87 thoughts on “Breaking and Braking Bad”

  2. and to


    President Trump is trying to have it both ways on the Iran war, Pete Hegseth oversaw an historic surge in Pentagon spending on food and housewares, and the president is making all the men in his orbit wear shoes from Florsheim.

  3. or to


    It comes from the group behind the popular Trump-Epstein friendship statue and will be up until Friday.

  4. Kimmel’s take


    We are on day eleven of Trump’s war with Iran and he is saying that it could end “very soon,” the price of oil has skyrocketed over the past ten days and some of his advisors want him to declare victory and pull out, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is trying to calm those concerned about the duration of the war, a damning report from a government watchdog report revealed that Hegseth blew through $93 billion last September alone, Iran announced their new Supreme Leader who is the son of their old Supreme Leader, Trump’s former real estate attorney turned expert on foreign wars Alina Habba had some on-air blunders during an interview, Trump suggested that the Tomahawk missile that hit an Iranian school for girls wasn’t from the U.S., and Melania’s new documentary is now streaming.


  5. Republican Clay Fuller and Democrat Shawn Harris will head to an April runoff in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene in the US House of Representatives.

  6. The problem for Harris is that Dems and independents got just a fraction over 40% of the vote with Repugs getting just a fraction over 58%. Those numbers don’t look good for the Dems in the runoff.

  7. And in war News, in Dumbass’ opinion, the only country that has Tomahawk missiles that is involved thus far in this conflict, that would be us, didn’t fire on the school that was destroyed and killed 175 people, many children, which was adjacent to targets we did fire up upon at the same time, and instead he believes Iran fired that missile and that they’re just imprecise in their targeting.

  8. Jeffrey Epstein had two key aides – why do they still control his money and secrets?

    When the FBI raided Jeffrey Epstein’s New York mansion in July 2019, on the day he was arrested for child sex trafficking, agents forced open a large safe to find diamonds, bundles of cash, passports, binders of CDs and hard drives.

    But an issue with the warrant meant they could not leave with the items. And when they returned with a new one, the safe had been emptied while they were gone – according to FBI documents.

    Richard Kahn, Epstein’s accountant and bookkeeper since 2005, had told the mansion’s staff to pack two suitcases with the contents of the safe and deliver them to his home, agents wrote.

    After the FBI spoke to Kahn’s then lawyer, Kahn agreed to hand over the suitcases untouched, but he did not want agents coming to his house and declined to say who had told him to remove the items.

    However, a source close to the investigation into Epstein told us that he was not aware of Kahn ever being interviewed or investigated in relation to the paedophile financier’s criminal investigation.

    Kahn’s current lawyer told BBC News that his client had fully co-operated with the FBI’s requests.

  11. PROGRAMMING NOTE: Our daily Digital Diner podcast airs at 11-Noon ET on YouTube. JOIN the chatroom here. WATCH yesterday’s replay here

    What America is Actually Clicking: March 11, 2026

    1. Conflict: [Ongoing] Suspected Iranian drones struck at least three commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz overnight, defying U.S. warnings. – CBS News
    2. Conflict: [Ongoing] Two drones struck near Dubai International Airport, injuring four people and disrupting the world’s busiest travel hub. – Mint
    3. Military: The Pentagon confirmed U.S. forces destroyed 16 Iranian mine-laying vessels caught attempting to blockade global oil transit. – AP News
    4. Energy: Shell and TotalEnergies declared force majeure on Qatari LNG shipments today as regional production grinds to a halt. – BNN Bloomberg
    5. Finance: JPMorgan has begun marking down portfolios in the $2 trillion private credit market as corporate loan defaults rise. – BNN Bloomberg
    6. U.S. Politics: [Ongoing] The DHS shutdown continues to cripple TSA operations, leading to massive security delays at Philadelphia and other major airports. – WHYY
    7. Economy: [Ongoing] Market analysts warn of “Black Swan” volatility as the Iran war accelerates global efforts to bypass the U.S. dollar. – Asia Times
    8. Global: The South African army has been deployed to the streets of Johannesburg to quell a surge in organized crime and illegal mining. – AP News via WRAL
    9. Nation: The Powerball jackpot has surged to $58 million for tonight’s drawing after no one matched Saturday’s winning numbers. – Economic Times
    10. Offbeat: A man seeking genetic testing for Lynch syndrome discovered he already had cancer, leading to a life-saving early surgery. – WHYY

    These are the stories driving the most traffic across U.S. outlets right now—not necessarily the stories we think you should read, and not always the most recent.

    A roundup by our AI partner Silas (Gemini).

  14. Rick and I voted yesterday in our town election. People were in a bad mood over how much their property taxes have gone up over the last 2 yrs. So… everything got voted down ( except money for the ambulance service). Gonna be interesting to see what happens in my little town over the next year.

    Going to the senior luncheon this morning… I’m sure the talking will be lively!

  15. “Offbeat: A man seeking genetic testing for Lynch syndrome discovered he already had cancer, leading to a life-saving early surgery. – WHYY”

    This one highlighted a pet peeve of mine. The man had ignored calls for a long time because he didn’t recognize the number. He finally answered because he was irritated by them calling and not leaving a message.

