Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise

The first flight of the X-59:

Trump: "Pay No Attention..."

"... to those rising food prices, falling employment numbers and spiking health care premiums, things are going great!"

That's what Paul Krugman thinks he is going to try and sell and that his upcoming "trust me over your lyin' eyes" tour is going to fall flat.

You can read his analysis for yourself here.

ICE/CBP are Brutal and Nasty. Only Small-Dicked Bullies Work for Them.

The Trump Administration is treating white people like Black people have historically been treated.

They say they were looking for a male immigrant, but the only person in the car was a tiny white blonde woman (4'1", 85lbs), who they dragged out of the car, threw her to the ground and handcuffed.

Because ICE and the Border Patrol are either so stupid that they had no idea what their target looked like or they are engaging in the degree of casual cruelty demanded by Orange Piggy and Pee-Wee German.

ETA: More ICE brutality of the kind perpetrated by Southern Jim Crow cops.

Ratifying Racism

In recent days, Trump has twice gone on racist rants about Somali-Americans.

This isn't about that. This is about those standing around him or in his party. And I'm not talking about those who are just member of the Trump party. I'm talking about officeholders who have "R" after their names.

To you folks: Either you condemn Trump's racist rhetoric or, by your silence, you are adopting it.

Same goes for all of those auto execs who were standing around Trump as he went on his second racist tant this week about the Somalis: Speak out or you're tarred with that brush.

Caturday

Solar farming cat.

Bigoted, Petty and Vindictive, the Hallmarks of the Trump Administration

As you walk down a particular hallway on the seventh floor of the Humphrey Building in Washington, D.C., you'll find a line of photographic portraits of all the people from years past who have led the Public Health Corps at the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

Only one of those portraits is of a transgender person: Adm. Rachel Levine, who served for four years as President Biden's assistant secretary for health. She was the first transgender person to win Senate confirmation, and her portrait has been displayed in the hallway since soon after she was confirmed in 2021. The role is a four-star admiral position in charge of the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service.

Levine's official portrait was recently altered, a spokesperson for HHS confirmed to NPR. A digital photograph of the portrait in the hallway obtained by NPR shows that Levine's previous name is now typed below the portrait, under the glass of the frame.

There is no point in any of this other than bigotry and pettiness.

But that's where the Trump Administration lives.

And if you support that bullshit, that tells me about your character.

Adapter

I put a grip adapter on my new-to-me Model 22:

I like the way grip adapters feel with the standard service (non-target) grips.

I think that Smith & Wesson could sell a bunch of them if they fit a .45 Long Colt cylinder to the gun. They'd probably have to shorten the length of the barrel where it comes out the back end of the frame. But I'll bet as either a Lipsey's or Davidson's exclusive, they'd sell out.

Remember, these 21st Century Model 22s were first sold as Thunder Ranch models, with that gaudy-ass gold emblem on the left side of the gun. They sold well enough to justify a regular production run.

Trump's Racism Keeps Chugging Along

The Donald Trump administration has changed which holidays qualify for free entrance to national parks, removing two holidays celebrating Black people and adding the president’s birthday.

If Trump has his way, Jeff Davis's birthday will be a national holiday. Because this is an administration of and for white racists and Trump is not shy about that.

Because It's Friday

Going up grade with a strong engine and not getting wheel-slip takes some artistry.

If Any Other FBI Director Since Hoover Had Done This, His Head Would Have Rolled.

FBI Director Kash Patel has — on more than one occasion — ordered that the security detail protecting his girlfriend escort one of her allegedly inebriated friends home after a night of partying in Nashville, according to three people with knowledge of the incidents.

Patel’s girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, asked FBI agents on her security team at least two times, including once this spring, to drive her friend home, and agents objected to diverting from their assignment, said the sources, who were granted anonymity to discuss nonpublic matters. But Patel insisted they do as Wilkins requested and in one case called the leader of Wilkins’ security detail and yelled at him to do so.

And you know, don't you, that a certain walleyed blogger would have been screaming blue bloody murder if Chris Wray had had members of his security detail escord a drunken friend home. But it's just peachy for Patel's main squeeze to do it.

The FBI is a joke under his "leadership". Patel's only interested in having fun and getting his ugly face on camera.