Crusader Rabbit

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is a real beauty. This low i.q. dolt is fighting a modern day crusades. The havoc he is wreaking on our military will take years to fix. He has rid the services of upper ranking minorities and women in their ranks, fired key generals at the most inopportune of times and sewed needless religious division.

He has recklessly mixed his personal religious beliefs into the workplace, likening the recent rescue of the American airman to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In his account of the rescue operation, Mr. Hegseth drew parallels between the airman’s ordeal and the account of Christ’s death and Resurrection given in the Bible.

The F-15E fighter jet, he noted, was “shot down on a Friday — Good Friday.” That is the day Jesus was crucified.

After the airman bailed out over Iran, he hid, Mr. Hegseth said, “in a cave, a crevice, all of Saturday,” reminiscent of the tomb cut into a rock in which Jesus was buried.  

Then, he said, the airman was rescued on the day Christians celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus —  “flown out of Iran as the sun was rising on Easter Sunday.”

“A pilot reborn, all home and accounted for, a nation rejoicing,” the defense secretary said. “God is good.”

Mr. Hegseth also said that after the plane was shot down, the airman, the F-15E’s weapons systems officer, made contact with his American rescuers with a religious message: “God is good.”  “In that moment of isolation and danger,” he said, “his faith and fighting spirit shone through.”

It was the latest example of the secretary of defense invoking Christian theology in public statements about the war with Iran. Earlier in the war, Mr. Hegseth asked Americans to pray for victory in the Middle East “in the name of Jesus Christ.”

Mr. Hegseth, who is directing a relentless bombing campaign against Iran, a majority-Shiite Muslim nation with a theocratic government, has often idolized the Crusades, the bloody medieval wars in which Christian warriors fought Muslims for control of important religious sites and territory in the Middle East.

Tattooed on Mr. Hegseth’s right biceps is the Latin phrase “Deus vult” — “God wills it” — which he describes as a battle cry of those wars. In his book “American Crusade,” published in 2020, Mr. Hegseth describes the Crusades as “bloody” and “full of unspeakable tragedy,” but argues that they were justified because they saved a Christian Europe from the onslaught of Islam.

What a perfect idiot to be running the show. But this really got me, he fired the Chief Army chaplain during holy week and made the traditional military Good Friday services at the Pentagon protestant only. 

The servicemen of Irish, Italian, Polish, Mexican and Czech extraction who follow the Catholic faith deserved better than this.

Why does it suddenly feel like we are fighting the civil war all over again?

I feel fine

Brinkmanship

I got two calls from extremely concerned people this afternoon. Did I know that China had moved two nuclear armed ships into the Strait? No, I did not. The second one was from a totally freaked out woman who asked me if we were going to nuke Iran tonight? I certainly hope not, I told her.

People are whacked out. Are we on the edge of World War III?

It is 4:21. I just got back from my warehouse and now see that the President has pushed back the utter annihilation of Persia for two more weeks. Iranian civilization will continue to exist, perhaps possibly for another two weeks, at which time we will take out every bridge and energy source and steal their oil if they don't knuckle under. Wonderful. To the victor the spoils. Teach them to attack us again. Wait, didn't they?

Well, in any case that is terrific. Wonder what pushed Trump off the Dr. Strangelove ledge? 

Could it be that he is actually starting to get pushback from the GOP? Nah. Not Thune or Johnson mind you but at least one GOP congressman did have the balls to say that this whole Iran thing is insanity. Nathan Moran in Texas. For the rest of them it is mostly crickets, scared puppets pissing all over themselves worrying that the Great Orange one will primary them if they utter a disparaging peep. 

No, it seems like the fractures are in MAGA themselves, Carlson and Kelly, Rogan and Infowars. These people lose the real nutcases, what else do they have left? The base is showing serious fracture and they may not be able to put Dumpty Trumpty together again.

