What to make of the President (sigh) and his decision to abruptly withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action better known as the Iran nuclear deal? The obvious reason, and frankly, not to be taken too lightly for a “leader” whose views of the world appear to be shaped solely by comic books and their cable news equivalent on Fox, is that he wanted to just un-do everything Barack Obama did, because, well, Trump is like that. A narrow-minded racist asshole. All true, but… Of course, there is the simple geo-political reality that there is an Israel/Saudi axis of...

As those of you intrepid (or curious) enough to keep checking back in here are aware, there was an “account suspended” message up for a couple of weeks, while you pondered “Has the talking dog gone the way of oh so many of those other old blogs?” The answer was “maybe,” but is now a resounding “hell no.” We have resolved our technical issues, and are back, preaching to our millions thousands hundreds dozens of loyal readers. Preaching what? Damned if I know. It’s once again way too late in spring coming, and my vegetable garden is not installed (although...

And A zissen Pesach to those who understand. April Fool’s Day had been one of the cherished days here at TTD. The all-time most viewed post was our interview with Donald Rumsfeld in 2007; other such 1st of April interviews included Dick “go fuck yourself” Cheney, and of course, the current (ahem) so-called President. It’s as every bit relevant today as it was when first posted in 2016. But it’s now 14 months and 11 days or so into our national nightmare, with no end in sight (apologies to Mr. Mueller, but I just don’t see this ending before January...

Today, as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom concluded that a former Russian spy and his daughter were attacked with a deadly nerve agent that originated in Russia and that it was likely the handiwork of the Russian state, and warned of reprisals by the U.K., but… for its part… as with all things Russia, the White House refused to acknowledge Russian involvement in the Sergei Skirpal poisoning.Perhaps still having not recovered from an illness acquired on his trip to Africa, Secretary of State Rex Tilllerson did seem to acknowledge a Russian link. Rex will be spoken to, I’m...

To TD Mom.

TD law school classmate Harvey Rishikoff has just been summarily sacked as the Guantanamo “convening authority” (i.e. civilian official in charge of the military commissions). Mr. Rishikoff had intervened to stop the absurd “contempt” jailing of the chief defense attorney for the (absurd) Guantanamo military commissions, and tried to have a new facility built because of accusations that defense attorney-client conversations were monitored at existing facilities … anyway, now that the President has reversed the last President’s executive order to close Guantanamo, it seems open season on reason, and so, Harvey is out, as is another Pentagon official associated with...

And so, at long last, the infamous “Nunes Memo” is publicly disseminated, which will, if you are a partisan Trump loyalist, lead you to the conclusion that based upon a Rube Goldberg-like series of events, a series of Republican officials (some of them appointed by Trump himself) have conspired to undermine the rule of law by engaging in a witch-hunt against “poor Carter Page”… how was he to know that innocent contacts with Russian operatives while serving in the Trump campaign could possibly make him a subject of interest… demonstrating that the Mueller investigation is hopelessly biased and Rod Rosenstein...

Yesterday marked sixteen years since the first prisoners were brought to Guantanamo Bay’s current iteration as a permanent holding cell for politically inconvenient Muslim men captured in the inconvenient “pre-drone” stages of our eternal war against everyone else on Earth. Andy has more on a commemoration protest at the White House, which I attended, along with a crowd of people still interested in the subject; one wishes it were larger. Andy himself was there as part of his annual visit to our shores, as was Todd Pierce, with whom I drove down. Andy was one of the speakers, as was...

And we come to the end of the longest year, ever. The President, such as he is, has managed to literally slow down the passage of time, a feat literally at odds with the laws of physics and reality (which he doesn’t believe in anyway). Somehow, the republic is still here, though duly damaged, with forward prospects not the greatest, particularly if the usually feckless Democrats remain so and defy the same odds that their Presidential candidate did in 2016 and fail to take back either house of Congress in the coming midterm elections. Hopefully, the nation will avoid another...

Happy Festivus, everyone. I hope your own Festivus pole has been taken out of the garage, and you are adequately warmed up for your feats of strength and have duly annotated your list of grievances for airing. Given the state of the world right now, with the two largest English speaking nations having chosen to commit suicide as a result of well-executed Russian needling of our most racist and atavistic elements, Russia still unable to deliver clean water through its own plumbing but perhaps more than capable of having its submarines take out undersea data transmission cables, nonetheless looks poised...