Heather Cox Richardson writes that the wheels are coming off the MAGA bus. CNN reports that the bottom could be falling out in Trump’s polls. The Virginia redistricting referendum passed yesterday. It was close, as polls predicted. But I wonder if it would have passed before Trump decided to go to war with Iran. Ultimately Congress has to ban gerrymandering, both political and racial, and maybe that can happen after 2028, But for now I’m glad to see Dems put up a fight.
Update: See Greg Sargent at The New Republic, How Trump Accidentally Handed Dems Their Big Win in Virginia.
What’s going on with Iran is just a bleeping mess. I understand Iran is seizing ships in the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. is still blockading ports. No talks are going on, last I heard. And I don’t believe Trump and his so-called negotiating team and cabinet flunkies are capable of straightening this mess out.
Do see David Graham, The Aides Keeping the President in the Dark. The Wall Street Journal reported a few days ago that Trump had to be kept out of the room where aides were tracking the efforts to locate and rescue missing airmen. And he had to be kept out of the room because he was hysterical and screaming at everyone and basically just getting in the way. I take it Trump is one of those people who flies off the handle when told bad news. So his aides just don’t bring him bad news, because they’re afraid of his temper. He’s given highly, um, curated news. So he doesn’t know what’s going on, yet he’s in charge of it. “But if the president can’t handle reality, the problem is ultimately with him—not with the information he’s receiving,” Graham writes.
And support for impeaching Trump is growing; see Elliott Morris at Strength in Numbers.
Shifting gears a bit — Pentagon Pete has decided that U.S. military personnel needn’t bother about getting an annual flu shot. So let’s hope a war doesn’t start during flu season.
“We’re seizing this moment to discard any absurd, overreaching mandates that only weaken our war-fighting capabilities,” Hegseth said in a video posted to his social media channels. “In this case, this includes the universal flu vaccine and the mandate behind it.”
Hegseth said that under a new policy, soldiers would be able to take the vaccine if they believed it was in their best interest, billing it as an effort to “restore freedom and strength to our joint force.”
“But we will not force you, because your body, your faith and your convictions are not negotiable,” he said.
What the actual bleep. This is from The Hill:
He called the flu shot requirement part of “absurd, overreaching mandates that only weaken our warfighting capabilities.”
“Our men and women in uniform were forced to choose between their conscience and their country, even when those decisions posed no threat to our military readiness,” Hegseth said of the previous guidelines. “The notion that a flu vaccine must be mandatory for every service member everywhere in every circumstance at all times is just overly broad and not rational.”
Has Hegseth never had the flu? Maybe he did but was too drunk to notice. And the guy who did his Bible study by watching Pulp Fiction has suggested that mandatory vaccines are somehow anti-Christian. The only denominations that discourage vaccines are Christian Science and Dutch Reformed Congregations, and even with those folks it’s not an outright ban.
Personally, I think people who are such pathetic weenies that having to get a flu shot weakens their warfighting capabilities shouldn’t be in the military. And, again, would you rather they got the flu?
I read some letters my Grandpa wrote when he was serving in World War I. While he was still in training somebody in his barracks came down with the measles, and the whole unit was quarantined. It delayed their deployment. (Grandpa had already had the measles, but he wasn’t happy about being cooped up in the barracks.) If vaccination rates fall too low in the military it really could get in the way of deployments. Duh.
Do see George Washington’s Woke Vaccines by Thomas Lecaque at The Bulwark. General Washington mandated smallpox “vaccines” for his troops during the Revolution. The “vaccine” of his day was primitive and genuinely dangerous. Science hadn’t discovered germs yet. But it was known that people who survived smallpox never got it again. So doctors took pus from an active pustule of an infected person, and then inserted that pus into the skin of a non-infected person via a small incision. With luck you’d get a mild case of smallpox that didn’t kill you.
Serious reactions to today’s flu shots are extremely rare. And as Lecaque points out, military personnel are also required to get several other vaccines. Why is Pete singling out flu?
