long speech.
Previewing Tuesday’s State of the Union address, President Trump told reporters on Monday that “it's going to be a long speech because we have a lot to talk about."
(maybe)
Sure You Weren't
Police officers arrested Lord Mandelson at his London home on Monday afternoon because they worried he was a flight risk, his lawyers have said.
The peer's lawyers have told the BBC there is "absolutely no truth" in the suggestion that Lord Mandelson was planning to leave the UK and move abroad.
I suspect he wasn't planning, but if he was then it's a shame they didn't let him. Peter Mandelson, international fugitive, would be a funny story!
It said: “Peter Mandelson was arrested yesterday despite an agreement with the police that he would attend an interview next month on a voluntary basis.
“The arrest was prompted by a baseless suggestion that he was planning to leave the country and take up permanent residence abroad. There is absolutely no truth whatsoever in any such suggestion.
“We have asked the MPS [Metropolitan Police Service] for the evidence relied upon to justify the arrest.
"Peter Mandelson’s overriding priority is to cooperate with the police investigation, as he has done throughout this process, and to clear his name.”
President Deals
Even though his tariff flexibility is now more limited, you can't make deals with a guy who makes decisions because he saw some AI slop at 3:30 in the morning which convinced him that Germany has too many wind farms, or whatever.
The U.S. has breached the terms of its trade deal with the European Union and the bloc is ready to retaliate if necessary, a top EU trade lawmaker told CNBC.
“We wanted to have really stability and predictability. And unfortunately, the government, the president of the United States, has really made a breach of this deal several times,” Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament’s international trade committee, told CNBC on Tuesday.
Chaos Agent
The White House is confident that this will substantially rebuild the tariff regime the Court struck down. But Trump has two problems. First, in all likelihood he can’t yell tariffs and instantly bully the world anymore, which was his main goal with tariffs anyway. His remaining options require longer-term planning; the only tariff available with less stringent fact-finding, an open-ended levy up to 50 percent under Section 338 of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 on countries that the president defines as discriminating against U.S. trade or commerce, has never been tried before and would likely also lead to a lawsuit.But more important, the administration must figure out some way to return the money it’s collected from illegal IEEPA tariffs for more than ten months. And this tug-of-war will roil the rest of Trump’s presidency and beyond, with the possibility for a rerun of this scenario if the newly implemented Section 122 tariffs or others get invalidated by the courts as well.
That Bari Magic
She wasn't going to give in to the Woke Mob, and then she did.
Celebrity doctor Peter Attia has resigned from his new contributor position at CBS News following new revelations about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
“Dr. Attia’s contributor role was newly established and had not yet meaningfully begun,” a spokesperson for Attia said in a statement.
“It’s Bari versus everyone right now on Attia,” a Paramount insider told Sharon Waxman, editor-in-chief of The Wrap, Monday afternoon.
“Update on the Peter Attia situation: We’re hearing there is a battle royale between Paramount corporate and CBS News’ Bari Weiss,” Waxman wrote on X. “She does not want to cut ties w/ Attia and sees it as givin in to the mob. Paramount sees it as an HR matter and that Attia can’t give expert advice.”
Clever Accounting
I suppose you can get AI to do your clever accounting and then blame the computer for it.
A gap in US accounting rules allows Big Tech companies to conceal tens of billions of dollars of potential liabilities for their AI data centres, the credit rating agency Moody’s warned on Monday
This stuff is above my paygrade, generally, but this illustrates the issue pretty well. A long likely-to-be-renewed lease has to be recorded as a debt liability, but a shorter lease with a guaranteed payment doesn't for some reason.
The largest private credit data centre deal is a case in point, Moody’s said. Meta’s planned Hyperion facility in Louisiana, housed in a special purpose vehicle called Beignet Investor that has financing from Blue Owl Capital, will be leased to the company for an initial term of four years, but with options to renew for up to 20. Meta is also guaranteeing compensation of up to $28bn if the value of the property falls.
Obviously this stuff isn't entirely hidden, but the benefit arises when everybody pretends to believe numbers they know are sorta fake. They do that because they are often betting other people's money.
