Monday, August 24, 2026

I’m No Longer Sure They Listen To The Words Coming Out Of Their Mouths

Vance thinks he made a funny. But the late demands of the U.S. were clearly aimed at making Canada the 51sr state, de facto if not de jure. So we’re reneging on our NATO commitments? Maybe you should mention that to Congress…. Now we’re setting fire to the dollar as the reserve currency of the world? Because you don’t really have that much power.  Did Stephen Miller write this fantasist nonsense? The world has seen the “full reach” of American military power. We don’t really have any more economic power than that. That’s not his worst historical analogy today. Which is saying something. How many nations rallied to our side after February 28, when Trump started bombing Iran? And now the ones that don’t, we’ll isolate? How does that work? When we isolate people the world, who ends up isolated?
Reporter: Chinese banks have often been talked about being targeted, but we don't see any of those institutions targeted here…

Bessent: No one is above the reach of the US sanctions…. When the hammer of US Treasury actions falls upon them, they will have no one to blame but themselves.
Why is the Secretary of the Treasury talking like a comic book villain? I mean, seriously. It’s almost cute that you don’t think that’s what you’ve been doing today.

And that comparison you made to D-Day? You do understand we had allies on D-Day? We didn’t get them later after we’d lost half our invading force on the beaches of France. Which is the third reason why your analogy fails. And not the first reason why the comparison is so offensive.

Did Stephen Miller write this shit?
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Surprising No One…

The Sinister Six never saw a Presidential order it couldn’t at least allow to procwhile it waits several weeks to even sit again. The irreparable harm is always to the President, when his name is Trump.*

And reaction was swift:
The court “hands a provisional win to Trump over his effort to exert control over mail-in ballots,” Hurley told his followers, but added that “questions remain about whether the underlying proposal is lawful, as majority concedes. Plus a nationwide injunction in a different case remains in effect, for now.”

David Badash, founder and editor of The New Civil Rights Movement, called the decision “highly questionable," while liberal commentator Jeff Tiedrich mocked the court’s conservative majority.

“Can’t wait for there to be a Democratic president so the Supreme Court can start saying no again,” he wrote.

"It’s not a Supreme Court anymore—it’s the Institute for the Advancement of Christofascism," Seth Abramson, a retired journalism professor and former prosecutor, said in a social media post. "Don’t listen to these normopath lawyers insisting precedents still hold water with these six religious zealots; they don’t. They don’t even follow the irreparable harm rule in equity cases."

CNN legal analyst Elie Honig, meanwhile, said the order was “definitely a big win” for the Trump administration.
The only person I disagree with there is Eli Honig, mainly because of my high regard for Professor Vladeck:
#BREAKING: Over dissents from the three Dem. appointees, #SCOTUS has *granted* the Trump administration’s request to freeze a district court injunction that had blocked the mail-in ballots executive order. But Trump’s EO remains blocked by a different injunction in a different case—at least for now:

And as soon as tomorrow, Judge Talwani may also issue a TRO against the new rule the USPS issued Friday night to implement the EO.

In other words, this is a small win for the Trump administration, but *not* a ruling that fully clears the way for Trump to mess with mail-in ballots come November.
I’m just going to add this comment from the Professor about the “administrative stay” on the ballroom, while we wait for the Professor’s comments on this new ruling.
Late Friday afternoon, Chief Justice Roberts issued a one-sentence administrative stay keeping Judge Richard Leon’s injunction against above-ground construction of the new White House ballroom on hold “pending further order” of the Chief Justice or the Court. (In English, Roberts allowed ballroom construction to continue.) There was no reasoning, no vote count, and no dissent—because, as I’ve explained before, these kinds of “administrative” stays are issued by a single justice (the “circuit justice” responsible for the lower courts from which the case came) to buy time for the full Court to act.

