Extra! Extra crazy!

 Early this morning a container ship called the Dali left the port of Baltimore and collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge, demolishing it.  The Coast Guard and the Baltimore Fire Department are still looking for six people who were in cars at the time or performing routine maintenance on the bridge.  The Dali veered off course and issued a mayday before the accident and then appeared to catch fire.

The same ship scraped the quay in Antwerp eight years ago, but that has not deterred the Konspiracy Kaukus from jumping in.  Some decided that the shipping company must have adopted DEI hiring policies, resulting in less-qualified sailors, because the industry is notoriously woke.  (All 22 crew are Indian.)  The history-minded promptly found a reason to blame THE JOOZ!  "Israel cancels its visit to Washington after the US allows the UN Gaza cease-fire resolution to pass and then the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore is attacked?  This is not a coincidence, nor was it an accident!"  Alex Jones emerged from his cave to tweet, "A cyber-attack is probable.  WW3 has already started."  Andrew Tate chimed in, "Nothing is safe.  Black Swan event imminent."  I don't know what that means but it might involve Tate's legal problems in Romania, where he is currently locked up on allegations of rape, human trafficking and other activities.  

I'm watching a news conference in Baltimore and the Dali looks perfectly seaworthy.  The bridge is just some girders sticking out of the Patapsco River.  It opened in 1977, before the era of humongous container ships (and equally humongous cruise ships, for that matter), and although up to code according to Governor Moore, it wasn't up to date for 2024.  When the I35W Bridge in Minneapolis-St. Paul collapsed in 2007, I don't remember the nuts sharing their insights.  Poor maintenance, as I recall, was the cause.

Back in the real world we have a pile of wreckage blocking a major ship channel; broken supply chains for autos, coal and machinery; and a Congress that would rather fight amongst itself and pursue bullshit impeachments than find the money to help Biden, as they see it.  At whichever trial he is attending today, Trump is probably ordering little Mike to be as obstructive as possible.  

Speaking of bullshit, Robert Kennedy, Jr., is unveiling his "running mate," and it's not the anti-vax football player.  It's Nicole Shanahan, described as a "wealthy entrepreneur."  Most of her wealth stems from a marriage to Sergey Brin, founder of Google.  Shanahan runs something called the Bia-Echo Foundation, which says the "creative spirit and life force behind our human capacity will stimulate long-lasting and sustainable progress within our key areas of investment."  Your guess is as good as mine, but I'm pretty sure herbs are involved.

Time for another of those jaw-dropping holiday wishes at which "your favorite President (me)" is unsurpassed.  "Happy Holy Week!  Let's Make America Pray Again.  As we head into Good Friday and Easter, I encourage you to get a copy of the God Bless the USA Bible."  He isn't actually peddling the books -- that would be Lee Greenwood, the only musician who isn't suing Trump for using his song at hate rallies.  But you can bet your ass he's making bank from it, only $59.99, the only Bible to feature photos of Trump flashing his store teeth.  Happy Holy Week indeed.  I'll be very surprised if there isn't an autographed version at around $500, for the extra-devout.  Oh, and there's a video in which he preaches that "religion and Christianity" have vanished from America "and we need to bring them back...All Americans need a Bible in their home and I have many."  Of course he has.  The Gideons put them in all his hotels.  Make America Pray Again?  What, with truncheons?

Speaking of the extra-devout, Israel has found another way to tear itself apart:  The government has a bill to end the ultra-Orthodox exemption from military service.  Evidently anticipating a much longer war, the Netanyahu government needs to extend the duration of military service and raise the age for reservists, but the proposal to draft Haredi is the most controversial -- right now they devote all their time to studying Torah on a government stipend.  In 1948 this was about four hundred men, but it's up to twelve percent of the population.  It's like the tax exemption for the religion industry in the US, based on a dubious interpretation of the First Amendment.  It just increases the burden on everyone else.  

Later:  It appears the six missing from the Key Bridge disaster were construction workers on a meal break.  A co-worker described them as family men from Central America, the very people Greg Abbott wants to shoot on sight.

It's been tried before:  Judge Juan Merchan imposed a gag order on Trump forbidding any more "threatening, inflammatory, denigrating" remarks about court personnel, prosecutors, witnesses, family members or just anyone whose name he can remember.  In response, the defendant spewed abuse at the judge and his daughter, who works for Adam Schiff.  After a long and incoherent rant he concluded, "These COUNTRY DESTROYING SCOUNDRELS & THUGS HAVE NO CASE AGAINST ME.  WITCH HUNT!"  Scoundrels, you say?  Are they poltroons?  Dastards?  Find out when the case opens on April 15.  Will be wild.