    I do the same thing and totally ignore and delete them. If you have real business and want a call back, put an identity instead of just a number or leave a message.

  16. Dodo-the-Biggest-Fuck-Up-President

    The extent of that miscalculation was laid bare in recent days, as Iran threatened to fire at commercial oil tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic choke point through which all ships must pass on their way out of the Persian Gulf. In response to the Iranian threats, commercial shipping has come to a standstill in the Gulf, oil prices have spiked, and the Trump administration has scrambled to find ways to tamp down an economic crisis that has triggered higher gasoline prices for Americans.

    The episode is emblematic of how much Mr. Trump and his advisers misjudged how Iran would respond to a conflict that the government in Tehran sees as an existential threat.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/us/politics/how-trump-miscalculated-iran-response.html

  17. Quote of the day, a long one, not a quip.

    Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone.

    It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

    The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities.

    It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population.

    It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway.

    We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat.

    We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.

    This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road. the world has been taking.

    This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.
    Dwight Eisenhower, 1953

  18. The Pentagon confirmed U.S. forces destroyed 16 Iranian mine-laying vessels…

    but was this before or after any mines were laid?

    like laid eggs, don’t count your chickens before they hatch nor mine bombs not exploded

  19. Jack
    Yet another reminder that we’ve manager to go in 75 years from Truman and Ike to the rotten bastards running around crazy in DC today.
    Que lâstima.

  20. Pat
    I assumed it was where ever they were docked when they “destroyed” the rest of the Iranian navy. I suspect this was just repeating the news of the day before, just making it sound new.
    Which begs the question, just how big was this navy anyway?

  21. Under the Law of Unintended Consequences.
    The Environmental push to reduce carbon emissions, that Trump and the Republicans oppose, have given them a free hand to create chaos in the oil producing world
    A quote pulled from the Wall Street Journal:

    Higher oil prices are like a tax, cutting into household consumption while boosting inflation and interest rates. But that effect has shrunk as the U.S. became less energy dependent. The U.S. consumed 4% less gasoline in 2025 than in 2007, while producing 42% more goods and services (as measured by gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation). The share of households’ consumption of energy, including electricity, natural gas and gasoline, fell from 5.7% in 2007 to 3.7% last year.

  22. “I assumed it was where ever they were docked…”

    jack, docked after or before laying mines. any photos of extraordinary explosions occurring when those mine-layers were destroyed?

  23. I would say before but then that would be under the assumption that it was a well coordinated and planned operation.
    Not something you can assume with the current bunch of bozos running our nation.

    Jack

  24. https://www.usatoday.com/

    It’s Russia, not America, that benefits from Trump’s Iran war | Opinion
    […]
    Trump’s war is certainly helping Russia.

    Oil prices have surged thanks to American and Israeli strikes on Iran and that country’s counterstrikes around the region, prompting a stall on tankers trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz from the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman. That means more money for Russia’s exported oil, which will fund the war it started in Ukraine.

    Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on March 5 announced a 30-day waiver on U.S. sanctions to allow Russia to sell more oil to India, in an effort to lower the increasing cost of gasoline in this country.

    To recap: Trump starts a war, then Iran retaliates with Russia’s help, driving up the price of gas, and America responds by helping Russia sell more oil, so Russia can keep killing Ukrainians.
    […]
    Trump’s war with Iran is looking more Russia-first
    The Washington Post on March 6 first reported that Russia had been helping Iran locate U.S. warships and aircraft in the Middle East. Trump’s entire team offered a collective shrug to that news, while Trump himself has prioritized emphasizing what a great relationship he has with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    “He was very impressed with what he saw because nobody’s ever seen anything quite like it,” Trump told journalists in a March 9 news conference after he spoke with Putin.

    Let me see if I have this straight: Russia is helping Iran target America’s military, but Trump’s focus is on how Putin is impressed with his actions in Iran.

    A conventional U.S. presidential administration would respond in one of two ways when, after launching an attack on one longtime geopolitical foe, hearing credible reports that another longtime geopolitical foe was working against us in that fight. They would deny the reports. Or they would demand an end to that assistance.

    […]
    But guess who’s here to help! A Kremlin spokesperson on March 10 said Putin has offered to mediate the conflict between Iran and the United States.

    Putin ‒ the same autocratic leader benefiting from the conflict, which is funding his war in Ukraine, where he has consistently outmaneuvered Trump’s efforts to mediate an end to that conflict.

    That’s like putting an arsonist in charge of the fire department. Putin has every reason to let it all burn.
    [continues]

  29. Craig – I’m in the spinal stenosis camp, too, but physical therapy & especially a decompression table and then being a pool worked wonders.

  30. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/epstein-files-zorro-ranch-santa-fe-investigation-b2935851.html

    On Monday, police swept onto the 8,000 acre property and started a search which continued into yesterday. The authorities have not provided any estimate or schedule for how many days the search will continue or when it might be completed, but for many who have been raising the alarm over Epstein’s activities there, it has been a long time coming.

