The second Trump administration is a more faithful reflection of the malignant narcissist at its center than the first was. All noblesse and no oblige, Piggy’s first principle is and always has been personal impunity.
Maybe in an administration that more accurately reflects Trump’s bad character, it was inevitable that some trickle-down impunity would accrue to the toadies who staff the regime. At Piggy’s pleasure and subject to his abrupt withdrawal of the privilege, of course.
Just ask formerly strutting bantam Gruppenführer Bovino about the conditional nature of borrowed impunity. Was Bovino’s abrupt “rehoming” to a farm out in the country where he can run free the first dent in Trump 2.0’s “no scalps” rule?
There are so many bad actors and so many scandals that would have resulted in firings, resignations or cannon shots into the sun in “normal” administrations. It’s hard to keep it all straight.
And it’s difficult to know what constitutes a bridge too far in an administration populated entirely by psychopaths. The usual rules, such as “don’t make the boss look bad,” aren’t evenly enforced or enforced at all — Pete Hegseth and RFK Jr. still have jobs, despite their manifest incompetence.
So maybe a super long and detailed WSJ article on Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski’s tumultuous tenure at DHS doesn’t mean anything except that some of their fellow pit vipers are anonymously venting to journalists. Or maybe it means Noem and Lewandowsky will be led to a gravel pit soon, who knows. WSJ gift link, plus excerpts:
A Pilot Fired Over Kristi Noem’s Missing Blanket and the Constant Chaos Inside DHS
Secretary, with close adviser Corey Lewandowski, faces fire for confrontational immigration crackdown and self-promotional style; White House to wind down Minnesota operationsWhite House officials have grown angry that Noem and Lewandowski have declined to take guidance on events, messaging and management of the agency. Several senior administration officials described DHS as the biggest headache thus far of the second term…
Within DHS, Noem and Lewandowski have cut employees or put them on administrative leave. The pair have fired or demoted roughly 80% of the career ICE field leadership that was in place when they started.
In the blanket incident, Noem had to switch planes after a maintenance issue was discovered, but her blanket wasn’t moved to the second plane, according to the people familiar with the incident. The Coast Guard pilot was initially fired and told to take a commercial flight home when they reached their destination. They eventually reinstated the pilot because no one else was available to fly them home.
The DHS spokeswoman didn’t address the episode but said the secretary has “made personnel decisions to deliver excellence.”
Excellence at blanket tracking? I’ll outsource further commentary on the blanket incident to Popehat:
OK everyone who is making fun of Kristi Noem over the blanket thing has OBVIOUSLY never had a toddler who was elevated to a Cabinet position
— Popehat Ways Could Often Be Different (@kenwhite.bsky.social) February 13, 2026 at 10:14 AM
But seriously, I went to high school with a few violent sociopaths like that, including couples I would mentally classify as “most likely to perish in a murder-suicide.” Their names still pop up in the crime section of the local paper from time to time. Middle age doesn’t mellow that type.
In an incident last year that rankled some senior staff at the agency, Lewandowski made it known to top ICE officials that he wanted to be issued a law-enforcement badge and a federally issued gun, according to people familiar with his push. Officials are typically only issued a badge and a gun after undergoing law-enforcement training…
Efforts to issue Lewandowski a gun stalled after The Wall Street Journal and other news organizations inquired about the incident last year, the people said. Still, Lewandowski has been spotted by DHS staff sporting a badge, emblazoned with the words “Homeland Security.”
It’s awful to say because domestic violence is horrible no matter whom it happens to, but if the senior staff would just give Lewandowski the damn gun, the DHS leadership problem might take care of itself.
There’s no moral to this story of a pair of amoral creeps, but it is stress-testing the “heighten the contradictions” theory. Trump’s trickle-down impunity is seeing to that.
Open thread.
Baud
No matter how high the contradiction, people still have to choose which side of the wall they want to stand on.
Gravenstone
Aww, widdle man stomped his feets and held his breath until they gave him his participation trophy.
different-church-lady
The thing that always struck me about mob stories, whether real or fictional, is that evenutally almost everybody winds up violently dead.
Professor Bigfoot
Is it sexist of me to think Noem and Bondi are, outside of Miller and Trump himself, the very worst?
Scott
I wonder how many time Lewandowski gets told: “I’m sorry, but you are not in the chain of command.” Which is a true statement.
different-church-lady
What, did they run out of Junior G-Man badges?
Kirby Bucket
Lewandowski has assaulted and sexually harassed women, but has essentially gotten away with it.
The perfect person to be working for ICE and Trump, and the perfect companion for Kristi Noem.
Incidentally, both Lewandowski and Noem appear to be still married to other people, both call themselves Christian, and both have children.
Betty Cracker
@Professor Bigfoot: They’re so uniformly horrible that it’s impossible for me to rank them. I mean Pete Hegseth? RFK Jr. might end up with the highest body count, well, aside from Musk. I just don’t know.
Old School
Was Noem reunited with her blanket?
Gravenstone
@Professor Bigfoot: It’s quite progressive to recognize that the capacity for evil knows no preference for gender.
trollhattan
Whoever installed the Corporate Inspirational Speaker chip in these assholes had better 1. be fired but 2. not before he removes that damn chip.
I have 1982 holding on Line #3.
Elizabelle
OMG, the poor Coast Guard pilot.
