Tuesday, March 17, 2026

Chump likes looking like a petty dictator because that's what he is

First up, Katie Phang.



Next up, Chump's boy toy Petey Hegseth.  Looselips Hegseth got someone fired last year.  Oops!  Looks like he was in the wrong.  Ewan Palmer (DAILY BEAST) reports:

A former top aide to Pete Hegseth has gotten a new intelligence job after he was forced out last year while the defense secretary accused “disgruntled” employees of leaking to the press.

Dan Caldwell, who was unceremoniously marched out of the Pentagon last April and publicly chastised by Hegseth amid an investigation into leaks, has now been hired as an adviser at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, The New York Times reported.

Caldwell’s new role suggests that the investigation against him and two other top Pentagon officials—Colin Carroll and Darin Selnick—has concluded and that Caldwell is in the clear.
The appointment of Caldwell to a top intelligence position is widely seen as a blow to Hegseth, who had suggested, without proof, that all three men were guilty of leaking.

So Hegseth got it wrong.  His whole life, right?  He's as dumb as dirt which makes him Chump's soul twin.  Robert Davis (RAW STAORY) notes:

The Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial board on Monday begged President Donald Trump to "take the hint" about a case he is pursuing against a political foe.

For months, Trump has tried to remove Federal Reserve ChairmanJerome Powell because of his hesitance to lower federal interest rates. A federal judge recently rebuffed a Trump-appointed prosecutor's efforts to subpoena Powell, and the WSJ editorial board noted that the judge's "evidence and reasoning are sound."
"President Trump’s lawfare efforts aren’t faring well in court, and the latest example is a federal judge’s decision last week to quash subpoenas in a probe of ... Powell," the editorial board wrote. "Mr. Trump would be wise to take the hint and abandon the case so his nominee, Kevin Warsh, can be confirmed as the next Chairman."

Yeah, but Chump likes looking like a petty dictator.  He's corrupt to his bones.  He doesn't believe in democracy or checks and balances or the rule of law.  He's just a convicted felon, after all.  And Chump's big mouth comes back to bite him in the ass.  He needs help now in his war on Iran.  But other countries aren't feeling it.   Jens Asbjørn Bøgen (DAGENS) reminds:

Trump has repeatedly cast doubt on the US commitment to NATO, and he has openly threatened to make fellow member states (or their territories) part of the US (Canada as the 51st state and Greenland, which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark).

Critics argue this is not consistent with typical alliance behavior and the other NATO members seem to have had enough.

Things really took a turn at the beginning of 2026, when Trump claimed NATO troops “stayed a little back” from the front lines in Afghanistan, even though the UK alone lost 457 service members, according to CNN.

Actions have consequences, and Trump now seems to be reaping the labor of his on-and-off attitude toward NATO and Europe.

He brought it on himself.  Be sure to catch Ava and C.I.'s "MEDIA: Consummate actresses and federal judges."  Here's C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"


Tuesday, March 17, 2026. Chump's run off all the US' long term allies, the generals are telling Chump to wrap up the war on Iran, another person dies in Homeland Security detention, Bank of America announces a settlement with some of the victims of Jeffrey Epstein and much more. 



President Trump on Monday disparaged U.S. allies that he said had relied too long — and too expensively — on American defense, as several of those countries have declined to meet his call to send warships to escort merchant vessels in and out of the Persian Gulf.

“We don’t need anybody; we’re the strongest nation in the world,” Mr. Trump said. He suggested his request for assistance in reopening the Strait of Hormuz instead amounted to a loyalty test of America’s allies. “I’m almost doing it in some cases not because we need them but because I want to find out how they react,” he said.

He went from pleading on Saturday to lying on Sunday and early Monday about how he had lined some up to admitting that no one wants to help.  And now he says he never wanted them, just "want to find out how they react"?  Sure Baby Chumps.  

He treated them like garbage -- and we noted it here -- and some people said, "Oh, don't focus on it.  It's just Chump.  We have to focus on this or that."  No, when he insults the long term allies of the US, it is news and we will note it here and we did note it.  It did matter.  And we pointed out that he might need them.  A year later and he does.  And they're not eager to make nice with someone who spat on them over and over -- nor should they be. When he's out of the White House, the next president can make clear that the US is a friend to other nations.  Until then, we need to accept that Chump has made it very difficult for our allies to reach out and help us at this point in time.


This mess was created by Chump and was completely predictable.  


The threat was a continuation of Mr. Trump’s bullying style of diplomacy. During trade negotiations last year, the president repeatedly berated leaders who complained about his tariffs. More recently, he lashed out at Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain, essentially accusing him of caution and cowardice. Upon hearing that Mr. Starmer was considering sending naval ships to the Middle East, he mocked the prime minister.

“That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media on March 7. “We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!”

For Mr. Trump’s counterparts around the world, the tricky part of the diplomatic dance is how to react to the president’s whims while meeting the needs of their own countries. Mr. Starmer has arguably been the European leader most eager to please Mr. Trump. And yet, on Monday, he vowed at a news conference that his country “will not be drawn into the wider war” with Iran.


