Wednesday, September 16, 2026

Worth Repeating Myself

Funny... I don’t remember him promising that in ‘24.
Trump on Canada being offered to become an 'associate member' of the EU: I think it's laughable. Look, the whole thing with Canada, Canada has been a terrible trade partner.

And if they do that, if I think it's at all a hostile act, I will put very serious tariffs or stop trading with Europe on many things.

So if they do that, if Europe does that with a bad intention, if it's a good intention, that's fine.
Oh, yeah, this is fine.😑  So let’s re-elect the Congress that keeps letting this happen. Public sentiment is really quite happy with things as they are. Right?
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Like A Fish Flopping On A Boat

Puffery? Or dementia? Two conditions that often appear alike. Can do. Because that will help the GOP in November. “Elect us so we can let Trump do whatever he wants. Including burn the U.S. economy to the ground.” So he’s keeping it going even though it’s raising gas prices (and the price of everything else)? Yup. That’s what he’s doing. The price is low for him; we buy his gas. Remember: he’s on the ballot. Someday, maybe; but not anytime soon. They told GOP reps the Venezuelan crude was going to be traded for sweet light, which is much easier to refine. Wonder how many barrels of that they have to give up for each barrel of sweet light? And does the U.S. have a contract with Chevron? Who’s bringing this oil to market and what are they getting paid? Is this supposed to “replace” the sweet light from the strategic reserve? Maybe in the long term it does something; but in the short term: nothing. And all of Trump’s jawboning won’t change that. Which? That makes one. (Smart people know “I.Q.” is a bogus concept. For starters.) I just wanted to end on a legitimate laugh.ðŸ˜đ 
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One Trick Pony

If you hire Trump, you have to pay his rate.

The court has a hearing on this. Trump is not supposed to even close the place. Contempt of court is coming, which raises interesting questions about separation of powers. It also means Congress had better get involved before the bulldozers show up (although they could be subject to contempt, and then Trump would have to pardon them, and then pardon the next ones, and the next ones…

…by that time maybe Congress would get involved.
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This Is Not A 25th Amendment Issue

Trump is capable of carrying out his duties. He’s just incapable of understanding what those duties are.

Which is one more reason the Federal Reserve is an independent agency.

Trump, OTOH, has absolutely no idea how the Fed functions or what its interest rate settings mean. He seems to think it’s linked to the U.S. credit rating. But that measure is the bond market. And the bond market is beginning to look at us sideways. Imagine what it would do if the Fed was thinking like Trump does.

ðŸŠĶ

(Please note news accounts give Trump a sane reason for lowering interest rates (“cheap money before an election!”). That’s not Trump’s argument here. The argument here is just stone ignorant.)
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ðŸĪ”

ðŸšĻ Kash Patel admits FBI agents will be deployed to polling places 👇

WELCH: I thought you weren't going to be sending people to the polls?

KASH PATEL: When did you hear that? It's just another lie

WELCH: So you are sending FBI agents to the polls?

PATEL: We have election crisis coordinators manned at all 56 field offices. Election integrity is of paramount importance. The FBI will not shy away from that effort.
56 field offices. I assume those are not evenly distributed over 50 states. But for argument’s sake, Tarrant County just shut down 92 polling places, which was reportedly 1/3 of the county’s polling locations. So there are about 200 left? In that one county?

There are 18 million registered voters in Texas. I would conservatively guess 9 million will vote, between October 19 and November 3rd. How many field offices does the FBI have in Texas? And how many people in those offices? Will they send out even the clerical workers? Will that be enough to cover the 200 polling locations in Tarrant County for 17 days?