I would be so tempted to put Kristi in an ejector seat and let ‘er fly.
Elizabelle
@trollhattan: That sounds like AI or corporatese madlibs.
FelonyGovt
@Professor Bigfoot: Maybe we’re not QUITE as used to seeing such appalling awful women in positions of power, while we’re very used to seeing such men. Hard to rank them, because this administration is such an amazing collection of sociopathic incompetents.
Betty Cracker
@Old School: I don’t think that question was resolved! It must have been a favorite blankie, not one of the interchangeable covers dispensed on regular planes. I think every reporter needs to ask Kristi about her blankie until we know for sure!
Another Scott
Didn’t we hear about this blanket and pilot issue with Noem months ago?? (Of course, Google is broken so I can’t find anything that supports my supposition.)
So many stupid outrages, it’s hard to keep them all straight. 🤪
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
sab
@Professor Bigfoot: No, you are treating them as equals, with agency, not as poor things working with over-emotional female brains.
trollhattan
@Kirby Bucket:
I remember Trump 1.0 mocking Lewandowski after he’d had a thing with Hope Hicks, “That’s the best piece of tail you’ll ever have.”
He made everybody feel better about themselves that day.
trollhattan
@Elizabelle:
Right? Wonder if they’ve put up some of those corporate inspirational posters around the Oval? Gilt fames, naturally.
Mathguy
What I passionately hated during the first orange fart cloud regime was the constant “I’m going to live rent free in your head” bullshit that we were soaked with every day. This effect has been multiplied by the second coming o this regime, as exemplified by Gnome and her boi toi. I just want quiet, competent governance. I have begun to wonder if we’ll ever see that again.
JoyceH
Noem is another one of those Trump officials with no sense of scale. She governed a state with a population of under a million and a state government workforce of less than 15,000. In South Dakota maybe it made sense for her to sign off on every appropriation over $100,000, but for a sprawling agency like DHS with often time sensitive needs to get money out the door, that’s sheerly bonkers. And she seems incapable of learning. With many people in a new job, they make mistakes early on but then they learn and they adjust. She just doesn’t. None of these folks do.
Betty Cracker
Random question for y’all: my dogs hate getting their nails trimmed, especially Pete. (I can’t outsource the task to a third party for various reasons.) The usual process is Bill will hold the dog, and I’ll trim the nails, but it sucks because they wriggle incessantly and put their heads in the way, etc., especially Pete.
My idea to remedy this situation, which is based on contraptions I’ve seen at dog groomer shops, is to take a canvass grocery tote, cut 4 holes for the legs in the bottom and one in the side for the head, place the dog in it, have Bill hold the tote by its handles, suspending the dog in mid-air while I trim the nails. (Especially Pete!)
Is there any reason this wouldn’t work? 🤔
WTFGhost
I don’t understand the desire to have a badge and a gun, to be honest. That said, if I had to go around begging for one, I’d expect every LEO who takes the job seriously to laugh at me behind my back and throw spitballs at me during homeroom.
Mathguy
@JoyceH: It’s all about innumeracy. Idiots like Miss Cowgirl Cosplayer have no idea how big a billion truly is.
WTFGhost
@Betty Cracker: So long as the dog has good belly support, it should work fine. I’m not sure about the dog, the grocery bag, the nails, the nail gun, the type of lumber involved, and why you’d trim nails once you had them in the lumber, nor why the dog is involved in the first place, but, yeah, a canvas bag would work like a hammock. I’m not saying doggo will be happy to be on the flying trapeze, but, you’ll find out.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@JoyceH: That seems to be the modus operandi for most of the people in this maladministration: never admit you’re wrong about anything. Heck, there are even hats insisting that Mango Mussolini has never been wrong about anything.
Another Scott
@Betty Cracker: Is it too late to try distraction with something like peanut butter? One of our vets brings out a half-gallon sized jar and then just shovels it into the problematic pooch’s mouth for the duration of the exam, etc. You still may need 2-3 people, but it seems to work!
Good luck!
Best wishes,
Scott.
Doc Sardonic
@Betty Cracker: In theory it should work just fine, however, animals sometimes have a tendency to defy both the theory and the laws of gravity and some other physics principles. One thing in addition to the holes for legs and head to consider is maybe a closure for the top portion.
WTFGhost
@Elizabelle: The worst thing is, to Trump, that’s just what happens. It’s not the pilot’s fault, he was just unlucky enough to be piloting a plane that had a person who kills animals to show performative outrage.
Ramona
@Professor Bigfoot: @Betty Cracker:
I wonder what hunter-gatherer societies did with such individuals… chase them out of the group by hurling rocks at them?
Doc Sardonic
@Ramona: They got to run point on the next mastodon hunt…..
Melancholy Jaques
Open thread? Good.
I missed yesterday’s thread with Jon Ossoff’s speech. If he wins re-election, he should be the leading contender for the Democratic nomination in 2028. He is the best I’ve seen since Obama.
Lyrebird
@Professor Bigfoot: I asked the same thing after an intense wave of hatred came up, seeing clips of Bondi’s psycho-smarmy behavior at the hearing.
Agree with Betty @8 – hard to rank them[Note: the reply box is once again not letting me refer to two previous comments.]
