Talk about whatever you want in the comments.
March 7, 2026
Does Gavin Newsom have a Zoolander problem?
That question was asked and answered a few days ago.
The answer is yes. And I think people know what that means. A man is so under the spell of the notion that he's good looking that he has absurd confidence in himself.
It's causing him to blabber inanely, with ridiculous confidence:
This is actually really wild
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) March 7, 2026
Gavin Newsom is asked to define what he wants to do politically, what’s his goal
He rambles and doesn’t have an answer
He’s asked again
He doesn’t have an answer
He’s asked again
Newsom tells the person interviewing him to answer it for him… pic.twitter.com/Ig3SU2LKw4
"As the categories have gotten, well, weirder, I’ve tried to create balance by not mixing tricky wordplay with hard trivia, so that there’s a path to a solution."
"If there’s a particularly hard-to-spot category, I might try to include a hint on the board. While cards are usually arranged to mislead the solver, sometimes the arrangement can be used to help, too. The category of 'Anagrams of Famous Painters' was tough, for example, so the top row of that board read 'EGADS SCRAMBLE ARTIST NAME' (EGADS is an anagram of 'Degas')...."
From "I Make Connections. Here’s What I’m Actually Thinking. The 1,000th Connections puzzle is out today. Wyna Liu, the writer behind the game, knows you have thoughts" (NYT)(gift link).
"I’ve... learned that some people hate when a word on the board is repeated in a category name. So I was honored when a friend showed me a post in the subreddit r/NYTConnections, with the heading 'In celebration of the single worst purple connections category ever …' A solver shared an image of what appeared to be a tattoo: a clam encircled by the words 'Things That Open Like a Clam.' (COMPACT, LAPTOP, WAFFLE IRON and … CLAM.)"
From "I Make Connections. Here’s What I’m Actually Thinking. The 1,000th Connections puzzle is out today. Wyna Liu, the writer behind the game, knows you have thoughts" (NYT)(gift link).
I think the problem is that a clam isn't like a clam. A clam's a clam. It was a great category, just named inaccurately.
Now, that I've got my "mollusks" tag on this post, I'm motivated to blog this other thing. I didn't even know about nudibranchs — lovely colorful mollusks — but I learned about them today when somebody at Metafilter linked to Wool Creature Lab a place that uses the craft of felting to make (to order) images of quite specific nudibranchs. They're beautiful, too beautiful to believe they are accurate images of real creatures. But the scientific name is listed with the felt item, and you can look it up and see photos of the living nudibranch. It's accurate.
"Still, as the war drags on, the risk of retaliation outside the region will increase—and that risk is already very real."
"Even before images of death and destruction in Iran began flooding the internet, Western security officials had expressed concern that Iran or its proxies—Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iraqi Shia militia groups, the Houthis in Yemen—could launch attacks in the United States, Europe, or elsewhere. When Time magazine this week asked President Trump about the threat to the U.S. homeland, he said, 'I guess' Americans should be worried. 'We plan for it. But yeah, you know, we expect some things. Like I said, some people will die. When you go to war, some people will die.'..."
"What Iran Might Do When It Has Nothing to Lose/The risk of a retaliatory attack outside the Middle East is growing" (The Atlantic)(gift link).
"Iran’s retribution against the West could take three possible forms: inspired attacks, in which individuals who are radicalized by current events or Iranian propaganda decide to act on their own; directed attacks, in which Iran relies on third parties such as transnational criminal organizations; and attacks by sleeper cells, which consist of Iranian operatives or terrorist proxies deployed to Western countries years ago in order to respond in the event of a catastrophic U.S.-Iran war."
"What Iran Might Do When It Has Nothing to Lose/The risk of a retaliatory attack outside the Middle East is growing" (The Atlantic)(gift link).
"One out of every 20 deaths in Canada is now caused by the government’s assisted suicide program."
"What’s even more shocking is how fast the deaths are approved."
"Trump picks his cabinet in part for their aesthetics, and their ability to perform well on TV and Noem was famed for never missing a photo op...."
"But her hunger for publicity also contributed to her demotion. Under Noem’s watch, $220 million of taxpayers’ money was spent on an advertising campaign for border security that prominently featured footage of her on horseback, dressed as a 'cowgirl,' in front of Mount Rushmore.... In recent months, she has drawn negative headlines for using border funds for a multi-million-dollar jet fleet. There are rumours she is romantically involved with Corey Lewandowski.... He joined midway through the 2024 presidential campaign and quickly butted heads with the official campaign chiefs, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita. At an event when the scale of Trump’s victory was becoming clear, Lewandowski tried to congratulate LaCivita only to be told: 'F*** you, f*** you and f*** you. You have f***ed with the wrong person. I’m going to f***ing destroy you.'"
