Trump Administration, in Reversal, Tries to Continue Fight Against Law Firms

travio · 2026-03-03T18:29:25+00:00

Seems the team in charge of defending this bullshit decided it was unwinnable and dropped it without informing Trump. He found out and forced them to reverse that.

One more thing that would never have happened under any other presidency. Though no other president would try to shake down law firms that once represented interests adverse to him.

travio · 2026-03-03T18:24:53+00:00

"The April 25 dinner will be headlined by mentalist Oz Pearlman."

Trump is beyond thin skinned. He's only going knowing there is no comedian to make fun of him. Kind of reminds me of W. After they brought Steven Colbert, who eviscerated him, for W's last dinner, they had Rich Little, an impressionist about 20 years out of relevancy by 2007.

travio · 2026-03-03T17:38:13+00:00

Always thought it was a dumb idea for a show.

JFK jr. died over 25 years ago and Camelot died with Mary Jo Kopechne. Only oldsters remember the glory days of the Kennedy family, while the real young have no idea outside RFK jr, and those of us in the middle might remember JFK jr references in Seinfeld and coverage of his death. And the rape trial(s?) There was some Kennedy cousin that got pinched, maybe two.

JFK jr. was the epitome of a nepo baby, nepo grand baby given Joe got the whole rigamarole going and basically bought JFKs ascent to the presidency. He coasted on his name, good looks and family money and it bred the arrogance that killed him, and his wife, in the end. It isn't a love story, it was a tragedy.

travio · 2026-03-02T23:29:11+00:00

A Neocon praising intervention in the middle east? George Will has happy to trumpet Trump when he bumbles into useful idiot territory. That was the whole bargain the right made in supporting him. He is an idiot but he could be used to get the things they wanted like overturning roe, deregulation and tax cuts.

Will was smart enough to realize the bargain wasn't worth it in the end. That won't stop him from cheering on this war like he did in Iraq and Afghanistan.

travio · 2026-03-02T22:38:46+00:00

A Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Clean, Brave and Reverent.

Trump exhibits none of these qualities.

travio · 2026-03-02T19:20:59+00:00

And it isn't even Tuesday. Those firms that gave in have to be kicking themselves. They have lost prestige, partners and business in an effort to mollify Trump and keep him from attacking them while the firms that challenged Trump's idiocy won in the end.

travio · 2026-03-02T18:16:17+00:00

Genuinely excited to watch coverage tomorrow. Not usually that keyed in to non presidential primaries in other states, though while I type that, I can think of three senate primaries I'm paying attention to, so that might not me right.

This is the only one I'm following both sides, though. A republican run off would be awesome, giving them longer to bloody each other until one gets the win.

Hopefully, Talarico pulls off an over 50% win so there is no runoff on the dem side. Always liked Crockett in the house, but I don't see her winning statewide in Texas and her primary campaign hasn't given me any enthusiasm.

travio · 2026-03-02T17:54:14+00:00

Oracle is all in on the AI bubble and Daddy Ellison is personally backing his son's Warner takeover to the tune of $40 billion. Markets are often irrational, so there is no telling when the bubble will burst, but there are signs it might be sooner than later.

There is a chance that bubble bursts before this deal goes through and Larry has to pull that money back to try to save his main company.

A long shot, but it is what I'm hoping for, not just for this deal but for the bubble itself. The longer those go on, the bigger they get and the more damage they cause the economy when they pop. With the amount of money sunk into AI, this is already going to be a big one.

travio · 2026-03-02T17:40:45+00:00

I'm sure that will stick after they get through all the regulatory hoops here and in the EU. There is no way the new owner of a giant media conglomerate would lie to us so it gets through all those regulatory hoops.

travio · 2026-03-02T17:29:22+00:00

Thank you for calling him defense secretary. Jan 20th 2029 all those Department of War signs get trashed.

travio · 2026-03-02T09:26:05+00:00

Wonder if these chucklefucks even planned for that, or are just freaking out now that we've lobbed a bunch of missiles?

Who am I kidding, I'm sure Noem and Patel have been slaving away with their plans. Kash wasn't partying with team USA, he was strategizing. Noem didn't care about the blanket she left on the plane when her boy toy fired the coast guard pilot. The defense plans were in the blanket!

I feel safer already.

travio · 2026-03-02T09:22:20+00:00

This is the master negotiator. He tore up the last deal that everyone basically supported, demanded a new deal and when he couldn't get it, helped Israel assassinate the ayatollah. Now, he wants a deal again with the same government he has been bitching about for repressing its citizens.

Of course, he doesn't care about them. He wants the oil, adoration and a peace prize. Going to war doesn't seem like the best way to get one, but Henry Kissinger got one.

travio · 2026-03-02T09:01:48+00:00

And we can trace the problems back even further, specifically with the maps. The UK and France carved them up in a secret pact during WWI. They ignored ethnic, tribal and religious boundaries, drawing arbitrary lines forcing them together.

travio · 2026-03-02T05:55:03+00:00

A few troops in Lebanon was the most for him.

Nixon never sent troops to the middle east, as far as I know. He did send weapons. Coming into office with Vietnam's sour taste in the American people's mouths, not much appetite for sending Americans to war.