This is really the obverse face of the “illegal voters!” coin. 🊙 Yes, illegal voting is bad, and it should be regulated by proper law enforcement. But in Texas it is, at worst, 117 people out of 11 million, or about 0.0063%. Suppression of the vote is bad, too; but how do you pull it off? How many FBI agents can Patel disperse in California? Or New York City? (No, it’s not a state. But it’s one of the most populous cities in the country.) I’m sure Mullin wants to send ICE agents. But to do what? State officials won’t let them close to the polling place, any more than candidate volunteers can stand next to the doors. And what doors? Where? All 200 locations in Tarrant County? And the other major urban counties of Texas? Alone? I can name off six major cities. Let’s say there are 200 polling places, on average, in each of the six. And Trump is going to post two agents (ICE, FBI, whatever) at each polling place. For 12 hours a day, for 17 days. That would be 2400 agents. Covering maybe 5 million voters.

Where are the agents coming from? And what good are they actually going to do? And that’s just for Texas. What about California? Florida? Georgia? New York? New Jersey? Pennsylvania? And what’s the reasonable suspicion for entering the polling location to challenge a voter? Voting while non-white? Does someone think this works? Does someone think this affects the outcome?

About as much as the suspicion that 177 people out of 11 million voted illegally. When we only have some evidence that 7, out of those 11 million, did so. Both situations are bad, but both can be handled without radical measures. The 7, or even 117, can be investigated and prosecuted. The rest of us can vote in November, to shut down the nonsense about voting coming out of this administration.

The third alternative is to run in circles, scream and shout. My preference is for the lawyers to be ready in 50 states to challenge the “election monitors” the administration wants to use, while also realizing there aren’t enough such employees in the federal government to affect the majority of the voters in any one county, much less in all 50 states. Being against voter suppression is a reason to vote the bums out!
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The SPR Is Running On Empty

That’s soon to look like the “good old days.” Coming soon to a gas pump near you.
NEWSNATION: Trump is nearly 2 years into his second term here and we often hear Republicans, including yourself, look back in time of the Biden administration and say you were dealt a hard hand. At what point does this become Trump's economy though? Tariffs were not place under Biden, the Iran war wasn't happening under Biden. At what point does Trump take responsibility for this?

REP. TONY WIED: It's definitely a difficult situation, but if you look at it, these are geopolitical issues that have been going on for decades and decades
“History to the defeated/may say ‘Alas,’/But cannot help nor pardon.”

Early voting has already started.
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The Feral Cunning Of Our Guardians

Hard to understand why that is. Feral cunning. Our guardians.
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The Sky Is Falling, Dept.

Appearances can be deceiving:
"In his brief concurrence, Kavanaugh wrote, 'there is at least a fair prospect that the final rule falls within the Postal Service’s statutory authority,'” Biskupic wrote, "appearing to provide another possible vote in favor of Trump’s efforts."
"Statutory authority” which Congress can easily modify.
To support her thesis, Biskupic cited comments from Donald Verrilli, a former U.S. solicitor general in the Obama administration, during a recent Georgetown Law panel discussion.

"As the rest of this electoral cycle unfolds, and into 2028, I think there's going to be a lot of turbulence around these issues," Verrilli reportedly said.

Biskupic believes Kavanaugh hinted the rule wasn't necessarily doomed on the merits and a revised version could survive a future challenge, potentially in time for the next presidential election.
In which case the re-match might be 6-3? Or 5-4, if Kavanaugh can persuade Gorsuch?

I think it more likely Congress amends the statute to keep USPS out of the mail-in ballot approval game, and forces it to stick to approving envelopes generally, and not specifically. Should be a fairly easy fix.
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If Nobody Is Performing In The Kennedy Center

...and nobody is attending non-performances at the Kennedy Center…. ... is it now Schroedinger’s Kennedy Center? Because there’s a federal court order that says Trump can’t close it. But saying the Board closed it, makes Trump look like he’s in charge. At least until we open the box….
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This Could Explain The Lack Of Hurricanes 🌀 In The Atlantic

Global warming is still a myth, Trump wants you to know.
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Numbers Are HARD!

 Texas has over 18 million registered voters. More than 11 million voters cast ballots in 2024. The Texas voter rolls were compared to the federal citizenship rolls, known as SAVE. 2,274 voters were referred to the counties for review after that comparison. 578 were found to be citizens. 117 are still being reviewed. 7 have been indicted.

