Monday, July 27, 2026

Always The Center Of Attention

Trump: We will pass the great healthcare plan. That's what it's called—the Great Healthcare plan to stop all payments to big insurance companies and give the money directly to you, the people, so that they can buy their own healthcare, which will be much less expensive and be a much better healthcare
There’s a reason for health insurance companies. Well into my adulthood, health insurance meant hospitalization coverage. You can’t stay long in a hospital without it. My GP, on the other hand, had a receptionist and, a bit later, a nurse. When I left Austin, he was taking on another physician and more staff, just to afford the added staff to handle the insurance claims. People liked having someone else pay for their healthcare, and eventually, so did the doctors. (Guaranteed payment is much better than patients who will gladly pay you Tuesday, for medical care today. And people expect more care, which costs more money. Making it less likely they can pay for it themselves.)

And here we are. Trump is describing a form (a very expensive form) of Medicare for All. Which is socialism, through and through.

And the most wasteful form of healthcare imaginable. Which is why he’s still just talking about after 10 years. Remember when John McCain refused to vote to abolish the ACA? Trump has never gotten around that vote. And he never will.
Pepperidge Farm remembers. Can the man even play a kazoo? Trump will drop the suit before the date discovery is due. The man has been involved in countless civil suits. You’d think he’d learn by now. (Civil discovery is extremely broad and extremely invasive.) Although the damage claims discovery would be fun, especially asking him about things like this: Or this: There is no such award. There never has been. 

How do you damage the reputation of a fabulist?
"They” do what? And where are all these damaged children? Are they with the Furrys, using a litter box in the classroom? Diarrhea will make you lose weight, whichever orifice it comes out of. Nobody does. We aren’t sure you aren’t having a stroke. A stroke revealing your racism, but that’s not news. The corpse at every funeral. The bride at every wedding. The best parent of every child.
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Schadenfreude 😈

😈
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Déjà Vu All Over Again

 Netflix has a documentary about the year 1975. It posits an irruption in the culture coming with the end of the Vietnam War that year, Nixon’s resignation a year earlier, and Ford’s pardon of Nixon almost immediately thereafter (think Polis pardoning Tina Clarke, but on a national scale). In Hollywood, John Wayne and “Hollywood” movies were box office poison (one of the most interesting segments is the 1975 Academy Awards, hosted by Wayne and Sinatra and all if “old Hollywood.” Dustin Hoffman critiqued the Awards in an interview, which Sinatra responded to on stage. Shortly after, he had to go back on stage and disavow such comments on behalf of the Academy.

Now, 1975 was the year “Taxi Driver” came out. And “Network.” “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.” “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.” “All The President’s Men.” “The Parallax View.” “The Stepford Wives.” “Three Days of the Condor.” “Jaws.” 

And it was the year the Church Committee started, and taught us all to say “COINTELPRO.” And proved all the paranoid radicals and war protesters and civil rights marchers right: their government was spying on them.

The themes of those movies, per the documentary, were: alienation; corporate news control; life from the woman’s point of view; the evil of control; the corruption of the government; the evil of tech; you aren’t paranoid enough about the government. Themes, it was argued, that would never get into major Hollywood movies before 1975; and wouldn’t again after “Jaws.” The first blockbuster, which won the Academy Award. And two years later: “Star Wars.” As Patton Oswald summarized “Cuckoo:”  Let’s go see a movie about a child molester in a mental asylum who befriends a shy kid with a hooker. The kid ends up killing himself in shame, the main character is lobotomized, and the Native American inmate escapes to become a fugitive. It’ll be fun!” 

Nobody wants to see movies like that anymore. Well, maybe on streaming….

The movies reflected the times: post-Watergate, post Nixon resignation and pardon. The shameful end of the shameful Vietnam war.  Gerald Ford survived two assassination attempts in 1975. Political violence was so common by that year it was almost unremarkable.

And everyone thought the government was corrupt (it was), and spying on us (it was), that corporations controlled the news (they did), and technology was going to be used against us. All the movies mentioned above had those themes. Oh, and there were dangerous characters, “incels” alienated from society, who only lacked the internet to connect with each other.

Sound familiar?

The reigning political and cultural theory of the day was that the American Experiment was at an end. Racist tensions from the civil rights movement were still high. Political violence moved from the government opposing war protesters and civil rights marchers, to radical leftists disgusted by what hadn’t been accomplished. People were alienated from each other, or hell bent on controlling others at all costs.

The funny thing, to me, are the Redford films. “President” ends before Ford’s pardon, the intrepid reporters having made democracy safe for the world (but doing nothing to stop Ford). “Condor” ends with Redford taking the story of the “CIA within the CIA” to the New York Times, because we shall know the truth, and the truth will make us free. As if. Shamelessly naive. “Network” knew better. “Cuckoo “ knew better. So did “Taxi Driver..” “Stepford,.” “The Parallax View.”

