Happy Hour

Get happy

Of Course They Did

The Tony Blair Institute For Taking Bribes To Do Middle East Murder couldn't not:

The Tony Blair Institute participated in a project to develop a postwar Gaza plan that envisaged kick-starting the enclave’s economy with a “Trump Riviera” and an “Elon Musk Smart Manufacturing Zone”.

It envisaged all Gaza’s public land being put into a trust for development, whose assets could be sold to investors via digital tokens traded on a blockchain. Gazans would be offered the chance to contribute their privately owned land to the trust in return for a token that gave them the right to a permanent housing unit.

How my apes doing?

 Amazing people:

When first approached by the FT regarding its role in the project, a TBI spokesperson said: “Your story is categorically wrong . . . TBI was not involved in the preparation of the deck, which was a BCG deck, and had no input whatever into its contents.”

The FT then provided details of a 12-person message group used for the project — including two TBI staff, BCG consultants and the Israeli businessmen — and an unpublished TBI document shared within the group titled “Gaza Economic Blueprint”.

At this point, the TBI spokesperson said: “We have never said TBI knew nothing about what this group was working on or that they weren’t on calls in which the group discussed their plans.”

Keep On Extending

Mr. Deals gives everybody another 3 weeks or so.   Remember when all the MAGAs were fantasizing about having iPhone factories up and running by June 1, or whatever.

Countries that don't make trade deals with the U.S. by August 1 can expect tariff rates to return to the levels announced in April, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday.

It had been July 9.

Kooky Billionaries And Politics

Musk isn't the first rich guy to try to enter national politics in a bigly way, and of course it remains to be seen if he follows through. While they obviously have a lot of influence working within the parties - and keeping Supereme Court members as pets - the "third party" or "I will run for president myself" versions generally have extremely limited success.

I suspect it to be more funny than important, with a reasonable chance that he just forgets about it in a month. Unless he has some genuinely cunning plan I can't fathom, the smarter play for a rich guy is the threat of primary challenges against Republican candidates.

The cult of Trump beats the limited cult of Elon. I don't think he gets this.

Most likely it all comes to little. They almost always claim they speak for the "middle" which is both stupid and clever. Stupid because they believe it, clever because our stupid Advanced Politics Knowers love calling far right things "centrist" if you give them any excuse.

Just the commonsense bipartisan solutions that hardworking Americans are craving.

Sadly, that's how Hakeem Jeffries talks, too.

Morning

Sunday funday

Sure Why Not

Mr. Trump, sir, crush this rival, Mr. Musk.

Horrible

No politics content, just tragic.

Rescuers search for over 20 girls from Texas camp as flooding death toll rises to 27

Afternoon

Enjoy

What's It All About Then

The NYT has gone another around on their attempt to portray Mamdani correctly checking boxes as somehow suspect. They are what they are and if I haven't convinced you of that after 20 years of doing this then I never will (though I will admit Dash is worst in the failson line), but in case you still can't figure out who what they are trying to communicate, it is:

Mamdani pretended to be black, because black people have lots of unfair advantages that he wished to exploit.

 

One Quick Trick

A lot in here but this is the key Tesla "innovation."

There’s more. Two years prior, the NHTSA had flagged something strange – something suspicious. In a separate report, it documented 16 cases in which Tesla vehicles crashed into stationary emergency vehicles. In each, autopilot disengaged “less than one second before impact” – far too little time for the driver to react. Critics warn that this behaviour could allow Tesla to argue in court that autopilot was not active at the moment of impact, potentially dodging responsibility.

The YouTuber Mark Rober, a former engineer at Nasa, replicated this behaviour in an experiment on 15 March 2025. He simulated a range of hazardous situations, in which the Model Y performed significantly worse than a competing vehicle. The Tesla repeatedly ran over a crash-test dummy without braking. The video went viral, amassing more than 14m views within a few days.

This is how fatal crashes are never Elon's fault.

Morning

Slacker Saturday

Afternoon

go

Obvious Point Made Obviously

"No death tax, no estate tax, no going to the banks and borrowing from, in some cases, a fine banker. And in some cases, shylocks and bad people."

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— Matt Novak (@paleofuture.bsky.social) July 4, 2025 at 1:40 AM

Putting Suckas In Fear

 Good for LL Cool J.

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- LL Cool J says he won't be performing at Philadelphia's 4th of July celebration concert as long as the strike is ongoing with District Council 33, the city's largest blue-collar workers' union.

Eugenics Daily

Columbia University's applicant data was hacked by people trying to "prove" that Columbia has been admitting too many black people. The New York Times has an obsessive anti-trans health reporter who got the "scoop" - he called it a scoop, he was very proud - that Mamdani checked both Asian (he is) and African-American (he is) and furthered clarified Ugandan (he is) on his application, the "scoop" being, for racists, that he attempted to "cheat" his way into Columbia by claiming to be black.

He did not get into Columbia.

The NYT granted the source of this hacked information anonymity, despite his name being well-known, to cover up the fact that they used a Nazi eugenicist freak as a source of hacked information. The anonymity (pseudonymity, precisely) was not to protect the source, but to try to protect the rep of the Times.

They even tried to determine whether Mamdani's family ever intermarried with indigenous Ugandans, which somehow was important to this story of how a 17-year-old correctly checked the boxes on his form.

 
There are 3 bylines on this story.

Morning

Light blogging today. Doing some holiday weekending.

Happy Hour

So happy

Your Democratic Consultants

Jake Sherman is capable of providing useful information, but he's basically PR for the Republican party.

But now Republicans have created another problem. They didn’t just cut Medicaid; they also have forced nearly half a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicare, the health program for the elderly.

Because of a statutory requirement to automatically impose budget cuts when legislation increases the deficit, the Big Beautiful Bill would require automatic sequestration cuts across the board, something that has been confirmed by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) but has been largely absent from the debate over the bill. Medicare is one of the programs that will face the axe, and the damage sums to $490 billion over the next ten years, starting in the next fiscal year that begins in October. While many of the safety-net cuts in the bill are delayed to help Republicans with their re-election campaigns, the Medicare cuts must begin next year.

Here's what a Dem consultant told a reporter about my story that the GOP bill,as written, forces $500bn in Medicare cuts: "I need an actual publication to verify this before I take it seriously. Like what’s Jake Sherman’s take here? My understanding is these Medicare cuts are routinely cancelled" 🙄

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— David Dayen (@ddayen.bsky.social) July 3, 2025 at 6:39 PM

You can say "oh that's just one guy" but, trust me, looking for affirmation and approval of anything from right wing validators is pretty much the norm for most of the Democrats.