Those charged include Mexican citizen Carlos Salas Barrios, who was arrested for voting in the 2024 election, though his ballot was ultimately rejected, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice. Also charged was Nigerian national Joshua Nmelichukwu Akpom, who was arrested for making false statements in relation to naturalization, according to the release. Akpom voted illegally in the 2018 general election, but was not charged in relation to that due to the statute of limitations, according to the U.S. Department of Justice statement.

Nigerian national Helen Mayen Adams, Indian citizen Khalwinder Singh Bhengura, Mexican citizen Moises Anwar Arellano-Alba, Democratic Republic of the Congo national Celestin Katubadi, and Mexican citizen Rocio Thrasher were all charged with illegally voting in the 2024 election and false statements of citizenship to register to vote. Katubadi cast a provisional ballot that was ultimately rejected, the U.S. Department of Justice statement said.
So, of the seven, two filed provisional ballots which weren’t accepted, meaning only five apparently successfully voted.

And somehow the Republic still stands.
There are more than 18 million registered voters in Texas, and more than 11 million cast ballots in the November 2024 general election. Seven people make up a tiny fraction of that number.
About 0.000064% of 11 million. Hardly enough to establish a national emergency, or to compromise national security. Or to justify any kind of election monitoring. We are still a nation of laws. Sort of.

(And how do you monitor 11 million voters, to make sure 5 of them don’t vote? With ICE or DOJ employees, I mean.)
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Tuesday, September 15, 2026

Rumors And Rumors Of Rumors

According to Rep. Joyce Beatty, the ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board, that’s not what the Board did:
Trump "stated that we voted to close down the Kennedy Center today," but "that was not what the vote was," Beatty explained.

"While I did not support the vote, the others who voted did not vote for the language that he is putting up on Truth Social," Beatty continued. "Nor did we hear anything about him holding $17 million he was going to put in there or hold it again unlawfully."

Beatty then clarified what's happening with the Kennedy Center and reiterated her position against Trump, saying, "If he did not get his name on the Kennedy Center board, the Kennedy Center is not going to close down at this time."

She noted that because of her lawsuit and a decision by a federal judge, Trump "would be in contempt of court" if he tried to close it down to put his name on it.

"The Department of Justice is looking into it. It is open at this time," Beatty said. "There were rumors that he told everyone to evacuate the building, and it was being closed. Then it was reported that it was a false fire alarm, so people had to leave...this is what we've been dealing with with Donald Trump."
You can’t take anything Trump says at face value. Which is actually a very serious problem.
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“…because of ongoing and future efforts by the president…”

 The Kennedy Center:

Washington — A federal judge again blocked the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' Board of Trustees from adding President Trump's name on the building on Tuesday, finding that a proposed resolution to add Mr. Trump's name to the building "bucks a federal court order and a statute Congress enacted."

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper sided with Rep. Joyce Beatty, a board member who sued last year over Mr. Trump's changes to the Kennedy Center. Beatty, an Ohio Democrat, argued that the board's recent efforts to recognize the president violate federal law, and her legal team asked Cooper to issue emergency relief blocking the changes.

"Defendants are hereby enjoined from inscribing "renovated and restored by Donald J. Trump" on the main building or renaming the campus the "President Donald J. Trump Plaza," Cooper wrote in a 22-page opinion. "Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress's blessing. The board resolution bucks a federal court order and a statute Congress enacted."
Ya gotta love the DOJ’s stalwart attempts to make bricks without straw.
The Justice Department said in court last month that "there is no renaming here," and argued that the proposed inscriptions were meant to honor Mr. Trump because of ongoing and future fundraising efforts by the president to supplement a $257 million congressional stipend for a massive renovation project pushed by the White House.
Trump should be recognized now for what he’s going to do sometime in the future. Maybe. Professor Vladeck is of the opinion finding anything good in recent Supreme Court decisions is like thanking the arsonist for helping to put out the fire he set. It’s the same argument here: Trump ruined the Kennedy Center, but now you have to let him save it. And thank him for it. The way he saved the Reflecting Pool, I guess. (Trump won’t refute the NYT story that the contractor says the hub was fucked up. But he still insists it was vandalism. That bubble is only going to get thicker and harder in January.) Anyway, it’s an argument that might appeal to Alito and Thomas, and almost Kavanaugh. But ordinary people, lawyers included, would laugh it out of the room.

