John Cole

The electricians were here all day today, and we had the 1957 original electric panel replaced with a brand spanking new one, as well as had all of the outlets grounded, so I have been basically offline and don’t have much time to say anything because I have a ton of stuff to do that I couldn’t do, but I did want to celebrate this:

President Donald Trump on Thursday fired his embattled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, after mounting criticism over her leadership of the department, including the handling of the administration’s immigration crackdown and disaster response.

Trump, who said he would nominate Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin in her place, made the announcement on social media after Noem faced a two-day grilling on Capitol Hill this week from GOP members as well as Democrats.

Markwayne Mullin may actually be dumber and more violent than Noem, but we need to celebrate every victory. She and that venereal disease on legs, Corey Lewandowski, are both out. And that’s a good.

Take care.

Thursday Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (86)

Just like every generation gets their own quagmire, every generation gets their own Ollie North:

The CIA is working to arm Kurdish forces with the aim of fomenting a popular uprising in Iran, multiple people familiar with the plan told CNN.

The Trump administration has been in active discussions with Iranian opposition groups and Kurdish leaders in Iraq about providing them with military support, the sources said.

Iranian Kurdish armed groups have thousands of forces operating along the Iraq-Iran border, primarily in Iraq’s Kurdistan region. Several of the groups have released public statements since the beginning of the war hinting at imminent action and urging Iranian military forces to defect. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been striking Kurdish groups and said on Tuesday that it targeted Kurdish forces with dozens of drones.

I wonder how Erdogan feels about this or if he even knew? I am sure this will end fabulously and none of those weapons will slip into the wrong hands and end up being used against us because nothing like that has ever happened before.

The names of four of the first six dead American military members have been released:

The Defense Department has identified four of the six service members who were killed over the weekend by an Iranian attack. All four Reserve soldiers were assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command, based out of Des Moines, Iowa.

Capt. Cody A. Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, Florida; Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska; Sgt. 1st Class Nicole M. Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota; and Sgt. Declan J. Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, Iowa, were killed on March 1 in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait by an Iranian drone attack, defense officials announced on Tuesday.

The names of the other two service members killed in the attack have not yet been released.

“We honor our fallen Heroes, who served fearlessly and selflessly in defense of our nation,” Lt. Gen. Robert Harter, Chief of Army Reserve and Commanding General U.S. Army Reserve Command, said in a statement. “Their sacrifice, and the sacrifices of their families, will never be forgotten.”

Killed in a retaliatory drone strike while Trump was partying with billionaires at Mar-a-lago. They won’t be the last. We will be paying a price for this war for a long time to come.

The pathetic piece of shit Noem was in front of the Senate today being grilled, and there were some heated exchanges and she didn’t remember or didn’t know about apparently everything that has happened underneath to and include things she herself said:

When pressed by Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, about why Noem labeled Alex Pretti, who was shot and killed by federal law enforcement in Minneapolis in January, a domestic terrorist without evidence, she would not admit she was wrong.

You can watch the whole Durbin line of questioning here– she’s just garbage and Durbin is too polite. I am just so instantly repulsed whenever I see any of these fucking people. The Tillis grilling is pretty fun to watch:

In other ICE news:

Support for abolishing ICE has hit a new high in this week’s Economist / YouGov poll. Half (50%) of Americans now somewhat or strongly support abolishing ICE. Only 39% oppose abolishing the agency.

This marks the first time support has reached 50% in YouGov polling. Support for abolishing ICE has been steadily growing since January. At the same time, opposition to abolishing ICE has fallen since the start of the year, and now sits at an all-time low.

And in one last piece of ICE news, in North Carolina last year, a Democrat defected to the Republicans on a pro-Ice vote, and she is currently just being destroyed in her primary today, as are several other Dems who were voting with the Republicans.

Wow: In the early vote, it's a blow-out *so far*.

Rodney Sadler, the progessive pastor and activist, leads state Representative Carla Cunningham 75% to 18%.

(Stay tuned as we see how the Election Day vote compares, but that's an ominous start for the incumbent.)

Context:

[image or embed]

— Taniel (@taniel.bsky.social) March 3, 2026 at 6:40 PM

So it could be a really big night in NC, and that jackass Republican Dan Crenshaw is being nuked into orbit by a Trump MAGA loser in his primary. They both vote the same way on all the important shit, so I am much happier with a frothing lunatic in the seat than someone the media can give a shiny patina to. Fuck off, Crenshaw, you smarmy shit.