Chump only knows how to antagonize.  He might work a little harder if he'd attended the Wednesday meeting with oil executives.  But he had others things to do.  Maybe take a nap?  Collin Eaton and Benoît Morenne (WALL STREET JOURNAL) report:

American oil executives delivered a bleak message to Trump officials in recent days: The energy crisis the Iran war has unleashed is likely to get worse.

In a series of White House meetings Wednesday and recent conversations with Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the CEOs of Exxon Mobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips warned that the disruption to energy flows out of the vital Strait of Hormuz waterway would continue to create volatility in global energy markets, according to people familiar with the matter.
In response to questions from the officials, Exxon CEO Darren Woods said that oil prices could rise past current elevated levels if speculators unexpectedly bid up prices and that markets could see a supply crunch of refined products. Chevron CEO Mike Wirth and ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance also conveyed their concerns about the scale of the disruption, these people said.

President Trump didn’t attend the Wednesday meetings. U.S. oil prices have climbed from $87 a barrel that day to $99 a barrel Friday.

Ouch.  More and more observers are noting how this illegal war that Chump and Netanyahu chose to start is a disaster.  Simon Marks (THE I PAPER) points out:

As Donald Trump’s war on Iran enters its third full week, the US leader has been hoisted with his own petard. 

With no sense of history and no interest in learning about it, Trump was always doomed eventually to repeat it. By choosing to join the Israelis in wading into Iran without any fact-based reason, and without any plan either for exiting troops, or for the day after their withdrawal, his ludicrously named Operation Epic Fury can already be considered “Operation Epic Fail”. 
In reality, Pentagon chiefs should probably have named it “Operation 52-Card Pickup”, for that is exactly what it has turned out to be: a hope-for-the-best chucking of all the Middle East cards into the air. Having started with a possible American war crime against innocents in a girls’ school, it now runs the risk of dragging the country into the kind of “forever conflict” that Trump promised voters he would, at all costs, avoid. 

The weekend witnessed more of the nonsense that is already the daily hallmark of this administration’s wartime demeanour: that everything is going according to plan, coupled with continuing assertions about America’s military prowess.

Despite its furious attacks against the growing media reports that reveal the panicked reality taking place behind the scenes in the White House, the truth will always out.
On Saturday, Trump showed himself to be an increasingly naked emperor. In one social media post, contradictory claims that Iran’s military capacity had already been “destroyed 100 per cent” sat right alongside a warning that the regime still finds it “easy to send a drone or two, drop a mine, or deliver a close-range missile somewhere”. A non sequitur for the ages.

On MEIDASTOUCH NEWS this morning, Ben notes that the generals are telling Chump to wrap it up but Chump's ignoring them.


Other reports on Chump's bungling.





The war in Iran may be thousands of miles away, but its economic impact could soon show up much closer to home – at the grocery store. While rising oil prices are already pushing gas prices higher, experts warn food prices could be next.

President Donald Trump has said he expects the war to wrap up by the end of the month, but economists say if the conflict drags on longer, grocery prices could start to climb.

"If we're talking just a few weeks, very likely you're not going to see this show up in your grocery receipts," Dr. David Ortega, an agricultural economist and professor at Michigan State University, told Fortune. "But if we're talking a month or more, a few months, then it's a different story."

That warning comes as food prices in the U.S. have already risen 29.4% between March 2020 and December 2025, outpacing increases for the broader market, according to Forbes.




Yes, he is an idiot and, yes, he is a liar.  But his increased dementia just make it more obvious.  


Take a look at immigration.  Linda Qiu (NEW YORK TIMES) reports:

For years, the agricultural sector has faced a tight labor market as farmworkers age and fewer new immigrants and younger Americans are willing to toil in the fields. Top Trump administration officials vowed that mass deportations would help, leading to “higher wages with better benefits” and a “100 percent American work force.”

But the administration has quietly acknowledged in recent months that its immigration raids and crackdown on the border have aggravated the issue. So it has instead turned to an alternative source, making it cheaper for farmers to hire immigrant farmworkers on temporary visas.

Many farmers have celebrated those changes, made to an increasingly popular visa program known as H-2A, noting the difficulty in hiring American workers and tough economic conditions for the industry. But immigration hawks and labor unions alike are opposed, arguing the move will only increase the share of foreign workers and hurt native workers and suppress their wages.

The simmering debate underscores how some of the administration’s top goals of reducing immigration, keeping food prices low and helping American workers may inevitably conflict. The competing interests at play also show the spillover effects of Mr. Trump’s hard-line approach to legal and illegal immigration.