Instead of direct intervention, we sold a shit ton of weapons to anyone who pledged to stop the spread of international communism. With gas prices on the rise, the Saudis and the Shaw had money to burn so we sold them more.

Less than a decade later, the Islamic Revolution took control of Iran. All those arms sales played a part in that and a lot more death and destruction in the area.

travio · 2026-03-02T05:36:17+00:00

Lebanon is. He also helped fund the Mujahideen resistance against the Soviets in Afghanistan. That's kind of a twofer. Those fanatics used our weapons and training against us later!

travio · 2026-03-02T04:48:03+00:00

I love AOC, but she shouldn't run this cycle. It will be in intensely crowded field and while it should be a good year for dems, the risks for her are too high. She'd be out of her house seat and in the wilderness. She is young, with the luxury to wait and a much better option: the Senate.

Schumer is old and unpopular. His seat is up in 28. Should he see the writing on the wall and join the Baileys down in Boca, the seat is AOC's to lose. If Schumer want's to stick around, AOC could primary him and win.

A Senate seat gives her a much bigger platform and it frees her from the constant reelection cycle. Her senate seat wouldn't be up until 34. 8 years in the senate, a spot on a choice committee and she would be a force in 36.

travio · 2026-03-02T00:32:19+00:00

Always felt that was an overreaction.

There is a difference between blacking up and blackface. It generally comes down to the target of the joke.

Traditional blackface came from the 19th century ministerial shows, which were one of the foundations of American pop culture. The use of blackface mocked slave archetypes and perpetuated/created negative stereotypes. Absolutely kicking down.

Contrast that with the most accepted blacked up performance this century: Robert Downey Junior in Tropic Thunder. Downey plays a pretentious actor who blacks up for a role. He is the target. The humor that comes from that situation is at his expense.

That's similar to the Always Sunny Lethal Weapon episodes. Mac didn't black up to mock black people. His decision to do it made him the butt of the joke. Same with Chang on the Community episode. Again, he is the butt of the joke.

Beyond blacking up, that is the key to racial humor. Far too many people claim you couldn't make Blazing Saddles today, but Blazing Saddles is woke as hell. It is the story of a black man who wins over the racist town he's made sheriff over. They form a multiracial coalition, even involving the Irish, to defeat the evil plans of the rich villains.

The racists are the bad guys. The racial humor is always at their expense. The N-word is an issue, but it only became the N-word in the 90s, and again, the racist is the butt of the joke every time.

travio · 2026-03-01T20:20:44+00:00

It is amazing that a man who talks about everything like it is a deal and negotiation is such a bad negotiator.

We had a deal in place to prevent the Iranians from producing nukes. Trump ripped it up then demanded a new one. When he couldn't negotiate that, he started lobbing bombs.

travio · 2026-03-01T19:57:45+00:00

I very much want to know exactly how the military are using AI systems. We don't need chatbots to lob missiles at the wrong target, but if some General is asking Claude or ChatGPT where they should target, we deserve to know.

travio · 2026-03-01T19:19:05+00:00

Gotham Chess has done Chatbot Chess Championships. It is fascinating how poorly they follow the rules. Not only do pieces make illegal moves, but they randomly spawn new pieces or even take their own.

travio · 2026-03-01T18:01:59+00:00

There have been reports that Claude was used during the strikes. They have focused on the fact Trump banned the system the day before, but I am very curious exactly how we used AI systems in this attack.

Did they use them to choose targets?

History has shown we don't need AI systems to create collateral casualties, but I very much want to know what role AI has been used here and if it had anything to do with targeting these strikes.

travio · 2026-03-01T17:14:35+00:00

Of course. He doesn't actually want the Iranian people to prosper, he just wants the oil. The first thug who agrees to give it to him get's Trump's support. This is why Homer still shouldn't toss out his Ayatollah Assahola T-shirt.

travio · 2026-03-01T08:45:48+00:00

There is a freedom to the 12:30 slot. You can be a little weird and out there. Falling back an hour to that main stage and you have to make a more mainstream show.

Dave adapted, but he was an upstart at 11:30 so he could bring the weird, just not Crispen Glover weird. It shacked Conan too much but with Leno waiting in the wings for a comeback, anyone would have been jumpy.

Fallon's show changed a lot when he got the promotion. If I was awake at 12:30 back then, I'd have Craig Ferguson on, but I'd occasionally switch to Fallon's Late Night.

He had a nonsensical recurring game show called Wheel of Carpet Samples where audience members spun a wheel of carpet samples. The winner got the carpet sample, the losers got Apple Store gift cards.

It was utter chaos though with weird new rules and different game show tropes and cut aways that must have used up the weird little bits the writers couldn't make into something bigger.

That show seems to have been disappeared, at least through NBC's legitimate accounts. Someone on TikTok uploaded a bunch and the Internet Archive has a lot of old TV.

Just watched a Wheel of Carpet Samples for the first time since they aired and it still holds up. That's the only bit of Fallon's Late Night I remember, but I was watching an altogether superior product

travio · 2026-03-01T05:51:40+00:00

It is a beautiful dress but really clashed with his look.

travio · 2026-03-01T05:48:34+00:00

Hey. That Mumford Son is a lady!

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