03/30/26
Good morning! It’s Monday, March 30th.
National I Am in Control Day
No… I am not.
And now, the news.
Iran
Starting in Iran, where Pakistan announced that it would host talks between the United States and Iran, although neither the US nor Iran confirmed whether the talks would be direct or indirect.
Either way, let’s get those talks a talkin because 3,500 US troops arrived in the Middle East and what was Iran’s response? Well Iran accused the US of secretly planning a ground invasion this whole time, while Iran’s parliament speaker said the country was, “waiting for the arrival of American troops on the ground to set them on fire and punish their regional partners forever.”
Adding to that super chilling comment, on Sunday, Iran’s joint military command spokesperson said that they would target the private residences of US and Israeli officials living in the Middle East.
And just when you were thinking, that’s pretty bad… the Houthis, the Yemen-based rebel group, joined the war over the weekend after they launched a missile strike into Israel.
I mention this because the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, and this remains a problem, but to add to that… Houthis entering this fight not only raises concerns that they could resume attacks on ships attempting to pass through the Red Sea, which would send oil prices even higher, as well as disrupt global trade.
Speaking of global trade and markets and stuff… on Sunday, House Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, accused President Trump of lying about his negotiations with Iran last week.
I’m sorry, not just lying. “Flat-out lying.”
Here’s the full quote: "Last Sunday, he realized, 'I've got a financial cataclysm in the market,' so he just made that statement up."
No comment yet from the White House and, you know, who knows but don’t forget that every time Trump said he was having great conversations with Iran, Iran would then be like news to us!
So, you know, for a Monday I would say this isn’t the most positive opener of an episode but that is where things stand. I’m sorry.
DHS and TSA
-via CBS News, NY Times, and PBS
And of course, the other big story is DHS funding and what’s going on with that.
Here’s where they stand: First, Trump did sign the executive order to pay TSA agents. And that is great news. However, it’s unclear how long this will last, how many pay periods this order will pay these agents for. Right now, it’s not clear that it’ll last more than one. I’m not saying it won’t. I’m just saying, it’s not clear.
The other thing that I talked about in Friday’s episode was the funding bill that left the Senate and was headed to the House for a vote.
That was a big ol no.
Instead, the House sent their own bill through. Now, I know what you’re thinking “if the House has a bill of their own, they clearly want funding to pass as well, why not even look at the Senate’s bill?”
The Senate bill had Democratic grub hands on it.
Couldn’t even be an option.
They literally didn’t like it because it was too close to the Dems positioning of emitting ICE and BPD funding. So they sent their own funding bill that will temporarily fund everything until May 22nd.
And then, are you ready to be both unshocked but still mad?
They left for a scheduled two-week vacation!
Must be nice!
They call it the House because when you work there, you spend more of your time at home.
That’s not a great joke, but you know where I’m going with it.
Meanwhile, Tom Hooman, Trump’s border czar, said on Sunday that ICE agents will stay in airports "until the airports feel like they are 100%."
Feel like.
Note that that’s not a deadline.
It sounds like a deadline, because it sounds like it could be something like oh once TSA agents are back to 100% they’ll be gone.
And that could be the case.
But “feels like” is not a real deadline.
Trump has ICE agents in airports, and based on everything we’ve seen… do we think he’s going to be thrilled to have them leave anytime soon, once we get used to it?
The trick here is that we can’t get used to it.
By the way, this is day 45 of the partial government shutdown. Partial or not, this is the longest funding lapse in US history. It beat the previous record, which was 43 days… which happened while Trump was in office. And that beat the one before that, which was 35 days… which happened while Donald Trump was in office.
Oh it’s the Democrats fault though.
Okay! But Trump has Republican majorities in the House and Senate right now.
He had them for the last shutdown.
In fact, for the first one, he also had a Republican majority in the House and Senate but that one lasted from the 115th to the 116th congress. And in that 116th Congress, the Democrats took the majority, and the shutdown ended a few weeks later.
Regardless, the Democrats aren’t in the majority. It is not always our job to come in and save the day. The Republicans are in charge. I truly cannot listen anymore to all of these people who voted for this government, for this president, for these Senators and House Reps, complain about the government being shut down when the party that didn’t get voted into office isn’t the one doing it.
When you have the power, you have the power. And you have the responsibility to make a deal.
You wanted to be the big boy in the room Mikey J, talk to the Dems and make a deal. Instead, the House is going on vacation.
Again.
Stop voting for Republicans and then blaming Democrats for not being the adults in the room. You wanted this.
Elections have consequences.
And that’s it. That’s the news.
Hey, this weekend I went to the No Kings rally.
You know who else went?
Over 8 million people, with some estimates putting that number at 9 million.
Making it the second-largest single-day protest in American history.
(The largest was the first Earth Day protest, which drew 20 million people)
Every single No Kings rally has grown.
We are so close to the midterms. We have the momentum. We can do this.
As we have to do is stay focused, stay motivated, and stay making sure our friends and family are registered to vote. Which you can do at wearevoters.org.
And because I know you’re going to be doing that… because that’s one thing you can control… I’m proud of you.