Wednesday, July 15, 2026

Kavanaugh Stops

🚨BREAKING: ICE agents were filmed assaulting, handcuffing, and kidnapping a U.S. citizen in Passaic, New Jersey… while refusing to even look at the ID he repeatedly begged them to check.

A man is pleading with federal agents to verify who he is…

And they refused.

Instead, one agent says, “We need to get him on the ground,” puts him in a chokehold, throws him to the ground, and multiple agents pile on top of him before handcuffing him, and throwing him into their vehicle.

Under the Fourth Amendment, the government cannot arrest, or seize someone, without probable cause that they have committed, are committing, or are about to commit an offense that authorizes the arrest.

U.S. citizens are also not required to carry identification unless they’re driving a motorized vehicle.

And if federal agents are refusing to verify someone’s identity before arresting them, then they are openly ignoring the constitution.

Which should terrify every American.

Because that means no one is safe from being kidnapped by the government… and disappeared.

Every agent involved should be publicly identified, and DHS should be forced to explain why they believed they had the legal authority to seize someone, while refusing to verify who he was.

This cannot become normal.
Trump: "We CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP! Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands. The Radical Left Dumocrats would like to see this done, but it won’t happen on my watch. I.C.E., be judicious, fair and smart, and go back and do your very important job. Keep those Crime Stat Records coming! Remember, you are loved and respected in America. Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP"
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
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Deja Vu All Over Again

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A Distinction Without A Difference

There’s no attorney-client privilege between the POTUS and any lawyer in the DOJ.
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The Large Print Giveth…

Trump: "We CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP! Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands. The Radical Left Dumocrats would like to see this done, but it won’t happen on my watch.
And the small print taketh away:
I.C.E., be judicious, fair and smart, and go back and do your very important job. Keep those Crime Stat Records coming! Remember, you are loved and respected in America. Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP"
“Crime Stat Records” doesn’t have the single reference he thinks it does.
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ICE Breaker

 After the shooting, Houston Mayor John Whitmire said, many times, the city could do nothing. Ever the weathervane:

City Council Member Alejandra Salinas spoke after King, saying she attends her church: “We are going to be out there protesting with you, and we are going to do everything to make sure HPD does everything in its power to make sure no stone is unturned, and we get justice for Lorenzo.”

Whitmire committed to conducting a local investigation into the shooting on Friday, days after he said the city had no jurisdiction to investigate the involvement of federal agents.

Whitmire also on Tuesday directed Houston Police Chief Noe Diaz to send a letter to Texas Department of Public Safety Director Freeman Martin and ask for the Texas Rangers to conduct their own investigation. This came a day after Martin said that DPS has “received no request from any local law enforcement agency” for assistance in the shooting investigation, according to a letter he sent in response to a July 8 demand from several Democratic lawmakers for the state agency to open its own probe.

DPS didn’t immediately respond to The Texas Tribune’s question about the Houston leaders’ request.

Diaz also met with the FBI on Tuesday regarding the case, according to his letter and a social media post by the federal agency. Other attendees, the FBI’s post said, included federal prosecutors in the Southern District of Texas, the Texas Rangers and Harris County District Attorney’s Office, which is also running its own investigation into the shooting.
More importantly, is our children learning?
City Council Member Carolyn Evans-Shabazz told the audience they have another tool to hold leaders accountable: voting.

“Everybody here is appalled, but it’s not much we can do if we don’t have you doing more than coming and talking and protesting,” she said. “We need you at the polls.”

Jeana Magallon, a Houston Independent School District teacher, told the City Council about breaking up a fight between two students and telling them about the “importance of talking out our issues” and “getting a trusted adult involved in their problems.”

The response stunned her: “My fifth-grade student looked me in the eyes and said, ‘That’s not real life, miss. ICE wouldn’t do that to me. Police don’t do that. They fight, they hurt us.’”

“What could I say to him?” Magallon said through tears. “We are teaching our children to expect violence towards them. So please, for my students, for our children, justice for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo — this is on all of you.”

Kendrick Sampson, a Houston resident and actor, asked the City Council, “Why aren’t y’all protecting us? Where do y’all draw the line?”

“It should only take one, it should be not one more, not one more murder,” he said. “If you’re not going to protect us, we should not protect y’all. We shouldn’t protect y’all seats.”

Maria Cervantes, a 57-year-old Houston resident, said: “ICE hunts us worse than animals because when we call animal control, do they just shoot the animal? No, they pick them up right alive.”

