It surprises me how many religious evangelicals or fundies or whatever they are called are in Congress and government offices. They really are believers in the 7 mountains religious theocracy takeover of the US government. Between AIPAC and these religious people who believe Israel must be a beacon for all Jewish people to start the end times for their god to come home and hug them is horrific and costing the US every shred of our public safety net while providing Israel and religious organizations a free ride on our dime. Hugs
Tupac was hurt and struggled to survive for so long with no home. When Ron and I first met him and the other cat he was barely hanging on. I was getting up at 2 or 3 am and feeding them both them. They were ravenous. They got so little food they scarfed down what they could get. The female was feral, but Tupac had been an inside cat and slowly moved into being inside. During the hurricane Ian James got Tupac in and he stayed inside, but she did not. We don’t know what happened to her, but Ron adopted Tupac then, renamed him and we paid for his vet bills. And both Ron and I let the neighborhood know he was now our cat and anything dealing with him needed to go through us. The costs have been a lot, but he has filled out, he has been given back a chance at life, and he loves us so. And even though I keep telling everyone he is Ron’s cat I am the one that dotes on him and who he snuggles with in the bed at night. But make no mistake, Ron wanted him, Ron insisted, Ron named him, he is Ron’s cat. Who just happens to lie purring quietly on my arm in the bed at night. But he still wakes up at between 3 and 4 and cries out to me for food. You can guess what I do. When I get back to bed Ron is he had been awakened will say , I would have done that if you wanted. But he can sleep through Tupac’s cries for food and I cannot. So I do it. Hugs
President Donald Trump has long treated reality like something that can be bent to his will — declare that everything is under control, insist the operation is flawless and expect the people around him to project the same confidence whether the facts cooperate or not.
But as the war in the Middle East continues to spiral outward, the White House is once again finding that projecting strength and actually convincing people things are under control are two very different things.
President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable discussion on college sports in the East Room of the White House on March 06, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The latest flashpoint erupted after the White House posted a pair of bizarre, Hollywood-style propaganda videos celebrating U.S. missile strikes on Iran — a move critics say only reinforced the growing perception that the administration is treating a deadly war like a movie trailer or video game.
The posts immediately set off fierce backlash online. One video stitched together scenes from blockbuster action films with real footage of U.S. strikes on Tehran, while another blended clips from a video game.
The first video, posted to the White House’s X account on Wednesday, March 4, opens with a clip from Call of Duty before cutting to footage of military aircraft taking off and real U.S. airstrikes on Iran. Upbeat music plays beneath the one-minute-and-five-second montage captioned, “Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue.”
Critics say the second video, posted Thursday, March 5, is even more disturbing.
The 42-second montage opens with a scene from Iron Man in which AI assistant J.A.R.V.I.S. tells Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr., “Wake up. Daddy’s home,” before cutting to action-heavy clips from films including “Gladiator”, “Braveheart”, “Top Gun” and “Superman” — all interspersed with real footage of the U.S. attack on Tehran.
Another moment features a line from the television series “Better Call Saul”, when the character Saul Goodman declares, “You can’t conceive what I’m capable of.”
The video is captioned “JUSTICE THE AMERICAN WAY” and ends with a deep, ominous voice declaring, “Flawless victory.”
Some of the footage of the U.S. airstrikes appears to have been pulled directly from posts on U.S. Central Command’s own X account.
But instead of projecting strength or confidence, the videos quickly ignited outrage online — reinforcing the criticism that Trump’s team appears more interested in staging a cinematic show of force than explaining a coherent strategy for a rapidly escalating conflict.
French TV host Alex Taylor in post on X called it, “Quite simply one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen on here.”
“Whatever you think of the awful Iranian régime, the White House treating bombing raids like a cheap video game is gut-wrenchingly shocking America, your country is going to hell,” he declared.
Yahoo readers were similarly “disgusted” by the first post on Wednesday likening war to a video game.
“Just imagine if Obama or Bush or for that matter any other president had spliced together a propaganda video like this?? The GOPed would impeach within minutes of its release,” one reader pointed out.
Trump’s White House is known for posting both vulgar and offensive videos. In October after millions took to the streets in cities across the country for the “No Kings” protests, Trump posted a gross video of himself flying a fighter jet and dumping feces on demonstrators.
Others argued the videos trivialized the human cost of war and only reinforced the growing accusation that there are no adults in the room running the administration.
