Oh Boy It Never Ends

Tuesday, March 3, 2026

PALM ROYALE

Well another show gets cancelled, one I really liked. VARIETY reports:

Apple TV has canceled the Kristen Wiig-led “Palm Royale” after two seasons, Variety has confirmed.

Created by Abe Sylvia, the high-society dramedy launched its first season with the streamer in 2024. The show follows Wiig’s wannabe patrician Maxine Dellacorte-Simmons, who is hell-bent on becoming the belle of 1960’s Palm Beach by elbowing her way into the upper echelons of Florida’s most exclusive beach club, the Palm Royale. Other cast members include Ricky Martin, Josh Lucas, Leslie Bibb, Amber Charade Robinson, Laura Dern, Allison Janney, Kaia Gerber and Carol Burnett. “Palm Royale” was loosely adapted from Juliet McDaniel’s 2018 novel “Mr. and Mrs. American Pie.”

“Palm Royale” Season 1 was nominated for 11 Emmys, including outstanding comedy series, best actress for Wiig and best supporting actress for Burnett. It took home one statue for outstanding original main title theme music. Season 2 earned Wiig a nomination at SAG’s Actor Awards for outstanding performance by a female actor in a comedy series.

DEADLINE notes:

Regarding the storyline, Palm Royale could’ve continued but the ending gave the show a conclusion. And there was a special tribute to Burnett’s character, Norma Dellacorte, in her planned final episode. As Norma, Burnette sang a warm rendition of “Something Good” in the Season 2 finale.

I really loved PALM ROYALE. Its why I got APPLE+ to begin with. There are other shows I like on APPLE+ but not like I loved PALM ROYALE.

Going out with C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"

Tuesday March 3, 2026. The death toll in Iran increases -- for Iranian civilians, for US service members -- as Chump tries to distract from The Epstein Files with his war of choice.

NPR reports:

The war over Iran engulfed more of the Middle East on Monday as strikes intensified, Iran-backed groups stepped up attacks and a sixth U.S. service member was killed in action.

Trump has said his administration expects the conflict to go on for "four to five weeks, but we have capability to go far longer than that."

The Iranian Red Crescent Society, a humanitarian organization, said at least 555 Iranians have been killed since the beginning of the joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign on Saturday.

Malachy Browne (NEW YORK TIMES) notes:

Videos shared by Iranian state media and independently verified by The New York Times showed thousands of people attending a funeral procession in the southern town of Minab on Tuesday for victims of a strike on an elementary school. The school was in session on Saturday when an airstrike hit it, killing 175 people, Iranian officials and rights groups said.

Some of the funeral-goers held photographs of victims aloft as group prayers were recited, and a large vehicle carried small coffins draped in the Iranian flag through the crowd. Other videos showed people in the crowd chanting “Death to Israel” and proclamations of support for the Islamic Republic.

Today on MORNING JOE, David Ignatius spoke with Joe and Mika about how this is not another Venezuela with Iran calling this "a war of endurance."

Last night on MS NOW, Rachel Maddow noted how FBI Director Ka$h Patel had made the US less safe.

Patel "fired a dozen FBI agents and staff last week for their role in the classified documents investigation of Donald Trump, he targeted an elite counter espionage unit that investigates threats from foreign adversaries and specializes in Iran, according to more than a half dozen sources with knowledge of the firings."

And it's not just Ka$h getting things wrong as Rachel notes in the segment below.

One of the reasons for Chump's war on Iran is to distract from The Epstein Files. It's not working. Rasmussen Poll notes:

Even after the release of millions of documents related to the late Jeffrey Epstein, a majority of voters still suspect the Trump administration of trying to conceal evidence of the president’s association with the disgraced finance mogul.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 54% of Likely U.S. Voters believe it’s likely that administration officials are engaged in a cover-up to hide Donald Trump’s involvement with Epstein – including 40% who consider a cover-up Very Likely. Forty percent (40%) say it’s not likely administration officials are engaged in a cover-up, including 26% who consider it Not At All Likely. Last July, 60% thought it was likely that the administration was covering up a Trump-Epstein scandal. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Last month, the Department of Justice published more than 3 million pages of documents related to the case of Epstein, who died in custody in 2019 amid sex-trafficking accusations. However, only 43% of voters are confident that the public now has access to the full truth about the Epstein case, including just 18% who are Very Confident the full truth is known. Nearly half (49%) are not confident they have the full truth about Epstein, including 24% who are Not At All Confident.