Wondered if commenters here might be interested in the uh establishment-slamming TNR article whose confusing artwork is being criticized here:
It may be that the artist or the person calling up some AI was actually trying to get Ms. Mejia, the successful candidate for a NJ primary, and Mejia would fit the article better. A lot of people thought it was some kind of AI blend of Reps. Ocasio Cortez and Crockett.
Anyhow, maybe it’s just that they should’ve captioned better, I am not reading an article projecting “feckless” on people who are pulling hard on the oars, but others’ mileage may vary.
FWIW I thought Malinowski’s concession statement to Mejia was excellent.
Betty Cracker’s writing and questions are ALWAYS excellent! Even when I don’t agree!
:-)
[ETA 100% agreed that the villainy of Trump’s Cabinet defies measurement or ranking! Who knew Rubio might contribute even more to the body count, just with poor starving children?]
dc
@Elizabelle:
I think he should have flown the plane out over land somewhere, one high enough, jump out with a parachute and let the thing crash.
gvg
@Betty Cracker: It works with cats,
https://www.petedge.com/tp-cat-grooming-bag-s-17x9in?https://yourwebsite.com/landing-page?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaignid=123&utm_adgroupid=456&utm_term=test&utm_content=789&gclid=test123&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23451989165&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIzemnoZ3XkgMVsy7UAR3Tgyi8EAQYBCABEgLvKvD_BwE
There is a zipper opening for each leg and the tail. Mine is mostly mesh so I could give the cat a bath through it without being scratched. The head pokes through but is held tight with an adjustable velcro color. It is also the only way to hold some of them still for a pill. Look up pet grooming bag. I can let out one leg at a time for nail clipping.
There are also space helmets that vets use when an animal might bite or when they are recovering and a cone isn’t working which may help in some situations. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Pet-Recovery-Space-Helmets-Anti-lick-Head-Covers-Breathable-Helmets-Grooming-Help-Supplies/18440374012?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=102650081&adid=2222222222718440374012_102650081_14069003552_202077872&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=42423897272&wl4=pla-2449037643288&wl5=9193198&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=5497049824&wl11=online&wl12=18440374012_102650081&veh=sem&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=202077872&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkIe-rZ7XkgMVtCvUAR3RSRNcEAQYASABEgILWvD_BwE
I think they are called recovery helmets?
And I just found what are called dog grooming hamock harness’ which look like they would work for you.
dc
@Lyrebird:
Why are they draining aquifers to make this crap?
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
Of course it works because we demand pictures.
Ours has nails of granite that are black to hide the quick, and it’s strictly a pro task.
Ramona
@Betty Cracker: I watch Girl with the dogs on YouTube and have never owned a dog or cat. I think the setup you propose might hold your pet similarly to how her setup holds the pet.
Some weeks ago, she groomed a German Shepherd with a heart condition and so instead of clipping his nails which she usually does, she used a Dremel on his first paw but that was stressful for both so for the other three paws, she used doggy nail clippers and did it quickly and all went well. The owners had told her they daren’t clip the dog’s nails because he’d get too stressed and they feared for his heart. But, after she clipped the nails off the remaining three paws she said that dogs were very capable of manipulating their owners and she suspected that this was what he’d done.
She makes tutorials people can follow to groom their pets at home.
dc
@Betty Cracker:
Will you make a video of this?
JoyceH
More open thread. I’m starting to see ads for the redistricting special election in VA – on You Tube! I like that energy. Vote Yes by April 21!
Ramona
@Doc Sardonic: haha
sab
@Ramona: German Shepherds are particularly adept at manipulating their owners and they hate nail trims.
eclare
@Gravenstone:
I bet that badge is like the pilot wings that Delta pilots give to kids.
Scout211
I posted a link to that article this morning. What is surprising to me is that there have been so many WSJ news stories that lean toward exposé or even tabloid gossip about the Trump administration. This one, and others feel as though there seems to be leaks to the WSJ coming from inside of the Oval Office.
Administration in disarray?
Ramona
@Lyrebird: I’m a person of color who grew up in a non-European country. I’ve also been good at drawing for as long as I can remember. When I drew myself or my family, I simply focused on my features because what the heck extra info did our colors convey.
Similarly, one of the stars of the HBO show who is of Nigerian extraction pointed out that there are no black (in lower-case letters because I do mean a color) in Africa.
Now, I’m going to go look at this picture you mention. Oop! That’s certainly not Jasmine Crockett. I think Alex Sheppard has prosopagnosia.
eclare
@Professor Bigfoot:
No. But I’d put RFK Jr in that group too.
chemiclord
@Mathguy:
The American Public appears to tire of quiet government very quickly.
Ramona
@sab: hoho
danielx
@Professor Bigfoot:
Hard to say, the competition for the title of “the very worst” in this administration is fierce. Russell Vought, Pete Hegseth…lotta viable candidates.
Edit: Pam Bondi coming up on the inside.
Paul in KY
@Professor Bigfoot: Nope.
eclare
@Betty Cracker:
Seems like the dog could still wiggle plus I think it would really scare Pete. Anyway you could give him a sedative beforehand? That way he’s calmer and not terrified every time he sees a canvas grocery bag.
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: And call it a ‘blankie’!
WhatsMyNym
I went to a highschool with 3,000 other students. Can’t remember any like that. Even the bully that bothered me in 6th grade turned into a reasonable democrat.
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: Please videotape it.