I find the whole thing utterly disgusting. Iranians are a proud and ancient people, they would rather eat dirt than submit to this sort of bullying. End their civilization and take their oil. Really? They are not a perfect people, having been shunted in between a CIA deposed Mossadegh who wouldn't play ball with the oil companies, a U.S. installed Pahlavi regime and the horrific fundamentalist ayatollahs.

But they are not a bad people, no better or worse than any other group of humans on the planet, which is admittedly not a very high bar.

I blame Trump and I blame Netanyahu for exacerbating a crisis that did not need to occur. Israel "mowing the grass" like the lives of its neighbors are meaningless, I have lost respect for them as well. Every life is precious, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist or even the utterly faithless. This is not the same eretz of my father and grandfather. It can't just be about Israel, it has to be about mankind, no?

Israeli machinations have been ruthless. If I want to applaud a Jewish President, the man I respect is Zelensky, not Netanyahu. I think he has utterly manipulated Trump. But I also think his actions have alienated a large segment of the American population, from both left and right, including a sizable percentage of American jewry, of which I happen to be one.

Was Iran really that close to a nuclear bomb? I haven't seen any proof. And I imagine that it would be under a glowing green smolder right now if they were, Israel more than capable of unleashing the Dimona endgame when necessary. But why, when it is so easy to fawn over Trump and have him do the dirty work?

So what have we gained from this futile exercise? Over 330 wounded Americans and at least fifteen dead. A breakdown in relations with every NATO ally, who did not particularly like being asked to support a foolish and unilateral provocation with little forethought and no endgame planning and which jeopardized their own energy supply.

Of course Russia is happy because we are letting them break the Cuba oil blockade and get more money for their Eastern Europe invasion efforts. But I doubt too many others are.

Unless he gets Article 25'd, we can look forward to three more years of this shit. May all those quarter pounders congeal instantly in his left ventricle and may we earthlings be spared any more of these histrionic and foolhardy escapades that threaten the whole planet.

King Solomon's Marbles

This is what happens when you give a Grateful Dead tune to a bunch of great jazz players. Billy Cobham on drums, Jimmy Herring on guitar, Alphonso Johnson on bass and the late T Lavitz on keyboards.

Gestapo Alert

Papers, please!

Interesting but not surprising article at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, The FAA’s “Temporary” Flight Restriction for Drones is a Blatant Attempt to Criminalize Filming ICE. 

The Trump administration has restricted the First Amendment right to record law enforcement by issuing an unprecedented nationwide flight restriction preventing private drone operators, including professional and citizen journalists, from flying drones within half a mile of any ICE or CBP vehicle.

In January, EFF and media organizations including The New York Times and The Washington Post responded to this blatant infringement of the First Amendment by demanding that the FAA lift this flight restriction. Over two months later, we’re still waiting for the FAA to respond to our letter.

The First Amendment guarantees the right to record law enforcement. As we have seen with the extrajudicial killings of George Floyd, Renée Good, and Alex Pretti, capturing law enforcement on camera can drive accountability and raise awareness of police misconduct.

*

We don’t believe it’s a coincidence that the TFR was put in place in January 2026, at the height of the Minneapolis anti-ICE protests, shortly after the killing of Renée Good and shortly before the shooting of Alex Pretti. After both of those tragedies, civilian recordings played a vital role in contradicting the government’s false account of the events.

By punishing civilians for recording federal law enforcement officers, the TFR helps to shield ICE and other immigration agents from scrutiny and accountability. It also discourages the exercise of a key First Amendment right. EFF has long advocated for the right to record the police, and exercising that right today is more important than ever.

Finally, while recording law enforcement is protected by the First Amendment, be aware that officers may retaliate against you for exercising this right. Please refer to our guidance on safely recording law enforcement activities.     

Hallucinated Citations

I have said it before and I will say it again. I am not a big fan of AI. I see it being relied upon by people who lack artistry and creativity and it saddens me frankly.

A friend asked me to write a song with him recently. I finished a very nifty first couplet and after he saw it he told me that he was going to have ChatGTP do his part. I never got back to him. No interest in working with machine intelligence.