We really won’t see their like again; not as major movies. We will see 1975 again, because history at least rhymes. But like seeing Homer reflected in Gulliver’s Travels, will we recognize it? Or will we think it’s sui generis, and could never possibly have happened before?

Like the goose, who supposedly wakes up every day to a brand new world. Or so it is thinks.

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Any Day Now…

…Trump will start complaining about Canada sharing our atmosphere.

And we clearly need more data centers to produce this stuff!
At least now we know what the President is doing with all of his “executive time.” I might have thought that was kewl when I was six, if my face was on the poster.  On second thought, no. I wouldn’t have. No ground troops. But hovering(?) jets with flamethrowers.

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The Sky Continues To Be Falling

 Mike Johnson has a cunning plan:

Johnson could replace McCumber [non-partisan ckerk of the House] with a partisan GOP operative willing to manipulate the roll of incoming members. This Republican loyalist could then certify Republican victories in races Democrats actually won.

"While the speaker does have the unilateral power to remove the clerk, his choice for a permanent replacement would have to be approved by a vote of House members," Toobin elaborated. "Mr. Morelle said that in that case, Speaker Johnson might not be able to persuade his slim Republican majority to replace Mr. McCumber."
Pay attention. This is the clever part.
"You'd have a number of members who are retiring, who I think would no longer be beholden to Johnson or the president, who I think would take a very, very dim view of efforts to overturn the election," Morelle added as a caveat.

But the real nightmare involves timing, the legal analyst explained. Unlike the Senate, a continuing body that operates seamlessly between Congresses, the House ceases to exist at noon on Jan. 3 following each election. No member remains in office unless they're sworn in again.
But if Johnson acts while he has authority, the retiring members will refuse to back his play. And if he waits until noon on January 3…he has to be sworn in as a representative again. And then re-elected as Speaker. And then rally a vote to replace the clerk with one who will…reject the elections of Democratic House members who’ve already been sworn in….

A cunning plan, indeed.
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The Edsel The Cybertruck

 Well, now I know why Elmo is screaming about a movie and melting down about an interview:

Tesla investors got a brutal reminder last week that ambitious targets can curdle into cautionary tales. A Bloomberg report published July 22, 2026 argued the Cybertruck has eclipsed the Ford Edsel as the auto industry's benchmark commercial flop on a target-versus-actual basis. Hours later, Tesla posted a Q2 earnings miss, and the stock logged its worst week since 2022.

Ford launched the Edsel in 1957 with projections of 200,000 units in its first year. It sold less than one-third of that target, and its vertical grille (mocked as resembling a toilet seat) became shorthand for corporate failure that has endured nearly seven decades.

Elon Musk set a higher bar. He projected the Cybertruck could reach 250,000 units annually and called it Tesla's "best product ever." In its first full year, the truck sold roughly one-sixth of that target. Per Bloomberg's chart, Year 2 sales fell to well under 25,000, a steeper proportional miss than the Edsel's.

Cox Automotive figures show the trajectory. Cybertruck sold 38,965 units in 2024, then 20,237 units in 2025, a 48.1% year-over-year decline. Q4 2025 volume was 4,140 units, down 68.1% from 12,991 a year earlier. Q1 2026 hit a record low of 3,519 deliveries, and only 7,133 Cybertrucks were registered in the U.S. through May 2026, per S&P Global Mobility data cited by Bloomberg.

The truck posted the steepest sales decline of any EV nameplate in the U.S. in 2025. Tesla's earnings materials list the Cybertruck alongside Model 3, Model Y, Model S, Model X, Cybercab, Semi and Roadster, but it has not appeared as a growth driver in the last four quarterly reports.

The Cybertruck story is one strand in a broader unraveling. Tesla shares fell 17.81% in the week ending July 24, 2026, closing at $313.03. The single-session drop after earnings ran to 14%, sending the stock to an 11-month low.
Tesla is now spending on making driverless cabs.  How’s that working out?
Tesla confirmed that Cybercab production has begun at Gigafactory Texas, with Robotaxi now operating across seven major metropolitan areas. Musk acknowledged that Robotaxi expansion is being constrained not by demand but by the reliability standards required for safety, with battery packs and electronic components cited as key supply-chain bottlenecks, while the integration of SpaceX's (SPCX) Starlink into Tesla vehicles was also floated as a future connectivity catalyst.
“Reliability standards required for safety.” My route home from the “Y” in the morning requires I take a six lane road, and exit it by a left turn (across traffic, IOW). The left turn arrow is often flashing yellow and while line of sight down the road (oncoming traffic) is good, it’s not perfect. And cars in the opposite turn lane create something of a blind spot. So it may seem the road is clear, when in fact there are cars coming rapidly down the street that you can’t see until you’re in the middle of the intersection.

Not a situation I’m willing to trust a robot to navigate.

