66 thoughts on “181 DAYS TO GO”

  1. stephen sprinting to his 5/21 deadline

    A new “Star Wars” film is on the way and the merchandising has begun, President Trump rejected Iran’s latest offer to end the war, and beloved brands Ask Jeeves and Spirit Airlines are no more.

  2. Jon on a deadline ignored

    As America’s situationship with Iran hits the 60-day War Powers Act deadline, Trump brazenly ignores Congress’s authority while spouting nonsense about America’s depleted weapons inventory, and Jon Stewart marvels at our “genius” president’s faulty math and cognitive skills. Plus, a visit from a real monarch, King Charles, shines a light on the lack of checks and balances from America’s absent Congress.

  3. and lawrence on Dodo’s deadline

    MS NOW’s Lawrence O’Donnell analyzes Donald Trump’s “childish language” around his illegal “mini-war” in Iran that no war time president before him ever said: “Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon never pretended that it wasn’t a war” or that they could “end that war right now.”

  4. more deadlines per The Guardian Ukraine war briefing: Duelling ceasefires as Zelenskyy floats open-ended truce
    Vladimir Putin wants empty skies on Friday and Saturday to celebrate Victory Day; Ukrainian president says guns can fall silent by Wednesday if Russia reciprocates. What we know on day 1,532
    Volodymyr Zelenskyy has offered a potentially open-ended ceasefire beginning on Wednesday to Vladimir Putin, whose defence ministry has demanded that hostilities should cease for Friday and Saturday so that Russia can mark the anniversary of the second world war defeat of Nazi Germany, 81 years ago.
    The Russian defence ministry threatened that if its truce demand was not met there would be a “massive missile strike on the centre of Kyiv” – adopting a tone akin to Donald Trump’s recent threats to attack Iranian civilian infrastructure, in what has been condemned as a potential war crime. Its follows a familiar pattern of unilateral ceasefire declarations by the Russian side – most recently around Orthodox Easter – that have had little to no impact.
    Zelenskyy initially responded that the Russian request was “not serious”, later following up that while Kyiv had not received any official requests for a truce, in the time left until midnight on Wednesday “it is realistic to ensure” that a ceasefire takes effect. “We announce a regime of silence starting from 00.00 on the night of May 5 to May 6.” He gave no end time but said Ukraine would “act symmetrically” according to Russian actions. Noting that Russia had failed to respond to Kyiv’s longstanding calls for a lasting ceasefire, he urged the Kremlin “to take real steps to end their war, especially since Russia’s defence ministry believes it cannot hold a parade in Moscow without Ukraine’s goodwill”.
    This year, the parade in the Russian capital is scheduled to take place without tanks, missiles and other military equipment for the first time in nearly two decades. Speaking at a summit with European leaders in Armenia on Monday, Zelenskyy said that the Russian authorities “fear drones may buzz over Red Square” on 9 May. “This is telling. It shows they are not strong now, so we must keep up the pressure through sanctions on them.”

  5. in other news from the daily beast The Department of Interior is moving to evict from the Montana prairie hundreds of bison—a symbol of the American West and the once-critically endangered animal on the department’s own seal.
    The Bureau of Land Management, a division of the Trump administration department, revoked the American Prairie Foundation’s license to graze bison on federal lands in Phillips County, which has more square miles than Connecticut. The bureau, the New York Times reported, cited the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 to claim that the land should be used to raise livestock for food. The 900 bison that roam the lands, it said, were wildlife.
    The move—which has yet to go into effect but could as soon as the spring—has naturally been praised by ranchers, Republican lawmakers, and business leaders.
    “We must ensure that public lands remain accessible and productive, rather than being locked away for the vision of special interests,” Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte said.
    Environmentalists and Native American tribal leaders oppose the revocation of the grazing permit, and officials at American Prairie Foundation, a nonprofit, say the federal government acted arbitrarily.
    “By any definition, those animals are livestock,” Director of Landscape Stewardship Scott Heidebrink told the Times.
    The bison are tagged and vaccinated, the foundation says. It leases land where the animals aren’t roaming to local cattle ranchers, and it maintains electric fences, allows public access through its land, sends bison to Native American tribes to boost their herds, and donates meat to food pantries, according to the Times.
    “We’re following all the rules,” Executive Director Alison Fox said.
    The organization estimates the cost of moving the bison to be hundreds of thousands of dollars.
    Neither the American Prairie Foundation nor the Bureau of Land Management immediately responded to a Daily Beast inquiry.
    In a February press release, Fox argued that the proposal “is an unprecedented reversal of BLM’s own decision-making after more than 40 years of treating bison as eligible livestock under federal grazing law.”
    “BLM lawfully approved these permits after a thorough environmental review and defended them for years,” she added. “Abruptly rescinding them now—under political pressure—creates immense uncertainty and sends a chilling signal to Tribes, ranchers, and conservation partners who depend on fair and predictable public land management.”
    Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the former two-term governor of North Dakota, has spoken in support of selling federal lands—including those used for grazing—in order to help pay down the national debt.
    The process for how the land in Phillips County would be divided among ranchers wasn’t immediately clear.