People are right to wonder about what hasn't been released when so much remains unreleased and unexplained. Matthew Rozsa notes:

President Donald Trump said he was going to expose the deep state and end America’s regular warmaking, and yet according to a former Republican congressman, Trump is supporting the deep state and waging unconstitutional wars.

“If you're a Trump supporter right now, you're a Trump voter right now, you're Mr. or Mrs. MAGA right now, man, your head's gotta be swimming, baby,” former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) said in a Substack post on Monday. “You got to be dizzy, baby, because not only do you know now MAGA, not only do you know now Trump voter, that Donald Trump is actually on the side of the deep state — and that's been so tough for you to grasp, and it has been, because I engage with hundreds of Trump voters every single day, and Donald Trump keeping doing what he can do to keep the Epstein files hidden, and man, the disillusionment I've heard from MAGA, the confusion I've heard from MAGA is off the charts.”

PBS' AMANPOUR & COMPANY featured NPR's Stephen Fowler who broke the news of the Justice Dept hiding documents of a witness detailing -- three times -- that Donald Chump assaultedher.

Again, people are right to wonder. Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling (THE NEW REPUBLIC) reports:

The state of New Mexico attempted to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s state residence in 2019. Then the Trump administration got involved.

Epstein’s Zorro Ranch, located roughly 30 miles south of Santa Fe in the high desert, was rumored to be a hotbed of illicit activity. Some of the notorious child sex offender’s victims, including Virginia Giuffre, claimed they were trafficked at the New Mexico estate, and emails issued by ranch staffers allege that the bodies of at least two girls were killed and buried under the building by Epstein’s order, according to documents made public by the Justice Department via the Epstein files. Epstein even contemplated turning the estate, which he purchased in 1993, into a headquarters for genetic engineering experiments.

Yet somehow, the property—dubbed “Playboy Ranch” among locals—has never properly been investigated, according to New Mexico officials.

A report by The New York Times, published Monday, revealed that state officials had every intention to do so—until the first Trump administration intervened in 2019. The government ordered New Mexico to turn over its probe to federal prosecutors, but then they closed the case, according to recently unsealed records obtained by the Times.

Grasp that. Chump covered for Epstein then. Just like he covers for Epstein now. Howard Lutnick is in The Epstein Files and has repeatedly lied to the American people. A photo of him at Epstein Island popped up and then the Justice Dept disappeared it. Friday, Janna Brancolini (DAILY BEAST) reported:

Pam Bondi’s Department of Justice has offered a questionable explanation for the removal of a photo of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick from its public library of files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The photo, which was found in a downloaded cache of Epstein files but was later removed from the DOJ’s dedicated site, appears to show Epstein and Lutnick walking on Little St. James, the Caribbean island where many of Epstein’s crimes took place.

It also shows three other unidentified men, all wearing baggy shorts and T-shirts or button-down shirts, while Epstein is dressed in a white T-shirt and pants.

In a statement to the Daily Beast, a DOJ official said the image was “part of a batch of files that had been flagged for nudity.”

“The batch of thousands of images was pulled for review and is being uploaded with necessary redactions on a rolling basis,” the official said. “No files are being deleted.”

All of the men in the photo are fully clothed.

The picture was located by “jmail,” a site run by two tech workers who have created a searchable version of Epstein’s Gmail inbox by downloading all of the latest releases.

The DOJ’s explanation for its removal was particularly shameless, given that more than 100 explicit photos of Epstein’s victims were accidentally uploaded to the portal before being removed and redacted.

Catherine Lucey (BLOOMBERG NEWS) provides the recap of how Lutnick lied to the American people:

Howard Lutnick has so far defied Beltway predictions of his ouster as commerce secretary, but his appearance in the Jeffrey Epstein files has put him in his toughest spot yet.