“RIDICULOUS VIDEO! Real people are dying IRL. Don’t make it like you just reset and no one’s has died.”
“CHILDISHLY INAPPROPRIATE, THOUGHTLESS, JUVENILE, SADISTIC, MEAN, IMMORAL AND SAD! WAR IS NOT A GAME OR A MOVIE,” one user wrote. “There are men, women and children being killed, maimed and left homeless because of the cruel leadership in America and Israel.”
“It is all a game with these creeps,” another commenter wrote. “Fantasy is their truth — men who know nothing about war using sci-fi and movies to sell their real killing.”
Some observers also pointed out the bizarre irony in the White House’s choice of film clips with one X user providing a full breakdown.
“Dumb f***ers didn’t understand any one of these movie plot lines?! That tracks.”
The backlash is unfolding as the war launched by the United States and Israel continues to escalate across the region.
In less than a week, since Trump, along with Israel, launched airstrikes on Iran on Saturday, Feb. 28, six American service members have been killed in an Iranian drone attack on a port in Kuwait.
Iran’s Red Crescent says the death toll in Trump’s bombing campaign inside Iran has reached at least 1,000, according to PBS.
Meanwhile, Trump and his allies have offered shifting explanations for the purpose of the operation.
The president initially suggested the campaign was about regime change in Tehran before later saying it was about preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has framed the operation as an effort to “protect Americans” and destroy Iranian ballistic missile capabilities.
But critics say the administration’s messaging has been anything but clear — feeding the rumor spreading online that the White House may not have a coherent plan for how the conflict ends.
Meanwhile, Iran is signaling it has no intention of backing down.
In an interview with NBC News, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi struck a defiant tone when asked whether Tehran feared a potential U.S. ground invasion.
“No, we are waiting for them,” Araghchi said. “Because we are confident that we can confront them — and that would be a big disaster for them.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt walked into a briefing this week trying to keep the focus where President Donald Trump wanted it — defending the administration’s handling of the escalating war with Iran and projecting confidence that the operation was working exactly as planned.
But as reporters pressed her about the deaths of U.S. service members, the moment began slipping away, and the briefing room exchange quickly spiraled into a tense back-and-forth she struggled to rein back in.
WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 06: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt introduces Steve Witkoff, special envoy to the Middle East to speak to the press outside of the White House on March 06, 2025 in Washington, DC. Witkoff spoke to the press about a range of foreign policy issues including peace talks involving Ukraine and Russia and the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
On Wednesday, Leavitt’s sales pitch ran into turbulence. CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins pressed her about remarks made earlier in the day by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who appeared to complain about the way the media was covering the deaths of American troops killed during the military campaign known as Operation Epic Fury.
The tense exchange erupted in the White House briefing room after Collins asked whether the administration believed the press should avoid prominently covering the deaths of U.S. service members.
Earlier that day, Hegseth had lashed out at the media while discussing the conflict.
“This is what the fake news misses,” Hegseth said. “So when a few drones get through or tragic things happen, it’s front page news. I get it — the press only wants to make the president look bad. But try for once to report the reality.”
When Collins brought up those remarks during the briefing a tense back and forth ensued.
“Given what Secretary Hegseth said this morning, is it the position of this administration that the press should not prominently cover the deaths of U.S. service members?” Collins asked.
Leavitt immediately rejected the premise.
“No. It’s the position of this administration that the press in this room and the press across the country should accurately report on the success of Operation Epic Fury …,” she said.
Collins wasn’t convinced and pushed back, quoting Hegseth directly and noting that he had criticized the media for placing coverage of the troop deaths on the front page.
“That’s not what the secretary said, Kaitlan, and that’s not what the secretary meant — and you know it,” Leavitt fired back. “You know you are being disingenuous.”
Leavitt continued, attempting to pivot away from the quote, “We’ve never had a secretary of defense who cares more.”
But Collins quickly interrupted and read Hegseth’s remarks verbatim. Suddenly Leavitt seemed to reverse course.
“The press does only want to make the president look bad — that’s it, that’s a fact,” she declared, doubling down in a way that appeared to confirm the very point Collins was pressing.
The room erupted as reporters reacted to the blunt admission.
“Listen to me,” Leavitt snapped, attempting to regain control of the briefing.
“Especially you — and especially CNN.”
