Thursday, August 06, 2026

What We Now Call Communism

The young people here might not remember this, but those of you who are a little older might. Not so long ago, you could afford to live a good life here in America.

You could buy a home in your 20s. You could go to college for cheap or free. You could support a whole family on one paycheck. You could afford to get married, have kids, and retire comfortably. You could fulfill your God-given potential.

We called it the American Dream.

In the middle of the 20th century, we invested in healthcare and education. We built homes and highways. We protected workers' rights and paychecks. We blocked consolidation and encouraged competition. We built the largest, strongest middle class in the history of the world.

But today that middle class has disappeared. For too many of our neighbors, the American Dream has become an American Nightmare.

We can't afford a home, but Jeff Bezos has at least a dozen. We can't afford to fill up our tank, but Mark Zuckerberg is launching helicopters from his mega-yacht. One in five Texas children live in poverty — but one of our residents became the world's first trillionaire.

The top 1% put the American Dream behind a paywall.
50 years ago, a corporate lawyer named Lewis Powell circulated a memo around DC — a blueprint for how corporations could amass political power, reverse the gains of the Great Society and the New Deal, and rig the system for themselves.

The Powell memo outlined a strategy. Unite corporate special interests, privilege corporate perspectives in the media, appoint sympathetic judges to the court, and buy politicians in both political parties.

And it worked. Republicans and some Democrats sold the false gospel of trickle-down economics. Trickle-down economics is not a theory, it is theft.

Since the late 1970s, mega donors and corporate special interests have been buying politicians in both political parties. And then those politicians turned around and rigged the economy to benefit their wealthy donors at our expense.

We have an affordability crisis because we have a corruption crisis.
We are getting screwed. Whether you're a little more conservative or a little more progressive — none of us can afford groceries, none of us can afford gas, none of us can afford healthcare.

The billionaires buying politicians like Ken Paxton don't care who you are. They don't care about your politics. They only care about their profits.

They see us as one opposing team — so we might as well start acting like one.
When Greg Abbott starts sounding like James Talarico, the Overton Window is moving:
We cannot let artificial intelligence become yet another arena where billionaires write the rules for the rest of us. Working people must get a say and a share of that AI future.

We can start by cracking down on the data centers that are jacking up our utility bills and using up all our water.

And we can establish an AI dividend, so every American citizen owns a piece of these American AI companies. If they are going to use our human ingenuity and our collective intellectual property, then we want our royalty checks.
Posted by at 1 comment:

🥣

This is psychotic behavior. It’s not just malignant narcissism and dementia. He has lost contact with the objective world and expects everyone to live in his alternate reality with him. It’s all manufactured by his own psyche and no amount of evidence will change it.

This is a terrified inner psyche constructing a protective world. He’s insane and existentially dangerous.

“Jeanine Pirro made a mistake. It was vandalism. I just told you we did, I think, 78. One of the things was to reflecting pool, hasn’t worked since 1922, because it always leaked. It always leaked from 1922. You know, it's the largest longest pool ever, all that. The concept is beautiful, but it always leaked because of the size, because of maintenance, whatever. But it was built in 1922, and from the day it was built, it like, Biden spent $58 million. Barack Hussein Obama spent much more than that. He said, "I have an idea. Let's take the river from, let's take the water from the Potomac." So they took the water from the Potomac, and it was putrid. It was putrid. It was a disaster. Biden was a disaster. I said, "I'm going to get that face." Along with Doug Burgum, Department of Interior, and we worked harder than that. Now we worked harder in all '70s. It's actually, I think, '81 now. You saw the new horses that just opened by the bridge with the gold. That was the way they were many years ago. Now they looked better than they did many years ago. But these monuments looked better than they did when they were originally built. Not just a little fix up. We made them the way they were plus, and everyone's so proud. The biggest, one of the bigger jobs was not really the biggest, believe it or not, but one of the biggest was the reflecting pool. And we did a great job. We sandblasted the stonehouse at his granite, so it has a long life. We did a great job. We got very expensive material to put on top of the surface that always leaked, because it was stone. It was a stone, sir. Always leaked. And we put it on, and it was beautiful. Now we have photographs of tapes, like moving cameras, right? We have them where people are on the side, cutting it with a box knife. So now I'm not saying I was 100% thrilled with the contractor, but the contractor was rushing. We wanted to get it open for July 4th. And we got it done. But in addition, there was mandalism. Number one, look at the grass, where the grass was all knocked out with a very powerful ingredient. We know very well what it is. But like I say, the name, because people get ideas. But they put a terrible phrase, I won't say that either, but a terrible phrase, on a massive piece of grass that we had just replaced. Kill the grass. We had to replace the grass. A lot of grass. In addition, they took knives or cutters, and they cut the material. And they put their hands and they pulled it. And there was also some maintenance things that we would have routinely fixed. But we had that up, and it was perfect. And then you had the bubblers, which get rid of what forms in the water. And that works great, but they turned it up because of the fight. Because it competed a little bit of noise during the fight. They turned it off, and it grows very rapidly in the water. But that actually works very well. And that's all. So now we're just about set to reopen it. And we had to replace cut areas where they cut it and ripped it. But there's a tape. And Jesse Wooders, by the way, did a whole big thing on it. There's a tape that's out there that I posted on truth. Where you have people leaning over the side, the weakest part, because of the flexibility. You know it moves. It's very complicated. It moves. And the softest part has to be flexible. And that's the stuff you can cut. And these guys knew what they were doing. And they cut all the way along the base, cut, cut, cut. Now, when you need to look at it, it was a day after the 4th of July, with the largest fireworks display in the world.”
I can’t assess the clinical claims (Right? Wrong?), but just reading that transcript, the man’s brain is a nest of spiders. That’s not thought, that’s just soup sloshing around in a bowl.
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Not On This Planet