“I don’t even consider ICE law enforcement,” she continued. “They’re just like hunting dogs that are killing us left and right.”
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Gasoline On The Fire 🔥

. @JamesTalarico : Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was murdered by ICE.

He wasn't their intended target. But he looked like their intended target.

Lorenzo was our neighbor, a fellow Texan. He lived in Houston for 35 years. He worked as a construction worker and he sent his three boys to college.

His oldest son is a public school teacher. His middle son is an engineer. And his youngest is still in school.

Lorenzo Salgado embodied the American dream. His boys called him ‘El Mundo Intero‘ — the whole world.

And they watched as their whole world died in a video posted on Facebook. Lorenzo was a child of God, endowed with infinite worth. His life was invaluable. His death was senseless. Our neighbor, our fellow Texan, deserves justice
These are rural communities, where people VOTE.  It’s the rural areas of Texas that keep reelecting the GOP. 

And Trump is holding the gasoline can. It’s labeled “ICE.”
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Remember Trump’s “Feral Cunning”?

His almost magical ability to read the national room?

Whatever happened to that?
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Tuesday, July 14, 2026

Remember That In The Midterms

And precisely how does he do that? Step by step, please. 

Show your work.
Me on @MSNOWNews talking about @realDonaldTrump 's continued push to try to delegitimize the 2020 election:

"This is actually exhibit number 55,299 of Trump's fundamental mental unfitness and moral unfitness to be president. If he doesn't believe this, and he's just saying this to be manipulative, that's psychopathic. If he actually believes any of this, he's psychotic. He may well be both. It's just classic Donald Trump."
Well, that’s certainly true.
Anyway, here's what I said:

“Conway said, Trump is engaged in ‘an attempt to undermine faith in elections generally in advance of an election that he is likely to lose one or both houses of Congress ... I mean, this is really, he is just looking in the mirror. He is just talking to himself.’

“This whole situation, Conway continued, ‘is actually exhibit number 55,299 of Trump's fundamental mental unfitness and moral unfitness to be president ... if he doesn't believe this and he's just saying this to be manipulative, that's psychopathic. If he actually believes any of this, he's psychotic. He may well be both.’

“Trump, Conway added, is engaged in his ‘classic’ pattern of behavior and ‘lying, lying, lying without regard to the facts, making new things up, even if they don't make any sense, and even if they don't connect up to things in the real world.’

“Conway added that, for the sake of argument, if you truly entertain Trump's ideas ‘is he saying that the one election where he was president was the one that he lost because there was election interference, and he didn't know that in 2020’ despite having control of all the election apparatus—meanwhile, "the only two good elections we had were 2016 and 2024’ [when Democrats were in charge] ….

“‘That's nonsense,’ Conway said.”
It's the charge of “undermining faith in elections” that I don’t understand.

What percentage of the electorate actually votes? It’s lower in the midterms than it is in Presidential years. It’s always been low. Participation in democracy has never been a hallmark of American democracy. Is that a sign of “undermined faith in elections”?

I’m pretty sure Trump winning the presidency undermined the trust of a lot of people in the electoral process. Maybe not in “elections,” but certainly in the people who voted; both in 2016 and in 2024. Is this where I should mention the common thread of those two elections? Both times, Trump’s opponent was a woman. Does that undermine faith in elections? It certainly damages one’s trust in the electorate. We’re supposed to be better than that. We elected Obama, after all. But we’ve been presented with two women candidates since then, and we’ve rejected them both. Kind of hard not to draw a conclusion from that: better Trump, than a woman.

But “faith in elections” is the key? And Trump undermines it by, what? Complaining about every election that doesn’t go his way? He’s still bitching about the 2020 election, and now he’s expected to declare the election of two democratic Senators illegitimate because…?  Well, Ossoff was elected in 2020, but Warnock doesn’t stand for reelection this year, so how does that even work?  Warnock won a special election in 2021, and then was elected in 2022, so… how does this work, again? The interference continued until 2022, but it stopped in 2024?

As Conway said, Trump was President in 2020. His government was charged with making sure the elections were free of foreign interference. Apparently they were in 2016, and 2024, when Trump was not the head of government. But not in 2020? And Trump only settled this now? Six years later? With evidence he probably won’t show us? Or probably won’t make any sense.

How does this work, again?