And I wonder how they handle 4 way stops when some asshole decides he has the ROW.

I know Tesla deployed those things in Austin. In a strictly geofenced area. Austin traffic is a bear. Austin is not Houston or Dallas Metro or San Antonio. It isn’t built around freeways. Meaning it was never designed to carry the traffic it has. I find it perilous enough when I’m driving. I’d never trust a robot in that traffic. There are times I can’t even trust the sensors in my own car.

So, sure: driverless cars are certainly the flying cars we were promised in the future. I think Tesla should invest more heavily in them. With luck, Elmo will turn the entire Tesla brand in the new Edsel. Or maybe even the Tucker.  Or the Dymaxion. Fuller intended that one to fly. Maybe Elmo should consider that feature.
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“WE CANNOT ALLOW…A DATA CENTER…GAP!”

Explain to me again why anyone cares what Elmo thinks.
Trump is having a mental health episode on social media right now. He’s been posting nonstop all day:

11:16 AM - AI photo of Kaitlan Collins as Dylan Mulvaney
11:43 AM - AI image attacking Bruce Springsteen
3:22 PM - An AI art installation of Trump throwing a ‘Trump 2028’ hat
3:23 PM - Photo of him standing next to a TV with Biden’s final Oval Office address playing
3:23 PM - AI art of him giving his speech at the WHCD
3:23 PM - AI photo of Chris Christie fighting Democrat Rep. Jerry Nadler
3:23 PM - AI image attacking Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, and Stephen Colbert
3:24 PM - Trump 2028 poster that says “give the enemy nightmares.” Nobody is scared of him
3:24 PM - AI image attacking Rosie O’Donnell
3:25 PM - Fake movie poster of him in Star Trek
3:25 PM - Another Trump 2028 poster
3:31 PM - AI poster of the U.S. attacking Kharg Island in Iran
3:31 PM - AI image of him taking over an Iranian oil tanker
3:32 PM - AI image of him taking over an Iranian oil tanker x2
3:33 PM - AI image of him taking over an Iranian oil tanker x3
3:47 PM - Posts an AI image of an Iranian ship being blown up
4:36 PM - AI image of him taking over an Iranian oil tanker x4
4:36 PM - AI image of him taking over an Iranian oil tanker x5
4:37 PM - AI image of him taking over an Iranian oil tanker x6
4:39 PM - AI image of him cosplaying as a Navy Commander
4:39 PM - AI image of him smoking a cigar wearing a Trump 2028 hat
4:40 PM - AI poster of him with founding fathers
4:41 PM - Poster of himself saying “the man who saved America” which couldn’t be further from the truth
4:41 PM - Weird photo of him standing behind a pillar
4:45 PM - AI image of himself saying “Guardians of the world”
4:47 PM - AI image of American jets saying “Guardian Angels of the world”
4:48 PM - Another AI photo of an Iranian ship being blown up
4:49 PM - AI image of himself saying “Guardians of the world” x2
4:52 PM - AI photo of lightning over the Capitol building saying “panic in DC” 4:53 PM - A photo of himself saying “plan trusted”
4:54 PM - AI image of an eagle and a jet saying “America is back” which certainly isn’t true
4:54 PM - AI photo of a beach saying “Trump’s America” which is ironic given that the image is fake lol
4:55 PM - Photo of him giving a speech
4:56 PM - Photo of himself pointing at members of his cabinet
4:57 PM - AI photo of himself and JFK
4:58 PM - Fake photo of himself wearing a pink Trump 2028 hat
4:59 PM - AI photo of a Trump 2028 mug surrounded by crying people
4:59 PM - Photo of him putting on his Trump 2028 hat at the WHCD
5:00 PM - Posts graph downplaying American casualties in Iran
5:01 PM - AI photo of an air filter between the United States and Canada
5:04 PM - Attacks Republican Senator John Thune
5:04 PM - AI image of him as a doctor
5:16 PM - Fake movie poster of him and George Washington in a time travel movie

He’s insane. 25th Amendment NOW.
What that list doesn’t convey is how utterly weird this stuff is. So the past eliminated Lincoln but saved TR? And how was there a Republican Party, then?

And Trump has a cape? Or is his tie entirely too long?
Iran is Ayatollahs all the way down. Isn’t it ironic? Don’t you think? Or is Trump just an idiot and Netanyahu a sociopath? Like I said: utterly weird.

And we need more data centers for stuff like this, or China will control the Trump fantasy art market.
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Sunday, July 26, 2026

Global Warming Is A Myth

This just a failure to rake the forests.
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What Are Political Parties For?

So, the DNC is a mess. (The voters decide who makes the gains, not the DNC.) How bad is it?, you ask.