Dems can't find their "Joe Rogan" if they can't even handle "David Dayen."

Stephen Miller In The Cuck Chair

Who is Mrs. Miller's boss, Stephen?

BREAKING: Stephen Miller just accused Elon Musk on live TV of supporting the invasion and called him an outside voice who doesn't represent the interests of the American people.

Oh - My - God. pic.twitter.com/1luhAD8Z5d

— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) July 2, 2025

The Car

I have no doubt that, as I said, Trump and the Republicans will try to put some jenga pieces back, depending on which interests have their ears and how many Trumpcoins they buy, or whatever, but it won't work very well!

BROOKS-LASURE EXPLAINED WHAT IT ACTUALLY MEANS when a hospital closes, recalling a closure when she was at CMS. “The first thing we had to do is make sure people in that hospital are moved to somewhere they can get care. You might have people in serious situations, and moving them is a life-threatening proposition.”

Another factor is how the loss of an anchor hospital affects local economies. A hospital can be the biggest employer in a small town. If it closes, the entire town can wither away, straining local and regional finances and burdening the residents who don’t have the resources to move.

Over the longer term, the closure of rural hospitals forces patients to spend hours getting to the nearest care center, and in some cases leaves them without access at all. “I was in Colorado and we drove from one part of the state to the other to get to a hospital,” LaSure explained. “They said to me, ‘The road you drove over, one out of three days of the year you can’t get over that road,’” due to weather or some other complication. When the nearest hospital is across the Rockies and it’s snowing, you really have no ability to get care.

Already starting.

Lunch

eat

Catching The Car

Related to this, I think a lot of Republicans are psychos who don't care what happens to most people, but I also think a lot of them are complete idiots who have zero understanding of the inevitable consequences of their legislation (there can be overlap). They're pulling out a lot of jenga pieces, and while they will probably try to stuff a few back in...

And How Does That Work

Axios:

Hospitals have "just gotten absolutely smoked, so much so that quite frankly there's no way that these cuts go into effect," according to Treyz.

Treyz is with some investment advisory firm.  I think this is just "nothing bad could happen to people (businesses) that matter" cope and I think we will be finding out that eventually even people who matter get hurt. 

It's Happening Again

"Everyone" pretends some principled Republicans will hold the line, but they never do. (Their supposed principles are shit, of course).

The one exception I can remember is John McCain on ACA. I  had to hand it to him that once. Of course the only principle there was that he was a preening dickhead, not that he supported ACA, but for once it was helpful.

Morning

Republican rebels caved on the first vote, and presumably cave on the bill's passage.

Happy Hour

Still no bill.

Afternoon

I understand they are having problems passing the bill. I have faith in them.

Sure Why Not

I need a new risotto recipe.

An Iran-linked hacker group is claiming to be in possession of a trove of stolen emails from President Donald Trump’s inner circle and is now threatening to publish the material in what U.S. officials describe as a politically motivated “smear campaign.”

Lunch

eat

These People Are Weird

That was a good line.

Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem claims the U.S. government tried to deport a cannibal from America, but the immigrant was so “deranged” he began eating himself on the plane.

The wild story was shared on Tuesday as Donald Trump toured a migrant detention centre dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz”: a controversial facility based in Florida’s swampy Everglades region, that will house up to 5000 people.

Positive Steps

Someone sees which way the wind is blowing.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) apologized to New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani on Monday after facing swift backlash for Islamophobic comments she recently made in a radio interview about her fellow New York Democrat.

The senator spoke over the phone with the state assemblymember and “apologized for mischaracterizing Mamdani’s record and for her tone in the interview,” according to a readout of the conversation that Gillibrand’s office first provided to Politico on Tuesday.

Sucker

I have heard numerous stories over the years of math-and-science guys who understand how to run to the latest thing, present themselves as experts, and get some rich dumbdumbs to give them lots of money.

As Mark Zuckerberg staffs up Meta’s new superintelligence lab, he’s offered top tier research talent pay packages of up to $300 million over four years, with more than $100 million in total compensation for the first year, WIRED has learned.

Morning

I am sure the moderate rebels in the House will save us.

Tuesday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

American Manners

Ah, yes, Americans, famous for their refined "manners" and never eating food with their fingers.

The Future Of The Democratic Party

When Eric Adams barely squeaked by, all the advanced politics knowers decided - amazingly - that barely winning a heavily contested primary in New York City somehow meant you were just what the nation was looking for in a politician. It didn't make any sense then, but those are the rules now.

Zohran Mamdani has won New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, a new vote count confirmed on Tuesday, cementing his stunning upset of former governor Andrew Cuomo and sending him to the general election.

The Associated Press called the race after the results of the city’s ranked choice voting tabulation were released and showed Mamdani beating Cuomo by 12 percentage points.

At Least Some Good News

Though only the good die young, it seems.

US televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, whose multi-million dollar ministry with a global reach was crippled after a sex scandal, has died at the age of 90.

Lunch

Unsurprisingly, the budget passed the Senate.

Tick Tock You Don't Stop

I know it makes me a bad blogger, but I can't be bothered to follow the unfolding vote in the Senate. At some point I realized if it isn't fun to watch the game, you can just find out the score at the end and spend your time doing other things.

Small Pleasures

I think Elon loses here, bigly, but that'll be funny, too.

“I’ve had my share of blowouts with Elon over the years,” Low told POLITICO in a rare interview since Musk’s ugly spat with Trump. “Knowing Elon the way I know him, I do think he’s going to do everything to damage the president.”

I know none of this matters, but allow me my small amusements in the middle of all this.

Reporter: Are you going to deport Elon Musk? Trump: We'll have to take a look. We might have to put DOGE on Elon. You know what DOGE is? The monster that might have to go back and eat Elon. Wouldn’t that be terrible? He gets a lot of subsidies.

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— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) July 1, 2025 at 1:28 PM

Let Them Fight

 

Sure, Elon, primary every Republican.

Elon's pretending he cares about the spending and debts while Trump is rightly pointing out that he just cares about free money for himself is funny.

Morning

Get your morning on.

Happy Hour

Get happy

Related

One of the more amusing false choices, presented by the recent brains of the Democrat's polling and messaging.

Is his job to try to win elections, or to try to win elections the right way, with the right coalition?  