I should point out that AI is part of some of the processing tasks in Photoshop and I have had to use it at times but I use it as sparingly as I can as there is no other way. I won't generate fantastic backgrounds that AI thinks are cool.

I think that my biggest problem with AI is seeing the little proviso warnings that the information it provides you might not be accurate. That scares the hell out of me. And our willingness to accept this lack of veracity and precision in our research is equally if not more troubling.

Interesting article on the subject at Nature today, Hallucinated citations are polluting the scientific literature. What can be done? Nature suggests that tens of thousands of publications from 2025 might include invalid references generated by AI.

Earlier this year, computer scientist Guillaume Cabanac received a notification from Google Scholar that one of his publications had been cited in a paper published in the International Dental Journal1. That was unexpected, because his research on spotting fabricated papers doesn’t typically intersect with dentistry. “I was very surprised to see that I couldn’t recognize my own reference,” says Cabanac, who is based at the University of Toulouse in France.

The title in the citation resembled that of a preprint2 he had posted in 2021 and never published formally, but the journal was listed as Nature and the DOI — the unique identifier assigned by publishers and preprint repositories — did not lead to the original preprint. “I got very concerned,” adds Cabanac, who immediately suspected that the citation had been hallucinated by artificial intelligence.

This is just one example of a rapidly growing problem. Surveys and related studies have shown that researchers are increasingly using large language models (LLMs) to help to conduct literature searches, write manuscripts and format bibliographies. And sometimes, these models generate non-existent academic references.

I prefer to generate my hallucinations and my research the old fashioned way, thank you. Don't be lazy, research and verify and write and create your own output.

Ramble On

Whenever I hear the String Cheese Incident come up on my audio feed I feel good. Such a fun band! I actually saw Kang play at a Dead show in Oakland, back in the nineties I guess, but can't quite remember all the ins and outs...

Selfie Time

 

I remember everything

Texas three step

I am back from my long trip to Texas. It is a bi-annual thing, might even make it tri-annual if I do the Winter show but that one you can catch bad weather if you're not too lucky.

It wasn't a great show, definitely the worst of the three that I have done so far. But still adequate and probably better than the shows many of my peers had. Will tighten the belt and keep moving.

Sad thing was that people loved the merchandise, high rollers came in and sniffed around six or seven of the high ticket items and just couldn't pull the trigger.

I heard the same sad refrain from many, "You know how much I lost in the market today?" I don't care how rich or poor you are, the economy is traumatizing right now, with five and six dollar a gallon gasoline all over the country and a conflict in the middle east that doesn't look like it has any sort of pretty ending any time soon.

I just don't get it. About three days after the war started Trump said that we had taken out 100% of Iran's military capability. He repeats it over and over. My question then is who the hell is lobbing all these missiles at the U.S., Israel and Gulf states if the Iranian Army, Air Force and Navy has been so decimated?

100% is a lot but I never took too much to the new math and things might have changed since I was in school.

Anyway back to the post mortem, might as well give you the blow by blow breakdown. Left on the 15th and drove to Phoenix to drop off a painting with Steve, then hightailed it to Tucson for dinner with friends in their beautiful home.

I have sold them a lot of art over the years and loved both the delicious rib dinner and getting a chance to see all the paintings again.

Beautiful sunset.

I found a motel nearby and took off early the next morning for Texas.

Crossed New Mexico without much of a thought. 

Saw some mildly arousing landscapes.

Third day I got to Hill country, pulled into my first taste of Texas Barbecue, David's Old Fashioned Pit BBQ in Fredericksburg.

I sat down next to the sheriff, ate perfect chicken and moist brisket, potato salad and green beans. Mighty fine.

Took me about three more grueling hours to get through the Austin area to the section of Hill Country I was heading to, Carmine and Giddings.

Found my hotel. The place was owned by some very nice people from Gujarat but the spicy aroma of their kitchen made me want to wretch as it floated into the office.