No; worse than that: NYT. NOTUS. The Bulwark. Sounds like a three alarm fire. And yes, the GOP has a huge money advantage. Except donors in Texas don’t want to back Paxton. And so far all he’s come up with is “Talafreako” (which Talarico turned into a t-shirt); “Low-T Talarico” (Talarico said that’s something old guys worry about); and running away from reporters. While Talarico’s so far ahead of Paxton in fundraising the distance can be measured in terms of the moon’s distance from the earth.

Had I not read these tweets, I wouldn’t know the DNC was in trouble. Then again, the RNC cash isn’t buying the GOP a shot at holding Congress. The DNC may be in serious financial trouble by November. But the GOP is done for after 2028, and everybody knows it. No Trump, no MAGA. Period. And the GOP is all MAGA, all the time.

So, the question is: what are political parties for?

Aside from political reporters, does anyone care that the DNC is broke? Does anyone think it fundamentally shifts the predictions for November? Seems unlikely, as the disaster outlined in the articles has been going on for awhile, but nobody seems to have noticed until now. Apparently Ken Martin is bad at his job. But you know what? So is Donald Trump. Which failure do I think is more consequential?

I mean, the DNC has been low on funds long enough to mortgage its building for a line of credit, and yet no one reading the polls thinks Democrats are going to lose because of it. 

Or maybe they will after this story percolates. But, you know, narratives are fickle that way. Especially the ones that disappear on Election Night, never to be heard from again. Really, the very worst part about election year politics is the stupidity narratives that won’t die; until election night, and then it’s like they never were. Political parties persist; but more and more, nobody can explain why.

🧟‍♂️
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😵‍💫

The Ambassador to the UN? Where’s the VPOTUS? Or Gen. Cain? Or the SOD? Somebody who’s supposed to have an idea what’s going on? It’s MAGA all the way down. The stories about what GOP officials say in private, is bullshit. Abolish the GOP. It’s as irredeemable as ICE. I rest my case. (Kennedy is in office until at least 2028. What the fuck does he care about disruption to the midterms?) The ad writers are playing tiddley winks. They got nothin’ else to do. The Biden PR strategy: If we just tell people things are better….
BRENNAN: Zelenskyy says this month Ukraine has recorded active Russian satellite surveillance of US military installations and those images then appear in Iran. How deep is the Russian involvement in helping Iran kill Americans?

WALTZ: I'll just let the president's statement stand on its own that he's spoken to Putin and Xi about this and has put both on notice

BRENNAN: But this suggests they haven't stopped assisting

WALTZ: Okay
What Zelenskyy said: We are so fucked. So:

What CBS reported is not true.

It is true.

And somebody shouldn’t have leaked that information.

😵‍💫
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“Never Give Up Your Right To…Protect Your Neighbor”

Six months after the killing of her son, Alex Pretti, his mother is sharing a heartbreaking message about the grief she says has only deepened with time.

In an emotional post marking the six-month anniversary of Alex’s death, she writes that no one has been held accountable and says her family has never received an apology or even a single phone call from government officials, hospital personnel, or the Minneapolis Police Department. At the same time, she expressed profound gratitude for the overwhelming support her family has received from people around the world, urging others to continue speaking out and never forget what Alex stood for.

Her full statement:

“Today marks the six-month anniversary of Alex’s murder. No-one has been held accountable, no apologies, not a single phone call from any governmental official, hospital personnel, or the Mpls police dept. Six-months of pain, a roller-coaster of trauma over and over. Every time another a death, another mention, a picture, a tribute, a sorrow so deep. I wonder how to move forward. Will I ever get over this loss and this pain? Will I ever be able to enjoy life again? How does one live knowing that I have no power to change what has happened?

And yet the out-reach not only from Minnesota, but from around the world has been nothing less than spectacular. Every card, every gift, every heartfelt letter has been read, touched, held, and cherished by us all. The kindness you’ve all shown us is beyond words. Please never forget Alex and what he believed in ~ equality and peace for all. I will remember the things that made you, you. It will never take your memory. As long as I’m here, you will never be forgotten.

For all you asking what you can do. Continue this fight. Never give up your right to speak out, protect your neighbor, your community and don’t forget to spend time with those you love…”
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But You Should Give Up Your Land And Your Water

But AI should make lots of noise, and use lots of water. EOD.
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🗳️ Speaking Of The “Enthusiasm Gap”

So the "enthusiasm gap" has nothing to do with with inflation, stupid endless wars, and weird obsessions like the reflecting pool or "buying" Greenland. It's just that king Trump has made his subjects complacent.

oooo-kaaay
I’m sure this has nothing to do with turnout in November (or late October, for states with early voting).
Leavitt on midterms: I would remind the American people of who caused the affordability crisis in this country. It was Biden and Democrats. President Trump took immediate action on day one to fix that. All these things will only get better if given two more years with a Republican congress.
I’m sure this 👆 will turn things around.
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Be Careful What You Wish For 😎🗳️

 It’s perfectly clear that MAGA took over the GOP, and that the majority of the time (the fate of the SAVE America Act in the Senate is the exception that proves the rule. Tillis and Cornyn are done, but will they vote against Blanche’s nomination in committee? Don’t hold your breath.) the GOP does what Trump says. So:

Earlier this month, Trump claimed that if his controversial voter ID bill known as the SAVE America Act became law, Republicans would maintain control of Congress for 100 years. He also told Christian GOP voters that if they supported him in 2024, they “don’t have to vote again” as he and Republicans would have it “fixed so good.”