Not precisely the same, but a bit like pretendng a mortgage backed security is AAA rated because it is 51% AAA, but 49% shit (or something like that). It isn't as if no one can see what's inside, but if we pretend the label on the package is correct, then we can sell it to people who demand the correct label and trust it (and us).
Monday, February 23, 2026
Might Be Pony Time Soon
Just 32% of Americans now say that Trump has had the right priorities, while 68% say he hasn’t paid enough attention to the country’s most important problems. That’s the president’s most negative reading on that question to date during either of his terms in office. At the same time, Americans say, 61% to 38%, that Trump’s policies will move the country in the wrong direction rather than the right one. And Trump’s job approval rating among all adults remains mired at 36%.
The Prince Of Darkness
They arrest people just for passing state secrets to their pedo pal, now.
Peter Mandelson arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office
published at 17:09
17:09
Breaking
Peter Mandelson has been arrested. Here is the Met Police statement in full.
"Officers have arrested a 72-year-old man on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
"He was arrested at an address in Camden on Monday, 23 February and has been taken to a London police station for interview.
"This follows search warrants at two addresses in the Wiltshire and Camden areas.”
For people who don't follow British politics closely, it's probably a bit hard to understand who Mandelson is. He was of the Blair era, but he kept having to resign in disgrace. Journalists would declare him to be "the disgraced Peter Mandelson" whose career was inevitably over.
Then, somehow Peter returned. Again and again. The "disgraced" would soon disappear from his name each time.
They thought it was hilarious to refer to him as the Prince of Darkness, without ever explaining why. We all have a good laugh with our friend Petey, the Prince of Darkness, on our podcast. Why do we call him that? Haha funny you ask, let's talk about something else.
Most recently, he's been the man behind the rise and and rule of Keir Starmer, a thing British journalists all knew but didn't really tell people (until much later, and even then quietly). British journalists are like that. Most people still have no idea, much as they have no idea why his nickname is the Prince of Darkness.
Constantly Like This
Conservatives and Republicans regularly say things like, "Democrats don't complain when serial killers kill people (bad) so why do they complain when cops kill people, which is good, obviously??? Check mate!!!"
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, appears to have deleted his tweet after these Democrats responded
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur.bsky.social) February 23, 2026 at 5:05 AM
[image or embed]
Oh Did They Lie To The Courts
Everyone is shocked and will forget by tomorrow when they lie again.
Hoping for a tariff refund? Don’t hold your breath. Winning at the Supreme Court was the easy part. To understand what comes next, consider how the government survived the legal skirmishes that led to its loss last week.
From the earliest challenges at the Court of International Trade, Justice Department lawyers made one consistent argument against preliminary injunctions: “Plaintiffs face no harm from a stay; they can fully remedy any harms by obtaining a refund of any tariffs ultimately held invalid,” to quote a 2025 government motion. Justice Department lawyers entered formal stipulations in Princess Awesome v. CBP and a January 2026 consolidated proceeding, each promising not to contest the court’s authority to order reliquidation after a final decision. The courts denied the injunctions, refusing to suspend liquidation (the process that finalizes tariff payments) in direct reliance on those assurances. Yet the government now appears ready to litigate those very promises.
Pray I Don't Alter It Further
I am not going to try to decipher Trump's latest screed about his powers to bully other countries. The main point is he was never interested in "deals" and, as his long career showed us, he never feels bound by them anyway.
He first seized on tariffs because he has some broken brain understanding of trade balances and who actually pays them, but then kept pushing the tariff button because it got him attention and because he realized it was a good bullying tool.
It should not have taken the geniuses in the rest of the world this long to realize that you don't cave to bullies.
Europe has warned that trade deals struck with the U.S. could now be at risk after President Donald Trump unveiled a new global 15% tariff on all imports at the weekend.
Trump’s move came after the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday struck down his global tariffs policy, implemented last spring, that had upset the long-standing global trading order.
There are no deals! That is the whole thing with President Deals! That is his whole career! The art of the deal is breaking them!
...as I was writing this:
European Parliament negotiators on Monday suspended the EU-US trade pact, as threats from Washington and a US Supreme Court ruling cast doubt over the validity of the 2025 agreement.
and then:
Did Anyone Ever Figure Out What This Was About
I know the thing that most likely sparked Trump's hospital ship claim is Greenland rescuing a US Navy sub crewmember, but we're still missing the middle bit of this chain as far as I have seen?
