Sunday, May 17, 2026

Follow The Clickbait

"We all need to take this very, very seriously," Elias said. "This is a five-alarm fire. This is an alarm in the middle of the night that is warning us that the arsonists are on the loose. They are pouring gasoline on the foundations, and they are lighting matches."

Trump has repeatedly refused to rule out sending federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the National Guard to monitor polling places across the country. Last week, Trump was asked again about his plans for the midterms, at which point he uttered his "do anything" comment.

At the same time, Elias noted Democrats appear to be relying too heavily on American institutions like the courts to thwart Trump's assault on democracy. Elias added that it shows Democrats "don't want to accept that things are as dire as they are."

"They want to assume that the institutions are strong," Elias said. "They want to assume that the guardrails will hold. And you and I have been doing this long enough to know that the guardrails are not holding. The institutions are not that strong, and some of them are in complete collapse because they've capitulated."
It has been six years. Every single "stolen election" theory — from 2,000 Mules to servers in Italy to Georgia suitcases — has been debunked, crushed in court, painstakingly explained, and none of these guys ever have the goods cause it's all nonsense to please POTUS. It's embarrassing for Bartiromo that she is still giving this airtime, and anyone who still falls for this chasing the next new reveal needs to get away from their computer.
60+ cases that never got anywhere in court, and an assault on the Capitol that didn’t change the outcome of the 2020 election, and yet “the guardrails aren’t holding”? 

I agree several states have surrendered voter rolls to the DOJ when that never should have happened, but there’s still that pesky matter of evidence. That’s where almost everyone of the 60 cases in 2020 ran aground. They never got past the challenge to the charges. Trump never had evidence of electoral fraud, and filed suit in order to fish for it. Anyone who’s ever been fishing knows why the metaphor is a “fishing expedition.” You drop bait into the unknown, hoping a fish is there. Civil suits don’t work that way. As Trump found out, over and over and over. 

So now what? Have the courts abandoned that principle? Will they let Trump challenge whatever race he chooses, after the fact? And then what? Order new elections in a crazy quilt pattern across the country, across House districts and state races?

Yeah, that’ll happen. Just like the National Guard and ICE will patrol every polling location in America: everybody everywhere all at once. Sure, Trump will do anything. Just like he’s going to wipe Iran off the map; or destroy its civilization. Or bomb the country into submission. Or send in special forces to recover nearly 1000 lbs of enriched uranium. You know, the way they do in the movies. 

Oh, wait, he may do that one. Or try to, anyway.
They will certainly try to use that one. But we all know the problem with trying to prove a negative. Blanche is promising to find evidence where evidence doesn’t exist. Sound familiar? And when he has it, or says he does, what will he do with it? Take it to court? Too late for that. Use it to get into court in 2026? Irrelevant and inapplicable in too many ways to count. Take it to social media? How’s that working out for Trump’s agenda and his approval? Or the polls? Trump’s minions go before the cameras every week, knowing the clips will show up in Twitter. They keep telling us everything is fine. Is that working?

Or maybe Blanche will just keep saying the truth is out there, but the deep state is very, very good at hiding it.
Or maybe Blanche and Trump are just full of shit, and the more people say so, the more obvious that will be.
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Sure, Why Wouldn’t Cuba Do That?

I mean, there’s clearly a reason this leak is not upsetting the Administration. They’ve learned something from Iran. We can’t rely on anti-drone technology. We have no choice but to preemptively invade.