And it’s always about cheating that affects Trump? Unless he gets his way, the elections are illegitimate? If that’s the argument that undermines your “faith in elections,” then I’m guessing you never vote in the first place. And the country’s gotten by pretty well so far without you voting. Or caring about elections.

Maybe the idea is just a way of trying to explain Trump and his obsessions. But Trump is simply trying to salve his narcissistic ego. He can’t lose, and he can’t be wrong. He’s not undermining trust in anything except his presidency; what he says, and what he does.

And ultimately, for a politician, for an office holder, what does this (literally) have to do with the price of eggs? Or gasoline? Or inflation?
YINGST: Shipping data trackers indicate that just 10 vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday. Less than 10% of what normally goes through this critical waterway. When you say the strait is open, what do you mean?

TRUMP: It's open if people want to go through it. It’s open now.
All Trump is doing is undermining trust in his presidency. Which is why we have a Congress; and why it’s Article I of the Constitution.

“Remember that in the midterms.”
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A Thoroughly Incompetent President Every Four Years

Pics, or it didn’t happen. What about the $1000 in damage the former Olympian did? Where’s that? Lots of dirt; still no “slash.” The algae got it? 🤷‍♂️ And if the dirt is covering the blue, what was the point of the blue? Or is the dirt, like the algae, from Vandals, too? But it was SUCH a good idea! 🏴‍☠️  Are those investments all going to be made in purchases of Trump’s cryptocurrency?

To distract from that, Trump does his best HypnoToad. Remember when he said Covid would just “go away”? Same energy. So, the idea here is that we didn’t have free and fair elections in 2020. But we did in 2016, and in 2024. 🤔Who was President in 2016? And in 2024? And in 2020?

Meanwhile….
Odd. I always thought Stephen Miller was all about public safety. Grandpa loves his toys. 🧸 
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Perspective

And why everybody likes Ted Cruz:
Donald Trump’s spiral continues. The failed president, pocketing billions as he drives up prices, is afraid to lose the midterms. So he will reheat debunked election conspiracy theories and tell bizarre new lies to deny his 2020 defeat and attack voting rights. This is a disaster for Trump puppet Mike Collins. Already mired in scandal, Mike will now have to double down on conspiracy theories toxic in the General Election. From the start, Trump’s obsession with Georgia elections revealed his fury that Black voters were instrumental to his defeat. I'm asking concerned citizens nationwide to join me and support our voter protection efforts in Georgia.
The only two “illegitimate” outcomes in Georgia are Ossoff and Warnock. 🤔 Trump gives a whole new meaning to the claim of “transparency.”
Jordy: "ICE murdered another person today. Witnesses out there described it as an execution. This is a week after they murdered a 52-year-old father who had been in this country for decades. This is a paramilitary force at the direction of Stephen Miller and Donald Trump. We have got to abolish ICE. If I have to put it in political terms, that's the centrist take at this point ... Every one of these ICE thugs who has committed murder needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
And if you’re being chased by masked men in unmarked vehicles who aren’t looking for you, but shoot you to death anyway? 🤦‍♂️  Russians worked for decades to convince Graham to eat Chik-Fil-A and ignore his health issues. (Sclerosis doesn’t happen overnight.) And the D.C. ME is a Chinese agent.  The Deep State is deep! Their next phrase of choice was “the gun went off and the bullet struck the fleeing criminal.”
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Monday, July 13, 2026

The 900 Foot Slashes

Because fuck if we’re gonna do it! Trump is confusing us with Iran. Ummmm...ICE admits they’re shooting people. That’s not at issue.
Massie: I had a nearly 20-minute conversation with Senator McConnell. And he said we should stop spying on Americans, quit bankrupting the country, and stop starting these new wars. And he expressed his sadness that I lost my primary.

But it appears that a lot of people had those 20-minute conversations. We just need to start having them publicly
Trump: We drained the beautiful "Reflecting Pool" today in order to fix the scars and damage that was done by the Vandals…

The slashes were 300 yards long, and the floor of the pool was cut and then pulled upward, with great force, by these thugs.

These Country hating sleazebags should pay a big price for the damage done.
Are the slashes in the room with you right now? But is there a 900 foot gash? Huh? Huh?? You didn’t say there wasn’t! The Lincoln reflecting pool is over 2000 feet long. You’d think “slashes” almost half that length would show up. 🤷‍♂️ And Congress will soon be out until the end of the year.
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Trump Is Down Two Senators And Needs The Attention/Sense Of Being In Control

Doesn’t work like that.