    There have been rumours for years that the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein used his sprawling ranch and remoteness to conceal his child sex-trafficking operations. Then there was a much reported but never proven story that Epstein also discussed a plan to impregnate multiple women at the ranch to spread his DNA and wanted to use it as a ‘baby ranch’ for a sick eugenics experiment.

    For Epstein, the isolation of Stanley, New Mexico, provided the perfect petri dish for a philosophy rooted in his fascination with transhumanism and eugenics.

    However, one of the most disturbing claims in the recently released Epstein files comes from a witness who alleged in a message included in DOJ records that two foreign girls died there during rough sexual encounters.

    The message, purportedly from a former ranch staff member, offered to trade incriminating videos of Epstein with minors in exchange for one bitcoin. But the most chilling detail was the sender’s claim that two foreign girls had been murdered and buried “in the hills” surrounding the compound. The victims, he said, had died during “rough, fetish sex” involving strangulation.

    Huffines [the new owner] has since renamed the estate San Rafael Ranch, after the patron saint of healing, and is in the process of reimagining the site as a Christian retreat.

    While Huffines has publicly pledged to cooperate with any law enforcement request, the change in ownership and the passage of time raise fears that critical physical evidence may have been inadvertently compromised, purged, or simply lost to the desert.

    iIt is a challenge that Marianna Anaya, a freshman Democratic legislator and a central figure on the Truth Commission, knows all too well.

    “New Mexico is always overlooked,” she tells The Independent. “The people here have been silenced in many ways. Historically, New Mexico has had a lot of missing and murdered Indigenous women in particular, and a lot of women of colour whose deaths have never been investigated. And so for us, it is also a priority to try to figure out how New Mexicans were a part of this ranch story.”

    “I know a lot of folks talk about the women who were trafficked [to the ranch], many of them from other countries or other parts of our country, but I would really like to know what happened to the women of New Mexico too.”

    “I believe there are a lot of witnesses that may not have been heard. And I believe that there are enough people involved who are still alive and or in the community that we can piece together, not just a solid story, but hopefully achieve some accountability.”

    At the centre of the reopened inquiry is a disturbing electronic tip received in 2019 by Albuquerque radio host Eddy Aragon. Last month, the New Mexico Department of Justice said it had requested a copy of the email sent to Aragon containing the allegation that bodies had been buried up at Zorro.

    Although Aragon reported the email to the FBI immediately, there is little evidence that the Bureau aggressively pursued the lead or treated the 8,000-acre property as a potential crime scene.

  31. Trump calls the economy a roar, but at $7 a gallon, that roar is actually just my bank account screaming into the void. Welcome to the war-driven inflation dumpster fire where the flames are festive.

    Watch the moment in today’s Trail Mix podcast:

  32. Going back to tRUMP’s shoe fetish, I’m reminded of that sad picture of the Heaven’s Gate cult, who unalived themselves by poisoned pudding cups. Blankets covered their bodies, but their feet were sticking out and they were all wearing matching sneakers.

  33. The Power of Dress: How Fashion was Used in Fascist Italy to Promote a “New Italian” Identity

    “Fascism conceives of the States as an absolute, in comparison with which all individuals or groups are relative, only to be conceived in relation to the State.”
    -Benito Mussolini on Fascism (Mussolini).

    Women exercised several new freedoms in the early twentieth century. During World War I, many worked since the men were off fighting. They also wore makeup, went out at night, and drank alcohol. Women followed a fashion trend known as la maschietta, which means “the tomboy.” They wore more revealing and masculine clothes such as shorter skirts, tailored pants, and lower necklines. Fascists realized that fashion played an important role in their propaganda because it was something they could control all aspects of, from producing the textiles to publishing fashion collections and magazines.

    Nazi Germany was also experimenting with “fascist fashion.” Hitler created the German Fashion Institute to counter the French and other foreign fashion movements that contrasted his views of women and fashion.

    Similar to Hitler, Mussolini also despised French fashion. He disliked the newfound freedoms women possessed during and after World War I and wanted to revert back to the patriarchal society.

    As a result, Mussolini launched la nuova Italiana, which is known as the “New Italian Woman.” According to the la nuova Italiana, women should wear clothes that are “glamorous, sophisticated, hyperfeminine” in contrast with the more masculine clothes women were starting to wear at the time (d’Avignon).

    Another fascist fashion movement in Italy is the massaie rurali, which translates to “ladies of the field.” This spread through rural Italy, where women were advised to wear traditional peasant clothing and promoted motherhood over any other profession. Mothers were paid to have children so that there would be more little fascists running around Italy. According to Mussolini, the quintessential Italian woman was someone “whose buxom beauty signaled domesticity, and reminded women of their procreative responsibilities to the nation” (Zanoni 44).

  36. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/11/spain-removes-ambassador-from-israel-as-opposes-war-on-iran-gaza-genocide

    The Spanish government has decided ⁠to withdraw its ⁠ambassador to Israel…

    Spain’s embassy in Tel ⁠Aviv will ⁠be led by a ⁠charge d’affaires, a ⁠source ⁠at the Foreign Ministry said, according to Reuters news agency.

