After sorting thru well over a hundred neckties from my dad’s estate, I’m convinced that if not another single tie was manufactured in the course of human affairs, we would still be bequeathing boxes of them a million years from now. And they’d still be paisley and boring stripes.

Yet another embarassing setback for the Justice Department, as they drop the Reflecting Pool vandalism case. "Evidence prosecutors had recently received refuted the idea that vandals were to blame." Of course, literally everyone outside MAGAville knew this already that he was totally innocent.

America's response to COVID was a symptom of evangelicalism. For decades, if not longer, that branch of Christianity pushed distrust of the government and martyrdom and victimhood and dominionism and nationalism and xenophobia and anti-science and personal prosperity. /1

Because of course there's no conflict of interest or pay-for-play going on between Musk's SpaceX and Trump, right? arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

I don't find anything like that posted on their Facebook page, although the footer is what you would actually see on their FB page (their logo and the green dot). www.facebook.com/Comal.County...

I saw this first image, and it occurred to me that when you see God like the second image, the evangelical church's strong support for ICE makes a lot more sense. In my evangelical upbringing, this is "tough love." It's how they see God. Naturally it extends to law enforcement and the military.

In a sane administration, not only would the pilot be instantly fired, so would the Secretary of Defense. It's his fault that this culture exists; he has now effectively pardoned three blatant showboating violations of military aviation regulations. Mark my words, it WILL lead to a mishap.

Please, y'all. THOSE ARE NOT TIRE TRACKS. They're lines of algae from incremental draining of the pool. Yes, Trump's still lying. But don't give MAGA any excuse to point out some gullibility on our part.

I'll be happy to see my tax dollars rot in the back lot of Trump's Presidential Library, because I don't want any future president risked by flying in it.

in his administration gave up arguing about this is explicitly because he insisted that he was going to keep the jet after his term of office ended. They realized that this "bridge" jet (between the aging VC-25 fleet and the behind-schedule replacements)

There's a reason why the real replacement Air Force One jet is behind schedule and over cost: building it with total security is HARD. The idea of a gift airplane ever being secured properly is absolutely laughable. It's possible that the only reason that Secret Service officials

From the moment that the gift of the Qatar jet was announced, thousands of people posted on social media, and dozens of reporters wrote, that this gift was a Trojan horse, that refitting the aircraft into a proper flying fortress with suitable defenses and communications

The new jet was an easily-identified aircraft with nearly zero defenses. So I assume their highest officials had to beg and plead with him to change planes. And unusually for him, he listened. But then he undercut them: He immediately went on social media to complain about it,

Despite Trump's arrogance and narcissism, the people charged with keeping him alive despite his best efforts are not stupid. When he flew into Turkey, right next door to Iran and all the other Islamic nations who are currently pretty pissed at him, the Secret Service knew the score:

But we only have ONE jet from Qatar. And this 747 is a different model entirely; it's got a longer upper deck section, making it easy to tell the aircraft apart, even if they were identically-painted. So a careful observer could tell which was which.

As a former US civil servant flight test engineer, I've been around military aviation a long time, especially big heavy commercial-derivative jets with top-notch defensive systems installed. There's no way in hell that this Qatar-gifted 747 was properly fitted with defensive systems ... (/1 of many)

Here's the old Air Force One flyover. Listen to the announcements.

I find it supremely ironic that at the very moment of the old and new Air Force One flyovers, the organizers of the 250 celebration were forced to tell people that the event was temporarily closed due to approaching thunderstorms. You can hear the announcement over the jets in both AP News clips.

Here's a photo of the 1976 Bicentennial celebration on the National Mall. See all the people wading in the Reflecting Pool? Do you see any National Guard chasing them? I don't.

Please don't post pictures of a supposed tarp going up around the Reflecting Pool. That's an AI hoax. And the fencing? That's normal for July 4th fireworks precautions, to keep people away from a lot of dangerous explosives.

This theory might explain a lot. "Trump may be mystery patient in odd case of 79YO getting experimental obesity drug." arstechnica.com/health/2026/...

Happy Juneteenth. Today marks the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Texas finally learned they were free, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. The road to true equality and equity is still rough; let's remind ourselves to push forward where change is needed.

Now see, Chicago needs to talk to DC about their St Patrick's Day "green river." I'm sure they're jealous about this entirely-natural bright green color.

I'm disgusted on many levels, but I'm just gonna say this: If Michelle Obama is trans (she's not, you MAGA idiots!), then her absolute grace and integrity and unimpeachable character is proof that we ought to be accepting and celebrating queer people at all levels of our society.

Now look at which stock market moves were made just before this tweet by President Trump, calling off hostilities for this evening. I'll bet some of his administration officials made some fairly large moves.

Painting the Reflecting Pool with a dark blue bottom will cause algae to grow faster because the water stays warmer. This is a widely known problem; the Pool was already set up with an ozone bubbler and filtration system to try to kill algae. Trump didn't drain the swamp, he created more of one.

So... Iran denies intentionally downing the Apache; it probably inadvertently collided with a Shahed drone sent to attack a tanker. But Trump wastes no time making this an excuse to strike Iran yet again. x.com/Osinttechnic...

The newly repainted Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is 2030 by 167 feet, and over 11 printed pages of the Epstein Files deep.

A story in two photos.

The moon and Venus setting tonight. Beautiful.