First off, there was no fraud, but you seized the ballots and the paper back ups to make sure no one could question it.

Second, the constitution has no way to nullify a swearing in. Only peer expulsion.

Third, this sudden “announcement” is when Trump is down by two Senators and desperate to pass a bill.

Lastly, Trump had 64 court cases to try and litigate the election, including in Georgia.

No case turned up any evidence, including after an audit of these ballots.

Trump’s own lawyers and advocates then admitted to making up the conspiracy about this county, and were charged for it.

Part of the court evidence included their own email records of coming up with the plot.
A) There is evidence, but Trump won’t let you see it. You have to trust him, but you can’t be trusted.

B)  It’s meaningless.

C) Trump wants to run in circles, scream and shout.

D) This is all they’ve got. There are no monsters under the national bed. 🛏️ 
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So We’re Going To Make Iran The 51st State?

Will that mean two more Democratic, or two more Republican, senators?
Trump just now in the Oval Office confirmed the war with Iran is back on and said of the Strait of Hormuz, "I think in the end we'll end up controlling the whole thing."

He went on to compare the war favorably to Vietnam and claimed "the countries we're protecting" will end up "reimbursing" the United States, before concluding by calling negative coverage of the war "really treasonous in a certain way."
What is favorable about Vietnam? @Countries we’re protecting”? The ones we put in harm’s way in the first place?

Jeebus, the midterms are gonna be a bloodbath. Grandpa ShoutyPants has completely lost the plot.
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WHO DA FUCK CARES?

I know this is the doomsday scenario/wet dream of every “election expert” on the Intertoobs, but take a lesson from the court that recently quashed DOJ subpoenas in Georgia: there is no case to be made anymore, nothing to be done about it. Allegations of past malfeasance are not proof of future crimes.  Even if there was “interference,” it isn’t evidence that Raffensburger could have found Trump 12,000 votes in Georgia.

Nor is it grounds to upend the midterms, or even contest them. Same problem Trump had six years ago: no evidence, and civil suits are not the mechanism for a fishing expedition.

This is pathetic. And that’s all it is.
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No Vacancy?

Kentucky Republicans have tried to take away Governor Beshear’s ability to appoint Mitch McConnell’s replacement. Beshear says he’s considering ignoring the state legislature and appointing a Democrat to replace McConnell anyway.

He believes the law is unconstitutional, that Kentucky’s constitution gives him the authority, and that he’s prepared to test the GOP on it.

This is exactly how Democrats should be fighting.
I don’t know the status of Kentucky law, but can Bashear replace McConnell just because McConnell is in the hospital?

Maybe we should all wait for proof of death? ☠️
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He Knows This Affects The Price Of Oil In America, Right?

Because it’s a global market; and he’s just claimed to add 20% to it.

Aside from the fact it’s simply extortion. He’s turned the U.S. Navy into the Somali pirates.🏴‍☠️ 
Much closer to reality, actually.
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In Advance Of The Todd Blanche For AG Hearings

Is it too much to hope this comes up?
The court further wrote that the central issue was whether top Executive Branch officials had “ignored ethical norms, court rules, and legal authority to manipulate the judicial process” in order to obtain “unprecedented access to the public fisc with the patina of legitimacy.”

In addition to nullifying the settlement, Judge Williams imposed Rule 11 sanctions related to the litigation and referred one of Trump’s attorneys for possible professional discipline.

The opinion concludes that the lawsuit improperly invoked the authority of the federal judiciary to legitimize an agreement that the court determined lacked a genuine legal dispute.
It just seems like it should.
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Does He Expect Her To Vote To End The Filibuster?

Serious question: How long will it take her (or any drop in appointee) to figure how to cast a vote, and when? Votes in the Senate aren’t all for names on a ballot. Most are procedural votes opaque to the uninitiated (feature, not bug). Could she figure out how to vote to end the filibuster, if she wanted to?

The Senate is in session for the rest of the month, and the House will soon be gone until November, so nothing’s moving forward except major spending bills, if those.

Trump just wants to play kingmaker, and the only other people he knows in SC politics are Mace and Nikki Haley. 

Graham’s sister has avoided public attention. What are the odds she declines this suggestion?
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“What’re You Going To Do About It, That’s What I’d Like To Know?

The Strait of Hormuz was open, and deemed “international waters”.

Then Trump attacked Iran. In response, Iran closed the Strait by attacking ships going through it.