Made me want to cry it was so piquant and definitely not my favorite flavor set.

Place looked spartan from the outside but was recently remodeled and served my needs perfectly.

I arrived at the Big Red Barn at eight the next morning to start my setup. 

I probably should have arrived a day later, a five day setup is excessive, I can usually finish setup in a day and a half. 

Have it down to a science after all these years.

Had some lighting problems, took a couple trips to the hardware store to resolve and finally found a great solution.

The first time I did the show I had over 80' of wall space. They got rid of the pass through booth model, second time was about 56'. Too big an area to patrol. This time I got a thirty foot booth which gave me about 46'. It was okay. Next time I go back to a twenty footer, see how that works.

Here's how it shook down.

I figured when I set up that the mostly black and white wall on the left would make me the most money and it did. All price point. Sold a lot off that wall. Country western star Zach Bryan bought three pieces off it, didn't want a discount, I gave him one anyway.

Next time I bring more in this range. I did sell some nice things and a few more high ticket items but the crowd is much more decorator based than collector and I need to adjust more for that.

I bought well. 

Bought a nice mission basket and an early San Carlos Apache basket from my great pal Ron Munn. 

Bought a nice open bellied Pima pictorial from Bill Spencer.

Found a great Carmel painting by Carl Sammons and a lovely early saltillo blanket, which I have since sold to a client.

It was a nice space but I had some chemistry problems with one fellow dealer, who was unhappy with both my volume and content.

I got a daily finger wagging and was presented with a list of words I could no longer utter which included words that started with a c, b and h.

His wife was Church of Christ and he told me that he was saddened by this new breed of dealers californicating his precious show.

Next show I am moving. A little too old to self censor at this point in my life.

Not like I was testing the limits of probity, just mild adult conversation.

Only one guy but enough to make it not so fun.

Round Top is like a rite of passage in the South. 

People come from many surrounding states to promenade down its halls.

Typical costume is cowboy hat, backless sun dress, boots and large conspicuous cross. Women were also typically very beautiful and there was a steady parade of them.

Here are some people shots.

Certain few also had their eccentricities but who am I to judge?

Best thing for me was seeing my little sister Laurie who drove up from Corpus Christi with her husband Steve, who I had never met before. Great to hang with them. Really enjoyed her husband.

I will share a funny story. I like to play with the customers and I can be playfully flirtatious on occasion. A woman about my age walked by with her daughter and her friends. Mom had a nice figure and was wearing elephant bells. Do you remember, 1969ish, tight at knee and very wide flare? She had a snakeskin buckle and I told her how good she looked, reminisced about the jeans.

Later she walked by and I said, in a loud voice, "Jan, would you like some candy, little girl?" offering her some skittles. Her daughter flips out and gets in my face, telling me that her mom is a happily married woman. Next moment, Mom spins her around and out of the corner of her mouth, tells her to shut up as they hurried away. I was on the floor laughing.

I bought maybe the most beautiful piece of silver I have ever seen at the Carmine Dance Hall.

Gorham, from Providence, Rhode Island but lacking customary date marks. 

I figure 1904-1905. Does have finishing marks, will try to track down with the archives. My expert friend Michael thinks that it might be an exhibition piece.

It is in the hand hammered athenic, martele finish. Grapevine handle.

I paid a fortune but it was so stunning it hit me over the head. Will be a privilege to own it, for however long I do.

So what else? A long ass show, with many great meals at Las Patronas and with friends.

Best skillet of mole I have ever tasted, incredible beans with bacon, quail, ribs, parilladas, carnitas, Manuel treats us like family.

I took a trip to Brenham for my favorite quesobirria tacos at El Rorro.

Barbecue from both Truth and Nathans.

And after packout I treated myself to a prime 22 oz. porterhouse at JW's. Expensive but worth it.

So what else? Trip is a blur. Three days back, stopped by Sublette's in Tucson and then Barry and Steve's in Phoenix. Came back home with a sore throat and cold. Tired, back hurts, lots of laundry to do. Going to try to ease back in but have clients coming over Friday and I need to get the shop together.

