Aping These Down, Here (Updated)

Dear Gulf Arabs: Send Your Own Kids to Die For Your Oil

Gulf allies of the United States, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are urging President Donald Trump to continue prosecuting the war against Iran, arguing that Tehran hasn’t been weakened enough by the monthlong U.S.-led bombing campaign, according to U.S., Gulf and Israeli officials.
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Officials from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain have conveyed in private conversations that they do not want the military operation to end until there are significant changes in the Iranian leadership or there’s a dramatic shift in Iranian behavior, according to the officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

They can fuck all the way to off. They want this war to continue, then they should have their planes do some bombing. Send their own ground forces into harm's way.

But, knowing Trump, some freshly-created golden bauble and some cash will get him to send American soldiers to die for the white-robed cowards.

Rich man's war...

Once Again, War Gets Fought on the Backs of the Poor, Working and Middle Classes

Republicans are considering reductions in federal health spending to help pay for a budget bill containing as much as $200 billion to fund the Iran war and immigration enforcement.

Because it's unthinkable to increase taxes on big corporations and billionaires, the Republicans are going to push the cost of this war on those at the bottom of the pyramid.

Once again, the costs of war are folling on those least able to bear the burden.

The Unspoken Problem With Ending Trump's War

It is this: He cannot be trusted to keep his word. He tore up the last deal with Iran because he didn't like it. He'll tear up this one if some clown on Fox says that he should.

The Iranians are well aware of this.

There is a way around that, and that is by exchanging hostages. Trump could send Barron and Ivanka as hostages to the deal. Or he could send something he really values: The deed to Mar-a-Lago.

Welp, This Will Be Interesting

France's Finance Minister Roland Lescure revealed on Wednesday that between 30 and 40 per cent of Gulf refining capacity has been damaged or destroyed by Iran's retaliatory strikes following attacks by the United States and Israel, France 24 reports.

According to him, this has left a shortage of 11 million barrels a day on global oil markets. Lescure warned it could take up to three years to restore damaged facilities, and several months to restart those that were urgently shut down.

Which means that even if Bibi and Donnie's Most Excellent War stopped today, the ramifications will continue for years.

The best is yet to come, as the last ships that had left the Persian Gulf before the war started arrive at their delivery ports. This map shows global oil imports from the Guld and when the deliveries from the Gulf will end:

In a month, the globe will go from just feeling the price of oil rise to having actual shortages. In the US, we don't import a lot of oil from the Gulf, so we're not going to see much in the way of shortages. But oil is a global commodity and so is the pricing.

It's not just oil, of course. It's also aluminum, helium, natural gas and fertilizer. All of which will be in somewhat short supply, thanks to this war.

Meanwhile, the Orange Sundowner is blathering about attacking electrical generation and desalinization plants if Iran doesn't knuckle under. To say that doing that would be a war crime is beyond obvious. It's the sort of thing that his boss would do, another perpetrator of war crimes en masse.

That's Not Going to Buff Out

An E-3 "AWACS" was apparently destroyed in an Iranian missile attac on Prince Sultan airbase:

I don't know if it's an honest mistake, Gen. Sedgwick-grade arrogance or utter stupidity to put very high-value airplanes at a base within reach of Iranian missiles.

Wikipedia claims that the Air Force had sixteen E-3s in service. Losing one isn't good.

Protesting These Down, Here

Lots of signs from yesterday:

Your Sunday Morning Really Old Prop Noise

WW1 warbirds:

In Case You’re Stupid Enough to Install the White House App

This is what it'll do to your Google/Android phone.

in short, it's spyware.

Caturday

"Lemme outta here, see! I wanna see my mothpiece, see!"

Blonde Bimbo Bondi Has Never Read the Constitution

This is what she said:

For someone who went to law school, she is remarkably ignorant about what is in the Consitution. Particularly the 14th Amendment, Section 1:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

There you have it. Citizenship is a motherfucking right guaranteed by the Constitution.

So fuck you, Pam. I hope they yank your law license, let alone your law decree. You're not qualifieid to possess either.