So he needs the labor now.  And yet it's the labor that suffers under Chump who allows them to be paid less and allows things like 'lodging' to be counted as payment now.  Let's stay with immigration but move over to Homeland Security.  Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) reports:

The Justice Department will receive a recommendation Monday to investigate whether recently ousted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem perjured herself in the congressional testimony that already cost her job.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee and Rep. Jamie Raski (D-MD), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, will submit the recommendation to Attorney General Pam Bondi asking the DOJ to look into whether Noem knowingly made false statements two weeks ago before their congressional panels, reported journalist Scott MacFarlane on his Substack page.
"The recommendation for a criminal investigation will cite at least four statements made by Noem, including her responses to questions about a controversial, taxpayer-funded $220 million ad campaign, which prominently featured Noem," MacFarlane reported. "The proposal ... will also recommend a probe of Noem’s statements about the conditions of U.S. immigrant detention facilities, the Trump Administration’s detention of U.S. citizens and the Department of Homeland Security’s alleged defiance of federal court orders."


Shortly before he removed her from her post, Trump told Reuters that he “never knew” of the plans for the $220 million ad, contracts for which were funneled to allies of Noem.

“These two statements are clearly inconsistent; one of them has to be false,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on each panel, wrote in the letter.

It goes on to hammer Noem for claims that the contracts were awarded through the proper channels.

“She flatly misrepresented that the contract had been subject to a competitive bid,” the lawmakers wrote.

“New public reporting, however, indicates that those statements may have been false. It has been reported that not only did the Secretary ‘handpick’ four companies for the ad campaign, but procurement records show the ‘ad work was awarded using ‘other than full and open competition,’ and the four companies were politically connected to Noem and her allies.”


Will Pam Bondi do her job?  If not, maybe she can be fired like Kristi Noem before her?  Kristi's roll dog Gregory Bovino is rolling out the door.  Tom Latchem (THE DAILY BEAST) reports:

Gregory Bovino, the most notorious face of Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, is set to retire—weeks after the president sent him packing following the death of two American citizens.

Bovino, 55, the Border Patrol chief patrol agent and self-styled “commander-at-large” who became one of the most polarizing figures of the administration’s hardline deportation push, broke the news to Breitbart, announcing he would leave the agency at the end of March after a career of nearly 30 years.
The Daily Beast has followed Bovino relentlessly since he first burst onto the national scene, tracking him across courtrooms, city streets, and Las Vegas bars.
 
Meanwhile, Esther Sung (TALKING POINTS MEMO) explains:

While the news cycle has largely moved on from the horrific violence in Minneapolis that dominated our screens early this year, the danger has not disappeared. Our nation’s children still live in fear of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents abducting classmates, parents and teachers on schoolhouse grounds. Some kids are too afraid to leave the house, and others can’t focus on their schoolwork, sick with anxiety about whether their family will be there to greet them when they get home. 
We all remember the image of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, abducted alongside his father when they arrived home one day, the boy still wearing his Spiderman backpack and favorite bunny ear hat. Unfortunately, Liam’s story is far from unique. Thousands of children have been abducted and incarcerated in squalid detention centers without a clue as to what their or their families’ futures hold. Their absence is a constant reminder to their classmates, friends, and neighbors that their communities’ children are still in danger. What happens to our communities when our public spaces aren’t safe, our neighborhoods aren’t safe, and now we know our schools aren’t safe either?

Safe spaces should be safe for everyone. That’s why we, along with our partners at Innovation Law Lab, National Education Association, and the American Federation of Teachers filed an emergency motion in our federal lawsuit, PCUN v. Noem last month to demand an immediate end to ICE violence in places like schools and hospitals. These so-called sensitive locations used to be off-limits to ICE’s brutal tactics, keeping our sacred community spaces safe for all our neighbors. But now, nowhere is free from danger. We’re seeking reinstatement of these protections.
While the situation in Minneapolis prompted our emergency motion, the declarations we received from people across the country proved that the problem is a whole lot bigger. In our legal filing, we shared the stories of 60 educators and healthcare providers representing 18 states. We heard the same fears and anxieties from people from Alaska to Ohio to Maryland. It didn’t matter if it was a “red” or a “blue” state; or if the stories came from cities or rural communities — ICE violence is impacting every corner of the United States.

Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal is someone who died while being held by ICE.  Michael Williams and Masoud Popalzai (CNN) reports:

An Afghan man who served alongside US special forces and fled his native country after its takeover by the Taliban died over the weekend shortly after being detained by immigration authorities, according to his family and an advocacy group.

Mohammad Nazeer Paktyawal died on Saturday, less than a day after he was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement outside of his Dallas-area apartment. His family said the 41-year-old father of six had no known health conditions and had been seeking asylum since his arrival to the US in August 2021. The Department of Homeland Security said his humanitarian parole expired last August.
[. . .]
Paktyawal’s death marks the 12th of a detainee in ICE custody this year.

It has prompted widespread grief in the close-knit Afghan diaspora community in Texas, where many of the more than 190,000 Afghans who fled to the US after the country’s government collapsed in August 2021 settled, said Rahmanullah Zazy, a leader in the Dallas-area Afghan community who knew Paktyawal and his family.


Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal, 41, served as an Afghan special forces soldier from 2005 and worked alongside U.S. Army Special Forces for more than a decade before he was evacuated by the U.S. and resettled while he sought asylum, according to the AfghanEvac nonprofit.
Having moved to America to start a new life with his family, he had been preparing to drive his children to school on Friday, March 13, when agents in unmarked vehicles surrounded him and detained him.