  7. Turnout is down. Only ultra MAGA supports the war, but even many of them are disillusioned by the broken promise to release all the Epstein files. Tucker says Trump’s “destroyed” and MTG says the movement is “dead”.

    WILL MAGA SHOW UP FOR THE MIDTERMS? Tests today in Michigan and Indiana voting.

    Bring your take at 11am ET >>>

  10. NOBODY’S EVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT

    Midterm Impact?

    CNN’s Harry Enten:

    Trump has reached the lowest net approval rating ever for a President of the United States. The lowest previous record was when Trump was 24 points underwater when he lost reelection. He is now 25 points underwater.

  13. Cinco de Mayo. The most important American Mexican holiday on the Corona calendar. Probably need to check the cabinet for a shot of Don Julio tonight.

  15. Craig, BiD’s right about pinwheels as bird deterrent. get ’em at Etsy, Amazon. Dollar store

  16. Cinco de Mayo for Lazy Man Cooks
    Chicken Tinga recipe

    Ingredients
    2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
    1 medium white onion cut into slices
    2 large garlic cloves finely diced
    3 cups of tomato cut into cubes
    2 chipotle peppers in adobo chopped (the ones that come in a can)
    3 cups chicken cooked and shredded **
    Salt and pepper to taste.

    Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium heat and add the sliced onion. Stir-fry for 3 minutes and stir in the garlic. Cook for another 2 minutes until fragrant.
    Mix in the chopped tomato and parsley, lower the heat, stir and let cook until tomatoes start releasing its juices. This step will take about 6-7 minutes. If your tomatoes aren’t juicy enough add a couple of tablespoons of water.
    Finally, add the chicken and chopped chipotle pepper. Simmer for about 8 more minutes until all the flavors had blended. Season with salt and pepper.

    To serve, garnish with chopped parsley or crumbled Mexican cheese. You can serve it as a main dish with rice and a salad or as a topping for tostadas or for empanada filling.

  21. I’d love to play cards at the WH. All Dumbass does is bluff, so call on every hand no matter what’s in yours.

  22. Another Tuesday, another Hegseth/Caine lie fest. WaPo.

    U.S. mission to reopen Strait of Hormuz will be temporary, Hegseth says

    The defense secretary says the ceasefire holds despite Iranian attacks on U.S. forces. He said the United States would call on allies to take over the mission to reopen the waterway.

    By Victoria Craw, Tara Copp and Dan Lamothe

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. mission to protect commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz would be temporary and other nations would soon have to take responsibility, emphasizing Tuesday that the fragile ceasefire with Iran remained in place despite attacks on U.S. ships a day earlier.

    Speaking at a briefing alongside Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Hegseth said the United States had established a powerful “red, white and blue dome” over the strait as a “direct gift” to other nations to allow commercial ships to pass through.

    “This operation is separate and distinct from Operation Epic Fury,” he said, using the Trump administration’s name for the war with Iran.

    He described the effort to help commercial ships navigate the narrow strait as a “temporary mission” for U.S. forces. “We expect the world to step up at the appropriate time, and soon we will hand responsibility back to you,” he said.

    Caine said that more than 22,500 mariners on more than 1,550 commercial ships are waiting to transit the strait and that U.S. Central Command had established an “enhanced security area” on the southern side of the strait protected by U.S. forces.

    Since the ceasefire was announced, Iran has fired at commercial vessels nine times, seized two and attacked U.S. forces more than 10 times, he said — “all below the threshold of restarting major combat operations, at this point.”

    Caine and Hegseth said that the fast boats Iran used to try to attack the vessels were only using small arms, rifles or machine guns, but that Iran also fired small coastal cruise missiles, which did not hit the ships.

    “No, the ceasefire is not over,” Hegseth said.