Betty Cracker
Thanks for the dog grooming advice! I will consider a video if we proceed with this plan.
@Melancholy Jaques: Ossoff is fabulous.
Ramona
@Doc Sardonic: I wish we could park them all including Vance and Trump on a desert island and let them fend for themselves!
Betty Cracker
@WhatsMyNym: I take it you did not grow up in Florida.
hueyplong
@danielx: One of the main points BC makes is that the entire second Trump administration more accurately duplicates the powerful and obnoxious odor of narcissistic national socialism that makes Trump indistinguishable from his capacity-threatened diaper.
It’s not a question of who’s the worst. It’s who makes the AP Top 10. There is real and substantial competition for that tenth spot, with much striving by those individuals who are part of the First Four Out. That, like the quotas, is what makes this crew so dangerous. Their incompetence is actually their only redeeming feature.
trollhattan
Try and prove it’s The Onion.
Baud
RFK Jr. will not fall in the rankings quietly
Paul in KY
@Doc Sardonic: Staked out for bait for a prospective Smilodon pelt.
Paul in KY
@WhatsMyNym: We had some real POSes at mine. 1,600 in 3 grades. Vast majority were OK, though.
UncleEbeneezer
@Professor Bigfoot: What am I, chopped liver? — JD Vance
sab
@Betty Cracker: Ohio now but I did grow up in Florida. Gotta agree with you. But we have them in Ohio too.
I had some boy wiith a crush on me when I first moved north to Ohio terrorizing me at age twelve when I was trying to learn how to ice skate. The first time he knocked me down then helped me up I let him. The second time I kicked him in the balls with my skates on. That ended that potential relationship.
Later in high school his girlfriend was too terrified to break up with him. She was just waiting to go away to college.
HeleninEire
@different-church-lady: When Goodfellas came out I loved it, and read a whole bunch of books on the mob; most of them non-fiction. My biggest takeaway was “Jesus Christ, what a bunch of babies. They don’t get their way so they stamp their feet and whine.”
That is the Trump administration writ large.
BellaPea
Funny but unrelated to pet grooming: Jimmy Kimmel called Dump “Fat King Coal” on his show last night. Classic!
Timill
@Ramona: Why ruin a perfectly good desert island? Drop them off in Alligator Alcatraz and let them fend for themselves…
Gretchen
@trollhattan: Kash Patel recently fired the commander of the hostage rescue team of the FBI, Brian Driscoll. Maybe that wasn’t a good plan. Patel admitted that he was ordered to fire anyone who worked on investigations into Trump. Gosh, I wonder if the top hostage negotiator would have been helpful in the Guthrie investigation.
Lyrebird
@sab: Agreed.
Thank you for helping me re-find this glorious bit of writing by Molly Ivins explaining that yes she could call Camille Paglia an a__hole.
Links to PDF from WaybackMachine
Kelly
I try to be appropriately outraged but it is so hard to keep up
nbcnews.com/news/us-news/russian-family-ice-detention-dilley-texas-nightmare-immigration-rcna258377
sab
“Ms Gnome’s lost blanket.”
I love this idea. Our tough puppy-killing goat-killing Director has a particular blanket she cannot sleep without. And fired a Coast Guard pilot because.
And they are so tough.
I am embarrassed for my country as long as Congressional Republicans present this as who we are to the rest of the world where leaders are grown-ups.
Lyrebird
Thanks so much for sharing those vignettes! And yes people of all colors should of course get equal rights to be outlines if they wanna bc otherwise it’s just white-centering, pretty much. And I sure hope the artist or agent was trying for Soon-to-be Rep. Mejia, because yeah that sure ain’t Rep. Crockett.
FWIW as a kid I thought that people tended to be good at drawing people who look like them. That was my explanation at least for why I felt so little connection to female characters in X-men comics etc. Sure, Wonder Woman had big mammaries, but all the faces looked kinda the same, and once I learned that the artists were (then) all men, I thought okay got it.
Lyrebird
@Kelly:
Straight-up Nazi shit right there.
The guards would eat in front of captives, offer feasts on fast days but not other times, etc.
Baud
Via reddit, brutal meme.
Jackie
More rumors swirling about Alito’s possible retirement. Slate has a paywalled article out today.
So FFOTUS is going to get to seat a FOURTH justice – and this one will be 100% MAGA… Cannon or Kacsmaryk (Texas) or…?
Archon
@Kelly: Guillotines came out in France for less.
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: Refresh my memory — how many measles cases did we have under Biden
ETA: Answer: a total or 49 in Biden’s first year.
sab
@sab: I am hooked forever on Ms Gnomes name. I desperately love it.
I have a Swiss German surname weirdly spelled only in USA. If I have to live with my Germanic name misspelled then so can Ms Gnome.
Miss Bianca
@Betty Cracker: Hmmm…I think you need to try it and then send pics so that we can evaluate it. :)
sab
@Jackie: He will have to retire now because doubtful a Republican will win next time. And he wants to retire. But Yikes. I will love to see the last of him but still yikes.
sab
@Jackie: Hoping Alito has something painful and short but not too short.
ETA If you had told me ten years ago I would post such an unpleasant bitchy comment I would not have believed you.
But I did and I do stand by it. Hope his fakely sobbing wife is by his side every second when he actually declines.
