Erica Green & Olivia Diaz of the New York Times: “In an interview on the NBC show 'Meet the Press,'... Mr. Trump said [Senator Lindsey] Graham, a South Carolina Republican, had called him on Saturday night, just hours before the president was notified that Mr. Graham had died. He said that he had spoken with Mr. Graham about the SAVE America Act.... Mr. Trump said that Mr. Graham had sounded “perfect” on the call, but he added that the senator, who had landed from a trip to Ukraine hours earlier, had told him that he was 'tired.'... The president said he did not know the cause of Mr. Graham’s death, which the senator’s office attributed to 'a brief and sudden illness.' But, in response to a question about reports that the authorities had been called to Mr. Graham’s home to respond to cardiac arrest, Mr. Trump said the account made sense. 'It had to be something like that because he was, other than being tired, he was fine,' Mr. Trump said. 'And so it had to be something like that, that would just be a quick end. And maybe that’s not the worst way to go.'” ~~~
~~~ Kash Stokes Conspiracy Theorists. Joe DePaolo of Mediaite: “FBI Director Kash Patel is being called out for stoking conspiracy theories about the death of Lindsey Graham. In a post to X early Sunday, the FBI director paid homage to the late South Carolina Senator..., but ... [ended the post with,] 'The FBI is assisting local authorities and has made every necessary resource available.'...” Left-wing pundits couldn't figure out why the FBI would become involved with death by heart attack. But on the right, Katie-bar-the-door. Laura Loomer, for instance wrote, “It’s imperative that the FBI conducts their own toxicology report on Senator Graham. The DC crime lab is incompetent.”
Elsewhere in his conversation with Kristen Welker of "Meet the Press," Trump went right back to delusional:
~~~ Jennifer Bahney of Mediaite: “... Donald Trump ... got testy when host Kristen Welker asked about the current situation with Iran.... 'Iran said overnight the Strait of Hormuz is closed, CENTCOM came out this morning and said the Strait of Hormuz is open. Which is it, Mr. President?...' 'It’s open. We bombed the hell out of them last night. They’re very, very evil and sick people. We had meetings with them for the last — they agreed to a deal yesterday. It’s a perfect deal for us. No nuclear, no this, no that, no nothing. They gave up everything. And then after that, they left the room. And then within an hour, they launched a drone at a ship. I said, “You people are sick. You’re sick people.” And so, it’s one of those things. I don’t want to talk about it. I want to talk about one person today, Lindsey Graham.'” ~~~
~~~ And whose fault is it that the strait is not really open, no matter what Trump & CENTCOM say? ~~~
~~~ They Really Don't Know What They're Doing. Edward Wong, et al., of the New York Times: “For two months, under a quiet arrangement with the U.S. Navy, commercial tankers turned off their transponders to avoid detection by Iran as they crossed the perilous Strait of Hormuz to carry oil and gas out to the world. The military offered some air cover in case Iran attacked, as naval officers directed the vessels over the radio to hug Oman’s coast, opposite Iran’s shore. That enabled a steady increase in traffic through the strait from May to June, during a tentative cease-fire in the war. But a framework deal that ... [Donald] Trump signed with Iran last month helped bring that effort to a fiery end because of its language giving Iran official power in the strait and its vagueness in important phrases. Mr. Trump celebrated the agreement, reached on June 14, as the reopening of the strait. 'Ships of the World, start your engines,' he wrote on social media. 'Let the oil flow!'
“But critics say it actually formalized a reality that Iranian officials have made clear throughout the war: They now control the strait.... The latest crisis is an all-too-predictable result of the June agreement, former American officials and analysts say.... Critics warned that the agreement was dangerously vague, particularly language in its fifth paragraph saying that Iran would 'make arrangements using its best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels' through the Strait of Hormuz.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: That is, the latest attacks on both sides (CENTCOM said it launched a total of 310 strikes against Iran last week) came about because Jarhead & Witless negotiated a deal giving up the strait to Iran, and Donnie Artuvthuh Deal signed it. Excellent.