Trump couldn’t stop Iran from doing that, so it reached an agreement not keep the Strait open. Which agreement neither Iran nor the United States could keep.

The U.S. was unable to control the Strait, which is why it signed the MOU. Iran claimed the authority to charge a toll for use of the Strait, something Trump said the U.S. would not allow.

Now Trump declares the U.S. is in charge of the Strait, and now we’re charging a toll. Because we need to get paid for keeping the Strait secure and open. Which it was, before we attacked Iran.

In the old gangster movies, they called this a “shakedown.”

Is it time for Congress to exercise their Article I authority yet?
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They Really Want To Make Lindsey Into JFK…

... and the SAVE America Act into the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

But the GOP is still down two votes in the Senate; and Trump is still no LBJ.

And there isn’t even a burgeoning “Make Our Elections Harder To Participate In” national movement.
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Sunday, July 12, 2026

“Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters…”

The videos allow for a reconstruction of the chase of Mr. Araujo’s car. Just looking at the maps, his actions make perfect sense.

Two cars pursue him, so he takes a right turn more quickly than the nearest car can follow.  The trailing car follows, the first car takes the next right, and the next, and reappears in front of Araujo’s car.

If this happened to you, what would you think? That men in unmarked government cars were trying to have a word with you? Or a gang wanted your car and whatever they thought was of value in it?
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A Reminder That The McConnell Message Doesn’t Exactly Silence Speculation

Wilson: I guarantee you there are 10 reporters in D.C. right now who know exactly what Mitch McConnell’s medical status is. Maybe more.

They’re not reporting it.
Because he’s GOP. You can say “because, access,” but I think I’m more accurate 
We know from people who are very clear that he’s in a certain rehab wing for acute cardiac failure, all this stuff, at the hospital. He is alive. Our source is not able to say if he’s conscious or cogent.

I don’t think the magical 20-minute conversations about Mitch McConnell—you know, “He’s perfectly fine”—are real. I think we’re going to find out all that was a lie because they want to run out the clock on the special election question in Kentucky.
Not sure what that strategy buys them. Is it likely Kentucky elects a Democrat? And then returns said Democrat to the Senate in November? And wouldn’t it take the new Senator that long to figure out where the bathroom is?
If I’m Andy Beshear, brother, just declare the election. And if they want to prove that Mitch McConnell is alive and well, go do it. But that is not something I think they can prove.
Almost looks good on paper. Which makes it a very Trumpian move. A governor can’t just call a special election, and then call it off. The announcement sets wheels in motion, puts people to work. Going Emily Litella  24 hours later is not funny; and it’s not a good look.
When Joe Biden’s health scares started to mount up, we had 24-hour-a-day coverage. It never stopped. They were beating the White House down every single day about it.
Key words: "White House."
When the July 7 debate happened in 2024, that was a clock that went off because the media drove the story. They pushed and pushed and pushed. They turned over every rock.

We don’t see that coverage about Trump. We don’t see that coverage about McConnell.
"They” were the GOP. Not Jake Tapper. If you see most of the political press as stenographers, or simply cows following the cowbell, it makes more sense. Trump’s condition is perfectly obvious (and perfectly appalling), but the closest we get to actual reporting on what Trump is really doing is from Haberman and Swan. And everyone is reporting on what they said, but no one is rigorously following their lead. Reporting on the disaster Trump is as President is simply reporting the latest news. But actually talking about the utter disaster of, say, the most recent NATO summit?

Well, they had to ask Trump about Lindsey Graham this morning. And that couldn’t even include the latest actions in Iran. Much less any “What the goddamned hell was that shitshow in Turkey?,” coverage. I don’t think it came up, anywhere.

But Joe Biden was a Democrat. And “Dems in disarray” is always a safe news narrative.
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The Graham-McConnell Conspiracy Nexus!

MCCONNELL releases a photo - and statement.

“To my fellow Kentuckians –

“When you elected me to a seventh term and made me our Commonwealth’s longest serving Senator, you did so trusting that I’d keep showing up to fight for you every day. And over the past several weeks, Elaine and I have appreciated both your well wishes and your honest questions about what was keeping me away from the Senate.

“You all know how folks of my generation often hesitate to share the vulnerability that comes with growing older. Even in the public eye, I feel that same instinct – I can’t help it.

“But at the same time, I’ve had more than my share of experience with physical vulnerabilities. Surviving childhood polio meant spending my entire life with mobility challenges. They haven’t exactly gotten easier to manage with age. And last month, I took a fall which landed me in the hospital.