Nope.
OPEC data from secondary sources shows Venezuela pumped just over one million barrels per day during June 2026. This represents an impressive 17.6% increase over 2025, although it is less than half of the 2.1 million barrels lifted for the same month a decade earlier. Indeed, the collapse of Venezuela's once mighty petroleum sector didn't begin in earnest until late 2018 as lower oil prices and then stricter U.S. sanctions hit the country's oil industry hard.
Permian Basin oil production is 6.6 million bpd.

To reach a production of 1 billion barrels, Venezuela would have to match June 2026 production for 1000 months, or about 3 years.

Trump is an innumerate fabulist who has absolutely no idea what he’s talking about. On any subject.
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Wednesday, August 05, 2026

This Is Why We Need More Data Centers

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“They Don’t Laugh.” 😹

They’re not laughing at us anymore. They just think we’re a nation of illiterates. Led by an innumerate man. And: “created”? I’m an old guy, I take a handful of daily drugs. None of them have gone down in price in all the years I’ve been taking them. Certainly nothing I buy, at all, has decreased in price by 600%. Especially gasoline. Like drug prices down 600%? Is that why we’re paying them back? "Facts are stupid things.” The whole point of a high profile endorsement is to raise awareness of the endorsed candidate. No one would be comforted by Trump comparing his love for Jews to his concern for his children. Jake Tapper has entered the chat. (He went after Jill Biden over her book.) Obama, Biden…does it matter? I know I had to change back in ‘25. Damned inconvenient. 5 year olds talk like this.
Trump: "You see it in the blue states run by Democrats -- everything is filthy dirty all the time. The cities stink, they smell. The sidewalks are loaded with horrible stuff. I don't want to use the term because my wife hates it. She hates it when I imitate no men in women's sports. She hates it when I do the weightlifter."
We’ve finally found something she has in common with the American people. It’s a representative government. Trump was in Nevada for a political rally.
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It’s Okay

The Houthis have announced that they targeted the Saudi oil tanker Wafa with an undisclosed number of missiles in the northern Red Sea off the coast of Yanbu, marking the 8th Saudi Arabian oil tanker targeted and the total number of Saudi tankers diverted since July 22 to 29.

The statement is significant because it explicitly expands the Houthis' targeting to include Saudi tankers operating in the northern Red Sea, representing a notable geographic escalation beyond the Bab al Mandeb and southern Red Sea.
We’re waiting for the Strait to open up and it's partially opened anyway and we control the strait. As you know.
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Choose Your Psychotic Break With Reality

Trump: We have a very good day today. They don't like to say that—the Iranians. They always like to say we didn't discuss that. People had found out that's not true.

…if the strait opens up and it's partially opened anyway and as you know we control the strait.. oil will go down to $2.50 a gallon.
"…if the strait opens up and it's partially opened anyway and as you know we control the strait"? So the Strait is in the box with Schrödinger’s cat?
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Monster

Not the daughter. Not the wife.

Monster.
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Data Centers Are GOOD For You!

Abbott is up for reelection in Texas. Data centers are wildly unpopular in rural Texas, where GOP support is strongest.
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This Just Gets Worse And Worse

It doesn’t take a week to break a collarbone. A few minutes on one day out of 11 is sufficient. And complaining that taking your daughter to the ER is a violation of the custody order?

Children are ALWAYS the battlefield in a divorce. Rarely are they the physical battlefield, though.

This man is not fit to live among decent people. He needs to be kept from his child. Permanently. And allowed only the strictest, supervised visitation.
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Tuesday, August 04, 2026

Protecting 🌞?