Socolofi
Just an observation, but Trump hasn’t had nearly the Scaramucci-like turnover in this administration that he did the first time. I suspect in large part because he nailed down the key qualifications and people who are in the positions get it: “Be 100% loyal, don’t look weak, don’t make the boss look bad, take the fall if necessary but generally find a henchman.”
Incompetence is a feature… in the first admin people had an idea of how to be competent and thus knew when their marching orders were 100% opposite of what they needed to do. Competent people can be shamed.
So Noem and her boy toy are racking up frequent flier miles in the mile high club. Miller is happy because he knows Noem will be the fall girl for all his most horrible policies if it ever comes to that. But I think it’ll take more than executing a few civilians for Trump to fire her.
MoCaAce
I don’t know but please post pictures!
Geminid
@Socolofi: I attribute much of the relative stability of Trump’s second term cabinet to the management of Chief of Staff Susan Wiles; or as some disgruntled Republicans call her, “Swamp Granny.”
sab
@sab: My actual born name was incredibly normal and British .
My married name is the German name weirdly spelled Swiss spelling which is actually the norm in the Midwest, but we still have to correct everyone very time we use it because the rest of the world has its own rules. So Noem to Gnome makes me positively gleeful.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
Very much OT: we’ve been watching the Olympics and my feminist soul is sad to report that after watching the men’s Slopeside and Halfpipe qualifiers and/or finals, we find the women’s version non compelling. Sigh. The women are fabulous athletes, but the men’s height and tricks are insane and almost unbelievable. The women’s downhill and speedskating were fine, but the men’s halfpipe was crazy. The walls are now 22′ high.
Captain C
@UncleEbeneezer:
Chopped liver stuffed into a couch.
CaseyL
@Jackie: Cannon is younger, so that would be my bet.
Suzanne
@Professor Bigfoot:
No.
Geminid
@CaseyL: Cannon might not be nominated if she cannot get support from 50 Republican Senators.
sab
@sab: That is how the world should work because both spellings are correct. People fall for that all the time.
Suzanne
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): I am enjoying the women’s ski jumping because they are not injecting acid into their dicks to make their suit floppier.
CaseyL
@Geminid: Other than maybe Murkowski, and that’s a big maybe, what other GOP Senators do you think won’t support Cannon?
Elizabelle
@Jackie: I hope Alito gets ass cancer. The Mrs., too.
More seriously, I hope they cannot eat out in anything but MAGA restaurants. Because of being shunned and hissed at.
Goes for all the Trump
humpingimmunity-bestowing Supreme Six.A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Suzanne: I would have loved to see any ski jumping but it had not appeared on any of the main NBC shows. NBC is such a homer; nothing else counts in the programming. Unfortunately we do not stream so no Peacock for us.
sab
Christi Gnome isn’t even actually mispronounced. It is just mis-spelled. This happens all the time.
Google my last name. Nobody pronounces it that way we do but we are loners. I am not weeping for other peoples whose names were mispronounced. Enraged me at the time a bit but couldn’t do a thing about it.
Suzanne
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): When I was in graduate school, I went to the Bergisel Ski Jump in Innsbruck, Austria. Incredible architecture, and you could not pay me a million dollars to attempt it.
Belafon
@Jackie: Scared of the midterms, is he?
Ocotillo
I’m late to the party but maybe if that pilot had given Corey some pilot wings he would not have been fired in the first place blanket notwithstanding.
A Ghost to Most
The cult knew who he was when they chose him THREE times.
Geminid
@CaseyL: I said if, not won’t. But potential no-votes include Tillis, Collins, Young, Cassidy if the vote is after his primary or maybe even if it’s before; and there could be others.
There are Circuit Court judges who would sail right through confirmatiom with no problems, whereas Cannon could be trouble. I expect this to be worked out before the nomination is made.
Belafon
dailykos.com/stories/2026/2/13/2368594/-Democrats-score-big-redistricting-win-in-Virginia?pm_campaig…
Karen Gail
I think, suspect that First Felon and his merry band of idiots are just the ones that we see; if we could see how the billionaires around the world act it probably wouldn’t be much different. I also think that if we could see the names of the predators rather than the victims from the Epstein files we would see many of the same names.
As I read recently it takes a certain kind of person to become a billionaire or extremely wealthy. They don’t become that wealthy by caring about anyone other than themselves; there might be exceptions but if they exist we don’t know. One probably has a better chance of finding a unicorn at their front door than a wealthy person who has compassion or is anything but narcissus. I read that “perfect religious people” were usually sociopaths; they either chose religion or business and in some cases mixed the two. There are a number of extremely wealthy ministers who preach prosperity; Joel Osteen comes to mind, his people wouldn’t open doors to allow flood victims shelter. Yet, store owner opened their doors and not only allowed people in but one furniture place provided sheets, blankets and pillows so they could sleep on mattresses and sofas. One even went so far as to pull mattress out of warehouse to provide beds; while some of the restaurants opened just to feed those people.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
The concern would be applicable if Lewandowski shot someone, you know, human.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@Karen Gail: The chief distinction between Temussolini and the 0.01% is the lack of modesty, of circumspection, of even the least pretense of propriety. The other 0.01% learned long ago to act out their misdeeds quietly away from public scrutiny. FFOTUS’ crowd seems to revel in the publicity. This is why the Epsteinism needs to be aired completely, without constraint or remorse: to hold accountable those who performed these obscenities in the shadows without accountability or consequence (up to now).