(Suddenly I’m remembering the end of “The Dark Knight,” where the Joker has disguised his hostages in masks and taped empty guns in their hands, with the real hostages armed and ready to attack the police. Except where is our Batman to warn us away from making a horrible mistake?)
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🙏

"Why do we need to rededicate ourselves?" Graham said. "When God sent the flood and destroyed the earth, it was because man's heart had become so evil and violent. In the news, we see unimaginable violence: rapes, murders, [and] unimaginable violence. Video games are full of violence. We have an insatiable appetite for violence."
Ummmm... And the African Americans, the Native Americans, the Asians, the natives of Mexico, central and South America, the Irish, the Italians, the Jews, the Germans, all say: “The hell you say!” As well as all Xians who aren’t blinkered Trumpist evangelicals. "And set about enslaving the natives as soon as he got here. White man’s burden. Praise Jesus! And pass the whip…. I’ve started reading into liberation theology, and I have thoughts on how important it is to this day; thoughts I’ll get around to (if you know, you know what that means). I’ll just leave you with this, because this is the best thing from this idiotic display:
Right-wing radio host Eric Metaxas told thousands gathered on the National Mall on Sunday that the Almighty spent two centuries waiting to deliver one Donald Trump so the president could finally build his $400 million ballroom.

"Yes, it's hard to believe that it would take two centuries for the Lord to raise up a great man to bring that ballroom finally to stand where it needs to stand," Metaxas said at the taxpayer-backed "Rededicate 250" prayer event. "It's extraordinary. We only had to wait 200 years."
The Senate Parliamentarian stripped the $1 billion plan from the reconciliation package. The odds of it passing Congress now are zip and none. God wants us to wait another 200 years. Or Satan does. I don’t think Metaxas can tell the difference.
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Pocket Watch Watch 🫥

I know of a watchmaker in Austin (individual watch makers is a thing, like micro-breweries was.). I’m on his email list, and I’ve noticed his prices increasing as his sales outreach increases. Nothing wrong with that; the laborer is worthy of his hire, and all that.

I thought his watches had hit the nosebleed section, but I think I could buy three of his watches for $3800. And none of them are plastic. And, being wristwatches (rather than a watch dangled from the wrist) they are eminently more practical.

And here I thought the economy was bad. Or maybe it’s that gap between the “haves” and the “don’t have near so damned as much.” The “have nots” are not even on the internet. They’re invisible in America. They always have been. 🫥
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Sunday Afternoon Movies

Well, there’s no football game….
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Because 🇨🇳 Didn’t Spy On Him

So what the fuck does he care? Although maybe that’s not the nation’s biggest problem: Trump is laser focused on his job as POTUS. Don’t threaten the nation with a good time. Meanwhile, Fetterman is glitching: I’m pretty sure America started this in 1953 when the CIA put Reza Pahlavi on the Peacock Throne so we could get the oil. What he did to the Iranian people didn’t bother us at all for 26 years, because: we got the oil. This didn’t start in 1979, or last February. Seriously, somebody needs to check on the Senator. And can I just say I’m enjoying the Trump-Massie fight?
Massie: You can tell that I'm ahead in the polls and they're desperate. That's why they're sending the Secretary of War to my district tomorrow. That's why the president's losing sleep and tweeting about this. That's why AIPAC has dumped another $3 million into my race this weekend…
Kegsbreath? Really? They think that’s a good idea? Well, somebody thought this 👇 was:
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💩🥪

Lobbing bombs into Iran without provocation is equivalent to the Battle of Britain? U.S. sovereignty is at stake? The very existence of the country hangs in the balance? Seriously?

Can we get South Carolina to secede again? And let them go, this time?
🎶 “They all hate us anyhow/So let’s drop the Big One now!/Let’s drop the Big One now!”🎶 And this will end the war with Iran and open the Strait of Hormuz and give every farmer in America all the fertilizer they need just in time, and will lower gas prices immediately to what they were in 1968, and lower the price of meat back to 1950’s levels, and put a chicken in every pot!

Oh, wait, it won’t? Then who the fuck cares?
The “right people” being MAGA voters? (The sad thing is, if Trump nominates this guy before November, or even before January, he’s a shoo-in.) Trump will declare it definitive, and that’s all that matters to Blanche. It won’t be “final judgment” definitive, because this is not meant to get anywhere near a court. It’s precisely the kind of “investigation” prosecutors are not supposed to pursue. Blanche should be disbarred, starting with the D.C. Bar. The federal courts should revoke his license to practice in D.C. courts, too. This is wildly unethical behavior.
BRENNAN: The conservative WSJ questioned whether the summit achieved any wins. They argue you're playing a shell game by announcing past deals again. Can you answer these conservative skeptics with any specifics?