Speaking of measles, I recommend Measles Took My Daughter. This Is What I Want Everyone to Know. by Rebecca Archer in the New York Times (gift link). Measles is much more dangerous than people assume it is. And flu can be dangerous, too. I hate anti-vaxxers.
See also CDC won’t publish report showing covid shots cut likelihood of hospital visits.
Finally, I recommend Quinta Jurecic at The Atlantic, DOJ’s First ‘Weaponization’ Report Is a Bust. The DoJ’s report is on “abuses of the criminal justice process” under the Biden administration.
The report focuses on prosecutions of anti-abortion demonstrators convicted for preventing patients from entering abortion clinics. In the working group’s telling, the Biden administration “unfairly targeted” anti-abortion Christians under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which, much as its name suggests, prohibits blocking entry to facilities that provide reproductive health care. “No Department should conduct selective prosecution based on beliefs,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche—who stepped into the role after Trump fired Bondi earlier this month—said in a statement about the working group’s findings. CBS reported that the Justice Department had fired at least four prosecutors involved in pursuing those FACE Act cases.
The anti-abortion wackadoos don’t just block access. Some of them have entered clinics during working hours and directly interfered with patient care. And over the years hundreds of abortion clinics have been set on fire, firebombed, and vandalized, and abortion clinic personnel have been assaulted and even shot dead a few times. But according to Trump’s people, trying to protect abortion clinics and their personnel and patients is anti-Christian bias. Right.
"somebody in his barracks came down with the measles, and the whole unit was quarantined"
When I was in basic training we had a few guys come down with pink eye, the same result as your gramps they separated the guys who had it and made the rest of us quarantine. We lost about a week of field training. It was no big deal but soldiers in combat would be a whole other ballgame. A battalion full of troops with the flu would be a disaster. Especially if they were deployed. Whiskey Pete is a fucking moron, he just can't stop fighting the culture wars, even when he's supposed to leading the military in a shooting war. He's even worse than I thought he would be.
What happened in the handful of hours between the ceasefire extension being "highly unlikely" to indefinate? Suppose (that's code for speculation) Trump asked the Joint Chiefs to draw up a plan to, as Trump promised, hit every power plant and bridge in Iran.
Suppose word came back (still speculating) that at least a dozen generals, admirals, or commanders of ships and squadrons will have to be replaced.
"WHAT?"
"It's their position that the plan is, by definition, a war crime."
"Have we not hit civilian targets in the past and excused it as 'collateral damage'?"
"Yes, but weeks ago you claimed that we obliterated every military target and the war is won. You, as President, promised this week to go after civilian infrastructure as the primary target. Passing off thousands of civilian deaths as incidental will not stick internationally. Democrats in Congress have promised to lead the inquiry into war crimes." (This is true.)
"Tell them I can give them a pardon now!"
Aides exchange glances. "We did, but the pardon would not apply internationally, and it would not prevent demotion or expulsion from the service. A few said they'd prefer to be discharged with their honor intact."
"They are all fired!"
"Yes, sir, but if they are demoted and discharged, what's to keep them from talking to the media, and we think most of the next group who is given the same orders will have a similar reaction. The entire war will go down as a war crime."
All the above is speculative, but Trump did not extend the ceasefire for 72 hours. It is indefinite with the ball in Iran's court to propose something. If I were a negotiator for Iran, I'd tell Trump that peace negotiations will begin with the US if the US Congress declares that a state of war exists. In the absence of that, Iran does not trust this administration as it did with President Obama to keep any agreement, as Iran did keep the deal they made with Barack Hussein Obama.
Counteroffer: Iran does want an end to the conflict and will negotiate with the countries most affected by the shutdown of the Staight. Such negotiations can begin as soon as the US fleet departs and continue as long as military strikes against Iran do not begin. The Straight of Hormuz will open as soon as a peace delegation without the US, is seated.
You may be right.
I take it Trump is one of those people who flies off the handle when told bad news.