During an awkward appearance before a Senate panel recently, the billionaire former chief executive officer of Cantor Fitzgerald LP sought to explain a 2012 trip to the disgraced financier’s private island. The visit with the notorious sex offender came years after his conviction for procurement of minors for prostitution — and during a period in which Lutnick had claimed he had no contact with Epstein.

Lutnick repeatedly insisted he “barely had anything to do” with Epstein and stressed that his wife, four children and nannies were with him for the island visit.

He may not be done with his explanations. House Oversight Chairman James Comer told reporters Thursday it was possible Lutnick would be called to testify in the chamber’s Epstein probe. Comer added that there was a “possibility that his name will arise in some questioning today,” as he prepared to depose former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton.

Pam Bondi, Attorney General and all around fool, played dumb last month when asked by the House Judiciary Committee, about the prison transfer of Ghislaine Maxwell. That's not going over well. Arthur Delaney (HUFFINGTON POST) reports:

The Justice Department has to explain why Jeffrey Epstein’s sole convicted co-conspirator won a transfer to a cushy federal prison camp last year, Democrats told U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in a letter on Monday.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act specifically requires the government to release all documents related to Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role in Epstein’s *** abuse schemes. The text of the statute doesn’t distinguish between documents from her criminal case and anything more recent.

That means the Justice Department is legally required to put out any documents “related to her transfer to a minimum-security prison camp where she has been granted numerous unusual special privileges,” Reps. Deborah Ross (D-N.C.), Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said in a letter to Bondi.

The Bureau of Prisons, which is part of the Justice Department, transferred Maxwell from a low-security facility in Florida to a minimum security prison camp in Texas. The transfer happened days after Deputy U.S. Attorney Todd Blanche conducted an unusual interview with Maxwell last year in which she said she never witnessed President Donald Trump behave improperly when she, he and Epstein were all partying together in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

People are right not to trust Pam Bondi, Todd Blanche and Donald Chump. All have been caught lying too often on this topic. And the release of the files has not taken place as it was supposed to. There are files that have still not been released. Those include the files regarding the woman accusing Donald Chump of assault when she was a teenager. They have been highly selective in what they've released.

People aren't crazy. They see what's going on and they know a cover up when they see one. Laura Esposito (DAILY BEAST) notes:

Rep. Thomas Massie issued a pointed reminder on Sunday that war won’t distract him from his push to force the Department of Justice to release all documents linked to Jeffrey Epstein.

“PSA: Bombing a country on the other side of the globe won’t make the Epstein files go away, any more than the Dow going above 50,000 will,” the Kentucky libertarian wrote on X.

Massie is one of several Trump critics who have accused the president of staging foreign policy crises and other White House controversies to deflect scrutiny from his historic relationship with Epstein, particularly as new Justice Department documents related to the late sex trafficker’s crimes are released.

In January, critics also alleged that the administration’s capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro served as a temporary reprieve from bipartisan pressure surrounding Trump’s ties to Epstein, who once described himself as Trump’s “closest friend.”

It's not going away. He doesn't have Bill Barr to help him hide it this go round. He's got Pam Bondi and she's an idiot. In fact, she created the problem for him. She wanted some easy press so she said she had the files on her desk. Told that to FOX "NEWS." And Chump called her out on it. Because she hadn't looked at the files and didn't know what was in them. But Chump did. And all these months later, her incompetence has kept it in the news.

Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:

Bondi, Wiles reportedly met with Netflix CEO mere hours before Netflix dropped out of bidding war

“If Paramount Skydance’s deal with Warner Bros. goes through, one family will become a dominant force in American entertainment…Federal antitrust law is designed to prevent mergers that would create massive conglomerates like this, which are bad for our economy and for Americans.”

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Representative Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.), and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) pressed Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles on their role in Netflix abandoning its bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (Warner Bros.), and whether political influence with the Trump administration helped Paramount Skydance (Paramount) win instead. Bondi and Wiles reportedly met with Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos hours before the company dropped its bid, and President Trump reportedly favored Paramount to buy Warner Bros.