"Adam Schiff falls right into Bill Maher’s trap..."
And earlier in last night's show:Adam Schiff falls right into Bill Maher’s trap as he criticizes a statement he thought was from Trump but was actually from Obama.
— Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) March 7, 2026
MAHER: “This statement from the administration: ‘The president had the constitutional authority to direct the use of military force because he could… pic.twitter.com/5jg3wpdAQZ
Bill Maher apologizes to his liberal audience as he delivers this take on the “Iran war”:
— Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) March 7, 2026
“This week, war. Did you hear about that thing?”
“We bombed Iran, and it’s going on now. If you expected me to say I hate it, I don’t. Sorry.”
“Sorry. And you cannot name one horrible… pic.twitter.com/rHnGhMpK2g
March 6, 2026
Part of your propaganda.
Hey White House, please remove the Tropic Thunder clip. We never gave you permission and have no interest in being a part of your propaganda machine. War is not a movie. https://t.co/dMQqRxxVCa
— Ben Stiller (@BenStiller) March 6, 2026
"I will normally tell people I'll be brief because I know their time is short. I think that is probably true in this case."
Says NPR's Steve Inskeep to former Senator Ben Sasse, who is dying of pancreatic cancer.
Sasse laughs.
His insight on time: "I think we all live on three time horizons. Daily, at the end of your workday and as the sun is setting, can you say that you did meaningful work that day and can you break bread with people you love? No. 2 is kind of a planning horizon. What decisions should you make over the next 30 days that'll pay off over the next 30 years? And then an eternal souls kind of time horizon. And all three of them matter. But one of the silliest things is to allow the planning horizon to crowd out the other two, and I think many times I did that."
"But a recent tragedy-exploiting television series about John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette features a character using my name and presents her as me."
Writes Daryl Hannah, in the NYT.
The choice to portray her as irritating, self-absorbed, whiny and inappropriate was no accident. In discussing the show, “Love Story,” one of its producers explained: “Given how much we’re rooting for John and Carolyn, Daryl Hannah occupies a space where she’s an adversary to what you want narratively in the story.” Storytelling requires tension. It often requires an obstacle. But a real, living person is not a narrative device.
There is also a gendered dimension to this thinking. Popular culture has long elevated certain women by portraying others as rivals, obstacles or villains. Isn’t it textbook misogyny to tear down one woman in order to build up another?...
I have never used cocaine.... I have never desecrated any family heirloom.... I never compared Jacqueline Onassis’ death to a dog’s....
"There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER! After that, and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s), we, and many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners..."
"... will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction, making it economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before. IRAN WILL HAVE A GREAT FUTURE. 'MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN (MIGA!).' Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP."
Writes Trump, at Truth Social.
June 22, 2025: "It’s not politically correct to use the term, 'Regime Change,' but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!"
January 13, 2026: "Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING - TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price. I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY. MIGA!!! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP"
Writes Trump, at Truth Social.
That's not the first time Trump has used "MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN." I'm seeing:
January 13, 2026: "Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING - TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price. I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY. MIGA!!! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP"
"The total baselessness of these accusations is also supported by the obvious fact that Joe Biden’s department of justice knew about them for four years and did nothing with them..."
"... because they knew President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong."
Said Karoline Leavitt, quoted in "DoJ publishes 'missing' Epstein files including Trump claims/The White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described claims from FBI interviews about an alleged assault involving Trump and Epstein as 'baseless’'" (London Times).
The woman claimed to [FBI] agents that Epstein introduced her to Trump, and that she claimed Trump had assaulted her in an encounter when she was 13 in 1983. According to internal FBI notes, she claimed that when they were alone in a “very tall building” — either in New York or New Jersey — Trump allegedly “mentioned something to the effect of: ‘Let me teach you how little girls are supposed to be,’” before attempting to sexually assault her. The woman, from South Carolina, told agents she bit him and that Trump then struck her and had her removed from the room.
Which CEO did the better job of humiliating himself in the theater of corporate enthusiasm?