Within 24 hours, he was dead.

In a statement, his family said, “We still cannot understand how this happened. He was only 41 years old and was a strong and healthy man.


Kristia, Gregory and Tricia may be gone but the lies at the heart of Homeland Security remain.  Latchman notes, "ICE released a statement Sunday describing Paktyawal as a 'criminal illegal alien' that made no mention of his history helping U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The statement began with a breakdown of what the agency described as Paktyawal’s 'known criminal history' before getting to the circumstances of his death."  He had no criminal history. AfghanEvac president Shawn VanDiver spoke with THE INDEPENDENT's Josh Marcus:


“This is the problem with DHS when you can’t trust a thing they say,” VanDiver said. “They lie to us every day. Chances are, the first thing they tell us is going to be a lie.”

He alleged Paktyawal and other Afghans have been singled out because of their heritage to keep up with President Donald Trump’s goal of unprecedented deportations.

VanDiver said he’s been tracking “thousands” of cases where Afghans were able to successfully legally challenge their arrests using habeas corpus requests and be released from detention, a sign they were taken in on flimsy grounds.



Meanwhile Markwayne Markwayne remains the person set to replace Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security provided he can get the votes in the Senate.  Kate Plummer (NEWSWEEK) reports:

Senator Markwayne Mullin from Oklahoma has been encouraged to divest from certain stocks in his portfolio over conflict of interest concerns that could arise because of the Republican’s new role as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Last week, President Donald Trump nominated Mullin, who has been a senator from Oklahoma since 2023, to replace Kristi Noem, after she became the first Cabinet secretary to be fired from Trump’s second administration. Mullin is expected to assume the post on March 31, pending Senate confirmation.
Under 18 U.S. Code § 208, a federal conflict of interest statute, members of the executive branch of the U.S. cannot participate in matters including stock holdings where they have a direct financial interest. There is no suggestion Mullin is in breach of this statute.

Ahead of Mullin’s confirmation, ethics experts have raised concerns after a Newsweek analysis found Mullin has purchased at least $305,009 worth of stock in companies that could intersect with his role at DHS.

Richard Painter, a chief ethics lawyer under former President George W. Bush, told Newsweek: “He should probably divest from all of these stocks as there is too great a risk that they will be impacted by his work at DHS.”


 

Turning to Chump's late bud Jeffrey Epstein, Tom Skinner (NME) reports:

Dua Lipa has hit out at the discourse and media coverage around the Epstein files, saying that it is “doing such a disservice to all the victims”.

The ‘Radical Optimism’ pop star brought up the late billionaire and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on the latest episode of her book club podcast, Service 95. She was speaking to author Roxane Gay about her book Bad Feminist.

Lipa discussed what she believed to be a lack of consideration for the victims named in the Epstein files, as many of these were underage.

“The way that the crimes have been reported, and the language that’s been used, has been doing such a disservice to all the victims,” she said.

“I keep thinking about all the stories that talk about the underage girls and the sex parties, rather than writing about the victims that were children who were trafficked.”

Lipa continued: “It’s putting everything under some kind of veil to protect – I don’t know who, [maybe] the reader – or trying to mask what is happening.”


This morning, NPR posted a discussion on the beauty industries relationship with Epstein.




Also this morning, Australia's A CURRENT AFFAIR speaks with Epstein survivor Marina Lacerda who was only 14 when Epstein began assaulting her. 





The posters cover walls across Washington DC. Donald Trump’s war in Iran is not “Operation Epic Fury”, its official name, but it is “Operation Epstein Fury”.

Another sign shows a picture of an American serviceman killed in the conflict, standing in front of the Stars and Stripes. “Cody Khork did not have to die fighting Iran for the Epstein class”, it reads.

Four days before the bombing of Iran on Feb 28, a report revealed that the Department of Justice (DoJ) removed more than 50 pages of interviews about Mr Trump from the files, including one victim who claimed the now president abused her when she was a child decades ago.

Was it a coincidence that Mr Trump decided to bomb Iran when the Epstein files threatened to expose him?

It sounds like pure conspiracy theory, but the idea that Mr Trump began the war — hitting Tehran from the skies — to distract from Epstein has also circulated among respected pillars of American society: from Republicans to Democrats, and influential podcasters.

[. . .]

A recent poll for Zeteo, a Left-wing website, and other outlets found that 52 per cent of people in the US believe the president attacked Iran because of the headlines about Epstein.

It found that 81 per cent of Democrats thought the war was a deliberate distraction, compared with 52 per cent of independent voters and 26 per cent of Republicans.



CNN reporter Kyung Lah provided an exclusive interview with architect and interior designer Robert Couturier, who was hired by convicted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein to work on his infamous island. CNN reports Couturier backed out of the project after a few months and then alerted the FBI of what Epstein had requested he build.

“There's no mistaking,” Couturier told Lah. “You don't put women on bunk beds. I'm sorry. Everybody knew what was happening on that island. Even his staff people worked for him.”

When Couturier first noted all the puzzling bunk beds he asked who they were for.