“Your conversations with Mr. Sarandos…rais[e] suspicions that the Trump administration’s DOJ is making merger review decisions based on politicized favoritism rather than the law or the facts,” wrote the lawmakers.

On February 26th, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos reportedly met with Bondi, Wiles, and Department of Justice (DOJ) antitrust officials in an attempt to dissuade the administration from blocking the Netflix-Warner Bros. merger on antitrust grounds. Hours later, Netflix bowed out of the Warner Bros. bidding war, leaving Paramount as the apparent winner of the contest to purchase the company.

From the beginning, President Trump reportedly favored Paramount’s bid to take over Warner Bros. As a result of its merger with media giant Skydance in 2025, Paramount is owned by Trump ally David Ellison. Ellison’s allies have reportedly suggested Paramount “is the only buyer who would pass muster with Trump administration regulators,” and made “Trump’s implicit support for the deal … their number one talking point” in negotiations. Just last week, Ellison attended the State of the Union address as a guest of Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

“[Your reported meetings with Mr. Sarandos] look even more disturbing because the meetings occurred just days after the politicized ouster of Antitrust Division Chief Gail Slater and amidst increasing lobbyist influence over DOJ’s antitrust work,” wrote the lawmakers.

Public reporting indicates DOJ leadership has been meeting with lobbyists and influence-peddlers for companies involved in merger discussions, and has repeatedly overridden antitrust concerns in order to approve massive deals. One such lobbying firm is Ballard Partners, hired by both Netflix and Paramount. Federal law requires executive branch officials to recuse themselves from matters of former employers they worked for in the past year, but Bondi and Wiles, who both worked for Ballard Partners, “appear to be heavily involved in politicized discussions about the merger.”

David Ellison is the son of billionaire Trump ally Larry Ellison, who recently acquired a stake in TikTok. If Paramount successfully merges with Warner Bros., the Ellison family will own Warner Bros., Paramount+, HBO, CBS News, CNN, TNT, TBS, Food Network, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, HGTV, among other media properties, and have partial ownership of TikTok’s U.S. business. Paramount is expected to derive $6 billion in “synergies” from the deal, which could come largely from firing workers and cutting content.

“Federal antitrust law is designed to prevent mergers that would create massive conglomerates like this, which are bad for our economy and for Americans,” wrote the lawmakers.

“The American people deserve to know what Mr. Sarandos was seeking in your meetings, what you said to him, and how your discussions may have contributed to Netflix backing out of the bidding war,” the lawmakers concluded.

The lawmakers asked Bondi and Wiles to provide details about their conversations regarding the Warner Bros. merger, including any communications with Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos and Paramount CEO David Ellison, by March 16, 2026.

###

The following sites updated:

Monday, March 2, 2026

Weekend Box Office

Via THENUMBERS.COM, here's the weekend's top ten box office:

1	N	Scream 7	Paramount Pi…	$63,615,172		3,540		$17,970	$63,615,172	1
2	(1)	GOAT	Sony Pictures	$12,002,317	-29%	3,707	-156	$3,238	$73,986,831	3
3	(2)	“Wuthering Heights”	Warner Bros.	$6,700,135	-52%	3,221	-461	$2,080	$72,093,628	3
4	N	Twenty One Pilots: More Than We Ever Imagined	Trafalgar Re…	$3,700,000		836		$4,426	$3,700,000	1
5	(7)	EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert	Neon	$3,505,586	+9%	1,963	+1,638	$1,786	$7,825,921	2
6	(4)	Crime 101	Amazon MGM S…	$3,472,582	-37%	2,607	-554	$1,332	$30,118,994	3
7	(3)	I Can Only Imagine 2	Lionsgate	$3,176,085	-59%	3,105	n/c	$1,023	$13,302,041	2
8	(5)	Send Help	20th Century…	$2,846,369	-35%	2,500	-300	$1,139	$59,968,098	5
9	(6)	How to Make a Killing	A24	$1,562,513	-55%	1,726	+101	$905	$6,289,203	2
10	(9)	Zootopia 2	Walt Disney	$1,553,965	-30%	1,350	-470	$1,151	$425,958,209	14

Thoughts? SCREAM 7 had a huge opening. Huge. That's the biggest opening the SCREAM franchise has ever had.