No more shows until May. Want to spend time with my wife who is hurting right now. Wish her well, please.

How much did you get for your soul? Lucinda Williams

Rape of the Innocents

I am not glued to the Epstein case but I do tune in now and then and one of the things that I found thought provoking was Epstein commissioning a copy of this particular painting to hang at the Zorro ranch in New Mexico.

It is titled The Massacre of the Innocents and was painted by the Dutch artist Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem in 1591.

It is a depiction from the Gospel of Matthew. 

The magi were searching for the newborn king of the Jews.

Fearful that he would be dethroned by this future king, Herod then ordered that all baby boys in Bethlehem under two years old be put to death by Roman soldiers.

Not hard to figure out why this one struck a chord with him.

A painting that depicts such depravity seems so fitting in the Caligula like atmosphere of Epsteinworld. Of course this sort of debauchery that takes place when rich and powerful figures feel like they are beyond the bounds of moral censure are not new. And as you can see, the antagonists came from both the left and right.

I even contributed to one of their Presidential campaigns, Bill Richardson's. A man I knew personally but who had also always been shadowed by these kinds of allegations.

My bad.

This sort of behavior is nothing new among the well connected. Benjamin Franklin was said to engage in similar acts of licentiousness at the Hellfire Club in England, which was a creation of his friend Sir Franklin Dashwood.

I read the names of the people who have come up in the investigation, Lauder, Richardson, Clinton, Woody Allen, all people with serious baggage in this regard, took particular joy in seeing Chomsky's name, a man I truly despise. Summers, Tisch, Wasserman, Bannon, a lot of very powerful chaps getting their poles waxed at one Epstein haunt or another.

Rich guys at their creepiest.

I keep thinking, where is Polanski, how did he not get an invitation? Or Jerry Lee Lewis?

*

Having said that, I also honestly have to say that many of the young girls that were exploited in these situations were probably paid very well and knew exactly what they were getting into and giving up for their participation.

They took the deal, yes, underage, but with eyes wide open and with full knowledge of what they were getting into. 

The younger generation is not necessarily as chaste or innocent as their forebears. when I worked the horse show circuits I met some very hard young ladies, one in particular had already had two abortions by the age of thirteen.

Getting to know her better, she was certainly young but in no way innocent.

I don't think these girls were kidnapped or raped but I could be wrong about that. More likely they were intoxicated by wealth and by consorting with the rich and powerful.

I get it, eighteen is the legal age of consent but sex among people younger than that has been flourishing for eternity. I am not justifying it in any way, old guys paying to play with young maidens can be really icky and is certainly illegal if they were truly underage.

But the responsibility probably ultimately extends to all parties here, albeit to a limited degree.

How far?

here's a couple...

Roughly a third of Gen Z women think that a wife should always obey her husband. Where in the heck have you girls been?

In a poll conducted by IPSOS of more than 23,000 people from 29 countries, 31% of Gen Z men believe "a wife should always obey her husband." By comparison, only 13% of baby boomers responded as such in the International Women's Day study.

The majority of Gen Z men – 59% – believe that men are “expected to do too much to support equality,” compared with 45% of baby boomers; 57% of Gen Z men believe women’s equality has gone so far that men are now discriminated against, compared with 42% of their boomer counterparts.

 Palantir's Alex Karp wants his AI to lessen the power of democrats and women.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp thinks his AI technology will lessen the power of “highly educated, often female voters, who vote mostly Democrat” while increasing the power of working-class men.

“This technology disrupts humanities-trained—largely Democratic—voters, and makes their economic power less. And increases the economic power of vocationally trained, working-class, often male, working-class voters,” Karp said in a CNBC interview Thursday. “And so these disruptions are gonna disrupt every aspect of our society. And to make this work, we have to come to an agreement of what it is we’re going to do with the technology; how are we gonna explain to people who are likely gonna have less good, and less interesting jobs.”