“Almost three in four Democrats in this country say this is the most important midterm in their lifetimes, extraordinary enthusiasm about getting out to vote in this election. On the other hand, Republicans, their enthusiasm is very soft this election cycle,” Taylor said.

“It's because there's been a guy at the head of their party for the past two years who's said, 'if you re-elect me, you'll never have to vote again,'" Taylor said. "Unfortunately for him, they seem to be listening! They seem to be thinking, 'maybe we don't need to vote again!' This is the same man who weeks ago on July 3 said, 'if you let me pass the SAVE America Act, Republicans will win for 100 years' – he's telling his side, 'we don't need you to show up, we've got it covered!'”

Taylor continued, “That's showing up in the data, and if that holds until election day, it's gonna be a rout for Donald Trump.”

Eugene Daniels, “The Weekend" co-hi concurred with Taylor’s prediction, noting that Trump’s claims about supposed Chinese efforts to influence the 2024 election could also have a suppressing effect on GOP voter turnout.

“And he's telling his voters that your vote won't count, he's telling them over and over again that they're gonna steal the election! So if I'm a voter, why would I vote?” Daniels said.

“If China or Venezuela or these random countries that he chooses are going to make my vote not count, why would I vote? I've talked to Republican strategists who would love for him to stop talking about this, but it's been 10 years and I don't think he's going to.”

Taylor argued that while Trump’s own words may very well suppress GOP voter turnout, they were also a key factor in Democrats’ enthusiasm heading into November.

“If you look at the data right now, there is a remarkable enthusiasm gap between Democrats and Republicans, and it's largely driven by Trump himself,” Taylor continued. “Donald Trump has made Democrats feel like the fundamental right to vote is at stake, and a lot of folks worry that would result in voter suppression.”
Let me put it this way. The GOP is holding a “convention” in Texas in October to inspire voters and boost Paxton. Paxton is not winning friends and influencing people at the moment, so Texas GOP voters need all the boosting they can get. 

Trump is pushing AI data centers hard, but even ruby red East Texas isn’t buying; and Abbott has swung to the side of the rural voters on that issue. (Abbot is promoting people over Big Money. He’s that worried about keeping his job.) Texas is one of the largest producers of wind energy in the country. In West Texas it’s a good way for landowners to make money.by leasing their land. It’s a lot cleaner than oil production, and you don’t need oil on your property. Trump hates windmills with an almost incendiary passion.

None of this means Trump loses Texas; but especially in the midterms, it’s part of the enthusiasm gap. 😎
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So, Q-Anon Was Right

Sellier: "Gérald Marie and Jean-Luc Brunel and Daniel Siad and Jeffrey Epstein and John Casablancas, they were all part of the same group. They were sex traffickers. And they acted in plain sight for three decades. And I find it very unfair that the models who spoke as early as 1988 and then again in 1996, then again in 2000, then again in 2001, they said everything. They explained everything. There was no investigation whatsoever."
Except the international sex trafficking ring didn’t involve small children, Democrats, or a pizza parlor in D.C.

And it was far worse than anyone imagined, and the DOJ still won’t talk about it.
BREAKING: A federal judge has just ordered Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to hand over the unredacted Epstein Files emails and documents for the court’s private review in MeidasTouch host Katie Phang’s lawsuit.

In a new order, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan directed the Justice Department to produce the unredacted records in camera (for the judge’s eyes only) by July 30, along with documentation backing up DOJ’s claims that the names and other information it blacked out are, in fact, the categories of people it says they are.

That’s significant because the court isn’t simply accepting the government’s representations at face value. Judge Sullivan is requiring the DOJ to prove its redactions are justified by reviewing the underlying records himself. In other words—they’re not buying what the DOJ is selling!!

Katie Phang said that while the judge denied her request to be present during the in-chambers review, she said it was “worth the ask.”

This is another important step in the legal battle over the Epstein Files and whether the Justice Department has properly withheld information from the public.
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Saturday, July 25, 2026

How Convenient

Considering... Furthermore:
The official said the strikes have the opposite effect of what is intended, keeping Iran cohesive and allowing Iranian leaders to focus attention on an external threat,” the Times’ report reads.

The assessment came after insiders leaked details to the Times about a Friday meeting between Trump and his top advisers and Cabinet members, where officials weighed whether or not to escalate the war further. According to the Times, few, if any, in Trump's inner circle believed intensifying the bombing campaign was wise.

