🦄 Current Events Monday March 9, 2026 Edition

[SarahSparkles]

Good day to you all!

This is the place for all the new miscellaneous political stories that don’t feel deserving of their own separate discussion thread.

All are welcome to post new current events, or continue a discussion from the previous current event thread as long as it’s still a current event. For more in-depth discussions, consider starting a new thread if one hasn't already been posted.

Trying something a little different - I’ve not included a fixed end date to this thread. It’s still intended to remain time-limited, but whether that’s a week or a month is up to when a Moderator feels it’s time to hit the refresh button.

 

[Technarch]

Technically this was yesterday but:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1jmAj9OUOs


Tl;dr: Havana syndrome is caused by Russians using a small portable microwave device, but the CIA was told to cover it up during the first Trump administration to "lower the temperature" and totally not because Trump is a Russian asset.

Oh, and apparently the Russians are selling these devices to whoever now.

 

[fractl]

Technically this was yesterday but:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1jmAj9OUOs


Tl;dr: Havana syndrome is caused by Russians using a small portable microwave device, but the CIA was told to cover it up during the first Trump administration to "lower the temperature" and totally not because Trump is a Russian asset.

Oh, and apparently the Russians are selling these devices to whoever now.

So what did Trump do to protect Americans working in Cuba? Nothing? Doesn’t that make him a Russian agent? His job is to protect the US and its citizens.

 

[Ecmaster76]

Feedback for this thread
https://meincmagazine.com/civis/threa...rpetual-miscellaneous-soapbox-thread.1511986/

 

[Sajuuk]

Banning Islam, deporting Muslims discussed at Fort Worth church after primary elections​

Political and religious leaders suggested deporting, jailing or converting all Muslim people to eradicate what they perceive to be the “threat of Islam” in Tarrant County and Texas.

The ideas were debated in a panel discussion Thursday night, during which a Republican legislator suggested state lawmakers remove federal protections for the practice of Islam by classifying the faith as a political system rather than a religion.

“We could basically say, ‘In the state of Texas, we get to define what a religion is, and Islam is not a religion protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” said state Rep. Andy Hopper, who represents Wise County northwest of Tarrant.

Emphasis mine. Crazy percolates upwards in American politics at an astonishing rate, and this is a sitting Republican representative openly advocating for (more) genocide and telling us how they want to do it.

 

[poochyena]

Ivey commutes controversial Alabama death sentence days ahead of Sonny Burton’s execution

Burton, 75, was set to be executed on Thursday by nitrogen hypoxia for the 1991 murder of Doug Battle.

“I firmly believe that the death penalty is just punishment for society’s most heinous offenders, as shown by the 25 executions I have presided over as governor. In order to ensure the continued viability of the death penalty, however, I also believe that a government’s most consequential action must be administered fairly and proportionately,” Ivey said in a statement.

tl;dr He killed no one, but the guy he was doing crime with did kill someone. The murderer got life in prison while this guy (who directly killed no one) was put on death row, which made the case very controversial.

 

[crombie]

Banning Islam, deporting Muslims discussed at Fort Worth church after primary elections​

Emphasis mine. Crazy percolates upwards in American politics at an astonishing rate, and this is a sitting Republican representative openly advocating for (more) genocide and telling us how they want to do it.

It is like some people look back on the Japanese concentration camps fondly. I have said it in other threads, and say it again - this period will be of just as much great shame when discussed by future generations as those WWII camps.

 

[poochyena]

Banning Islam, deporting Muslims discussed at Fort Worth church after primary elections​

Emphasis mine. Crazy percolates upwards in American politics at an astonishing rate, and this is a sitting Republican representative openly advocating for (more) genocide and telling us how they want to do it.

I like how you know its just racism since they never actually explain what they dislike about islam or sharia law. The only difference between MAGA and muslim beliefs are whether pork should be eaten or not.

 

[Sajuuk]

It is like some people look back on the Japanese concentration camps fondly. I have said it in other threads, and say it again - this period will be of just as much great shame when discussed by future generations as those WWII camps.

If by “some” you mean a plurality large enough to literally do it again right now (see: ICE “detention camps”), well, yup.

 

[poke 532810]

Last week, CBP detained a US citizen at Chicago O’Hare. They moved her to Broadview Detention Center and later to a facility in Dodge County, Wisconsin before she was released in the early morning with a dead cell phone and no ride. She ended up hitchhiking to a hotel to contact her family.