But Trump isn’t going back to court. He’s gonna hold his breath until his face turns blue.
He's not appealing those decisions; at least not as emergencies. It’s kind of like this court is telling him, over and over: “what you did CAN be undone.” And Trump doesn’t want that to be the ruling of at least five Justices. It’ll bring his whole little world crumbling down.

From the sound of the Patel hearing today, Democrats are looking forward to that.

Addendum: Trump is making noises about an emergency appeal, but I think this will be no. 40, and it probably has to get in line:
Trump said after the vote that the closure “will take place immediately” but that the work can’t be done until the D.C. Circuit rules on the center’s name change to include his name.

“If the ruling is a negative one, which it should not be, and is not overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place,” he wrote on Truth Social. “The attorneys from the DOJ will ask for an expedited appeal.”
Given the actions of the Court recently, I don’t think the Alito “the law means what I want it to mean” school of legal argument is playing well right now. Yes, they let Trump build his ballroom because of jurisdictional/procedural issues; but there were serious questions about his authority (questions not taken seriously enough, IMHLO). Notably, Alito tried the standing argument again in the mail ballot decision, but even Kavanaugh wouldn’t bite. The lower courts are resting on the relevant statutes that established the Kennedy Center. I don’t think there are five votes to explain those statutes away.

The Court’s regular term begins in October. An emergency appeal is an emergency for the appellant, not necessarily the Court. The Court could well decide to set the case for hearing in the new year, and allow Congress to take this one off their docket (by removing Trump’s authority over the Board and the Center). Alito and Thomas might not like it, but it seems the other 7 would like a break from all Trump all the time.

The country certainly would.
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Republicans In Disarray

HIMES: You spent $10b to try to lower the yield on the 10 year bond. When you started, it was 4.8%. Today it's at a 20 year high of 5.04%. A 20 basis point rise. Was your intervention successful?

BESSENT: Yes it was

HIMES: Wait -- it went up by 20 points!

BESSENT: There's a counterfactual of what would it have done
It’s actually down by 600%, if you use Trump math. Or if you look at it in terms of the multiverse. He’s unfamiliar with it, but it doesn’t qualify as a Ponzi scheme? FAKE ECONOMIC SENTIMENT!
BOOKER: But in March after Elizabeth Williamson reported that you used a SWAT detail to protect and drive your girlfriend, you agents interviewed your girlfriend about the reporting. Is that true?

KASH PATEL: Why are you talking about my loved ones? Stop attacking me and my loved ones
"WAAAAAHHHHH!” 😭
Booker to Patel: "Like a thug, you're using your agency to go after reporters in a chill to one of the most sacrosanct ideals of the US. They can pass you all the notes they want, but the truth is clear. Right now you are stonewalling this committee for asking simple questions of accountability on how you're using govt resources to go after reporters."
"WAAAAAHHHHH!” 😭 Did the bad men hurt his little feefees?
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The View From Oklahoma

No, seriously. NYC and the state of New York are practically co-terminus outside the BosWash. The only other reference to “New York” is preceded with “upstate.”

OTOH, most people still think all of Texas looks like Monument Valley.

This doesn’t mean Mullin isn’t a boob.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin: "The only way you can take a republic country like the United States and turn it into a communist country is by causing chaos on purpose and then saying, 'hey look, government is a mess. You need us, the communist country, to rule you.' It's insane."
Trump has made sure the government owns the means of production. ðŸĪĶ‍♂️ 
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I’m Not Sure What It Means

But:
Jimmy Kimmel’s interview with Texas U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico skipped television and went straight to YouTube — quickly racking up nearly 6 million views.

The interview, posted to the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” YouTube channel on Sept. 10, had garnered about 5.8 million views by early morning Sept. 12, making it one of the show’s standout recent uploads
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The Dog That Still Hasn’t Barked

Trump has run for election three times. He lost to Joe Biden. He defeated Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris, the only two women to ever be nominees for president by a major American political party. 