I keep trying to construct possibilities and failing.
Sunday, February 22, 2026
Saturday, February 21, 2026
Keep Talking
Senate Republicans are coming under intense pressure from President Trump and right-wing colleagues to embark on an old-fashioned filibuster fight in an effort to ram through a voter identification bill that their party regards as crucial to salvaging their dimming chances of winning the midterm elections.
Hamster Treat Button
A Tax On Patriotic American Companies
Friday, February 20, 2026
I Guess We're Still Doing This
Free speech is threatened when institutions listen to public pressure from the wrong sorts of people - the people who don't have have newspaper columns and who disagree with me! - and not when (looks around at the United States, 2026).
Security And Confidentiality
I have an idea. Why don't we force these onto every machine in the country, give them super-admin* access permissions by default, and have them send everything unecrypted into the generalized plagiarism machine. What could go wrong?
Oh I forgot - make sure it has access to everyone's passwords and bank/card information so it can do whatever it is supposed to do more efficiently.
*I don't know if "super-admin access permissions" is a thing but you get my point.
Popularism!
Americans are roughly split over whether the federal government should deport all undocumented immigrants living in the United States, but a growing share oppose expanded ICE operations -- and by a 2-to-1 margin, they oppose ICE's tactics.The results come following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse, by federal agents in Minneapolis on Jan. 24 -- just weeks after the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a mother of three, by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Jan. 7.Half (50%) of Americans support the federal government deporting the about 14 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. and sending them back to their home countries while 48% oppose this.
This is basically an even split on DEPORTING UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS when of course the Trumpers are also (mostly) kidnapping, imprisoning, and deporting people who have permission to be in the country.
The Tariff King
Headlines say the Supremos took away his favorite toy, 6-3. No tariffs for him! Don't know if there are any nuances...
...no idea what this means for collected tariffs, but it does mean all the countries that slapped tariffs on US products in "deals" don't have to remove them, of course.
Ah, Well, Nevertheless
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday that it’s been a “very strong” holiday shopping season so far and predicted that the U.S. economy would end the year on strong footing.
“The economy has been better than we thought. We’ve had 4% GDP growth in a couple of quarters,” he said in an interview on CBS News’ ‘Face the Nation.’ “We’re going to finish the year, despite the Schumer shutdown, with 3% real GDP growth.”
Actual: 1.4%
Thursday, February 19, 2026
The Best People
The husband of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer has been barred from the department’s headquarters after at least two female staff members told officials that he had sexually assaulted them, according to people familiar with the decision and a police report obtained by The New York Times.
One of my little theories is that these are all horrible people, who have surrounded themselve with horrible people, and they have no idea that not everyone lives like that .
Not just him!
The inspector general’s office is investigating a formal complaint that Ms. Chavez-DeRemer was having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a subordinate — a member of her security detail — and abusing her office by taking staff to strip clubs, drinking alcohol on the job and taking personal trips at taxpayer expense. Her lawyer has denied the allegations.
Egyptian Cotton
This month Accenture started to collect data on individual weekly log-ins to its AI tools for some senior employees.I have no idea what any of that means. Neither does the person who wrote it (Spicy Clippy wrote it, I know).
“Use of our key tools will be a visible input to talent discussions” during this summer’s leadership-level promotion decisions, the email said. The New York-listed group says it has more than 550,000 people trained in generative AI.
The tools include AI Refinery, which Accenture said helped companies “turn raw AI technology into useful business solutions”, along with SynOps, an “innovative human-machine operating ‘engine’ that optimises the synergy of data, applied intelligence, digital technologies and talent to help organisations transform business operations”.
They Feed It Everything
It turns out changing the answers AI tools give other people can be as easy as writing a single, well-crafted blog post almost anywhere online. The trick exploits weaknesses in the systems built into chatbots, and it's harder to pull off in some cases, depending on the subject matter. But with a little effort, you can make the hack even more effective. I reviewed dozens of examples where AI tools are being coerced into promoting businesses and spreading misinformation. Data suggests it's happening on a massive scale.Like every flaw with these things, it isn't "weaknesses," it's just design. This is what they are.
tired: SEO optimization for ads wired: AI optimization for propaganda
Brand Destruction Is Fast
Sure she has been there for awhile, but now it's as if the entire paper is Megan McArdle.