“There were bunk beds and I said to him, I said, ‘oh my god, are you expecting grandchildren?’ And he said, ‘no, these are for my — these are for the girls.”

Lah reports a former staffer said the main home had “many pictures of young girls, some topless, looking about 15 to 16 years old” in room after room of the island home.

According to CNN, files show “visible signs of something off,” including Epstein in his kitchen chasing girls or young women, which his staff noticed. A former chef, said Lah, claimed every hour Epstein would take a girl down to his master bedroom then order his maid to clean up. Another staffer worried about Epstein’s guests.

Lastly on the Epstein scandal, Jacob Shamsian (BUSINESS INSIDER) reports:

Bank of America settled a proposed class-action lawsuit from Jeffrey Epstein accusers who alleged the bank facilitated the now-dead pedophile's sex-trafficking operation, court records show.
Lawyers for the bank and a group of Epstein accusers told the judge overseeing the case during a pretrial conference last week that they "reached a settlement in principle," according to a Monday update to the case's docket.

The terms of the settlement were not made public.

US District Judge Jed Rakoff, who is overseeing the case, gave a March 27 deadline for the parties to file public documents laying out the settlement's terms, and an April 2 hearing to decide whether to approve them.
"The women entrapped and abused by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell started a monumental reckoning with their brave voices and fearlessness," Sigrid McCawley, an attorney at Boies Schiller Flexner representing the Epstein accusers, said in a comment. "The road to justice for these women has been long and trying. Today's resolution of the case against Bank of America is one more step on the road to much deserved justice."


Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren:

“I am concerned that Grok’s apparent lack of adequate guardrails could pose serious risks to the safety of U.S. military personnel and to the cybersecurity of classified systems.”

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, pressed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on the Department of Defense (DoD) granting Elon Musk’s xAI chatbot Grok access to classified security systems — reportedly ignoring concerns raised by multiple federal agencies, including the National Security Agency (NSA) and the General Services Administration (GSA).

“Were Grok to leak government information, this could reveal sensitive military plans, U.S. intelligence efforts, and potentially put service members in danger,” wrote Senator Warren.

Last month, the Pentagon signed an agreement with xAI granting Grok access to confidential military security systems. Numerous reports have found Grok to pose serious safety concerns, including data bias and manipulation, generating offensive and illegal content, and leaking private chat conversations on the Internet.

Grok reportedly has given users advice on how to commit murders and terrorist attacks, generated antisemitic content, and created child sexual abuse material. According to recent reports, the National Security Agency “conducted a classified review… [and] determined Grok had particular security concerns that other models…didn’t.”

Multiple reports have indicated that xAI may not have imposed adequate safeguards for Grok. DoD’s Chief of Responsible AI reportedly stepped down after circulating internal memos warning about Grok’s safety issues and receiving little to no attention on the matter, and other analysts have raised concerns that “xAI didn’t have the kind of reputation or track record that typically leads to lucrative government contracts.”

But it is still unclear what assurances or documentation xAI has provided to the Department of Defense about Grok’s security safeguards, data-handling practices, or safety controls — and whether DoD evaluated those assurances before reportedly allowing Grok access to classified systems.

“I am concerned that Grok’s apparent lack of adequate guardrails could pose serious risks to the safety of U.S. military personnel and to the cybersecurity of classified systems, especially if Grok is given sensitive military information and access to operational systems,” wrote Senator Warren. “I write to request that you immediately provide information on how DoD plans to mitigate these potential national security risks.”

Senator Warren pushed DoD to provide Congress with a copy of the agreement reached between the Department and xAI; copies of all communications with xAI regarding said agreement; clarification of what safeguards are in place to guard against classified data leaks and cyberattacks; and whether the DoD required Grok to mitigate the security and safety concerns by March 30, 2026.

In September, after a high-profile incident where Grok created antisemitic and other offensive content, Senator Warren raised concerns about DoD’s decision to award Musk’s xAI a contract worth up to $200 million to use Grok. At the time, Senator Warren also raised concerns about xAI’s access to sensitive government data and sounded the alarm on the fact that the contract may be another example of Musk improperly benefitting from his time in government.

###




The following sites updated:


  •  
  • Monday, March 16, 2026

    They're saying Hegseth will get fired

    First up, Katie Phang.


    Now for the world of Donald's demented delusions.   David Badash tells on Chump and Pete Hegseth:

    Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has no idea he’s President Donald Trump’s “future victim,” British-American journalist Sarah Baxter writes in i Paper.

    “We are beginning to see in real time what happens when a vain, looksmaxxing US secretary of war encounters death and destruction, and it isn’t pretty,” Baxter wrote Saturday. Looksmaxxing, as the New Yorker puts it, is “the practice of intensively optimizing one's appearance.” And for Baxter, who calls Hegseth a “cartoonish Johnny Bravo lookalike," the Pentagon chief is certainly a follower of the practice.
    “With his ability to do 100 push-ups and 50 pull-ups in just over five minutes, he regards himself as the epitome of masculinity and bravery,” Baxter writes. “Instead of steeling the US public for the grit and sacrifice military action entails, the Pentagon chief has proffered a wham-bam caricature of the invincibility of untrammeled power[.]”