WUTHERING HEIGHTS continues to do well -- $72 million. GOAT, by contrast, with $73 million is not as strong. Animated films are supposed to be at $100 million in the third weekend these days. Live action films like WUTHERING HEIGHTS are lucky to get forty million by contrast. Look at CRIME 1010 which is only at $30 million in week three for an example. Or SEND HELP which, week five, is only at $59 million. Right below ZOOTOPIA 2, by the way, is AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH and, in it's 11th weekend, it crossed over to $401 million in North American ticket sales.

This coming weekend, there are at least thee films that could do very well: THE BRIDE!, HOPPERS and YOUNGBLOOD.

In other news, DEADLINE reports:

Prime Video has set April 20 for the premiere of Kevin, its upcoming adult animated comedy series, written and executive produced by Aubrey Plaza, who also will star, and Joe Wengert, who also serves as showrunner. The streamer also revealed the title sequence, which you can watch above. It features original song “I’m Coming Home,” performed by series lead Jason Schwartzman and co-written by Schwartzman and series composer, Dan Romer. All eight episodes will drop on April 20, in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.

I'm interested in that.

Going out with C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"

Monday, March 2, 2026. To distract from The Epstein Files and the tanking economy, Chump starts a war.

What's Ben talking about this morning on MEIDASTOUCH NEWS?

If you had a weekend and tuned out, you're forgiven for not knowing. On Friday, Chump was in negotiations with Iran. Early Saturday morning, Chump and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu went to war on Iran.

Saturday, Matthew Cooper (WASHINGTON MONTHLY) provided this context:

When President Donald Trump addressed the cameras this morning to announce the U.S.-Israel attack on Iran, he put the theocracy’s nuclear program in his sights: “They’ve rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions, and we can’t take it anymore.” He denounced them for attempting to “rebuild their nuclear program” and “developing the long-range missiles that can now threaten our very good friends and allies in Europe, our troops stationed overseas, and could soon reach the American homeland.”

What the president elides is that he scotched the nuclear deal that, imperfect though it was, provided monitoring of Tehran’s nuclear program and might have prevented this moment. He was trying to forge his own one through his son-in-law as recently as Thursday. The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was signed by Iran and the permanent members of the UN Security Council (the U.S., the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China) and Germany. The European Union also took part. The JCPOA was never intended to curb the Mullahs’ support for Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, or terrorists inside Iraq any more than the arms control regimes negotiated by American presidents from John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan required the Soviets to abandon Eastern Europe or Communism. Instead, it had a limited purview. To unwind its nuclear program, Iran agreed to very low levels of enrichment of nuclear materials and an inspection regime that kept real human inspectors and sophisticated monitoring equipment at the country’s nuclear sites. In exchange, Tehran would get sanctions relief, including the unfreezing of certain assets. Hence, the infamous plane of cash dispatched to Iran for which Barack Obama received so much grief.

Did the JCPOA work? Not perfectly, and there were plenty of Democratic skeptics of the program, including Senator Chuck Schumer and former Senator Ben Cardin, who had chaired the Foreign Relations Committee, both of whom voted against the agreement. What is certain is that when Trump scuttled the accord, the P5+1 signatories and key international monitoring bodies, such as the International Atomic Energy Agency, lost their ability to assess Tehran’s nuclear status. Iran walked away from it, too.

In the absence of any international nuclear monitoring in Iran, we’re blind, in a situation where the U.S. and Israel supposedly eviscerated the Shia regime’s nuclear program last year, but were apparently caught unaware of its build-back efforts and are striking again. One minute, the president is doing an end-zone dance about crushing Iran’s nukes. Months later, he is sounding like George W. Bush, standing before Congress, suggesting America’s enemy is getting close to launching nuclear missiles.

Already, three US troops have died.

Three dead American service members in Chump's war of choice. And Chump's reaction? David Edwards (RAW STORY) notes:

President Donald Trump responded to the death of three U.S. service members by bragging he got a "great deal" in the war that ended their lives.

[. . .]