“My doctors have confirmed that I didn’t break any bones or suffer a concussion. I didn’t have a heart attack or a stroke. I don’t have any tumors or hemorrhages. But I was briefly unconscious and was taken to the hospital. While receiving excellent care over the past several weeks, I’ve also had to deal with a mild case of pneumonia.

“I can assure you that I’ve been a good patient. At my age, I tend to do what my doctors tell me to do. I’ve submitted to every test they can think of to help figure out what caused this incident. And I’m continuing to do everything they ask to speed my recovery. In fact, with signs of continued progress, I’ve been able to move from hospital care to a rehabilitation center where I’ll keep regaining my strength.

“As much as it frustrates me, this process takes time. And on the advice of my doctors, I won’t be able to return to the Senate floor to vote quite yet. But rest assured that, in the meantime, I’m not taking a break from the Senate business that matters to you. I’ve been working closely with my legislative staff on current issues, and with my Kentucky team who help me provide timely constituent services across our Commonwealth. I’ve also been keeping in touch with my Senate colleagues on the appropriations process, midterm politics, and everything in between.

“You’re right to expect your representatives to work hard for you. And part of my decision to retire at the end of my term this coming January was being honest about the demands of Senate work. But I still have unfinished business to complete on your behalf, and I have every intention of finishing the job you elected me to do.

“I’ll keep working hard to get back on the Senate floor as soon as possible. And I’ll keep you posted on the progress of my recovery. Until then, I’m so grateful for your prayers and well wishes.”
'Cause when someone posts what Grok says, you know that comment is NOT AI generated!

And AI is always absolutely right!
Jake Sherman is an AI construct created by Palantir!
Mitch McConnell’s team finally released a photo, but they’re saying he’s not ready to return to the United States Senate. I don’t understand why they can’t put out a video so we can hear him.

The concern, based on the rumors, is that he’s brain-dead or cognitively impaired. This isn’t going to stop anybody from speculating about that.
Personally, I’m surprised anyone gives a rat’s ass. We only have 1 POTUS at a time, but we have no more than 100 Senators at a time. Feinstein wouldn’t recognize reality; and Grassley can’t. Nobody (except maybe his cardiologist) suspected Lindsey had a time bomb in his chest:
Now that’s it’s been revealed that Senator Lindsey Graham died of an aortic dissection, I wanted to provide some clarity as to what it is (and isn’t).

As you see👇, the aorta is like the water main, a huge artery that sends oxygenated blood to the entire body. It’s under extreme pressure - every time the heart beats, it expands a little and has to withstand the force of blood pumping. To do this, it has to be elastic - able to bounce back after being stretched.

In some individuals with atherosclerotic disease (hardening of arteries), the inner aorta wall becomes hardened. Imagine a very old rubber band that is brittle and crumbles when you stretch it rather than stretching and bouncing back. The aorta wall crumbles slightly, allowing blood under high pressure to make its way between the inner and outer walls of the aorta.

After just a few heartbeats (insufficient time to really do much about it in many cases), the blood peels the inner and outer walls of the aorta away from one another, causing it to burst. I’ve treated a patient with it - and he didn’t make it. It’s tough to survive.

How to avoid this? Tough to detect in advance that it’ll happen. So… Eat well (including fatty fish with Omega 3’a), lower your cholesterol, keep your blood pressure normal (exercise and weight loss help a lot).

May Senator Graham rest in peace.
Nobody had “aortic dissection” in the betting pool. 

No doubt there’s an argument for McConnell stepping down. But there’s no 25th Amendment for Senators (because the government can function without one; or two. Unlike the office of POTUS.).  The rules governing his tenure are those of the Constitution (six years at a time), and the Senate. Three things can remove him from office: the Senate, the voters, or death.

Which means he doesn’t need to stop the speculation. He’s not standing for re-election. He can’t (won’t) be forced out early. He could just stay in the hospital until January; nothing anyone can do about it.

This is the system that has prevailed since March 4, 1789. 

You’d think we’d be used to it by now.