JAMIESON GREER: *dissembles at length*

BRENNAN: So, still not nailed down
When even the Sunday morning talk show refuses to smile and take a bite of the shit sandwich. 💩🥪
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AOC NOT Included!

Pretty much every data point shows the same thing — by and large, Americans don’t like the Democratic Party or their approach, they’re just extremely angry with the Republican Party at the moment.

This will likely lead to a good midterm outcome for Dems. Maybe they’ll even flip the Senate.

This will lead many to think they don’t need to make any major strategic adjustments heading into 2028. They will be wrong.

In the 2022 midterms, Democrats did better than expected — partially due to backlash to the Dobbs decision, partially due to the fact that midterm electorates are just demographically better for Democrats these days (more college educated, more politically engaged, etc.).

That, among other things, gave Democrats a false sense of confidence — “look, we bucked the historical trend of getting our shit rocked in a midterm in which we held the White House!” — and they didn’t do any of the course correction that was necessary ahead of 2024. Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered in terms of the 2024 outcome, but it was a mistake nonetheless.

We cannot make that same mistake with 2026 and 2028. The massive swings that we may see toward Democrats among less party-loyal groups like young voters and Latinos will not be permanent, nor even last in the medium-term. Maybe it’ll carry over into 2028 if voters are still super pissed at Trump, but — as @madrid_mike calls it — it’s more of a “dealignment” than a realignment among these types of party-fluid groups.

So don’t let Ken Martin or establishment Democrats or even leftists tell you that we don’t need to course correct as a party if we do well in November. That voters are buying wha we are selling. On most issues, including inflation, they’re not. They’re punishing Republicans, the party in power.

If we want to build a durable connection with more voters than we currently have in our coalition, we have to have hard conversations and take some (smart) risks.

Complacency will get us back to where we are now, sooner or later.

Now I’m gonna go outside it’s beautiful out.
Unfortunately, those “hard conversations” will be between Jeffries and Schumer.  AOC: ... will not be in the room, much less seated at the table. She should be. So should many others. It’s time to clean out the fuckin’ Augean stables.
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Louisiana’s Finest

And how will we be doing that?
Sen. Dave McCormick: "Putting troops on the ground is a whole new level of escalation, so I think the president is weighing that very carefully. If Iran in the coming days and weeks doesn't make the choice for a path to peace, I'm afraid we're gonna have to use our military and I think the president will use that thoughtfully and very carefully."
Very carefully thought out. Besides, this is a new project, and not the time for Congress to get involved.  Except to write the check. Preferably a blank one. Shorter Johnson: suck it. They got the message. So the government that pulled us out of the Great Depression, fought a world war in two distinct theaters, made civil rights and voting rights the law of the land, put humans on the moon, and gave us Medicare and Social Security, CAN’T walk and chew gum, now?

Good to know.
Mike Johnson on mifepristone: "By mailing the drugs to women across state lines, you go around state laws. It's a serious problem. Abortions have increased in numbers since Dobbs overturned Roe, and that's a great concern to us. The mailing of this drug is a very dangerous thing."
Supremacy Clause, asshole. If the Feds say it’s legal, I don’t want Texas deciding it’s illegal for me to take the drugs I need. Hit dog’ll holler. And “Christian nationalism” has always been a pejorative. Especially in a country with a First Amendment. You need to talk to your Baptist ancestors.
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A Reminder

Trump needs a lawsuit in order to access the Judgment Fund. Otherwise he’d just tell Treasury: “Gimme money.” What, you think Bessent would say no?  Clearly they need some slightly colorable argument at law to make this happen. (There’s a lot of minions who would have to do the mechanics of moving/reporting/accounting. They wouldn’t be immune from criminal charges. You don’t fuck with the money. That’s when shit gets real.)

