Sunday, March 15, 2026

Sunday Funday: "We are all wearing Florsheims now", plus other funny posts, Paralympic Catch-up, Carney Hat Trick, TrumpWatch and Animal Crackers


US/Israel/Iran War update

First, its time for some FAFO - I don't know if a war can ever be funny, but this one is getting ridiculous.

In FRESH HELL Diary, Tina Brown writes Trump's Wild War Game
...I dream of the cabinet meeting when Trump is finally pelted with Florsheims, like that glorious moment in 2008 when the Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi hurled his shoes at President Bush during a joint press conference with Iraqi puppet PM al-Maliki in Baghdad. “This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, dog!” shouted Muntadhar, before he was wrestled to the ground and thrown into jail. (“I don’t know what his beef is,” commented Bush, who lacked imagination at the best of times.)
The unsettling thing is, we are all wearing Florsheims now. Not because we lack raucous expressions of dissent at the manner in which America lurched into a war of choice with Iran, but because we all keep pretending there is a functioning alternative reality in which norms, policy, think tanks, and geopolitical game plans still play their traditional roles. Pundits speak sonorously about “regime modification” (shorthand for a next-gen, turban-charged Islamic republic) and the “extension of presidential power,” as if this were the long-ago world of institutional gravitas and coequal branches of government, instead of an inescapable escape room, in which we are trapped with a berserk brontosaurus peddling vehement ignorance.
We nod away as former military brass with their flat procedural voices outline the latest wheeze from the White House about special ops forces extracting canisters of enriched uranium from the rubble of Iran’s nuclear facilities without getting blown up. The sudden notion of resurgent Kurds has already come and gone from the news cycle. Trump, who hasn’t even flown commercial since circa 1988, is contemptuous of mariners and shipping companies who are hesitant to set sail on the perilous Strait of Hormuz, now seething with mines and drones. “These ships should go through…and show some guts. There’s nothing to be afraid of,” Trump bloviated to Fox News’s Brian Kilmeade on the phone, not long before three international cargo ships were hit by fiery Iranian projectiles. The truth is Trump’s Iran high is already wearing off. He all but yawned to reporters on Monday, “We want a system that can lead to many years of peace, and if we can’t have that, we might as well get it over with right now.” On to Cuba...

The only solace I take some days is that he's as miserable about how this presidency is going as the rest of us are ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ

— Paul Meek (@paulmeekperth.bsky.social) March 14, 2026 at 6:56 AM
This post reminded me of my favorite Threads post of all time:
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— Anti-Fascist Translator Monkey (@translatormonkey.bsky.social) March 13, 2026 at 4:03 PM

This moment from Feb 2025 may go down as one of the most prescient exchanges in modern diplomatic history. Zelenskyy warned Trump that while the United States may feel protected by an ocean today, a time could come when America would need help in war. Trump scolded him instead.

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— MeidasTouch (@meidastouch.com) March 14, 2026 at 2:50 PM

“We have bombed the shit out of places and napalmed the jungles but the Viet Cong keep shooting at us from the bushes, we don’t get it, that’s not fair.”

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— Little Excursion Hat (@kenwhite.bsky.social) March 14, 2026 at 10:13 AM
The stupid, it burns!

Inside the Department of War are two wolves: "We've shut down the Colleges of War because book learnings are woke, gay, and irrelevant to war fighting." "How come no one told us the Strait is important, there are different kinds of Kurds, Iran is big, and air power historically doesn't win wars?"

— Dmitry Grozoubinski (@explaintrade.com) March 14, 2026 at 3:02 AM

In Another Instalment of: “Didn’t Age Well” ๐Ÿฅด Trump to NATO allies who didn’t pay up (2024): “No, I would not protect you. In fact I would encourage them (Russia) to do whatever the hell they want” NATO allies to Trump’s request for military help (2026): “Go f**€k yourself, p€d@ph!l€.” (Maybe) ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿคฃ๐Ÿ˜…

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— ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆTeam Canada Forever๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ (@teamcanadaforever.bsky.social) March 14, 2026 at 7:14 PM

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said out loud, what we all already knew. Donald Trump started the Iran war to cover up his involvement in Epstein Files. Do not stop talking about the Epstein files. ๐ŸŽฅ Credit CPAC Live / YouTube ❤️๐Ÿ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆTEAM CANADA FOREVER๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ❤️ ❤️๐Ÿ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆVIVE LE CANADA ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ❤️

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— ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆTeam Canada Forever๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ (@teamcanadaforever.bsky.social) March 14, 2026 at 7:02 PM

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On the Strait and narrow?