Do the people who pay him know the answer to this?

Coalitions

Everybody will tell you that they are just trying to win - that this is their singleminded goal - but the battle within the party is often about precisely which coalition to try to win with.

There was a concerted effort from without and within the party to reject the 2020 Biden-Sanders-Warren coalition, to declare it a failure and reshape a new one. They were trying to tank the 2022 midterms, or at least wishcast that into being, and then use as that an excuse to go back to the happy place of courting Sensible Republicans.  

That this effort was largely sponsored by crypto cash - SBF was the Real Thing - has gone mostly unremarked, largely because many well-connected people narrowly escaped prosecution (I am being vague here, deliberately).

The 2022 midterms didn't go as hoped, for them, as it wasn't the Red Wave that they had been desperately hoping for.   They went on as if it had, as if SBF wasn't in prison.

And here we are.

That story doesn't explain everything, but it explains a lot.  Nothing made sense to me in 2022 until I realized this was happening.

Everybody's Working For The Weekend

Fetterman when asked re: timing

“Oh my God, I just want to go home. I've already my I've missed our entire trip to to the beach…, there's no drama that we know the votes are going to go…And I think, I don't think it's really helpful to put people here till some ungodly hour.”

— Alan He (@alanhe) June 30, 2025

Lunch

eat

President Deals

Hey, his approach worked. Good luck, Canada, he'll never stop!

Canada will rescind a planned digital services tax in order to advance stalled trade talks with the U.S., Ottawa announced on Sunday.

Experience and Competence

Cuomo has many flaws, but one is that he is lazy and incompetent. Ideology aside, he is absolutely bad at running things, including his own campaign.

This one is worth reading from start to finish so I won't provide an excerpt (the only way most people click through).

One point I will emphasize a bit is that many in politics and political journalism want to claim that it was Mamdani who made Gaza/Israel the centerpiece of his camaign, which is a complete fabrication. It was Cuomo who did that.

Remember that when people ask why The Left is so obsessed with Israel, in order to imply something about that.

Seems Bad

Funny how paranoid conservative fantasies are always turned into reality by conservatives.

The Trump administration has, for the first time ever, built a searchable national citizenship data system.

The tool, which is being rolled out in phases, is designed to be used by state and local election officials to give them an easier way to ensure only citizens are voting. But it was developed rapidly without a public process, and some of those officials are already worrying about what else it could be used for.

Whatever the merits of such an idea (none, but let's pretend), a system implemented with no concern for accuracy and no way to correct errors is there for reasons other than the stated ones. 

Morning

Big beautiful Monday.

More Like This

 

Run Away

Tillis (R-NC) is not running for re-election. I am sure he is now free to vote good instead of bad (lol).

Alaska Gold Rush

To some degree, I think buying off members of  Congress with goodies for their districts/states is actually a better way of doing things, but you don't get to prance around as a principled moderate when you do this.

Collecting goodies is better than getting rid of all the goodies!  More senators should demand goodies, maybe even for the whole country!

Stephen Miller's Personal Domestic Military

I know all they want to do is talk about Medicaid - and they should! - but "putting it on the record that I was against this" is something I suggest elected Dems do about that part, too, because it isn't going to be very popular once it has more money than most country's militaries!

I know we all love first responders now, but we don't, really. Nobody likes the "cops" the instant they get in their way unjustly, even once.

People really don't like this now (someone tell the Dems), and it's going to get a lot worse.

Morning

Sunday funday

Mr. President, Time To Nationalize Starlink

Afternoon

Do some afternoon stuff

Bad Politicians And Their Familiars In The Press

One issue about the general biases of political journalists (which I think most of you agree with me about) is they amplify the messaging of the worst Democrats. I will let you ponder the various implications of that while I do some weekending.

Penalty

Aside from the her racist rant about Zohran, this is pretty amazing from Gillibrand.

Gillibrand answered: “It’s very simple. When multiple allegations came out about Andrew Cuomo, I think it was eight or nine, I called on him to resign… That was my view at the time because people asked how do you think they can continue to govern with these allegations? …The question being asked today is what’s my opinion about someone after they’ve resigned, after they’ve taken the penalty that I called on them to take? …And my answer to that is everyone gets to decide in this election who they want to vote for.”

She added: “It’s up to New Yorkers. It is not up to me.”

Naughty boys get a year in the penalty box, then we believe they have learned their lessons.

Morning

Slacker Saturday

Happy Hour

It is time

Trade Wars Are Back On The Menu, Boys

Huzzah

America's Worst Journalists

Jake Tapper

Lunch

eat

Geography Is Hard

Funny.

Cuomo’s campaign was fueled by a cadre of long-time advisers, including his top strategist — Melissa DeRosa — who was not paid, obscuring her role on public campaign finance records. Few had ever worked on a citywide campaign. His campaign in May denied to POLITICO that DeRosa was working for the ex-governor despite her prominent role during internal meetings, according to two people with direct knowledge of the campaign’s inner workings.

His team struggled with the city’s geography, scheduling back-to-back events in locations with only a few miles difference, but hours apart in driving due to New York’s notorious congestion, according to two people.

How long can 3 miles take, Michael, 10 minutes?

Kristen Gillibrand Runs The DSCC

Deeply rotten party leadership.

This is the most racist, absurd, unhinged thing a democrat senator not named Fetterman has said in a long time. Absolutely revolting. In a just world she would be forced to resign. https://t.co/DbduXwTjNz pic.twitter.com/fb3CmF1w87

— barbarism critic (@barbarismcrit) June 26, 2025

Squid Game

Haaretz:

Israeli soldiers in Gaza told Haaretz that the army has deliberately fired at Palestinians near aid distribution sites over the past month.

Conversations with officers and soldiers reveal that commanders ordered troops to shoot at crowds to drive them away or disperse them, even though it was clear they posed no threat.

Surely, Mr. Atrios, that is a needlessly inflammatory title.

The soldier added, "We open fire early in the morning if someone tries to get in line from a few hundred meters away, and sometimes we just charge at them from close range. But there's no danger to the forces." According to him, "I'm not aware of a single instance of return fire. There's no enemy, no weapons." He also said the activity in his area of service is referred to as Operation Salted Fish – the name of the Israeli version of the children's game "Red light, green light".

People in politics and journalism risk their careers for saying this is bad, or even acknowledging it.

Morning

Bad mood today, so this blog will not be for some of you!