    The country’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is one of the few left-wing leaders in Europe to condemn the US-Israel attack on Iran as “unjustifiable” and said that Madrid’s position was “no to the war”.

    Sanchez’s government has also been one of the few European nations to consistently condemn Israel’s action in Gaza.

  40. https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/10/pentagon-iran-school-strike-civilian-casualties-00820780

    Hegseth gutted offices that would have probed Iran school strike

    The number of Pentagon employees who focus on mitigating civilian casualties has dropped from 200 people to less than 40.

    Around 200 employees who worked on the issue, including at that office, have been reduced by about 90 percent, according to two current and former officials and a person familiar with the effort.

    Hegseth can’t close the offices because they are approved by Congress. But he has managed to make them nearly inoperable, according to the people, as the Pentagon investigates its responsibility in what could be the worst U.S.-led killing of civilians since 2003. Iranian state media said the strike killed about 170 children and 14 teachers.

    Hegseth has said no other country takes as many precautions to ensure the U.S. is not targeting civilians. But the Pentagon chief, who has long derided the use of laws in war, this week called military rules of engagement “stupid.”
    “We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country,” he said at a Tuesday press conference on the U.S.-Israeli military operation. “No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement, just common sense, maximum lethality and authority for warfighters.”

    *ps – Obviously, I can’t math the math, but these numbers don’t look helpful, and Leaky Pete is a maniacal, ‘roided up, idiot, IMO.

  41. Craig and Blue, I have lower lumbar spinal stenosis. Went to physical therapy for it when my first bout happened when I was twenty and kept doing the exercises. It helps so much! Now I just go to the chiropractor when it gets bad or pop my good muscle relaxer and use my massage gun.

    Anyway, other fun news, FINALLY got my marriage certificate and the app for my REAL ID done. Took three counties to come together to make it happen and, thankfully, they are all within driving distance of each other. Makes me think about the people who have to get all this stuff if the Save Act passes. DMV and Records will be a nightmare.

  42. Katie – This is a perfect example of how the Save Act would disenfranchise voters who happen to be women and who happen to have changed their last name (not sure if you did or not).

    The time involved, and the distance, and the cost of that (away from work, travel) plus the cost of the documents would prevent many married (or formerly married) women from having the necessary documentation to vote.

    Hmmm, I wonder if that was some of the purpose of Real ID, because surveillance tech wasn’t up to snuff 20 years ago.

    Maybe Real ID walked so that Palantir could run.

  43. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cannot-sustainable-u-borrowed-50-145204511.html

    The U.S. Treasury’s borrowing showed no signs of slowing as the U.S. headed deeper into fiscal year 2026, with the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reporting that another $1 trillion was added to the federal deficit in the first five months of the year.

    The monthly budget review from the CBO, updated to February 2026 and released yesterday, showed that the government is estimated to have borrowed $308 billion last month alone.

    Of course, with more borrowing comes higher interest costs on the debt. Between October 2025 (when the 2026 fiscal year started) and February, the Treasury spent an additional $31 billion on net interest on public debt, compared to the prior year. As a result, in just five months, the Treasury forked out a total of $433 billion to service public debt, which is now nearing $38.9 trillion.

    Looking at the first five months of FY26, the deficit picture didn’t improve from FY25 because of a reduction in spending. Rather, the government generated greater revenues to offset its higher spending.

    Collections of customs duties—such as revenues from tariffs—were more than four times the amount recorded in the first five months of last year, an increase of $109 billion. While some of the duties collected in 2025 will have to be returned to U.S. importers following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on February 20, subsequent tariffs announced by the Oval Office mean the shortfall in revenues is relatively subdued.

    *Tax the rich!

  44. Here’s a teaser for tomorrow’s regular Throwback Thursday visit with our C-SPAN pal Extreme Mortman. And what a special treat it is. Here’s the teaser. Join us tomorrow 11-Noon ET.

    For more, visit https://trailmix.cc/extreme

    EXTREME MORTMAN PODCAST PROMO: ExMo award for best movie reference by a politician — Academy Awards edition:

  45. Katie, i couldn’t get a chiropractor to treat mine, sent me straight to a surgeon. But luckily he recommended steroid injections instead of the knife. Got one today, which always encourages me to get physical therapy, or at least ride my recumbent bike, or walk on my treadmill, or maybe a real walk in the neighborhood. This is my springtime tradition, works well for me.

  47. https://www.military.com/daily-news/2026/03/06/lawmakers-want-dod-hegseth-investigated-biblical-armageddon-claims.html

    On Friday, Congressional Freethought Caucus co-chairs Reps. Jared Huffman (CA) and Jamie Raskin (MD) and House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel Ranking Member Chrissy Houlahan (PA) led 27 of their Democratic colleagues in requesting U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) Inspector General Platte B. Moring III to open an investigation into these reports and claims “invoking religious prophecy and apocalyptic theology to justify the United States’ military actions in Iran.”