    He spoke to reporters just days after a deadline passed that by law required the White House to seek Congress’s authorization to continue to carry out strikes in Iran after 60 days of operations. Hegseth said that 60-day deadline did not apply because of the ceasefire. “With the ceasefire, the clock stops,” he said.

    Iranian officials on Tuesday accused the U.S. of violating the ceasefire and warned of it becoming bogged down in the war, now in its third month. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X that events in the strait “make clear that there’s no military solution to a political crisis,” adding that the U.S. should be “wary of being dragged back into quagmire.”
    Ask The Post AI
    Dive deeper

    “Project Freedom is Project Deadlock,” he said, referring to President Donald Trump’s name for the U.S. mission to guide ships through the strait.

    Iranian Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said a “new equation” in the strait is “in the process of being solidified” in a post on X on Tuesday. “We know full well that the continuation of the status quo is intolerable for America; while we have not even begun yet,” he added.

    On Monday, the U.S. said two of its destroyers, closely followed by two merchant vessels, came under attack during successful transits of the strait, which has remained effectively blocked to maritime traffic during the war.

    […]

    Where to start? How about here – if you’re firing at them and they’re firing at you, it’s not a ceasefire. War is where our military fires at their military and they fire back. The clock doesn’t stop because you call whatever it is you’re doing while exchanging fire on the land or water a ceasefire. And saying the second operation “Project Freedom” is not a part of the first “Operation Epic Fury” doesn’t make it so when the ships involved in the exchange of fire in the second Operation were sent over as part of the first operation. Who gave them this advice? Todd Blanche?

  23. https://www.wired.com/story/openai-backs-bill-exempt-ai-firms-model-harm-lawsuits/

    OpenAI Backs Bill That Would Limit Liability for AI-Enabled Mass Deaths or Financial Disasters
    The ChatGPT-maker testified in favor of an Illinois bill that would limit when AI labs can be held liable—even in cases where their products cause “critical harm.”

    The bill would shield frontier AI developers from liability for “critical harms” caused by their frontier models as long as they did not intentionally or recklessly cause such an incident, and have published safety, security, and transparency reports on their website. It defines a frontier model as any AI model trained using more than $100 million in computational costs, which likely could apply to America’s largest AI labs, like OpenAI, Google, xAI, Anthropic, and Meta.

    Under its definition of critical harms, the bill lists a few common areas of concern for the AI industry, such as a bad actor using AI to create a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear weapon. If an AI model engages in conduct on its own that, if committed by a human, would constitute a criminal offense and leads to those extreme outcomes, that would also be a critical harm. If an AI model were to commit any of these actions under SB 3444, the AI lab behind the model may not be held liable, so long as it wasn’t intentional and they published their reports.

    Federal and state legislatures in the US have yet to pass any laws specifically determining whether AI model developers, like OpenAI, could be liable for these types of harm caused by their technology. But as AI labs continue to release more powerful AI models that raise novel safety and cybersecurity challenges, such as Anthropic’s Claude Mythos, these questions feel increasingly prescient.

    While SB 3444 focuses on mass casualty events and large financial disasters, AI labs are also facing a question around the harms their AI models can cause on an individual level. Several family members of children that died by suicide after allegedly developing unhealthy relationships with ChatGPT have sued OpenAI in the last year.

    In her testimony supporting SB 3444, a member of OpenAI’s Global Affairs team, Caitlin Niedermeyer, also argued in favor of a federal framework for AI regulation. Niedermeyer struck a message that’s consistent with the Trump administration’s crackdown on state AI safety laws, claiming it’s important to avoid “a patchwork of inconsistent state requirements that could create friction without meaningfully improving safety.” This is also consistent with the broader view of Silicon Valley in recent years, which has generally argued that it’s paramount for AI legislation to not hamper America’s position in the global AI race. While SB 3444 is itself a state-level safety law, Niedermeyer argued that those can be effective if they “reinforce a path toward harmonization with federal systems.”

    “At OpenAI, we believe the North Star for frontier regulation should be the safe deployment of the most advanced models in a way that also preserves US leadership in innovation,” Niedermeyer said.

  24. Interesting contrast in word choice at the same press conference this morning:

    • Hegseth — the U.S. has established a “powerful red, white and blue dome” over the strait
    • Joint Chiefs Chair Dan Caine says they have “established an enhanced security area“

  25. The buffaloes are gone.
    And those who saw the buffaloes are gone.
    Those who saw the buffaloes by thousands and how they pawed the prairie sod into dust with their hoofs, their great heads down pawing on in a great pageant of dusk,
    Those who saw the buffaloes are gone.
    And the buffaloes are gone.

