Men's Lifestyle May 29, 2026 0 Comments

Pam Bondi Drops a Bomb on Todd Blanche—You Won’t Believe What Went Down Next!

Ever wonder what’s really lurking behind the headlines as we slide into the weekend? It’s a wild mix of cloak-and-dagger intelligence blunders, courtroom showdowns, and even some jaw-dropping archaeological surprises — all wrapped up in that unpredictable whirlwind we call modern life. Imagine a former CIA bigwig hoarding gold bars like a secret treasure chest, a judge putting a hard stop to political piggy banks full of slush, and dinosaur news that makes your college sink look positively prehistoric. Sounds like a rollercoaster, right? Well, buckle up — because this 8-minute read dives deep into it all, with a healthy sprinkle of wit, the occasional eyebrow raise, and some hard truths to chew on. Ready to unpack the chaos and spot the gems hidden in the madness? LEARN MORE

8 min read

Out on the Weekend

(Permanent Musical Accompaniment to the Last Post of the Week from the Blog’s Favourite Living Canadian)

Sometimes the intelligence “community” really isn’t that intelligent. Sometimes you can get rich by knowing when that is. From NPR:

Many people in the workplace struggle with expense reports and imposter syndrome. And then, according to the FBI, there is David J. Rush—a former CIA official who is accused of taking gold bars and bulk cash to his Virginia home while also allegedly lying about his education and military service, according to federal court records. Rush, a former senior executive service-level CIA employee in Virginia, was arrested on May 19, after FBI agents searching his home seized more than 300 1-kilogram gold bars valued at more than $40 million, according to an affidavit from FBI Special Agent Matthew T. Johnson, who works in the counterintelligence division of the FBI’s Washington field office.

Three hundred gold bars? I mean, everybody knows they replaced the gold at Fort Knox with the dead alien bodies from the Roswell crash, but is it possible they stashed it in this guy’s sock drawer—aka the Menendez Gambit? Who can truly say?

The CIA says it informed the FBI of its suspicions about Rush, who apparently fell under scrutiny after he began asking for gold bars last November. That’s when he began making “several requests … to obtain a significant quantity of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars for work-related expenses,” according to the affidavit. “After a CIA internal investigation identified potential violations of the law, CIA Director John Ratcliffe referred the information to the FBI for a law enforcement investigation,” a CIA spokesperson told NPR via email, in a statement jointly issued with the FBI.

Nothing gets by the CIA, people.

Here’s some good news to take into the weekend, as temporary as this good news may turn out to be. A federal judge has looked at the slush fund and found it full off … slush. From Politico:

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s effort to establish a fund to reimburse people who claim they were targeted by the “weaponization” of the federal government. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said the restraining order was meant to ensure that no funds are “irreversibly disbursed” before the legal fight over the newly announced fund has a chance to play out.

The ruling released Friday amounted to what was an unusually urgent action by the judge, who said in her brief order that she was compelled to rule prior to a formal response from the Trump administration because of concerns that the fund might quickly begin doling out cash. The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by a former Justice Department prosecutor and other plaintiffs who contended that it was an illegal and unconstitutional abuse of taxpayer funds. Rather than apply the fund in a “viewpoint neutral” manner, they argue that it’s essentially rigged to reward Trump’s political allies.

I have no doubt that the administration will continue to push this through the courts until they find a pliant judge, and that it will do the same for the three (!) other lawsuits that have been launched against the fund. But it’s good for us all when a judge makes plain what should be obvious to everyone else. A couple more losses on the way up the chain and the boyos in the camo will have to continue to run up their tabs at the Dew Drop Inn.

Late on Friday, another federal judge ordered the president’s name off the Kennedy Center. From CNBC:

A federal judge on Friday barred President Donald Trump from adding his name to that of the Kennedy Center, as he did in late December, saying that only Congress has the authority to make such a change. Judge Christopher Cooper also temporarily blocked the Washington, D.C., cultural landmark from being closed for two years for renovations at the behest of Trump. Cooper, in his ruling, said the Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees did not balance its obligations to the center in deciding to shutter for renovations. But the board might be able to close for that purpose “after independently balancing its multiple obligations to the Center in a prudent fashion,” the judge wrote in the decision in U.S. District Court in Washington.

Weekly WWOZ Pick to Click: “Searching for the Real Thing” (Eddie Bo): Yeah, I pretty much still love New Orleans.

Weekly Visit to the Pathé Archives: Here, from 1942, is an amazing British cartoon about the necessity of contributing bones to the war effort. I especially enjoyed learning about how important surplus bones were to tanks. The cartoon does not make clear whether it was asking for surplus human bones that people might have in their “cupboards.” (Skeletons in the closet. Get it? Get it?) If so, that raises a lot of interesting questions. History is so cool.

Watching Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs is to watch the entire geometry of basketball change before your eyes.

