Excerpt: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gathered hundreds of junior officers and enlisted troops at a base in Virginia on Wednesday to extol the virtues of basing Pentagon policy on culture-war issues and to complain about the news media.

Calling it a “State of the Force” address, Mr. Hegseth doubled down on his decisions to fire dozens of admirals and generals, bar transgender people from serving and eliminate diversity programs. And not for the first time, he used vulgarities to describe certain groups of Americans.

“No fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals,” he said of the people who he believes have no place in the military.

As he pointed to a few reporters in the back of the auditorium, the defense secretary criticized “anti-American losers in our media,” accusing them of aiding the country’s enemies through their reporting on the war in Iran. …

The secretary pointed out three civilians in attendance, Elon Musk, the Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey, who wore a blazer over his signature Hawaiian shirt, and a former House speaker, Newt Gingrich. He called them “three of our nations’ best minds” and said they would lead a new effort called Project Meridian to study the future of warfare.

Me again: Hegseth is the Typhoid Mary of mental illness. He’s one of dozens, perhaps hundreds of utter lunatics in high-level positions in the Trump regime, and the only way it ends is with arrests — either theirs or ours.

Long untethered from the Constitution, the Supreme Court has already made women’s autonomy disappear. Seems likely they’ll use this case to ban abortion in all 50 states.

Excerpt: In a statement that referred to “L.G.B.+ youth services” — omitting the “T” for transgender — SAMHSA said the decision was based on a desire to “no longer silo” those services and to “focus on serving all help seekers.” …

However, the White House Office of Management and Budget has previously described the hotline’s L.G.B.T.Q. section as “a chat service where children are encouraged to embrace radical gender ideology by ‘counselors’ without consent or knowledge of their parents.” That language reflects the Trump administration’s broader efforts to eliminate services for and legal recognition of transgender people.

Me again: I’m old, damn it, so I probably won’t live long enough to leave a refreshing bowel movement atop Donald Trump’s grave. But a guy can dream…

And the 60 Minutes ‘reporter’ doesn’t pause, doesn’t inquire further, just changes the subject.

Excerpt: According to several people knowledgeable about the discussions, the administration initially floated an idea that would have virtually shut down mail voting: requiring all ballots to be delivered exclusively through certified mail. The proposal — which would have required voters to be home and sign for delivery of their ballots — was ultimately abandoned, after vehement Postal Service objections that it would have been impossible to execute.

Me again: Ponder that. These assholes wanted millions and millions of Americans to have to be home to sign for delivery when their ballots come in the mail.

Every damned one of them needs to face the full fury of the law, or there’ll be no law left.

The Trump regime says it’ll use this database to identify fraudulent voters, of which there are virtually none. The database will instead be used against whatever group or individuals Trump decides are his ‘enemies’.

This is cruel and unusual punishment. Torture, basically.

Judge Schiltz and his colleagues on Minnesota’s federal bench are the problem, or half the problem, at least. Nearly a hundred judicial orders from his court were violated, just in January — and how many of the violators were found in contempt of court, jailed, penalized in any way? Zero, or pretty damned close to zero.

Your honor, you have the power to enforce your rulings. When you won’t and don’t, that’s appeasement. You’re a quisling. You allow and encourage the danger to democracy you’re complaining about. How’s about in the future you do your job, and treat violations like violations, lawbreakers like lawbreakers?

Justice Dept. tries to rebuke federal judges for speaking to The Times

Appeasement never works.

I’m sure the same courtesy would be granted to any poor person who violated parole terms.

You’ve probably seen the video. It’s equal parts sad and hilarious.

“We found the receipts”

Senator Schmitt doubles down

All the hubbub has been this week’s Macklemore story — it feels good, almost like a victory, but it’s not much.

The Smith hearings — and about 60% of what Republicans are doing — is a planned ploy to make prosecuting their high crimes look silly, partisan, unfair, and crooked.

Of course, all the actual, not made-up evidence says Trump is a fuckin’ crook and this guy Smith is a fairly straight-arrow prosecutor. Anthony Fauci and Fani Willis and Jack Smith stood for facts and justice and ought to be respected for it, not railroaded.

Excerpt: “Would you like to request voluntary departure, or should I issue a removal order?” The judge asked.

“I don’t know,” Angel replied before bursting into tears. He stared ahead stoically and continued to cry, eventually saying: “I have no one. I have nothing.”

This is an employment program, specifically for Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and the Boogaloo movement.

Don t forget to charge him with stealing the bullet that’s lodged in his body.

Excerpt: “He’s against the Israeli government and the existence of the state of Israel for religious reasons, but to claim that he’s an antisemite is the peak of absurdity,” said Eric Lee, one of his attorneys.

“We demonstrated for Gaza, for the liberation of Gaza, for the rights of the Palestinians and to show to the world that the Jews, real Judaism, want to have peace,” Ovadia told the Times in a telephone interview.