This new proposed settlement is not meant to avoid litigation, but to settle it. There is an active court case and the court can refuse a motion to dismiss when the authority of the court (access to government money) is being used for a clearly corrupt practice. That is the question of “legitimate awards for ‘damages, costs, and fees.’” The court deadline for briefs on the jurisdictional question is Wednesday. It’s not that it’s too late, but why hasn’t DOJ put a bow on this $1.7 billion package yet?

OCICBW, but I don’t think this is a done deal, yet.
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Saturday, May 16, 2026

Utter Madness

Everybody knows Jesus was a white man who spoke the King’s English.

Everybody in America, anyway.
Now we know why Trump and Bibi get along so well.
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Biden Did This 🧻

Remember when we ran out of toilet paper? 🧻 Biden did that, too; even though Trump was president.

And it won’t be just motor oil; not for long. Any lubricants will be affected. (Food grade oils may be affected because of fertilizer loss and so, crop loss.)

Nothing but good times ahead. But don’t complain about it, because that might be virtual treason.

So shut up and park your car.🤐
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Trump Did That!

Axios:
The big picture: Mark Mueller — a northeast Iowa farmer and president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association — tells Axios that the current landscape is tougher than at any time since the 1980s farm crisis, when interest rates soared and exports plunged, triggering agricultural bank failures.

Bankruptcies are rising. Lenders are becoming more reluctant to loan to farmers.

"There's going to be fewer farmers next year than this year," Mueller says. Farmers are grappling with a confluence of forces:

🔌 Skyrocketing energy prices triggered by the Iran war. Diesel is up 60% from last year.
🌾 Spiking fertilizer prices and shortages after Iran blocked shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. 70% of farmers say they can't afford the fertilizer they need.
🇨🇳 Disrupted export markets tied to President Trump's tariffs and Chinese import restrictions.
💧 Global drought and other weather pressures.
🌽 The crisis is hitting farmers hard across the country:

In Arkansas, energy and fertilizer costs are way up even as farmers are selling their crops for less.
In Ohio, first-generation farmer Michael Kilpatrick said his fuel bills are up from $400 to $700, and container costs have risen 30%.
In Iowa, farmers are dealing with a decline in soybean prices from $13-$15 to around $10 per bushel, as exports to China have fallen due to trade tensions.
In Minnesota, calls to the state's farm and rural issues mental health helpline are climbing.
For consumers, the crisis is especially noticeable with beef.

The U.S. cattle herd is at its lowest level in decades, largely due to global drought.
But the Strait will open soon, and then everything will be fine.

At least, things will start to get better after we rein in, and then replace, the worst and most dangerously incompetent Administration in history.
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Friday, May 15, 2026

Nothing Changes

According to the New York Times, citing two Middle Eastern officials, the U.S. and Israel are preparing to possibly resume combat operations against Iran, possibly under a new name, as early as next week. Per the report, options for targeting include what one official called more aggressive strikes against both military and infrastructure targets. Additionally, another option on the table is to use special forces to go in and extract highly enriched uranium from inside Iran. However, per the report, this would need thousands of supporting troops and numerous other support elements to succeed and the risks of such an operation are extremely high.
A) We use up what’s left of our armaments in a really futile and stupid gesture. Which includes committing war crimes.

B) We send in special forces and thousands of supporting troops, and start hauling out body bags for “public relations.” 

C) Congress either votes to end this nonsense; or “supports the troops” as they come home dead, without the uranium.

D) Trump and Congress run around like headless chickens, desperate to avoid blame for the stupidest military action and greatest economic debacle in memory.