    Carl Sandburg

  26. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/style/protest-movements-jeff-bezos-met-gala-2026-1236585809/

    “The Bezos Met Gala: Brought to You by the Company that Powers ICE,” one of the guerrilla ads reads, alluding, dead-eyed, to the 62-year-old’s company’s contract providing cloud computing to Immigration and Customs Enforcement — which, under the Trump administration, has brought detentions up by over 75 percent in one year — or perhaps to Bezos’ cozy affiliation with the president.

    “The only minority destroying this nation is the super rich,” another ad explains.

    The subway campaign, it turns out, came after Bezos and Sanchez-Bezos bought their way onto the dais at the Met Gala, according to Page Six, to the tune of $10 million.

    “We think it should become embarrassing to be a billionaire. We don’t think it should be culturally acceptable,” a spokesperson for Everyone Hates Elon, the global but U.K.-based guerrilla group behind the subway ads, told The Hollywood Reporter on Monday, lamenting the close ties apparent in the billionaire class and with President Trump. “It’s these oligarchs that are basically propping up Trump, that make everything he does possible. Really, he’s able to act with impunity because he’s supported by other powerful people.”

    The direct action group kept up its work over the weekend, when it concocted a protest statement against the bathroom break policy imposed upon Amazon drivers — around 300 bottles of fake urine were found, placed by members inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

    And last night, a series of messages condemning Bezos and his flagship company lit up the billionaire’s Madison Square Park condo. One featured Mary Hill, 72, an Amazon warehouse worker struggling with her finances and living paycheck to paycheck while battling cancer. Amazon workers average about $17 per hour; Bezos, according to 2023 data, earns millions per hour.

  27. ps – Please source your pinwheels (and everything else) from somewhere other than Amazon.

    Very sad to read that Bad Bunny was clueless or soulless enough to attend the Met Gala. You expect the Kardashian classless to be there, but not someone with a working brain. AOC really didn’t think it through when she went a few years back.

  28. The Met Gala’s MAGA Problem

    “Who would you never invite back to the Met Gala?”

    That’s what Late Late Show host James Corden asked Anna Wintour, then-editor-in-chief of Vogue, in 2017, during a game called “Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts.”

    “Donald Trump,” the fashion executive answered, to thunderous applause. And although neither Trump nor his immediate family have been present at fashion’s biggest night since before the start of his first term, Wintour seems to have no issue with MAGA-adjacent benefactors of his administration’s assault on culture—as evidenced by this year’s lead sponsors and honorary co-chairs: Jeff and Lauren Sánchez Bezos, who were front and center at Trump’s second inauguration.

    Bezos and Sánchez attended the Met Costume Institute’s spring exhibit and annual fundraiser in 2024. And Big Tech firms like Amazon, TikTok, and Apple, with their deep pockets and powerful algorithms, have been welcome sponsors of the event since the early 2010s. But this year’s benefit has attracted increased scrutiny since Silicon Valley officially hitched its wagon to the Trump train, with anti-billionaire protestors papering the New York City subway with posters calling on passersby to “boycott the Bezos Met Gala” and criticizing Amazon for its allegedly poor working conditions.

    Amazon donated $1 million to Trump’s 2024 inauguration fund and subsequently spent a baffling $75 million on a vanity doc about Melania. And as owner of the Washington Post, Bezos blocked the paper from endorsing Kamala Harris ahead of the 2024 election.

  32. Republicans want to spend $1 billion in taxpayer money on Trump’s $400 million ballroom
    The controversial vanity project was already unpopular. The GOP’s planned use of public funds is poised to make matters worse.

    May. 5, 2026, 8:54 AM EDT
    By
    Steve Benen
    It took more than two months, but Congress ended the shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security last week, approving the same plan Democrats proposed in February. The final deal funded the entirety of DHS, except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, which Democrats insist on reforming.

    For the minority party, it was a victory of sorts — nearly all of the congressional Democrats stood firm, and GOP leaders ultimately accepted what Democratic leaders put on the table months earlier — but Republicans took the deal knowing that they planned to address ICE and CBP funding in a separate package, which they would advance through the budget reconciliation process, which would circumvent the 60-vote threshold in the Senate.