~~~~~~~~~~
Today's news has an unusual share of surprising stories, some of them cinematic, but all of them at least mostly real, beginning at the top.
⭐Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: “Lindsey Graham, a longtime Republican senator from South Carolina, died Saturday night, his office said in a statement early Sunday morning. 'On the evening of Saturday, July 11, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham passed away from a brief and sudden illness,' according to the statement.... [At 2:40 am ET,] this is a developing story and will be updated.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: You can't fool me. Lindsey did this only because Mitch has been getting all the attention. ~~~
~~~ Graham's New York Times obituary, by Robert Jimison, is here. The link appears to be a gift link. An AP story, which includes a few condolences, is here.
Now, as we turn to a number of reports about Donald Trump, you will find no surprises.
Marie: Ben Meiselas of Meidas Touch reported the other day that Trump had cancelled his entire weekend schedule. If he were a real president, you might expect that meant there was some national emergency that Trump & top officials would be furiously addressing in the Situation Room. Apparently not. The most dire national emergency Trump was interested in addressing was how New York Times reporters found out his Flying Palace was a death trap. See especially Marcy Wheeler, linked below, on that. And he spent most of Saturday writing long tweets denigrating journalists, especially Maggie Haberman. Heather Cox Richardson reports.
“... Donald Trump has been enraged by reporting on the new Air Force One’s security flaws, according to a report. The president is 'fuming' after the scandal over the $400 retrofitted jet erupted in the press this week, sources told CNN. The story leapt into the spotlight after The New York Times asked Trump to explain why he wasn’t taking the new aircraft ... home from the NATO Summit in Turkey. Trump claimed the aircraft was instead being sent to military bases so it could be shown to soldiers. The explanation raised eyebrows and prompted intense criticism from those who didn’t believe the commander in chief.... MS NOW’s Carol Leonnig ... said US Secret Service sources have told her the president is 'embarrassed' by the Air Force One story. On Friday, the Trump administration issued subpoenas to four reporters from The Times — a shocking legal move that the outlet linked to its reporting revealing the aircraft’s security flaws.” There is speculation that Trump's anger also explains why Kash Patel had to cancel his Chicago play date at the last minute and rush to the White House. (Also linked yesterday.) More on Kash's White House doings linked below. ~~~
~~~ At Each Level of the Story, Trump Confirmed the Story." Marcy Wheeler: "From the moment Trump posted a tweet claiming he was sending his Flying Bribery Palace back separately from the NATO summit in Ankara, the entire world knew there was a problem with the jet Qatar gifted him.... That Trump offered a transparently stupid excuse — he wanted to show it off to the military — was no real fix. His expressed worry about being targeted by Iran only further confirmed that the Flying Bribery Palace might not stand up to an Iranian attack.... By the time NYT provided details of the Flying Bribery Palace’s shortcomings on Thursday, based in part on the observations of a former Air Force official, the outline of what they were had become fairly clear: The Flying Bribery Palace could not protect against an Iranian missile attack.... That ... story made clear that such shortcomings ... had been discussed all along.... And then Trump sent subpoenas to the four NYT journalists who worked on the story, thereby confirming that the story was correct — that Trump’s Flying Bribery Palace had inadequate equipment to counter a missile attack....
"Trump is the one who disclosed his plane was inadequate to the task. The [NYT] reporters only responded to Trump’s repeated signals that his plane was inadequate by filling in dots that had been in plane (ha!) sight since Trump accepted the bribe. This is just like the arrests of people — including Davey Hearn, whom Jeanine Pirro indicted last week — who put their hands in Trump’s reflecting swamp: An effort to distract from the consequences of his own corruption. Trump is criminalizing calling out his corruption." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Notice you don't even have to report on or broadcast Trump's corruption. All you have to do is discover it for yourself, as Davey Hearn did. Viewing evidence is now a crime.