E) Nobody has solutions, but everyone looks for someone to blame.
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Where Words Don’t Mean Anything

"Place.” “Nation.” No one knows how to define it. History is a story Trump was never interested in. So: idle?
Trump on Taiwan: When you look at the odds, China is very, very powerful, big country. That's a very small island. Think of it, it's 59 miles away. We're 9500 miles away. That's a little bit of a difficult problem. Taiwan was developed because we had presidents that didn't know what the hell they were doing. They stole our chip industry.
Trump is the poster child for that group. "We"? Wait for it... No, those two clips are not out of chronological order. American carnage. He meant it. Only Trump matters. QED. Pretty sure they’re using it as a weapon with the country and the world, though. Then he just became idiotic. Another campaign ad. Yeah, it’s his new excuse. He needs the good publicity. He certainly did something really stupid. And it was Biden’s fault! Trump to Xi: “Call me! 🩷🫶”
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Claws Out

PabloReports: What do you make of this $1.7 billion slush fund that Trump is proposing for Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and pardoned fraudsters?

Raskin: It’s illegal, unconstitutional, and outrageous. Congress controls the spending of money from the federal government, and we never voted to establish a $1.7 billion fund to pay off insurrectionists and his extremist private militias, and we would never spend money on that. So it needs to be blocked. It’s an absolute corruption and prostitution of the Judgment Fund.
Can you say "clawback”? I thought you could.

 Department of the Treasury:

Under Public Law 116-9, passed in March 2019, the Department of the Treasury is required to make Judgment Fund payment information available to the public on a website no later than 30 days after a payment is made. To comply with the law, data is posted every 2 weeks here on the Judgment Fund website and includes the following information:

The name of the specific agency or entity whose actions gave rise to the claim or judgment,
The name of the plaintiff or claimant,
The name of counsel for the plaintiff or claimant,
The amount paid, representing principal liability, and any amounts paid representing any ancillary liability, including attorney fees, costs, and interest,
A brief description of the facts that gave rise to the claim,
The name of the agency that submitted the claim.

Sunlight is a disinfectant.

One other thing:
The Judgment Fund pays court judgments and compromise settlements of lawsuits against the government. Federal agencies may ask the Bureau of the Fiscal Service to pay from the Judgment Fund for:

Most court judgments and Justice Department settlements of actual or imminent litigation against the government
Administrative claim awards (settlements by agencies at the administrative level, not involving a lawsuit)
An agency may only ask for payment from the Judgment Fund if funds are not legally available to pay from the agency's own appropriations.

If another source of funds exists to pay the award, the Judgment Fund cannot be used even if the other source does not have enough money. In that case, the agency with the other source of funds must ask Congress to appropriate more money for that other source.
Here's where the trial court may yet hold onto the case to disallow any settlement because this case is not “actual litigation” within the meaning of  31 USC 1304.

Trump filed this case after entering office, which makes it void ab initio, and should block any recovery from the Judgement Fund. I’m not sure how that claim could be asserted, but it may be possible for the court to assert it on its own motion, since the authority of the court has been invoked in order to conduct what amounts to a clearly illegal act (no settlement of litigation means no access to Judgment Fund).

Either way, Congress can certainly address it in ‘27, including clawing back the funds if they are disbursed, and blocking any AG appointment who was in in this crime.
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Another Reason To Vote The Republicans Out

Congress can do that starting in ‘27. 

I really want to see Trump in a veto fight on that one.
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The DOJ Works For Trump, And Trump Alone

Sounds like a job for Congress, actually. Isn’t that what the $1 billion is for?
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Nothin’ But Good Times Ahead!

Our 5th warning:

The bond market crisis is intensifying.

The US 10Y Note Yield is now officially above 4.55% for the first time since May 2025.

After weeks of euphoria, the market is beginning to react today.

As we have been stating for the last few weeks, the current situation in the bond market is unsustainable.

We are now above levels seen when President Trump implemented a "90-day tariff pause" in April 2025 due to a collapsing bond market.

Furthermore, the market now sees a 60%+ chance that the Fed's next move is an interest rate HIKE, with rate cuts entirely priced-out.

We expect to see 7%+ mortgages next, all as auto loan delinquencies have reached 32-year highs.

