Probably? According to Wikipedia, his time in the Minnesota National Guard included 11 months on a guard detail at Guantanomo Bay, followed by time in Iraq as an infantry officer. At least some of his time in Iraq was as a “civil affairs” officer, but I would not be surprised if he actually “stood a post” at some point.
Spoons
March 6, 2026, 3:28am
2982
Fair enough, and thank you.
Monty
March 6, 2026, 4:21am
2984
enipla:
Trump votes by mail.
I wonder how he would react when, thanks to the damage he’s done to such outfits as the United States Postal Service, his mail-in ballot does not arrive in time to be counted.
Is the Attorney General next on the chopping block? (Epstein related)
The Justice Department has posted online three FBI interviews related to sexual assault allegations against President Donald Trump that had been missing from the massive trove of Epstein files released by the Department of Justice.
A CNN analysis discovered dozens of witness interviews were missing from the online archive of evidence related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, all of which were memorialized in a so-called “302” memo that lays out what an interviewee told FBI agents. The 302s do not include other corroborating information or agents’ opinions.
Among the missing records were three interviews related to a woman who told agents that Epstein had repeatedly abused her decades ago, starting when she was approximately 13 years old, and who also accused Trump of sexually assaulting her.
Maybe this “peaceful tourist” can get another presidential pardon.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Florida handyman who was sentenced on Thursday to life in prison for molesting two children had been convicted of storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but was pardoned by President Donald Trump.
Andrew Paul Johnson, 45, is among several Jan. 6 defendants who have been charged with new crimes since Trump’s sweeping act of clemency for Capitol rioters. On his first day back in the White House last year, Trump pardoned, commuted prison sentences or ordered the dismissal of cases for all 1,500-plus people charged in the attack.
Johnson was convicted last month of two counts of lewd or lascivious molestation of a child and one count of electronically transmitting material harmful to a minor, according to prosecutors in Hernando County, Florida. County Circuit Judge Judge Stephen Toner handed down Johnson’s life sentence.
Sheriff’s deputies began investigating the child molestation allegations against Johnson in July 2025. One of his victims told investigators that the abuse started around April 2024, several months before Johnson was sentenced for his Capitol riot conviction.
Johnson told one of his victims that he expected to be compensated for being a pardoned Jan. 6 defendant and would be putting the child in his will to inherit any leftover money, according a sheriff’s office report.
“This tactic was believed to be used to keep (the child) from exposing what Andrew had done,” the report said.
The felon’s ventriliquist’s dummy has a message for Americans stuck in the current war zone: It’s your own damned fault.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday that Americans who are reporting being stranded in various parts of the Middle East as a result of Iranian retaliation to U.S. strikes were given prior warnings to evacuate.
U.S. officials have advised citizens overseas to use a 24/7 hotline and enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive updates on potential opportunities to evacuate but have been told to use commercial flights or other measures to depart.
When a reporter noted that President Trump said Tuesday there was no time to make evacuation plans because U.S. strikes in Iran happened so fast, Leavitt said there had been plans in place to warn Americans to not travel to the region.
“There was many signs put out by the State Department, and I wish that everyone in this room would report on them,” Leavitt told reporters at the White House press briefing when asked if the administration could have done more in advance of the strikes to provide Americans in the region with more information and resources to come back to the U.S.
Someone’s never heard of going away quietly.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was caught in a white lie Wednesday about a toddler detained by ICE.
At a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Democratic Representative Ted Lieu showed Noem a picture of a young toddler named Amalia who was detained by ICE, and asked the secretary if Amalia committed a crime. Noem replied, “No, she did not. She is with her family.”
“The reason she’s with her family is because she almost died in ICE detention until folks brought a lawsuit forcing her release,” Lieu said .
Noem’s answer ignored the long ordeal that Amalia’s family had to deal with. Her parents, Kheilin Valero Marcano and Stiven Arrieta Prieto, worried that their 18-month-old daughter might die while being held with them at Texas’s Dilley Immigration Processing Center, known for its unsafe and unsanitary conditions despite the fact that ICE uses the facility to detain families.