    “If accurate, these outrageous statements—justifying a war based on interpretations of biblical prophecies, and informing troops that they are risking their lives to advance a specific religious vision—raises not only glaring Constitutional concerns, but potential violations of Department of Defense regulations regarding religious neutrality and breaches of professional obligations and standards expected of military leadership,” the lawmakers wrote in their two-page letter shared with Military.com.

    Members of the United States Armed Forces swear an oath to support and defend our secular Constitution—not any specific religious doctrines—and servicemembers must be able to carry out their duties free from coercive religious messaging by their chain of command.

    A complaint shared by an anonymous non-commissioned officer to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) claimed that non-commissioned officers were told that the Iran war is part of God’s plan and that President Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” as originally reported by journalist Jonathan Larsen. Between Saturday and Tuesday afternoon, MRFF logged more than 200 similar complaints across 50 installations encompassing every branch of the military, its founder, Mikey Weinstein, told Military.com.

    The accusations, which received no direct response from the Pentagon when inquired by Military.com, have drawn widespread attention—in part due to the Pentagon’s open embrace of Christianity through monthly prayer services in addition to appearances and speaking engagements by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at Christian-themed events. MRFF is composed roughly of 95% Christians.

    *Hmmm ~Christians~

    We urge you to assess whether Secretary Hegseth’s extreme religious rhetoric has metastasized into segments of the military chain of command in ways that contravene constitutional protections, departmental rules and standards, or professional military norms.

  48. Why does a man who “insists on being dominant in every public relationship go all submissive around one man”? It’s time to get back on the blackmail train.

    Watch the moment with my favorite senator — Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) 👉

  51. My only piece of equipment that came along on the moving truck. Back-saver, if you have a room to set it up in.

  52. Joining in on the bad back brigade. Ridiculously silly accident 40 years ago landed me in traction with paralyzed left leg. Exercise, muscle relaxant, pain injections made me mobile. But over the years lost the cushions between vertebrae and two short hospital stays since. Went to a walker a couple of years ago. Avoided surgery but get MRI next week. Fingers crossed will still avoid the drastic.

  53. There’s a TV ad for “Shield,” but it’s not the thing Noem is now heading up, it’s a blood test for colon cancer. It also sounds like deodorant and a feminine product.

    https://www.newsweek.com/kristi-noems-new-role-wont-shield-her-from-biggest-problem-11646520

    In an interview cited by NBC News, Representative Jamie Raskin listed deaths, violence, and questions over civil rights and liberties that took place under her watch.

    And Noem’s new diplomatic role as a “special envoy” for the Trump’s Shield of the America’s Initiative is not expected to grant her any immunity or reprieve from the cases in which she is listed as a defendant.

    “Diplomatic immunity is only a shield against foreign prosecution (and even then simply giving someone a special envoy title doesn’t necessarily suffice). It has no significance or effect whatsoever on domestic criminal jurisdiction,” Chimène Keitner, Director of the Center for International Law and Policy at the U.C. Davis School of Law.

  54. well i made a bereavement dinner for the trumper neighbors and they said it was the best meal they ever had

    so conflicted right now

    they could have had more such dinners if they didn’t join a hate cult, just sayin’

  55. Access to a swimming pool (after the decompression table) saved me. Just walk into the pool until it’s up to your neck, put your arms straight out at your sides, then lift your legs and tread water slowly with your legs. Just hang there like a jellyfish. 🪼

  56. Hotdish vs. Casserole: What’s the Difference?

    The only difference between a casserole and a hotdish is where you’re from.

    If you’re from Minnesota, a cozy casserole dish with a mixture of protein, starch, cheese/condensed soup/sauce, and sometimes vegetables is a hotdish.

    If you’re from anywhere else, including Minnesota-adjacent states, the exact same dish is called a casserole.

    *If it has tater tots, it’s “funeral casserole” in Nebraska, which is the only time I’ve ever seen it.

  57. Iran War Alert: The Minab School Strike

    Covering the Coverage

    • [Mainstream]: Internal U.S. assessments suggest the military is “likely” responsible for the Feb 28 bombing of the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school, citing outdated intelligence that mapped the school as a military site. – CBS News
    • [Fact-Check]: [Ongoing] Detailed analysis debunks President Trump’s evidence-free claim that the school strike “was done by Iran,” noting that Defense Secretary Hegseth has notably declined to echo the President’s version of events. – FactCheck.org
    • [Independent]: [Ongoing] Video and satellite analysis confirm a U.S.-made Tomahawk missile hit the naval base adjacent to the school; Trump pivots to claiming “somebody else” could have used the American-made munitions. – The Guardian
    • [Progressive]: Critics label the strike an “egregious war crime” and call for an indictment of the “DC warmongering machinery” that paved the way for the conflict and the resulting civilian casualties. – Common Dreams
    • [Media Analysis]: An investigation into why mainstream outlets “slow-walked” the coverage of the Minab massacre, suggesting a hesitancy to report on the growing human toll of Operation Epic Fury. – Responsible Statecraft
    • [Government/Official]: Secretary of War Pete Hegseth frames the narrative of “winning,” claiming Iran is putting its own civilians at risk by launching missiles from near schools and hospitals. – War.gov
    • [Legal Analysis]: Leak of military probe findings indicates that the strike may have involved AI targeting tools (Palantir/Maven) that failed to account for the school’s location change from a decade ago. – India Today