It wasn’t character that didn’t matter. But we really, really did do this to ourselves.
Apparently it was a better choice than electing a woman. ðŸĪ·‍♂️ 
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Monday, September 14, 2026

😎

Keeping it the headlines a little bit longer.  Especially when this is the story:
The tourist said he recognized Paxton, Texas’ attorney general and now the state’s Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, walking near the London Eye with his mistress, Tracy Duhan, on July 1. The man recorded an 18-second clip and walked away, according to the exclusive report.

Moments later, he said, Paxton bumped his shoulder and demanded to know whether he had been filming him.

"I can absolutely film you,” the tourist recalled answering. “You're a public figure in a public place, and I can film you all I want.”

Paxton reportedly demanded to see the footage before twice lunging for the man’s phone.

“He says, ‘You can't do that. Let me have your phone. I want your phone,’ and then at this point it's a confrontation,” the tourist said.

“He's yelling at me, and I'm telling him to back off,” the man added, according to the report. “He lunged at the phone a second time and tried to force it from me.”

Paxton reportedly walked away after the tourist’s wife pulled out her own phone to record the overseas confrontation. The couple said they later reported the encounter to London police but have not pursued charges over fear of retaliation from MAGA world, or Paxton, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump, the Daily Mail reported Monday.
Now we know why Paxton does so few public events and runs away from questions.

If this guy had had a pen, Paxton would have stolen it.

Paxton’s campaign is mum. Rapid response fail.
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ðŸĪ– All The Way Down

Yesterday: — Acyn (@Acyn) September 13, 2026 Later today:
Trump: The people that say Al is going to destroy the World, and that Data Centers are bad for your neighborhood, are the same people that said, just a short time ago, that the World would be extinguished by "Climate Change." That HOAX never worked out for them, and now they're on to the next one.

These people are Revolutionaries, but Revolutionaries for a Bad and Evil Cause. Soon you'll find out they're working for people that do not have the best interests of the United States in mind!
Flock cameras and AI are good for you! You must accept the way of the Tech Bros! Anything else is counter-revolutionary and unmutual!

(He’s really freaking out at thought of ‘27 and’28.)
And a little eugenics as the cherry on top.
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Only A President With A High I.Q.

Or one easily swayed by the last person they spoke to.
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The Texas Railroad Commission Is A Three Member Body…

 …that most Texans don’t even know exists, much less that they elect the members. Bo French seems determined to change that in a atmosphere that has already seen Tarrant County (where he was GOP county chair, and so racist Abbott and Patrick publicly asked him to step down) elect a Democrat in a special election for the first time in decades.

Texas Railroad Commissioner candidate Bo French stood by racist remarks he made Sunday on social media that included a photo of South Asian students celebrating a football game at the University of Texas at Austin, arguing the university promotes discriminatory enrollment practices that favor students of color.
Republicans are in disarray in Texas:
“This is racism, plain and simple,” wrote state Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo, who holds great sway in the Texas Legislature as chair of the House Energy Resources Committee. “I have served on the Energy Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Railroad Commission, for most of my tenure in the Texas House, and I have never seen conduct so unbecoming of a Railroad Commissioner or candidate in that time.”

“The right thing to do is immediately delete this and issue an apology.”
Yeah, that’s not gonna happen:
“I don’t have anything against the people specifically in that picture,” [French] told [Mark] Davis [in a radio interview Monday]. “I think that the bigger conversation is, are we going to have policies to prioritize Americans … or are we going to have policies that prioritize foreigners? And I think most people in the America First movement think we ought to be prioritizing Americans.”
In that same interview:
He said UT-Austin and other institutions have prioritized foreign students and workers, which, without evidence, [he] said has resulted in fraud.
French's opponent is already benefiting from this:
Rosenthal on Monday told the Texas Tribune that French’s remarks led to a fundraising boost for his campaign that added 500 new donors who contributed $35,000.