    Listing numerous pitfalls that have emerged in the administration's ongoing war in Iran, Baxter argues “the war is playing out in an eerily similar way to events in Minneapolis, where masked agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol killed two American citizens, Renée Good and Alex Pretti.” Kristi Noem, outgoing Department of Homeland Security secretary who oversees the agencies responsible for those deaths, has already been fired by the Trump administration, the reporter notes. And she believes Hegseth could be next.  



    Chump's going to need a fall guy and now we know why he kept Hegseth around.  
    Two weeks into this war and it is clearer than ever that Donald Trump miscalculated. It did not seem to occur to him that bombing Iran would raise gasoline prices in the United States, even though it is a net exporter of petroleum. If he was warned that Iran might close the Strait of Hormuz, he ignored it.
    Nor does he seem to have considered the possibility that an oil supply crisis would strengthen Vladimir Putin – indeed, that it might throw him a lifeline just as Russia’s economic burden of sustaining the war in Ukraine was becoming intolerable.
    After 14 days of strikes on Iran, accompanied by boasts and threats that the war is either over or going to go on for a long time, the US president’s reasons for launching military action are still no clearer. Mr Trump continues to blow hot and cold, now calling for other countries to send warships – an abrupt change in tone since he said he did not need help from the British, accusing us of seeking to “join wars after we’ve already won”.

    So that's two different outlets that think Hegseth will be fired over the Iran War.

    By the way, Betty, Wally, C.I., Ann, Cedric and Isaiah did a joint humor post tonight:


    Here's C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"


    Monday, March 16, 2026.  Chump loses is on Air Force One, he begs for help over the weekend from the US allies that he's been spitting on for a year now, no surprise none come forward to offer help, the Epstein Scandal continues, John Oliver reminds us all how awful JD Vance is, and much more. 


    This morning, Ben (MEIDASTOUCH NEWS NETWORK) notes Chump's derangement last night on Air Force One.



    THE NEW YORK TIMES notes this morning,  "Oil prices rose and stocks were mixed on Monday on persistent concerns that surging energy costs stemming from the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran could drive inflation higher across the world. The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, was about $103 a barrel on Monday, trading near the day’s highs. On Friday, Brent settled at $103.14 a barrel, the highest settlement level since August 2022. It gained more than 11 percent last week."


    Chump spent 2025 antagonizing our long standing allies -- France, England, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada, go down the list.  And now?  David McAfee (RAW STORY) notes, "President Donald Trump called for international cooperation on Iran policy in a Truth Social post, arguing that securing the Strait of Hormuz should be a collective responsibility rather than falling solely on the United States."  He started this war and now?  Now he needs the help of US allies.  Russia's sold him out.  They're feeding intl to Iran.  Chump needs help.  Big time.  His request did not go well.  David McAfee notes:


    "The United States of America has beaten and completely decimated Iran, both Militarily, Economically, and in every other way," Trump wrote, before shifting to call for international cooperation. He urged countries reliant on oil transit through the strait to "take care of that passage," promising substantial U.S. assistance and coordination to ensure "everything goes quickly, smoothly, and well." Trump framed the effort as a long-overdue "team" approach that would foster "Harmony, Security, and Everlasting Peace!"

    The post drew immediate online backlash, with critics highlighting what they saw as a glaring contradiction: claiming total Iranian defeat while seeking help to secure the vital waterway, through which roughly one-fifth of global oil flows.

    Professor Phillips P. O'Brien, a noted historian and strategist, described the message as "a work of art" worthy of preservation. He pointed out the irony: if Iran's military capability is "100% destroyed," why plead with frequently insulted allies to intervene in the Gulf?



    In other developments over the weekend, Malcolm Ferguson (THE NEW REPUBLIC) noted:


    The U.S. is deploying to the Middle East a Marine expeditionary unit that can conduct ground operations if needed.

    Multiple outlets reported Friday that the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli, which is based in Japan, is being sent to the Middle East, along with multiple other warships and fighter jets. The attached 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit has thousands of Marines and sailors and can offer land, amphibious, and aviation support.


    Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Eric Schmitt (NEW YORK TIMES) added:


    The deployment of about 2,500 Marines to the Middle East represents a new phase in the two-week-old war in Iran, as Iranian forces increase their attacks on the Strait of Hormuz.

    The unit, officially known as the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, according to two U.S. defense officials, will be in an unusual position given the problem vexing the Pentagon: the Iranian military’s ability to mine the strait, a narrow waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes.

    U.S. airstrikes have forced the Iranians to forego their larger naval vessels and deploy fast boats carrying mines that can evade aircraft. These boats would likely launch from an archipelago of islands closer to the strait.

    With the arrival of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit from the Indo-Pacific region in the coming days, the Pentagon will be able to quickly launch raids onto the islands with infantry Marines who will have logistics and air support, said a retired senior defense official with knowledge of the unit’s capabilities.