    It was against this backdrop that GOP lawmakers unveiled the details of their reconciliation bill, which included an unexpected element.

    More at link

  33. https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/05/politics/congress-sexual-misconduct-settlements-mace

    Taxpayers have paid more than $300,000 in confidential sexual harassment settlements on behalf of six former members of the House of Representatives or their offices, according to GOP Rep. Nancy Mace and documents reviewed by CNN.

    Following policy changes made in 2018 in the wake of the #MeToo Movement, members could no longer rely on taxpayer dollars for settlements. The House Ethics Committee announced in a recent statement that since the enactment of the new law, “the Committee has not been notified of any awards or settlements relating to allegations of sexual harassment by a member.”

    Mace named six former lawmakers or lawmakers’ offices involved in the settlements totaling more than $300,000 in an X post on Monday. Most of the members named by the congresswoman resigned from Congress after publicly facing allegations of sexual misconduct, including former Reps. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, and Blake Farenthold, a Texas Republican.

    In several of these cases, it was publicly reported prior to their resignations that the member had used taxpayer funds for settlements.

  34. Today in the Diner…
    1. Trump’s Billion-Dollar Ballroom & KKK Myths Debunked
    2. We Called the Senate LIVE to Stop a Billion-Dollar Boondoggle
    3. Senate Grifters & MAGA Palace Intrigue

    Senate Republicans tried sneaking $1 billion for a White House ballroom into a bill. We’re calling John Thune’s office live to stop the grift.

    Let’s talk about intellectual honesty and the dumpster fire of reality. While you’re paying four bucks for gas, the GOP is quietly trying to slip a billion dollars into a reconciliation bill for an East Wing Modernization Project. That’s Washington speak for Donald Trump’s new ballroom. Instead of just complaining, we picked up the phone and called Senator John Thune’s office live to remind them that public funds are sacred.

    Meanwhile, the MAGA universe is eating itself. Tucker Carlson is outing Susie Wiles for undermining JD Vance, and Marjorie Taylor Greene is suddenly finding religion over the Epstein files, ignoring that her leader told everyone to back off. It’s a masterclass in grifting, right down to spinning courtroom naps as stamina. Let’s dig into the wreckage and find the silver lining.

    https://trailmix.cc/chat
    https://trailmix.cc
    https://trailmix.cc/alerts

    00:00 Intro
    00:56 Canceling CBS
    04:19 Trump’s Courtroom Naps
    10:51 The Billion-Dollar Ballroom
    14:14 Calling Sen. John Thune LIVE
    20:00 High-Speed Rail Boondoggles
    33:01 Harry Truman & Sacred Funds
    47:00 MTG’s Epstein Rant
    51:50 Tucker Carlson & Palace Intrigue
    58:00 Debunking Conspiracy Theories

  39. Oh, this. WaPo.

    GOP offers $1B for White House security, sparking dispute over ballroom

    Senate Republicans maintain their proposal would authorize security construction, but not Trump’s ballroom. The White House disagrees.

    By Dan Diamond, Jonathan Edwards and Riley Beggin

    Senate Republicans late Monday proposed $1 billion to pay for new White House security measures, with lawmakers and White House officials disagreeing over whether the legislation would cover President Donald Trump’s planned ballroom.

    Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, laid out a funding package for security upgrades related to the “East Wing Modernization Project,” the Trump administration’s name for its planned 90,000-square-foot project to rebuild the East Wing that Trump demolished last year.

    The proposed legislative text says the money would be used for both aboveground and underground security features that the administration has declined to fully detail. The text explicitly says the money could not be used for “non-security elements” of the project, a reference to Trump’s planned ballroom.

    “This bill does not fund ballroom construction,” Grassley spokeswoman Clare Slattery said in a statement. “It provides funds for Secret Service enhancements that will ensure all presidents, their families and their staffs are adequately protected.”

    The legislative proposal comes amid a legal battle over whether the project can proceed, with U.S. District Judge Richard Leon last month ordering a halt to aboveground construction on the ballroom unless Congress authorizes the project, saying that work related to national security can continue. An appeals court panel has stayed Leon’s order while it considers the case.

    Construction on the project continues apace. Photos taken in the past week show crews have erected a concrete structure topped with columns of exposed rebar, used to reinforce pillars that will support additional floors.

    White House officials said Tuesday that the legislation, if enacted, would authorize the entire project — including the aboveground ballroom.