“Republicans, Democrats and Independents are uniting behind our campaign because they know the economic engine of the Texas miracle needs steady leadership at the helm — and Bo French’s racist outbursts jeopardize the credibility of the agency he seeks to run,” Rosenthal said in a statement. “Bo French’s own party has said he is unfit for the office he seeks to hold — and Texans are putting their money behind the oil field engineer who is qualified for it.”
French may be turning into Paxton. Republicans are certainly in disarray.
The Texas Oil and Gas Association, whose political arm endorsed French last week, on Monday shared a post by House Speaker Dustin Burrows in which he said, “You can oppose immigration policy without demeaning people because of their race or ethnicity — this post has crossed the line,” and calling on the post to be deleted.

“We agree with Speaker Burrows,” the association wrote.
Not exactly a condemnation of racism (it takes me back to the arguments over the finer points of “racism” v. “prejudice” of my childhood. IYKYK.), but it will be interesting if French bows to the demands of the most important oil industry organization in Texas.

Or will he defiantly keep this alive?  Jon Rosenthal can certainly use the money. 😈
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“The Only Control That AI Needs Is A STRONG AND SMART (High IQ) President…”

Too bad we don’t have one. “Covid will just go away one day.” “The price of gas will go down after the election.” “We have trillions of dollars coming in from tariffs.”

Sound familiar?

“Boom. ‘I don’t like that robot.’”

The problem with Asimov’s vaunted “Three Laws of Robotics” is that it depended on the robot understanding the human concept of “harm.” And actually giving a shit about harming a human. You don’t let a toddler play with a shotgun, for the same reason.

And the threat of robots is very cinematic, but J.G. Ballard’s “The Subliminal Man” was much closer to reality. It’s not the human simulacra we need to worry about; it’s the technological systems. Even Musk can’t build a human simulacra (arguably he can’t even build a car). But AI is in computer systems; and the threat already is what it will do there.

Trump has the technological understanding of Elon Musk: none at all. But he’ll chase a buck to the ends of the earth, and trample down anything in his way. Just like Musk. They’re two peas in a pod: stupid narcissists who stumbled into money, and convinced people to give up theirs to them.

If AI isn’t that stupid, it’s already smarter than us.
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Culling The Herd With Snake Oil

Tell me I’m wrong.😑 
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“LOOK! OVER THERE!”

Which are so expensive we can only afford a few at a time, and when we use those up….
Trump is having a Crashout Monday on Truth Social: "Oil is flowing through the Hormuz Strait. The Countries of the World, which have been no help to us whatsoever, should, and will, reimburse the United States of America when this SCAM Confligration is all over. We are doing it much more for others, than we are for ourselves, and we have been for Generations! President DONALD J. TRUMP"
They will reimburse us before, or after, Mexico pays for the wall?

More trustworthy reporting.
Trump's Crashout Monday continues: "I hope everyone realizes that price increases throughout America were caused by Sleepy Joe Biden and the Biden Administration, not by “TRUMP.” Even Oil was higher under Biden than it is right now, and we prevented Iran from having a Nuclear Weapon! With the temporary exception of Oil, prices are coming down sharply, and Oil will drop like a rock as soon as the Military Conflict with Iran is over, and that will not be long. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP"
Tl;dr: “IT’S NOT MY FAULT!”—DJT It’s really hard not to think of this as: “DON’T LOOK AT TRUMP, LOOK OVER THERE!”
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Our Man On Their Side

Trump needs a new walkway to the helipad at the White House. "Let them eat cake.” 🍰  But then Noem needed a new jet.✈️  Culling the herd. MAHA being anti-vax is not an accident, after all. The best and the brightest. 🙄
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Trump Likes Flock Cameras, Too

Man o' the people. “Feral cunning.”

Even GregAbbott is disavowing Flock cameras. After the Lege funded the purchase of them statewide.

Maybe Trump should come down here and campaign for Paxton and AI and Flock cameras. The shit-tastic trifecta!
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Didn’t Trump Call Himself “The King Of Debt”?