Julia Jacobs & Zach Montague of the New York Times: “As the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts prepares for major renovations, former project managers there have sent Congress internal documents that they say show how the institution bypassed government contracting norms in work carried out under ... [Donald] Trump. The documents — sent to a Senate and a House committee last month by lawyers for unidentified clients referred to as whistle-blowers — detail how vendors were selected for work without competitive bidding under rationales that are depicted as flawed.... 'Renovations were rushed to meet the deadlines driven by the president’s desire to host official events at the center,' the letter says. 'Federal contracting laws and regulations were ignored.'... The center said in [a] statement that it had confirmed with the Office of Management and Budget that, as an independent entity, it was not bound by federal contracting regulations and that it had updated its procurement policy to be both fair and agile when making renovations.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Erica Green & Dylan Freedman of the New York Times: This past week, Donald Trump twice posted “a video of Somali American kindergartners in blue caps and gowns ... [one video] punctuated by a comment from an anonymous right-wing account...: “Every girl is in a hijab… in kindergarten.” In the 14-second video, the children are singing an upbeat Somali educational song.... Minnesota’s large Muslim and Somali communities ... expressed indignation that the president was again vilifying them, and disbelief that he was doing so by targeting children.... National civil rights organizations and state leaders added to local activists’ condemnation of the posts over the course of the week.... For more than a year, Mr. Trump has relentlessly attacked Minnesota’s Somali community in a series of xenophobic tirades.... [He] has long used his social media account to amplify racist imagery and vilify immigrant groups.
Little Marco Gets His Wish to Be President ... of Venezuela. Tyler Pager & Anatoly Kurmanaev of the New York Times: Marco Rubio “runs Venezuela from Washington. In the six months since U.S. forces blew open Mr. Maduro’s bedroom door and snatched him in the dead of night, Mr. Rubio has become the de facto viceroy of Venezuela, holding sway over a sovereign nation in a way that no American official has since L. Paul Bremer III arrived in Baghdad in 2003 to run U.S.-occupied Iraq. Mr. Rubio now effectively controls Venezuela’s finances, the distribution of its natural resources and its government.... While he has not visited Venezuela in person since the U.S. took over, the secretary of state is deeply involved in the country’s day-to-day operations, keeping in close contact with Delcy Rodríguez, who was Mr. Maduro’s vice president and now leads her country on an acting basis, with the imprimatur of the United States.... The relationship between Mr. Rubio and Ms. Rodríguez is ... a manifestation of Trump-era American power, in which the winner takes all regardless of sovereignty and international law.” The link appears to be a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)
Reports and speculation had it that Kash Patel was forced to abruptly cancel his weekend plans because the White House objected to said weekend plans. (See links on yesterday's page.) But no. As we know, the Department of Justice --of which Kash's little operation is a part -- is no longer a quasi-independent, uncompromised arm of the federal government. ~~~
~~~ Devlin Barrett, et al., of the New York Times: “The White House directed Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, to oversee a leak investigation into reporting by The New York Times about security issues with the new Air Force One, leading to a flurry of subpoenas to several Times reporters Friday night.... Mr. Patel scuttled a planned trip to Chicago and spent roughly eight hours at the White House on Friday, running the investigation from there rather than F.B.I. headquarters — a major departure from historical practice. Mr. Patel also briefed senior administration officials on the investigation, two people said.... The White House’s deep involvement in the case came after officials said that ... [Donald] Trump was enraged about the coverage of the Qatari-donated plane, which The Times reported Thursday lacks the same defensive countermeasures of the previous Air Force One....
“Mr. Patel’s role in the investigation, in close coordination with top administration officials, reflects a further dismantling of the wall that had separated the White House and the F.B.I. in previous administrations. The government’s effort to immediately seek information from journalists, when such cases are typically centered first on identifying potential internal wrongdoing by officials, comes as the Trump administration has intensified pressure on news organizations.” On the other hand, in 2016 Bill Clinton, the husband of Hillary Clinton, once spent a few minutes in an impromtu conversation with Attorney General Loretta Lynch where they chatted about their grandkids and all -- and right when the FBI was investigating the emails! And wow! that was bad. Update: the link has been changed to one that appears to be a gift link.