    “Congress has rightly recognized the need for these funds,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement, citing the high-profile incident last month when a gunman stormed through the security checkpoint outside the White House correspondents’ dinner. “The proposal would provide the United States Secret Service with the resources they need to fully and completely harden the White House complex, in addition to the many other critical missions for the USSS.”
    […]

    And the grift continues – and we’re left to pay for the ballroom that would be built with no public funds. Go figure.

  40. https://www.buzzfeed.com/meganeliscomb/amazon-worker-message-to-bezos-met-gala

    But the group’s most powerful statement was a video of a 72-year-old Amazon warehouse worker named Mary Hill. The video was projected onto Bezos’ penthouse the night before the gala. Here’s what Mary had to say:

    “Jeff Bezos, my name is Mary Hill. I am a 72-year-old warehouse worker at one of your facilities. When we struggle from paycheck to paycheck, from week to week, it really angers me, because if it weren’t for every associate in every Amazon facility, he wouldn’t have all those zeros behind his name.”

  41. Trump is casually pitching a nine-year term, Obama is celebrating Star Wars Day, and I’m just trying to find a 1956 refrigerator that will actually survive the apocalypse. The timeline is a dumpster fire, but we found the silver lining. Grab a seat.

  42. https://fortune.com/2026/05/03/russia-economic-despair-vladimir-putin-approval-rating-ukraine-war/

    As economic despair mounts, Russian official admits the country has had enough of Putin’s war on Ukraine. ‘We can’t even take one region’

    On the economic front, Putin himself recently revealed that GDP contracted in the first two months of the year. And on the Ukraine front, Russian forces suffered a net loss of territory last month for the first time since 2024.

    After Russia launched a sudden invasion in 2022, Putin has not only failed to defeat Ukraine, his forces have been unable to take full control of the Donetsk region.

    “The overall mood is that’s enough already; you’ve been fighting for long enough,” a Russian official told the Washington Post last week on condition of anonymity. “It seems to everyone that it’s been going on for longer than World War II, the Great Patriotic War—and at the same time we can’t even take one region.”

    In a tacit acknowledgement of the heightened threat from Ukraine’s drones, the Kremlin said Wednesday it would dramatically scale back the annual Victory Day parade in Moscow’s Red Square later this month.

    Even a survey from Russia’s state-owned pollster showed Putin’s approval rate has fallen to 65.6% from 77.8% at the start of the year and prewar levels well above 80%.

    “If you [the government] do not urgently adopt financial, economic, and other measures, by ‌autumn a repeat of what happened in ⁠1917 awaits us,” he said. “We don’t have the right to repeat that. Let’s take some decisions.”

    Earlier this year, Russian officials told Putin that a financial crisis could hit by the summer amid spiraling inflation. With companies feeling the squeeze of high rates and weaker consumption, more workers were going unpaid, getting furloughed, or seeing their hours cut. As a result, consumers were having trouble servicing their loans, raising concerns of a crash in the financial sector.

    In fact, Russian statistics show that nonpayments of commercial bills hit a record high of $109 billion in January.

  43. Yaaay, Tony noms for Ana Gasteyer, and Schmigadoon!, and Rocky Horror. At least I’ve seen and heard versions of both of those shows.

    I’ll bet Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York) is amazing, but I may never know since I can’t get there. They show Met operas at movie theaters; they should do that with musicals toward the end of the run.

  45. At least they are putting the attributions right in the headlines these days, instead of just inside the stories.

    But still, on what grounds can we honestly report U.S. government claims as actual news? New standard should be at least one independent verification before publication — until we have a track record of truth telling.

  47. Picking up with Poobah’s question above, NYT

    Iran War Live Updates: U.S. and Iran Both Claim Control Over Strait of Hormuz

    Ship traffic remains effectively frozen despite a U.S. initiative to protect vessels. The United Arab Emirates said its air defense systems had engaged missiles and drones from Iran.

    Eric Schmitt, Greg Jaffe, Leo Sands and Erica L. Green

    Here’s the latest.

    President Trump and top U.S. officials said the cease-fire with Iran was holding on Tuesday, despite new attacks by Iran after the U.S. Navy launched an effort to protect vessels seeking to move through the Strait of Hormuz.

    The United States and Iran made competing claims about having control of the strait, which remains effectively closed. Only two ships were known to have passed through the waterway on Monday. None appear to have made the trip on Tuesday, when the United Arab Emirates said it had come under attack by Iranian missiles and drones for the second day in a row.