While she was healthy when she arrived at the facility, Amalia quickly became sick with pneumonia, Covid-19, RSV, and other serious respiratory issues and was taken to a children’s hospital in nearby San Antonio, Texas. Days later, she was discharged from the hospital after she showed improvement from intensive oxygen treatment.
She was then sent back to Dilley, despite doctors warning that she was at high risk of infection, and guards there denied her prescribed medication that she was supposed to take every day. Lawyers filed an emergency petition in federal court to have her released, but it took nine more days in Dilley before she was released.
Noem thought she could get away with saying that Amalia was safely back with her family, but the full story is that being detained by ICE nearly killed her, and only legal action got her released and able to take the medicine she needed.
Or cheaply, for that matter.
ICE is preparing to shutter a new $1.2 billion detention center that was seen as a prototype for other large-scale detention facilities less than a year after it opened.
Camp East Montana, a tent encampment built on scrubland next to the Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso, Texas, began receiving detainees on Aug. 1, 2025, but it quickly was accused of appalling human rights abuses. Three migrants died in the facility within the space of two months, according to a leaked document.
The facility was initially touted as a blueprint for a new generation of rapid-build detention facilities, and the Department of Homeland Security, led by Kristi Noem, dismissed initial criticism of the facility’s conditions as a “smear campaign.”
But an internal ICE document obtained by The Washington Post, circulated to agency staff this week, shows the agency is now drafting a letter to end the facility’s contract with Acquisition Logistics LLC. The firm had been awarded the $1.2 billion deal in July of last year, with a completion date originally set for Sept. 30, 2027. No reason for the decision was given.
DHS spokesperson Lauren Bis said the department is reviewing the facility to ensure it meets standards and that “no decisions have been made related to contract extension, termination, or award.”
Immigration policy analyst Aaron Reichlin-Melnick said the move was notable. “Camp East Montana in El Paso opened in August and quickly became the deadliest ICE facility, with infamously terrible conditions,” he wrote on X ,
Careful what you say, Mark. You might get court-martialed.
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) sharply criticized the Trump administration’s launch of Operation Epic Fury against Iran last weekend.
“They don’t seem to know what they’re doing or why they did this,” Kelly told MS NOW on Wednesday morning.
“I think this is a perfect example of what happens when you have a leader of a country who doesn’t take input, doesn’t take advice, puts a lot of yes people around him and makes these decisions without the right input and without the right data,” the senator continued. “So, I think this is not going well for them.”
You, too, Steve.
A retired general claims leadership at the Pentagon “must be smoking something” because of its Iran hubris.
Retired Brig. Gen. Steve Anderson made the comments live on CNN News Central on Wednesday Morning after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, held a news conference at the Pentagon about the U.S.-dubbed “Operation Epic Fury.”
Anderson, who has previously called for Hegseth to be fired, lamented the Pentagon chief’s tough-guy bluster.
“What we saw with Secretary of Defense was a tough, macho guy talking about killing and shamelessly sucking up to the POTUS, but he really wasn’t giving any specifics on really what the long-term objectives are,” Anderson said.
Anderson then delivered a stark warning after Hegseth said during the press conference that the United States would outlast Iran.
“And I would say that we’re gonna be in the same situation we were in Iraq. We’re gonna be able to knock out their defensive capabilities, their offensive capabilities, establish air superiority, but they’re gonna go underground. These are tough, resilient people; they’re gonna be able to outlast us.”
He said any suggestion to the contrary is foolish. “And if we think we’re gonna be able to bomb them into submission from the air, somebody’s smoking something,” he declared.
Only the best, right, felon?
Lindsey Halligan, the ex-U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia who was hand-picked by President Trump to prosecute his political adversaries, is under investigation by Florida’s bar, a letter sent by the organization and obtained by The Hill shows.