"We expect casualties with something like this," the president said. "We have three, but we expect casualties - but in the end it's going to be a great deal for the world."

We should all remember that Chump received multiple deferments during the Vietnam War. He refused to serve. And he refused to protest the war. He was for it as long as he didn't have to go. And now, all these years later after having been a Chicken Hawk, he's sent others to die in a war.

Max Rego (THE HILL) notes that Chump's sparse words aren't cutting it:

Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan (N.Y.), an Army veteran, accused President Trump on Sunday of not looking out for U.S. troops, as three American service members have so been far been killed during the operation against Iran.

Speaking to Kaitlan Collins on CNN, Ryan said Trump not answering questions from reporters at the White House on the three Americans killed is “pathetic.”

“For the president to not answer those questions, to have nothing to say to those family members, is pathetic. It’s pathetic. And it’s because he doesn’t have answers. There is not a plan here, if [there] is he’s not sharing it with the American people,” added the New York Democrat, who was an Army intelligence officer during the Iraq War.

Ryan later said the U.S. operation against Iran, which began in tandem with Israel early Saturday, harkens memories of “past ill-conceived, half-baked, regime-change wars that sound good until they start, and then all of a sudden no one knows what the heck is going on, and it’s young American men and women that pay the price, and that pisses me off.”

Mike Walz was Chump's National Security Advisor until he took the fall for Signal gate and ended up being made the US representative to the United Nations. Tom Boggioni (RAW STORY) notes Walz reposted the announcement of the three dead:

In his repost, the Trump appointee simply added, “Freedom is never free,” followed by an American flag emoji.

That set off a wave of outrage, with Missouri Democratic House of Representatives candidate Fred Wellman writing, “Three service members died and you act like it was a check. You are just disgusting. None of you give a damn about our military members.”

“This is disgusting. Vile. Tone deaf. What is wrong with you?” asked Nikkib.

Former Republican Paige suggested, “I’m sure their families are not comforted by these words.”

“Freedom for who?” America First conservative David Giglio asked.

Podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen raged, “Three Americans dead and Trump’s UN Ambassador waves it off with some bulls—t jingoism. From the people who wailed about Benghazi for a decade. Absolute soulless ghouls.”

Laura Esposito (DAILY BEAST) also covers the cheerleaders minimizing the deaths:

Former Trump ally-turned-foe Marjorie Taylor Greene also took aim at far-right influencer Laura Loomer’s response to the deaths.

“3 US Service members have been killed in action as part of Operation Epic Fury,” Loomer wrote. “American heroes. God bless them and their families.”

In response, Greene wrote: “This b—h is celebrating the death of American military members and thanking their families for their blood sacrifice. Loomer lost two Congressional races bc nobody respected her or valued her enough to elect her.”

Greene continued: “But this is who Trump takes late night calls from and laps up her praise and worship. Loomer hated Charlie Kirk bc he spoke out against war with Iran the same way I do. War with Iran is AMERICA LAST and we voted against it the same way voters voted against Laura Loomer twice!”

The former Georgia congresswoman went even further: “And now Americans are once again coming home in flag draped coffins from another stupid pointless foreign war for foreign regime change on behalf of Israel. And Laura Loomer demanded it and begged for it. Sign up for the military, Laura! Go to the front lines, Laura! Maybe then they’ll give you a gun. You don’t love Trump enough unless you go fight Iran yourself.”

Aidan McLaughlin (VANITY FAIR) notes many MAGA members are displeased with Chump's war on Iran and noting impeachment. And Rebecca Beitsch (THE HILL) notes:

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) asked whether President Trump was “too mentally incapacitated” to realize he set the stage for the growth of Iran’s nuclear program during his first term.

“Has President Trump learned nothing from decades of U.S. meddling in Iran and forever wars in the Middle East?” Kaine asked. “Is he too mentally incapacitated to realize that we had a diplomatic agreement with Iran that was keeping its nuclear program in check, until he ripped it up during his first term?”