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the United States was still working to free trapped vessels, adding, “We’re ensuring that we have control of that strait, which we do.” Iran’s state broadcaster dismissed the U.S. effort as a failure and said Iranian control over the waterway had “intensified.”

    The Emirates said its air defense systems were intercepting the weapons, but it was not clear if any had gotten through or caused damage. Iran did not confirm or deny that it was behind the attacks.

    Mr. Trump suggested to reporters in the Oval Office that Iran knew what actions would violate the cease-fire; American officials say the country has fired on U.S. ships several times. Mr. Trump dismissed the attacks as minor, but declined to specify what he would deem a violation. “You’ll find out,” he said, “because I’ll let you know.”

    On Monday, U.S. Central Command said American forces shot down cruise missiles and drones it said were aimed American vessels, and destroyed six Iranian speedboats.

    Mr. Hegseth cast the new U.S. naval effort that began on Monday as defensive and temporary. “We’re not looking for a fight,” he told reporters at the Pentagon.

    Mr. Hegseth said two commercial vessels had crossed the strait under U.S. military protection on Monday. But overall ship traffic remains a trickle compared to before the war, when around 130 vessels a day made the passage.

    Here’s what else we’re covering:

    Shipping: Some 1,600 ships, and roughly 20,000 seafarers, remain stranded in or near the strait, but an American-flagged vessel made the passage on Monday.

    Continues…

    You do the math- Greatest Navy in the History of the world trying to open up the Strait, gives efforts an impressive name, US and Iran claim control of strait, 2 ships pass through in 2 days (2 Monday, none today), Iran seizes two ships; Strait is effectively frozen. WTH is the red, white and blue dome doing to get ships moving through the Strait? Who’s in control of the Strait? Who’s a poor boy to believe???

  48. Blue

    You hit on a major complaint of mine about Broadway shows. The majority are actually taped for copyright purposes and stored at the Library of Congress & New York Public Library. Unfortunately, they can only be viewed at those locations with controlled access. The problems involve union and performer contracts plus creator rights that would have to be juggled. Only a few rare shows like Hamilton that negotiate the public release are available and even those have limited availability.

    The laws in Britain are very different, so most of the available shows filmed or streamed are ones from the West End. That is why you can see the West End Barnum with Michael Crawford but not the Broadway Barnum with Jim Dale.

    If you do get a chance to go to New York (or visit Craig in DC), call in advance to make reservations and you could view any musical not currently running.

  49. We cover the clips from the performative CA Gov debate and the Midwest MAGA primary results out of IN & MI. We look for the tea leaves and the receipts. Grab a seat at the Diner tomorrow 11am ET.

  51. It had to happen. WaPo.*

    U.S. agency sues New York Times, accusing it of bias against White male employee

    The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleged that the newspaper violated civil rights law by denying a promotion to a White man and blamed its adherence to DEI policies.

    By Scott Nover

    The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued the New York Times on Tuesday, alleging that the news organization violated federal law by passing over a White male employee for a promotion.

    “No one is above the law — including ‘elite’ institutions,” EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas, an appointee of President Donald Trump, wrote in a statement. “There is no such thing as ‘reverse discrimination’; all race or sex discrimination is equally unlawful, according to long-established civil rights principles.”

    She continued: “Federal law is clear: making hiring or promotion decisions motivated in whole or in part by race or sex violates federal law. There is no diversity exception to this rule.”

    The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Lower Manhattan, alleges that the Times violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title I of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 in denying an unnamed employee a promotion. The EEOC said the Times’ emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), which the Trump administration has worked to eliminate, was to blame.

    “The New York Times categorically rejects the meritless and politically motivated allegations that the Trump administration’s EEOC is pursuing against us,” Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha wrote in a statement Sunday after the newspaper first reported on the brewing litigation. “… Throughout this process, the EEOC deviated from standard practices in highly unusual ways, blatantly weaponizing a traditionally independent government body to serve a predetermined narrative.”

    The White male employee sought a job as deputy real estate editor, according to the lawsuit, and lost to a multiracial female candidate without direct experience covering real estate.

    “Neither race nor gender played a role in this decision,” Rhoades Ha said in a follow-up statement Tuesday. “We hired the most qualified candidate, and she is an excellent editor.”

    Kalpana Kotagal, the sole Democrat on the commission, voted against authorizing the lawsuit. While everyone is entitled to employment protections under the law, she said in a post on social media, the mere existence of DEI policies isn’t enough to demonstrate misconduct.

