Meanwhile, I am cooking and cooking and boiling and boiling my tricolor pasta and I can’t get it to al dente

Man Charged in Lego Theft Scheme of Replacing Pieces With Pasta, Police Say A California man was charged with grand theft after the police said he reaped about $34,000 in what an official called an “off the charts” pasta-and-switch scheme involving Lego kits.

A California man was charged with grand theft after buying thousands of dollars worth of Lego kits, replacing pieces with bags of uncooked pasta, and returning the sets to stores for refunds, the police said on Thursday.

The Gravity of the War in Iran Many countries want nothing to do with the fighting in Iran. They’re being pulled in anyway.

War’s Gravity www.nytimes.com/interactive/... nice, who?

Judge Rules Pentagon Restrictions on Press Are Unconstitutional

Judge Rules Pentagon Restrictions on Press Are Unconstitutional www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/b... back to work my dear friends

Such was the plan, and the reader shall be a witness of its abandonment. — Churchill

A Top U.S. Counterterrorism Official Resigns, Citing the Iran War

We’ve been looking for a conscience in all the wrong places. A Top U.S. Counterterrorism Official Resigns, Citing the Iran War www.nytimes.com/2026/03/17/w...

I’m old enough to remember “hey hey LBJ how many kids…

This is bigger than that river in Egypt and I don’t mean Denial

PHOTOS: Protesters gather to block ICE agents from apprehending man in South Burlington - VTDigger U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had been pursuing a man who they believed fled into a house on Dorset Street near University Mall.

vtdigger.org/2026/03/11/p...

Among the very greatest.

John F. Burns, Prize-winning Foreign Correspondent for The Times, Dies at 81

John F. Burns, Prize-winning Foreign Correspondent for The Times, Dies at 81 www.nytimes.com/2026/03/13/w...

Once again the Trump administration will need its European allies who have multiple times the US Navy’s mine clearing capacity.

Turns out that for fighting wars in the Middle East, the US needs its European allies. No matter who sits in the White House.

They Don’t Want Their Company’s Surveillance Tool Used by ICE Thomson Reuters, best known for its media outlet and legal research tools, provides an investigative tool to immigration enforcers. Its Minnesota employees want that to stop.

When Thomson Reuters employees learned that their company was providing ICE with investigative software, they mobilized. More than 200 Reuters employees have signed a letter asking that the company not renew the ICE contract when it expires in May.

It’s a challenge to catch the dude’s good side

The U.S. Built a Blueprint to Avoid Civilian War Casualties. Trump Officials Scrapped It. The Pentagon dismantled its civilian protection mission as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made “lethality” a top priority and the Trump administration reorganized national security around two principl...

NEW: A recently developed Defense Department program was meant to reduce civilian harm during military operations.

But months before the Iran war, the mission was dissolved as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made “lethality” a top priority.

By @hannahallam.bsky.social

I’m old enough to remember when Bob Drinan filed first impeachment article against Richard Nixon and if my memory serves, it was for the illegal war in Cambodia?

… to be sure, that SCC estimate was most likely a gross understatement.

Because of Biden we were able to wean ourselves from almost all direct fossil fuel use in our house and car last year. Thanks Joe!

Listening to Country Joe’s album of Woody covers. So long …

My wife could do that

Boycott the State of the Union Trump doesn’t deserve our attention

I’m not going to watch the State of the Union address Tuesday night. I urge you not to, either. robertreich.substack.com/p/the-fate-of-the-dis-un...

I am otherwise engaged that night

"the camp was raided to confiscate letters from the children"

Bruce Springsteen brings his political message to Nationals Park in May The D.C. concert is the final date of the North American leg of Springsteen’s newly announced “Land of Hope and Dreams” tour.

The Boss is bringing his resistance to D.C.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s 20-date protest tour begins in Minneapolis with a final concert at Nationals Park, three miles from the White House, on May 27.

Suppression of a free and independent press is treason

Remind me about Jesus and the money changers in the temple … I forget the details

January 24, 2026 This morning, on a street in Minneapolis, at least seven federal agents tackled and then shot and killed Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse for the local VA hospital.

Very much worth reading

open.substack.com/pub/heatherc...

Video Analysis of ICE Shooting Sheds Light on Contested Moments

Video Analysis of ICE Shooting Sheds Light on Contested Moments www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/v...

Long before I got involved with climate change, I was the Pentagon correspondent accredited by a leading news organization, and competing directly against the Washington post correspondent. None of us worried about our homes being invaded.