The problem with Roberts’s administrative stay isn’t that it was unexplained; it’s that no defensible explanation for it exists. Other than a March 2024 concurrence by Justice Barrett (which was about administrative stays issued by courts of appeals), the justices have never publicly identified any criteria for an “administrative” stay, as opposed to a stay pending appeal. But irreparable harm has to be at least part of the equation. And there’s just no universe in which a party is “irreparably” harmed by a temporary pause in construction; indeed, it wouldn’t be a construction project without unplanned, temporary pauses.

For quirky procedural reasons, it’s possible that Roberts’s Friday afternoon intervention isn’t necessarily a harbinger of how the full Court is going to rule (I’m skeptical, alas). But whether it is or not, the real takeaway from the ballroom case, at least at this juncture, is that it’s long past time for the justices to publicly articulate criteria for when they should (and shouldn’t) issue “administrative” stays—and, even more importantly, to follow them.
The context here is a basic principle of due process: that the law is known so those to whom the law applies knows, at least ostensibly, what the rules are. That’s intentionally general; let me explain how it’s supposed to work.

I noted recently that courts issue orders, and sometimes issue opinions. Trial court judges usually just sign a terse document of a paragraph or two, concluding with “IT IS SO ORDERED.” At least that’s how I remember it 33 years later. Sometimes they write an opinion explaining the order; but appellate courts always write an opinion. The purpose of the opinion is actually very simple: to state what the law is given the facts of this case, and why the law applies as it does to those facts, and what law applies (and what law doesn’t).  The purpose is related to that principle of due process: so everyone, especially lawyers and judges, know what the law is on similar facts going forward. Otherwise, you’re just guessing, and the law is the whim of the last judges standing.

Under our constitution, those last judges are the justices of the Supreme Court.

Which is what Professor Vladeck is complaining about. In terms established by Kurt Vonnegut: “No damned cat, and no damned cradle!” The Supremes aren’t even trying to explain what they are doing, much less justify it. Or, as the NYT Pitchbot succinctly put it:
Critics of the Supreme Court’s emergency docket say it grants the executive branch too much power. But when a Democrat is president again that same docket will be used to limit the executive branch’s power.
To which the Professor sagely replied:
The satire lies in its absence.
Satire is not the only thing missing. Satire is a pleasure to read, but has no place in reality. Satire is a commentary, not a judicial order. The Sinister Six act as if they were apart from the world, and above it; especially apart from and above we, the people.  I live in hope that there will be a new and different Congress in January, and that it will remind the Sinister Six that Art. I gives Congress authority over the office established by Art. II, and gives them even more authority over the courts it establishes pursuant to Art. III. And that power runs far deeper and broader than just expanding the size of the Court (which really can’t be enacted before 2029, because…why would you do that now?). Ethics, forced retirement, even rules of procedure, can be enforced on the Supreme Court, because Art. III not only allows, but presumes that Congressional authority. After all, the Congress is the representative body of we, the people. That’s why Art. I is so extensive, and Art. III just says there will be a Supreme Court and a Chief Justice, and leaves the rest to Congress. Congress can do a great deal to remind the Sinister Six of that without expanding the bench of the Court (yet), or waiting for Trump to leave.

Congress is also the body that can originate Constitutional amendments. They’ve done it before to reverse Supreme Court rulings; high time to do it again.


*”Irreparable harm” is a term of art from equity. Injunctions are creatures of equity, and one reason they are granted is that the harm can’t be repaired by a judgment later. Justice will not be done, IOW, by allowing the status quo to stand while the case proceeds. Lower courts have suspended the ballroom construction on this point (allowing construction to proceed while the case is pending obviates the relief sought by the case).
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Where It All Winds Up

The Republicans haven’t done anything in two years except investigate their political enemies.

So Democrats should retake the Congress, and emulate the Republicans.

🤦‍♂️

An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, leaves the whole world blind and toothless.
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Jingo!

I live in a border state, and relatively close to the border. I (used to) see immigrants from south of the border all the time. I know where they live, nearby.

The local school district used to have a minor problem with immigrant children who would disappear from school after 3 or 4 months. The family had to move because they couldn’t make the rent. It could take about 3 months for that situation to allow for a forcible entry and detainer (eviction suit, to you) action. 