A separate senior official who was briefed on the discussion expressed doubts that resuming major combat operations would push Iran back to the table at all.

The “private deliberations” focused on what officials warned was the Pentagon’s “shrinking inventory of Patriot interceptors and other air defenses,” the Times reported.

“Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has cautioned privately that resuming major combat operations against Iran was doable but that it would dangerously deplete interceptors available to the military’s Central Command, which is responsible for operations in the Middle East, the officials said,” the Times’ report reads.
But I’m sure “progress has been made.” 😜
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🤷‍♂️

Because Paxton likes to have sex with women he’s not married to?

Well, I can understand why Trump is drawn to that….
Don’t think it’s doing Paxton any good.
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Matthew 23

23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
Stephen Miller preaches his gospel;
"It’s not a coincidence that when you look at these violent antifa demonstrations and you see any photograph of those who were assembled — to be blunt, not one of the people that is demonstrating looks like a normal person,” he said. “Not one looks normal. They’re all deformed in some way — in their appearance, in their dress, in their mannerism.”

At other points, he described protesters against the administration’s immigration sweeps as “radical leftists,” “political terrorists” and a “cancer” on civilization (three times); argued that “left-wing terrorism” would lead to gulags, “mass imprisonment of political enemies” and “the stripping of their rights and freedoms”; and said the protesters had “scarred their body and their appearance” to the point that “in many different ways, to the point in which “their outer appearance becomes a manifestation of their inner hatred.”

In just a few minutes, Miller’s speech employed many of the rhetorical patterns that scholars of political violence and authoritarianism have long identified as warning signs: portraying opponents as an existential threat, equating dissent with terrorism, using dehumanizing and disease-based language, making apocalyptic predictions and suggesting that people’s physical appearance reflects their inner moral depravity.

But the most jarring moment came when Miller tried to claim the religious high ground.

“The leftist looks at what is beautiful and what is good and what is natural and is filled with envy and hatred,” he said. “The leftist looks at a perfect family with the perfect life and a perfect job and perfect kids that go to church every Sunday and is filled with a feeling of inadequacy and jealousy. They covet, and they turn those emotions ultimately into a desire to subjugate, oppress, and inflict pain and suffering.”
Miller is confusing his personal, and cultural, preferences with God’s.
13 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.

16 “Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’ 17 You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? 18 You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.’ 19 You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. 22 And anyone who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.

...

27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

29 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. 30 And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!
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Why Talarico Is “Dangerous”

James Talarico: “You may not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you. Your boss at work, he cares about politics. Your landlord, he cares about politics. Your insurance company cares about politics. Until you care about politics, they’re gonna keep using the political system to screw you over”
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SOCIALISM!

Or, you know, just an FDR Democrat.
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So I Went To A Baseball Game Tonight…

(Houston Astros farm team. Think “Bull Durham” without the hookers with hearts of gold, or amusing insights into the players, but with better performances than by Kevin Costner)…. and this happened. That’s not a joke.
Ballou: Based on the reporting, Larry and David Ellison, in various conversations, talked about transforming CNN radically and potentially even firing anchors the president didn’t like. Once that happened, all the regulatory barriers for the acquisition melted away. Now, when you’re talking about giving a private benefit in exchange for a public act, that’s bribery. And bribery is a per se violation of a corporate director’s duty of loyalty. That’s what gets us into Delaware Chancery Court.
Meanwhile:
Bonta: We identified three markets where they’re violating the law and the judge was persuaded by all of our arguments. So she’s issued an order blocking the merger. It’s very clear that Paramount and Warner Bros. can take no steps toward consummating the merger.

She also set a briefing schedule for a hearing on a preliminary injunction. If we obtain that injunction at the hearing, which will be held in two weeks, it will block the merger throughout the pendency of the litigation.
Trump tried to be funny:
Trump: "The other day a senator I knew got a text from his wife. She said, 'When you get home, I want to have you immediately come up the stairs and make love to me.' And he said, 'I can't do both.' You know? Haha. In other words, haha, you can't go up the stairs and make love. Does anybody get that?…In other words, he can't go up the stairs and make love. Too old. You know?…Does anybody understand this stuff?"
Anyway... ...it went well.
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Friday, July 24, 2026

“President Trump has repeatedly ordered that Mr. Smith be prosecuted and jailed. That is not the rule of law."

Short version: Jack Smith didn’t testify to what he wasn’t asked about. It’s settled law in the D.C. Circuit that it can’t be perjury if the information wasn’t sought in the first place.

Bonus points for setting up a vindictive prosecution defense if Blanche decides to press the criminal referral (which it is, in the active sense of that word).
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🫪

It’s not on a debate stage, during a campaign.