She went on to accuse the network of relentlessly attacking the president, declaring that it was an “objectible fact” that CNN’s coverage of Trump was overwhelmingly negative — though she appeared to briefly misspeak while making the argument.
“If you’re trying to argue right now that CNN’s overwhelming coverage is not negative of President Donald Trump I think the American people would tend to agree — and your ratings would tend to agree,” Leavitt said with a freudian slip she never caught.
Clips of the confrontation quickly spread across social media, where critics mocked the press secretary’s argument and accused the administration of attacking journalists rather than answering the underlying question.
“He does not need help looking bad Karoline,” one Threads user wrote. Another added, “Trump makes Trump look bad. The press don’t need to put any effort in.”
“Kaitlan Collins seems to be the only one who asks this administration tough questions. Look how they completely lose their shit every time she presses them on something,” one X user wrote.
“Leavitt really out here mad the truth got dragged into the light huh,” one X user wrote.
“She is unraveling in real time. Let’s see if she lasts a month,” another added.
Some critics also pointed to the controversy surrounding Trump’s past remarks about service members. One X post read, “Karoline Leavitt and Pete Hegseth: the press is making Trump look bad by reporting the death of 6 ‘suckers and losers.’”
The phrase “suckers and losers” references allegations that Trump privately disparaged U.S. service members killed in war. In 2023, former White House chief of staff John Kelly confirmed that Trump had made disparaging comments about military veterans and fallen troops during his presidency, reinforcing earlier reporting that sparked widespread backlash.
Later Wednesday night, Collins addressed the clash during her CNN program “The Source,” pushing back against the suggestion that coverage of the fallen soldiers was politically motivated.
“Needless to say, our coverage of Americans who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country is not about the president, and it’s not about CNN either,” Collins said.
“It’s about the people that you’re looking at here.”
She then read the names of the six U.S. service members killed so far during the conflict with Iran: Captain Cody Khork, Sergeant First Class Noah Tietjens, Sergeant First Class Nicole Amor, Sergeant Declan Coady, Major Jeffrey O’Brien and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan.
The tense exchange underscored the administration’s increasingly combative posture toward the press as the Iran conflict stretches into its fifth day and questions continue to swirl about the costs and consequences of the military campaign.
It has been a good day, let me explain. Ron set our folding dining room table up to go through all the large filing cabinet, as he ran out of room for new files and some of our files are over 30 years old. As he worked on that I had made breakfast of thick bacon and scrambled eggs with Ron having muffins and me white toast. After breakfast we worked together on a really great now that it is cooking smelling recipe for pork chops using two packages of ranch dressing mix, can of cream of mushroom soup, and some seasonings I helped adjust.
I was on my way earlier to take my shower and a painful testorne shot when the water was shut down because the phase of the development we are in is hooked to the same water supply as the RV section and when an RVer forgets to unhook their water line and pulls out ripping the pipe apart or they back over and break the water pipe connection for their lot, it shuts down the water supply for both the RV section and the phase 1 homeowner section.
No real problem, as Ron was doing the filing, and I was doing tomorrow’s roundup post and my shower and the dishes could wait. But then Ron decided to go take a nap. I was joined him to help him into bed. As he got undressed I started to flirt and rub him. We had flirted and been sexually suggestive with each other all day. I am hypersexual and that is normal for a person who was abused in childhood as I was. Sex and the function of it are super important to me and mean far more emotionally than the act should. Ron understands that. He accepts that. But he is 71 yrs old and was put on a medication a decade or more ago that we did not know would kill his libido, his desire. He has since gotten off the medication but the damage has been done. He is trying to get over the effects of the drug but it is hard. He struggles to have sexual desires, while I am over sexual desire needing. He tries to meet my needs when ever he can or I need, which is all the time, but I try to control it. We do a lot of touching and at night in bed we cuddle for hours at a time. We simply cuddle pushing our bodies as tight as possible with each other and sleep that way. It makes the cat jealous though.
As he was getting ready for his nap without clothing my desire was going close to out of control even as I understood it as not appropriate or the right time. Ron realized my need and offered and I had a flashback. I was taken over by a memory from my childhood. It was painful and shook me. I started to shake instead of replying. Ron realized what was happening and instead of peppering me with questions moved back while assuring me it was all OK. He got into the bed covering himself while continuing to talk to me calmly and reassuringly. He kept using my name that is different from what my abusers called me. He asked me if he needed to get up and I said no, that was not good. I mumbled some sleep well stuff and went to my Pink Palace office and started to cry.