    She also questioned the motivations behind the lawsuit.

    “Regrettably, I fear this litigation is driven not by the merits, but by a desire to advance the administration’s political agenda, which weakens civil rights protections for workers and undermines employer efforts to advance equal employment opportunity,” she said.

    The lawsuit follows reporting in the Times alleging that staffers at the EEOC are under intense pressure to bring cases that further the Trump administration’s agenda, including dismantling DEI policies. The Washington Post has not independently verified that reporting.

    The lawsuit echoes previous EEOC actions in recent months. In March, Planned Parenthood of Illinois settled an EEOC investigation into discrimination against White employees, agreeing to pay $500,000 to end the probe. In February, the commission subpoenaed Nike in an investigation over how its DEI practices have affected White workers.

    The Times is no stranger to squaring off with Trump in court. Last year, the Times sued the Defense Department over a controversial press policy. A federal judge ruled in favor of the Times, finding the Pentagon’s policy unconstitutional, though the government is appealing. Trump has also sued the Times in his personal capacity, alleging the paper defamed him in its reporting on his business achievements.

    Thanks Magats.

    *The article is unusually concise so I posted the entire article. If there’s a fair use (or whatever) issue, Poobah, feel free to edit to correct it.

  52. So sad.

    Margaret Renkl, Alabama-born writer who covered the South in all its natural beauty, ends New York Times column

    For years, Margaret Renkl has written about some of the things closest to her heart–family, nature, the South– many of them featured in her long-running column for The New York Times.

    Now, the Birmingham area native is saying goodbye to “The Gray Lady” after nearly a decade.

    Renkl, who was born in Andalusia and grew up in Homewood, announced Monday that she would no longer be a contributing opinion writer for The Times, a newspaper where she wrote about “flora, fauna, politics and culture in the American South” since 2017. Her last piece was “The Whooping Crane Recovery Shows What We Stand to Lose,” published March 2.

    In a Facebook post announcing her decision to leave NYT, Renkl said that in the midst of a divisive political schism in the country, it was hard to find a proper home for the kind of writing she enjoyed most.

    https://www.cbs42.com/news/margaret-renkl-alabama-born-writer-who-covered-the-south-in-all-its-natural-beauty-ends-new-york-times-column/?

  56. Jeanine Pirro poisoning the well with info before the DC Mall shooter has even been charged, and giving her opinion on the WHCD event.

  57. We called Senator Thune’s office live to ask why a $1B White House ballroom beats $4B for free community college tuition. It’s comforting to know our tax dollars are hard at work buying chandeliers instead of an educated workforce.
    Watch the 30:second clip:

  58. Craig
    Cilantro, not parsley.
    Serve it with warmed corn tacos for gringo style street tacos.
    Also good on your tacos
    open a can of black beans drain add a clove of garlic about the size of your thumb, twice that of chopped onion, 1 jalapeno peeled and diced, 1/2 cup of chicken stock and a teaspoon of cumin. Bring to a boil and cook until liquid is reduced.
    Guacamole, it is easy.
    1 ripe avacado, a small clove of garlic or larger depending on your tolerance for raw garlic, 1/4 cup of finely minced onion juice from 1/2 a lime. Mash it all up and stir until creamy, salt to tast.
    put both the beans y the guac with your meat on a soft corn tortilla for an out of this world taco.

    Jack

  60. You know….if they gave every citizen one million dollars. It would only be around $a300 million or so, right?

    Why don’t they do that?

  63. RFK Jr wants to ban Bill Gates lab-grown meat. Finally, a rare moment of clarity in the political dumpster fire. We agree: fake meat is gross. Stick to rice and beans.
    From today’s Digital Diner menu 🍽️

  64. Jack, when you start with Linda, it’s a perfect playlist. I enjoyed it muchly.

    We had an excellent SGA entertainment committee when I was a junior or senior at Bama. They had a good budget for free concerts. Linda, Charlie Daniels, Dirt Band, Doug Kershaw were two of them. I recall a particularly strange one with a very drunk Bobby Whitlock, who put on a terrific outdoor performance. There were others – I’ll sleep on it and report back.

    And no Don Julio – had to settle for Jose Quervo ( also had a little Suaza, but it’s for emergencies)

  65. Stir, I’m a little rusty at math but $1M x 300m is $390T unless I’m real rusty on my times and gozintas.

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