Thursday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

get happy

They Will Take Awhile To Adjust

The message went out post-election that it was immigration and trans people that lost the election. Instead of crafting a sensible approach to either of them, they determined the best course of action was to say nothing about either of those issues, and certainly not to oppose Trump loudly on immigration.

Nearly two-thirds of voters (64 percent) say they prefer giving most undocumented immigrants in the United States a pathway to legal status, while 31 percent say they prefer deporting most undocumented immigrants in the United States, according to a Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pea-ack) University national poll of registered voters released today.

...

Voters 56 - 39 percent disapprove of the way U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, is doing its job.

...

[on Trump]: immigration issues: 41 percent approve, while 57 percent disapprove, with 2 percent not offering an opinion;

There definitely have been notable exceptions, but it is how leadership has been approaching these issues.

Let Him Think That

It is pretty sad that it is the case that if we all pretend to believe what the president wants us to believe, that he DESTROYED Iran's nuclear program, then maybe we won't have a big war.

OK everybody do that now. Start pretending.

Everything Is Computer

"This is going to be the most interesting political campaign in the history of New York City," Eric Adams says. "They have a record on tweets. I have a record on the streets."

— Ross Barkan (@RossBarkan) June 26, 2025

It's quite amazing that in the year of our Gritty, 2025, people still think it's useful to dismiss anything associated with young people - which at this point means people under 45 - as being an internet things,  tweet things.

Once upon a time you could make some meaningful distinction between "online" and "real life" in the sense that most people weren't very online, in the sense that everything wasn't very online. Now it is.

Lunch

Now eat.

Exciting Day Tomorrow

Supreme Court birthright citzenship case.  Exciting innovations in pretending words don't mean what they mean are likely!  This is called "textualism." Or sometimes "originalism." Or whatever.

Good For Nadler

Old guy who knows how to pass the torch.

Go For It

I won't post the whole thing, but here is the plan by rich guy lunatic Bill Ackman - driven insane because his daughter went to Harvard and came out with some crazy ideas - to save New York from Mamdani:

Importantly, there are hundreds of million of dollars of capital available to back a competitor to Mamdani that can be put together overnight (believe me, I am in the text strings and the WhatsApp groups) so that a great alternative candidate won’t spend any time raising funds.

So, if the right candidate would raise his or her hand tomorrow, the funds will pour in. I am sure that Mike Bloomberg will share his how-to-win-the-mayoralty IP and deliver his entire election apparatus and system to the aspiring candidate so that the candidate can focus all of his or her energy on the campaign. 

One unfortunate fact, as far as I understand, is that the candidate will have to be a write-in as I believe that none of the current candidates established a nominating committee if they were to withdraw, which means that no one can take their spot on the ballot. This is such an important election, however, that I believe the write-in requirement could actually turn into an important call to action that brings people in throngs to the polls. It therefore won’t be the game stopper it would normally be in a typical election.

As a result, the risk/reward of running for mayor over the next 132 days is extremely compelling as the cost in time and energy is small, and the upside is enormous. If the candidate does not win, there is no harm, no foul, because the perceived probability of beating the Democratic nominee in a NYC mayoral election is extremely small. Therefore, there is no reputational risk to losing this election, and the corresponding reputational benefits are extraordinary whether one wins or loses.

If the candidate wins, this is obviously a huge home run for the City and the candidate, but it is also an opportunity to save the Democratic Party from itself, grabbing the wheel just before the party goes even further off the cliff. The new mayor would be a national superhero for the City, for the Party, and for the country.

For the aspiring politician, there is no better way to get name recognition, build relationships with long-term donors, and to showcase oneself than to run for mayor over the next 132 days. This election is already global front page news.  For the aspiring young candidate, the amount of publicity and the massive followers to be gained are of incalculable long-term value whether they win or lose, and whatever they choose to do in the future, business, politics or otherwise.

Who should/will it be?

Morning

Get it started.

Happy Hour

Get happy.

Vote Blue No Matter Who

 She is actually a current member of Congress (D) from Long Island.  Not even from NYC!

Our New Problem

Whatever their personal opinion of him, elite Dems are currently panicking about Zohran. Republicans are determined to make him the "face of Democrats" and Dems have only ever learned the worst strategy for that sort of thing: distancing themselves on command.

That's why Republicans do it! It often isn't because the latest person/issue boogeyman is actually unpopular, it's because they can just make one up, Dems will scatter, and James Carville will spend more time on TV talking about how Dems need to scatter then he will anything else.

Oh no what if they start calling us socialists and running racebaiting ads and criticizing us for liking trans people. How will we deal with this very new thing?

Bouncing To The Left And Bouncing To The Right

Bye bye Big Balls.

Edward “Big Balls” Coristine, one of the first technologists hired as part of Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is no longer working for the federal government, according to multiple sources.

Dude's probably already richer than I will ever be so I can't be too pleased. There'a always more money in evil than good.

"Predictions Markets"

The easiest signal for "is this person a dumbass" is someone placing faith in these gambling sites, which might only be meaningful if the market is thin enough and someone might have inside information on something.

Maybe Zohran wins an election 2 weeks ago, and maybe Lander or someone would emerge if you had another month to go. Markets have Cuomo back as a 3:1 favorite for now though. pic.twitter.com/1iAJsYE0Hc

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) June 23, 2025

It is extra funny coming from Mr. Politics Stats Guy - we don't need you Nate, we have the gambling site graph! You keep telling us that!

Great Moments In New York Times Nonendorsements

Not even vote for other guys, but don't rank him at all!

Given those polls, however, the crucial choice may end up being where, if at all, voters decide to rank Mr. Cuomo or Mr. Mamdani. We do not believe that Mr. Mamdani deserves a spot on New Yorkers’ ballots. His experience is too thin, and his agenda reads like a turbocharged version of Mr. de Blasio’s dismaying mayoralty. As for Mr. Cuomo, we have serious objections to his ethics and conduct, even if he would be better for New York’s future than Mr. Mamdani.

Just adding that while de Blasio had his flaws, all his big problems were entirely Cuomo's fault.  Any Advanced Politics Knower should know this! 

This Is The Way

Kudos to the various candidates - especially Brad Lander - who realized that the way to "win" an RCV primary was by forming alliances instead of going at each other.

Instead of competing for the same voters and creating a lot of enmity, they kept that voting bloc together.  And, of course, if Mamdani wins in November, Brad and his people can have good jobs if they want them. Presumably Lander will be Deputy Mayor.