On Thursday night, the Oklahoma City Thunder, defending NBA champions, looked as though they’d wandered into the wrong arena and were being asked to play a game they were not familiar with. This has happened a couple times in the history of the league. But the NBA never has seen a combination of the outlandish size and outlandish skills of Wembanyama. (Years ago, it was thought that Ralph Sampson might have had a similar impact, but he never seemed capable of using his physical gifts to dominate as a professional.)

Also, I hereby nominate Stephon Castle of the Spurs to the NBA All-Hair team. I mean, Lordy Lord, Loretta Lynn didn’t have as big a pile on her head.

Pam Bondi appeared before the House oversight committee for a closed interview, and interim attorney general Todd Blanche came back from lunch to discover he was under a bus. From Politico:

“The request is, going in today, to Chairman [James] Comer to have Todd Blanche come in,” Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, told reporters. “If he doesn’t do it, we’re going to force a subpoena and try to get votes—but he’s got to come in.”

“There were redaction errors,” Bondi acknowledged, according to her prepared opening statement. “But since day one of this process, this Department has been committed to accountability and transparency.” She continued, “our stance has always been that the Department stands ready to review any potential evidence of criminal activity related to Epstein and his associates and would pursue appropriate investigative or prosecutorial action wherever the facts and law warrant.” But, she also noted, “as the head of a large Department with broad responsibilities, I did not lead every aspect of this effort or conduct that document review myself. I delegated oversight over this process to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.”

The longer this goes on, the louder those lines from Henry V ring in my ears:

For your own reasons turn into your bosoms

As dogs upon their masters, worrying you.—

See you, my princes and my noble peers,

These English monsters.

The cannibal feast around the executive branch is going to be luxurious.

Discovery Corner: Hey, look what we found. From Archaeology News:

Archaeologists working in the Bavarian city of Aschaffenburg have uncovered a rare Iron Age structure along the Main River The find emerged during construction work for a stormwater overflow basin north of the Willigis Bridge, where crews unexpectedly encountered large wooden remains nearly eight meters below the surface. The discovery quickly drew the attention of the Bavarian State Office of Municipal Protection, known as the BLfD. At first, researchers believed the structure belonged to the early modern period because the wood had survived in unusually strong condition. Waterlogged soil near the river protected the oak beams for more than two thousand years.

Laboratory analysis later changed the entire picture. Specialists at the BLfD’s dendrochronology laboratory in Thierhaupten examined growth rings preserved in several oak timbers and compared them with regional tree-ring records. The results showed the trees were cut down during the 4th century BCE, placing the structure firmly within the Early La Tène period of the Iron Age.

I like the idea of people who stuck with wood during the Iron Age. Traditionalists.

Hey, SciNews, is it a good day for dinosaur news? It’s always a good day for dinosaur news!

The newly-described dinosaur species roamed our planet about 70 million years ago (Late Cretaceous epoch). The ancient reptile lived in a landscape of meandering rivers and streams with seasonal ponds, inhabited by aquatic plants such as water lilies and animals including fish, insects, and various mollusks. Dubbed Kank australis, the animal grew up to some 2.5-3 m (8.2-9.8 feet) long. It belonged to Unenlagiidae, a group of feathered, bird-like theropods related to the famous Velociraptor and known from South America, Antarctica, Australia and Madagascar.

“The paravian clade Unenlagiidae is represented by fossils from different Cretaceous basins in South America, Madagascar, Australia, and Antarctica, but the best-known species come from the Neuquén Basin, in northern Patagonia,” said Dr. Matías Motta from the Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum and his colleagues.

Ol’ Kank got around. In other news, a Cretaceous basin is what my sink looked like in college. They lived then to make me happy then, and now.

I’ll be back on Monday for whatever fresh hell awaits. Be well and play nice, ya bastids. Stay above the snake-line and wear the damn masks, and take the damn shots, especially the boosters and any New One. In your spare time, spare a thought for the Iranian people, and the Lebanese people, and all the other people downrange in our newest war, and all the people in ICE detention, and the Epstein victims, whose trauma is back in the news again, and Eric Swalwell’s victims, and the victims and their families in the Tumbler Ridge school shooting in Canada, and for the shooting victims in Austin, and for the families of the victims of the mosque shooting in San Diego, and in Michigan, and in Virginia, and in Louisiana, and for the brilliant journalists of The Washington Post, and for the citizens of the occupied city of Minneapolis and South Burlington, Vermont, and for all the people in the flooded areas of southern Africa, and in the flooded areas in Ireland, and in the flooded areas of Brazil, and for the storm-clobbered, flooded areas of the upper Midwest, including my alma mater, and in Georgia, and for the people affected by the tornadoes in Mississippi, and for people suffering from the hantavirus outbreak on the Hondius, the outbreaks of measles, a particularly brutal flu, and the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in Harlem, and for our LGBTQ+ citizens, who deserve so much more from this country than they’re getting.