Bomb Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran
The process matters, of course, but most Dem opposition is just theater.
What happens after we bomb the shit out of Iran? Everyone loses interest, as they always do.
Zone Of Interest
Last month, the federal government bought a warehouse next to her cheerleading gym in Surprise, Ariz., which the administration plans to convert into a detention center for up to 1,500 immigrants.
Ms. Bradley, the co-owner of Woodlands Elite Cheer, said she worried that a detainee could escape, or that protests could break out. The children who train at her gym are as young as 3 and could see “people in shackles” next door, she said.
“That’s a scary thing for a little kid to process,” Ms. Bradley said.
His Name Was Prince
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office, BBC understands
Also British law on the press and criminal cases is such that once there is an arrest, no one (the press - but with social media that means everybody) is supposed to talk about it until it goes to court. Arresting him is also a way to shut people up for awhile.
Wednesday, February 18, 2026
Install Your Own Malware
In a report shared with WIRED, the Valere researchers added that users have to “accept that the bot can be tricked.” For instance, if OpenClaw is set up to summarize a user’s email, a hacker could send a malicious email to the person instructing the AI to share copies of files on the person’s computer.yah ok.
But Pistone is confident that safeguards can be put in place to make OpenClaw more secure. He has given a team at Valere 60 days to investigate. “If we don’t think we can do it in a reasonable time, we’ll forgo it,” he says. “Whoever figures out how to make it secure for businesses is definitely going to have a winner.”
...and after I first drafted this: M
icrosoft says Office bug exposed customers’ confidential emails to Copilot AI
Microsoft has confirmed that a bug allowed its Copilot AI to summarize customers’ confidential emails for weeks without permission.
The bug, first reported by Bleeping Computer, allowed Copilot Chat to read and outline the contents of emails since January, even if customers had data loss prevention policies to prevent ingesting their sensitive information into Microsoft’s large language model.
Drugged Out Of Their Minds
What Are The Best Jobs For Wannabe Serial Killers
Shhh Don't Raise The Salience
WASHINGTON, Feb 17 (Reuters) - U.S. public approval of Donald Trump's immigration policies fell to the lowest level since his return to the White House, amid signs he is losing support among American men on the issue, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Some Light In The Horrors
Kilmar Abrego Garcia cannot be re-detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, dealing the Trump administration another blow in its effort to keep him locked up while it attempts to deport him again.He has said he will go to Costa Rica, but they won't let him do that because they want to punish him for making them look bad.
Tuesday, February 17, 2026
Don't Let The Door...
One of the Trump administration’s most vocal defenders of its aggressive immigration crackdown is leaving as public opinion sours against the hardline approach, according to two DHS officials familiar with the move.
We Do Love The Troops
The tension between some Coast Guard officials and Noem began after a 23-year-old Coast Guardsman went overboard into the Pacific Ocean from the cutter Waesche on Feb. 4 last year, shortly after the Senate confirmed Noem into her role, according to the two U.S. officials, the Coast Guard official and the former Coast Guard official.
The Coast Guard had surged ships and aircraft to the Pacific to find the guardsman. Hours into the search, Noem learned that a Coast Guard C-130 that was supposed to fly detained migrants from California to Texas was among the aircraft over the Pacific looking for the missing guardsman, and she intervened, according to the two U.S. officials and the Coast Guard official.
Noem verbally instructed the acting commandant of the Coast Guard, Adm. Kevin Lunday, to pull the plane off the search and rescue mission so it would not miss the immigrant flight as part of the DHS’ so-called Alien Expulsion Operations, according to the two U.S. officials and the Coast Guard official. Lunday notified the National Command Center, which ordered the C-130 to fly to San Diego while other aircraft and ships involved in the search continued, according to one of the U.S. officials and the current Coast Guard official.
This Reminds Me Of The Time A Student Mildly Complained About The Banh Mi In The College Cafeteria
The FCC‘s proposed changes to the equal time rules for TV talk shows is officially taking its toll on late night.One can even be in favor of some version of an Equal Time rule while fully understanding it is not being deployed consistently. Or, I suppose, fully understanding that it is being deployed consistently, just not as one imagines it should be.