🚨 BREAKING: Anthropic CEO just did a complete 180 in live interview
— NIK (@ns123abc) March 6, 2026
Do you regret saying ‘dictator-style praise’ about President Trump?
Anthropic CEO:
>“I want to completely apologize for this memo”
>“it was among the most disorienting times in Anthropic’s history”
>“i… pic.twitter.com/MTodBFhebU
"The bachelor banker admitted to Interview magazine that he had not yet made it onto the elite dating app Raya, confessing that he only uses Hinge."
"Nelson, a dirty vodka martini enthusiast, listed swanky Manhattan spots Jac’s on Bond, Bar Pisellino, and Mace as the top places that he would take any lady lucky enough to match with him.... Johnson, a Dallas native, laid out his thoughts on crypto investing and AI, but also confessed to buying 'a painting for $1,400 that is simply a bunch of lines.' He says he owns 'approximately six vests and seven Vineyard Vines quarter zips': an essential part of any finance bro’s wardrobe when kicking off their career on Wall Street. Barclays associate vice president Tommy Doherty, who said he owns up to ten vests, tells Interview readers that they should 'know your risk tolerance and have a well-diversified portfolio.'"
I'm reading "Baby-faced Goldman Sachs bankers could be fired over ‘unauthorized’ magazine photo shoots: sources" (NY Post).
I'm reading "Baby-faced Goldman Sachs bankers could be fired over ‘unauthorized’ magazine photo shoots: sources" (NY Post).
"Unauthorized" is in quotes because, as the last line of the article says, "It is unclear whether Johnson and Doherty obtained approval to be interviewed by the magazine." I'll bet they were authorized and that Goldman Sachs likes getting inane publicity in this form. It's Interview magazine, and the guys are good looking — and they have vests!!! and quarter zips!!!
As for the type of painting that is "simply a bunch of lines." I looked:
Ha ha. Everything turns back on itself these days. In the early days of image searching, I think I'd have turned up something more like Cy Twombly.
Anyway, here's the original Interview article, formatted nicely, with all the "Finest Boys in Finance" answering the same small set of questions, including"What’s the most you’ve spent on something stupid?"
March 5, 2026
"It seems that the Democratic Party, broadly, has concluded that the roughly 120-hour-old campaign is a disaster that the public is destined to despise...."
"[I]f the U.S. and Israel engineer a victory for the West in Iran, Democrats will have to spend 2028 arguing that voters should not believe their lying eyes. The Democrats are betting on failure, and they may be right. If they are, we’ll have bigger problems than the Democratic Party’s political achievements. But if they aren’t, Democrats will regret having to argue that the world was better off with the Islamic Republic of Iran."
Writes Noah Rothman, in "The Democrats’ Iran Gamble" (National Review).
Writes Noah Rothman, in "The Democrats’ Iran Gamble" (National Review).
Sculpting the head of Joe Rogan for a New Yorker illustration.
Video after the jump.
And here's the article with the finished illustration — a photograph of the sculpted head in a fantasy landscape — "Listening to Joe Rogan/How a gift for shooting the shit turned into an online empire—and a political force."
"Well, that’s bad for him to say. That is bad for him. So maybe, maybe that leads me to go the other direction."
Said President Trump after Ken Paxton declined to drop out of the Texas Senate primary race if Trump failed to endorse him.
Quoted in "'That’s bad for him to say': Trump puts Paxton on notice in Texas Senate primary/The president appeared to scold the attorney general" (Politico)
Trump had previously stated he would ask the candidate he does not endorse to step aside. Senate Republicans have already asked Trump to back Cornyn, who narrowly pulled ahead of Paxton on Tuesday in the first round of the primary. The two now face a heated runoff, which could last for another three months unless one of them ends their campaign.
I think Trump refrained from endorsing anyone in Tuesday's primary to give Paxton a chance to show how strong a candidate he was. When he didn't get the 50% needed to avoid a runoff with Cornyn and in fact got less than Cornyn, he failed the test, and Trump was going to give the endorsement to Cornyn. It's sheer practicality. Paxton knows that. Perhaps he thinks his strongest move — a move that might impress Trump — is to say he'll never give up. It's like an episode of "The Apprentice," except that we don't get to see Paxton explain his strategy while Trump glowers at him.
Trump and "good looking men."