Trump: For many years, the vast Majority of Americans have asked to make Daylight Saving Time permanent, but no Administration has been able to get it done, until now. I am proud to announce that the House of Representatives has passed the Bill, and it has now gone to the Senate for final approval. People are sick and tired of having to change their clocks twice a year. It is foolish, inconvenient and, in some cases, very costly. For Cities and States with Watchtowers, and hard to reach places, it costs Millions of Dollars. A recent case was made that it is also bad for your health in the anxiety it creates. Leading Medical, Crime, and Economic Studies have shown that ceasing the biannual time change, giving us one extra hour of natural sunlight in the evenings, will help Decrease Robbery and Murder Rates, Reduce Car Accidents (especially those involving Pedestrians!), Lower Risk for Cardiac Issues, Stroke, and Seasonal Depression, Make It Safer for Children to Walk Home from School, Increase Time with your Family, Strongly Support Extracurricular Activities, Boost the Sports, Fitness, Tourism, Retail, and Restaurant Industries (and more!), and Save Money on Energy Bills, because everyone will be enjoying an EXTRA HOUR OF DAYLIGHT. In other words, leave it as it is now, and never change again. This is an issue that Republicans, Democrats, and Independents can unite behind. I am asking Republican Senators to release their holds, and allow the hotline to clear on the Republican side. LET'S PASS THE SUNSHINE PROTECTION ACT, ASAP.
I remember this from 1973. 
In cities such as Detroit, Indianapolis, Minneapolis and Seattle, the sun didn’t rise until around 9 a.m. “Almost everybody [was] getting up in the dark and going to work and to school in the dark,” Prerau says.

Newspapers wrote about the disorientation. “Commuter trains from New Jersey were delayed, many school children missed their free breakfasts, some workers walked to subways and buses with trepidation, and many people felt strange yesterday as the day began an hour earlier for most in an eerie darkness,” The New York Times reported on January 8, 1974.

Safety fears escalated quickly. Prerau notes that a 16‑year‑old Chicago boy was struck and killed on his way to school and that other children died in predawn accidents in Virginia, Ohio, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and California. The worst cluster occurred in Florida, where eight children were killed in the first weeks of winter DST, compared with two during the same period the previous year.

Farm families described children “waiting on dark country roads for buses as cars were whizzing past them,” Prerau says, while in cities, parents worried about kids navigating abandoned streets before sunrise. In response, an insurance company handed out reflective “hot dots” for children’s coats, and according to The New York Times, Dallas schools spent $9,000 on reflector signs. Some schools even delayed their start times.

Public opinion on the clock change flipped within a few months. A University of Chicago survey found support for year‑round DST dropped from 79 percent in December to 42 percent in February. “There seemed to be some indication that there were more deaths and everyone got a little nervous,” a House staffer told The New York Times.

Calls for repeal soon began in Congress, according to the February 3, 1974, Times article. “It’s time to recognize that we may well have made a mistake,” Senator Dick Clark of Iowa said.

By fall 1974, Congress repealed year-round daylight saving time, and President Gerald Ford signed the amendment on October 5, 1974. “It was a big national issue all of a sudden, and it hadn’t really been one when it passed,” Prerau says.
If history repeats itself and the Senate passes the Sunshine Protection Act (and why shouldn’t they? They’re ignoring everything else Americans want, as well as history.), it will start rhyming in very short order.
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I Have Been Informed…

...reliably, or not, that the USAG is not like lower AUSA’s, who serve limited interims. The AG can be an interim in perpetuity. So the vote on Blanche just means: Yeah, that’s pretty much what it means. What’s stunning is that the GOP keeps putting its seal of approval on whatever disastrous decision Trump makes, even 90 days before the midterms.
Main thing potentially standing in way of Blanche’s confirmation now is the votes of 3 key senators:
Lisa Murkowski
Susan Collins
Bill Cassidy

All three voted to convict Trump re 1/6

Cassidy is retiring / YOLO

Collins needs Trump voters this fall but also indies / some Ds

Murkowski was elected mostly by Ds/Is + R establishment $
This could happen, but I’m not holding my breath. If it does, Trump just keeps Blanche in the office, and two senators reap small political benefits. So it goes. VOTE REPUBLICAN ANYWAY!

I will also continue to point out that the “deal” that Steele is describing is the status quo as long as Trump is in office. (And point out Clinton went out of his way to appoint an AG who was not of his “inner circle,” precisely to keep DOJ at arm’s length. Gingrich impeached him anyway, just because he could.) Putting it in writing, and in a case where the AG nominee has been credibly accused of committing fraud on the court, a first in American history, is, I think, a fast track to a challenge to the statute of limitations (if applicable), and a tolling of such statutes, because the smart ones don’t put the evidence of their corrupt intent in writing.

And that’s all this can reasonably be construed to be: evidence of corrupt intent. And a conspiracy; but that’s getting ahead of the game. It’s no accident Blanche prepared this document, and went to court to make it “official” (the “fraud on the court “) immediately after Capital One revealed (in a lawsuit Trump brought against them) that they had credible evidence he was using his accounts for money laundering.

So this is rank corruption; but if we, the people, do the right thing in 2028, and that President does the right thing in 2029, we can start to scrub away this stain on the national escutcheon.
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Raising The Question…

Why does Miller have custody at all?