Do Not Rank The NYT Editorial Board

Looks like Mamdani did it. Suck it, Cuomo

Happy Hour

It is time.

Welp

Amazing.

"Truly extraordinary": NATO boss Mark Rutte Tuesday sent a gushing, caps-filled, pre-summit note to Donald Trump Tuesday, showing how far he goes to flatter the mercurial US president, who promptly posted the missive online.

Voting Day In New York

Andrew Cuomo is a really really shitty guy. He was a really really shitty governor. He coordinated with "Democrats" in the State Senate to align with Republicans, flipping effective control to them. He fucked up the 2020 Census, losing a House seat. He let Elon Musk defraud the state out of a billion bucks.

This is nowhere close to a full accounting.

That anyone prominent in Democratic politics supports him...

But Did They Poll The Journalists

Must not be in the sample.

President Donald Trump’s decision to launch airstrikes against Iran is broadly unpopular with Americans, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS after the strikes.

Americans disapprove of the strikes, 56% to 44%, according to the survey, with strong disapproval outpacing the share who strongly approve. Most distrust Trump’s decision-making on the use of force in Iran, with about 6 in 10 worried that the strikes will increase the Iranian threat to the US.

Lunch

eat

Seems Bad

But the Supreme Court has declared "no Court other than us" and violating court orders (except theirs) doesn't matter so whatcha gonna do.

A senior Justice Department official, Emil Bove III, told subordinates he was willing to ignore court orders in order to fulfill the president’s aggressive deportation campaign, according to a whistle-blower complaint by a department lawyer who has since been fired.

The account by the dismissed lawyer, Erez Reuveni, paints a disturbing portrait of his final three weeks on the front lines of the Trump administration’s legal efforts to ship immigrants overseas, often with little notice or recourse. In Mr. Reuveni’s telling, Mr. Bove used an expletive as he discussed disregarding court orders, and other top law enforcement officials showed themselves ready to stonewall judges or lie to them to get their way.

God Bless Iran

A funny thing for a US president to say. I spent my whole life assuming I'd be arrested for saying such a thing (not quite, but...).

(this was earlier, obviously)

Oh My Stars

The DC press will have to spend the day on the fainting couch!

An incredible moment

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— J. Emory Parker 🏳️‍🌈 (@jaspar.bsky.social) June 24, 2025 at 12:12 PM

“We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing!” “We just apologize for that language from the US president.” -Sky News

— J. Emory Parker 🏳️‍🌈 (@jaspar.bsky.social) June 24, 2025 at 12:09 PM

(click the top one and you can watch the video on bluesky)

Morning

I'm proud to be an American, because at least I know I'm free.

Happy Hour

Get happy

Do We Think Members of Congress Have Great OPSEC?

Amazing.

WASHINGTON, June 23 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms' (META.O), opens new tab WhatsApp messaging service has been banned from all U.S. House of Representatives devices, according to a memo sent to all House staff on Monday.

The notice said the "Office of Cybersecurity has deemed WhatsApp a high risk to users due to the lack of transparency in how it protects user data, absence of stored data encryption, and potential security risks involved with its use."

...

In January, a WhatsApp official said Israeli spyware company Paragon Solutions had targeted scores of its users, including journalists and members of civil society.

Consequences? To My Actions?

Not even a toddler's understanding of that.

SINGAPORE, June 23 (Reuters) - At least two supertankers made U-turns at the Strait of Hormuz following U.S. military strikes on Iran, shiptracking data shows, as more than a week of violence in the region prompts vessels to speed, pause, or alter their journeys.

Washington's decision to join Israel's attacks on Iran has stoked fears that Iran could retaliate by closing the strait between Iran and Oman through which around 20% of global oil and gas demand flows.

There are many reasons that NotWar is preferable to War, and I doubt Don and Pete and Marco have thought many of them through. 

 

Our Big Sweaty Boy Just Likes To See Himself Being Praised On The TV

This is good from the NYT, but when they talk about Iran tomorrow will they remember it?  I mean, will it be incorporated into "the narrative" or will the reporters and their colleagues wake up mind wiped and take it as given that it's about important military goals or whatever.

The president was closely monitoring Fox News, which was airing wall-to-wall praise of Israel’s military operation and featuring guests urging Mr. Trump to get more involved. Several Trump advisers lamented the fact that Mr. Carlson was no longer on Fox, which meant that Mr. Trump was not hearing much of the other side of the debate.

We all know Trump is like this, and sometimes they cover that fact, but most of their coverage pretends he isn't like this!

More generally, when every single one of these people lies constantly, it isn't enough to fact check them occasionally! Hang out with Tommy Flanagan enough, and you know to doubt his claims!

And The Man Might Do It

It would be funny! Though he'll still probably have to go up against Cuomo AND Adams AND a Republican in the general because everything is stupid.

The final Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill survey of the New York City Democratic mayoral primary finds former Governor Andrew Cuomo leading with 35% support, followed closely by Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani at 32%, and Comptroller Brad Lander at 13%. City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams follows with 8%, Scott Stringer with 3%, and 4% of voters remain undecided ahead of Tuesday’s election. Since last month’s poll, Mamdani gained ten points on the initial ballot test, rising from 22% to 32%, while Cuomo gained one point, 34% to 35%.

Mamdani would win the primary after the ranked choice voting was calculated, if this poll is correct. 

Incompetent Old Guard

If all the old centrists wanted to rally behind one of their own for the New York mayoral primary, they could've chosen someone who wasn't a corrupt sex pest from the suburbs who most of them had previously called on to resign just a few years ago.

They should be condemned for not even trying.  Don't put yourself in charge if you can't even be bothered to do the work.

We can argue a bit about how much of this is genuinely about ideological differences, how much of it is  the desperation to make sure one of our guys is in charge of sprawling patronage networks, and how much of it is about an ageing generation who can't imagine a world that isn't about them.

And how much of it is about racism, of course.  

But, back to the main point, you guys were fucking lazy! Even Cuomo himself was so incompetent and lazy he fucked up getting matching funds!

These people should be embarrassed.

Even Dumber

The Tesla company guys are in the passenger seat, not the driver's, which means they're there to hit an emergency stop button and communicate with the teleoperator.  In other words, there is >1 employee per car, probably close to 2 at the moment.

Morning

go

Nobody Could've Predicted

Elon's robotaxis have drivers.