Nice, that ought to go over really well. Asshole.

Only the U.S. votes against Women's Rights document at U.N..

Happy Birthday Ray Hamblen!

 

It's a real wake up call when one of your buds turns ninety, a sign of your own impending due date. But Ray is a ninety year old that can still outwork me and everybody else at this table. Does more in a month than most people do in a lifetime.

Built about a thousand hot rods in his lifetime, sold more cars than Cal Worthington. Grew up in Midland, couldn't wait to leave.

He is the guy second from left with the chocolate cupcake, provided by Debbie Ramsey. This is at our morning coffee.

Congratulations Ray, looking forward to you seeing the century mark.

Shhh, don't talk about it...

Two articles caught my eye recently. At the NYT Republicans concede they need to pivot on immigration before midterms. And at Axios White House tells House Republicans to stop talking about mass deportations.

DORAL, FL — White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair privately urged House Republicans on Tuesday to stop emphasizing "mass deportations" and instead focus their messaging on removing violent criminals, according to sources in the closed-door briefing.

Why it matters: Mass deportations were central to the GOP's 2024 campaign message.

• Nearly half — 49% — of Americans say Trump's mass deportation campaign is too aggressive, including 1 in 5 voters who backed the president in 2024, a Politico poll from January found.

State of play: Blair delivered the message during a policy listening session with House Republicans at their annual retreat in Doral, Florida.

• He encouraged members to focus on deporting violent offenders rather than defending the broader concept of mass removals.
• The advice signals a recalibration by the White House — and reflects growing concern among some Republicans that Democrats are successfully framing Trump's immigration policy as overly sweeping and indiscriminate.

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out what this one is about. Texas. Where latino support for Trump is plummeting.

A new poll from the Pew Research Center shows that President Donald Trump is losing support among Hispanic voters as well as the wider Hispanic community, with 70% disapproving of his performance.

In the 2024 election, 42% of Latinos voted for President Trump, which was 10% more than in the 2020 election. While those Hispanic voters who voted for President Trump in the 2024 election remain optimistic about the President’s performance, with 81% still approving, this number is down from previous polling of 93%.

Lots of young hispanic voters who flocked to Trump in the last election are now deserting him in droves after witnessing a ghastly deportation campaign that is harassing and sometimes killing both immigrants and U.S. citizens alike.

With John Cornyn and the venal MAGA head and philanderer Ken Paxton engaged in an internecine primary war stoked by the President, the Democratic candidate Talarico actually has a shot at grabbing the first Senatorial seat in Texas in well over twenty years.

So now we aren't going to talk about mass deportations again until after the midterms, we aren't going to make any policy changes either mind you, but maybe with Noem out and an emphasis on "violent offenders" we can pull our usual sleight of hand game on the American citizenry.

Beads of sweat

Dry Spell

My buddy Barry's son Ethan has a spot in this video. Pretty funny song.

New graffiti in Fallbrook

 

Jessica Pratt

I was at my favorite coffee shop in Santa Barbara, Vices and Spices, when this came on the music stream. I asked who and the barista girl told me. I like this singer.

Butcher Bird

 

I think I have a pretty good understanding of our President. I hate to say it but I see a lot of his rationale as much as I can't stand the consequences of his actions.

But the one thing I don't get is his obsequious toadying to Putin and Russia. It's just not in his makeup, he gets one call from Vladimir and he meekly folds his hand, every time. They piss all over him and he just takes it.

Last week word came that Russia was giving U.S. intel to Iran. Not a peep from Donald, but his dutiful servant Witkoff responded today.

"We can take them at their word." Really, since when? I have to think Putin has something really big on the Donald, a pee tape perhaps? Epstein pics? This subservience is just so out of character for him. Wonder if we will ever know?

Nearly Texas Time!

 

Noon meal on the ROs - Wayne Justus (b. 1952) 24 x 48"

Please join me next week for the Round Top Show in Carmine, Texas. And if you can't come, wish me luck!