Behold, dinner:

My new dinner hyper fixation (3 out of the last four dinners) has been a massive bowl of tabouli with feta on top with a grilled chicken breast and some castletrevano olives

[image or embed]

— Cake or Death (@johngcole.bsky.social) March 3, 2026 at 7:23 PM

I’m off to relax. Be cool.

Tuesday Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (92)

A lovely day here, got a swim in, then headed off to an urgent care clinic because I have been having this nagging ear issue where it isn’t painful but itchy and just felt “sensitive” so I started using those swimmers ears drops and things just got progressively worse so I decided to go get it checked out. I spent entirely too much damned time online and on the phone the last 36 hours with my health insurance provider to try to figure out where the hell I could go that I just went to one of those pay as you go clinics. It was La Clinica Familia and it was weird having all the signs be in spanish but the staff was great and fast, I paid cash, saw a doctor who somehow got my medical history from my provider here and got diagnosed with really bad swimmer’s ear and was given some special drops that cost 20 bucks at walgreens. It was the most normal doctor’s interaction I have had in decades. I didn’t have to schedule something in two days to see a doctor, I just walked in, said “this ear sucks,” gave them some money, left with a paper prescription and receipt. I wasn’t even trusting walgreens with their digital fuckery and three day waits. I walked right up to the counter and five minutes later, had it. Why is it not always like this. Also all the nurses were latina and adorable.

Let’s check in on the headlines:

Several of the FBI agents and personnel fired last week for their work on Special Prosecutor Jack Smith’s investigation into President Trump’s retention of documents at Mar-a-Lago were members of a counterintelligence squad that focused on media leaks, global espionage, and threats that included those involving the Iranian regime, several sources familiar with the dismissals told the Sun.

The ouster of at least a dozen staffers from a counterintelligence unit, known as CI-12, which operates out of the Washington Field Office, was ordered by FBI Director Kash Patel, according to four former officials familiar with the dismissals. The dismissals came just days before the start of Operation Epic Fury and, separately, a deadly mass shooting at a bar in Austin, Texas, by a man reportedly wearing a sweatshirt that said, “Property of Allah,” beneath which was a T-shirt that was “emblazoned with a design similar to the Iranian flag,” CBS News reported Monday.

CI-12 focuses on media leaks, global espionage, and international threats against America emanating from countries such as Cuba and Iran, former FBI officials tell the Sun. More broadly, CI squads are the lead domestic teams for investigating insider threats and foreign intelligence activity on American soil.

That’s ok, I am sure it will not be a real problem, after all, we can hang our faith on the remaining counterterrorism folks:

Moving right along

This is disgusting:

After graduating college, he persuaded friends and family to lend him $12,500 in seed money for what became Ameritrade, the investing firm that would go on to disrupt the Wall Street trading establishment and put Mr. Ricketts on a path to riches. By 2015, his wealth had grown to $1 billion, and even that stunning figure now feels like a quaint memory, as the powerful elixir of rising stocks and falling taxes that has minted new billionaires across the country has catapulted Mr. Ricketts’s personal net worth to $8 billion.

Along the way, Mr. Ricketts found new community in and around Jackson, Wyo., a playground for the rich. For some things, he has been celebrated: He has donated to research on conservation of red squirrels and American beavers. He contributed $1 million to building a hospital. He has taken pride in building a herd of white bison.

But lately some of his neighbors have come up against the raw power of Mr. Ricketts’s financial muscle. Many of them fought against a plan he advanced a few years ago to turn his ranch into a resort for wealthy tourists, proposing to bypass regulations that limit construction during the brutal winter months to protect local wildlife.

This gilded age will end like they all do, but you really need to do yourself a favor and read the entire thing. It’s a long read for today’s age but worth it.

Two thoughts to share: the other day Joelle got some popcorn flavored jelly belly jellybeans, and I had resisted trying them on principle but I walked by earlier and they were just sitting there so I threw a handful in my mouth and the only way I can describe how I feel about it is the last time I felt like this about something was when I was 12- 13 and saw Harold and Maude lying in bed naked or when I watched the Caligula movie a year or two later.

