Happy Hour

get happy

Jsrael

Just funny slang, no need to interrogate further, NYT..

Just outside the hall, 20-somethings in rumpled suits were gathered in clusters, debating the merits of a ground invasion in Iran, the conservative backlash against those who were "J-pilled" (far-right slang for skepticism of Israeli influence), the backbreaking costs of American life, and what they saw as the slow demise of the Trump era.

Imagine the coverage if left wing genocide opponents said they were "J-pilled."

Afternoon

 I got nothin'

Pony Territory

I can't remember where I drew the line so many years ago, but <35 sounds right.

A new national University of Massachusetts Amherst Poll finds President Donald Trump’s approval rating has fallen to 33%, the lowest rating of his second term in office. The poll of 1,000 respondents, conducted March 20-25, finds Trump’s approval down five points from July 2025 and 11 points lower than last April.

Never Heard Of Her

Trump respects crooks, but he also hates not being included in the scam.

Investigators searched the office of a Federal Emergency Management Agency contractor as they investigate a network of aides former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and adviser Corey Lewandowski seeded throughout the DHS during their turbulent tenure, according to people familiar with the matter.

...

Another prong of the probe into Voorhies: her compensation. FEMA officials have been unable to locate her contract and investigators are still seeking it, according to people familiar with the matter. Senior FEMA officials were told that Voorhies was getting paid as much as $19,000 a week, some of the people said, which would amount to roughly $1 million a year.

That's *his* money!

The point of the first sentence is that all justice depends largely on who Trump will and won't pardon, an extremely corrupt thing that the NYT finds endless euphemisms for.

Sure Why Not

I guess you just gotta stick a Russian flag on your ship to get through the Cuba embargo.

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — President Donald Trump on Sunday night said he has “no problem” with a Russian oil tanker off the coast of Cuba delivering relief to the island, which has been brought to its knees by a U.S. oil blockade.

“We have a tanker out there. We don’t mind having somebody get a boatload because they need… they have to survive,” Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington.

What are we doing?

Obviously it's good if Trump decides that Rubio's embargo is bad, actually, but...

More Big Beautiful Boats, Sir, As A Tribute To You

There are definitely advisers trying to talk him down (and others doing the opposite).

Trump Says Iran Agreed to Allow 20 More Ships of Oil Through Strait of Hormuz

The president, speaking to reporters on Air Force One, cast the permission as a “sign of respect.” He also asserted that the United States had already achieved “regime change” in Iran.

Morning

Magnificent Monday.

Sunday Evening

Not that bombing has stopped, but I suppose I was wrong that there would be a major escalation in Iran this weekend.

Mommy He's Threatening to Hit Me Back

Not great!

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned it may retaliate against American university campuses in the Middle East, claiming that recent U.S. and Israeli strikes have damaged two Iranian universities.

The group said U.S.-affiliated campuses in the region could become “legitimate targets” unless Washington formally condemns the attacks on Iranian schools by noon on Monday, according to a statement first reported by Fars news agency, which is closely associated with the Guard, and picked up by other media.

Sunday Afternoon

Enjoy

War On War Off War On

Presumably the Pentagon prepares for lots of things, so I have no idea if this means we are tripling down or not.

I suspect we are!

Morning

Slacker Saturday.

Touching Grass

I do try to do more weekending than I used to. Obviously this "job" allows for some flexibility, but over the years (largely because of the phones) I have become worse at disconnecting and I need to do that sometimes!

Also I'm old now. Need to pursue some hobbies.

So Many Big Beautiful Boats Of Oil

It sounds like some of his advisors were feeding him nonsense to try to talk him down a bit. Oh, sir, they've gifted you with many big beautiful boats.

U.S. President Donald Trump claimed on Thursday that Iran allowed ten oil tankers flying the Pakistani flag through the Strait of Hormuz in the passing week.

No evidence to support this claim has been found. According to available information, only one tanker flying a Pakistani flag went through the strait – almost two weeks ago, in a widely reported incident. 

Anyone Got A Plan?

Rubio is begging someone to unshit Trump's bed.

Rubio acknowledged that Tehran might continue to hold a stranglehold over the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil is transported.

“One of the immediate challenges we’re going to face is an Iran that may decide that they want to set up a tolling system in the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.

That scenario is “dangerous to the world, and it’s important that the world have a plan to confront it,” Rubio added.

Maybe if we ask Greenland nicely.

In Your Hearts, You Know Pete Hegseth Is Right

I have become more "cynical" about certain things over time, and one is the degree of absolute gutter racism among the general class of people who rule the discourse.

 

Or, more specifically, I correctly see "nice, polite racism with a veneer of research," and anyone who hides behind it, as worse than gutter racism/racists. That you have tried to make your racism clever makes it worse!

Everyone who joined in the attacks on "DEI" knew what they were doing and knew the consequences would be the purging of minorities from any position of influence and power. Don't let them pretend they thought it was about anything else.

Oh it's just about fairness, says Mr. Trust Fund boy.

Morning

Slacker Saturday.

Happy Hour

All my apes gone.

And We Will Forget This Tomorrow

At least the politcs beat people will.

Mr. Buria chastised the Army secretary for selecting Maj. Gen. Antoinette R. Gant, a combat engineer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, to take command of the Military District of Washington, said three current and former defense and administration officials familiar with the exchange. The command provides security and performs ceremonial duties in the nation’s capital, and its commander often appears alongside the president at Arlington National Cemetery. ... Mr. Buria told Mr. Driscoll that President Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events, the officials said.

I knew without checking (and then checked) that the politics desk reporters didn't do this piece - the defense/natsec people did - and the politics people will go on as if Trump's motives for various other things are mysterious and unknowable.