Why aren’t there at least supervised visitations? I’d be demanding that if the wife was my client.

If that doesn’t, this does:
🤯 Rep. Max Miller's interview with Jake Tapper is an utter trainwreck 🤯

Miller went on CNN to try to push back against credible accusations that he abused his ex-wife and child, but he only made things worse for himself. He threatened his ex-wife's father (Sen. Bernie Moreno) with blackmail material, defended publicly releasing a nude image of his daughter ("there was no genitalia exposed"), and insisted he's not leaving the race because he's inspired by the example President Trump set in 2016

In short, it was a disaster. Here's the whole thing:
This guy makes Platner look like an Eagle Scout. But that involved the entire Democratic Party, didn’t it?
RAJU: Sen. Moreno is calling for Max Miller to resign. Do you side with Moreno?

THUNE: It's a family matter and, um, I don't have any observations beyond that

Q: If a member of Congress is facing domestic abuse allegations, should they continue to serve?

THUNE: It's a House matter. It's a family issue too.
I practiced family law a good two decades before “Me, Too.” And even then, there was zero tolerance for child abuse, and allegations of child abuse were taken very seriously.

This is reprehensible and inexcusable.
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“Money Is Not Meant For People! Money Is Meant For Business!”

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Well….

Now we know why he’s thinking about WWII:
The U.S. Army has used up “virtually all” of its stockpile of highly accurate long-range missiles during the last five months since the start of the Iran War - munitions which would be crucial in any conflict with China - including most of its stock of Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM), three people familiar with the data tell Reuters.
President Trump says Iran has a "last chance" to reach an agreement on the Strait of Hormuz, warning that if a deal is not reached "today or tomorrow," the U.S. could launch major airstrikes.

Speaking Monday, Trump said he wants Iran to quickly reach an agreement with Oman to restore shipping through the strategic waterway, while rejecting any arrangement that would allow Tehran to charge transit fees. "There's not going to be charging," Trump said, referring to commercial shipping through the strait.

The comments come as negotiations appear stalled. Iranian officials continue to insist Tehran has the right to regulate maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, while an adviser to Iran's supreme leader warned U.S. warships and bases would be at "serious danger" if Washington does not lift its blockade of Iranian ports. Bloomberg reports there is little sign of progress in the Oman-mediated talks, despite Trump's latest ultimatum.
We have to revert to gravity bombs. After only 5 months.

The world’s only hyper power. Fully rebuilt military. Greatest in the world. Smashed up like a kid’s Army toys in the sandbox. After only five months.

The kid would make it last longer.
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🐕

Since taking office, Ken Paxton has become a multi-millionaire — all while most Texans’ pay has remained stagnant for decades. He now owns 15 homes, while most Texans can't afford one. He's taken bribes from wealthy donors, all while he blocks overtime pay for Texas workers and guts our healthcare. He was one of the Attorneys General who led the fight against the Affordable Care Act, which has led to premiums skyrocketing for Texans all over the state. He's taken these lavish vacations to Iceland, to England on the 4th of July… Most Texans can't afford to take a vacation.

Ken Paxton's corruption is costing us in the state of Texas. It's why the people closest to Ken Paxton know he's unfit for office. His own party impeached him in the Texas House. His own staff reported him to the FBI. His own defense attorney just endorsed me in this race. I'm kind of expecting his family dog to run away and head over to my house any day now.

In a time when we're all so divided, there is one thing that Texans — Democrats, Independents, and Republicans — can agree on: We can't afford Ken Paxton's corruption.
It’s the “family dog” line that makes it art.

In the video, Talarico analyzes the present time in terms I completely agree with. What he says is worth reading; but this is also worth listening to.
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“It’s A Family Matter”

NEWSNATION: The abuse allegations against Rep. Max Miller -- Moreno says Miller should resign, but President Trump disagrees. Do you think Miller should step down?

REP. JIMMY PATRONIS: No. I agree with the president. This is a family fight. Unfortunately, divorces are messy. There are two sides to every story.
And sometimes they involve criminal acts.
"The first time Miller shared the folder, it contained private images of Miller and Ms. Moreno's daughter and left her name unredacted. At least one of those images could be considered Child Sexual Abuse Material (SAM) because the daughter's genitals appear to be visible. The photo was in a document entitled EX-306_OFW-Messages-Feb-1-to-25-2026-with-Attachments and labeled IMG_9158 in the bottom-right corner. The post with the link to the folder—published under your name—garnered over 204,000 views from the time it was posted until this afternoon.

“We write to demand an explanation about how this occurred.”
This is separate and apart from the allegation that he broke his two year old daughter’s collarbone.
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When Someone Tells You Who They Are…

...believe them. I keep thinking of how this might have affected Cornyn if he were the one running against Talarico. Especially with Maxwell in Bryan, Texas.
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Further Thoughts On Ethics, Morality, And Character

Well, there you are:
"Let's not forget that there is an ongoing proceeding in Florida in federal court with an open question [of] whether Todd Blanche committed a fraud upon the court,” Whitehouse said.