So, it’s fine.
Trump votes by mail. Trump…is not a great American? Funny, I just read that Plumber Mullin is in deep shit because he canceled ICE traffic stops without consulting Trump, and that’s a big no-no. Has anyone told him that case was thrown out? Or is that another no-no? Anybody got a count of how many times he’s said that since February 28? Strategery.
The Leader Of The Free World. 🤦‍♂️
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To Illustrate My Last Remarks

 Writing a legal brief is hard work. The law is complex, and there seems to be a case in support of almost any proposition. My father, a CPA, used to explain the difference between a bookkeeper and an accountant this way:  A bookkeeper says “2+2=4.” An accountant says: “what do you want it to be?”

Lawyers are like that with the law, but just as accountants can run up against audits and the IRS, lawyers come up against judges. And you can’t invent legal doctrine in front of judges.

I once had a case (a small one; all of mine were) where I needed to seize some appliances in a house (long story) because they were fixtures (told ya), and the bank wanted them to stay with the house to cover the loan default (very expensive appliances). There was a writ commonly used for that purpose, but my legal research said I needed an uncommon writ for this matter, one rarely used.  Ordinarily I’d have presented the writ request to a judge, who’d have signed it almost without looking. But I had to convince the judge that I knew what I was doing, that I was asking for the right relief.

The law is complicated, that way. Among many ways.

Now, for a legal brief, you can’t start with the position you like, and find case law to support it. You won’t find it, to begin with. You start with what you know the law is, in general, and then find out how close you can get to your goal. “How close you can get” and “your goal” are where the legal expertise comes in. And a large part of that, is how well you think you can persuade the judge that your argument is the right one. To do that, you need to carefully review the case law, in order to present an argument the judge will find persuasive.

Which brings us to AI. AI can’t make judgments. It can only sound like it has. An agentic AI recently followed its programming and hacked its way onto the internet (IIRC). It wasn’t really making a judgement about the action (“I want to do this.”) it was just following its programming. The same way the AI on my phone suggests three words as I’m typing: sometimes the right words, sometimes three useless words. It isn’t thinking, it’s executing a program. That program has limitations. Sometimes it suggests a word before I realize it, and typing one letter deletes that word, and only when I’m almost finished typing does it appear again. Has the phone ever learned to wait for my fat fingers, or my mind racing ahead of my eyes? No. Has AI ever learned to be a lawyer? Not yet.

The problem here is not with AI. As ever, the problem is with the people. Writing legal briefs is hard. Using AI to do it for you sounds simpler. (And lawyers are highly educated, so this isn’t a matter of AI making them lazy and stupid in school. Law exams are all one test at the end of the semester, in a classroom, proctored. You can’t AI your way through law school.) But AI can neither think, nor make legal judgments, nor consider the preferences of the judges. Trump’s lawyers knew the Justices they had to reach, and they won insane things on his behalf.  I hesitate to call that good lawyering, but it was certainly effective. AI can’t do that.

AI also can’t distinguish between real case law, and invented cases that suit the purpose. Lazy and incompetent lawyers might pull the same stunt, but AI is neither lazy nor incompetent. AI just executes a program. That program is not yet carefully tailored enough to not invent case law. You need a solution? AI presents one. That’s a bad solution? How is AI supposed to know? We all know that 1+1=2. Except in biology, where it means 3; or maybe 300, depending on the species. We all know the difference between the existence of a person, and of a rock, and of a legal case opinion. If I say “That case does not exist,” you know what I mean. Does AI?

Perhaps it can be programmed to, some day. The problem is still the people using the program. White shoe law firms found out, to their profound embarrassment (at least), that AI is not a substitute for legal research.  They thought it was a replacement. But really, even if it aggregates the case law correctly, there is no substitute for reading those cases and using them to find points that may support your opinion. I’ve done legal research and general research and specific topics research for decades. There is no substitute for looking at the source material and reading the material that source relied on. You go to school to learn from the books your teachers have read. You go to books to learn where those books came from. Sometimes very indirectly. Reading “The Odyssey” makes me want to re-read “Gulliver’s Travels.” I knew there was a history of fantasy travel literature dating back to the Romans. But taking it back even further is even more enlightening.

AI won’t do that for me. It won’t think about the law, either.

Trump’s DOJ has recently been caught using AI in legal briefs, AI that presented arguments based on non-existent cases. One could say the white shoe law firms did it, too. But that horse left the barn a long time ago, and that barn has long since burned to the ground. DOJ, IOW, should know better. Once upon a time it was one of the premier collection of lawyers in the country.  It would have known better.  They didn’t get no-billed by grand juries and cases thrown out by judges. They also didn’t prosecute people throwing sandwiches or dipping their hand in a pool of water. The DOJ enjoyed the “presumption of regularity” because it was that good, that professional, and that reliable. And now it commits errors that would get a first year associate fired from a three-member law firm run by the associate’s family.

Because Trump’s DOJ is too stupid and incompetent to do the job.

ETTD. And it’s going to cost us far more, for far longer, than the cost of eggs, or gas, or housing. We really need to quit fretting about non-existent problems like Trump suspending the elections (he can’t), and focus on the real long term problems we are heading for.