    That doesn't sound like a war that's ending or even winding down.  And another evacuate notice issued today.  Aaron Boxerman, Yeganeh Torbati, Farnaz Fassihi and Erika Solomon (NEW YORK TIMES) report


    The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad urged all American citizens to leave Iraq immediately on Saturday after the embassy was attacked overnight for the second time since the war with Iran started.

    The warning said militias allied with Iran had carried out numerous attacks on targets associated with the United States, including diplomatic facilities, American companies and hotels frequented by foreigners. It recommended Americans travel overland to neighboring countries because commercial flights were not operating, and warned them not to come to the embassy or a U.S. consulate in the city of Erbil, in northern Iraq.

    Kataib Hezbollah, one of several Iran-backed militias in Iraq, claimed responsibility for the attack on Saturday, saying it had fired on the embassy the previous night. A video verified by The New York Times showed that a structure on the embassy’s roof was on fire. Two Iraqi security officials who were not authorized to speak publicly confirmed the attack but could not give additional details.


    He is such an idiot.  And no one, no country, took him up on Saturday's offer to join him in securing the Strait of Hormuz.  He's feeling very alone.  And he created this.  He's the one who spent all of 2025 attacking our allies, talking about taking over Canada and Greenland and erupting when other countries said "no."  He's the one who pushed all our allies away.  And now he needs them because he and Netanyahu started this illegal war of choice and it's not playing out like Chump thought it would.  It's actually costing a lot of lives -- including American lies.  And Chump feels he can't pull out because he'll look like the idiot who started a war for nothing -- which is what he did, let's be clear.


    He did it to help out Netanyahu and to help out himself -- to get people focusing on something other than his dead friend Jeffrey Epstein and the way Chump's ruined the economy.  


    He didn't listen to military advisors who warned him about the Strait of Hormuz or anything else.  All that's gone wrong was predicted but Chump ignored the military and focused on the yes-men and yes-women that make up his administrations.


    They're the one who flatter and lie to him daily.  They're the ones who lie and agree with him that the polling is wrong and he's beloved across the land.  They kiss his ass daily.  And they enable this demented man in his crimes against the Constitution and against our democracy.  



    Senator Adam Schiff addressed the war yesterday on NBC's MEET THE PRESS.



    KRISTEN WELKER:

    It’s good to have you back. Let me ask you about the big picture argument that we are hearing from the Trump administration with top officials. You just heard Secretary Chris Wright argue that the threat from Iran is so significant, not just to the world, but to the United States, that invading now will ultimately make the world more secure. Do Trump officials have a valid point there, Senator?

    SEN. ADAM SCHIFF:

    No, I don’t think they do. And I don’t think the President has really leveled with the American people. First, by promising the American people he wouldn’t bring us into another foreign war. Then, being unwilling to tell us what the real costs of this war are going to be. And we still don’t hear from the Secretary, don’t hear from the president with the real cost of this will be, how long it will go on. Already we spent billions and billions of dollars. And more significant, we’ve lost 13 service members as a result of the war. And we still haven’t heard a clear articulation of why we’re at war. What was the imminent threat we were facing? They’ve said it was the nuclear threat, but the intelligence doesn’t back that up. They said it was the threat of being hit in the United States by ballistic missiles. That is years and years away. They want regime change, but then they say they don’t want regime change. And when you ask how long this war’s going to go on, the secretary can’t tell you, the president won’t tell you. And it’s because not having a clear object in mind when we began this war, it makes it very difficult to tell when its objectives have been accomplished. This is why I think the president was so vague with you when he wouldn’t describe to you what kind of a deal is he looking for with Iran — because it just isn’t clear. And now there’s the prospect with the 31st Marine Expeditionary force going to the region, that we have boots on the ground. And I don’t think they’ve leveled with us about that either. So I don’t think the war is worth the costs, and it has already unleashed a lot of things that should have been foreseen, like the closing of the strait, like Iran’s attack on its neighbors. But it’s not clear that the President had a plan for any of this.

    KRISTEN WELKER:

    You did here Secretary Wright say he anticipates the conflict will be over in the next few weeks. Do you accept that timeline? Do you think that’s realistic, based on what you’re seeing?

    SEN. ADAM SCHIFF:

    Well, the one thing I agreed with the secretary on is when he said there are no guarantees in war. It may very well have been that when they began this war they expected it to be over very quickly, that they thought it would be like Venezuela. Except Iran isn’t like Venezuela. You can’t simply pick the number two mullah to replace the number one mullah and expect things to be any different. So the bottom line is they don’t really know when this war is going to end. And I hope and pray that it does end very soon. But as we have seen, our enemy also has a vote in when things end. And if Iran keeps blowing up ships, or trying to blow up ships in the strait, and gas prices continue to go up and up for Americans, then it is very foreseeable we could become even more entrenched in this, to try to keep the strait open. I have a very hard time believing that China and the other countries the president listed to you are really going to be escorting ships through the strait. That just doesn’t add up to me. So the bottom line is, we simply don’t know how long this war is going to go on. But we know the costs to the American people are already too high. For a president who promised to bring down the cost of living for Americans, this is doing exactly the opposite, and raising the cost and the difficulty of Americans to be able to afford simple groceries, and lodging, and rent, and energy prices. It’s simply unsustainable.





