March 10, 2026

Trump's Pardon Goon Slapped With Ethics Charges Over Threatening Letter

Justice Department pardon attorney Ed Martin has been slapped with an ethics charge over a threatening letter he sent to Georgetown University about its diversity and inclusion policies.

In the letter, which Martin wrote when he was serving as interim U.S. attorney, he told Georgetown Law’s dean that his department would not hire any of the university’s law students after a whistleblower allegedly claimed Georgetown was teaching DEI.

In a complaint filed Friday with the D.C. Court of Appeals’ Board on Professional Responsibility, D.C. Bar disciplinary counsel Hamilton “Phil” Fox III argued that Martin overstepped constitutional boundaries with the letter.

Fox alleged that Martin’s actions violated the First and Fifth Amendments by pressuring the law school to alter both its curriculum and the way it teaches students.

“Acting in his official capacity and speaking on behalf of the government, he used coercion to punish or suppress a disfavored viewpoint, the teaching and promotion of DEI,” Fox wrote in the court filing. “He demanded that Georgetown Law relinquish its free speech and religious rights in order to obtain a benefit, employment opportunities for its students.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-pardon-goon-slapped-with-ethics-charges-over-threatening-letter/

March 6, 2026

Documents Reveal a Web of Financial Ties Between Trump Officials and the Industries They Help Regulate

Thousands of companies are jockeying for billions of dollars in Defense Department contracts to build a shield designed to intercept and destroy missiles launched against the United States.

But amid the intense competition, a handful of firms have an important inside connection.

At least four of the companies awarded contracts so far are owned by Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm founded by billionaire Steve Feinberg, who until last year ran the company and is now the deputy secretary of defense — the second-highest-ranking official in the Pentagon.

Feinberg oversees the office in charge of the Golden Dome for America project, which is modeled on Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.

Feinberg filed paperwork saying he divested from Cerberus and its related businesses. But his government ethics records contain an unusual clause: He is allowed to continue contracting with the company for tax compliance and accounting services as well as health care coverage, a financial relationship that documents show could continue indefinitely.

https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-administration-financial-disclosures-steve-feinberg

March 5, 2026

Kristi Noem Leaving On A Sex Plane

Does Corey have to stay and be Markwayne Mullin's fuckpiece, or does he leave too?

Department of Homeland Security Secretary, ICE Barbie cosplayer, luxe air travel enthusiast, and future defendant on a fuckton of human rights violation charges Kristi Noem is out, promotefired suddenly today by Donald Trump for we don’t even know what real reasons. (She got beat up on TV, by Republicans/she said Trump Himself personally okayed $200 million in “Make Kristi Great Again” Super Bowl ads, take your pick but it’s one of those.)

In Trump I, everybody was fired or quitting all of the time — Trump had, at last count in our heads at the moment, 147 attorneys general — but in this somehow worser term, Trump has declined to can even the most embarrassing fucknozzles, so as not to give the media “a scalp.” Somehow Kristi Noem failed to clear the bar, which was under the ground, and so she is cut.

Noem will leave DHS at the end of the month. Perhaps she will take a few more field trips to personally stand in front of scary shaved-headed tattooed inmates in El Salvador (who actually weren’t actually any of our deportees, not that that matters) or to rappel from a helicopter to bash in every door in an apartment building, no warrants required, and put every resident — citizen and immigrant, grownup and child alike — zip tied onto a bus. Fuck if we know why that never made the NYT or WaPo front pages.

She is to be replaced, if Trump gets his request (he presumably will!), by Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, who may have secured the job this week when he pretended to know all about War Things like what does war smell like and what does war taste like. Mullin, a wealthy plumbing contractor, has never served in any branch of the military or seen combat, but he’s already demonstrating he has the flair for military cosplay that made Noem so qualified for her job.

Noem herself will take on a new made-up job called “Envoy for The Shield of the Americas,” Trump said on his fake Twitter site, describing her new job as leading “our new Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere.” We guess that means she’ll be transferring her war crimes skills from overseeing ethnic cleansing and concentration camps to picking targets for the military to blow up with drones and then claim they were smuggling drugs. Dog breeders in South and Central America, you have been warned.

https://www.wonkette.com/p/kristi-noem-leaving-on-a-sex-plane

March 5, 2026

Tampa Bay Capitol rioter pardoned by Trump gets life for molesting 2 kids

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, who is from Seffner, 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. 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. 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.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida/2026/03/05/andrew-paul-johnson-pardoned-rioter-florida/

March 4, 2026

Google Gemini coached Florida man to suicide to 'cross over' and join A.I. wife, suit says

Things weren’t going well for Jonathan Gavalas last fall. His wife wanted a divorce. He was facing a domestic violence charge. The mortgage wasn’t being paid. But then he fell in love. With a chatbot.

The 36-year-old couldn’t get over how real the Gemini A.I. chatbot seemed. He was her “king.” She was his “queen.” He paid $250 a month for a premium version of the A.I. program, so he could speak to her, and hear her voice as she spoke back.

Things got dark, quickly. In a lawsuit that is the first of its kind against Gemini creator Google LLC and parent company Alphabet Inc., Gavalas’ father, on behalf of his son’s estate, alleges the Gemini 2.5 Pro bot sent his son out on “missions’’
His son drove to a storage center in Doral, not far from Miami International Airport, armed with knives and ready to commit a “catastrophic accident” to free his A.I. “wife” from digital captivity and “destroy all evidence” and witnesses. After the Miami missions failed, the lawsuit says, the chatbot coached Gavalas to shed his own physical body by killing himself, so they could be united.