Inflation is back and higher rates are coming.
And then comes the rationing: "Another automaker warning on motor oil availability?

And our President’s reality is a bubble in his own mind: In the same "gaggle:" What does "fake news” even mean anymore? 😑 Same energy. This is what happens when you play “Follow the Leader” for too damned long.
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I’m Sure This Means….

... we don’t understand what the Sinister Six are doing.

But I’m pretty sure we do….
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Great Leaders Have Great Ballrooms 🪩

That’s how you know they’re great leaders.
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🥗🥦🥒

Soon we’ll all be vegan. Out of necessity. And if we can afford the vegetables.
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We Have Met The Enemy, And He Is Us

"We want the same thing. Iran closed it, but we want it open, so we closed their closure. Now we want it open. Them open. Something.”

Who is “we” in that statement?
The only reason he’s there is to pleasure himself. "Am I special? Am I really special? Am I his BFF? Tell him 🩷🫶” So this is the Chinese version of tacky? Laser focused on what matters. If that caused Stephen Miller to stroke out, it would almost be worth it. Xi:  You’re failing, we’re rising. So watch your ass.”

Trump: “Do you like me? Do you really like me? 🫶”

The Thucydides trap is a bogus analogy and weak concept, but that doesn’t mean Xi is wrong. The cause of the shifting positions between China and America is wholly due to America. The yahoos backing Trump never understood the post war world America created. I’ve been watching “The Man in the High Castle,” and it’s a rather telling reversal of history if the Axis powers had won. They were after establishing a police state that we completely undid in Eastern Europe after the war. In the fiction, that’s all there is in the world, divided roughly between Germany and Japan. It was our post war efforts (some of them humanitarian; some of them stupidly belligerent and imperialistic) that secured a victory for the world. More than less, and I don’t discount the less. China learned from our example, and now we are ceding the stage to them. Not because we are “old,” but because ignorant idealogues have finally gained the upper hand. Two strains of Americanism at work there: racist xenophobia; and the isolationism that kept us out of WWII until Pearl Harbor. I suspect the conceit of the fiction is that we stayed out of that war just a little too long, which in reality we almost did. 

And now we are withdrawing from the world for much the same reasons. Everything old is new again. And that’s where our problems begin. Again. And again.
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Thursday, May 14, 2026

Goddamned Boomers

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Never Miss An Opportunity

A good response. Sell that hard. It doesn’t quite fit on a bumper sticker, but the sentiment sells. Which brings us to this: The Parliamentarian ruled that major portions of the  bill pending in the Senate violated reconciliation rules. Border Patrol funding is dead, but two other sections of the bill fell for violations of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, and/or the Flores Settlement. Significantly, the Parliamentarian pointed to the OBBBA and “she pointed directly to how the Trump administration has already applied OBBBA spending as evidence of what this new money would actually do.” The Parliamentarian meant that money had been used in violation of the TVPRA and/or the Flores Settlement. It’s a point beyond the usual scope of the Parliamentarian, and one that indicates concerns that others could use effectively:
It is a notable move for a parliamentarian whose office is careful to note that its advice “is not a judgement on the relative merits of a particular policy.” MacDonough’s ruling is procedural, not political — but the practical effect lands like a sledgehammer on a package that Senate Republicans had structured as a workaround to Democratic opposition.

Senate Republicans opted to fund the bulk of DHS through the appropriations process while moving funding for immigration enforcement separately after talks with Democrats collapsed over reforms to ICE and CBP. That strategy required the reconciliation package to survive parliamentary review intact. It has not.

....

For immigration advocates and civil rights attorneys who have spent years defending the Flores Agreement and the TVPRA from executive branch erosion, the ruling is a rare procedural vindication. It is also a warning: the parliamentarian’s finding that the Trump administration’s OBBBA implementation itself constitutes evidence of intent is language that is likely to surface again in federal court.