The letter was sent last month to the executive director of Campaign for Accountability, a watchdog group that filed complaints against Halligan in Florida and Virginia.
“We are aware of these developments and have been monitoring them closely,” bar counsel Carlos Leon wrote in the Feb. 4 letter. “We already have an investigation pending.”
Halligan, who left the U.S. attorney’s office in January, appeared to be copied on the letter. She did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
A spokesperson for The Florida Bar said it does not “comment on active cases.” The investigation could eventually lead to disbarment after a process that can take years to complete.
This next part gives a clue or two as to why.
Campaign for Accountability filed a complaint against Halligan in November for potential violations of Virginia’s rules of professional conduct and the rules that regulate Florida’s bar while prosecuting Comey and James.
A federal magistrate judge in November said the record in Comey’s case showed a “disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps,” including that Halligan made at least two “fundamental misstatements of the law” to grand jurors.
Another poster stated in the last day or so they did not know how to make a meme. The Orange White House has them covered.
Social media erupted after the White House posted a video montage of the U.S. attacks on Iran that included footage from “Call of Duty.”
The video, shared on Wednesday , began with a first-person perspective of a player activating a mass-guided bomb (MGB) “killstreak“ from one of the ”Call of Duty" games, according to multiple reports . A “killstreak” animation is earned after getting a certain number of consecutive kills in the game without dying.
The video then cut to a compilation of the U.S. attacks on Iran amid the escalating war that began on Saturday. The video is captioned: “Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue.”
Social media critics immediately blasted the White House for likening the war to a video game, with some noting that six U.S. troops have been killed in the conflict so far. Others noted that a strike in Iran hit a girls’ school, killing at least 175 people. It’s not clear whether the U.S. is responsible for that deadly strike on the girls’ school.
MTG is finally figuring things out.
Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) this week warned Americans to take President Donald Trump seriously when he talks of seeking an unconstitutional third term in office.
During a Monday interview with SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly , Greene pointed out that Trump has said several times that he doesn’t think he’s getting into heaven ― and questioned what that suggests about the mental state of a man “toward the end of his life.”
Kelly pointed out that Trump has said he was being cheeky , but Greene pushed back.
“I don’t think the president is being tongue-in-cheek. I know that man very well,” said Greene, who was part of the president’s inner circle and frequently by his side at events until a falling-out last year over her push to release the Jeffrey Epstein files.
“He repeatedly and repeatedly says he’s not going to heaven the same way he repeatedly says, ‘What do you think? Should I run for president again?’” she said. “That started out as we could take it as a joke, but I don’t think he’s joking.”
Color me Red, White, and Blue Unsurprised.
A Trump-aligned group set up by the White House to apparently glorify the president is setting off alarm bells among watchdogs who worry it’s using the guise of America’s 250th birthday to carry out a cash grab.
Democrats and watchdog groups are questioning the growing role of the Trump-backed public-private partnership Freedom 250, which is organizing increasingly tacky, MAGA-esque events and promotions to mark the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
This includes spending tens of millions of taxpayer dollars on customized “Freedom Trucks” that serve as traveling museums filled with educational content written by conservative educators, as well as a “Freedom Plane” to ferry the Declaration of Independence on a national tour. Freedom 250 is also the group behind the bizarre plan to hold an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event at the White House to coincide with Trump’s 80th birthday.
Freedom 250, announced by Trump in December, has been working alongside America250, a bipartisan group created by Congress to organize and promote events to mark America’s birthday. America250 planned the military parade through the streets of Washington, D.C., last June to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army—an event that coincidentally coincided with Trump’s 79th birthday. Freedom 250 had pushed for Trump to be the center piece of that event, butting heads with America250, which wanted the military to be the focus, according to The Washington Post.
Both groups are expected to share roughly $150 million in federal funds appropriated by Congress for the celebrations, which are managed by the Interior Department. This has sparked concern among Democrats and government watchdogs that the Trump-aligned project may be “commingling” taxpayer funds to please the president with its events while offering political perks to wealthy donors.