(And yes, speaking as a 71 year old, I do support an amendment imposing age limits on federal officeholders, preventing them from standing for election if they will reach the limit in the coming term of office, or have already reached it. I don’t think we should be in this situation with McConnell; but bitching about it is just pointless. McConnell’s out in January, and Congress isn’t going to do that much between now and then. Maybe the Democrats can flex their muscles.)
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Weekend At Bernie’s II: Electric Boogaloo 🧟‍♂️

"Three can keep a secret...
So let’s go thru the timeline. Senator Graham arrived in Kyiv between 09:45–10:45 local on July 10th. The train he took from Poland departed Warsaw at 18:15 hours local on July 9th. It was an overnight train. To arrive in Poland in time to take the 18:15 train, Lindsey would have departed Dulles International Airport at around 0700 local on July 9 — the flight from Dulles to Warsaw is 9 hours.

So Lindsey Graham arrives in Kyiv by 11 am Friday morning. He meets with Zelensky and tours a drone factory. Then we are asked to believe that he returns to Washington, DC after spending less than 24 hours on the ground. Again, I call bullshit!!

The earliest train back to Warsaw departs Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi at 07:40–08:00 on the 11th and arrives Przemyśl Główny in the afternoon (~17:00–18:00). That is at least nine hours. That would make it roughly 1100 hours in Washington, DC. Let’s assume he has an hour to get to the airport and the plane takes off at 1900 hours local from Poland. The flight going west takes 10 hours… This means the earliest the plane could have landed at Dulles is midnight on the 11th. That is 3 ½ hours after Graham reportedly died at home.

As I noted at the outset… The story of Lindsey Graham’s death at home is BULLSHIT!
That analysis begins here:
According to the official story: 911 call from his DC residence at 8:30pm ET on July 11 for suspected cardiac arrest. He “died at home.”

Who invented the “official story,” and how? There are reports of records of phone calls, recordings, etc. Faked? Graham’s staff is part of the conspiracy, too? They made a fake call to 911? And 911 is part of the conspiracy? The hospital, the ME, anyone involved in this bizzare fantasy of flying a corpse home, pretending it wasn’t already a corpse, and then revealing it as one in a hospital ER? All of that faked, and then presented to a credulous DC press? A conspiracy that involves about 100 people?

The Deep State is deep.

If Graham did die in Europe, how did the body get home? Was he on a commercial flight? Or military? Who managed this massive and immediate coverup? And why?

If he couldn’t have gotten home until nearly four hours after his plane could have landed, how was there a body to declare dead at the hospital? More of the deeper than deep, Deep State?

Wait a minute!

That’s why they killed him! It’s a coverup of a coverup! And the travel story is just a coverup of a coverup of a coverup! We are through the looking glass here, people! We are through two looking glasses! 🪞🪞

Or maybe this guy just has his facts wrong. Because either Graham never left the country (and that story was part of the conspiracy), or the timeline of his travel is just wrong.

He makes Laura Loomer seem rational.

Conspiracy theories are usually produced by people who don’t know what they’re talking about.

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Jake Tapper Is Concerned About What This Means For Joe Biden’s Mental Capacity..:

...and what it says about Jill Biden’s book and Hunter Biden’s Twitter feed.
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Lindsey Graham Is No JFK

LBJ passed the Civil Rights Act as part of Kennedy’s legacy. Kennedy championed the Act in June, 1963. LBJ got it through Congress in 1964.

Lindsey Graham is no JFK. And Trump is no LBJ.
And this GOP will try every one of them. What Netenyahu knows: without Graham and McConnell, Democrats might get their way:
Six Democratic senators last week urged colleagues to block the NDAA's advancement until a provision they believe to be"reckless" can be removed, according to a recent Truthout report.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and five others urged colleagues not to support the U.S.-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative which would mandate cooperation between the U.S. and Israel militaries and intelligence, according to the report.

“These agreements threaten U.S. national security interests by handing the Netanyahu government leverage over American weapons systems and military technology,” the letter stated. “This is not hypothetical."

Iran also poses a problem. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) announced over the weekend he would not vote to approve the NDAA over concerns about the war.

"We haven’t even had an up or down vote to authorize this war in the first place," Schatz said Saturday. "Trump wants a 50 percent increase at DOD - they expect money without accountability or strategy. I usually vote yes on NDAA but this is an easy call for me."

With opposition mounting, Senate Republicans needed Graham and McConnell to help them fend off this attack from Democrats, argued political reporter Igor Bobic on Sunday.

"Senate was set to take up the NDAA upon returning from the break," he wrote. "Will be harder with Graham’s passing and McConnell’s absence amid rising Dem opposition over Iran."
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The Corpse At Every Funeral

"He was scheduled”? Q: why was Trump the “go to” for producers to talk about Lindsey Graham on the day Graham died?

