Saturday, October 17, 2026

Ah, Well, Nevertheless

Related

Is The Left-Winger In The House With Us

 



Morning

Slacker Saturday

Friday, October 16, 2026

Happy Hour

Get happy 

A Bit Of A Problem

Not sure I believe it, but it is a problem if random people are freelancing with such things.

Q: If it wasn't you, then who gave the order for Starlink to go down in Ukraine? TRUMP: I don't know

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 16 October 2026 at 18:07

That Was Fun

 BBC news alert.



Was She Hamas

Was honestly curious if the Post would cover this at all. American journalists have shown little solidarity with journalists, even their own colleagues, in Israel/Gaza/West Bank.
ABU FALAH, West Bank — Dozens of masked Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villagers trying to gather their autumn olive harvest on Friday, setting groves on fire and slinging rocks in a coordinated assault that fits a pattern of escalating settler violence across the occupied West Bank.

Also caught up in the attack was Heidi Levine, a veteran photographer for The Washington Post. Levine, wearing a protective vest clearly marked PRESS on front and back. She was knocked her to the ground, kicked repeatedly and stripped of her cameras and phone.

She was taken to a hospital in the Ramallah area.

Witnesses described a mass, coordinated attack in which dozens of men in black came down from a hilltop settlement near the village of Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah, where Palestinian families were picking their olives. Video of the incident corroborated the witness accounts.

The Only Man Who Deserved It

And the only man who ever will.
Donald Trump is likely to end up as the only political leader awarded the Fifa peace prize after Gianni Infantino was told at Thursday’s meeting of the Fifa council to make major changes or scrap the controversial award.

Offramp

Trump is looking for an excuse  - any excuse - to declare victory and go home but I do not think he has any way of achieving that, absent a full unreality immersion tank of AI generated "news" and groveling apologies from fake Iranian leaders.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday ruled out the possibility that he would use a nuclear weapon against Iran as he continues to issue threats to the West Asian nation. In an interview with Newsmax, Trump also said that he has no plans to deploy ground troops to the Islamic Republic.

His people might do that for him!

Morning

 Annette Funicello Friday!

Thursday, October 15, 2026

Happy Hour

Late start

Some People Say That There's A Woman To Blame

Well, Trump does. Every time.

According to Politico, President Donald Trump has been calling up friends and allies to inquire whether it’s time for him to sack his longest-serving chief of staff, Susie Wiles, and replace her with a fresh face atop the White House totem pole.

Citing four sources with direct knowledge of the president’s conversations, the outlet reported that Trump has been floating several names for a successor to Wiles, the veteran Florida political operative who is the first woman to serve in the chief of staff position.

He reportedly has found no shortage of people willing to encourage him to dump his loyal aide overboard, with one GOP operative noting that Wiles has “burned a lot of people” in her time leading Trump’s administration.

A Republican elected official whose views have been solicited by the president said he has mused about elevating Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller or bringing in New York Yankees executive Randy Levine to run things as his top aide. 

Not that I feel sorry for any of these people, but it is a pattern. 



Sad Pete Hegseth

The thrill was going to last him a week, at least.

US President Donald Trump has called off plans to stream the Fort Hood attacker's execution by firing squad.

As criticism over the public display has mounted, Trump said on Thursday that "many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die".

As I said yesterday, Trump does maintain enough sense to know that there was no way that would come across well, even to most of the people who would be inclined to enjoy such a thing. 

Sure Why Not

 "We must do something, this is something" reasoning is incredibly dangerous when the only perceived options are reaching for bigger and bigger hammers (bombs).

Another US official noted that when the military plans, it develops a menu of options for policymakers that range from the high-end to low-end. Higher-end targets, including those that are located deep underground, require bigger bombs, and the MOAB is the biggest, the official added.

...

But there are questions around whether the MOAB would be an effective munition to use against Iran’s nuclear facilities and other sites that are located deep underground. While the GPS-guided bomb is capable of destroying an area equivalent to nine city blocks, it likely lacks the capability to penetrate deep enough under the surface to destroy the suspected nuclear facilities at Pickaxe, which is believed to be fortified by layers of granite, and other remaining Iranian nuclear sites, sources said.

You can blow up stuff and kill people, but Iran is a very big country. Hell, most countries, even small ones, are very big countries relative to the scale of damage that non-nuclear missiles and bombs can do. 

But we must do something! Dropping a big bomb is something!

Likely Van Jones will get on TV and inform us, after dropping some MOABs, that, once again, Donald Trump has become president on this day.

On The Trump Train

Working out for every eager participant in the Trump agenda.
Oct 14 (Reuters) - Oil giant Saudi Aramco's (2223.SE), opens new tab headquarters in Dhahran suffered extensive damage in an ​attack on Tuesday, with a fire spreading across ‌several floors, three people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Much is above my pay grade, in that I don't know how to unshit Trump's bed, but I do know that he will regularly shit the bed of his closest partners and leave the unshitting to them.

Unpopular

From the Economist.


 
Purely vibes-based, of course, but do we feel like press coverage reflected the relative popularity of Trump and Biden?

Biden wasn't especially popular after his first year or so, but Trump has never been popular!

Not the best labeled graph, but you get the idea.

Morning

 Thriller Thursday

Wednesday, October 14, 2026

Happy Hour

get happy

Nothing But Grift

More sideshows to amuse us. 

  • Former Trump attorney Alina Habba told the president that another one of his top advisers — former Kennedy Center leader Ric Grenell — failed to deposit a multimillion-dollar donation that her billionaire husband made to the center a year ago, according to four senior administration officials and three insiders briefed on the controversy. 
  • Grenell denied the accusations as "absurd" and a "lie."
  • Habba and her husband, Turhan Mildon, declined to comment through a spokesperson.
Place your bets: who wins this battle? Keep in mind that the winner isn't neccessarily the correct side, just the side that Trump likes more

Welp

FANNIE MAE sees higher mortgage rates through the end of this year and into 2027. Sees 30-year fixed at 7.4% for Q4 and 7.5% for all of next year. (via @dianaolick.bsky.social) @cnbc.com

— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) 14 October 2026 at 16:45