Those people were not taking up houses. They weren’t even taking up apartments anyone else wanted to live in. Well, maybe besides the homeless squatting in abandoned apartment complexes. The apartments immigrants like Vance is talking about are living in are just above abandoned buildings, for the most part. They aren’t taking jobs washing floors and dishes and mowing lawns that rightly belong to white men, either. Frankly, how we treat them is shameful, and that comes back to ideas Vance is espousing.

What Vance is promoting here is racism and jingoism. It’s no better than the lies he told about Haitians in Ohio. He hasn’t learned any shame since then. It’s unlikely he ever will. 
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This Is The Biggest Story I Heard About The Race ‘Round D.C.

gtconway3d “Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, himself in a regular suit and tie, approached a group of racecar drivers hanging out by the paddock. ….

“‘Good luck today,’ Mr. Lutnick told them. ‘Enjoy it. This is all of Washington, just for you.’

“He walked away. One of the drivers turned and shrugged.

“‘I honestly have no idea who that was,’ he said.”
It’s also the best story, IMHO. All these people in Trump’s orbit all so thirsty.

Which tells you how I get my news. I won’t even log in to the NYT via the gift link in that tweet. OTOH, the Lovely Wife pays attention to regular news for me, and she didn’t see anything about it, either.

I still want to know where the ticket proceeds went. I don’t doubt the accounting for them is squirrelly as hell.
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Tools

And what does that have to do with the price of gas? Or food? Or housing? Or the fact that inflation is up but wages aren’t? Here’s a hint for Sean: almost everybody earns a wage. Very few people own stocks and, those who do usually own them through a mutual fund in a 401K; which just as often loses money as earns it.

A rising stock market only means the rich are getting richer, not that all boats are equally rising. And besides, the standard of measure is a marketing tool, not an economic one.
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Sunday, August 23, 2026

The Sport Of…Kings?

Where’s the ticket money going? Sure they are. Ask ‘em again tomorrow. Let them buy $14 beer.🍺  From the people who brought you the National State Fair, or whatever that debacle was called. Gonna have to slow down, huh? The pace car sets the pace.
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Time To Take The Reins

ICE:
"Leave us alone... people need to stop telling us how to do what we do best.”
The rest of the country: Not only no, hell no!
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I Don’t Make The Rules

Calling someone a racist is still forbidden.🚫 

Calling someone a socialist, as an epithet, is o-kay. 👌
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The Sad Truth Is…

Trump thought this would work. And that it still can.

Trump is using section 338 of the Tariff Act if 1930 (Smoot Hawley). Maybe Congress needs to get around to rescinding that, and negating any tariffs issued under it.
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…From The Head….

😳Sean Duffy threatens Canada during bizarre Fox hit 😳

Transportation Secretary Duffy for some reason weighed in on Trump's Canada tariffs, lying that Mark Carney "doesn't have a military" and threatening that if his country "thinks they're gonna go to war with Donald Trump and actually win that war with the US, I think it's foolish on their part"

Duffy also bragged about the fact that beer will be sold at today's Indycar race in downtown DC as though it's one of Trump's signature accomplishments

The whole thing was weird. Here's a supercut:
Well, Trump said he might send the military into the bond market: Beer and Formula One cars in August in downtown D.C. What could go wrong ?

Maybe the military will have to intervene…against the weather and the road conditions.
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🤦‍♂️

Carney: "With the strongest fiscal position in the G7 and a resilient economy, Canada has all the resources we need to pivot and to prosper. We are creating jobs in this economy at four times the rate of the US. Our non-US exports are up sharply. They're on track to double over the next decade."
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Saturday, August 22, 2026

Todd Blanche Says This Is Fine

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Yeah, This Is Gonna Be Great

Who’s paying to replace all those covers? So, damage to the cars moving at 185 mph or higher, damage to the manhole covers. What could go wrong? Poverty sucks, right?
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Incompetence And Venality…