And speaking of good looking men, Katie Couric asks Gavin Newsom if he's "just ridiculously good looking" and whether he has "a Zoolander problem":PRESIDENT TRUMP jokes as he hosts the 2025 Major League Soccer Cup champions Inter Miami CF at the White House: “These are good looking people. Marco, I don't like good looking men.” pic.twitter.com/k6wsrvK9SD
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 5, 2026
Couric: Do you have a Zoolander problem? Are you just ridiculously good looking as Vogue said? What do you do about that?
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) March 5, 2026
Newsom: You don’t do anything about it…It’s just who I am.
Good. Lord. pic.twitter.com/aFmvpDLlaa
"Aaron Spencer, who won the Lonoke County [Arkansas] primary race on Tuesday, is accused of shooting the man who allegedly sexually assaulted his 14-year-old daughter."
"He’s awaiting trial for murder. His town wants him to be sheriff" (London Times).
In the early hours of October 8, 2024, Spencer awoke to find his daughter missing from their home. His wife called 911 while he drove around looking for her. He spotted his child in the passenger seat of Fosler’s truck, followed the vehicle and forced it off the highway. After both men exited their cars, Spencer shot and killed him, court records allege. Prosecutors say Spencer shot Fosler 15 times and then “pistol-whipped” him in the face. Court records say he then called 911, stating: “Michael Fosler is f***ing dead on the side of the road for trying to kidnap my daughter. I had no choice.”
The Pillars of Creation.
(Sorry I had the wrong video up. Fixed)These pictures of the Pillars of Creation were taken 19 years apart by different telescopes, with each image capturing a unique perspective.
— NASA (@NASA) March 5, 2026
On the left, @NASAHubble shows more thick dust. On the right, @NASAWebb peers through the dust to show more stars. Which is your favorite? pic.twitter.com/2QLApmSE1X
Is this the way we're going to talk now?
Donald Trump is a piece of shit. pic.twitter.com/UfWS89baVQ
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) March 5, 2026
Noem ousted.
Just now. The NYT reports.
President Trump fired his embattled homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, on Thursday and announced plans to replace her with Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, after she was grilled by Republican lawmakers this week at congressional hearings....
On Thursday, the president contradicted remarks that Ms. Noem made under penalty of perjury in her hearing before a Senate panel on Wednesday: that Mr. Trump had signed off on a border security advertising campaign featuring Ms. Noem. “I never knew anything about it,” Mr. Trump told Reuters....ADDED:
Ms. Noem has faced scrutiny from lawmakers about the campaign, on which the government spent $220 million. The firm handling it was connected to the husband of Ms. Noem’s former spokeswoman. The ads prominently featured Ms. Noem, including in a scene filmed on horseback at Mount Rushmore in the former South Dakota governor’s home state....
What an awful ad! Whatever it cost.Kristi Noem is out at DHS. Here's a TV commercial of her on a horse, filmed five months ago at Mount Rushmore, for an ad campaign that cost more than $200 million pic.twitter.com/U1RtvlYc4w
— Drew Harwell (@drewharwell) March 5, 2026
"The chimpanzees immediately sorted the crystals out of the piles. Then they carried them in their mouths, turned them in the light and held them up to their eyes..."
"... like old-timey prospectors. When the researchers eventually set up cameras inside the chimp dorms, they saw that Yvan was still gripping one as he prepared to relax in his hay nest... They seemed to also be experiencing 'something beyond curiosity,' Dr. García-Ruiz said. Watching them added heft to one of his more speculative theories: He believes that crystals, as 'the only Euclidean object in nature,' may have helped humans invent geometry and unlock abstract thought."
From "Chimpanzees Are Really Into Crystals/In an attempt to understand our own fascination with the shiny minerals, researchers gave some to chimps" (NYT).
From "Chimpanzees Are Really Into Crystals/In an attempt to understand our own fascination with the shiny minerals, researchers gave some to chimps" (NYT).
So... is this good science? Seems to me the human interest in crystals has long been considered pseudoscience, but you could scientifically study what draws humans into pseudoscience. But is this study, using chimpanzees, scientific? It seems to me that it's mainly combining the pseudoscientific interest in crystals with the hoped-for fun of hanging around with chimpanzees.
I tried to get Grok to make me an image of a chimpanzee holding a crystal and gazing at it "like old-timey prospectors." But after many tries and no progress — the chimp was almost expressionless and the eyes weren't even looking at the crystal — I lost hope.
Grok: "Want one more refinement round? Just say the word."
Me: "No, just tell me why some humans are goofy about crystals."