~~~ Marie: The hilarious part of this story is that Kash Patel got called away from his recreational trip to Chicago (on your dime) to "investigate" the New York Times leak. If Kash were a real FBI director instead of a groveling Trump today, he could have phoned it in: "You are the source, Sir," he might have said from his secure phone on his government plane as it idled on the tarmac. A real FBI director might try to hire Marcy Wheeler as an analyst. Instead, Kash's job, no doubt, is to do the opposite of what Wheeler did: that is, Kash must finger Everybody But Trump.
Ken Dilanian of MS NOW: “Two Atlanta-based FBI intelligence analysts were fired last week after refusing to participate in the Trump administration’s investigation of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election, three people familiar with the matter told MS NOW. The analysts, a husband and wife, told colleagues they did not believe the investigation was justified under FBI and Justice Department policies.... The couple was escorted out of their office.... As MS NOW first reported on July 2, FBI Director Kash Patel has directed that about 260 intelligence analysts from around the country devote time to what a memo called a 'priority investigation,' in Atlanta. Multiple sources said it was the probe into the 2020 election in Georgia, which Joe Biden won by nearly 12,000 votes.”
Ha! Did an International Criminal Get the Better of Jared & Ivanka? Bennito Kelty of the Raw Story: "A Miami businessman wanted in Albania for alleged drug money laundering is suspected of faking deeds to the land where Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner hope to build a multi-billion-dollar resort, new reports show. Albania's anticorruption prosecution service is investigating whether Artur Shehu transferred land to Albania Land Development, a Kushner-linked company, with forged deeds and falsified titles, according to reporting by Al Jazeera and Reuters.... Ivanka and Kushner's announcement that they plan to build a $1.6 billion luxury resort on Sazan Island, a protected nature preserve on Albania's largest island, already sparked mass protests. However, it hasn't stopped the couple from moving forward with the deal and snapping up coastal land. Shehu sold a strip of pristine Albanian coastline to Kushner's company in April, according to reporting by Reuters." ~~~
~~~ Marie: A word of caution: sometimes when you pal around with criminals, your dreams turn into nightmares. In this case, love in the afternoon on a pristine island with proximity to large population centers of potential customers does not necessarily lead to condominial bliss. I'm sure Jared is a first-class negotiator and all (see Akhilleus' commentary near the end of yesterday's thread), but it does help to know whom you're negotiating with.
Sitting Ducks. Tara Copp & Alex Horton of the Washington Post: “It was March 1, barely a day into the U.S. war against Iran. [A] drone hit in the center of the building at Port Shuaiba [in Kuwait], its concussive blast hurling troops into walls and igniting a deadly fire, survivors of the strike told The Washington Post.... Many expressed anger toward [Brig. Gen. Clint] Barnes and the commander above him, Maj. Gen. John Hinson, alleging that both leaders ignored intelligence warnings that Port Shuaiba was a probable Iranian target. They are angry that the generals sent troops there despite internal assessments that advised against the move, in part because the facility lacked adequate defenses against drones, the soldiers said. The assessments were described to The Post by troops familiar with their details.”
Arelis Hernandez, et al., of the Washington Post: “Videos that capture the minutes leading up to and immediately after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot an undocumented Mexican immigrant in Houston early Tuesday morning show agents aggressively following a white work van and then approaching the vehicle on foot. Security camera footage from nearby businesses and residences, obtained and analyzed by The Washington Post, provides a nearly continuous, six-minute-long view of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s van as he is pursued by federal agents. But the agents were not wearing body cameras, and the videos do not clearly capture the moment an ICE agent fires his gun shortly before 7 a.m. local time — a finding that may complicate any investigation into whether ICE personnel were justified in using deadly force against Salgado Araujo.” The article includes a narrated compilation video & some still photos from the videos. ~~~
~~~ The New York Times publishes numerous videos & aerial photos with labels, showing the progression of the chase. The link appears to be a gift link.