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— George Conway ⚖️๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ (@gtconway.bsky.social) March 14, 2026 at 4:17 PM

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Pete Hegseth: “The only thing prohibiting transit in [the Strait of Hormuz] right now is Iran shooting at shipping. It is open for transit should Iran not do that.” What a fucking idiot.

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— Jon Cooper (@joncooper-us.bsky.social) March 13, 2026 at 7:18 AM

The Strait of Hormuz is open for transit.

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— Tabatha Southey๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ (@tabathasouthey.bsky.social) March 14, 2026 at 6:17 AM

The strait of Hormuz is open for transit

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— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw.bsky.social) March 14, 2026 at 8:10 AM

the strait of hormuz is open for transit

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— Jerad Walker (@jeradwalker.bsky.social) March 14, 2026 at 8:21 AM

The Strait of Hormuz is open for transit.

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— Steven Santos (@stevensantos.bsky.social) March 13, 2026 at 10:55 PM
Trump keeps thinking he can just bully Iran into submission. But a nation that is 3,000 years old is long past ever submitting to a small-time real-estate vulgarian with delusions of grandeur.

Trump: “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!!!” Iran: “We’re not surrendering, and here are our conditions.”

- Gerald Butts

Read on Substack

Ah, and now absolute war! Trump is determined to give us a demonstration of why Clausewitz wrote his book!

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— Cheryl Rofer (@cherylrofer.bsky.social) March 14, 2026 at 7:42 AM
Some Canadian politics now
I thought we were finished with this guy. But I guess with the Conservatives, nothing is ever over:

Hey, @cdnpress.bsky.social, do you know what would be helpful? Actually describing the Order of Canada nomination process, rather than just giving windbag Andrew Lawton's stupid petition more uncritical airtime. Why is this so hard?

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— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) March 13, 2026 at 10:41 PM
And this is why Cherry is yesterday's man:

- Gerald Butts

Read on Substack
Maybe this is why the Conservatives absolutely cannot let anything go:

You know, I’ve been doing a lot of reading, listening to and paying attention to what the BC Conservatives, the Alberta UCP Seperatists and of course the Federal Conservatives, have been saying, insinuating and doing. I’ve come to the realization that all of them live inside an information bubble. They ALL exist inside a closed loop. The politicians feed the core supporters ideology and the supporters feed it back along with their “news sources” that do the exact same thing. Nothing new is ever added in, and all of it is grievance based. This is why they have absolutely NO IDEA what the majority of Canadians are currently feeling, thinking about or doing. It’s why they don’t understand why so many Canadians are PISSED at the USA and also at any politician who keeps telling us that “they are our friends” and we’ll patch everything right back up just as soon as we sign a new trade agreement or they elect a new president and we’ll all be friends again”! They truly do NOT understand that the majority of us DON’T WANT ANY OF THAT! They think they can keep selling us on how wonderful relying on the US for EVERYTHING actually is for Canadians and we should just keep doing that, while working away to sell us out to the US. They no longer hear what the majority of us are saying because they have closed themselves into their right wing cocoon and are not interested in anything that isn’t a repetition of the same grievances and victimizations that are their core actions. When 3 of your MP’s cross the floor, and you complain about that as opposed to looking into your own actions to see WHY they left, you are causing your own political party to collapse. It’s slow but it’s coming, because more and more Canadians see all the sound and fury signifying NOTHING while at the same time see action after action being implemented by the current PM and are VERY happy he’s at the wheel as opposed to a blowhard with no experience, no ideas and a party that’s going backwards!

- Alexis ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ

Read on Substack

Other funny stuff this week:

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This is everything

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— Adam Parkhomenko (@adamparkhomenko.bsky.social) March 14, 2026 at 3:10 PM
With the Oscars coming up on Sunday night, here are the worst films of 2025:
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Ice Cube's War of the Worlds has a 4 per cent Tomatometer ranking, and a 20 per cent Popcornmeter ranking -- just about the lowest Rotten Tomatoes scores I have ever seen.
 
Speaking of movies:
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March 14 was Pi Day:
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Getting Old(er)
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Paralympics Catch-up
An outstanding day at the Paralympics today!