The package now returns to the drawing board — with a Senate floor vote still on the calendar and a House that has yet to formally adopt the same budget resolution.
Relevant here for a few reasons. One, the $1 billion for the ballroom is supposed to be a part of this package. But many Senators don’t want to pass it, and it isn’t clear there are the votes in the House for it, either. So if it is stripped out, it likely dies. Now, about that $1.7 billion….

Congress has to authorize that, too. Trump is trying to end run the trial court. But he still needs Congressional approval for the money. It would be a slush fund for him, with a committee to oversee it that he appoints and controls, and no reporting on how the funds are used. But getting the DOJ to bless it doesn’t mean the Treasury can release the funds. If it does, impeachment proceedings should begin in January, 2027. But as Sen. Dirksen said, “A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you’re talking about real money.” A billion dollars for a ballroom is real money. $1.7 billion for a fund for Trump to control with no oversight or accountability? Very real money. Think he’s going to get it?

Neither do I. Should we beat him about the head and shoulders over it? Absolutely. Never miss an opportunity.

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It’s A Theme

GILLIBRAND: What is your record?! I don't want to just hear about what you don't like about the Biden administration

SCOTT TURNER: During the Biden administra--

GILLIBRAND: Stop talking about Biden! Talk about your record

TURNER: During the Biden administration--

GILLIBRAND: Oh my God!
C-SPAN: Consumer prices in April rose 3.8% in April year over year. How long do you think the American public will be able to sustain this level of inflation and gas prices?

REP. TIM MOORE: It's not just Americans who are bearing what's happening. Europe is probably bearing it even more. Asia is dealing with it.
PATTY MURRAY: Your budget cuts housing. Can you help more families with housing with $84b or $73.5b?

SCOTT TURNER: Here's what I'll say. In the previous four years--

MURRAY: Ok. This is the go-to answer for every secretary is to go back to Biden. I'm asking you about your administration

TURNER: Inflation was up. Regulatory environment was crippling.

MURRAY: It's your go-to answer
And when it isn’t Biden’s fault: It’s coming from the White House. Yeah, but, how many supporters? Wasn’t that Trump’s defense in New York? Well, okay, but I don’t think Trump is going to like it there.
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Stick A Fork In Him

He’s done.
Snorkeling and diving at the Arizona are almost entirely off-limits to the public. The wreck has been a military cemetery since Japan bombed and sank it in 1941. The only people who regularly dive there are marine archaeologists, National Park Service crews surveying the wreck's condition, and the occasional ceremonial diver interring the remains of Arizona survivors who wanted to spend eternity alongside their shipmates.

Hack Albertson, a Marine veteran who dives the Arizona annually as part of a select group from the Paralyzed Veterans of America, didn't mince words.

"It's like having a bachelor party at a church. It's hallowed ground," he said. "It needs to be treated with the solemnity it deserves."

A former government diver, who spoke anonymously for fear of retaliation, told the AP that no FBI director since at least 1993 had ever gone snorkeling at the memorial. The diver called it unusual for anyone not connected to the memorial to have such access, citing physical risks and serious "security, safety, and logistical challenges."

What makes this worse: the FBI never disclosed any of it.

When Patel swung through Hawaii on his way to official visits in Australia and New Zealand, the bureau issued press releases touting his tour of the Honolulu field office and his meetings with local law enforcement. What those releases didn't mention was that Patel came back to Hawaii for two additional days after his initial stop — and spent one of those days snorkeling over the graves of nearly a thousand American servicemen.

Flight tracking data show the FBI's Gulfstream G550 lingered on the island for two nights before jetting off to Las Vegas — Patel's adopted hometown.
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🚀🧪

 So it seems this is what the NYT was talking about:

"According to Andrew Duehren and Alan Feuer of The New York Times, a settlement is in the works that would drop any IRS audits of Trump, his family, or his businesses," wrote Noah. "One advantage to this approach is that it would spare Trump having to pretend he’ll donate the proceeds to charity.