“We don't hear that term 'fraud upon the court' very often – it's probably the worst thing you can accuse someone of in a court proceeding. It means you're an officer of the court, it means you abused the process of the court, and you did so in order to accomplish an unjust and wrongful result.”

Whitehouse was referring to Trump v. Internal Revenue Service, a case in the Southern District of Florida involving Trump’s lawsuit over his leaked tax returns. A total of 35 former federal judges asked the presiding judge to reopen the case and accused Blanche of committing “fraud on the court.”

“It's actually worse than contempt of court – it is so bad that in the history of the Department of Justice, no senior official has ever been even accused of a fraud upon the court!” Whitehouse railed. “And we're advancing this guy before that question is settled?”
Answer came there none.
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One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other

 Hmmmm….

"Since almost the beginning of this administration, it's been remarkable to me that so much focus has been on the slush fund, as it should, and the Epstein files, as it should, but almost none on this weaponization," Honig said. "This guy is not the first. There's a long and growing list of people who have been prosecuted largely for political purposes, and in those cases have all collapsed. That's all on [acting attorney general Todd] Blanche, but none of it seems to have stuck to him."
Yes, why is that?  ‘Tis a mystery…. Maybe it’s because Democrats really aren’t in charge of Congress, or the White House?
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Every Two Years

Republicans don’t have a political party. They have a cult.

In order to win, Democrats should be nothing like Republicans.

New in PN: Moderate Democrats have a choice to make

"They can spend the next three months reinforcing Republican messaging about their party, undermining Democratic nominees, and making it less likely that Democrats take power at the state and federal level. Or they can put the “battle for the soul of the party” off for a while and do what they can to help their party win. It shouldn’t be a difficult call."
Election year: In order to win, Democrats need to be more like Republicans. At least the GOP is unified! They sure ain’t in a “battle for the soul of their party.”
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Is This A Great Country, Or What?

We disgrace ourselves as a nation each and every day Donald Trump remains in office. The drafters of the United States Constitution provided a remedy for a criminally insane president like the one we have—impeachment and removal—but our current Congress, as an institution, is too corrupt and cowardly to fulfill its constitutional duty to exercise this power and duty. And that, sadly, is where we are today.
(A duty no Congress in history has ever fulfilled. The closest we came was the forced resignation of Nixon. Since then Republicans turned impeachment into another political cudgel, and have rendered it useless ever since. Feature, not bug.) "The love of money is the root of all evil.” I was assured, in my misguided childhood by people who wanted to be sure my Christian beliefs were well grounded in 1960’s middle class American standards, that the original of that verse said the correct interpretation was “excessive” love of money. This analysis was buttressed by explaining that the original word was “cupiditas.” Which it is; in the Vulgate. The Latin translation of the original Greek. In the original original, the word, according to Bauer, is “love of money; avarice: miserliness.” Difficult to love money without being avaricious. Needing money is one thing. Even the disciples had a common purse. Luke describes the immediate post-Pentecostal church as holding everything in common, so everyone could be taken care of; but no one could be avaricious.

I’ve seen enough, as a lawyer, as a pastor (two positions at which I did NOT excel. I speak from hard experience, not the lofty heights of wisdom), to know that there is no such thing as a moral society. Niebuhr gives us the concepts for this, far better than my limited experience. Basically, a society cannot be moral because it cannot ask its members to sacrifice on behalf of the whole. We make people sacrifice: through military drafts, or economic oppression (call it the Omelas excuse); but we can’t ask them to die for the greater good. Not that directly. That way lies totalitarianism, which we agree cannot be moral.

But can we be moral about who we choose to run our government on our behalf? To be truthful, perhaps our most moral President was Jimmy Carter, but he quickly replaced by Reagan, an empty shell of a man who played a moral character. But even Reagan was not Trump.

Can we not insist on character, at least? 

The other “money” related verse that was sanitized in my youth was Jesus’s parable (simile, really) about the camel and the eye of the needle. The “eye of the needle, “ I was told, was a very narrow gate into Jerusalem that an overladen camel (too much stuff; get it?) couldn’t get through. No such gate existed. Jesus meant a real sewing needle. Far bigger in his day than what you’re thinking of, but still not large enough to accommodate a camel. At all.

The point being, the real radicalism of Jesus is almost beyond our understanding. Certainly beyond our willingness to accept. Which is also the nature of morality. The otherwise anodyne (you needn’t even be religious to see its wisdom) “Golden Rule” is beyond our reach. “Do to others what you would want them to do to you.” Jesus rendered that one plainer, too: “Don’t judge, and you won’t be judged.” I learned the complexity of that in seminary. It means don’t join the system of judgement, if assessment, of weighing everyone on some imaginary scale and finding them wanting, and you won’t be subject to judgement yourself. Simple wisdom. Just walk away from it. Leave it behind. You want to judge the poor person? The evil person? The good person? You judge yourself. Is that moral? Or is that just another system?