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Whinging White Men

Poor wittle Andrew.

Marshall, a top backer of President Donald Trump, is a Kansas senator who voted to reject the 2020 election results and is seeking re-election this fall.

The senator made the confession about tension in his family during a recent interview on 13th & Park, a podcast produced by Ballard Partners, a pro-Trump lobbying firm with a history of alleged ethical breaches.

"Well, I think the number one I hear is the cost of gas, the cost of groceries," Marshall said, describing what Kansans tell him when he travels the state. "Homes are unaffordable."

"The anger runs deeper than economics," he added. "I've never seen people so mad."

January 6 wasn’t good enough for for you? Or was that crowd just angry at the right people?
"And if you think about it, the job of the national media — what they try to do is make my parents mad," Marshall told the podcast, blaming right-wing media. "They sit home, and they watch Fox News and Newsmax, and guess what? They're mad at me. They're mad at John Thune. They're mad at Mitch McConnell. They're mad at Donald."
When the facts piss people off, don’t shoot the messenger.
"There's this purity test. I feel this anger," he lamented. "More than ever before... It's so easy to create hate."
Is everybody in MAGA this blinkered and unaware?
Marshall's parents join a growing group of voters who are enraged at the senator.

In March 2025, Marshall walked out of a town hall in Oakley, Kansas — a rural community in a county where Trump won 85% of the vote — after constituents booed him and shouted "You're not done," according to local reporting.

"We don't have time for everyone to stand up. I do got two more commitments today. I appreciate everybody making the drive out and God bless America," Marshall told the crowd before walking out to boos and shouts.
Poor little weasel.

There’s an enormous privilege to being a U.S. senator. Or being a white guy with connections to Trump’s children. Privileged people are sure whiny, though. Like little children who don’t get their way.

In Trump’s America, that’s the true trickle down.
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We Don’t All Vote For Schumer

The talking heads on Stephanie Ruhle were just assuring me Dems are in disarray over Israel.

This is their reminder that the entire country doesn’t live in NYC (which could be understandably pro-Israel, but is not the tail that wags the dog).
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Jake Tapper Could Not Be Reached For Comment

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Thursday, July 23, 2026

“We Feel Very Badly About It, But…”

So those 4 deaths don’t really count.
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GIGO

Elmo says AI will soon be smarter than us. 

AI that is smarter than Elmo is not that high a hurdle. It’s more like a speed bump. A very low speed bump.

Unless and until AI becomes self-aware, it will never be intelligent. AI that doesn’t “know” that legal cases have to exist in order to be in a legal brief (and which doesn’t understand the difference between “existence” as a matter of being, and “existence” as already extant in the world, like a court case opinion), and why that matters (it is quite a bit beyond “acceptable” v. “unacceptable”), cannot be said to be intelligent. So I’m not being flippant to say Elmo is not intelligent. He doesn’t understand what intelligence is; but still imagines he possesses it.

AI has a long way to go to be of more than limited use.

What it won’t do is worsen the educational divide. That’s as bad as it ever gets.
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You’re Doing It Wrong

If the negotiations reach the President unfinished, they’re doing it wrong 

Government negotiations are complex and complicated. They have to be carried out by experts. Trump’s only expertise is in bullshit and self-delusion. The President shouldn’t be negotiating. He should be accepting the results of the negotiations.
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“You Have To Go With It”

It’s just, like, a force of nature. Or rich people. You have to do what rich people want.

That’s the law.
So let’s put on next to MAL.
Trump on Data Centers in Communities: Other nations are spending a lot of money on propaganda trying to convince everybody that this isn't a positive thing. You have some communities that really want the data centers. Those are the smart communities. Very little disruption. They’re begging for them.
See? Right next to the golf course at MAL. Prove that it’s a “smart” community. Ummmm ....
Trump: Green New Scam where we were scammed. The whole country was, I wasn't scammed. I got it right from the beginning… they were saying wind was so wonderful, so wonderful, except you couldn't, watch your television, they wanted to watch the debate. Donald Trump against Sleepy Joe Biden. Nobody could watch it because the wind wasn't blowing. Remember that?
Nobody remembers that, Grandpa. But we do remember the time Biden had jet lag. What’s your excuse? He’s only off by 142,000. Jake Tapper says this is fine.
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When Did You Stop Committing War Crimes?

Kill ‘em all, let God sort ‘em out. Which is okay, because a GOP representative had dinner with the VP.  You have to stop the car and shoot the driver, before that car runs over an ICE agent in an unmarked car trying to conduct an illegal traffic stop. Or something. It’s contagious. They know Boomers have left the stage, right? We’re the last ones who remember “communist” is supposed to be a scare word. Hell, Trump says his best friends among national leaders are all communists.

But I’m not here to be the belief police.
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