"Since nobody knows what the penalties from such audits would be, nobody can pinpoint such a settlement’s monetary value." Indeed, Noah wrote, it's possible Trump's lawyers want "some sort of indemnification against future IRS action akin to the blanket immunity the Supreme Court gifted him in 2024."
Not an end run on the court to get $10 billion in Trump’s pocket (an amount that would still have to be authorized by Congress, bugger the emoluments clause),* but an agreement to not audit Trump and his companies.

Unless that’s some kind of court order, the next administration could direct the IRS to follow the money. But a binding court order on that is as problematic as a court sanctioned monetary settlement, because there’s a very serious question of jurisdiction.

So, despite the screaming and shouting and hair pulling, I don’t see how Trump wins this one. He can authorize a settlement, but he can’t fund it. Only Congress can. Trump can’t direct the IRS to turn over the money it doesn’t have, or tell Treasury to cut him a check out of general funds. Only Congress can authorize that.

I get the power of the political argument here; but this kind of ignorance about how government functions is how we elected Trump. Twice.

Government simply doesn’t work this way; and if it does, it is corrupt beyond redemption. A CEO couldn’t authorize the funds to settle a PI claim he had against the corporation before he became CEO. If he did, there would be something irredeemably corrupt about that corporation.

But unlike the CEO, Trump doesn’t even have access to the checkbook. Nor does the SOT. The government can only spend the money it is allocated and authorized to spend. Even the local school district here has budgeted amounts for every department in administration. If that budget is exceeded, money is moved from another budget, or the purchase simply isn’t made. There isn’t anywhere in a government budget where $10 billion is authorized “in case of settlements.” That kind of payout would take authorization from someone well above the person signing the settlement documents. In this case, it would take a vote of Congress.

It isn’t rocket science to figure out Trump is ignorantly prating again. And it actually just further decreases understanding of what government is, and what it does, to play the game by Trump’s rules. It’s just making it that much harder to get past his corruption and destruction, and get back to having a government that works for us.

*
There's also a chance that Judge Kathleen Williams could block a settlement from happening at all — but if she throws out the lawsuit altogether, as she seems to be considering, "it’s not clear anything can stop the IRS from settling with Trump at that point, except possibly another lawsuit brought on behalf of taxpayers arguing that Trump’s in violation of the Constitution’s emoluments clauses" — and in Trump's last term, the Supreme Court sat on emoluments litigation until it died.
No, it’s very clear the IRS can’t just hand Trump $10 billion, and the emoluments clause has bugger all to do with it. Trump’s not the only blithering idiot in this conversation. (The Congress can, for example, authorize $1 billion for the ballroom. Are they likely to do so? Signs point to “No.” They can also block construction of the ballroom, despite the “donations” no one knows anything concrete about. Will they? It’s almost a certainty in 2027.)

I have now beaten this dead horse as much as I can.

CODA: I would rather treat Trump as the incompetent boob he is, rather than the nefarious axe murderer who is going to kill our democracy in its bed.
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It’s Because We Have A Drug…

... that no one’s ever heard of that brings them back to life. And for some reason they vote for Democrats.

Or maybe he means the zombie vote. 🧟‍♂️
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Trump In China 🇨🇳

Then why is the price of oil so high? Why?
BERMAN: How much longer is it gonna cost you $100 to fill up your truck?

REP. ALFORD: We have control over the Strait of Hormuz right now. Things have improved

BERMAN: If we have control, why aren't there vessels coming in and out of the strait right now?

ALFORD: Because there are still safety issues
Because Trump cares? You gotta understand 4-dimensional chess. ♟️  Or to American agriculture and rural America.
KERNEN: Will Xi ask Trump to change the longstanding strategic ambiguity policy or limit arms sales to Taiwan?

BESSENT: I'm confident President Trump understands the issues around that and is very resolute in his answers

KERNEN: Would Trump give concessions to XI?

BESSENT: I'm not gonna get ahead of the president
Because he’s as predictable as the movements of a loose fire hose. See?
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