Maybe ethically, to invoke Aristotle, I can say someone’s actions are not increasing my happiness, so I should not model my behavior on that person. Although by the world’s standards, Trump is certainly successful ;isn’t that what it means to win the Presidency?), and Aristotle’s ethics is that I should model my behavior on Trump’s. But would that even be good ethics, much less morality?

We may be moral men and women. We should certainly try to be. But we will inevitably be an immoral society. Even Socrates recognized he had to sacrifice his life for Athenian society; he couldn’t ask Athens to sacrifice its authority, for him.

Trump is an abomination. But even for the Hebrew prophets, the standard for the king was character, not morality. Even David behaved immorally; but he was still regarded as Israel’s greatest king. David had character. When he was confronted, he recognized his sin. And Jeremiah, in the Exile, told the king what was most important:

Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, 
 his upper rooms by injustice, 
making his own people work for nothing,
 not paying them for their labor. 

14 He says, ‘I will build myself a great palace with spacious upper rooms.’
 So he makes large windows in it, panels it with cedar and decorates it in red. 

15 “Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? 
Did not your father have food and drink? 
 He did what was right and just, 
 so all went well with him. 

16 He defended the cause of the poor and needy, 
 and so all went well. 
Is that not what it means to know me?” declares the Lord.

Jeremiah 22:13-16

For the leader, for the government, it is ultimately a question of character. And in a democracy, that question is always laid at the feet of we, the people. Our history does not show us as ever having done very well with it.
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Depending On Who You Ask When

The U.S. Army has used up “virtually all” of its stockpile of highly accurate long-range missiles during the last five months since the start of the Iran War - munitions which would be crucial in any conflict with China - including most of its stock of Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM), three people familiar with the data tell Reuters.
President Trump says Iran has a "last chance" to reach an agreement on the Strait of Hormuz, warning that if a deal is not reached "today or tomorrow," the U.S. could launch major airstrikes.

Speaking Monday, Trump said he wants Iran to quickly reach an agreement with Oman to restore shipping through the strategic waterway, while rejecting any arrangement that would allow Tehran to charge transit fees. "There's not going to be charging," Trump said, referring to commercial shipping through the strait.

The comments come as negotiations appear stalled. Iranian officials continue to insist Tehran has the right to regulate maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, while an adviser to Iran's supreme leader warned U.S. warships and bases would be at "serious danger" if Washington does not lift its blockade of Iranian ports. Bloomberg reports there is little sign of progress in the Oman-mediated talks, despite Trump's latest ultimatum.
Bessent: "We've seen President Trump last week threaten what would have been the largest military campaign since World War 2 against the Iranians, and now because of that we are in talks with the Iranians. I think there's a chance we may have a deal today or tomorrow to open the strait."
I’m old enough to remember when we were told to put businessmen in charge of government because they were clear headed savants who would only make decisions based on cold, rational calculations, unmoved by emotions and wishful thinking.
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White House Correspondents

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Monday, August 03, 2026

Moving The Overton Window

Some clever dick in Twitter replies to Talarico (not this post), pointed out that Paxton was a lawyer before he was the State AG; and yes, he was. Wikipedia tells me he worked for Strasburger and Price out of law school, and then as general counsel for JCPenney. After 11 years of that, he opened a “boutique” firm doing probate and real estate work. Then he was in the Texas House and Senate for 13 years; but that’s part-time work, 6 months every two years. So he was still running his legal practice; but he wasn’t a rain maker partner at a major firm, so he wasn’t making (honest) money to afford houses like that.👆

Evidence of his corruption and how he lived large in houses his AG full-time salary couldn’t afford came out in his impeachment trial. Paxton owns 15 houses. He hasn’t worked as a private lawyer for 11 years. He was never making “fuck you” money. The lawyers I knew in Austin making real money were too busy year round to spend 6 months down the street at the Capitol, much less move to Austin from parts beyond every two years. Lawyers don’t make “fuck you” money unless they are attached to major firms with major clients paying major $$ for the representation. Lawyers are not CEOs. They don’t get paid by the corporation, they get paid by their billable hours. No work, no money. Paxton didn’t wisely invest some nest egg he made over a decade ago. Not running an estate planning firm.

The problem of the tolerance for corruption, or rather the lack of tolerance, is what Trump hath wrought. And I think, now, that just as it’s right to see WWII as the conclusion of WWI, just interrupted by the time between those wars (what led to the first one, and especially what wasn’t resolved about Europe until the end of the second; a resolution only finally completed by the collapse of the USSR allowing for the establishment of the EU), on a much smaller scale, as what happened after 1968 in America, where Covid is analogous to WWI, and now we’re finally ending what that started, with WWII. Not in terms of armed conflict, but in terms of who we are as Americans, and whether we want to live in the world 1968 promised, or return to the 1950’s; maybe even the 1920’s.