...in government... ...is not a winning strategy.
"In a few states, like Florida in particular, a lot of Hispanic voters who did vote for Trump in 2024 are now watching their friends, their family members, their employees be deported, and that doesn’t strike them as a golden age. After a moment where Hispanic voters gave Trump a chance, they have gone back to their historical voter tendencies. They’re really not here for the Stephen Miller show."
Nobody is here for that. Unlike Trump? Or does Bash mean Talarico’s Xianity is not “evangelical” Xianity, so he’s “showing off.” 🤬
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35 Years Ago

Clinton balanced the budget (no, not in ‘91). It did him little to no good politically, and nobody else seemed to notice much. It hasn’t been balanced since, although the GOP through-line has consistently been less money for people, more money for defense contractors.

And the GOP  “solution” has always been “growth,” unless a Democrat is in the White House, and then it’s “cut spending on people.”

Trump is doing both. Job growth is stagnant, inflation is rising, and trade negotiations with Canada broke down, auguring 50% tariffs on both sides of the border.  We’ll see how all that works out in November.
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Friday, August 21, 2026

Why Trump Needs That Ballroom Bunker

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Remain Calm! All Is Well!

In the bond markets? Where? I’m hearing very distinct echoes of 2020. Election challenges worked really well that time. Reasonable question. As long as they talk about Iran not getting a nuclear weapon, and how badly Trump needs a ballroom. Oh, and how gas at $4 a gallon is good for you, the voter. TACO is a kind of weathervane.

And now he’s sundowning in South Carolina.
Sure he did. Focusing on what’s important. One of these things is a hoax. The other things are simply lies. You decide. There’s a reason nobody ever heard about it, Grandpa. He’s already forgotten, hasn’t he? Do you want to share with the class? Grandpa needs his warm milk, and bed. The putative leader of the free world. Good night, everybody!
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Do They Think This Is Working For Them?

The lack of self awareness is stunning. Isn’t that the argument against “endless wars”? Did his grandfather happen to mention that when you point a finger at someone, there’s three more pointing back at you? Or anything about stones and glass houses? Birds of a feather?  "Who you gonna believe? Me? Or your lyin’ eyes?”  What I just asked. It’s like Bizzaro World 🗺️ for stoners. Our man on their side.
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Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

The likeliest way to read this:
Chief Justice Roberts has issued an “administrative” stay In the ballroom case—which effectively allows Trump to keep doing what he’s doing while the full Court decides whether to let him keep working indefinitely while the case moves forward (which it probably will, given this intervention).
... is that Roberts never met a Presidential expansion of power he didn’t like.  An unlikely read would look at this: ... and wonder again if Roberts isn’t trying to avoid a head on collision with Trump in a case where Trump could create a true constitutional crisis, because he’s an idiot. And never met a crisis he didn’t like.*

The problem is that, as much as it claims to be a co-equal third branch of government, the courts are no such thing. Art. III doesn’t even give the Supreme Court its name; it only establishes a title of Chief Justice, much as Art. I describes a Speaker of the House (they perhaps had in mind the non-partisan office of the House of Commons. Whatever was envisioned, it wasn’t well-defined. The same is true of the office of “Chief Justice.”). Art. III only says there shall by a supreme court, and lesser courts, all as established by Congress. Art. III is far more “we’ll have a court system, too,” than it is even the outline of a blueprint. The judiciary is not set up as “coequal,” anymore than the Presidency is. Congress certifies the election of the President; and Congress can remove the President from office, basically on whatever grounds it chooses. The President has no such authority over Congress. The President is charged with executing the laws passed by Congress. He can veto a law, but Congress can override the veto. And if Congress doesn’t like the way he’s executing the laws, they can engage in oversight, up to and including removal from office. Trump presents the clearest need for that in American history; but I’m not holding my breath. The Constitution doesn’t make Congress this feckless. History did that.