"Standing in an outdoor car park on which he wants to build flats, Carvelli watched as archaeologists got busy unearthing ancient Roman skeletons..."
"... mosaics and tombs. 'We had problems like this before in Rome when we had to work around a tomb but this is on a different level,' Carvelli said. When builders broke ground at the car park last year, archaeologists checked for ancient ruins and stumbled on a large Roman burial ground, complete with 20 tombs and 50 skeletons piled in pits for the poor, a mere six feet below where Romans have been parking their cars for years.... Peering into one hole in the ground full of skeletons, Walter Pantano, an anthropologist, surveyed the tangle of arms, rib cages and grinning skulls with their teeth intact...."
"A love of dogs is somewhat of a tradition for French leaders: the past six presidents all owned at least one black Labrador."
"The two owned by Nicolas Sarkozy, and a chihuahua, reportedly caused damage totalling tens of thousands of euros at the Élysée Palace by chewing on 200-year-old furniture in the Silver Salon. President Macron’s dog, Nemo, was once filmed urinating on an ornamental fireplace in a presidential meeting, and Valéry Giscard d’Estaing’s was a gift from the late Queen and nicknamed Sandringham Samba...."
From "Can the French love of dogs be transformed into election success? Doggy food banks and shared human-dog drinking fountains are among the promises on offer as candidates for the local elections try to win over voters" (London Times).
Bluesky posts on its X account to remind us of its existence and admit that it has been what its whole point was not to be: toxic.
If you haven't checked us out in a while, we've been busy. Doing work to make conversations less toxic and more civil, and adding new ways to help you find your friends on Bluesky. See what you've been missing: https://t.co/exCdOOXRC1
— Bluesky (@bluesky) March 4, 2026
"That this country sits back and allows a country such as Iran to hold our hostages to my way of thinking is a horror."
"And I don't think they do it with other countries. I honestly don't think they do it with other countries.... I absolutely feel that [we should have gone in there]. Yes. I don't think there's any question. There's no question in my mind. I think it right now.... . I don't think that Iran would have our hostages for 10 minutes if they respected this country. I don't believe they would have our hostages for 10 minutes...."That's Trump in 1980 — 46 years ago.A lot of people have been posting that clip this week. I'm seeing many comments about how consistent Trump has been about Iran. He was only 34 years old in that clip.
"Every president, of course, creates a decision-making structure tailor-made for his own style."
"Franklin D. Roosevelt relied heavily on a kitchen cabinet. Harry S. Truman created the National Security Council to formally weigh options and coordinate among departments fighting the Cold War. Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter turned the N.S.C. into an idea generator. In the Obama administration, members of the N.S.C. staff talked about 'death by Situation Room meeting' and compared the process of policymaking to watching a python swallow a pig."
From "Trump Follows His Gut. His National Security Advisers Try to Keep Up. Decisions come fast, even if contradictions and inconsistencies abound. But without much of a process, there is little preparation for how things can go wrong" (NYT).
And Trump? He has, we're told, "reduced the size of the N.S.C. staff by at least two thirds.... And when debates take place, the number of players often shrinks to a tiny group.... Not much leaks from those sessions, a major change from, say, the early Obama era, when Situation Room conversations sometimes appeared on news websites before the meetings were over."
From "Trump Follows His Gut. His National Security Advisers Try to Keep Up. Decisions come fast, even if contradictions and inconsistencies abound. But without much of a process, there is little preparation for how things can go wrong" (NYT).
So then we don't really have a way of knowing what goes on. Well, the NYT writer, David Sanger, presents us with a quote from Thomas Wright, "a scholar at the Brookings Institution who worked on long-term strategic planning in the National Security Council during the Biden years," who purports to tell us what "Trump seems to think," which is that "he doesn’t need options or contingency plans. He just wants a small team to execute his instincts."
March 4, 2026
Sunrise — 6:08, 6:30, 6:32.
Enjoy an open thread. Write about whatever you want.
Here's Meade's contribution:
"For four months... the Chicago-based artist Bethany Collins woke up every day before dawn, brewed coffee and sat down at her dining table to copy out Herman Melville’s 'Moby-Dick' (1851) with a nib pen."
"Writing in midnight blue acidic ink on onionskin paper, she made her way through the book’s 900-plus pages 10 at a time. The resulting work, 'Or, the Whale, Vol. I-III,' is housed in three black clothbound binders. 'It felt ritualistic,' says Collins, 41, of the project, 'like meditation.'"