We’re still fighting what Covid (right now) started, IOW. You may recall one result of Covid was hints that the poorest paid (garbage collectors, waitstaff) would not return to their poor income positions, without at least better income. Unfortunately, that pseudo-labor union hope never materialized; but the desire was awakened. I don’t think we should discount that as dead and gone. And like the Germans accepted Hitler because of the dolchstosslegende (to grossly oversimplify), so we reaccepted  Trump because Biden didn’t save us from the economic crisis Covid prompted (we blamed Biden for not saving us. Which may indicate how bad things were beyond the statistics and the people pundits talk to.  I think that explains a great deal now, too.) We only had two choices, so we overlooked the fact we were relying on the guy who created this mess.

Now we’re paying attention to that little problem.
Q: You’ve been Republicans for most of your voting lives. Who’s voting for James Talarico?

Republican moms: *all raise their hands*

“I like him. He was a middle school teacher in a public school in Texas, and they started cutting all his funding and he said, ‘Well, if I can’t change my school, then I’m gonna need to change my state.’ And that’s so becoming of a leader.

I want a middle school teacher who’s like, hey, this is broken. Somebody needs to fix it. Why not me?”

“This is not what I signed up for. Give me somebody who’s not extremist. I don’t care what party they are. I’m going to vote for whoever is the most common sense and who I think would be the most likely to protect my kids.”

“You’re never going to vote for a candidate that thinks exactly like you… You need to get on the bus that’s driving closest to where you want to end up. Talarico, I find him to be pretty moderate, and I think that is telling of what’s happening in the state of Texas. The Republicans should be worried.”
Trump did that, too.

Me, I think Talarico is “moderate” the way Mamdani is moderate. 
@JamesTalarico on Texas officially banning THC:

“This bill is insane.

Texans aren’t going to stop smoking weed and eating edibles because politicians in Austin say so. Texans will still use THC — but instead of getting it safely from a local small business, they’ll go back to getting it from the black market. From the drug cartels.


This ban is a gift to the cartels.

We are now telling full-grown adults how to live their lives. This is the nanny state at its worst; this is big government at its worst.

Instead of fully funding our schools, guaranteeing healthcare, or making childcare more affordable — this Legislature is focused on banning a product that gives people a little peace.

We’re making people’s lives harder, not easier.

I want to leave you with a quote: ‘It is time to end needless arrests and incarcerations of adults for small amounts of marijuana for personal use.’ That wasn’t a Democrat. That was President Donald Trump.

To my Republican colleagues, I’m asking you to oppose the cartels, stand with President Trump, and vote no on this insane bill.”
Not so long ago, banning THC in Texas WAS the moderate position. Seems that Overton window moves in both directions.
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Me? Or Your Lyin’ Eyes? 👀

If Trump thinks his claims are bullshit, what do they get him?  Where’s the benefit to appearing so but of touch with reality? Saying to yourself, “This is fine,” is a coping mechanism that may be self-delusion, but may be the last alternative to “run in circles, scream and shout!”

But to scream to the world “Everybody loves me and everything I do makes them love me more!” is not a rational strategy. It’s not even Nixon’s “madman theory,” that foreign countries wouldn’t fuck with him because he might be mad enough to launch the nukes. (A theory that overlooks:  a) the cost of total war, and b) that North Vietnam was never that impressed. (Yes, Nixon thought he was keeping Russia (mainly) at bay, but he was just keeping the elephants away. In the real world, his “theory” had no purchase at all. Nixon was a Red-baiter, and he died a Red-baiter. Leopards don’t change their spots.) Nixon knew he wasn’t mad (well, not that mad). The problem with his theory was, so did the rest of the world.
Does it really matter that he “believes” stuff like this? Or does it matter that he says it? Hearne wasn’t charged with pissing on the grass (I’m pretty sure that’s the “secret ingredient.”)

“Moving cameras”? Like, what, a kinetoscope?  Funny none of that evidence showed up in response to Hearne’s motion to dismiss. Or any time at all, really.

And does he think box cutters have twelve inch serrated blades?
His last redoubt is always “it’s very complicated,” as if you’re too dumb to understand the complexities of the subject, though Trump is a master of all things! Why argue with this stuff?  It’s too damned pathetic, whether he thinks he’s gaslighting you (“who you gonna believe? Me, or your lyin’ eyes?”) or he really is that delusional. In the end, it’s a distinction without a difference. Trump says objectively insane things. “Bonkers,” as one Twitter reply says. Is Trump bonkers because he believes this nonsense? Or is he bonkers because he thinks, like Nixon, that he’s fooling people to his advantage? Either way, more fool him.

I’ll just end by pointing out Nixon was the last President we had who was so far over his level of incompetence he had to look up to see bottom. And he envisioned his second term as securing his legacy, too, which, with his landslide victory in ‘72, he had some cause to think was his due. But he was wildly wrong, and it doesn’t matter if his fatal flaw was hubris, or delusion brought on by incompetence. The end was the same; and Trump will be no better off.