Yesterday, CBP said that she was never detained, but instead was questioned at O’Hare and released within 90 minutes. Someone is lying, and my money is on DHS.

 

[karolus]

I think it's come to the point that for people traveling to the US, it's imperative to leave a detailed itinerary with trusted confidants, and have pre-planned and periodic check-ins.

 

[IlleglWpns]

I like how you know its just racism since they never actually explain what they dislike about islam or sharia law. The only difference between MAGA and muslim beliefs are whether pork should be eaten or not.

Fundamentalist Christians are so virulenty anti-Islam because they (rightly) see it as competition, even if they'd never admit it.

 

[xcmt]

Someone is lying, and my money is on DHS.

It may be true that she was "officially" released at O'Hare. That's where the paperwork stops, anyway. She was then subsequently kidnapped off-books by fascists and trafficked through the rendition pipeline, stymied from illegally rendering a US citizen to a foreign gulag only because one of the fascists forgot to turn her phone off.

 

[N4M8-]

The ideas were debated in a panel discussion Thursday night, during which a Republican legislator suggested state lawmakers remove federal protections for the practice of Islam by classifying the faith as a political system rather than a religion.

“We could basically say, ‘In the state of Texas, we get to define what a religion is, and Islam is not a religion protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” said state Rep. Andy Hopper, who represents Wise County northwest of Tarrant.

Sounds like someone flunked their junior-high civics class.

 

[bthylafh]

Fundamentalist Christians are so virulenty anti-Islam because they (rightly) see it as competition, even if they'd never admit it.

It rustles their jimmies when you have wrongthink about their god.

 

[bthylafh]

Sounds like someone flunked their junior-high civics class.

Like as not, was homeschooled.

 

[Kyuu]

Sounds like someone flunked their junior-high civics class.

Probably, and in any rational world this would be a non-starter. However, if this happens and then inevitably gets dragged through the courts, I fully expect the current Supreme Court would find some pretzel logic to find that this scheme is, in fact, totally legal under the First Amendment. I mean, the majority's understanding of it seems to be that it gives special protections to Christians, and that's the long and short of it.

 

[Sajuuk]

Probably, and in any rational world this would be a non-starter. However, if this happens and then inevitably gets dragged through the courts, I fully expect the current Supreme Court would find some pretzel logic to find that this scheme is, in fact, totally legal under the First Amendment. I mean, the majority's understanding of it seems to be that it gives special protections to Christians, and that's the long and short of it.

We're all just role playing the standard deviation meme.

The extremes keep saying (and demonstrating) that the law is ultimately nothing more than the will to power, while the middle just keeps screaming "you can't do that, it's illegal!"

 

[N4M8-]

It rustles their jimmies when you have wrongthink about their god.

Quibble: They mostly don't understand they worship the same diety.

 

[N4M8-]

Probably, and in any rational world this would be a non-starter. However, if this happens and then inevitably gets dragged through the courts, I fully expect the current Supreme Court would find some pretzel logic to find that this scheme is, in fact, totally legal under the First Amendment. I mean, the majority's understanding of it seems to be that it gives special protections to Christians, and that's the long and short of it.

Can we redefine the Republican Party as an illegal, terrorist conspiracy then?

 

[Thank You and Best of Luck!]

It is like some people look back on the Japanese concentration camps fondly. I have said it in other threads, and say it again - this period will be of just as much great shame when discussed by future generations as those WWII camps.

I think humans, and especially Americans, are somewhat rapidly removing the capacity to be motivated by shame.

Shamelessness has become a virtue.

 

[concernUrsus]

I think humans, and especially Americans, are somewhat rapidly removing the capacity to be motivated by shame.

Shamelessness has become a virtue.

You sort of know it is coming when people are celebrating about the "heroes" in "War of Wall Streets" , "social media", "War Dog", etc.

 

[sword_9mm]

I think humans, and especially Americans, are somewhat rapidly removing the capacity to be motivated by shame.

Shamelessness has become a virtue.

Look at me; I'm an influencer!!

I remember a time when the internet was a promise of great things to come. I guess we had a few good years then everyone hopped online and well here we are. Fucking dumber each day.

 

[Coriolanus]

I think humans, and especially Americans, are somewhat rapidly removing the capacity to be motivated by shame.

Shamelessness has become a virtue.

哈哈

 

[Technarch]

Can we redefine the Republican Party as an illegal, terrorist conspiracy then?

They're doing that all by themselves.

 

[Lt_Storm]

Quibble: They mostly don't understand they worship the same diety.

Honestly, that just makes everything worse, it would be one thing to worship a different diety, but to worship the same diety wrong, that's truely heinous. There's no holy war like a schismatic one.

 

[concernUrsus]

Honestly, that just makes everything worse, it would be one thing to worship a different diety, but to worship the same diety wrong, that's truely heinous. There's no holy war like a schismatic one.

People really overthink the whole things. There are historically events when Christians killing Christians, and Muslim killing Muslim (I am sure there are also confuciantists killing confuciantists, etc.). If you want to find differences, you can always find it. With the way it is going, I am sure people will start killing for steak well-done vs. medium well. I am only half joking.

 

[Not_an_IT_guy]

People really overthink the whole things. There are historically events when Christians killing Christians, and Muslim killing Muslim (I am sure there are also confuciantists killing confuciantists, etc.). If you want to find differences, you can always find it. With the way it is going, I am sure people will start killing for steak well-done vs. medium well. I am only half joking.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANNX_XiuA78


Not quite the relevant XKCD, but close.

 

[Karnak]

People really overthink the whole things. There are historically events when Christians killing Christians, and Muslim killing Muslim (I am sure there are also confuciantists killing confuciantists, etc.). If you want to find differences, you can always find it. With the way it is going, I am sure people will start killing for steak well-done vs. medium well. I am only half joking.

By far, and it isn't remotely close, the majority of the victims of Islamic terrorism have been Muslims. Pretty sure that most Christian terrorism has been directed at other Christians as well. Proximity = opportunity and all you need is some slight doctrinal disagreement to justify killing the other person.

See the old joke about denominational differences:

"Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it!" He said, "Nobody loves me." I said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?"

He said, "Yes." I said, "Are you a Christian or a Jew?" He said, "A Christian." I said, "Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?" He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me, too! What franchise?" He said, "Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?" He said, "Northern Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?"

He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region." I said, "Me, too!"

Northern Conservative†Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912." I said, "Die, heretic!" And I pushed him over."

 

[Shavano]

Banning Islam, deporting Muslims discussed at Fort Worth church after primary elections​

Emphasis mine. Crazy percolates upwards in American politics at an astonishing rate, and this is a sitting Republican representative openly advocating for (more) genocide and telling us how they want to do it.

I wonder what he thinks "Establishment of Religion" means.

Quibble: They mostly don't understand they worship the same diety.

Muslims and most Christians disagree about who God is. That's plenty to fight about.

With the way it is going, I am sure people will start killing for steak well-done vs. medium well. I am only half joking.

Beans in chili gets contentious.

 

[AverageDutchGuy]

In other news, and in coninuation of a talking point in a previous thread, Tony Gonzales dropped out of the race and Youtuber Brandon "The AK guy" Hererra is now the Rep. nominee for Texas district 23

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/05/tony-gonzales-texas-not-running-00816160

 

[Shavano]

In other news, and in coninuation of a talking point in a previous thread, Tony Gonzales dropped out of the race and Youtuber Brandon "The AK guy" Hererra is now the Rep. nominee for Texas district 23

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/05/tony-gonzales-texas-not-running-00816160

Oh, well that's an improvement. /s

 

[DarthSlack]

Speaking of improvements.......

All of the pro-Trump posters here at Ars who love to remind us of how bad the deficit is will be utterly pleased to know that the US has borrowed another $1T in the first five months of the fiscal year. Yup, we sure are lucky that Trump and his DOGE minions restored fiscal sanity to US Government spending!

 

[Diabolical]

Speaking of improvements.......

All of the pro-Trump posters here at Ars who love to remind us of how bad the deficit is will be utterly pleased to know that the US has borrowed another $1T in the first five months of the fiscal year. Yup, we sure are lucky that Trump and his DOGE minions restored fiscal sanity to US Government spending!

I feel we need to distinctly call out how much was paid in interest on the total debt in that same Oct/Nov/Dec/Jan/Feb period.

As a result, in just five months, the Treasury forked out a total of $433 billion to service public debt, which is now nearing $38.9 trillion.

This is yet another wedge that I would try to use to talk to conservatives about fiscal policy, but they’ll do one of two things eventually… if not both!

A) Blame Biden/Obama/Democrats. No evidence needed or presented.
B) Express some form of understanding of, “wait, what!? That isn’t what I…,” and then immediately revert back to drinking the cool aid the moment the conversation is over.

And yet I keep trying anyway. What’s the saying about trying the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result?

 

[Coriolanus]

All of the pro-Trump posters here at Ars

That's not a whole lot of people.

 

[poochyena]

Mark Kelly siding with Republicans in both suspending taxes and trying to lower gas prices.

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., plans to introduce a bill Monday to suspend the federal gas tax to help alleviate rising costs related to the war, his office confirmed.

“Families across Arizona are dealing with high costs on almost everything, and now gas prices are skyrocketing because Donald Trump started a war with Iran,” Kelly said in an emailed statement. “Arizona families shouldn’t pay the price for Donald Trump’s bad decisions. Suspending the federal gas tax would help bring prices down and give families some much needed relief.”

Great work at helping republicans by suspending a tax, lessening the damage from Trump's unpopular war, encouraging more use of oil causing greenhouse gases, and increasing the deficit even more on our underfunded infrastructure.
All of this because gas prices are at a..... 2 year high.

 

[Technarch]

Speaking of improvements.......

All of the pro-Trump posters here at Ars who love to remind us of how bad the deficit is will be utterly pleased to know that the US has borrowed another $1T in the first five months of the fiscal year. Yup, we sure are lucky that Trump and his DOGE minions restored fiscal sanity to US Government spending!

I'm sure all that spending was directed toward critical short term needs, though.

 

[Diabolical]

I'm sure all that spending was directed toward critical short term needs, though.

Two things:

First, that doesn’t fit within the five month period.

Second, that is typical of military spending. Has been true of it since I’ve been in around the military and the general MIC for the past quarter-century; my understanding is that this has been a thing since at least the early 70’s. Every September, units and commands are told to spend all of the money they still have on the books because once 01 October hits? That money is gone. Any left over cash in DOD accounts leaves and goes back to the Treasury. And if the money isn’t spent, that is often seen as justification for cutting that unit/command/etc budget in upcoming fiscal years - if you had money left over, obviously you don’t need it as much as other units who didn’t have money left over.

It’s a result of how the military is funded on a year-by-year basis and fiscal gamesmanship by every part of the DOD apparatus, from the department level all the way down to individual offices way out on the far end of the fiscal/command chain.

So that article headline is meant to be a shock.
To folks familiar with military spending cycles, it’s so exceedingly typical it barely registers. And, in fact, that article says pretty much what I just did.

So yeah. It’s a lot of money. But it’s also a typical September.

 

[Wheels Of Confusion]

I'm sure all that spending was directed toward critical short term needs, though.

That's a pretty regular end-of-fiscal-year phenomenon, I thought. Also they characterize it as "never seen anything like it" but the graph clearly shows a precedent in 2008, and a similarly large spike in 2024.
Note that the intermediary source is The Daily Caller which is... not very strict about journalistic standards.

The Daily Caller is a right-wing news and opinion website based in Washington, D.C.[8][11] It was founded by political commentator Tucker Carlson and political advisor Neil Patel in 2010. Launched as a "conservative answer to The Huffington Post", The Daily Caller quadrupled its audience and became profitable by 2012, surpassing several rival websites by 2013. In 2020, the site was described by The New York Times as having been "a pioneer in online conservative journalism".[12] As of 2025,The Daily Caller is a member of the White House press pool.[13][14]

The Daily Caller has published false stories and declined to correct them when they were shown to be untrue.[21] The website has published articles that contradict the scientific consensus on climate change. In 2018, the website cut ties with an editor linked to white supremacist causes.[22][23] The website has responded to challenges to its stories in various ways, in some cases defending their claims, and in others expressing regret for story headlines or content; and on at least one occasion, when pointed out by other news outlets, the website has repudiated a past article writer due to support of extremist views.

In 2020, Carlson left the site, with Patel buying out Carlson's stake to become majority owner.[24] Foster Friess, a major conservative donor also known for being an investment manager, remained a partial owner until his death in 2021.[25]

 

[Kyuu]

One would think that knowledge would lead one to conclude that perhaps the way the military is funded should be overhauled. Particularly by those who are supposedly so very concerned about fiscal responsibility. But nah, those are the same people who will declare that military spending is a sacred cow.