I gradually got my self undercontrol. I post this to try to explain how triggers work and the minefield my life is even with a loving wonderful husband. We were on the same wavelength for what I was desiring… but then the memories hit shattering everything. If this had happened on a first date or such it could have gone really badly and maybe violently. Ron has lived with me a long time, he understands some of my abuse and he knows how to deal with me to not make things worse. The fact is I basically have to have two minds / people of me. The outfacing person who appears normal and has no issues and who cares for everyone. The second one I try to keep hidden in public life except for here on the blog. A badly damaged person struggling to deal with day to day stuff and trying some how to understand the issues of what is happening with out letting it tear me apart while my memories struggle to constantly surge to the front of my mind.
I don’t know if posting this will have the effect I want it to have which is not pity but understanding the minefield I walk daily in life. It is not just the news about abused kids, it is not the survivor site where people discuss things similar to what I lived through and is still in my mind today. It is not even when my husband sees my needs and wishes the same that a memory or many memories can sabotage and ruin everything. I don’t know if any of you have ever needed to retreat to a “safe space”. It is not a weak person who does that, it is a strong person who knows they are close to breaking. I don’t care if the right calls it woke, I call it needed emotional health care. I often get overwhelmed and sometimes share that with you. But each of you I would think some times reach a point where enough is enough and you need to back off or change what you are doing.
Very few people are an island. I am not and don’t want to be. I love being part of a community and being part of the world I live in. However, I do admit it becomes difficult for me sometimes. I struggle and I stumble in ways that the maga would make fun of me for. I am human. I get it and have been hurt. I still stand up for others. And now I am calm enough that I will go get my shower and take my painful shot. Thank you for letting me express this part of my life and I welcome your comments. Hugs
The point is both cruelty and wiping trans people from public society. The not only don’t understand being trans, don’t feel trans so it must not be real, and being transgender seems to upset their god they feel. Their god created the trans person trans but that doesn’t fit with the world view of these Christians. So if their god is not powerful enough to get rid of trans people then the entire LGBTQ+ they will do it for him. Sound like they created god in their image rather than being in his. Hugs
A trans Kansas resident recently changed her name but not her gender marker on her license, fearing what Kansas may do if she did. The Kansas DMV still flagged her ID.
by Nate Zuke
Andrea Ellis of Wellington, KS was one of many transgender Kansans who opened her mail on February 25 to learn that in less than 24 hours, her driver’s license would be invalid. The letter, issued by the Kansas Department of Revenue, informed her that because House Substitute for Senate Bill 244 (S.B. 244) “requires Kansas-issued driver’s license and identification cards to reflect the credential holder’s sex at birth,” her current license would become “invalid immediately” on February 26.
Ellis had been following the news closely in the past few months. She knew S.B. 244 would be going into effect. But she never expected the state to send her a letter invalidating her license.
That’s because Ellis had never changed the sex marker on her license in the first place.
Ellis last updated her driver’s license on January 7, 2026, after completing a legal name change in December 2025. Fearing her license would be revoked if she updated her sex marker, she deliberately held off on doing so.
“I saw the writing on the wall after listening to [Attorney General] Kobach’s testimony for H.B. 2426,” she said. H.B. 2426, containing the original transphobic legislation sponsored by Republican Kansas Representative Susan Humphries, would later be repurposed as S.B. 244 using the Kansas State Legislature’s “gut and go” trick. This allowed legislators to strip the original contents of S.B. 244, replace it with the contents of H.B. 2426, and pass S.B. 244 without giving the public time to weigh in, dodging accountability for the bill’s contents.
Most bills being passed during this session of the Kansas Legislature won’t go into effect until July 1, 2026. S.B. 244, however, contains a provision that allowed it to go into effect as soon as it was published in the Kansas Register, the state newspaper of record, on February 26. This tactic echoed 2025, when the Kansas Legislature made the same maneuver with Senate Bill 63 to rapidly ban gender-affirming care for minors in Kansas.
On February 25, transgender Kansans like Ellis started receiving letters in the mail informing them that as of February 26, their licenses would be rendered invalid. With no grace period, many recipients of these letters found themselves with less than 24 hours to figure out what to do in a rural state where driving is necessary for most people.