Scout211
Spoiler Alert:
Ilia Malinin had a bad night. ☹️
eclare
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan):
Did you watch the men’s skating which just finished?
Baud
NYT
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Suzanne: I haven’t seen the ski jumping hill (unless it is the same venue), but the big air hill is 18 stories high. When the men jump off it, they disappear into the void and a drone on the other side has to pick up the action. Incredible speed and height, and yes, I wouldn’t do it for a million dollars
ETA thanks for the links. Incredible is right.
Baud
@Scout211:
I blame Vance.
HeleninEire
@Scout211: Right? I was sort of watching…but then I saw the medals. Not him.
ETA: when he lost to the Japanese skater he talked shit. He said something stupid like “I didn’t do my best because my best wasn’t needed here.”
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@eclare: no, not yet. But the Frenchman in the short program was wonderful, as well as 2 Japanese kids (well, one is 22 but looks 17)
I just checked the news and the 2 Japanese guys got silver and bronze. Poor Ilia. The pressure on leading competitors is fierce
ETA Not in this case, but I read somewhere that on most Olympic podiums, the silver medal winner is sad because they didn’t win the gold, and the bronze winner is thrilled to be on the podium.
eclare
@Scout211:
Spoiler alert!
I was shocked! But I guess the pressure got to him. I can’t imagine his emotions. Or those of Misha! Good for him and Kazakhstan. For style, I have to give the medal to the French skater. Strike a pose, indeed.
Baud
Miss Bianca
@Baud: Ugh. Of course RFK the Lesser would be palling around with Epstein.
sab
So anyway, we people were joking around and Dobby bounced off off both walls and the ceiling. So I don’t think he is happy.
lowtechcyclist
@Old School:
Maybe people should start calling her “Linus.”
An insult to Charles Schulz’ character, but still.
Karen Gail
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq): British royalty seems to be the exception; if they aren’t the heir they seem to feel free to be as bad as they want in public.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@Kelly: One almost wonders whether they are deliberately trying to provoke a violent response to ICE just so they can lock the US down.
Eunicecycle
@Kelly: that story made me so angry! I am almost in despair these days. I can’t believe there are so many psychopaths and sociopaths in this country. We now know we have citizens who would be exactly like the Nazis in Germany.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@Karen Gail: There have been exceptions to that rule (thinking Edward VIII, Charles I, even Edward II), where excess was rewarded with consequence, but I do suspect you are right.
A lot depends on what was considered beyond the Pale for other royal families. Frederick the Great’s dalliances, for example, seem to have been largely forgiven, even though fairly obvious if not exactly flaunted.
lowtechcyclist
@Betty Cracker:
There’s a thing in discrete mathematics called the “partially ordered set.” (‘Poset’ for short.) For two distinct elements A and B, it may be that either (1) A>B, (2) B>A, or (3) they’re ‘incomparable’ meaning that whatever comparison is signified by the > symbol, neither A>B nor B>A is true.
Set inclusion is like that. If A>B means set A contains set B as a subset, then {1,2} and {2,3} are incomparable: neither contains the other.
This has been today’s TED talk. ;-) But it makes for a good analogy: if A>B means ‘A is more evil than B’, whoever your A and B are in this Administration, each of A and B is likely to be evil in ways that the other isn’t, so they’re incomparable.
sab
My boss called me today to checkin for tax season. I am a pretty good typist and it took me a good twenty minutes to get my message right.
Not particulary paranoid but that is not right.
If they ever want me to sign up with the government I am pretty sure I will decline.,These thugs are not my government.
After this last uear I don’t want to, but he has been agreat boss
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
I was told there’d be no higher level math.
eclare
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq):
I think ICE and CBP are definitely doing that, Piggy wants to declare Marshall law so bad.
sab
Semsible normal decent people should het things and just pie me.
Baud
@sab:
I’m not normal.
Karen Gail
I attended a lecture back when Nixon was in White House; during the question section someone asked how people could have voted for him. The answer was that people vote for the person that see as most like them; that if they were rich and powerful they could do what they want. An example was used; that sleazy used car salesman, if he was wealthy he wouldn’t have been charged with rape.
Citizen Alan
@lowtechcyclist: Perhaps we could call her Bloom, after Leo Bloom from. The Producers who went into screaming hysterics at the temporary loss of his “blue blankie” and was also a larcenous sexist piece of shit.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … TWZ.com:
(Emphasis added.)
2 carriers to work on the Houthis, and, er, wasn’t exactly an overwhelming success. We’re expecting a different result with Iran??
As huge as the Defense Department is, it is still stretched very, very thin, and there are consequences of all that stretching…
Best wishes,
Scott.
Citizen Alan
@lowtechcyclist: Perhaps we could call her Bloom, after Leo Bloom from. The Producers who went into screaming hysterics at the temporary loss of his “blue blankie” and was also a larcenous sexist piece of shit.
lowtechcyclist
@Bruce K in ATH-GR:
“And you can believe me, because I never lie and I’m always right.” – George Tirebiter
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@eclare: pride goeth before a fall, I guess. It seems to me one of the worst aspects for these competitors is there are major competitions in their sport every year, but most normal people only tune in every 4 years for the Olympics, so you can win everything else for years, but if you fail at the Olympics, you are a loser to many. Not fair, but that’s why there is SO MUCH pressure at the Olympics.
