Playing to type, the guest on Newshour last night said that the reason ICE agents wear masks is to protect them from being identified by people who apparently have evil intent and are liable to make life difficult for the agent and his family.

Which doesn’t really answer the question and sounds more like a well-crafted excuse. Regular law enforcement officers don’t wear masks. Why are these people any different? Last night’s response doesn’t satisfy anyone’s curiosity and, in fact, only reinforces the ongoing suspicion that the powers that be know full well that their tactics and whole reason for being are heavy-handed, unpopular, and riding a razor-thin edge of legality. And masks add to the intimidation factor.

How many of these recruits have been pardoned for their role in January 6th?

I started going through old pictures yesterday. Well, actually slides from my grandfather that I’ve somehow come to possess. Even Gramp, as organized as he was, didn’t label every slide, so I made the decision that I am going to save mostly pictures of people I recognize, along with an occasional scenery pic, if it meets certain criteria like immediately catching my eye.

I was reminded of why I don’t like doing this—because it’s so easy to get distracted, sidetracked, and otherwise slowed down. And when I take a break, it feels like I’ve returned from the past– I realize I’m in my house in February of 2026 but also that I’ve taken a ride in a time machine.

These were bags of loose slides from as far back as the late 1950s, so Gram and Gramp are way younger than I am now. My siblings and I are little kids, Mom and Dad are our own kids’ age, or younger. It’s weirdly wonderful, but there’s also a bit of melancholy.

There’s a long way to go, and I’m not sure why I’m even bothering with this project. I guess it’s in hopes of these pictures meaning something to our kids or their kids, someone who has a sense of history and a hankering for continuity—a certain curiosity about the past and filling in blanks and learning from whence and whom they come.

Drones were more conspicuous at the Olympics this time around. They offered a cool perspective, but I wonder how/if they affected performance. These machines are loud and seemingly intrusive, maybe a bit unnerving, but I guess the athletes do a pretty good job of blocking it all out.

The views on the ski jump, heading down the bobsled track, and the freestyle skiing, among others, were welcome additions to the coverage.

“White House and Trump mock Canada over Team USA’s Olympic ice hockey win.”

It’s the latest headline from TIME Magazine.

Sorry, rest of the world. We appear to be suffering through a rough patch here in America, where the President and those around him continue their descent into unrivaled tone deafness and the behavior of spoiled two-year-olds. They enjoy kicking people when they’re down and, in general, acting like they’re in a really bad reality TV show– something akin to the one in which the ring leader used  to “star,” except with more dire consequences.

We’ll continue our efforts to remove this cancer from our midst, though he will make every effort to thwart such an eventuality. Pretty ugly stuff.

A heads up– don’t bother tuning in for the State of the Union address tomorrow night. You already know how that’s gonna go. He’ll be threatening somebody, veering off-script and touting his own brilliance, spewing some vintage Milleresque darkness, and spinning all the hits for his favorite voting bloc.

The Board of Peace. Sounds like an uninspired, throw-away name for something no one should take seriously.

A billion dollars to join, Donald Trump chairman for life? They have extravagant plans for a bombed-to-dust, obliterated Gaza, but do these plans include any consideration of the people who called it home? Or are they on their own, expected to settle for some other shoebox parcel of land in which to eke out an existence?

If there’s anything that symbolizes tone deafness and an amalgamation of questionable intentions, this enterprise is at the top of the list, and just one more reason to believe that Donald Trump should not be in the position he’s in. He should go back to being a self-proclaimed deal maker par excellence, in the private sector, where he’s better suited to apply his dubious “talents” and make promises he has little intention to keep.

Of course, that eventuality would open him to further indictments and criminal litigation, so… so much for that. He must figure he’s safer where he’s at, even as he tries to tear it all down.