The second is that trying to open those vacuum sealed individually wrapped string cheese packages is one of the most maddening damned things I have ever done and you can’t just cut across the top and squeeze it out from the bottom there’s no fucking way that is working that’s like trying to get a fat person out of a wetsuit (don’t ask) and I have yet to open one without blaspheming a god I don’t even believe in at least once.

But I gotta get this dog to like me so here we are handfeeding strips of string cheese without making direct eye contact and not moving fast while keeping Thurston at bay.

Saturday Late Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (109)

*BELLS TOLL* THE KING IS DEAD *BELLS TOLL* LONG LIVE THE NEW KING!:

There has been a swirl of reports on the status of Iran’s supreme leader since this morning, when it was clear that his residence had been targeted in the first strikes.

Satellite images showed significant damage to his compound. The first response from Iran was that he had been taken to a safe place. Then came a report that the 86-year-old cleric was to speak on state television, but nothing materialised.

By early evening, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a televised address used an expression that the supreme leader was “gone” – but he didn’t say Khamenei was “dead”.

But a series of reports on Israeli and US media, quoting unnamed officials, left no doubt about his fate.

All the while, Iranian officials have continued to deny it. One presenter on Iranian state television, without mentioning Khamenei’s name, told the Iranian people to ignore the “enemy’s psychological propaganda”. It is hard to ignore this latest social media post from Donald Trump.

It may be that Iranian officials are preparing to make an announcement with a certain amount of ceremony. It may be that Iran’s Assembly of Experts is already meeting or preparing to do so – they are charged with the responsibility of choosing a new supreme leader.

Orange Julius Caesar is doing victory laps and screaming shit about people taking back the country when we all know that the Iranian mullahs, much like Republicans, have displayed a remarkable ability to replace one awful person or idea with something or someone horrifyingly worse.

Anyone who says they know what is going on is full of shit, but I will say that things will most certainly get messier in the power vacuum and all sorts of craziness may break out. Literally the only thing we can be sure of is that a lot more innocent people will die and that Trump will try to make a buck off this. I’m not even going to bother looking at any casualty reports because early reports are always wrong and our information environment is so fucked up I trust nothing, but I know a lot of kids have ended up dead because of this because they always fucking do. Precision missiles aren’t that fucking precise.

Also direct assassinations of another country’s leader is not really the best precedent for someone who is world reviled.

I’ve basically been livid all fucking day since reading that news, so I took it out on some stuff around the house- hosed out Steve’s catio, sprayed a couple of gallons on water, dawn dish soap, epsom salt, and vinegar on all the weeds in the front and on the sidewalks and in the cracks in the street and the cracks by the sewer drains, that will dry them all up and then I will finish them with the propane weed burner in a couple days and then respray, and the weeds will be gone, they won’t be fucking up the streets and sidewalk and I won’t have poured a fuckton of forever chemicals into the water table. Then I went swimming and really did a lot of laps- it was packed! A whole bunch of families and kids in the splash pool, almost every lane was doubled up, and it really was perfect.

After that went to the grocery to get some cilantro, came back home and grilled up a bunch of chicken breasts, and now we are here. My new technique is I marinate them over night (I have been using a marinade with salt, pepper, minced garlic, a litle chile, oregano, a couple limes, an orange or blood orange, and less than a table spoon of oilve oil and let them sit over night). Then I get the grill piping hot, sear them, and then turning the heat down. When they are 95% done, I take them off, and I put them in a glass lasagne tray and cover it with the lid and let them sit for twenty minutes or so. They are so juicy. As I write this I feel like I have already said this before. Whatever- it works that well.

And the marinade is so light it just adds a little sweetness to the sear on the outside from the citrus, so they are the perfect blank canvas to pull out and season and throw on a skillet for thirty seconds. I slice them up and season them for burritos or use different seasonings to put on top of a salad. Minus, of course, the Steve and Bolo taxes.

Despite all this, today is a good day because not only did my quarterly cpap supply arrive but I also got a 19 dollar jewelry cleaner and Joelle, I can report, can finally see out of her glasses. And her wedding ring looks great. And there is a new SNL.

Peace out. I’m not checking any more nws tonight so feel free to document the atrocities below.

Saturday Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (87)