Ellis was confused about the letter she received, but felt as though she had no choice but to comply. She spends nearly an hour and a half each day driving to and from her job in Park City. Thursdays are one of her days off, so she didn’t have to call out of work on the 26th to go to the DMV. Still, having to suddenly get a new driver’s license was extremely inconvenient, as it would be for anyone.
“Wellington doesn’t have a DMV, so when I got the letter in the mail, I had to decide between going to the DMV in Winfield or the DMV in Derby,” said Ellis. Both locations were over thirty minutes away.
When Ellis left her house on Thursday morning, her license was officially invalid. She couldn’t comply with the new law unless she was able to get to a DMV, but in order to get to the DMV, she was forced to break the law. Every minute she was on the road, she was at risk of being arrested, jailed, or fined. Fortunately, she reached her destination without any trouble.
Once Ellis arrived at the DMV, she presented the letter to a confused employee. “It seemed like none of the DMV staff had any idea what was going on. I don’t think there was time for them to have any training on how to handle the SB244 stuff,” Ellis said. After presenting her letter, she was forced to surrender the license she had been issued less than two months ago and watch as the DMV employee cut a large chunk out of it, rendering it officially invalid. Her altered license was returned to her alongside her new temporary paper license. Both credentials designated her sex as “M.”
Paper license in hand, Ellis got in her car and started driving northeast to El Dorado, a town roughly 40 minutes away. “With a background like mine, I have to do something when there’s a crisis going on. I can’t just sit still,” Ellis said, referencing her past military service and reflecting on her deployments to Afghanistan. That morning, Equality El Dorado, the town’s local LGBTQ+ organization, had posted on Facebook asking for volunteers to help drive trans Kansans to the DMV, as well as cash donations to help people cover the unexpected cost of a replacement license. Other organizations, such as the LGBTQ Foundation of Kansas, also sprung into action to try and help transgender community members.
Ellis was ready to pitch in once she arrived in El Dorado, but she was stopped in her tracks. When she parked her car and checked her phone, she learned the Derby DMV had called her and left a message requesting that she come back to the DMV as soon as she could. Apparently, there was a problem with the new license she had just been issued. She tried to call the DMV back to get more information, but no one answered her calls. Frustrated, she got back in her car, canceled a doctor’s appointment she had scheduled for later that afternoon, and resigned herself to the fact that she was going to have to spend the majority of her day off at the DMV.
The DMV employee had to call a manager over for assistance, and Ellis waited patiently as the DMV staff tried to solve the issue. “They didn’t tell me what the problem was, but I overheard them saying there was a ‘flag’ tied to my ID in their system that they had to remove,” Ellis explained. Eventually, she was given another temporary paper license. Just like the license that had been cut up that morning, just like the first temporary paper license she had been issued as a replacement, and just like her original Alabama birth certificate, the sex marker printed on her newest paper license identified her as “M.”
By the time Ellis met up with me at Pennant Coffee/Good Company in Wichita, a local queer spot, a coffee shop by day and bar by evening, she’d driven a total of over 131 miles and spent close to three hours on the road. Sitting at Pennant, surrounded by pride flag decorations and chatting with the visibly queer and trans staff, it felt surreal to think that we were in one of the worst states in the U.S. to be transgender. But Ellis’s story proved the extent the state was willing to go to torment its transgender residents.
“I had never even changed my sex marker. All I did was change my name in December, so that’s the only way they could’ve flagged me,” Ellis said.
The fact that Ellis was flagged for her name change alone suggests the state of Kansas is intensely monitoring transgender citizens. In a state where changing one’s legal sex marker has now been rendered impossible, Ellis’s story shows that even just changing one’s name can be enough for a transgender person in Kansas to be identified, targeted, and forced to surrender their legal documents.
On February 27, 2026, the ACLU of Kansas announced it would be filing a lawsuit challenging S.B. 244. However, for the time being, S.B. 244 remains in effect. With the 2026 Kansas gubernatorial election looming large in November, it is extremely concerning to see the way the state is already using its power to not only disenfranchise its citizens, but effectively immobilize them in a state where driving is so essential to daily life.
Nate Zuke (he/him) is originally from Omaha, Nebraska. He has lived in Wichita, Kansas since 2016. His Bluesky handle is @natezuke.bsky.social
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