From "Why One Artist Transcribed All 900-Plus Pages of ‘Moby-Dick’ by Hand/For Bethany Collins, Herman Melville’s novel is rife with centuries-old political anxieties that still resonate today" (NYT).
From "Why One Artist Transcribed All 900-Plus Pages of ‘Moby-Dick’ by Hand/For Bethany Collins, Herman Melville’s novel is rife with centuries-old political anxieties that still resonate today" (NYT).
If you were to do a similar art project, based on someone else's writing, what book would you choose?
This sort of thing has been done before. In 1974 the conceptual artist Allen Ruppersberg copied "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by hand. Collins acknowledges this inspiration.
We've also heard that Hunter S. Thompson typed out "The Great Gatsby" and "A Farewell to Arms." I don't think he presented that as conceptual art.
"Mr. Hell moved to New York at the age of 17 determined to be a poet. But New York 'wasn’t the bohemian paradise I’d fantasized it was going to be...'"
"'Everybody was really competitive, even though there was nothing to win.' Disillusioned, he turned to music. 'I thought, as long as I’m going to be here, I might as well be in some profession where I can make a living,' he said with a laugh.... Like many old tenement apartments, Mr. Hell’s has its bathtub in the kitchen.... 'I love my apartment. I have no complaints about it'.... And his needs have evolved along with the neighborhood. 'Now I have an apartment where they actually keep the heat on, I can get the most fantastic food within walking distance, I’m central to all the stuff I love to go to in Manhattan, and I don’t want to go out on the weekends because it’s such a frenzy of college kids and bridge-and-tunnel people and tourists.... But I don’t want to go out anyway. I have everything I need right here.'"
From "Richard Hell/The punk-rock icon and writer has spent more than 50 years in his East Village tenement apartment" (NYT)(gift link, because you'll want to see the photographs, you voyeur, you).
I love articles like this — a real person in their natural habitat. It gets my "interior decoration" tag, but it's so much more interesting than those words make it sound.
"What is the approximate number of shipwrecks underwater on earth (from the entirety of human history)?"
My question to Grok today. Inspired by news reports.
Let me know what your answer was before you clicked for more.
"Both John and Ken ran great races, but not good enough. Now, this one, must be PERFECT!"
"My Endorsements within the Republican Party have been virtually insurmountable! It is such an honor to realize and say that almost everyone I Endorse WINS, and wins by a lot, especially in Texas! I will be making my Endorsement soon, and will be asking the candidate that I don’t Endorse to immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE! Is that fair? We must win in November!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP."
At Truth Social, this afternoon, the day after the Texas primary, where neither John Cornyn nor Ken Paxton got enough votes to avoid a runoff.
I assume that Trump is talking to both men and stating the condition that he won't endorse them unless they promise they'll drop out if he picks the other guy.
And I assume Trump's main concern is simply that a Republican win, but is that Cornyn or Paxton? I'll withhold my opinion. Here's a poll:
Is it possible for an American to maintain good health while spending $65 a month on food?
I'm reading "The Fantasy of a Comfy Retirement Has Always Been a Mirage" (NYT), which begins:
On Thursday, a woman named Sharon from Minnesota called into C-SPAN’s “open forum” to express her despair about the cost of living. “I’m 65 years old. I’m legally blind. I’m on disability. I went to my doc, and I lost 28 pounds in the last year. I did not need to lose 28 pounds. I did not try to lose 28 pounds. I lost the 28 pounds because I cannot afford to eat anymore,” Sharon explained, speaking clearly even though she sounded near tears. Because of Trump administration cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and the high cost of groceries, gas and electricity, Sharon only allows herself $65 a month for food....
Of course, that sounds shocking and horrible. I have empathy for Sharon and do not like to see anyone struggling so hard, but I wondered whether it was a least possible to maintain your health while spending only $65 a month. Grok assures me that it is possible. I think we all know what this diet would consist of — lots of oatmeal, rice, beans, potatoes, cabbage, and carrots, along with some apples, bananas, and eggs. It's terrible to allow yourself to lose 28 pounds (that you couldn't spare) before switching to this basic diet or going to a food pantry, but not everyone has enough energy or mental clarity to make the adjustment.
Anyway, to be clear, I'm not saying the government shouldn't help people in this circumstance. On the contrary, I think the country deserves excellent food policy. I'm not a source of advice on what that would be.
Hillary reacts to hearing that Jeffrey Epstein said "Hillary Clinton is much prettier in person."
