It's Tariff Week... Again

Neverending.

Donald Trump announced on Saturday that goods imported from both the European Union and Mexico will face a 30% US tariff rate starting 1 August, in letters posted to his social media platform, Truth Social.

The tariff assault on the EU came as a shock to European capitals as the European Commission and the US trade representative Jamieson Greer had spent months hammering out a deal they believed was acceptable to both sides.

Donald Trump has never stuck to a deal before, but we thought the would with us! 

Both the EU and Canada scrapped their planned Digital Services Taxes and this is their reward!

Guilty Pleasures

I known the soap opera doesn't matter and ultimately I don’t care what happens to any of these people, but I do take some pleasure in the fact that the worst people in the world are making each other miserable.

Horrible people who know nothing but being surrounded by other horrible people, unaware that life is not actually like that for most of us.

This is extra funny because Bondi is the only one who actually wants her job. Bongino and Patel are gonna pout quit eventually anyway.

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Run Away

The Bongino quitting rumors are heating up. The dude couldn’t believe he had to go to work almost every day.

Speaking Of Epstein

Bondi's doing great.

The United States Department of Justice this week released nearly 11 hours of what it described as “full raw” surveillance footage from a camera positioned near Jeffrey Epstein’s prison cell the night before he was found dead. The release was intended to address conspiracy theories about Epstein’s apparent suicide in federal custody. But instead of putting those suspicions to rest, it may fuel them further.

Metadata embedded in the video and analyzed by WIRED and independent video forensics experts shows that rather than being a direct export from the prison’s surveillance system, the footage was modified, likely using the professional editing tool Adobe Premiere Pro. The file appears to have been assembled from at least two source clips, saved multiple times, exported, and then uploaded to the DOJ’s website, where it was presented as “raw” footage.

Small Pleasures

That these horrible people have to spend time with each other.

FBI deputy director Dan Bongino took a day off from work Friday after clashing at the White House with Attorney General Pam Bondi over their handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, four sources familiar with the conflict told Axios.

Why it matters: The dispute erupted Wednesday amid the fallout of the administration walking back its claims about Epstein by determining the convicted sex offender didn't have a celebrity "client list," and that he wasn't murdered in his New York City prison cell in 2019.

Bongino didn't come to work Friday, leading some insiders to believe he had quit. But administration officials say he's still on the job, even as the internal tension over the Epstein case continues.

We Could Get REALLY MEAN

The Bushies would regularly (anonymously of course) tell reporters that they were holding back and if the Dems didn’t behave themselves then they would REALLY start calling them America-hating terrorist lovers.  

I don't know how effective it was on Democrats, but it was obvious reporters loved that shit.

Anyway, with Trump at 35% on immigration, they don't have to be defensive.  35% means Trump has lost everyone with greater than 1% chance of voting for a Democrat.

Finger On The Pulse

 John Kerry (81):

Former US Secretary of State John Kerry has told the BBC his fellow Democrats allowed the US-Mexico border to be "under siege" during Joe Biden's presidency.

In sometimes sharp words, Kerry - who was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004 and a US senator from Massachusetts - said he told Biden the party had "missed" on the issue of immigration for years.

Obviously anyone paying attention knows this is not what happened but, also, too, Gallup

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans have grown markedly more positive toward immigration over the past year, with the share wanting immigration reduced dropping from 55% in 2024 to 30% today. At the same time, a record-high 79% of U.S. adults say immigration is a good thing for the country.

... 

Perhaps because of Americans’ opposition to immigration policies that Trump has enacted to remove undocumented immigrants from the U.S., their evaluation of his work on immigration is mostly negative. Thirty-five percent approve of his handling of the issue, including 21% strongly approving, while 62% disapprove, including 45% strongly.

I've seen Dems lose their shit when an issue is 55-45% against them. Right now immigration is 62-35% against Trump.

Democrats did handle immigration extremely badly, just as people like me tried to explain: they agreed with Trump about his signature issue.

They have also handled it badly since, not understanding that while many Americans are assholes, it was an obvious call that the majority would not like videos of armed and masked agents of the state violently kidnapping people.  

Professional Dems will still resist this because they earned their vacation home money on this advice and they can never be wrong.

Where We Are

Even relatively "pro-Israel" Dems pretend to care about Palestinians, occasionally.  A good chance to do the minimum here.

Can't Even Stick To That Fake Story

The "Israel is a wonderful country led astray by one man, Benjamin Netanyahu" line is ridiculous, of course, but numerous Dem senators appearing with BiBi for a photo op can't even maintain that silly fiction.

Nice try, Cory.

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Values Voters

And another one.

State Sen. Angela Paxton announced Thursday she has filed for divorce from her husband, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

“I believe marriage is a sacred covenant and I have earnestly pursued reconciliation,” Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, said in a post on X. “But in light of recent discoveries, I do not believe that it honors God or is loving to myself, my children, or Ken to remain in the marriage.”

Though with Paxton it is indeed another one. 

Sure Why Not

 

America's Worst University

Harvard University.

Sure Why Not

At least under the great financial crisis there were some houses, now we've just got fake companies on top of magic beans built on more magic beans.

In the annals of Donald Trump’s crypto corruption, the $100 million Aqua 1 Foundation deal stands out for more than just its size: There’s very little evidence that Aqua 1 Foundation exists at all. The Aqua 1 website, which was registered on May 28, 2025, contains no information about the company beyond some fintech buzzwords and an e-mail address. The company’s original X account was suspended, as was an account for an apparently affiliated company called BlockRock RWA (“RWA” refers to the practice of creating blockchain tokens for “real world assets”). Searching public databases, including of businesses in the United Arab Emirates, I’ve been unable to find any corporate registration, official filings, or other documents attesting to the existence of World Liberty Financial’s newest and biggest investor.

What if we built a fraud system based on fake money and then got Congress to make our fake money real? I anticipate no problems.

Over To You, John and Sam

* US JUDGE BLOCKS PRESIDENT TRUMP'S BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP ORDER IN NATIONWIDE CLASS ACTION @reuters.com

— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) July 10, 2025 at 3:16 PM

Still Embarrassed Years Later

I don't even remember which country he was from, but I remember once in grad school I praised the English of someone who had grown up speaking it and I am still mortified over 30 years later.

US President Donald Trump praised Liberian President Joseph Boakai for his strong grasp of the English language on Wednesday. But the African leader was educated in Liberia, where English is the official language.

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