Scout211
I hope he declares Marshall law, cuz Martial Law would be really bad. ;-)
That auto-correct is so sneaky!
(Just auto-corrected me to streaky).
Old School
Donald Trump, Legal Expert:
Old School
Someone needs a nap.
cain
@Gravenstone: Surprised he didn’t have some kind of glam fancy six shooter with an ivory handle.
Belafon
@Old School: Disrespecting every poll worker that has done legitimate work over the last 60 years.
Scout211
@Old School:
I see he cleverly left out the actual authorities who control elections in the individual states. Does he (or his social media minions) not understand this or is he just doing his typical threat thing?
cain
@sab: You didn’t offer to kick him in the balls with your ice skates?
Belafon
@Old School:
I will be thinking of new crap to spew, mighty crap the likes of which you have never heard before.
Belafon
@Scout211: He doesn’t want to understand it, and the election that happened in Fort Worth required an ID as is law here in Texas, and the Democrat still won because enough Republicans were fed up.
Tom Levenson
@Professor Bigfoot: Kennedy is worse, or at least as bad.
Jackie
@Old School:
It’s going to be an anything but normal midterm election in Nov.
I read elsewhere he’s threatening to declare election results null and void if the SAVE act isn’t passed.
Belafon
@Jackie: And even Republican governors will laugh.
Elizabelle
@Old School:
Laughing. Who came up with that??
2liberal
email from Sen Gallego:
zhena gogolia
@Miss Bianca: Ask his family nanny.
Jackie
@Belafon: They will, but that won’t prevent FFOTUS from trying to pull shenanigans – AGAIN. I don’t expect a J6 repeat as he’ll still be prez, but he’ll surely
encouragedemand every Repug who lost their election to take it to the courts…Another Scott
@Old School:
We’re buying more Stacey Abrams tanks, also too.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Geminid
@Another Scott: The Norfolk-based George H.W. Bush and its task force will complete pre-deployment training exercises in a couple weeks, and they could sail for the Middle East next.
Ed. I expect they will, if the Ford is going.
eclare
@Scout211:
Ha!
bjacques
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): I watched the Short Program and Malinin was phenomenal—Nijinsky on ice. Even Shaidorov, who I liked because he was dressed as Timothée Chalamet from “Dune” and did his routine to Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack to same. I missed his free skate performance. I presume as the Kwisatz Haderach, he would have drunk the Water Of Life so he could hear the as-yet-uncomposed soundtrack of the third Dune movie and skate to it, but that would have gotten him bannef for drugs, even fictional ones.
Before Malinin’s collapse, Adam Siao Him Fa of France and Japan’s Kagiyama had also stumbled, for what it’s worth.
EDIT: Trump at Ft. Fragg…
Beth in VA
Betty Cracker, I am such a fan girl. Your writing is a pleasure to read! So incredibly happy just to know you’re on this planet sharing these insights and delicious bits of prose.
trollhattan
Somebody’s revvin’ up the old hiking boots, ready to hit the Appalachian Trail.
Fair Economist
@eclare: I haven’t seen his skate yet, but from the descriptions it sounds like he has an injury. I was just thinking about this when I was watching Matteo Rizzo doing a triple loop, and I was thinking “hey, I thought he had a quad loop”. Well, he *did* – but he had to have hip surgery a year ago, probably because of exactly that quad loop. Skating is really brutal on the body, and of course now that the men have to do multiple quads, it’s even more brutal. I was thinking “gee, I hope Malinin isn’t doing too much for his body to take”.
Baud
I like decent folk.
karensky
@Professor Bigfoot: Nope. 81 yr old Femnist here!’
Sure Lurkalot
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan):
I don’t care about spoilers but it seems Ilia was a bit ungracious in his loss. I’ll tune in later anyway…I thought the 2 Japanese skaters were excellent in their previous performances. Programs with too many difficult jumps aren’t usually my favorites.
I thought the American ice dancers were a bit ungracious in their loss to the French team. I’d hate a camera in my face after losing such a close competition but they looked more angry than disappointed (though they did congratulate the winners). Probably being their last Olympics made it more devastating.
I think you’re right about the silver medal.
Geminid
@trollhattan: Nancy Mace is running for governor, so that leaves Sanford’s old seat open. South Carolina’s 1st CD runs along the coast southwest of Charlston and includes interior counties.
Fun Fact: Gentleman botanist Joel Poinsett represented SC-01 back in the 1820s. Poinsett later served as Consul to Mexico and sent back specimens of the flowering plant that bears his name.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Elizabelle: I am wondering if the reinstated pilot tried to steer into turbulence on the way back
Another Scott
@Fair Economist: I haven’t seen Ilia’s last skate yet either.
Personally, I much prefer skating like Kagiyama’s short program than Jump, Jump, Jump, Jump, …
Ilia is an amazing talent. It’s his first Olympics, and the Olympics are only one (though important) competition. I expect he will get better, be more artistic over time, and realize that all the attention is often a bad thing. But we’ll see.
Too many sports these days are brutal on the body. Gymnastics, tennis, skiing, skating, running, etc. We need more Olympic sports like curling. ;-)
Best wishes,
Scott.