It's much more than that. Trump is in narcissistic collapse. Anything that threatens the invincible, omnipotent image he's created of himself – is an existential threat to his very being. That's why he surrounds himself with fluffers who only tell him what he wants to hear. It's why Iran – actually fighting back, and knocking one of our planes out of the sky, or driving gas prices higher – is like a mortal wound.
A person in full narcisstic collapse will do ANYTHING to not face the reality that he's really a fraud. And they won't stop on their own. They "escalate until there is nothing left to escalate with" – from the ^video.
Hegseth is a moron, mouthing the usual "FreeDumb" nonsense about vaccines. He is in an unwinnable position with Iran, and will get the blame for it. I have to believe there are a lot of people in the military just playing along – like the lackadaisical attitude soldiers displayed during Trump's Big Parade. Or worse – sabotaging missions, like flushing enough debris down the toilet to cripple a warship.
I think what happened in Virginia is pretty miraculous. It wasn't razor-blade close. And of course the stupid right wingers cannot admit THEY are the cause of it.
Anti-vax = pro-plague.
I've been compiling this time line and posting it over at breitbart, its got me kicked off five times, truth hurts I guess? It would be hilarious if it wasn't so ignorant. Sorry maha its kind of long!
Mar 3: "We won the war."
Mar 7: "We defeated Iran."
Mar 9: "We must attack Iran."
Mar 9: "The war is ending almost completely, and very beautifully."
Mar 11: “You never like to say too ?early you won. We won. In ?the first hour it was over.”
Mar 12: "We did win, but we haven't won completely yet."
Mar 13: "We won the war."
Mar 14: "Please help us."
Mar 15: "If you don't help us, I will certainly remember it."
Mar 16: "Actually, we don't need any help at all."
Mar 16: "I was just testing to see who's listening to me."
Mar 16: "If NATO doesn't help, they will suffer something very bad."
Mar 17: "We neither need nor want NATO's help."
Mar 17: "I don't need Congressional approval to withdraw from NATO."
Mar 18: "Our allies must cooperate in reopening the Strait of Hormuz."
Mar 19: "US allies need to get a grip – step up and help open the Strait of Hormuz."
Mar 20: "NATO are cowards."
Mar 21: "The Strait of Hormuz must be protected by the countries that use it. We don't use it, we don't need to open it."
Mar 22: "This is the last time. I will give Iran 48 hours. Open the strait"
Mar 22: "Iran is Dead"
Mar 23: "We had very good and productive talks with Iran."
Mar 24: "We’re making progress."
Mar 25: “They gave us a present and the present arrived today. And it was a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money. I’m not going to tell you what that present is, but it was a very significant prize.”
Mar 26: "Make a deal, or we’ll just keep blowing them away."
Mar 27: "We don’t have to be there for NATO."
Mar 30: "Open the Strait of Hormuz immediately, or face devastating consequences."
Mar 31: Claimed a deal was "very close" and that Iran would "do the right thing"
Apr 1: "We’ll see what happens very soon."
Apr 2: Repeated that a deal was likely, while warning of continued strikes if not
Apr 3: "Something big is going to happen."
Apr 4: Said Iran must comply "immediately" or face further consequences.
Apr 5: "Open the f___in' Strait, you crazy b__tards, or you'll be living in H_ll – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah."!!!!!!
April 7: trump threatened "a whole civilization will die tonight"
April 17: "Iran has “agreed to everything”
April 19: "very good chance” an agreement could be completed"
April 21: Trump says he 'expects to be bombing'
April 23 Trump announces 3 week cease fire for Israel?
I had to read between the lines to try to find the stable and the genius. Then I looked to find art of the deal there too. I'll reread it again later. So far, I haven't found it. It must be between the lines somewhere as it sure is not evidenced anywhere else.
Well you may not find what you're looking for. I was informed over at breitbart that diaper don is playing 4D chess, so us libtards just don't quite understand!
Dunning-Kruger Effect
I had to google, but yes, exactly!
Breaking News
Trump orders new shovel!
President say the hole will be the deepest, the biggest, the best hole ever dug. Nobody's ever seen anything like it before.
LOL