CBS‘ Late Show host Stephen Colbert says that lawyers for the network blocked him from interviewing Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful James Talarico, citing the FCC’s new guidance for political candidates on talk shows.
Colbert opened his show Monday by explaining the situation. “You know who is not one of my guests tonight: That’s Texas State Representative James Talarico. He was supposed to be here, but we were told in no uncertain terms by our network’s lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast,” Colbert told the audience. “Then I was told in some uncertain terms that not only could I not have him on, I could not mention me not having him on, and because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this.”
The Epstein Class
On June 5, 2015, Kathy Ruemmler, then a corporate lawyer for Latham & Watkins but just one year removed from her stint as White House counsel for Barack Obama, emailed her good friend Jeffrey Epstein. Ruemmler, who was once under consideration to become Obama’s attorney general, wrote, “I am working on a PR strategy for MJ White v. Elizabeth Warren.” Epstein responded, “Good[.] mj is good.” And Ruemmler followed on in a response, “Yes, and EW is the worst.”This is the perfect Jeffrey Epstein email, with as much explanatory power about this man, and more important the world he associated with and cultivated, than anything to do with child sex abuse. It shows that there is in fact an Epstein class, which not only believes in their own personal impunity, but seeks to protect their fellow travelers as well. And that ultimately lines up with a political and economic vision that favors corporate domination over the public interest.But you have to unravel all the backstory to best understand it.
...
This is the Epstein class in all its glory. It’s an elite that schemes to remain as unaccountable for sexual crimes as it does for corporate crimes. It has its own hierarchy of friends and foes, and it will defend those friends no matter what they do, while the spoils of privilege flow. Its instinct is to protect and preserve money and power, with the concerns of anybody without a corporate jet tangential at best. And once you set those ground rules, once you build a wall around a certain class so they don’t have to pay any price for their actions, it’s inevitable that the actions will get darker and darker.
Click through and read the rest
Whatever Your Politics, I Think We Can All Agree That I'm Correct
I saw someone joke (forget who) that this was Bari's basic worldview. Similarly, "some people might not love Bari" is almost impossible for her to comprehend.
RIP Jesse Jackson
I went back and read a few things from that era (just a few, I'm a lazy blogger), and I was struck by the regular and casual use of the term "ghettos." I'm old enough to remember that, of course, but it is very jarring now.
A high school friend had a relative who had some important job in state politics, so he scored some tickets and I attended this.
Monday, February 16, 2026
Seems Bad
Vaccine Makers Curtail Research and Cut JobsFederal policies under Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that are hostile to vaccines have “sent a chill through the entire industry,” one scientist said.
Where's Kash
Good Bunny
One bias in media coverage is the tendency to treat the latest conservative culture nonsense as a winner for them. Even the headline admits it: Poll Surprise.
On the question “Who better represents America?,” the split between 42% for Bad Bunny versus 39% for Trump had the performer ahead by three points — and left 20% who answered “not sure,” making it a closer call between those two than it was in the lopsided contest between the Seahawks and Patriots.
Asked for their overall opinion of Bad Bunny, 43% of those polled said they had a favorable take on the artist, while 36% said it was unfavorable.
There was a similar result when those surveyed were asked whether they approved or disapproved of Bad Bunny as the halftime pick. The yay vote was 44%, while 35% disapproved of the NFL’s choice.
Rattled Broadsides
Comparing NYT coverage of China vs. the US is pretty entertaining. US (from November)
Hegseth Is Purging Military Leaders With Little Explanation
The moves to fire or sideline generals and admirals are without precedent in recent decades and have rattled the top brass.
In Xi’s Purge of the Military, a Search for Absolute Loyalty
By reaching back to Maoist tactics of “rectification,” the Chinese leader is signaling that control over the gun requires a state of perpetual cleansing.
...
Like Mao, Mr. Xi is pursuing a kind of spiritual renewal of the party and the military he commands, what he calls constant “self revolution.” And like Mao, that has taken the form of constant purging of enemies, associates and now, those in his inner circle, too. It is a new level of ruthlessness for a man who has already concentrated power in himself to a degree not seen since Mao.