Watch out! It's an attempted trap:
Bill Clinton looking at the Epstein files.
"We can sustain this fight — easily — for as long as we need to..."
"Ultimately, we set the pace and the tempo.... We know their ability to shoot versus our ability to defend. That difference gets wider and wider every day.... When we say the throttle's going up, the throttle's going up and it's going to stay on high...."
Pete Buttigieg has a splitting maul.
Instapundit reports on what's in The Atlantic.
And then there's this:
I know what a splitting headache is, but what's a splitting maul?Rugged Lumberjack Pete sits at authentic rustic diner awaiting a heaping breakfast plate of carburetors, while Annie Leibovitz captures him in a moment of deep reflection https://t.co/52OgDhd5we pic.twitter.com/Unz6GxyyQQ
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) March 3, 2026
"So we're dealing with what we're dealing with right now."
"We're dealing with what we're dealing with right now" is an excuse for the ages. "This is different," he begins, and yet he hasn't worked out how it's different. He just needs it to be different. A dangerous move when you're winging it and don't know the facts of the things you're saying are different. There are a few seconds — 0:26 to 0:33 — where Jeffries knows he's in trouble. He mutters the hilarious line, "First of all, I was not in Congress," and shows a flash of shame before resetting with the all-purpose segue "So we're dealing with what we're dealing with right now."NEW: I asked House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) about Nancy Pelosi saying in 2011 that President Obama didn't need Congressional approval to bomb Libya, but Dems now say President Trump needs approval to bomb Iran?
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) March 3, 2026
Jeffries said Iran is "very different" & told me "I… pic.twitter.com/SkLr1R5wr1
March 3, 2026
The sky at 4:40 in the afternoon.
We skipped the sunrise. The cloud cover was 100%, so we wouldn't have seen the sun (or the blood moon), and anyway, it was raining a little. We took the morning off, but we got out in the afternoon. It wasn't quite sunset, but the sun was low at 4:40. It's there in the photograph... behind that demonic profile.And here's Meade's view (from a little earlier in the walk):
Write about whatever you want in the comments.
"The Birthrate Is Plunging. Why Some Say That’s a Good Thing. The political class is worried about the historic drop. But..."
"... the biggest change is among the youngest women, who are the least ready to have children."
Headline at the NYT.
I get the "good thing" interpretation, but it's also a bad thing, isn't it? The older women, with their greater emotional maturity and economic independence, are not only more able to care for children, they are also more able to think through the whole enterprise of child bearing and child care, to weigh the pros and cons and forgo it altogether. Isn't that what is happening?
"I got him before he got me. I got him first."
Said President Trump, quoted in "How Trump assassination attempts played into his decision to attack Iran" (WaPo)(gift link).
At a briefing on the threats in September 2024, U.S. officials told the Trump campaign that Iran had multiple kill teams inside the country. Trump repeatedly asked whether Iran was behind the Butler shooting, and investigators said they could not rule it out.... The would-be assassin at Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida... represented himself at trial and was sentenced last month to life in prison....
No evidence has connected Iran with the two assassination attempts against Trump in 2024. Trump suggested he sees a connection, telling ABC, “They tried twice.” The White House did not provide evidence to support a connection....
A trial began last week for a Pakistani man, Asif Merchant, arrested in July 2024 and accused of trying to hire hit men to kill a political figure. Last month, a Brooklyn man was sentenced to 15 years in prison for planning to murder an Iranian dissident, working for an Iranian who prosecutors said was plotting to assassinate Trump....
Classic comments from WaPo readers: "And once again, he has an inability to see beyond himself." And: "Of course it’s about him. It’s always about him."
"Walking hand in hand with the one I love/Ooh, how I love the rainy days."
Neil and his Grandson sing. You can tell Neil is so proud of him! Looks like it they enjoyed it! pic.twitter.com/ur4rvKe7iN
— Johnny Midnight ⚡️ (@its_The_Dr) March 3, 2026
Lovely grandparenting!
"Do flight attendants typically wear tank tops and jeans?"
Full context:Bill Clinton says he thought the victims on Jeffrey Epstein’s plane were flight attendants.
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 3, 2026
Q: “Do flight attendants typically wear tank tops and jeans?”
*Long pause*
CLINTON: “They don’t all wear uniforms on private planes.” pic.twitter.com/w1vgHOAfF8
Milestones in Feminism: The question is not what did the woman do, but what did the woman wear.