GOLD for our undefeated curling team:




BRONZE for Michaela Gosselin in Para alpine women's slalom standing:


2.8 SECONDS LEFT I’ve never seen anything like that. That was chaos. Canada was clearly the shot rock. Mark Ideson left no doubt. The Canadian wheelchair curling team goes undefeated to win Paralympic gold. Outstanding,

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— Devin Heroux (@devinheroux.bsky.social) March 14, 2026 at 10:34 AM
Well, it didn't look THAT clear to me... so I'm glad Canada got that shot off in time.

BRONZE FOR CANADA ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ MICHAELA GOSSELIN WINS HER FIRST PARALYMPIC MEDAL AND CANADA’S 200TH WINTER PARALYMPIC MEDAL. Gosselin picks up bronze in the women’s slalom event. Canada now has 12 medals at Milano Cortina 2026:

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— Devin Heroux (@devinheroux.bsky.social) March 14, 2026 at 6:44 AM

Wilkie, Ideson named Canada’s flag bearers for Paralympics closing ceremony https://www.europesays.com/2846070/ (Left) Mark Ideson, of Canada, celebrates after winning their wheelchair curling mixed team gold medal at the 2026…

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— EUROPE SAYS (@europesays.bsky.social) March 14, 2026 at 4:15 PM
And did you know there are DOGS at the paralympics? Because of course there are. I found an instagram post here:
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And here is a somewhat annoying CBC Shorts where the announcer makes it all about her, but she does show a few photos of the dogs too:



Carney Hat-Trick - some funny posts about our PM
Never pass up a chance to post the Carney cat, Nico:
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More about Carney's one-year anniversary in this good Globe and Mail piece by Shannon Proudfoot - The evolution of Mark Carney He became Prime Minister by seeming useful in a crisis, but it turns out he's pretty good at politics, too. The rookie's first year has been one for the books (gift link)
...Can you rewind your brain to when spending boatloads of money on defence would have seemed tedious or ridiculous to your Canadian sensibilities, rather than prudent? To when the United States was a friend, or at least not a hostile nutjob?
It was exactly one year ago that Mr. Carney was sworn in as Prime Minister, following his landslide win in his party’s leadership race. Since then, he’s conjured up a wildly unlikely Liberal resurrection, reshaped how we talk about domestic policy and foreign affairs, and set out on what he pitches as a complete rehabilitation of the Canadian economy – all while the next-door neighbour waves a gun over the fence.
But Mr. Carney has also spent these 365 days doing something no prime minister in Canadian history has ever done before: figure out how to be a politician in real time, in front of us all....
Carney is staying in Europe for a few days off and people are losing it. I agree with this:
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TrumpWatch - posts about the world's most anticipated event.
And I am now using "TrumpWatch" as a hashtag on social media when I re-post too.
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at least once every night when I am done with work and everyone is fed and I start to dig into the news, I lean back in my chair and look at the ceiling and sigh and close my eyes and think "I simply can not wait until this motherfucker dies."

— Cake or Death (@johngcole.bsky.social) March 11, 2026 at 6:44 PM

Look, I'm a simple man. I'd be happy just to watch Trump, Vance, Rubio, Hegseth & RFK Jr violently fight in a bunker over the last cyanide capsule.

— John Fugelsang (@johnfugelsang.bsky.social) March 12, 2026 at 11:16 AM

And from Brittlestar:




Animal Crackers
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Some window cats of South Philadelphia.

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— Sean Duffy (@profduff.bsky.social) March 11, 2026 at 6:28 PM

This is Stevie. He's on squirrel watch. His stuffed friend is also a squirrel, but he's one of the good ones. 14/10 (IG: longdogstevie)

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— WeRateDogs (@weratedogs.com) March 9, 2026 at 1:25 PM

This is Ranger. He is politely requesting attention from these mannequins. Happy to wait as long as it takes. 13/10 (TT: rangerthenycgolden)

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— WeRateDogs (@weratedogs.com) March 12, 2026 at 11:55 AM
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1 comment:

Northern PoV said...

Regarding TrumpWatch, I highly recommend that everyone get ready for this warmly anticipated, blessed event by watching the excellent British comedy 'The Death of Stalin'.
tRump's toadies remind me so much of the Stalin toadies depicted in the film. Last time I checked it was available on Netflix.