Operation Epic FUBAR

Plus: Tangling with Tulsi, music picks and our usual cartoons.

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Stephen on Markwayne and more:

Or Jimmy might have called it, for you old Zevon or Ronstadt fans: “Hasten Don the Wind”?

Paul Krugman calls the current Trump war on Iran “Operation Epic FUBAR.”

Amazing Tulsi non-testimony yesterday. The NY Times:

In her statement, Ms. Gabbard said Iran’s nuclear enrichment program was “obliterated” in strikes last year, echoing Mr. Trump. There have been “no efforts since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability,” her written statement said. In her oral testimony, Ms. Gabbard said something quite different. Intelligence agencies assessed that before the current war, she said, “Iran was trying to recover from the severe damage to its nuclear infrastructure.”

Called out on the discrepancy by Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the committee, Ms. Gabbard said she had truncated her comments because they were running long. Mr. Warner snapped back that she “chose to omit the parts that contradict the president.”

Steve Brodner comments on this: “Classic film fans may remember ‘The Great Gabbo,’ a 1929 Erich von Stroheim film in which he plays a ventriloquist who is not very nice to his dummy. And ends up abusing everybody and destroying himself.”

Hegseth this morning:

My 13-year-old son popped into my office last night while I was editing these remarks. He asked about the war and the families I met at Dover. I looked at him and said, 'They died for you, son. So your generation doesn't have to deal with a nuclear Iran.'

Meanwhile, Sen. Ron Wyden:

HUGE: Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche—Trump’s former personal lawyer who was also responsible for Ghislaine Maxwell’s transfer to a cushy club fed—has intervened to block the DEA from providing details of a mysterious Epstein investigation to my Finance Committee team…. This is stunning interference. The document I’m after literally says ‘unclassified’ at the top. The investigation it details is closed. Given Blanche’s close personal ties to Donald Trump, this reeks of a continued coverup to protect key names in the Trump administration.

Nick Anderson commentary:

West Bank: Witnesses described to The Times a brutal sexual assault against a Palestinian man by Israeli settlers.

Tim Noah:

People are complicated. Cesar Chavez was an organizing genius and also a monster. Shocking but not surprising to learn he sexually abused underaged girls and raped Dolores Huerta.

We knew already that Chavez wrecked his union trying to turn it into a Synanon-inspired cult. He hired thugs (“cesarchavistas”) to go south of the border and beat up migrants, whom he disparaged as “wetbacks.” He turned against his closest allies. All this been known for years.

We still have much to learn from his brilliant grape boycott and his successful lobbying for CA legislation to protect farm workers. The personality cult always distracted people from that.

Music Picks

Glen Hansard in Berlin with first cut from live albm coming next month, “My Little Ruin.”

NY Times: “Flea started playing the trumpet in junior high school. Later he became a bassist and, in time, an international rock star with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. A few years ago he picked up the horn again, and practiced every day. Now, he’s used it to make a jazz record, his first solo album, ‘Honora.’ It’s largely instrumental, backed by jazz luminaries, with high-profile vocal cameos from Nick Cave and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke. Read more.

Tweedy/Guthrie or Lennon/McCartney 1965?

From Tunes To Toons

Luckovich:

Telnaes:

Wuerker:

Ella Baker:

Ohman:

Sheneman:

Photo Finish

From my camera to you: Notre Dame, Paris.