Trump: Racist to the Core of His Being

This happened:

[Ricky Buria, Mr. Hegseth’s chief of staff] chastised the Army secretary [Daniel P. Driscoll] for selecting Maj. Gen. Antoinette R. Gant, a combat engineer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, to take command of the Military District of Washington, said three current and former defense and administration officials familiar with the exchange. The command provides security and performs ceremonial duties in the nation’s capital, and its commander often appears alongside the president at Arlington National Cemetery.

Mr. Buria told Mr. Driscoll that President Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events, the officials said.

You see this sort of discrimination going on all the time with GOPers these days. They confirmed Markwayne Mullin to be Secretary of DHS, a guy with no law enforcement, legal or military experience, whose main claim to fame is running his dad's plumbing business and getting a an associate's degree. But you know, don't you, that if a Democratic president had nominated AOC, who has two college degrees, for the job, the Right would be tripping over their dicks to denounce her as being unqualified.

And then there is Whiskey Pete, a Fox News personality who was chosen by Trump to be SecDef because Pretty boy Pete looks good on TV and is more than eager to give Trump's balls a tongue-job in public.

It's the old racism of white male privilege. Any white guy is presumptively qualified for whatever job he's in. Anyone who is a woman or non-white is presumed to be unqualified and a DEI hire, even if they are twice as smart and twice as capable. And Lord help us if they're transgendered, we simply cannot have that, can we?

Meanwhile, the World's Oldest Toddler is bored with his war and wants another toy to play with.

Because It's Friday

Steam in Branson, MO:

Remembering These Down, Here

Another Made-Up Participation Trophy for Our Toddler of a President

The Republicans are hard at work, creating awards so they can give gilded trophies to Trump.

President Donald Trump gave an hour-long, rambling speech Wednesday night at the National Republican Congressional Committee's annual fundraising dinner in Washington, D.C.

House Speaker Mike Johnson introduced Trump at the event and announced the president had received the first annual “America First Award.” Johnson called the prize a “beautiful golden statue … appropriate for the new golden era in America.”

The mocking will be epic. Here's a sample:

Mike Johnson: Tonight we have created a new award. We are going to do something we've never done before. We will honor him with a new award. He is the first ever recipient of the America first award. That is this beautiful golden statue here, appropriate for the golden era.

[image or embed]

— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) March 25, 2026 at 7:44 PM

Wow … this is great

May I suggest the gold statue be calf-shaped? https://t.co/oDEg57nrdn

— Matt Rein (@MatthewARein) March 26, 2026

Republicans have sold their souls to Trump. But in years to come, it will be as hard to find a MAGA Republican as it was to find a pro-Nazi German after April, 1945. They'll all tell you that they didn't support Trump, regardless of what you'll dig up about their support during these years.

Betcha Eric Trump’s Not Signing Up.

The U.S. Army has raised the maximum enlistment age to 42 and also relaxed rules on recruting individuals with drug convictions as the service continues to widen its recruiting pool.

He's 41, so he could go to his part. but that'll never happen. For the Trump family, public service is a means to enrich themselves. And there's very little money to be made in being an 11 Bravo.

Why Trump Wants to Keep Tens of Millions of Americans From Voting

This is why:

His approval rating is almost as low as that of syphilis. Ambulance-chasing lawhyers and used-car salesmen have higher approval ratings than Donnie of Dementia, Master of the Bad Spray-Tan.

Don't forget that under the rules that now exist for voting, the GOP won in 2022 and 2024. They only reason they want to change the rules, now, is because they're looking at a near-historic shellacking in November and their only hope is to keep people from voting. That thier proposal would disproportionally block minorities and women from voting is, to them, a feature of their nefarious plan.

Every day, in every way, Republicans reveal themselves to be evil personified.

The Hypocritical Mad King -Updated

He hates mail-in ballots, but guess how he votes:

President Donald Trump has cast another mail ballot in Florida as he continues to publicly bash the voting method as a source of fraud and push Congress to curtail the practice.

Palm Beach County voter records show the president voted by mail in a Tuesday special election for state legislative seats and that his ballot has been counted. Early in-person voting in the contest ran through Sunday, when Trump was still at his south Florida estate.

His rule is "do as I say, not as I do."

ETA: His state rep is now a Democrat.

Burning These Down, Here