“It is a privilege to be granted a visa or green card to live in the United States of America,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. “The Trump administration acted well within its statutory and constitutional authority, as it does with any alien who advocates for violence, glorifies and supports terrorists, harasses Jews and steals property.”

Home Depot could post signs at each of its 2,347 locations, stating “ICE agents and activity prohibited here.” They don’t, wouldn’t dream of it, so Home Depot is complicit in the abductions, kidnappings, killings, all of it.

Excerpt: “The office that you sit in is obviously off campus and that’s for a reason,” she said. “Our main obligation is accountability. Whether that looks like something that many people do not want to hear, or something that many people do want to hear, it’s our obligation to report on it.”

Me again: Best damned journalism I’ve seen in a long while. Meaning, the students at Cornell, not the write-up by the Times. The New York Times would not have published the rapists’ names.

Former South Park writer launches site to expose information about Cornell University sexual assault case: ‘There will be accountability’

Excerpt: Trump, or Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, or HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. say something wildly, obviously false and the media blandly report that “critics say” the statement was inaccurate, rarely daring to call out the most shameless lies. In most cases, the wildly wrong statements can have only two viable explanations: Either Trump and his minions are consciously lying or they’re so delusional that they’re probably not safe to have walking free among us. And sometimes the public record pretty clearly tells us which alternative applies.

Call me old fashioned, but I think it’s dishonest not to call a lie a lie.

Oh, fuck me, New York Times. Why are you even entertaining this question?

No, Trump cannot legally demolish the Kennedy Center, or the East Wing, or the Constitution… He can do these things, he can do anything he wants, because the New York Times, Republicans, Democrats, and all the lined-up powers that be allow it, but none of it’s legal.

Next question, please, and make it a better question.

Billionaire & JD Vance puppetmaster Thiel explains good and evil

Take away Ezra Klein, please, a pundit of thundering boredom, who of course fails to ask Bill Gates the two most obvious questions: ① “Why are you a co-star in the Trump-Epstein Files?” and ② “Why did your wife divorce you?”

Trump personally helped orchestrate taxpayer-funded ads promoting himself and his policies, source says

Former Bush ethics lawyer: Trump’s taxpayer-funded campaign ad ‘could be an impeachable offense’

I’ll shout hoorah if Dems muster the courage to impeach, but Trump’s theft for these ads is trivial compared to his mountain of daily impeachable but ignored offenses over the past twenty months.

Excerpt: “The whole reason to close the building is not because it needs to close for renovations,” the employee said. “The whole reason to close it is because we’re not going to be able to secure the artists or the audiences needed to make the economics work.”

I couldn’t believe NBC News would make such a huge typo in a headline, so I double-checked and OMG, I’m an idiot. All my life I’ve been calling it Stonehedge.

Excerpt: At the America.gov event, held in Washington, Mr. Rubio also announced changes to the design of the U.S. passport, which will feature a larger and “more gold” seal on the front cover when it is introduced in 2028. Inside, the new passport, called “Flight of the Eagle,” will feature a series of images of an eagle. When the passport’s pages are flipped rapidly, the eagle will appear to flap its wings above depictions of significant moments in American history.

Minimal sympathy from me, sorry. Live the life promoting hatred, and you deserve to be hated.

I will say, kudos to the author and whatever’s left of the Washington Post for this article, which just this once doesn’t try to find a left-wing equivalent to prove “Both sides do it, both sides do it.”

Maybe Kevin Bacon could make a movie about this backwater berg where Flashdance isn’t allowed.

It’s not hard to say the right thing.

I will never support or vote for a candidate who doesn’t believe human rights are for all humans. This probably means I won’t vote in the 2028 Presidential election, but principles matter.

Why is this child-raping imbecile still in the White House instead of impeached, removed from office, arrested, tried, and imprisoned?

Excerpt: The internet acts as the central nervous system for global logistics; without it, physical supply chains collapse. The first systems to freeze would be financial. Because most modern currency exists only as digital records, credit card terminals, wire transfers, and stock exchanges would cease to function instantly. ATMs would go offline. With digital payments dead, physical currency would become the only way to trade, but banks would have no way to verify account balances without network access to central servers.

Russell Brand, awaiting trial on rape and sexual assault charges, moderates a panel at MAHA summit

AI is ‘better informed’ than doctors, Kennedy tells industry-backed MAHA summit

We’re not boiling that frog fast enough, so put the burner on high.

Excerpt: “This should not be happening on our streets,” but “this is why I fight,” the candidate declared, reiterating that he was approached while walking his dog—which one officer threatened to shoot—and never shown a warrant. “Thank you again, and let’s keep fighting.”

Excerpt: Goldman Sachs warned Friday that AI hyperscalers, including Meta, need to generate roughly $300-billion a year in AI services revenue just to break even on their capital spending—and $1-trillion annually to earn meaningful profits—spooking investors.

I wonder which chatbot was illegally cloned to create this.

Excerpt: I fear that A.I. is undermining what makes us most human — the ability to translate lived experience and nuanced thoughts into a unique point of view, and then to crystallize that perspective into something people can connect with.