In any case, I don’t think the President can do whatever he wants to the White House grounds without Congressional authorization, especially when it involves reallocating funds Congress authorized for other purposes (like the national parks). But I digress…

The Supreme Court is established by Congress.  It didn’t have its own building until 1935. Its jurisdiction is established by Congress. The appellate and trial courts are established by Congress. Congress could shrink the Supreme Court to 3, or expand it to 33. It can control the court’s procedures, determine when it meets, even take the building back. The court is not co-equal to Congress and the President. It is entirely a creature of statute, down to its name. And Congress writes those statutes.

The Court has no army, no police force, no arm of authority to enforce its rulings (the ruling is the judicial order; the opinion is why). In a sense, its orders are advisory. We follow them because we agree the judiciary is acting decently and in good order, and that we need a judicial system to provide and maintain justice (however well or poorly it does so). Some of the court’s rulings in the’50’s and’60’s were implemented only because the executive (Ike, JFK, LBJ) used military and police force to make it so. Without that, Brown v Board might just have been a nice idea. We don’t always agree about decency and good order, but the courts are stuck when some of us strongly disagree with them. And it’s worth noting that Brown v Board was an important ruling, but we needed the Civil Rights Act and the VRA to really make things happen. And yes, there’s a reason John Roberts spent his legal career trying to gut the VRA. But again, I digress….

That’s the way it ordinarily works. The court orders, the executive, if necessary, sees that the order is executed. That is, after all, the chief purpose of the office of the President according to Art. II. Trump, clearly, and beyond argument, doesn’t give a wet snap for Art. II.

So what if Trump asked Stalin’s apocryphal question: “How many troops does Roberts have?” No one imagines Ike or JFK or LBJ asking that. But Trump? Blanche would have the OLC produce an opinion in a heartbeat, and Trump would order the Marines to protect the construction site.

We can at least imagine him doing it.

Does Roberts want to allow Trump to continue construction of the ballroom? I think so. I don’t think he can get 4 more votes to raise it to a constitutional authority, à la presidential immunity.  But I think he can round up more than four votes for the proposition that Trump can do it until Congress says otherwise.

Which Congress needs to do in January, anyway. Trump is pilfering government funds for this vanity project, something else the Court may well allow as the prerogative of the “unitary executive.” There is a proposal to expand the Court to 13, equal to the number of appellate districts. It’s a sound argument, but the application should be held until at least 2029. In the meantime, Congress can impose a retirement age on the Court consistent with the lower courts, and an ethics oversight body.  Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Congress does, in this case; and it’s high time they reclaimed that responsibility; and authority.

*To be clear, I don’t think Roberts read that tweet and thought “Oh shit!” But I wouldn’t be surprised if the Chief Justice has a legitimate concern, however small, that Trump redux might be willing to blunder into a constitutional crisis that would expose the Court’s pretensions to co-equal authority, and force it to rely on what has, so far, been a supine Congress that might not change enough in the Senate to make a difference. And then again, might change too much to make Roberts comfortable.

The joy of living in interesting times.
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🤬

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I’m Old Enough To Remember…

... when $86,000 a year WAS rich. When I entered law school, I dreamed of coming out and earning $35,000 a year. For me that was practically beyond the dreams of avarice. By the time I ever did earn that much (decades later), it didn’t mean what it had before.

What my parents paid for a house in 1960, would buy a nice car today. Not a luxury car, just a nice one. And so on and so on. 

I won’t even veer off to the argument that we’d be better off pursuing spiritual enrichment (putting your neighbors and fellow humans first, and yourself last; not idle navel gazing and worrying about your karma). We’ll stick with the material American Dream, even though we have a unique religious foundation (people didn’t stop coming here seeking religious freedom when the Pilgrims landed).

It is still money that matters in the U.S.A. 🎶

But all we’ve done is create a world where we need more things. Look at 1950’s Warner Brothers cartoons; or Disney’s House of Tommorow in Tomorrow Land (the 1950’s version).  Wildly oversimplified visions, which make it seem like everything appears without effort. At the same time, the houses are remarkably spare. Most houses today rival the clutter of Sherlock Holmes’ Victorian bachelor digs. Which is not the only way the ‘50’s got the future wrong.