Miss Bianca
@Sure Lurkalot: I haven’t watched any of the ice dancing, but I did hear that that French couple winning the gold was a *rather* controversial decision, and there was some talk that the French judge had their thumb mightily on the scale for them. Might be an excuse for a bit of ungraciousness, there.
(I wonder if “French judge” is going to become a replacement term for the old jokes about East German judges.)
Sure Lurkalot
@Another Scott:
My guy and I were pondering ways you could hurt yourself curling. The best I came up with was a pulled groin or hamstring muscle launching the stone.
Sure Lurkalot
@Miss Bianca: I didn’t hear that about the ice dancing judging. Truth be told, I know squat about the sport but thought both programs were beautiful.
I remember controversies about judging in previous Olympics…skating, gymnastics seem ripe for favoritism. Why don’t they just discard the score of judges from the same country? Then you’d be left with good old fashioned bribery.
Jackie
@trollhattan:
I genuinely snort laughed when I read that awhile ago!
Baud
Jackie
@Sure Lurkalot:
Elbow tendinitis from furiously sweeping? ;-)
eclare
@Another Scott:
I agree about curling. I had to stop watching one of the downhill ski races a few nights ago because it was making me too nervous!
All you need to know about wear and tear on the body is that there is a 54 yo man on the US team.
cmorenc
@Elizabelle: Pilot shoulda told Noem to either fly commercial or use the blanket as a wing and start flapping
Geminid
@Jackie: That reminds me of the saying:
“A politician is a sick man who gets well by being elected.”
Fair Economist
@Another Scott: The code of points scoring system has enormously improved the quality of the non-jump skating. Skaters have to do interesting and complicated spins, footwork, and jump entrances. It’s not *all* that many points, but it’s enough you can’t win on jumps alone anymore. If you look at old skates from the 90’s the jumps don’t look all that different – it’s hard to see the difference between a quad and a triple – but boy the spins are so much weaker.
Deputinize America
@Sure Lurkalot:
Those fuckers are heavy – when we went to Churchill for polar bears about 15 years ago, we went to their local gym which included a curling rink. I tried launching a stone – it was a beast.
Gretchen
@Baud: Thanks for the tip.
Fair Economist
@Sure Lurkalot: The scoring of the French judge was so outrageous that Surya Bonaly, a multi-year French skating champion from the 90’s, complained about it. (She said she felt sympathetic because of multiple high level international events where she lost to skaters who had much less difficult programs than hers.)
cope
As the dependent owner of my own personal blankie many decades ago, I find this whole thing highly triggering. On a cross country trip in the 50s, my sister threw up in the car. After getting my permission, my mom used it to clean up the back seat before disposing of it in the foundation forms awaiting concrete for a house being built on the lot where my mom had pulled the car over. Man up, Noem, I did.
Ella in New Mexico
I have so many questions
Why was the pilot held responsible for Bitchy Gnome leaving her own damn blanket on the plane?
How did they even “fire” a member of the Coast Guard?
Under what rule or law does an ADVISOR to the Secretary of Homeland Security even GET a badge much less a gun?
Why isn’t the media a lot more aggressive in asking them both point blank “WTF is your relationship anyway”?
As for the women in this administration: It would be easier to ask which ones-if any- are NOT incompetent assholes and liars, trying to be eye candy for Drumpf?
SiubhanDuinne
That is a stunning photo today.
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: Each one is worse than the other. Recursively.
Just look at that parking lot
@Sure Lurkalot: The team skipper could strain their vocal cords yelling directions at the sweepers.
Sure Lurkalot
@Ella in New Mexico:
Seriously. But the family values crowd has been shown time and time again, for time immemorial, to be fucking hypocrites. Same as it ever was.
To your point about the press, James Talerico brought it in an interview (I think this might have been a while back):
More of this! The framing our failed media spews is awful. I think Pete Buttigieg is good at pushing back against it too.
Barbara
@Sure Lurkalot: The judges know who the prime competitors are and can put their thumb on the scale by downgrading competitors from other countries. Bias is hard to eliminate completely, and I have stopped worrying about scoring in ice dancing. I watch all season and by the end I just watch the ones I really like. I did note that the Spanish judge (no dog in this fight) also downgraded the Americans, whose skate used Spanish dance steps and a bullfighting theme.
Mr. Bemused Senior
Depth error
sab
@Betty Cracker: Back many years ago I took my German Shepherd to get her nails trimmed in California. Three people in the back room couldn’t hold her so she burst into the waiting room and some helpful customer let her out to run down highway 17.
She survived, but I have had a jaundiced view of the basic competence of Californians ever since.
ETA Later she had many uneventful nail trimmings in Ohio. She howled, they trimmed.
BruceFromOhio
How did I almost miss this.
Paul in KY
@sab: particular ‘blankie’ :-)
Paul in KY
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): Sexual dimorphism there.
Paul in KY
@Ocotillo: Maybe if he’d done that and still been fired, then Cory could have flown the plane!
Paul in KY
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): The saddest is 4th place.
Paul in KY
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq): Edward II just didn’t give a shit.
Paul in KY
@bjacques: I think an actual Kwisatz Haderach is banned from competition. Not fair and all that.
Paul in KY
@sab: ‘Like wow, man. Your dog wanted to go out and grok on nature so I opened the door for her.’