That’s quite the balance sheet track record, isn’t it?
But, of course…
President Donald Trump has already begun using his brand-new war on Iran to attempt to extract money from his supporters.
Trump’s joint fundraising committee sent out a text blast on Wednesday, urging his base to show their support for the war by giving him money.
“Iran wanted to bring DEATH TO AMERICA,” one message, sent by the Trump National Committee JFC, read. “I had to activate Operation Epic Fury. Will you stand STRONG with me?”
The link in the text takes you to a donation page with similar messaging, including an appeal that says, “Right now, I’m asking everyone who approves of Operation Epic Fury to rally behind me with incredible messages of support. Your words mean the world to me.”
Kimstu
March 6, 2026, 5:34am
2985
TBH, Jessup’s speech there has always struck me as dictatorial and illogical. Of course civilians are entitled to question and challenge, in appropriate contexts, the actions of the armed warriors who safeguard their freedom: that’s part of what freedom means . A society in which civilians mustn’t say anything about soldiers’ actions except “thank you” isn’t freedom, it’s a military junta.
That said, of course Hegseth is being an ignorant saber-rattling ass about this. But that’s not because he’s too civvy, but just because he’s too Hegseth.
Spoons
March 6, 2026, 5:54am
2988
Ha! Well said. I’ve got to remember that one. Thanks!
Gyrate
March 6, 2026, 7:51am
2989
(Quoting an article)
This is probably the least weird/horrific thing in that entire post, but it amused me that Camp “East Montana” is in west Texas.
Smapti
March 6, 2026, 7:55am
2990
In the rural end of the county I live in there’s a place called “East Olympia”.
It is about 6 miles due south of Olympia proper.
Wiki indicates he’s received a Bronze Star but does not say why. Unfortunately without a Valor ‘V’ device it may merely indicate meritorious service – he was a good lawyer.
Alessan
March 6, 2026, 10:14am
2992
I mean, he was the bad guy. We weren’t supposed to agree with him.
Smapti
March 6, 2026, 10:37am
2993
It is a congenital default of conservatives that they are intellectually incapable of understanding irony or subtext. These are the people who watch Fight Club and come away thinking “Tyler Durden is awesome and I want to be just like him”. Who read about WH40K and think “the Imperium of Man are the good guys and being a Space Marine would be great and have absolutely no downsides”. Who watch Paul Veerhoeven’s Starship Troopers and conclude “the Federation are objectively in the right because they look cool and the Bugs are ugly”. Who think art is pretty paintings of attractive people. Who complain that Star Trek was better in Kirk’s day because it wasn’t political. Who think Green Day got woke when they changed the lyric in American Idiot to “MAGA” instead of “redneck”. Who thought the machine that Rage Against The Machine was raging against was the IRS. Who think that Caesar’s Legion have some good points if you’d just listen to them and that the Brotherhood of Steel are being entirely reasonable.
The point is, Pete “THE STREETS WILL RUN RED WITH THE BLOOD OF THE NON-BELIEVERS” Hegseth absolutely does not understand that Jack Nicholson is supposed to be the bad guy in that movie.
How sad that anyone would assume (perhaps correctly) that popularity of a war might be linked to deaths of those whose passports arbitrarily have some word printed on them, rather than some other word.
Not a dig at you, Just_Asking_Questions. Just…sad.
Easthampton Massachusetts is southwest of Northampton. Westhampton and Southampton at least seem to be in the right place. Perversely, there is no Hampton.
This geographical tangent brought to you by, well, me, I guess. We now return you to your regular programming.
Me too literally lol’d. Awesome.
WHAT??
TOS was incredibly political. Of course, it was also incredibly woke, by MAGA standards.
Frodo
March 6, 2026, 2:30pm
2999
That’s Smapti ’s point, they don’t realize that.
These are the idiots who thought “Rage Against the Machine” ‘went woke’.
It’s left to be seen if society can survive idiocy of that magnitude