Over the past three years, Mr. Xi has essentially ousted five of the six generals in China’s top military body, the Central Military Commission, which controls China’s armed forces. Only two members are left: Mr. Xi himself and a vice chairman who has overseen Mr. Xi’s purges.
...
The sudden removal of senior officials with no explanation has become a hallmark of Mr. Xi’s rule, inspiring uncertainty and fear among Chinese officials in what analysts say is either a sign of his increasing paranoia or a tactic to keep the leader’s enemies, as well as his allies, guessing.
US, a couple of days ago:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday that the Defense Department would sever its academic ties with Harvard University, the latest broadside by the Trump administration in its pressure campaign to force the university to cut a deal with the government.
China, today:
When Mr. Xi talks about the spirit of Yan’an, he glosses over details of the purging of thousands of party members at Yan’an through psychologically brutal sessions of self-criticism that led some to suicide. Mr. Xi uses some of those methods of political indoctrination, including mandating study sessions of his personalized doctrine, Xi Jinping Thought, and encouraging the reporting of one’s peers or superiors for violating Mr. Xi’s edicts, according to Wen-Hsuan Tsai, a scholar of elite Chinese politics at the Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica in Taiwan.
“It turns the whole party into a trial of mutual reporting, so no one can be trusted — not your parents, not your superiors, no one,” Dr. Tsai said.
“His type of regime needs constant enemies and purges to maintain fear,” he said.
Cars Are Expensive
Record-high car prices coupled with high interest rates are leading to huge monthly car payments for many Americans. A record share of Americans — more than 20% — agreed to pay more than $1,000 per month for a new car loan at the end of the year, according to car sales site Edmunds.Los Angeles (where I was recently) is such a maddening place. Everywhere (almost) is built almost-but-not-quite-dense-enough such that walking is unpleasant even when feasible. Distance is distance and anything longer than about 3/4 a mile anywhere pushes people to driving or transit, but in LA, even those half mile (10 minuteish) walks are often just... not especially pleasant for various reasons.
That level of density also makes driving/parking maddening. It isn't suburban paradise, either. Parking is always an issue. You can't drive anywhere and expect finding parking to be easy. This adds time to any trip.
I had a rental for a few days and was without one for a few. LA's bus system (plus some rail) is actually pretty good. I get amused by locals who will ride transit anywhere but their own city (the reverse of New Yorkers, who will seemingly only ride transit in NYC*). $1.75 to get to the airport beats the $60+ taxi ride.
Sunday, February 15, 2026
Picky Eaters
It might be tempting to buy marketers’ claims that once children got personalized food, they finally got to eat what they actually liked. But exploding choice fostered comparison and discontent. Within just a few decades, all sorts of foods that kids used to love — from briny shellfish to bitter marmalade — came to be unthinkable as kids’ foods. Preferences were increasingly understood in relation to aversions, and the beating heart of modern children’s food became displeasure.Generalizing away from food, teach your kids that disliking things is not actually a personality. Teach your adults that, too.
Parents today hear grim warnings about the dangers of fighting pickiness. We’ve been told that urging kids to eat any particular dish can cause lasting aversions and dysfunctional relationships with food. At the same time, many parents quietly anguish over children’s highly processed diets, rising obesity rates and the stresses that stalk picky eaters in daily life. There’s a lot of cognitive dissonance, and it’s contributing to immense frustration, anxiety and undeserved guilt around mealtimes.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Before the days of Froot Loops and Lunchables, generations of American children learned to relish foods of all textures, flavors and colors, while obesity and eating disorders were both rare. The children of the past show us a happier, healthier and more delicious path forward. Parents can warmly encourage children to eat family foods and avoid offering alternatives. They can also counter corporate marketing with their own enthusiastic messages about the foods they love to eat, whether it’s a crunchy salad or slippery green olives.
Working With The Pedophile To Bring Down The Pope For Tolerating Homosexuality
Also Bannon is a great source.
No One Can Object To Bipartisan Commonsense Reforms
That's just common sense, Jake!