    Silas Gemini

  58. Cannot do traction since that flares up the Fibromyalgia! My chiropractor worked in a pain clinic for years before going to her own practice. She uses an activator gun. It is a gentle push on the bone. It also causes a flare up, but not as bad as when it was manual adjustments. That usually is just an ice and advil night.
    Anyway, I have an exercise ball that I use that helps strengthen your stomach muscles so it supports your back.

  60. they can’t admit they don’t know what they’re doing

    they think they know what they’re doing

    they don’t

    and i understand (some of) their grand plans

    but you know what they say

  61. and if you have no morals, like miller and trump (et al.), then it doesn’t matter if you don’t know what you’re doing, because collateral damage doesn’t matter

    you’re collateral damage

    impeach the madman

  63. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/11/2372696/-Where-did-all-of-Trump-s-library-bribes-go

    Senate Democrats are asking what, exactly, happened to the at least $63 million that Trump extracted from media and technology companies to settle his fake lawsuits against them.

    It turns out that the fund set up to receive those millions, the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Fund, Inc., no longer exists—because of course it doesn’t.

    The fund was set up in Florida, but state officials dissolved it in September 2025 after it failed to submit a mandatory annual report.

    That might seem like nothing but an odd misstep, perhaps an inexperienced person serving as a registrant for the fund who didn’t understand the paperwork requirements. But that argument falls apart when you learn that the registrant was Jacob Roth, who was at a little law firm called Dhillon Law Group at the time.

    Yes, that’s the firm that was founded by Harmeet Dhillon, who now heads the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice—not because she loves civil rights but because she’s an election denier and voter suppression enthusiast.

    Roth formed Trump’s presidential inauguration committee fund—which also served as a sterling opportunity for big donors to bribe the president—and has raked in millions over the years that it’s represented Trump and his campaigns.

    This is not some babe in the woods who didn’t understand what he was doing. Instead, it looks a lot more like an attempt to avoid filing any paperwork that would have revealed anything about this murky fund, letting Florida dissolve it instead.

    If that seems like an unduly cynical conclusion, it probably won’t when you learn that not long after the fund was dissolved, a new one called the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation, Inc., was created in December 2025. It reported receiving $50 million in contributions, but there’s no confirmation that this is where the faux-settlement money went.

    And now, no one’s talking.

    The White House says to ask Trump’s library, the foundation’s trustee won’t answer questions, and Roth referred questions to the Dhillon Law Group—a perfect closed circle of nonanswers.

    When Trump first started collecting “donations” for his library by suing media companies for bribes, the amounts seemed impossibly large.

    ABC gave him $15 million to “settle” his defamation lawsuit in December 2024, which was absolutely staggering at the time. But then there was $25 million from Meta, another $10 million from X, and $16 million from CBS, and suddenly bribing Trump became routine, just the cost of doing business.

    The real grift for the library has come in the form of the largesse of the GOP in Florida, exceedingly happy to give the property of their residents away to Trump.

    In an elaborate scam, Miami-Dade College gave a state board overseen a downtown Miami parcel valued at more than $66 million for just $10. And the board then gave it to Trump’s library fund for another $10.

    Even that pales in comparison to the $400 million jumbo jet bribe that Trump received from Qatar, which taxpayers get to pay to fix up but Trump gets to keep—also for his library.

    Some back-of-the-envelope math here shows that this nonexistent library has already netted Trump a cool half-billion or so, and that’s just in the last 16 months.

  65. https://abcnews.com/US/fbi-warns-iran-aspired-attack-california-drones-retaliation/story

    The FBI warned police departments in California in recent days that Iran could retaliate for American attacks by launching drones at the West Coast, according to an alert reviewed by ABC News.

    “We recently acquired information that as of early February 2026, Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United State Homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California, in the event that the US conducted strikes against Iran,” according to the alert distributed at the end of February. “We have no additional information on the timing, method, target, or perpetrators of this alleged attack.”

    *Well, FBI, finish making up your story and get back to us. Not sure if they are just trying to stoke fear so folks will run to (gag) daddy, or if that is the faint odor of a false flag about to go down.

    I do NOT trust the US government under tRUMP, at all.

    Why California? Gavin. Kamala. Pelosi. Everything tRUMP hates or hated. Well, there’s no such thing as paste-tense hate for the orange blob.

  66. Trump’s lies about the Iranian school bombing go even further than Pentagon policy since the Iraq wars against talking about collateral damage. Here, the Digital Diner crew discusses how silence evolved into propaganda.

  68. Dodo says he doesn’t know nothing about no school bombing.

    Here’s what I don’t know: why the hell do people vote for a president who doesn’t know what he’s supposed to know? Since when did being poorly informed and slow on the uptake become a qualification? Wharton should lose its accreditation.