Bradbury got closer with home “TV rooms,” where the walls were TV screens. But the BBC retelling of the Dracula story tops them all. There is a great scene where the vampire, having been trapped for a century or so, escapes into the modern world. He rhapsodizes to an English housewife in her cluttered home about modern creature comforts that kings in castles of old would envy, and says if people then had what we have now, no one would ever leave their house.

Would that it were that simple, right? None of that stuff is free. It’s all a question of perspective, and the perspective of a man who doesn’t have to work for those comforts, is not the wise position he thinks it is. And as Thoreau pointed out, what we own ends up owning us. Acquiring stuff becomes a burden no amount of income can alleviate.

Dracula’s analysis, and Gingrich’s, is also a grossly misplaced set of values, and valuation. 

But then, it’s Gingrich; what else do you expect?
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Square This Circle

FOX BUSINESS: How do you reassure voters that Republicans are working to help their wallets?

SEN. DAVE McCORMICK: The starting point is, listen, there is no doubt the American people, working families, are much better off under the Trump administration than they were under the Biden administration
NEWSNATION: New polling shows over 60% of Americans disapprove of the economy under President Trump and puts his approval rating on 33%, the lowest it has ever been. How do you convince people you're the right choice?

RNC CHAIR JOE GRUTERS: The president is still dealing with the Biden issues that were left over
Republicans are always on message. Dems are always in disarray.
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Nobody Could Have Foreseen

Trump cut Obamacare and Medicaid. Cuts to Medicare start in January. And then he drove the economy into the ground with tariffs, ICE, and war.

Incompetence is its own worst enemy.
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Thursday, August 20, 2026

Why Trump Takes 🪉 Everywhere

80 days out (much less if you count early voting), and that’s what Trump is talking about. Then again, this is all they have:
Hewitt: Natalie Harp has not had any relationship with the president. To insinuate that is disgusting!

Murphy: I know you’re clutching your pearls but it’s a little rich after the past 10 years.

Hewitt: You know it’s a lie!

Murphy: Did Trump take a plane with her?

Hewitt: She is a close aide. Shame on you!
(Don’t tell Hewitt she got in a food container with Trump, he’s liable to stroke out.)

Did Trump take a plane with her? Yes. Was that plane a flying bribery palace? Also: yes.
Start a war we can’t finish? Wait, we’ve done that before. Prove our missiles cost magnitudes more than theirs? And even we can’t afford that? Or that we can’t win with what we have? CENTCOM is considering closing bases in the Middle East because they are still vulnerable. Was that a campaign promise, too? Or is it the Administration doing something else amazing?
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Reading Rubber Chicken Entrails

The Guardian is reporting a 21-year-old recent college graduate was behind an anonymous website that put out widely shared fake election polling in Wisconsin, Nevada and California

“I wanted to see if fake polls could really penetrate the ecosystem that easily… And as it turned out, it could.”
The only poll that counts is the election results.
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Wait A Minute….

Trump was supposed to be choking Cuba and bringing it to its knees so he could take over.

Whatever happened to that? How much longer is it going to take? And what does it tell us about how long Iran will last?

Inquiring minds want to know.
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But Sure….

Ossoff says Trump wants to fly around with 🪉, and the Administration goes apeshit over what they think is the implication. But this?

Yeah, I really don’t want to touch it, either.
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Come December…

... it’ll be the fault of the Democrats in Congress. Until January, 2029.
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80 Days To Midterms

"In the long run, we’re all dead.” —J.M. Keynes Speaking of growth: Sorry! Wrong kind of growth! Suck it, peasants! All my sharecroppers need to get back in the fields! See? Better! When in worry, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout! 🙀 80 days to the midterms! Keep up the good work! The federal government had that money. The American people were told it would be paid by the exporting countries. The money came from consumers. Who got screwed by Trump. Both ways. The state AG’s did us all a favor, by ending the illegal taxation.
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Considering The Unthinkable

No shit, Sherlock.
Shawn Nanny, a Republican county commissioner in West Texas, said data centers and power line plans are the “straws that broke the camel’s back” when it comes to Abbott and other Texas GOP leaders.