And remembering Harry Truman’s line, “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.”
When I heard about Senator Graham’s death last night, the first thing I thought about was not all the things he said and did in service of Donald Trump. I thought of the time before Donald Trump when he was a brother to Senator John McCain.

A time when senators from different parties could fight about politics and still be friends. A time when a conservative Republican from South Carolina could say of my father: “If you can’t admire Joe Biden as a person, you’ve got a problem. He’s the nicest person I’ve ever met in politics. As good a man as God ever created.”

That is the Senator Graham I will remember today. Not because I have forgotten what came after. Because in that memory there is hope. Hope for a country where brothers can fight like hell over policy and still share a meal, and a laugh, and the loss of the people they love.

I will choose to remember the time before Trump. Because I believe in an America after Trump.
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“But Then Came Trump”

As I said just now on CNN, Lindsey Graham will have a robust complex legacy, and there will be plenty of time to talk about politics and his record, and how he was on the right side of immigration and almost helped the country pass historic bipartisan immigration reform, how he voted for Justices Sotomayor and Kagan, how he was a staunch advocate for unflinching support of Ukraine, and how he served in uniform for 33 years. He was also a congenial Senator that worked across the aisle. But then came Trump. That discussion is for another day, for now, condolences to his family and friends, and to the people of South Carolina, may Senator Graham rest in peace.

True. But that distinguishes Graham from the rest of the GOP how, exactly?

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The Accolades Pour In

Trump wants Graham’s vote to still count.
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RIP 🪦

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Saturday, July 11, 2026

ETTD

The Parks Department explained this was temporary, as two s pipes were discharging “debris” left behind when the water was turned off for repairs. 

So why hasn’t it cleared yet? And why didn’t the algae clear out of the pipes in the reflecting pool?
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(No) Need To Know

MSNOW interviews a man who lives five houses down from where Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was killed. He says agents were combing his property for bullet casings.

MSNOW: Here’s what doesn’t make sense to me. The chase ended right here behind me, where this memorial is. That man’s property is about five homes down. So my question is: What were these agents looking for in front of his house? Why were they combing through the grass right in front of his property?
How many shots are they trying to account for? Which is not a promise to let the people know what the government is doing in their name, or to explain who did what to whom. In other words, to hold people accountable in public, or in a court of law.

Rather than tell us: “Trust us. Those people who died were very bad people. If they weren’t, they’d still be alive.” Which is all we’re getting now.
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Grandpa’s Goin’ Around The Bend Again

Haberman and Swann's book is really getting under his skin. And would it have killed them to say “GOOD JOB! 👍”

Our President is a petulant 5 year old.
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Five Visits To Walter Reed In 18 Months

The one he references here is the most recent, sometime in the past 11 days. His last visit before that was in May. He’s going, on average, every 14 weeks.

Not every 24.
"His health is like a black box inside that administration," Haberman said. "They have released less and less information."
And lied about what they do release. Or, the President is confused about the passage of time and how to use the phrase “just finished.”
"I just finished a ​perfect physical at Walter ​Reed, ‌I ​do it every six months, and I requested another ⁠Cognitive Test..." Trump wrote today in a Truth Social post.

A White House official tells me "the President was referring to his recent physical at Walter Reed that took place on May 26th."
It still means he’s going to Walter Reed an average of every 18 weeks.
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Innumeracy

 Iran is about 636,000 square miles, give or take. I think they can absorb 1000 missiles. And one year of bombardment? Trump used half the nation’s stockpile in a month, diminishing our missile defense against China. A full year of such use would leave us vulnerable around the world, and empty our stores about a month in. Unless we wait a year to replenish; then it might last two months.

And the Strait of Hormuz will still be closed.

Maybe Congress has something to say about this?

Or this:

Look, I get it. I used to work on Apaches. They're cool as hell, and I promise the pilots were just as amped as the crowd.

However, safety regulations are written in blood. There's a reason they weren't supposed to fly over crowds at such a low altitude. At that altitude at that speed, if anything had gone wrong, we wouldn't be seeing people crying about how unfair it is to the pilots. We wouldn't be seeing Kegsbreath saying "we'll fix this." We'd be seeing people demanding answers about why they were flying like that. We'd be seeing crying and angry families on the news demanding justice. And we'd be seeing the Secretary of "War" throwing these pilots under the boss so fucking fast there wouldn't even be skid marks.
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