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?

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.

He wins.  Steve Stockman wins.

First we get him defeated at the voting booth.  Then we indict him.  But, bygawd, this is one libertarian/conservative who wins the prize.

Stockman spent his congressional career stomping and yelling about the damn government.  He wanted the government out of everything.  No government means good government.

Uh, until now.  He appeared in court yesterday and told the judge he only has $17 in his bank account so he can’t afford a lawyer.  He can’t work either since his job requires him to travel out of the country but he can’t do that while he’s out on bond.

The guy stole close to $1.2 million of charitable contributions.  He’s a scam artist.  But, he’s a master at scam artistry because he told the judge ….

Stockman told the judge he needed to dismiss his hand-picked lawyers from the elite firm of Smyser Kaplan & Veselka and ideally he wanted the court to re-appoint them to the case at the government’s expense. She said she’d consider the request.

She’d consider it?  Wait, wait, every other defendant in the courtroom gets what they get from the public defender system, but this guy wants us to pay for his fancy-pants hand-picked white collar crime law firm?  Oh hell, no.

So overnight this guy goes from wanting to destroy the government to wanting to buy lobster with food stamps, something he used to accuse others of doing?

Stockman admits that he owns a house, rental property, two vans and his wife makes $72 grand a year.  He can pay his lawyer.

I hate Republicans.  I really do.