So now it’s Betsy DeVos.

Federal marshals are protecting Education Secretary Betsy DeVos at a cost to her agency of nearly $8 million over nearly eight months, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.

The Education Department has agreed to reimburse the marshals $7.78 million for their services from mid-February to the end of September, said a marshals spokeswoman — an average of about $1 million per month.

Now, this contract is just through September.  No word on how much it’s going to cost after September.

Let me see if I have this right.  Our billionaire Secretary of Education, who hates public education, is taking one million dollars a month out of the hands of public schoolchildren?  She must be thrilled!

Thanks to Steff for the heads up.

Remember how Donald Trump was going to bring back all those coal mining jobs?

Well, maybe not so much.

The Kentucky Coal Mining Museum in Benham is owned by Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College. Communications Director Brandon Robinson told WYMT, they’re hoping to save money by the switch.

“We believe that this project will help save at least eight to ten thousand dollars, off the energy costs on this building alone, so it’s a very worthy effort and it’s going to save the college money in the long run,” said Robinson.

The museum says they fully understand the irony of this but they had budget cutbacks and this will save them a ton of money.

Featured in the next solar power teevee ad:  The Kentucky Coal Mining Museum.

Thanks to Bernie for the heads up.

Explain this to Wayne LaPierre.

At 3:40 pm at the headquarters of the National Rifle Association in Fairfax, Virginia, a 46 year old was teaching a gun safety class right there smack dab in the middle of the headquarters.

He, of course, shot himself.

According to police, the man, an employee, was participating in firearms training at the shooting range located in the museum when he attempted to holster his pistol. As he did so, the weapon accidentally fired, injuring the man’s lower body. The man’s name was not disclosed and no charges are expected to be filed.

They haven’t released his name but I sure hope it’s Helpless Dick.

Thanks to everybody for the heads up.

In case you missed it, here is the Mar-a-Lago war room —

You’ll note that they are all sitting on the standard issue war room delicate gold rattan chairs.

If some of these names are not familiar to you, here’s a handy guide.

Seriously, y’all, what the hell is that Steve Miller guy doing in there?  I mean, except to make Bannon look sane.

I agree with El Jefe below.  This whole bombing thing was a fake reality show.

And in Irony of the Hour, Sean Hannity on September 3rd, 2013.

UPDATE:  Well, here ya go.

Raytheon stock surged Friday morning, after 59 of the company’s Tomahawk missiles were used to strike Syria in Donald Trump’s first major military operation as President.

…

The shares of other missile and weapons manufacturers, including Boeing(BA, +0.83%), Lockheed Martin(LMT, +1.17%), Northrop Grumman(NOC, +0.90%)and General Dynamics(GD, +0.93%), each rose as much as 1%, collectively gaining nearly $5 billion in market value as soon as they began trading, even as the broader market fell.

Goes a long way explaining everything, doesn’t it?

The Pentagon says that the Russians were given advanced warning of Trump’s cruise missile attack on the Shayrat airbase in Syria.  The missiles destroyed a few out-of-service aircraft and empty fortified bunkers.  The airbase is already back in use.  Here’s a satellite photo taken after the attack:

Notice anything unusual? The main runway is undamaged untouched.  I mean completely untouched.  So, the US launches 59 Tomahawk missiles and NONE were targeted on the runway?  One of the cruise missile’s missions is to disable airfields by landing 1,000 lb warheads or multiple cluster bomblets to make craters, rendering the concrete runway unusable.  Instead, they hit outlying buildings, inflicting no damage on the actual target, the runway.  As a result, warplanes that had been moved are already back in service.

Just to give you and idea of the high explosive nature of Tomahawk’s, here’s a video demonstration of it’s capability.  You can go to about 4:15 to see the explosive force on a demonstration target.

https://youtu.be/btXZoAqLyDI

So, follow along with me here.  The US warns Russia of the attack.  Syrians move all their working aircraft off the base.  The cruise missiles land, but don’t touch the airbase runway.  The Syrian planes are already back in operation at the base.  What a coingkydink.  Was this an actual attack or window dressing covering some larger coordination between Trump’s regime and Putin’s?

This whole story fails the straight faced test.  Who’s kidding who here?  Why is the media virtually ignoring these blatant inconsistencies?

Something is rotten in Palm Beach.

I’m going to leave an open thread for you here.  I was at the ballpark last night and was completely out of touch.

(For newcomers: if the Astros are in town, odds are about 80% that I leave home by 5:00 pm and don’t return until midnight. I do not pay attention to my phone at the ballpark. It seems irreverent to do so.)

So, please feel free to use this entry to talk about Syria, Trump, and any news today.  I’ll be home all afternoon but will leave for the ballpark at 4:00 today.