    Last week, in Stanley, New Mexico, officials began examining Epstein's former Zorro Ranch.  It's now owned by Don Huffines.  He's a Republican politician currently running for Texas comptroller whose his ads during the primary had to be altered because his voice was judged 'too femmy' and they eliminated his speaking from the latter ads to avoid alienating potential voters.


    Jon Schuppe and David Ingram (NBC NEWS) report:


    To girls without much money who needed help with college or a career, visiting Jeffrey Epstein’s 10,000-acre New Mexico ranch felt like being treated to an exclusive resort.

    Flown in from around the country to the gated compound, they rode horses across a mesa dotted with ancient rock carvings. They posed for pictures at Epstein’s 26,700-square-foot mansion. They hiked, swam, shopped and watched movies.

    Hanging out with a wealthy middle-aged man was weird, but Epstein made the girls feel special. He asked about their goals, offered advice and handed them cash. And then the trips turned dark.

    Epstein touched their thighs, had them strip for a massage or attacked them with a sex toy, and the girls grew confused and frightened. Alone, far from home and surrounded by photographs of Epstein with celebrities and politicians — some of whom had visited the ranch — they believed there was nothing they could do to stop him.

    One victim, 15 at the time, jumped on an ATV the day after Epstein assaulted her and went racing across the property with another young guest and crashed into a tree. “Don’t worry,” the other girl said, the victim later recalled. “No one gets in trouble for anything here.”

    The victims eventually understood that Epstein had used money and power to exploit them for sex. Starting in 2006, they began to come forward — not just the girls, but women as well. At least 10 have alleged that starting in the mid-1990s, Epstein groomed or abused them at the ranch, according to an NBC News review of court testimony, lawsuits and other records. Half were teenagers when Epstein harmed them.

    Yet to this day, no one has fully accounted for the crimes committed at Zorro Ranch, a failure that confounds victims, local officials and the public. Decades of missed chances allowed the ranch to escape scrutiny, prolonging its secrets and delaying justice for the girls Epstein brought there.


    Saturday on MS NOW, Alex Witt reported on the investigation. 



    Edward Helmore (THE TIMES OF LONDON) adds:


    FBI information released in January’s Epstein files by the US Department of Justice included an anonymous tip to Albuquerque radio host Eddy Aragon. “Somewhere in the hills outside the Zorro, two foreign girls were buried on orders of Jeffrey and Madam G,” the anonymous sender wrote, referring to Epstein’s co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.

    “I don’t know if there are bodies buried out there, but good luck,” said Sean, a local whose stepfather had leased Epstein’s land for cattle until ordered off because the billionaire was concerned about them straying onto his private jet runway.

    [. . .]

    Several women have previously said that they were abused as teens or young adults at the property, including Jane, who testified at Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial that she was escorted to see him at Zorro. “I just, as usual, felt, like, my heart sink into my stomach,” she said.

    Another accuser, Annie Farmer, said she was ordered by Maxwell to perform a nude massage on Epstein at Zorro ranch when she was 16 years old. The late Virginia Giuffre said that Epstein trafficked her to have sex with high-profile men there.


    Epstein's best friend Donald Chump continues to lose it in public.  Robert Davis (RAW STORY) reports:


    President Donald Trump raged in a rambling Truth Social post on Sunday that media outlets that write negative stories about the Iran war should be charged with treason. 

    Trump issued the threat in response to a report by The Wall Street Journal about five U.S. military refueling planes being hit by Iranian forces. The report said the planes were hit at a Saudi airbase. They were damaged, but not totally destroyed, according to the report.

    In his post, Trump accused the Iranians of "feeding" the story to the U.S. press.  


    Chump is such a nightmare that it can be easy for some to forget how awful JD Vance is.  On Sunday's LAST WEEK TONIGHT WITH JOHN OLIVER, John did the heavy lifting on the realities of JD.




    Let's wind down with this from Senator Patty Murray's office:

    Washington, D.C. – Today,U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) issued the following statement expressing her condolences for Capt. Ariana G. Savino, who lost her life in the crash of a KC-135 in western Iraq on Thursday. The official identification of Air Force casualties was announced late this evening.

    “I am heartbroken to learn about the passing of Capt. Ariana G. Savino from Washington state. I am deeply grateful for her courage and sacrifice in service to our country. Our servicemembers put their lives on the line to keep our country safe—remarkable women like Capt. Savino represent the absolute best of our state and country.

    “I also want to express my sincerest condolences to the family and loved ones of Capt. Savino and join them in mourning her loss. I, of course, also extend my condolences to the families and loved ones of the other five brave Air Force Airmen we lost in this tragic incident. As we mourn the passing of these heroes, we must remember our commitment to honor them not only with words but by supporting the families they leave behind. The families and friends of Capt. Savino are in my thoughts during this difficult time.”

    ###



    Kat's "Kat's Korner: Harry Style and Jill Scott come out swinging" went up Sunday.  The following sites updated: