Sepahnews (the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s official website) via AP: As the United States on Sunday said it rescued a service member missing behind enemy lines since Iran downed a fighter jet, Iran’s state TV aired a video showing what it claimed were parts of American aircraft that were part of the rescue operation that the country’s military had shot down. A regional intelligence official briefed on the mission told The Associated Press that the U.S. military blew up two transport planes due to a technical malfunction.
The Pentagon reports that in an operation involving hundreds of special operations troops, the U.S. successfully rescued the missing weapons officer from the F-15E shot down on Friday by Iran over Isfahan province. It was the second U.S. plane shot down last week despite Donald Trump’s claims that the U.S. has “overwhelming Air Dominance and Superiority over the Iranian skies.”
A senior U.S. military official described the mission to rescue the airman as one of the most challenging and complex in the history of U.S. special operations given the mountainous terrain, the airman’s injuries and Iranian forces rushing to the location.
In a final twist after the weapons officer was rescued, two transport planes that would carry the commandos and the airmen to safety got stuck at a remote base in Iran. Commanders decided to fly in three new planes to extract all the U.S. military personnel and the airman, and they blew up the two disabled planes rather than have them fall into Iranian hands
It’s great that Pete Hegseth’s “warfighters” don’t just kill but rescue as well. The family of the crewman got its Easter miracle.
Still, that photo at the top looks eerily familiar. Those of a certain age will recall the fate of President Carter’s failed attempt in April 1980 to rescue 53 American hostages held by Iran since November 1979. Operation Eagle Claw ended in failure before the rescue. Mechanical problems en route and dust storms at the staging site named Desert One turned to calamity. The Air Force Historical Division notes that at the time “the United States had few bases or resources” to support such a mission:
Once at Desert One, the RH-53 with hydraulic problems could not be repaired, which left the team with one less helicopter than was required to carry the assault team and hostages. With just five helicopters available, the on-scene commander aborted the mission. The plan then shifted to getting the assault team back on the MC-130s while the helicopters refueled and returned to the Nimitz. At that point, tragedy struck. One of the helicopter’s rotor blades inadvertently collided with a fuel-laden EC-130. Both aircraft exploded, killing five airmen on the EC-130 and three marines on the RH-53. The team commanders ordered the remaining helicopters abandoned and everyone to board the EC-130s, which soon departed for Masirah Island. With that, Operation Eagle Claw came to an end. President Carter was notified of the mission’s failure, and the wreckage at Desert One was broadcast to the world by the Iranian government. In the remaining months of his presidency President Carter continued to work toward the hostages’ release, although the government of Iran did not do so until the day of President Ronald W. Reagan’s inauguration on January 20, 1981.
Desert One wreckage.
Carter lost his reelection. Reagan won in a landslide. The greed-is-good 1980s followed. Wealth did not “trickle down.” Anger bubbled up instead, especially after the election of the first Black president and fallout from the Great Recession. Then came Donald Trump.
It isn’t tied directly to the debacle in the desert under Carter. But then everything is connected to everything else, isn’t it?
Earth from space, photographed by an Artemis II crew member
For those of us of “a certain age”, that is to say, old enough to have actually witnessed the moon landing live on TV… the fact that “we” were even able to achieve this feat “by the end of the decade” (as President Kennedy projected in 1961) still feels like a pretty big deal to me.
Of course, there are still big unanswered questions out there about Life, the Universe, and Everything, but I’ll leave that to future generations. I feel that I’ve done my part…spending my formative years plunked in front of a B&W TV in my PJs eating Sugar Smacks and watching Walter Cronkite reporting live from the Cape.
Those particular memories resurfaced recently as I watched Richard Linklater’s charming 2022 animated memoir Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood, which I stumbled across on Netflix:
Of course, 10 year-old Linklater didn’t land on the moon and return safely to the Earth just ahead of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin; that’s the fantasy part of his tale. It was the earthbound elements of his narrative that triggered an emotional sense memory of being a kid again, living in suburbia in 1969 (and watching the moon landing on a boxy black and white television set).
This past Wednesday, those memories came flooding back to me like a hot flash from the end of a Saturn V rocket:
One “teeny, tiny curb” for a human…one giant leap for humankind. Flick my pocket protector and call me a space geek, but we seem to have lost that collective feeling of wonder and curiosity about the cosmos (people are too busy doom scrolling to look up and stargaze anymore). As far as I’m concerned, the Artemis II mission is a good thing.
With the madness and mayhem dominating the current news cycle, the timing of NASA’s first manned lunar mission since 1972 couldn’t be better. Frankly, it’s been a minute since I’ve had a reason to feel pride in being an American. Surely, this is a galvanizing moment for our politically fractured country; something we can all get behind, yes?
President Donald Trump released a budget blueprint on Friday calling for a 23 percent cut to NASA’s budget, two days after the agency launched four astronauts on the first crewed lunar mission in more than 50 years.
The spending proposal for fiscal year 2027 is the opening salvo in a multi-month budget process. Both houses of Congress must pass their own appropriations bills, reconcile any differences between the two, and then send the final budget to the White House for President Trump’s signature. Fiscal year 2027 begins on October 1.
The White House requested a similar cut to NASA last year. The Republican-led Congress resoundingly rejected the proposal and kept NASA’s budget close to its level in the final year of the Biden administration. Like last year’s budget, the proposal from the Trump administration will undergo major changes as Congress weighs in over the coming months.
In a document explaining the NASA cuts, the Trump administration said it seeks to slash funding for “unnecessary and overpriced activities.” Under the White House plan, NASA will focus on the administration’s priority of landing humans on the Moon before the end of Trump’s term in office, then building a Moon base.ch was already effectively canceled last year due to cost overruns. […]
The most severe cuts are aimed at NASA’s science programs. The Trump administration proposes reducing science funding by nearly half, a $3.4 billion reduction compared to fiscal year 2026. The budget would cancel more than 40 “low-priority missions.” The budget overview released by the White House on Friday does not identify which missions would be terminated, other than Mars Sample Return, which was already effectively canceled last year due to cost overruns.
The White House asked for a cut to NASA’s science budget of a similar magnitude for fiscal year 2026, but Congress balked.
The Planetary Society decried the cuts as “draconian” in a press release on Friday.
And yes, I’ve seen the friendly fire on social media regarding the cost of the Artemis II mission. I “get” what some of my fellow well-meaning social progressives are saying, but here’s a little perspective. The 2026 fiscal budget for NASA was $24.44 billion. Granted, that is a hefty chunk of change, but a mere pittance, compared to this:
President Donald Trump has proposed boosting defense spending to $1.5 trillion in his 2027 budget released Friday, the largest such request in decades, reflecting his emphasis on U.S. military investments over domestic programs.
The sizable increase for the Pentagon, some 44%, had been telegraphed by the Republican president even before the U.S.-led war against Iran. The president’s plan would also reduce spending on non-defense programs by 10%.
“President Trump promised to reinvest in America’s national security infrastructure, to make sure our nation is safe in a dangerous world,” wrote Budget Director Russell Vought.
The president’s annual budget is considered a reflection of the administration’s values and does not carry the force of law. The massive document typically highlights an administration’s priorities, but Congress, which handles federal spending issues, is free to reject it and often does.
Trump, speaking ahead of an address to the nation this week about the Iran war, signaled the military is his priority, setting up a clash ahead in Congress.
I don’t know about you, but I would much rather see my hard-earned tax dollars go toward exploring strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no one has gone before…as opposed to empowering the baser instincts of an earthbound species that has been hell-bent on self destruction since Day 1.
Back to the mission at hand-a musical voyage to the far side of the moon, and returning you safely back to the Earth. Take your protein pills and put your headphones on:
Frank Sinatra – “Fly Me to the Moon”
Moxy Früvous – “You Will Go to the Moon”
Jonathan King – “Everyone’s Gone to the Moon”
Rush – “Countdown”
David Bowie – “Space Oddity”
Elton John – “Rocket Man”
Harry Nilsson – “Spaceman”
Deep Purple – “Space Truckin”
Montrose – “Space Station #5”
Kate Bush – “The Big Sky”
Prism – “Spaceship Superstar”
Yes – “Starship Trooper”
Moody Blues – “Floating”
The Rolling Stones – “2000 Light Years From Home”
The Orb – “Backside of the Moon”
The Police – “Walking on the Moon”
Ian Gillan Band – “Five Moons”
King Crimson – “Moonchild”
Nick Drake – “Pink Moon”
Paul McCartney & Wings – “Venus and Mars”
Jefferson Starship – “Have You Seen the Stars Tonight?”
The Church – “Under the Milky Way”
Gamma – “Voyager”
Peter Schilling – “Major Tom”
The Stories – “Earthbound/Freefall”
One more thing…
You can track the Artemis II mission in real time here:
The two were arrested on Friday after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ended their permanent residency status, according to the State Department.
“Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter are now in the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” the State Department said in a statement.
Rubio was only following orders from his boss — Laura Loomer.
Trump: “Over 3,000 years ago, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob delivered the ancient Israelites out of slavery and brought them into the promised land. It was an amazing period of time, just like today we have an amazing period of time.” pic.twitter.com/ark4DtDe7S
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) April 4, 2026
He wanted it big. He wanted lots of gold, lots of marble. He wanted visitors awestruck by his architectural expansion of the country’s symbolic seat of power. “They should sense the strength and grandeur of the German Reich as they walk from the entrance to the reception hall,” Adolf Hitler told his chief architect, Albert Speer, outlining his plans for an extension to the old Reich chancellery, at Wilhelmstrasse 77 in Berlin.
The new annex, connected to the chancellery by a marble corridor hung with crystal chandeliers, was part of Hitler’s ambitious plans to align the Berlin cityscape with his vision for the future of the country. Hitler wanted a Triumphbogen, a triumphal arch, twice the size of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. He wanted an “Avenue of Splendor” for military parades. “The Champs-Élysées is a hundred meters wide,” Hitler told Speer. “We will make our avenue twenty meters wider.” A planned Volkshalle was to accommodate 180,000. The Eiffel Tower could fit beneath its cupola. This “Hall of the People” was to be topped by the largest swastika on Earth. Berlin itself was to be rechristened as Weltstadt Germania, “Capital of the World.”
Trump on Alcatraz: "It sorta represents something that's both horrible and beautiful and strong and miserable, weak — it's got a lot of qualities that are interesting."
Last year Trump decided that we need to open up Alcatraz again for no apparent reason and the speculation at the time as that he’d watched “Escape From Alcatraz” that was playing on a local Palm Beach TV station that night. I don’t know if that’s true but it wouldn’t surprise me.
The Trump administration is asking Congress for $152 million to transform Alcatraz into a “state-of-the-art secure prison facility,” as part of its 2027 budget proposal. That would cover just the first-year costs of the redevelopment, which has been roundly criticized as ill conceived and a poor use of federal funds.
[…]
Donald Trump has seriously floated the possibility for almost a year, and members of his administration—such as former Attorney General Pam Bondi—have claimed that the site could be used to offload pressure from America’s existing prison network, potentially holding the likes of international drug traffickers. The biggest problem with that plan: Alcatraz can only hold a maximum of 336 prisoners.
Some of the most MAGA Senators are all onboard with it including Senator Eric Schmitt and Markwayne Mullin, Stephen Miller’s new puppet. And this brain trust:
Representative Mary E. Miller even got to work itemizing a fantasy list of the most important Alcatraz inductees: “The first person to be sent to Alcatraz should be Anthony Fauci,” she wrote in May…
CNN reports that there is practically zero possibility that they will open the prison. It’s small and super expensive to operate.
Currently, it brings in $60 million a year as a tourist destination. (It really is a great tour.) So this makes even less sense.
But Grandpa saw a movie and they may just give it to him to keep him happy. That’s how our kingdom works.
You may have heard that Trump and Vought have requested to hike the military budget to 1.5 trillion next year. To do that, they’ll be cutting everything else, including the following:
For the second year in a row, US President Donald Trump has proposed significant cuts to the budgets of major US science agencies. Released Friday, the White House’s plan for federal spending next year also includes a ban on using federal funds for subscriptions and publishing fees for some academic journals.
The plan proposes cuts to federal agencies that fund or conduct research on health, space and the environment. Some of the steepest cuts would be made to the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): the budgets of both would fall more than 50% in 2027 compared to their current levels (see ‘Budget crunch’). The budget for the US National Institutes of Health would drop 13%.
Science? Who needs it? We’re Murica and we have a military.
It’s unlikely the Congress will go along with these particular numbers. But if this GOP majority has its way it will go in this general direction.
Here’s a cheery item from The Guardian this morning. No really. Or at least it’s good news for our beleaguered friends in Ukraine. They are now not only the world’s foremost experts in the use of cheap drones on the battlefield, but robots as well. Victor Pavlov demonstrated:
The unmanned ground vehicles come in various shapes and sizes. One runs on caterpillar tracks and resembles a roofless milk float. Another has wheels and antennas. A third carries anti-tank mines. Since spring 2024 their use has grown exponentially.
“This is what modern warfare looks like. Armies everywhere will have to robotise,” said Pavlov, a lieutenant with Ukraine’s 3rd army corps.
The U.S. goes all in on expensive weaponry as if cost is no object. In the Iran theater, the U.S. is firing million-dollar missiles to stop Iranian drones that cost between $20,000 and $50,000 each. Forbes details how high-dollar U.S. gatling guns are failing to stop waves of cheap Iranian drones. They can miss a lot and run out of ammunition before the attack is over. “For that task, the sort of small interceptor drones developed by Ukraine, costing a few thousand dollars each and integrated with radar and other sensors may be a far better bet” when Shaheds “may keep coming night after night.”
Lacking our appetite or GDP, Ukraine has to get creative, innovate, and do more with less. (If only I could convince Democrats to try that.) Ukraine is developing a marketable export in the process.
Ukraine’s drone expertise is now highly sought after amid the US-Israeli war against Iran. Last week Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed 10-year defence agreements with several Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, to provide them with low-cost Ukrainian interceptors. They can shoot down long-range kamikaze Shahed drones, used by Tehran in its attacks on its neighbours, and by Moscow.
The Kremlin’s war has transformed Kyiv into a centre for the development of modern unmanned weapons. There is a unique ecosystem, where engineers design new products and frontline soldiers give instant feedback. Manufacturers then scale up supplies, building ground vehicles, anti-Shahed interceptors and pioneering sea drones.
One operator comments:
“It’s not Star Wars, where there are lots of lasers. The frontline is more like Terminator. A land robot arrives at your position and there is nothing you can do about it,” said Bambi, a drone operator with the 25th airborne brigade. He added: “You can shoot a person in the chest and they stop firing. If you shoot a ground robot it doesn’t feel pain. There is a guy looking at a screen who is going to fire back.”
So far none of these robotic systems are reported to be autonomous, AI-controlled systems of the kind U.S. tech bros and Pentagon “warfighters” want developed. So we’re not at Skynet just yet. But is that really good news?
CNN’s Harry Enten finds that Donald Trump’s net approval rating among independents is less that Richard Nixon’s ahead of his resignation. Behold:
ABSOLUTE BOMBSHELL on CNN: Donald Trump now has the worst net approval rating among independents of ANY president ever. He is literally polling 10 points worse than Richard Nixon right before he resigned. The American public has abandoned him entirely! pic.twitter.com/cAJFmv7BzS
I’m fixated on this coming November’s independent vote here in N.C. because they are now 39 percent of the state’s voter registration with Ds and Rs tied at 30 percent. Statewide, independents (registered “unaffiliated” here) voted 54 percent for Donald Trump in 2024. BUT, they voted 6 precent less than Democrats.
Reuters reported back in November on the aggregate vote share based on exit polling:
The independent share stood at 34% in the latest update of Edison’s exit poll, compared with 34% for Republicans and 32% for Democrats.
Nationally, independents accounted for more votes quantitatively, but I don’t find their national turnout percent this morning. Gallup found in January that a new high of 45 percent of Americans identify as independents. But many states do not register voters as independents, so percent turnout among self-identified independents is harder to pin down.
So while it’s significant that Enten finds Trump’s support among independents in the tank, what matters in November is how big that tank is and what percent turn out to vote.
And it’s a long seven months to Election Day. Anything could happen.
An orphaned grizzly cub and an older polar bear have just become best friends at the Detroit Zoo 🐻✨
Grizzly cub Jebbie was found wandering alone in Alaska, unable to survive on his own. He was transported to the Detroit Zoo in July, where he met Laerke, a lonely polar bear cub… pic.twitter.com/j81AjJ3Iac
— Beauty of music and nature 🌺🌺 (@Axaxia88) March 20, 2026
An orphaned grizzly cub and an older polar bear have just become best friends at the Detroit Zoo.
Grizzly cub Jebbie was found wandering alone in Alaska, unable to survive on his own. He was transported to the Detroit Zoo in July, where he met Laerke, a lonely polar bear cub who was also growing up without a mother bear. The two quickly became close companions, and the zoo says they do everything together, including ‘running, chasing each other, wrestling, rolling around, and lots of typical bear play.
What do bear cubs do to pass the time? Apparently dance and play a friendly game of Ring Around the Rosie.
A family of baby brown bears was spotted in eastern Finland holding hands and dancing around in a circle, just like schoolchildren do while singing the Ring Around the Rosie rhyme on the playground.
Valtteri Mulkahainen, a 52-year-old gym teacher, reportedly witnessed the adorable moment unfold in the animal kingdom in a forest in Suomussalmi, Finland, according to the Solent News Agency, which obtained the pictures.
