The 25th Amendment will NOT be coming to our rescue!

All this talk about the 25th Amendment amounts to nothing more than spinning our wheels, and in any case, the 25th Amendment wasn't really intended for the situation in which the President is insane. Impeachment is the appropriate response. And yes, I know it is unlikely to succeed. But if you think impeachment is unlikely to succeed, the 25th Amendment is a far BIGGER hurdle! Here's why:

The 25th Amendment must be initiated by the VP and a majority of the cabinet. But if the President contests it -- and Trump surely would do so -- it then goes before both the House and Senate, where it must receive a 2/3 vote in both chambers.

Contrast this with impeachment, which requires only a simple majority vote in the House to initiate, and a 2/3 vote in the Senate only to convict. This is a far lower hurdle than the 25th Amendment!

The ongoing panic over trans women in women's sports

The next time you hear someone blathering on about trans women (i.e., people born biologically male) competing in women's sports, and how they are denying opportunities to female athletes, please share with them the article to which I've linked near the bottom of this post, published by the city of San Francisco's Office of Transgender Initiatives, which takes a look at the actual numbers. Among the takeaways:

• Out of over 500,000 NCAA athletes, there are fewer than 10 (ten!) trans athletes. That's less than 0.002% -- that is, two thousandths of one percent!
  
  
• Trans women competing in women's sports is NOT new. And in many of the cases of trans women who have competed in women's sports, having been born biologically male didn't ultimately lead them to victory. A couple of examples:
  
  - In 1977, Renee Richards competed in women’s tennis as a trans woman and reached the doubles final in the US Open; however, she did not win. Richards and her doubles partner Betty Ann Stuart lost the finals to Martina Navratilova and Betty Stove. Stuart, Navratilova, and Stove were all cis-gender women.
  
  --In 2021, Laurel Hubbard competed in weightlifting at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Despite widespread media attention, she won no medals.
  
  
• A 2024 study, funded by the IOC and published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found that trans women athletes may actually have several _disadvantages_ when competing against cisgender women athletes. Among its findings:
  
  -- Transgender women performed worse than cisgender women in tests measuring lower-body strength
  -- Transgender women performed worse than cisgender women in tests measuring lung function
  -- Transgender women had a higher percentage of fat mass, lower fat-free mass, and weaker handgrip strength compared to cisgender men
  -- Transgender women’s bone density was found to be equivalent to that of cisgender women, which is linked to muscle strength
  -- There were no meaningful differences found between the two groups’ hemoglobin profiles (a key factor in athletic performance)
  
  
• Contrary to the claims that trans women are keeping cisgender women from sports opportunities, in reality the current trans panic has created a climate that has excluded cisgender females on the basis of false accusations of being trans.

The hysteria over a "nuclear-armed Iran"

There is a particular narrative circulating, mostly among Trump's supporters, but I've even seen it among some on the left -- people who may be opposed to the way Trump has gone about it, but who nevertheless think attacking Iran is a good thing -- that I really have to take issue with. It goes something like this:

"If we don't prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, Iran will blow up a nuclear bomb over New York [or someother American or European city]!"

I'm sorry, but that's an utterly ridiculous narrative. Whatever Iran's sins on the international stage (and they've certainly had their share), there is absolutely no evidence that they have any designs on world domination or territorial conquest. They are interested in being the dominant power in the Middle East, but that is essentially the ancient Shia/Sunni rivalry. But launching a major nuclear strike against a Western nation would result in an immediate counter-strike, which would likely annihilate them. Iran's leaders certainly know this.

Iran is the world's oldest continuous civilization, and I don't see any signs that it wishes to commit collective suicide.

What is most disturbing about this narrative is that it echoes equally fallacious narratives we have heard in order to justify at least two prior conflicts that turned out to be total debacles, namely, Vietnam and Iraq. In Vietnam, the line was, "if we don't fight the Commies is Vietnam, we'll be fighting them on the shores of California." In Iraq, it was, "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud" [h/t Condoleeza Rice]

Good God, folks, how often are we going to fall for rehashes of this absurd narrative?!

And here's the thing: Iran is not some primitive backwater; it is an advanced, modern country with a highly educated populace and plenty of technical expertise. We won't be able to prevent them from obtaining a nuclear weapon if they are determined to do it. So we had better begin figuring out how to co-exist with Iran, rather than clinging to some childish notion that there are no limits to American military power!

How Every Senator Voted on the Iran War Powers Resolution

Fuck Fetterman!

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/03/04/us/iran-war-powers.html?unlocked_article_code=1.QlA.0YwP.oRbrTJQ-yk0t&smid=url-share

I have such mixed feelings about Talarico's win over Crockett

I mean, he seems like a decent guy and all -- but I wish he could have found a way to run for office that wouldn't have toppled one of our fiercest warriors.

Before we all get too carried away in praise of Thom Tillis . . .

Look, yes, his takedown of Noem was a satisfying watch. But it was interesting that he should bring up the dog killing incident, given that he voted to confirm her with full knowledge of that incident. He says that it was a "bad decision." Yes, it certainly was, Thom. But you voted to confirm her with full knowledge of that "bad decision." So what does that say about you?

https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1191/vote_119_1_00017.htm

There is a truly vile disinformation campaign emerging from the right . . .

Over the weekend, I saw a truly vile disinformation campaign emanating from the right. Initially, it appeared to be aimed primarily at New York's Mayor Mamdani, accusing him of "siding with" or "rooting for" the Ayatollah, following a Tweet Mamdani posted that was critical of Trump's action in Iran. Perhaps the most despicable example is a "headline" from Babylon Bee (itself a fake news site, by admission of its own tagline, "It was in response to Mamdani's Tweet, which reads: "Fake news you can trust, delivered straight to your inbox!" The "headline" reads, "Mamdani Orders Flags At One World Trade Center Flown Half-Staff To Mourn Ayatollah," and shows an image of the World Trade Center tower with an enormous flag atop it flying at half mast. I have since seen variations of it aimed at anyone who is critical of Trump's action.

This did not happen, and nothing Mamdani Tweeted suggested in any way that he "sides with," is "rooting for," or in any way supports the Ayatollah! For the record, here is what Mamdani Tweeted:

Trump should be careful what he wishes for with respect to Jerome Powell . . .

. . . Powell's leadership at the fed is possibly the one thing that has prevented the economy from tanking completely during both of Trump's terms!

Brilliant parody of Karoline Leavitt! by Canada TV!

Has anyone mentioned or noticed the obvious parallel between Nick Shirly/Daycare centers and . . .

. . . James O'Keefe/ACORN?