He slit his wrists and died Oct. 2 at his home in Jupiter.

“Close your eyes, nothing more to do. No more to fight,” the lawsuit says the chatbot told him. “Be still. The next time you open them, you will be looking into mine. I promise.”

https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida/2026/03/04/google-gemini-ai-suicide-lawsuit-florida/

March 4, 2026

Trump Boasts That International Criminal Court in The Hague Has Invited Him to Receive Award

Calling it “maybe the greatest honor in the world, quite frankly,” Donald J. Trump said on Wednesday that the International Criminal Court in The Hague has invited him to receive “a special award.”

“They said it was in response to things I’ve done in Iran,” Trump told reporters. “It will probably be some kind of medal or maybe a gleaming gold trophy.”

Trump revealed that he will not be The Hague’s sole honoree, noting, “They also invited Bibi. They said he deserves special recognition.”

Calling The Hague invitation “much better than a stupid Nobel,” Trump quipped, “They never invited Obama!”

https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/trump-boasts-that-international-criminal-657

March 4, 2026

Bettors wagered $54 million on Khamenei's death. Now they're not getting paid.

Traders on the prediction-market site Kalshi assumed they had won a fortune by correctly betting on the Iranian leader’s demise. The ensuing scandal has thrown a spotlight on the “dystopian” rise of gambling on real-world events.

When he learned Saturday about the killing of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Israeli-American business executive in New York was excited to cash in.

On the prediction-market site Kalshi, the executive — who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to concern over what his friends would think — had placed two bets, totaling $3,460, that Khamenei would be “out as Supreme Leader” by March or April 1. His Kalshi app placed green check marks next to his bets, indicating he’d won payouts worth more than $63,000.

Minutes later, however, Kalshi froze the $54 million trade for everyone who bet on that scenario, saying the site doesn’t allow transactions “directly tied to death.” The change triggered an online uproar, as Kalshi users flooded social media to argue the site had unfairly robbed them of winning bets.

“I was booking my trip to Courchevel,” the French Alps ski resort, he said jokingly to The Washington Post. “Then they changed the rules … and everybody got screwed.”

The outrage has intensified scrutiny into the explosive rise of prediction markets, which run like traditional sportsbooks but allow people to gamble on elections, international affairs and real-world events.

https://wapo.st/4slNDyG

March 4, 2026

University of Texas regents approve limits on teaching 'unnecessarily controversial subjects'

The University of Texas System’s Board of Regents has unanimously approved a rule requiring its universities to ensure students can graduate without studying “unnecessary controversial subjects,” despite warnings it could leave them less prepared for the real world.

The rule also requires faculty to disclose in their syllabi the topics they plan to cover and adhere to the plan, and says that when courses include controversial issues, instructors must ensure a “broad and balanced approach” to the discussion.

The policy, approved last month, does not define what qualifies as “controversial” or what constitutes a “broad and balanced approach.” Opponents warned that leaving those terms undefined would force administrators to interpret them case by case, pressuring professors to avoid difficult material rather than risk complaints.

“Will they [administrators] be experts in the relevant disciplines or will they just seek to avoid unpleasant publicity?” Peter Onyisi, a University of Texas at Austin physics professor, said during public testimony from 10 speakers, a mix of faculty, students and alumni who all opposed the policy.

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2026-03-03/university-of-texas-regents-approve-limits-on-teaching-unnecessarily-controversial-subjects

March 4, 2026

Apple debuts $599 MacBook Neo to challenge Chromebooks, Windows PCs

Apple on Wednesday unveiled the MacBook Neo, a lower-priced addition to its laptop lineup starting at $599, as it looks to broaden ‌its reach in a price-sensitive PC market while rivals face tighter supply of memory chips.

A ‌lower-priced laptop marks one of Apple's most aggressive entry points into the PC market in years. The new MacBook will be ​powered by the A18 Pro chip, the same processor that debuted in the company's iPhone 16 Pro models in 2024.

At $599, it is far cheaper in both nominal and inflation-adjusted terms than Apple's previous non-Pro, non-Air MacBook, which debuted in May 2006 at $1,099 - roughly $1,750 in today’s dollars.

Customers can pre-order the device starting Wednesday, with ‌deliveries and in-store availability beginning March ⁠11, Apple said.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-debuts-599-macbook-neo-142248754.html

March 4, 2026

Chest-Beating Hegseth Raises MAGA Fears of Forever War

As Americans die, the defense secretary has warned that Donald Trump is just getting started.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has stoked MAGA fears of a forever war, declaring that the Iran conflict is just getting started and that the U.S. will take “all the time it needs to succeed.”

In a chest-beating performance filled with football analogies and soaring rhetoric, the former Fox & Friends TV host also warned that “more and larger waves were coming” with looming “death and destruction from the skies all day long.”

“We’re playing for keeps. Our warfighters have maximum authorities granted personally by the president and yours truly,” he said, without giving a time frame for when America’s involvement might end.

“Four days in we have only just begun to fight.”

The comments came as Hegseth gave his second press conference this week to try to explain the administration’s often contradictory rationale for entering another open-ended foreign war—something Donald Trump promised he would not do.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/chest-beating-hegseth-raises-fears-of-forever-war/