The retrogression is not really Trump's. It's Breitbart's. Trump is just passing along the publicity received by his wife:
That's my screenshot from the Breitbart article.
Breitbart's opinion on aesthetics is worthless. Look what an ugly mess it is:
Readers are expected to look past the drink this/don't drink this/robot puppy/robot bunny advertising and read what looks like a press release: "Melania Trump chose a gray textured wool bar jacket from Dior for the historic occasion, pairing it with a matching gray textured wool skirt, as well as a thin black leather belt from Dior and patent leather stilettos from Christian Louboutin."
A "bar jacket," I was curious enough to learn, is the kind of jacket Christian Dior thought perfect for women drinking cocktails in the afternoon at the bar at the Plaza Athénée hotel in in 1947. Did they have "bladder issues"? Did they dream of electric rabbits?
How dare they put a stereotypically old woman sitting on a toilet right next to the news of the First Lady's appearance at the U.N. doing whatever it was she was doing while wearing some very specific items of clothing!
March 2, 2026
Sunrise — 6:00, 6:38.
That's the sunrise.Tonight is the full moon — the blood moon. Meade was out just after nightfall, getting moon video, with the hooting of barred owls:
Write about whatever you want in the comments.
UPDATE, 6:09 a.m.: That wasn't the blood moon back when Meade made that video. The blood moon was a moon eclipse that happened, I'm told, over the past hour. We were up and ready to catch it, but the cloud cover was 100%. So, as usual, it all depends on the clouds. The celestial orbs do their thing, and it's powerful, but the mere clouds decide what will filter through to us Earthlings. It's raining too, just in this one hour, the sunrise hour. Such is our fate, in the clouds.
"Iran’s democratic opposition groups — monarchists and republicans, secular and religious minorities, leftists, liberals, and every ethnicity — are united..."
"... on four foundational principles: Iran’s territorial integrity; individual liberties and equality of all citizens; separation of religion and state; and the Iranian people’s right to decide a democratic form of government.
Many Iranians, often despite facing bullets, have called on me to lead this transition. I am in awe of their courage, and I have answered their call. Our path forward will be transparent: a new constitution drafted and ratified by referendum, followed by free elections under international oversight. When Iranians vote, the transitional government dissolves.... A free Iran would extend [the Abraham Accords] by immediately recognizing Israel and pursuing a broader regional peace framework linking Iran, Israel and our Arab neighbors in cooperation rather than conflict.
I suggest calling the agreement the Cyrus Accords, for Cyrus the Great, the benevolent ancient Persian ruler whom Thomas Jefferson cited as an inspiration...."
Writes Reza Pahlavi, the eldest son of the last shah of Iran, in "Thanks to President Trump, the hour of Iran’s freedom is at hand/Our path forward is a new constitution followed by free elections under international oversight" (WaPo).
"Mr. Clean was first devised in the mid-1950s, when Procter & Gamble commissioned a commercial artist, Richard Black, to create a marketing character..."
"... for a new detergent-based household cleaner. The company envisioned a bald man with a nose ring, a nod to the genie-like powers of a product that cleaned 'like magic.'
Mr. Black, who died in 2014, drafted two sketches of a strong, smiling genie: one with a nose ring, and one with an earring.
Procter & Gamble chose the second one...."
A retrospective:
At Straight Dope, there's skepticism: "Its a marketing ploy to draw attention to a brand that has been taken for granted. He will come out of retirement"/"Yeah, like when Mr. Peanut 'died' a few years ago."
Another close call for Florida man.
"Missing Florida man found over a week later trapped in shoulder-deep mud/Local crews rescued Andrew Giddens, 36, near a borrow pit after he faced freezing weather without food or water" (The Guardian).
Here's the sheriff's office video, which refers to the substance — in scare quotes — as "quick sand."
Deputy Derrick Holmes of the sheriff’s office in Florida’s Putnam county spotted Giddens’ abandoned car on 23 February relatively close to a sand plant belonging to Vulcan Materials Company.... Vulcan employees, meanwhile, had not stopped looking for signs of Giddens when one spotted him during the early evening of 25 February in shoulder-deep mud by what is known as a borrow pit.... Giddens was alert and could talk, but the worker who had found him could not get to him because he was surrounded by “unstable” ground, the sheriff’s office said.... The elaborate [rescue] operation took about three hours, with rescuers needing to be careful to not become stuck in the mud themselves....
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