Morning

Feisty Friday

Happy Hour

Raise a glass to our president!

TMZ Era

I suppose having journalists who report what they see instead of covering it up would be good.

I think a lot of people in D.C. are very circumspect about the fact that the Senate is full of people who are way too old to be there, including Mitch McConnell,” said one reporter. “He has people guiding him around, he can’t really answer questions — it’s really striking, and I feel like a lot of people are very hands off with that. TMZ is not going to be hands off.”

My first visit to the Capitol was about 3 days before 9/11. A friend was a Senate staffer. Had the full tour. Bumped into Strom and Jesse and their entourages. Those guys were already dead.

Stonks

I suppose it won't be too long before we see who is right.

The evidence that investors are overlooking the implications of the current situation is piling up. The war’s end is no longer the point at which things will return to something approaching normal. U.S. inflation was at 3.3 percent last month and is expected to rise further, and the second-order effects on goods that are derived from fossil fuels or rely on energy—in the latter case, all of them—haven’t even hit yet. Diesel and jet fuel, the heavy transportation fuels, are rising faster than gasoline. There are trucking costs and fertilizer costs and plastic and aluminum packaging costs, all of which will spark more core inflation, which hasn’t budged much relative to more volatile benchmarks like energy.

Then there’s the impact on capital flows coming from the Persian Gulf. The major Gulf states are in no position right now to invest, which had hitherto propped up projects and asset managers globally. Losing Gulf state capital might be a bigger deal than losing their oil. The fact that the U.S. is considering a bailout of the United Arab Emirates is a terrible sign.

Redistricting

There was a very high profile cunning Republican plan to do mid-decade redistrcting, supported by America's Greatest President, Donald Trump. Conservative media figures were all behind it! Do we think Fox News viewers and similar are actually buying this shit?

Oh No They Fired Brownie

Guy wasn't qualified anyway.

Navy Secretary John Phelan will leave the Trump administration “effective immediately,” the Pentagon announced Wednesday, marking the latest departure of a top defense official this year.

Just sounds like basic office politics stuff, with Hegseth hating him.

It probably doesn't matter much that he was fired, but it does matter that it doesn't matter, if that makes sense. The guy in charge of the Navy shouldn't be so easily dispsensable at this particular moment.

Elder Care

David Scott had been, diplomatically, not fully able to do his job for years and was running for another term.

US Democratic Rep. David Scott, who represented Georgia’s 13th Congressional District, has died at 80 years old.

They don't want to retire because even the very rich ones can't really purchase the kind of "care" that their staffers will provide for them, at least not if they didn't already have longtime personal staffers.

There used to be regular mini scandals about staffers doing personal duties for their bosses. I'm sure there is an enforced omerta now as so many offices are like this.

Morning

Once again.

Happy Hour

You only get one hour.

Nobody Knows This

I actually bet "nobody" does know this. (Almost) No more Florida oranges.

In 2003, the mighty Florida orange industry produced 242 million boxes of fruit, with 90 pounds of oranges per box, most of which went on to become orange juice. Now, not even 25 years later, the United States Department of Agriculture was forecasting a pitiful 12 million boxes of oranges, the least in more than 100 years, the worst year since last. A decline of more than 95 percent.

Sure Why Not

Replacing the old bullshit with new bullshit.

But over the last six months, Mr. Musk has shifted SpaceX’s priorities. Though the tech mogul once forecast that humans would take off for Mars as early as 2024, he has de-emphasized reaching the planet.

Instead, SpaceX on Tuesday said it had struck a deal with the artificial intelligence start-up Cursor that could result in its acquiring the young company for $60 billion. And Mr. Musk, 54, has proposed other moonshots that could drive more attention and investment to SpaceX as it prepares for one of the largest-ever initial public offerings.

Among his pronouncements are A.I. data centers that could orbit Earth, moon-based factories and an A.I. chip manufacturing plant, all of which will contribute to a utopian future where humans never have to work, he has said.

Mommy He Hit Me Back

Obviously a few seats can matter (as is the case now!), but I never worried too much about the Republican gerrymandering. I mean, if the Dems can't net 20+ seats after 2 years of Donald Trump, then they deserve to lose (not that we deserve the consequences of that).

Still it was good to see them overcome their normal timidity and actually respond. Republicans and much of the media don't consider this to be fair, as Dems are not supposed to behave that way.

Warfighting

One never knows how much this stuff is true and how much it is just part of the regular PR push for more defense spending.

The US military has significantly depleted its stockpile of key missiles during the war with Iran and created a “near-term risk” of running out of ammunition in a future conflict should one arise in the next few years, according to experts and three people familiar with recent internal Defense Department stockpile assessments.

Over the last seven weeks of war, the US military has expended at least 45% of its stockpile of Precision Strike Missiles; at least half of its inventory of THAAD missiles, which are designed to intercept ballistic missiles; and nearly 50% of its stockpile of Patriot air defense interceptor missiles, according to a new analysis conducted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Those numbers closely align with classified Pentagon data about US stockpiles, according to the sources familiar with the assessment.

If it is true, or even trueish, then the question should not be "how much more money does the Pentagon need" but "what the fuck do we spend all that money on."

The Mysteries Of Stonks

The market seems to follow what Donald Trump is saying instead of reacting to objective reality.

Open For Business

Gramps is gonna be raging.

Iran’s navy on Wednesday said it had seized two container ships in the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, shortly after the U.S. extended the ceasefire and as diplomats seek to bring the countries together for peace talks.

Morning

Wacky Wednesday.

Oh No They Lost The Dersh

It's over.

America's Worst Humans

Jesse Watters.

Never Post

Good advice for us all.

Some Trump officials privately acknowledged to CNN that the president’s public commentary has been detrimental to talks, noting the sensitivity of the negotiations and the Iranians’ deep mistrust of the US. Compounding matters: American officials suspect there is a divide between Iran’s negotiating team, led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, leading to questions about who can ultimately sign off on a deal.

“The Iranians didn’t appreciate POTUS negotiating through social media and making it appear as if they had signed off on issues they hadn’t yet agreed to, and ones that aren’t popular with their people back home,” one person familiar with the talks told CNN, adding that the Iranians are particularly concerned about appearing to look weak.

America's superdiplomat, JD Vance, has postponed his trip to Islamabad. 

Warfighters

Whiskey Pete announced that flu vaccines would no longer be mandatory. Life aboard the big boats is going to be great.

I do believe that (most) Americans have no idea what the flu is, thinking it is just a bad cold. A bad cold is just a cold. The flu is fucking nasty and debilitating and possibly deadly.