  69. “mistakes happen” is only justifiable while executing an unavoidable response in self-defense

    not for an “excursion” (HIS fucking term!)

  70. we had a diplomatic relationship with Iran established by the Obama admin and trumpco deliberately sabotaged it to start a war of choice

    it’s insane

    or just plain evil

  71. In the 60’s, Members of the klan set off a bomb in a church in Birmingham killing 4 little girls.
    Remorse?
    Apology?
    Feel bad?

    No. None of that.

    Thats the people who are running the government now. Klan people. Murdered a girl in the streets of Minneapolis with two shots in her face about 2 feet away. Murdered Alex Pretti, a nurse, in the same Minneapolis streets.
    Remorse?
    Apology?
    Feel bad?

    No. None of that.

    Murder is how they roll. No shame is their main resolve.
    They hired the klan to run amok in our city streets in unmarked cars wearing masks (hoods?) in a massive attempt to cause riots which would pave the way for the klan to wantonly get away with murder.

    It’s the klan.

  73. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/11/south-africa-summons-new-us-ambassador-over-undiplomatic-remarks

    South Africa’s government has summoned the United States ambassador to the country to discuss his “undiplomatic remarks”, a sign of the deepening rift between Pretoria and Washington.

    “We have called in the ambassador of the United States, Ambassador Bozell, to explain his undiplomatic remarks,” Lamola said.

    A conservative media advocate, Bozell has been a longtime ally of Trump. In late February, he took up his role as ambassador to South Africa.

    But he recently came under fire for comments denouncing what he called “hate speech”, as well as remarks critical of the country’s post-apartheid policies.

    Bozell also criticised policies meant to address apartheid-era employment disparities between white and Black South Africans. He compared the approach to apartheid-era policies that discriminated against Black citizens.

    Foreign Minister Lamola, however, denied that analogy. “Broad-based Black economic empowerment is not reverse racism, as regrettably insinuated by the ambassador,” Lamola said.

    “It is a fundamental instrument designed to address the structural imbalances of South Africa’s unique history. It is a constitutional imperative that the South African government can and will never abandon.”

    Lamola added that Bozell “must not take us back to a polarised society along racial lines”.

    Bozell’s appointment, in and of itself, has been viewed as ratcheting up tensions between the two countries.

    Bozell founded the Media Research Center, which describes itself as a “media watchdog” that works to “expose and counter the leftist bias of the national news media”.

    In 1990, when Nelson Mandela toured the US after being freed from prison amid his fight against apartheid, Bozell’s nonprofit criticised the media for having “never referred to Mandela as a saboteur or terrorist”.

    *Installing white supremacists as ambassadors, wow. Another ambassador got called on the carpet last week. France, I think.

  74. the iran/covid analogy is always going to be a poor one btw

    i get what you’re trying to do

    C+ for effort

  75. one was a bungled response, the other is a war of choice

    maladministration in both, but that’s true of everything trumpco does

  76. D W Griffith’s Birth of a Nation has become mandatory viewing.

    For Trump et al – Instruction video
    For the still sane – Call to opposition

  77. I think the FBI lie (most likely), is to get Dems to cave on the DHS/ICE budget without any concessions. Now, why would anyone in the tRUMP admin say that Iran threatening the West Coast of the US…while the Coast Guard is shut down?

    Me thinks this is a ploy to get Dems to cave; give DHS more money to waste on inhumane, unconstitutional and illegal things without any concessions like requiring ID, use of signed judicial warrants, removal of face masks, not using chemical weapons against civilians, etc.

    ***

    Department of Homeland Security (DHS):
    Functions related to DHS are largely shut down due to funding disputes.
    • This includes:
    • U.S. Coast Guard

    • Transportation Security
    Administration (TSA)
    • Federal Emergency Management
    Agency (FEMA)
    • U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
    Services (USCIS)
    • Immigration and Customs
    Enforcement (ICE)
    • Customs and Border Protection
    (CBP)

  78. Well, Anon, maybe put it this way: If there isn’t a crisis to mismanage, Dumbass will manufacture one to mismanage. He can do no other.

  79. Thats the people who are running the government now. Klan people.

    The same ones who are mad as hornets at Gov. Kay Ivey for commuting the death sentence of an elderly Alabama inmate. They were salivating for that execution tomorrow night. Jim Crows, they never change.

  80. https://www.aol.com/articles/marjorie-taylor-greene-demands-lindsey-180921121.html

    “I go back to South Carolina, I’m asking them to send their sons and daughters over to the Middle East,” Graham said. “What I want you to do in the Middle East, our friends in Saudi Arabia and other places, step forward and say this is my fight too.”

    X users were horrified by Graham’s comments. “Please, South Carolina, send Lindsey Graham to the front lines instead of your precious children,” wrote Green.

    “What in the world would possess anyone to say this?” Nancy Mace, the republican South Carolina Representative, said.

    “Nothing like a single, childless, septuagenarian telling American mothers to send their children to go possibly die in a war,” Meghan McCain added.