And wasn’t his “business” largely a matter of spending other people’s money? I don’t think any of those bankruptcies were personal. He set up separate entities that failed and took everyone the entity owed money, down with them. But never Trump. Or getting them to give him money, without always giving anything in return (the Saudis couldn’t get any help with the Houthis)? The rotten apple doesn’t fall far from the blighted tree.

And yes, it’s a national security problem. Then again, Trump I showed Russian officials around the west wing of the White House.

You already paid for this.
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🐍 ðŸ›Ē️

It’s an easy promise. Republicans won’t “win” (he hasn’t defined the terms of the offer, has he?), so he won’t have to pay up. Trump will be too busy screaming about the “rigged” election, anyway. And it’ll cure your warts and improve your sex like life!
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Well, Ken, You Fucked That Up, Too

Cornyn’s message prompted a flood of criticisms against French from several Texas Republican state representatives.

“You can oppose immigration policy without demeaning people because of their race or ethnicity — this post has crossed the line,” said House Speaker Dustin Burrows.

Others took an even firmer stance.

Former House Speaker Dade Phelan called French “unfit for office.” State Rep. Jared Patterson said Texans deserve Railroad Commissioners who do their job instead of “using a statewide campaign as a platform for racial division.” And state Rep. Drew Darby lamented that he has “never seen conduct so unbecoming of a Railroad Commissioner or candidate in that time.”

Darby’s call for French to apologize came with a threat.

“If not, I would remind any candidate that the Texas Legislature has granted the Railroad Commission broad discretion in carrying out its duties — because we have trusted the competence and fairness of those who serve. That trust can be revisited,” Darby, who chairs the House’s Energy Resources committee, added in his post on X.

“If Mr. French wants to regulate immigration policy, he should have run for Congress.”
It's not to be overlooked that French won the GOP primary to get on the November ballot. Nor that:
This was not the first time that elected Texas Republican officials have blasted French for his racist remarks, but it remains to be seen whether these criticisms would blunt his rise to statewide office.
Gov. Abbott and Lite Guv Dan Patrick both criticized French for his racism, until he won his primary. Then, oddly, it didn’t seem to matter. As I said before, I think Cornyn is just waking up to how racist his party is, now that it’s through with him.
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Sunday, September 13, 2026

The Great Sin Of The Boomers…

... was setting adolescent males as the standard of “cool.”

Over 60 years later, their sheer numbers are still casting a shadow we haven’t stepped out from under. It’s why Trump and MAGA are still in control.  And why they won’t be much longer.

MAGA has worn that out, too.
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Why Didn’t Paxton Mention Bo French?

Oh, that’s why: Paxton didn’t mention French, did he?

Meanwhile:
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Trump Wants Control Of The Kennedy Center….

 …or he’ll hold his breath until his face turns blue.

The paper said a report, prepared by the institution's ​trustees, claims that within a few weeks the institution [the Kennedy Center] won't be able to pay employees or meet maintenance costs. The report ​was prepared in advance of a meeting that ​is scheduled for Tuesday.

The Post also said that Trump will ‌help ⁠the Kennedy Center if his involvement is acknowledged. The trustees' report represents "a remarkable new phase in Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center, which has been engulfed ​by financial turmoil, ​leadership upheaval ⁠and litigation since he installed himself as chairman last year," the paper said.
I don’t honestly know the operating structure of the Kennedy Center, but I don’t think Trump can force it into bankruptcy. It is, after all, owned by the federal government, operated as a bureau of the Smithsonian, and a federal judge has already ruled Trump can’t close it “for renovations.” (Trump probably imagines that, since he can’t bring the Center under the rubric of “national security,” he’ll just threaten to bankrupt it.)

Trump has no fucking idea what he’s doing. Which is why he thinks he can hold his breath until he gets his way.

He really is a toddler.
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The Fish Rots….

French is running for a place on the Texas Railroad Commission (regulates oil production in Texas). Gov. Abbott is running for reelection, so he’s more of a weasel than the Senator. Abbott blames the picture:
“That is not my message,” Abbott said. “A selective picture of Longhorn fans celebrating our biggest home victory-ever-actually shows a way that Texans unite. We all support our college football teams.”