History doesn’t really care if Nixon was mad, or venal. The general consensus is: “Yup.” Trump won’t fare any better.
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A Buncha White People Sittin’ Around A Table

Tucker Carlson, MTG, Thomas Massie, Joe Kent, Brian Glenn, all planning what Politico calls a “political earthquake.”

If this was a group of disaffected Dems, it would be Dems in disarray, plotting political socialist suicide.

Instead, it’s Republicans planning to be more MAGA than MAGA, just as even Trump voters are disgusted with MAGA’s cruelty and indifference towards anyone who isn’t a rich, white man.

“Political earthquake,” indeed. This is at Carlson’s house in Maine. There’ll be more notice if Collins loses her seat.
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The Jawbone Of An Ass

"Trump told reporters a negotiation would begin on Monday afternoon but did not provide details of where it would take place or ⁠who would be involved."

I'm am confused. Iran is talking w/Oman re SoH. Iran won't talk w/US about nuclear until MoU is fully implemented. So what is the US going to be negotiating w/Iran about?
Iran says no negotiations are underway with the United States and no meetings are planned, directly contradicting President Trump's claim that talks would begin Monday after his decision to call off planned military strikes on a scale not seen since World War II.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said the only ongoing discussions involve Oman and concern management of the Strait of Hormuz, while a senior Iranian source also told Reuters that no U.S.-Iran talks are scheduled. President Trump has repeatedly cited diplomacy as a reason for pausing planned military action during the five-month conflict.

The conflicting public statements leave the status of diplomacy unclear as both sides continue to exchange military pressure while the dispute over the Strait of Hormuz remains unresolved, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, the U.S. controls the Strait of Hormuz with a “wall of steel,” so time to jawbone oil prices.
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The Wisdom Of Crowds*

Exclusive: The request from a senior officer at the US military command carrying out President Donald Trump's war with Iran came in an email: We need ideas.

"We are looking for new creative and unconventional ways to pressure and punish Iran," an officer in US Central Command's intelligence branch wrote in a message sent Wednesday to a broad group of military analysts, according to a source.
Trump: I was asked by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and Iran. We were all set to go just about at this time right now, and it would have been a massive attack. We were all set to go, but when our allies ask to call it off, you sort of have to say, “Well, let’s see.”

And the reason they asked is they think there’s a deal. There’s a deal on Hormuz, and then there will be a deal on the nuclear—or you might call it the denuclearization of Iran. I call it the denuclearization of Iran….

So, we had an attack planned that would have been the biggest attack since World War II, and it would have been disastrous for them. They didn’t want us to do it. And frankly, Saudi Arabia didn’t want it either. I thought a deal was imminent.
*Crowds elected Trump. Twice.
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Because The Incubation Period For Measles Is…

... seven years?
RFK Jr. just said on national television that Lyme disease and RSV came from gain-of-function research.

“Lyme disease almost certainly came from these experiments and is now devastating our country.”

“RSV came from a laboratory, which is now the biggest killer of children in our country.”

“And of course, the COVID-19 pandemic, which was a trauma for the whole globe.”

“All of those have been linked credibly to gain-of-function research.”

“It’s something with enormous costs and no proven benefits.”
He really is as bad as his family warned us he would be.
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Chickens Coming Home To Roost

Maggie Haberman spent an hour with him in the Oval Office in March and came away with a number. Seventy percent of his mind share, by her estimate, goes to the renovations. The ballroom. The arch. He interrupted an unrelated meeting to call Emmanuel Macron and ask what it is like to stand under the actual Arc de Triomphe, whether it has a visitor's desk, whether people jump off it. Someone had asked him what should go on top of his own version. He was deciding between that and a giant gold cast of his own fist from Butler.

Meanwhile nobody around him seems fully certain he understands how depleted American munitions are after this war he started with Iran, a live open question from a reporter who has covered him for a decade.

There is no policy agenda left, by Haberman's own account. No immigration bill in the works, no legislative program, nothing beyond retribution and construction. He is not governing a country right now so much as decorating a legacy he has already decided he deserves.
And Republicans are enabling him even as he kicks them out the door. Cornyn didn’t blink. It was kabuki all along. Trump may have scrapped the slush fund plan (emphasis on “may”), but he’s never let go of the IRS immunity. 

There was a time I’d have thought it too simplistic to blame one political party for all the country’s problems. But now it’s perfectly clear one party wants to govern, and the other party just wants to grift. Maybe that’s just the outcome of the past 100 years of the GOP, starting with Hoover and only mildly interrupted with Eisenhower’s identification of the “military industrial complex.”

Trump didn’t invade the GOP. Trump didn’t take over the GOP. Trump is the culmination of the GOP. It’s MAGA all the way down. And always has been.
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