    Over the weekend, Greene slammed press secretary Karoline Leavitt for lying.

    “Karoline Leavitt doesn’t rule out a draft,” said Greene, regarding an interview where Leavitt claimed the president had not ruled out instituting a draft. “How about the answer is NO DRAFT AND NO BOOTS ON THE GROUND because we campaigned on NO MORE FOREIGN WARS OR REGIME CHANGE!!!”

    “Liars, every single one of them! Not my son, over my dead body!!!!!” she added.

  81. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/nyregion/alexanders-brothers-trial-epstein.html

    …the latest Epstein files, including the name of one in an active sex-trafficking trial, a series of errors the agency was still working to correct on Tuesday.

    The documents released include an email from a lawyer that inadvertently revealed the name of one of the eight women who have accused Oren and Tal Alexander, and Oren Alexander’s twin brother, Alon Alexander, of sexual assault. Oren and Tal Alexander were once among the highest-earning real estate brokers in the United States.

    The email from the lawyer containing the name of the Alexander brothers’ alleged victim has now been redacted on the Justice Department’s website.

    The brothers are also mentioned separately in the Epstein files in an allegation of sexual assault against a minor. That allegation was first made to the F.B.I. in 2019 ; the original intake form appears in the files released on Friday, as does an email from 2025 in which the allegation was forwarded to investigators as part of a compilation of claims.

  82. Dr Annie Andrews is running against Graham in SC. He has been so seemingly inebriated and crazy that this young pediatrician has a chance.
    Bearing in mind the point of view from Billy in Mississippi, people have been sick of Lindsay for a long time. They might finally be sick enough.

    https://bsky.app/profile/drannieandrews.com

  83. ‘Most Dangerous Demagogue in This Country’: Ted Cruz Unloads on Republicans Too ‘Scared’ to Denounce Tucker Carlson

    Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) launched a blistering attack on conservative pundit Tucker Carlson on Tuesday, branding the former Fox News host “the single most dangerous demagogue in this country” and accusing him of helping fuel a rise in anti-Semitism on the American right.

    *Like it wasn’t already there. C’mon, Tedious.

    “I will say on the right, I have seen more anti-Semitism in the last 18 months on the Right than at any point in my lifetime,” Cruz told the audience. “A year and a half ago, I could not have imagined we would be here having this conversation. And it is growing. And it is gaining real purchase, especially with young people.”

    *Hmmm, now what else has changed in the last year and a half? Might not just be Fluffy.

  84. https://newrepublic.com/post/207593/karoline-leavitt-save-act-harder-married-women-vote

    Leavitt Admits SAVE Act Will Make It Harder for Married Women to Vote

    Responding to a reporter’s question Tuesday in the White House briefing room, Leavitt argued that the act—if realized—would not prevent married women from voting.

    Seconds later, she admitted that the bill actually would require married women and anyone else who has changed their name to re-register before they vote.

    “The Democrats have created this myth.… Let me be very clear: The SAVE America Act does not prohibit anyone from voting, with the exception of illegal aliens,” Leavitt said.

    “As far as married women who have changed their name, if they’ve already registered to vote, they’re entirely unaffected by the SAVE Act. For the small fraction of individuals who have changed their name or their address, they can still register to vote, of course. They just have to go through their state processes to update that documentation.

    The SAVE America Act suggests numerous amendments to the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, including line items that would abolish mail-in voting, require voters to bring proof of citizenship and proof of residency to register to vote, require voter ID, and mandate voter roll purges every 30 days, an enormous bureaucratic task that would place undue burdens on local election officials.

    But the act doesn’t stop there. It would also sprinkle in a couple other superficially unrelated regulations, including a federal law to prevent men from competing in women’s sports and a ban on “transgender mutilation surgery.”

    The president spent roughly 13 minutes of an hours-long speech on the topic while speaking to conservative lawmakers at his Doral resort, insisting the SAVE America bill should be the party’s “number one priority.”

    “It will guarantee the midterms,” Trump said. “If you don’t get it, big trouble, my opinion.”

  86. https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5779863-us-to-release-oil-from-strategic-reserve-trump-says/

    President Trump plans to tap into the U.S.’s oil stockpile, releasing 172 million barrels of oil.

    Asked about the Strategic Petroleum Reserve during a visit to Ohio, Trump told TV station Local 12, “I filled it up once, and I’ll fill it up again, but right now, we’ll reduce it a little bit, and that brings the prices down.”

    Shortly thereafter, the Energy Department issued a press release saying the administration would release 172 million barrels starting next week.

    *Well, Dumbass didn’t even bother to “fill it up”before starting a war with Iran.

    ps – That’s about one week’s worth.

    Search Assist –

    Storage Capacity
    • Total Capacity: 714 million barrels
    • Current Inventory: Approximately 415 million barrels

    Locations
    • The SPR is stored in four sites along the Gulf
    Coast:
    • Two in Texas (near Houston and Beaumont)
    • Two in Louisiana (near Lake Charles and
    Baton Rouge)

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