Some longtime conservatives are now considering the unthinkable — voting in November for a Democrat to be Texas’ next governor. And Abbott’s August directive to pause Texas data center grid approvals hasn’t convinced all of them to vote for him.

“They understand the repercussions of that, but you know what I’m hearing is, ‘Yeah, we’ll have a Democrat in there and grit our teeth and bear it, but hopefully we’ll come out of it the following election,’” said Nanny, who lives in Tom Green County. “They’re so upset; they just want [Abbott] out.”
The Lege took away local authority over data centers. The Lege is controlled by the GOP.
Numerous conservative voters in sparsely populated areas said in interviews they feel like Abbott and state Republican lawmakers from larger cities have been over eager to support business and infrastructure build-outs that threaten their way of life.

And activists across the political spectrum bemoan state lawmakers’ actions to strip counties and municipalities of authority — so much so that in most unincorporated areas, Texas counties can only regulate data centers’ drainage plans, floodway construction, septic tanks and driveway permits.
Abbott’s opponent has noticed:
Greg Abbott signed HB 2712, giving hyperscale data centers a 20-year tax break to strain our power grid.
That’s from a fundraising email I received from Gina Hinojosa, who is just one point behind Abbott as he tries for a fourth term. No wonder Greg has asked for a temporary pause on data centers. You know, until after the election, maybe. You’d have to know Texas politics to appreciate this, but even the Texas Commissioner of Agriculture (yes, an elected office) is publicly warning Abbott to step away from AI. The last firebrand C of A Texas had was Jim Hightower, and that was about 35 years ago. The current incumbent is as good old boy as they come, but he understands how the rural folks feel.

Abbott is in the shit, and he may not swim out.
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One Of These Things Is Just Like The Other

President Donald J. Trump has announced what he calls the "MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY," declaring a campaign of unprecedented economic warfare and isolation against Iran.

Trump said the United States will target not only Iran, but any country, financial institution, business, airport or government entity providing Iran with what he describes as a "lifeline." He specifically cited oil smuggling, financial transfers, currency exchanges, ship registries and front companies.

The announcement represents a significant shift in rhetoric from the administration's repeated public assertions over the past several months that negotiations with Iran were progressing well and a deal was close.

As recently as August 5, Trump said negotiations were "working out quite well," while on July 28 he described discussions with Iran as a "beautiful discussion" and said the door remained open to a deal.

Those statements came despite the June Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) ultimately collapsing, the 60 day negotiating window expiring without a broader agreement, and Iran and the United States remaining sharply divided over the Strait of Hormuz, sanctions and the U.S. military presence in the region.

Today's announcement therefore appears to mark another significant turn in the administration's carrot-and stick strategy toward Tehran: Trump is simultaneously declaring Iran to be on the brink of collapse while imposing substantially broader economic pressure intended to force a resolution.

Trump also reiterated that Iran will never be permitted to obtain a nuclear weapon.
Earlier: Did that make it so, too? Or is Trump just a toddler with a shotgun?
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But Apparently The News Yesterday…

President Donald J. Trump disclosed today that North Korea possesses "57 very powerful nuclear weapons," adding that the arsenal "shouldn't have been allowed to happen." The figure is notable because the U.S. government does not publicly disclose a precise number for North Korea's nuclear stockpile; outside estimates have generally placed it in the roughly 50–90 warhead range.

The disclosure comes days after Trump ordered Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to substantially reduce U.S.-South Korean military exercises, arguing that the drills are too costly and send an "inappropriate and hostile" signal to North Korea, which he described as "unthreatening and respectful."

The annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise subsequently began but was shortened by six days, with Seoul announcing that it would conclude Friday rather than continue through its originally scheduled period.