Chump isn't able to walk a straight line, his mind meanders. The signs of dementia are evident. He's a madman who needs to be relieved of his duties. Marcia regularly charts Chump's decline. Last week, she did so in three posts:

Stick a fork in his ass, he's done

The majority of Americans see Chump's age making him worse

They know how to use his ego

He's 79 years old, will hit 80 in July. Has a family history of dementia. Exhibits all the signs of dementia. Tim Kaine is right to wonder if Chump is "too mentally incapacitated to realize" what is going on.

Senator Mark Warner spoke with NPR's Emily Kwong on Sunday:

Senator Mark Warner: I am down in Hampton Roads part of Virginia where most of the sailors in the conflict area are from. I had four events today. Half the crowd in these events knew people who were deployed. And they have no idea why their sons and daughters are being put in harms way. You know, the president, a week ago, said Iran's nuclear activities he claimed had been obliterated seven months ago. He then switched to saying this was about Iran's ballistic missile capacity. And now -- in the last 36 hours -- regime change. Why are the sons and daughters -- now casualties, some of them -- in harms way? What is the essential criteria for America being in this war? I can tell you as someone who was part of the Gan of 8, there is and was no eminent, immediate threat from Iran against America. So "why take this action now?" is the question I'm getting from the parents and friends of sailors deployed and I don't have any answer for them.

Emily Kwong: President Trump said in this statement "sadly there will likely be more" referring to US casualties. What do you make of that?

Senator Mark Warner: Well I make of it the fact that this is a war of choice chosen by Donald Trump in the Middle East where our record has not been great. Again, there was no intelligence that showed and immediate, eminent threat. That should be normally the criteria --

Emily Kwong: Let's --

Senator Mark Warner -- matter of fact, let me just, matter of fact if the president had chosen to take action back in January when the Iranian people were on the streets in record numbers, he would have more of a case but he couldn't do it then because the aircraft carrier that was needed was off the coast of Venezuela and our allies that would be normally supportive were concerned rightly about Chump's plans on Greenland.

Sunday also saw Senator Chris Murphy appear on CBS' FACE THE NATION:

MARGARET BRENNAN: Joining us now is Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, good morning.

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY: Good morning.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You have called for Congress to return to Washington and to vote on whether to try to essentially halt this military action. No War Powers Resolution has ever overcome a presidential veto. Why do you think you need to take one?

SEN. MURPHY: Well, nobody in this country is asking for war with Iran. Just like months ago, no one in this country was asking for war with Venezuela. This President is intentionally tanking our economy. He's the most corrupt president in the history of our nation, and Americans want him to focus on the crises here at home. Instead, he is busy getting us involved in quagmires overseas that already are becoming deadly to American soldiers. This is a disaster. It is illegal, and the President is obligated under the Constitution to come to Congress and ask for an authorization of military force. He wouldn't get that authorization if he asked for it. Congress wouldn't vote to give him the permission to do it, but he's obligated to come to Congress.

MARGARET BRENNAN: The administration would argue Venezuela was a limited military operation. They see- They're not explaining to the public yet, beyond that Twitter video, exactly what the plan is here, but the President has tweeted, in a way, describing this as an open ended conflict until peace is achieved. You are using the term war. You do consider this to be a war?

SEN. MURPHY: Oh, of course, we are engaged in regular, ongoing military strikes that have, that has already killed American soldiers with the goal of regime change. If that is not war, what is? Now, the president has said that the goal is regime change, and the goal is to eliminate Iran's missile program and their nuclear program. He is not going to succeed in either of those endeavors. His intelligence agencies have already told him that the most likely outcome is that hardline members of the IRGC replace the current leadership. So we're not going to get a democracy. We're going to get an even worse Iranian leadership. We already know that you can't bomb their nuclear program out of existence. He told us last year that he had obliterated the program, and then apparently, over the course of the last year, they had gotten back to within a week. So we're going to have Americans dying, and the end result is going to be hard line leadership continues in Iran and we don't get rid of their nuclear program. That's a moral and strategic disaster for the country.

Saturday night, Senator Patty Murray also made that call for members to return to DC to vote on the action:

Senator Murray: “Congress must return immediately and vote to put an end to this war. Every Senator should be on the record, and Congress must assert its authority—the American people deserve to know which of their leaders supports another potentially bloody and costly war in the Middle East. I voted against the war in Iraq in 2002 and I urge every Member of Congress to join me in voting against a war with Iran today.”

