Notes and Essays -- John Brown

Musk Visits C.I.A. to Discuss Downsizing Efforts A federal judge ordered the agency to reconsider its firings of employees who had been assigned to diversity recruiting.  The George Bush Center for Intelligence in Langley, Va. Credit... Tom Brenner for The New York Times By  Julian E. Barnes Reporting from Washington Washington Post, March 31, 2025,  6:22 p.m. ET

Kim Delaney, ‘NYPD Blue’ actress, arrested after alleged domestic dispute   By  Lisa Respers France  and  Alli Rosenbloom , CNN  2 minute read  Published 11:20 AM EDT, Mon March 31, 2025 Follow: Crime See your latest updates Kim Delaney on "General Hospital."   Todd Wawrychuk/ABC/Getty Images  CNN   —   Kim Delaney, best known for her roles in”NYPD Blue” and “All My Children,” was arrested over the weekend, according to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. Lt. Jose Salgado, watch commander at the Marina Del Rey Sheriff’s Station, said Delaney was arrested at her residence on Saturday on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.  She was still in custody as of Sunday evening is scheduled to be in court on Tuesday for arraignment, Salgado said. ... 

“I would argue that’s what Dan Caine has,” McKenzie said. “Is he going to be successful? I don’t know. I think it’s impossible to predict any w success because it is a uniquely difficult job.” ent, in a Friday night social media post, said that he had fired Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. and other senior military leaders, and was appointing a retired three-star general as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff." Caine with his father, Steve, in the early 1990s in Syracuse, New York. (U.S. Defense Department) https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/03/31/dan-caine-joint-chiefs-chairman/

"[T]he administration came to power in January bristling with rage toward the most elite realms of American higher education. As candidates, President Trump depicted top schools as overrun by 'Marxists, maniacs and lunatics' and Vice President JD Vance derided them as 'insane.'   (Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance both hold degrees from Ivy League universities.)" From:  The New York Times  [March 31]

"What a shame Vance didn’t extend his weekend visit to Greenland for another, oh, 45 months."   Bret Stephens , NYTimes And this, from the same article: Bret:  I suspect historians will one day remember the Department of Government Efficiency the way we now remember lobotomies.

Illustration:  Alexandra Citrin-Safadi/WSJ From The Wall Street Journal

Aimee Lou Wood as Chelsea on “The White Lotus.” Credit... HBO By  Madison Malone Kircher March 21, 2025, The New York Times “I love your teeth. You’re from England, right?” Charlotte Le Bon asks her co-star Aimee Lou Wood in an early episode of this season of “The White Lotus.” Ms. Wood’s smile is broad, beautiful and something of a novelty these days — both among her castmates and in a broader sea of actors with straight, evenly spaced teeth having been apparently willed into submission by orthodontics or cosmetic modification.  ..."

Elon Musk and his son step off of Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews on March 17. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images) From: The Washington Post , March 21

The White House February 11, 2025 Presidential Actions  https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/implementing-the-presidents-department-of-government-efficiency-workforce-optimization-initiative/ Implementing The President’s “Department of Government Efficiency” Workforce Optimization Initiative The White House February 11, 2025    By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:       Section 1.  Purpose.   To restore accountability to the American public, this order commences a critical transformation of the Federal bureaucracy.  By eliminating waste, bloat, and insularity, my Administration will empower American families, workers, taxpayers, and our system of Government itself.       Sec. 2.  Definitions.   (a)  “Agency” has the meaning given to it in section 3502 of title 44, United States Code, except t...

WIN MCNAMEE | GETTY IMAGES U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a meeting with U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey at the Pentagon on Mar. 6.; image from  ;  see also; and also ; and also Anonymous: Say what you want about the Yankees, but they have fine looking teeth.

The agreement announced after parallel sets of talks in Riyadh would be the first significant step toward the full cease-fire the Trump Administration had been pushing, but it still would fall short. By  Constant Méheut  and  Ivan Nechepurenko ,  The New York Times ,  Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine, and Tbilisi, Georgia.  March 25, 2025 Updated  12:14 p.m. ET; see   also [important] The White House said Tuesday that Ukraine and Russia had agreed to cease fighting in the Black Sea and to hash out the details for halting strikes on energy facilities. It would be the first significant step toward the full cease-fire the Trump Administration had been pushing, but it still would fall short of that goal. The agreements came after  three days of intense negotiations in Riyadh , the capital of Saudi Arabia, during which delegations from Ukraine and Russia met separately with U.S. mediators. Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s defense minister, confirmed the agree...