Trump has also said he intends to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this year, potentially marking another effort to revive the diplomacy that stalled after the 2019 Hanoi summit.
… was that Trump ranted about granite and ballrooms and drones. How many people in the punditocracy know that “the U.S. government does not publicly disclose a precise number for North Korea's nuclear stockpile”?
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Wednesday, August 19, 2026

Perfect Synopsis Of South Carolina Politics

That; or this: Hannity couldn’t have tossed a slower, fatter pitch straight over the plate. And yet she swung three times and still whiffed it.
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The Wages Of Incompetence Is Absolute Failure

Incoming:
In Minnesota, a federal judge told prosecutors from the Trump Department of Justice that she wants to see all of the minutes from the grand jury proceedings to see if grand jurors were given all of the correct information in the case against journalist Don Lemon, who was arrested in January while covering a protest that occurred inside of Cities Church in St. Paul.
No, not just because a judge wants to see the grand jury transcripts, although that strongly indicates a lot of discontent and a dismissal is coming. No, this is the interesting bit:
“Two things to know about the grand jury. One, it's a one-sided process. The only people in the room are the prosecutor, witnesses, grand jurors, and a transcriber," Honig said. "And, two, judges almost never agree to look at the minutes before a trial happens. So, we don't know exactly what the alleged infirmity here is, but 99 times out of 100, judges are going to say, 'The grand jury is not my business.'"

"The fact that the judge is saying, 'I'm going to take a look at those' is a real red light to me," he continued. "And the judge has noted this Justice Department has been found to have violated grand jury procedures in other cases, including in Illinois against anti-ICE protesters. So there's a bit of history here as well."
That "bit of history” is the thin end of the wedge. Incompetence always undoes itself. The true hallmark of Trump 2.0 is Trump and Miller and Vought thinking they know what they’re doing; obviously, they don’t.
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POV

How far out are we from the midterms? Same question. And in the long run, we’re all dead. A 5 year old has a better grasp on how Santa Claus works than this. Except Trump isn’t talking about the state of the nation. Trump only talks about Trump.
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This Is How You Organize An International Embargo

When you have absolutely no fucking idea what you’re doing.
Trump: No one has given the Islamic Republic of Iran a greater opportunity to make a Deal than me. TRAGICALLY, for them, they have failed to take it.

Therefore, today, I am announcing the MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY! This will be Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale. Their navy is gone, their air force is destroyed, their military factories are now rubble, their currency is worthless, and their country is hanging by a thread.

Today, I am also announcing that ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences. Oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, front companies — It all needs to stop NOW. You know who you are.

This will be an ECONOMIC D-DAY, and we need all of our Allies to stand with the United States of America to isolate, and defeat, the Iran threat. These maniacs are on the ropes, and these HISTORIC MEASURES will cripple them and their ability to project terror worldwide. IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.
On the same day he announced he was ending tariffs on Canada. Credibility.  TACO. 🌮 

I’m old enough to remember when GHWB formed an international coalition and spent months preparing for the Gulf War. And Shrub built support for his war; and Obama crafted a multinational coalition to constrain Iran from having a nuclear weapon; something Trump has absolutely given up on. And what happened to all those threats to unleash WWII redux? Yeah, that’s what happened to that.

 Economic sanctions? Isn’t that what we’ve had on Russia for years? 

And the same countries Trump has insulted (Spain, South Korea), are supposed to come to his side now? Because they read this tweet? Does Trump even understand it’s the European Union he has to talk to, not European countries?

No matter. He doesn’t know what he’s doing, and he never will. Maybe Congress will finally step up in ‘27.

Maybe. 🤔 
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Absolutely August

If it were standing right now, he’d never go outside again. And his bed and office would be in it. Miracle-Gro sucks. Does Scotts get to put a sign on the lawn? 5-4 is my worst case scenario, although 6-3 wouldn’t surprise me. The Court has historically paid attention to election returns, and I suspect Roberts is hearing footsteps. So, communism is good? We didn’t have tariffs under the USMCA, which Trump negotiated first time around. Apparently that was Biden’s fault. And the Strait of Hormuz was open in February. I’m beginning to see a pattern…. So Trump and his friends can ride out the collapse of the post WWII world order that he ushered in?
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