(update: this is wrong - the company guys are in the passenger seat, thanks to reader R for pointing this out)

Sure Why Not

More great moments in diplomacy.

WASHINGTON, June 22 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday called on China to encourage Iran to not shut down the Strait of Hormuz after Washington carried out strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.

What's Next

I have no idea what Iran will do, and what we will do in response.

I am pretty sure they sold Trump on the idea that he could just do this and move on but that doesn't mean it is the likely outcome.

Jaded Cynics Score Another Win

Amazing.

Bill Clinton Endorses Andrew Cuomo for New York City Mayor

Oopsie It Happened Again

Happy Hour

Mahmoud Khalil emerges from airport security with his wife Noor and newborn, legal team and Rep. AOC.

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— Gwynne Hogan (@gwynnefitz.bsky.social) June 21, 2025 at 6:37 PM

Donors

A minor mystery in politics is why candidates in safe seats care so much about them. Most of them shouldn't, of course, unless the reason is something different from what the reason is usually portrayed.

I think I do understand the reasons for this, but as far as I know there has been zero reporting on why this actually is.

Media Studies

I'm not faulting this NYT article, but I invite you to consider it in the broader context.

Melting Pot

Occasional reminder that Laura Ingraham has 3 adopted children, one from Guatemala and two from Russia.

Pham

Send the Bishops everywhere.

Bishop Pham, himself a Vietnamese refugee as a child, said ICE agents were “standing there covered with masks as we walked toward the courtroom. Eventually the … agents kind of scattered and went away. No wonder people come in fear.”

Morning

Slacker Saturday

Friday Night

On your own.

Some Good News

We'll take what we can get.

Mahmoud Khalil was granted release on bail by a federal judge after a hearing Friday, in the latest move in the pro-Palestinian activist's legal saga following his March arrest that spotlighted the Trump administration's deportation crackdown.

Afternoon

Busy with some things

Lunch

eat

Crisis Or Opportunity

I bet Elon would love to delay his non-working robotaxis and blame "the regulators."

Welp

I guess we should listen to what they say.

“The mayor of New York is uniquely positioned to play an important role in the future of the national Democratic Party,” Mr. Clyburn said in a statement, adding that Mr. Cuomo had the “experiences, credentials and character to not just serve New York, but also help save the nation.”

"Iran-Backed Operatives"

I wonder who they have in mind.

As President Trump is contemplating potential U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, law enforcement officials have stepped up surveillance of Iran-backed operatives in the United States, multiple sources told CBS News.

FBI Director Kash Patel has increased efforts to monitor possible domestic sleeper cells linked to Hezbollah — a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization backed by Iran — since Israel's Operation Rising Lion offensive began earlier this month, U.S. officials said.

Morning

Friday.

Happy Hour

be happy

Major Battle

It's hard to explain how Stephen Fry fits in The Discourse in British culture. He's one of those actors that gets to cosplay as a public intellectual, in part because he knows how to act the part. Posh accent, serious face, an affection for classical music, drop in a few bits of Latin.

He's gay but generally pretty conservative, and he is chummy with some of the worst people in Britain. All the worst people in Britain are anti-trans, of course. Kudos to him if he doesn't offer a groveling apology, but I suspect he will. The UK's poisonous press won't let up until he does.

Sir Stephen Fry has become the latest Harry Potter alumnus to turn his back on author JK Rowling, accusing her of being “radicalised” and calling her views on transgender people “cruel” and “mocking”.

The 66-year-old actor, comedian and broadcaster – who narrated the audiobooks for all seven Harry Potter novels – said he used to be close to Rowling but has been deeply disturbed by her recent comments and online activity.

Probably Good News

"Two weeks" means "never" in Trumpish.

You can't parody this if you tried. Karoline Leavitt: "'Based on the fact that there is a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.” That’s a quote directly from the president."

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— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona.bsky.social) June 19, 2025 at 6:39 PM

Though of course nothing is fixed.

Small Pleasures

We don't get many these days, but Elon regularly slamming his dick in the car door provides us with some levity.

Lunch

eat

Seems Bad

It is quite amazing that there is so much money in our medical system and yet it is somehow still so fragile. I'm not optimistic we will ever reverse the ratchet, much, and it is going to cost a lot of money to move it back a little bit.

But He Was Straight From Central Casting

Trump does love the people on his TV machine when they remain there, but as soon as he hires them he is capable of realizing they are idiots (of course so is he, but...).

But two current U.S. officials said Kurilla and Caine have taken the lead on discussing military options with Trump, largely sidestepping Hegseth and his team at the Pentagon. “Nobody is talking to Hegseth,” one official said. “There is no interface operationally between Hegseth and the White House at all.”

Boom Boom

I do not think "we" are going to Mars anytime soon.

Morning

Thirsty Thursday.

Happy Hour

Get happy

Our Sister Institution

 I don't actually expect any consistency from these people, but this type of thing is still jarring.

Salience

I get that you have to choose your battles, but for you, dear readers, the most plugged in Politics Followers on the planet, what battles are the Dems choosing?

This Ain't It, My Guy

I am begging Democrats to stop the "this horrible thing is a distraction from this other horrible thing that I care about more" constructions.

Everything Is Horrible

I try to limit my "what the Democrats need to doooooo" posts as it isn't as if they are going to listen to me anyway, but, in very broad terms, the battle within the party my whole life has between people who think you can find clever compromises to overcome supposedly uncomfortable issues and those who understand that you can't.

On some issues, there is no way to split the baby, and trying to do so pleases nobody. Polling often supports the idea of baby splitting - give people a middle option and many will take it if the question is asked that way  - but that doesn't mean they really support baby splitters.

Sure Why Not

We do have to ask what our intelligence agencies are for if they can't protect us from shit like this:

WASHINGTON — One of the most powerful men in the Trump administration, tasked with vetting thousands of staffers, hasn’t been fully vetted himself, The Post has learned.

Sergio Gor — the director of presidential personnel who recently convinced President Trump to yank an Elon Musk-endorsed nominee for NASA — has yet to submit official paperwork about his own background needed for a permanent security clearance, according to multiple sources.

Gor, 38, is in charge of picking about 4,000 executive-branch staff to implement Trump’s agenda — and he’s done so by poring over old tweets, political donations and remarks to ensure loyalty to the president.

He claims he's from Malta but the Post couldn't verify it (not 100% conclusive).

Derisking

It is the hot new term in politics. It means "privatize the profits and socialize the losses" as insane lefties who don't understand economics have been accusing them of forever, but somehow good.