I know some will say that Chuck (and Dems) use this kind of rhetoric knowing that it is bullshit but thinking it is effective. It is not effective! It makes you look like a chump!Schumer on DHS reforms: "I believe Republicans will have no choice but to go along with us because it's so common sense"
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) February 15, 2026 at 2:15 PM
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Believing Their Own Bullshit
Saturday, February 14, 2026
DHS Shutdown
Friday, February 13, 2026
Rugged Great Plainswoman
Ms. Noem, the governor of South Dakota, has defied coronavirus restrictions and eagerly projects a rugged Great Plainswoman image.WSJ, yesterday.
Within DHS, Noem and Lewandowski frequently berate senior level staff, give polygraph tests to employees they don’t trust and have fired employees—in one incident, Lewandowski fired a U.S. Coast Guard pilot after Noem’s blanket was left behind on a plane, according to people familiar with the incident.The rugged one needs her binkie.
Nothing the NYT loves doing more than Beat Sweeteners for conservatives. They don't even do it for the access! They just love writing fan fiction about them. "Rugged Great Plainswoman." Leave NYC once challenge.
Does Anybody Show Up For Work
HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill and General Counsel Mike Stuart are expected to soon leave HHS as part of a broader restructuring at the agency ahead of the midterm elections. Trump administration officials have discussed offering them other positions in the government, two people said.
Within the administration, O’Neill was viewed as a shaky public communicator who had struggled to find his fit within the department, one of the people familiar with the matter said.
Although he doesn’t have any formal medical or public health background, O’Neill was named acting director at the CDC after the ouster of Dr. Susan Monarez in late August. Before coming to HHS, O’Neill was CEO of the Thiel Foundation and an investment manager at Clarium Capital. He previously served at HHS under President George W. Bush.
...
O’Neill seldom visited the CDC, according to former agency leaders who declined to be named because they weren’t authorized to comment on the situation. HHS did not immediately comment on his level of engagement at the agency.
No They Aren't And Yes You Do
The original PR push for AI was a lot of fake panic about how they were worried that they had created God. They ran out of ideas and are doing it again. Of course our glorious news outlets are happy to help.
We have already done this! Stop it!
Thursday, February 12, 2026
Only Possible Ruling In A Democracy
The Discourse
Kavanaugh Stops
The 64-page class-action complaint alleges that more than 200 officers in armored trucks and helicopters descended on the arena on Oct. 19. The officers had flash-bang grenades, and their guns were drawn, the ACLU said in a news release.“Parents and children were zip tied at gunpoint, and agents subjected people to hours of violent and degrading treatment,” it said.The ACLU and the ACLU of Idaho filed the lawsuit on behalf of a putative class and three Latino families who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents. A putative class action is a lawsuit brought by one or more named plaintiffs on behalf of a potential group.
Woke 2: The Rewokening
We were too nice the first time.
‘Rehab Addict’ Canceled by HGTV After Host Nicole Curtis Uses Racial Slur During Filming
Let the Harpers Letter Signatories go protest on her behalf.
Florida Tunnels
I am no expert on Florida geology, but...
Elon Musk’s tunneling firm The Boring Company was tapped Wednesday to plow connections among Universal’s Orlando theme parks.
The board of the Shingle Creek Transit and Utility Community Development District, a special purpose district encompassing Universal properties, voted to begin contract negotiations with Musk’s firm to design and build the infrastructure improvements, following a monthslong competition.
The Boring Company was one of three bidders, alongside V2R and Sunshine Connection Partners. It is best known for its expertise in underground tunnels, having dug the “Vegas Loop” transportation network in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Wednesday, February 11, 2026
Party Balloons
Two big pops to the reporters who ran with "cartel drones" instead of party balloon.
Trump administration officials have warned for months about Mexican cartels using drones near the U.S.-Mexico border, saying they are used to surveil border agents and smuggle drugs.
Mexican officials have publicly been more skeptical, downplaying the threat drones pose at the border.
What is clear is that drones have become a prominent tool and weapon used by Mexican cartels across Mexico in recent years, according to cartel operatives, security analysts and some government officials on both sides of the border.
Good Job, Kash
A man who says he was detained for questioning as part of the investigation into Guthrie's disappearance has told reporters that he was "terrified" by the ordeal.
Sure Why Not
The FAA announced a 10 day closure of airspace around El Paso and then promptly lifted it.
Probably an antifa threat.
...ah it was going to be Pearl Harbor. Maybe the Jarhanpur invasion.