“The way we win the state is the same way we win football games,” Abbott added. “We unite under the brand of Texas.”

Abbott also defended Texas’ hard-line immigration policies, saying unity “doesn’t mean that Texas cannot also lead in having the toughest immigration laws of any state in America and freezing H1B visas at our universities.”
So, does he agree with French? Or is it no big? Texans also unite for racism, asshole. At least the racists I’ve known think so. They also think the rest of us just don’t understand. 

Like French. And Abbott, apparently. Of course, it comes down from the top. Cornyn should be realizing about now he’s the last decent man in the GOP. And he’s on the way out.

This just seems to fit here; and I like it.
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How Many Cases Has DOJ Lost Against Trump’s “Enemies”?

Your reminder that Homan is not a lawyer and does NOT even play one on TeeVee. (The “case” against Omar isn’t going to happen. If it does, Elmo’s number is up in  ‘29.)

How you do it right:
El-Sayed: Weijia, with all due respect this is the third time you've asked about a twitch streamer in California. I'm not interested in having a conversation with streamers in California because they are not raising the prices of gas and groceries.

Let's actually talk about the issues that are affecting people instead of getting distracted by whatever the president says we should be talking about. Their whole game is to make us fight culture wars so that we don't pay attention to the fact that the president has made $2.2 billion. His family has made even more. How about your family in Michigan?
How you do it wrong.
On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, the New York Times spent time and resources analyzing the Reflecting Pool.

And they continue to avoid doing any real reporting on all the vandalism that has clearly happened at the Reflecting Pool:
- 342 feet of razor blade slashes
- "8647" spray painted in massive black letters on the pool
- U.S. Attorney's Office: "The NPS employee...stated that the defendant then knelt, placed both hands into the reflecting pool—below the surface of the water—and started to ‘violently’ rip and tug at a large portion of the blue pool coating."
- "8647" chemical bums on the nearby grass
Yes, that is quoting testimony never presented in public because DOJ dropped the “vandalism” claim for lack of evidence. And “razor blade “slashes” that weren’t found when the pool was drained. The numbers in the photo of the “8647” are so perfect it must be AI, not real. DOI is determined to rebut the NYT article quoting the contractor who says the job was done wrong.
Like any major construction project—and in this case, the world's largest reflecting pool that was worked on in record time for the 250th celebrations in Washington, DC—there were parts of the project where the contractor has returned to make sure the work is perfect. And with the major vandalism of long razor-blade gashes, the contractor is also replacing the sections of the pool damaged by vandals, who also repeatedly reached into the pool and ripped at the coating.
The contractor told NYT they returned to start over, because the first try was a complete cock-up.

DOI just will not accept that they’re never going to make “fetch vandalism” happen. But let’s talk about Hasan Piker! Gossip is much more interesting!
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Anything But Take Responsibility

(Reminder that the man’s never had so much as a Board of Directors. Even school superintendents answer to a school board.)
MIKE JOHNSON: Lutnick said the $5,000 check would come from tariff revenues. Trump thinks of the American people as shareholders in this American dream

TAPPER: The tariffs revenue is about $300 billion, not $1.3 trillion, and obviously Americans are paying those revenues. But devil is in the details
(Trump’s never had shareholders, either.) And the King of Never Being Responsible: Lickspittles from the Oval Office, down.
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Square This Circle

A minute later: Even a GOP Congress wouldn’t meddle with those primal forces in January.

And aren’t Democrats the only ones concerned with the economy?
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Reminder That We Elected FDR Because Hoover Was President When The Great Depression Started

ðŸĪĶ‍♂️ 
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King Canute II

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Saturday, September 12, 2026

Does Jet Lag Affect The Timing Of Sundowning?

Asking for a country.
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I Wonder If They Can Price It By The Half Gallon?

Yeah, it could be the price isn’t that much higher (yet!). It could be they’re out of diesel! In “parts of California.”

Golden Age, bay-bee!
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