Morning

Wacky Wenesday

Happy Hour

get happy

America's Worst Dipshits

Reactionary centrists.

ruh-roh

This vote will be... interesting.

This is not our war.

But if it were, Congress must decide such matters according to our Constitution.

I’m introducing a bipartisan War Powers Resolution tomorrow to prohibit our involvement.

I invite all members of Congress to cosponsor this resolution.

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) June 16, 2025

Rare

A powerful person going to prison is such a rare event. Elite unaccountability has been the project of the last few decades.

Barring any last-minute surprises, Bob Menendez, New Jersey’s former senior senator, will report to a federal prison in Pennsylvania Tuesday to begin serving an 11-year sentence for selling his political power to two foreign governments and three businessmen in exchange for gold bars, cash, a luxury car, and other riches.

Wondering how he has (thus far) been too dumb to figure out how to get Trump to pardon him.

Lunch

eat

Your Moment Of Zen

 

Ah, Well, Nevertheless

He was just channeling the Baileys here.

If TACO Trump is already folding on Iran, the American people need to know about it.

No side deals. pic.twitter.com/T4gnekrGhT

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) June 2, 2025

The Good Tim Kaine

Not his biggest fan, generally, but anyone who goes against the standard DC maximum belligerence/unquestioning support of Israel line deserves some kudos.

My statement on the Israeli strikes in Iran: pic.twitter.com/Cmc6RC8oR5

— Senator Tim Kaine (@SenTimKaine) June 13, 2025

Morning

Taco Tuesday

Happy Hour

Get happy

Woke-Busting

A story told from two perspectives:

One Of The Lads

That fucking newspaper has an editorial board piece that not-quite-endorses Cuomo because they are scared shitless that Mamdani will be the next mayor.

The real issue here isn't even ideology, and given Cuomo's record it certainly isn't perceived competence or ethics.

It is that Mamdani isn't one of the lads and Cuomo is. Mamdani becoming mayor won't lead to full communism or even a tax rate bump.  It might lead to a small reordering of the power structure, with some people seeing their influence wane and their friends and family career plans being slightly curtailed. The seating chart will be altered.

It is mostly about that.  

Lunch

eat

Oopsie

I admit I am mildly impressed by the people who are angling for high profile positions with this kind of dishonesty.

Trump’s FAA Nominee Lied About Having a ‘Commercial’ Pilot License

Bryan Bedford, CEO of Republic Airlines, falsely claimed to be licensed to fly commercial aircraft on the company's website for more than a decade

Paywall, but that's the gist.

Who Sent The Memo

It was odd. This was November. The man wasn't president yet!

Politico:

The Resistance Is Not Coming to Save You. It’s Tuning Out.

The first Trump administration sparked waves of public activism and aggressive media coverage. This time, not so much.

Axios:

The Resistance goes quiet

That fucking newspaper:

‘Get Somebody Else to Do It’: Trump Resistance Encounters Fatigue

WaPo

Why the resistance went quiet after Trump’s victory

These are just some examples. There was a huge wave of these pieces, RIGHT AFTER THE ELECTION. Amazing shit.

Boelter Captured

I actually have no idea why, precisely, but after initial reports, my brain decided he was much younger than 57.

The Minnesota man accused of shooting two state lawmakers and their spouses early Saturday morning was arrested Sunday night in a wooded area in the city where he lives, following a nearly two-day manhunt.

Not blaming anything other than my brain here.

Morning

A new week, new horrors.

Sunday Happy Hour

Get happy

That's Our Big Blubbery Boy

 His first statement was almost decent.

Afternoon

Taking a bit of a break.

Not Much Alpha Energy

A big military parade in DC for Dear Leader's birthday sounded pretty scary.  Then it happened, and it was, well, SAD.  Nobody came to watch it.  The military hardware looked small somehow.  The various military personnel couldn't be bothered to march in time.  Everybody seated with Trump looked like they were contemplating the best method of suicide.

Stay Away

Nobody without a US passport should travel to the US unless they really need to.

An Australian man who was detained upon arrival at Los Angeles airport and deported back to Melbourne says United States border officials told him it was due to his writing on pro-Palestine protests by university students.

Morning

Sunday funday 

Saturday Evening

Enjoy 

Grand Old Police Blotter

Nice detail:

Republican in South Carolina arrested over distribution of child sexual abuse material

RJ May, who used screen name ‘joebidennnn69’, charged with 10 counts and ordered to remain jailed until his trial

 

Assassination

Away from the computer at the moment (phone only), but a Minnesota state rep (Melissa Hortman)  and her husband were killed and a state senator was also shot.  Democrats.

Protest

I was glad to see Padilla say this and promote it.

I encourage everyone to consider attending one of the many demonstrations planned for tomorrow across the country. Show up. Demand accountability. Peacefully protest. Find the rally closest to you: NoKings.org

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— Alex Padilla (@alex-padilla4ca.bsky.social) June 13, 2025 at 9:29 PM

There's an element of "HOW DARE THEY TREAT A SENATOR LIKE THAT?" which is valid, but also suggests it's OK for them to treat others like that. The right lesson is that if they are treating a senator like that, they are treating everyone else like that. The genius brain lesson is that almost all "violence" at protests is caused by law enforcement.

Most elected Dems hate protest because they think it's unpoular and they know "Jake Tapper" will make them responsible for everything that happens. A not-usual-suspect telling people to go protest is a positive development, in the "Is Our Senators Learning?" sense.

Morning

Slacker Saturday.

Happy Hour

Get happy

Good Luck, Austin

The issue here actually isn't the "child" (dummy) rushing across the road, it's that the Tesla doesn't recognize the Stop sign on the bus.

Tesla’s driverless “robotaxis” could launch in Austin as soon as June 22. But a demo in Austin today showed a Tesla, manually driven to test its Full Self-Driving system, failed to stop for a child-sized dummy at a school bus—and hit it. @cbsaustin pic.twitter.com/RskFc6fjKC

— Abigail Velez (@velez_tx) June 12, 2025

People Gotta Eat

Obviously I don't sympathize with their task, but I suspect most of these people can't afford this shit, either.

The 4,000 California National Guard soldiers who President Donald Trump surged into Los Angeles remain unpaid due to delays in issuing official activation orders, leaving compensation and benefits in limbo.