Senator Murray: “I think back to the hours and hours of briefings and discussions before we voted on war with Iraq—none of that. President Trump is just blithely throwing American lives and taxpayer dollars at a vainglorious effort at regime change. What the American people want—we the people—that’s just an afterthought for this President.”

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement in response to President Trump engaging in war with Iran:

“President Trump promised to end wars—not start them. Congress must return immediately and vote to put an end to this war. Every Senator should be on the record, and Congress must assert its authority—the American people deserve to know which of their leaders supports another potentially bloody and costly war in the Middle East. I voted against the war in Iraq in 2002 and I urge every Member of Congress to join me in voting against a war with Iran today—stand on the right side of history.

“Iran should never possess a nuclear weapon, but there was a diplomatic agreement that was already in place to constrain Iran’s nuclear program that Trump tore up. And now just months after he claimed he had nearly obliterated Iran’s nuclear program, President Trump is shamelessly telling the American people that he’s started this war in self-defense. There are no concrete goals. There is no long-term strategy.

“I think back to the hours and hours of briefings and discussions before we voted on war with Iraq—none of that. President Trump is just blithely throwing American lives and taxpayer dollars at a vainglorious effort at regime change. What the American people want—we the people—that’s just an afterthought for this President.

“No one supports the brutal Iranian regime—but already this President’s reckless actions are triggering attacks on U.S. military bases. There is no clear endgame here and no guarantee that these strikes will mean democracy and freedom for the Iranian people or that the world will be any safer for it. The situation in Iran and the surrounding region could quickly spiral out of control, endangering our servicemembers and tens of millions of innocents.

“Leader Thune, whether you agree with this war or not, it is your responsibility to call the Senate back into session—I am calling on you to recognize the gravity of this moment and bring the Senate back. We are a democracy and our Constitution demands that Members of Congress debate and vote on this war for all the American people to see. No war with Iran.”

###

The attack is a distraction from The Epstein Files and Chump's involvement in them.

While House Republicans work to protect Chump, while Pam Bondi covers up for him, nothing stops the conversation. And that's what bothers Donald Chump and his administration.

This morning, Cameron Adams (DAILY BEAST) reports on documentation by the public:

A rogue “Jeffrey Epstein Walk of Shame” highlighting politicians and businesspeople with links to the late child sex offender has surfaced near the White House.

The stickers, designed to resemble the stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, were photographed by Getty on Sunday, with Epstein’s face replacing the symbols of TV, film, music or theatre on the regular plaques.

It’s unclear who is responsible, but they were placed around Farragut Square in Washington, a five-minute walk from the White House.

People walk along the "Jeffrey Epstein Walk of Shame", which features prominent names that appear in the Epstein files, near the White House on March 1, 2026, in Washington, DC.

Each sticker has a QR code that, when scanned, opens to documents on the Department of Justice website or to information linking the person to Epstein, according to MS Now.

Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell also features with the caption “child sex trafficker.” Maxwell, 64, was jailed for 20 years for sex trafficking in June 2022. The Trump administration approved her move to a low-security prison camp in Texas.

THE GUARDIAN's Victoria Bekiempis observes:

Weeks after justice department officials released more than 3m investigative documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, there have not been any arrests in the US, prompting questions about whether any potential co-conspirators will be held accountable on American soil.

Indeed, consequences in the US for the sex trafficker’s associates have largely been limited to a handful of sombre resignations and public apologies of late – not high-level criminal prosecutions that victims and advocates have long demanded.

This lack of arrests contrasts sharply with authorities’ handling of Epstein associates in the UK. The former royal prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested on 19 February on suspicion of misconduct in public office, as was ex-Washington ambassador Peter Mandelson days later. Neither man was arrested on suspicion of Epstein-related sexual misconduct, and Mountbatten-Windsor has adamantly denied such claims in prior statements.

Let's wind down with the latest LAST WEEK TONIGHT WITH JOHN OLIVER.