According to more than a dozen Guardsmen across four units who spoke to Military.com, none has received formal activation orders, the critical paperwork that not only authorizes their duty status, but also unlocks pay, Tricare health benefits and eligibility for Department of Veterans Affairs services. Without those orders, troops remain in a legal and administrative limbo.

"Legal limbo" could mean a lot of things, lads, better be careful!

Just Do

Want to wrap yourself in the flag? Just do it. Have a great powerpoint plan to defeat Sauron? Either show it to the world or don't, but don't boast about it like it's your girlfriend in Canada!

Don't monologue your cunning plans to convince voters to vote for you in order to impress journalists. Just do it!

Lunch

eat

Alpha Energy

 

It is 2004... It is 2006... It is 2012... It is 2026...

Democrats’ newest approach to win back voters is a fresh embrace of the nation’s oldest symbol.

Two days ahead of Flag Day, when President Donald Trump’s military parade will run through the streets of Washington, Democratic Reps. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) and Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) fanned out Thursday afternoon to give a gift to their colleagues to unite them.

Of course with added Alpha Energy Swears:

It’s a message that a beleaguered party hopes resonates in the 90 percent of counties that shifted to Republicans last November. Or, as Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) put it earlier this year, it’s time for Democrats to “fucking retake the flag.”

Scoops From The Past

I regularly think about this scoop from Newsweek, in 2004.

(Iran has no border with Israel and they did not have menacing tanks at this nonexistent border)

Real Men Go To Tehran

Years ago I was invited to an event at the Center for America Progress.  It was a Bush State of the Union speech watching event.  I believe it was the infamous Manimal speech.  Anyway, I was on a panel with Sam Seder and a couple of other people.  We did some Q&A, made some jokes during the speech, etc.

One of the questions put to the panel was something like, "What's your greatest fear/concern [in politics, not zombies or whatever]?"

I think my answer was "President Brownback."  One of my copanelists (not Sam Seder and also not someone whose normal beat was "foreign policy") said, "nuclear Iran."

This was 19 years ago.

Anyway.

As far as I know, this person is no longer in The Discourse, so no need to name them (plus this is from memory and I don't like attributing things to people by name from memory).

Morning

Funky Friday.

Thursday Night

Rock on.

Self-Preservation

I dunno, guys, I don’t think it is too crazy to be alarmed that senators aren't willing to use the obvious tools genuinely available to them in response to an attack on their own.

They don't have magic wands, but they do have some tools.

And if they prove me wrong, great, but...

Seems Bad

Goons dragged out Senator Padilla and pushed him to the floor just for asking a question at a press conference, and this is what Noem had to say:

Kristi Noem: "We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city." Sen. Alex Padilla is then forcibly removed!

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— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona.bsky.social) June 12, 2025 at 7:06 PM

I'm sure California has some state laws about attempts to overthrow the government. Maybe it's time for Newsom to start dusting those off. Maybe it's time for Chuck to grind the Senate to a halt... hahaha whatever.

Alpha Energy

She's got a plan.

“We know the Lions are going to the Super Bowl this year because they have a good defense and a good offense, right?” Slotkin, referring to Detroit’s NFL team, told an audience of roughly 400 people at a town hall forum.

“So we have to be able to do both,” Slotkin added. “We have a strong defense, but then you’ve got to have a vision, an alternative vision, to what is being provided to us every day. And that is the charge of the next generation of leaders in the Democratic Party.”

She keeps saying how tough she is without actually doing it.

She also has thrown herself into advocating for a robust takedown of the president’s agenda.

“I wrote a war plan,” the former CIA analyst and Pentagon aide told her audience here last week, “of how to contain and defeat Trump — a 17-page PowerPoint.”

Can we see it? No.

Lansing — U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat from Holly, told a crowd in mid-Michigan Friday night that her party owes the public an "alternative vision" for the country's future and she's developing a plan she hopes to unveil in the coming weeks.

Soon! Can't fucking wait.

"I wrote a war plan of how to contain and defeat Trump, a 17-page PowerPoint ... just like ... I used to do at the Pentagon," said Slotkin, who previously worked in national security. "We used to do war planning.

"And it's about being rigorous and ruthless about our priorities. Part of the plan is about having an alternative vision."

Slotkin said that the vision will be about protecting the middle class and dealing with artificial intelligence's impact on the economy and education. It will also detail what Democrats would do if they had control of Washington, D.C., she said.

She thinks making PowerPoints in the Pentagon makes her a fighting troop.

There is always a chance my cynicism will be proven to be misguided!

It's Tariff Day, Again

Bessent says Trump will likely keep pausing the tariffs, though I can't keep track of precisely which tariffs these are.

Or maybe not!

Trump said Wednesday he would be willing to extend a July 8 deadline for finishing trade talks with countries before higher U.S. levies take effect, but that the extensions may not be necessary.

“I would, but I don’t think we’re going to have that necessity. We made a great deal with China,” Trump told reporters. “We’re dealing with Japan, we’re dealing with South Korea. We’re dealing with a lot of them. So we’re going to be sending letters out, in about a week and a half, two weeks, to countries, telling them what the deal is, like I did with EU.”

And the big beautiful deal with China just takes us back to where we were.

It remains unclear whether the truce will hold — or crumble like one struck in May did. Even if the agreement does prove durable, its big accomplishment appears to be merely returning the countries to a status quo from several months ago, before President Trump provoked tensions with China in early April by ramping up tariffs on goods it produces.

I was amused that this story fronts the critics. I'm not saying that's bad practice, just highlighting that it is a choice.

I Guess He Got Some Phone Calls

He's inclined to believe it because he's a big racist, and inclined to be happy to deport lots of brown people for the same reason, but I do think Miller's been feeding him nonsense about millions of criminals for years. 

Liberals, mostly, aren't the ones hiring undocumented workers.

If the Dems can't run with this one...

Leading From Behind

Is he unpopular enough, yet?

Thirty-eight percent of voters approve of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president, while 54 percent disapprove. In Quinnipiac University's April 9 poll, 41 percent approved, while 53 percent disapproved.

Is this unpopular enough, yet?

Voters were asked about Trump's handling of seven issues...

immigration issues: 43 percent approve, 54 percent disapprove, with 3 percent not offering an opinion; deportations: 40 percent approve, 56 percent disapprove, with 4 percent not offering an opinion;

It isn't an Alpha Energy move to stay relatively quiet on something until everyone has already turned against it.

"Pro-Vaccine Groups"

Proof they will "both sides" anything.