Ryan Grenoble of the Huffington Post: “The country is in the midst of a nationwide outbreak of explosive diarrhea caused by a parasite the CDC stopped surveilling at the federal level in July 2025. That’s around the same time the Trump administration began haphazardly attacking and defunding federal health and science agencies under the guise of 'government efficiency,' with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. separately also pushing out critical federal scientists and researchers. Prior to that date, a collaborative CDC program called FoodNet helped federal and state regulators track eight foodborne pathogens. Among them was cyclospora, a heat-loving spherical parasite that’s sickened 1,000 people in an ongoing outbreak in Michigan (the state’s worst), with similar illnesses cropping up in 28 other states.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: I normally would not wish illness on anyone, but let's just say that if three people must get exploding diarrhea, let those three be Donald and Elon and Bobby Jr. And woe be to those who stand behind them.
Lisa Lerer of the New York Times: “On Wednesday afternoon, [Rep. Ro] Khanna [D], the congressman from Silicon Valley who is exploring a 2028 presidential run, was visiting the ruins of Khirbet Zanuta, a tiny Palestinian Bedouin village in the southern West Bank that was abandoned after escalating attacks from settlers and then demolished. Suddenly, a car of men holding guns pulled up and blocked the narrow road out of the village. The men began taunting the congressman and his team, swearing at them in Hebrew and Arabic and kicking the tires of their minibus.... Soon, a Jeep with more men arrived. When two cars from the Israeli military pulled up, Mr. Khanna assumed the soldiers were there to help him pass. Instead, the soldiers smoked cigarettes, chatted with the men and after the settlers left, moved a car to block the road, he recounted.... The military disputed that its soldiers had participated in blocking the exit and said that the identity of the armed civilian was being reviewed.” The link appears to be a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ The short video here has a few stills of Khanna's captors. (Also linked yesterday.)
~~~ Oh dear. Why are workmen replacing the flooring at Mitch McConnell's D.C. home? To get rid of forensic evidence? Is this why Elaine rushed home from China? To pick out the parquet? Inquiring minds want to know. Thanks to RAS for the link.
~~~ AND are Senators John Thune & John Barrasso part of the conspiracy? They were the first to announce "I just got off the phone with Mitch."
Finya Swai of the Hill: “Hunter Biden ... was awarded $1.7 million in damages on Friday as part of a defamation lawsuit against former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne. Byrne, a known denier of Biden’s victory over ... [Donald] Trump in the 2020 presidential election, accused [Hunter] Biden of taking part in an $800 million bribery scheme involving Iran and failed to defend his claims in court.... 'Here, the evidence is clear and convincing that [Byrne] has engaged in intentional misrepresentation with conscious disregard towards [Hunter’s] rights,' Wilson wrote in his 25- page ruling. The judge added that Byrne’s 'defamation went far beyond mere negligence,' and that Byrne had encouraged his social media followers to spread the false report and promote it further. Wilson, an appointee of former President Reagan, awarded Hunter $1 in nominal damages, as requested, in addition to $1.7 million in punitive damages. He also ordered the former Overstock chief to pay nearly $35,000 in previously imposed court sanctions within two weeks or face an additional $1,000 penalty for each day payment is delayed after the deadline.”
Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: “In an ... interview with The Washington Post, Leonard Glenn Francis — the legendary con man better known as Fat Leonard — revealed for the first time, in cinematic detail, how he bamboozled U.S. authorities in 2022 by escaping house arrest and fleeing to Mexico, Cuba and Venezuela before he was caught and returned to the United States 15 months later.... Early on [a] Sunday morning over Labor Day weekend, while a private security guard was AWOL, he sheared off the electronic monitoring bracelet clamped around his ankle and hopped in an Uber. Within 30 minutes, he had safely crossed the Mexican border and sped to an airfield in Tijuana, where a private jet he had chartered was waiting to fly him to Havana in style. Meanwhile, in San Diego, the lifelong Elvis fan left in his home a mannequin of the King of Rock-and-Roll wearing a watchman’s hat — as a farewell taunt to U.S. officials, who didn’t discover he had disappeared until a few hours later.... 'It wasn’t rocket science,' he said of his escape. 'There was a lot of negligence on the government’s part.'”
~~~~~~~~~~
Iran War. The New York Times is liveblogging developments in the Iran War. From the pinned item at 6:25 am ET: “The United States conducted its most intense round of strikes against Iran in recent days and Iran fired at U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf overnight, with no signs of diplomatic progress to try to salvage a cease-fire that has been steadily unraveling. U.S. Central Command said that the Iranian navy had attacked a container ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, and that in response it had hit about 140 Iranian military targets, the heaviest U.S. bombardment in nearly a week of back-and-forth attacks. In response to the overnight U.S. strikes, Iran said it had targeted American military assets in Jordan, Oman and Qatar. The United Arab Emirates and Kuwait also reported incoming fire.” ~~~
~~~ Jon Gambrell & Will Weissert of the AP: “Iran said the Strait of Hormuz was closed once again after a warning shot fired by its military struck a vessel using an unauthorized route in the critical waterway, further jeopardizing the already tenuous ceasefire agreement with the United States. U.S. Central Command said a short time later that its forces began a third round of strikes against Iran. There were explosions in Bandar Abbas and Sirik, two towns along the shores of the strait, Iran state media reported.... A Cyprus-flagged container ship was hit by Iran and suffered 'significant engineroom damage' and a civilian crew member is missing, U.S. Central Command said. Senior U.S. officials had previously said in Washington that negotiations to further cement last month’s deal to end the war will be unable to progress without the strait being secure — and even said they wanted Iran to offer public statements to that effect.” ~~~
~~~ Carlo Martuscelli of Politico: “Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei on Saturday swore that Iran would avenge the killing of his father, the former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. 'We pledge to avenge your pure blood and the blood of all the martyrs,' said Khamenei, who took his father’s place as the head of Iran’s leadership after a deadly Israeli airstrike in late February.... Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen in public for months, and has been rumored to have been left disfigured after being injured by an airstrike.” (Also linked yesterday.)
The following sounds like a fictional Japanese spy movie, but apparently it's true: ~~~
~~~ Russia/Japan. Jane Bradley, et al., of the New York Times: “Soon after troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Western leaders expelled hundreds of Russian spies from their capitals and blacklisted companies with ties to the Kremlin. The coordinated effort was intended to make it harder for the Kremlin to collect intelligence and buy equipment like microchips, transmitters and the machinery used to make weapons. Since then, officials say, dozens of those banished spies have turned up in an unexpected place: Japan. The country’s weak espionage laws and flourishing high-tech industry have made it a crucial piece of the Russian war effort. Ninety percent of Russian missiles and drones contain Japanese components, according to Ukrainian government estimates. At the heart of the operation in Tokyo is a secretive Russian military intelligence unit known as the 20th Directorate.... Posing as diplomats or businesspeople, its officers work to buy or steal battlefield technology and smuggle it into Russia....
“The man overseeing the 20th Directorate’s operation in Tokyo maintains a cover identity as an employee of the Russian state airline Aeroflot, according to current officials from four of those intelligence agencies. He plays a crucial role in supplying Russia’s war machine.... Russia persists [in its war against Ukraine] in part, officials say, because of its continued access to technologies like those it acquires from Japan.”
20 comments:
Aunt Pittypat goes bye-bye? Someone must have dosed the smelling salts with cyanide. Or maybe this is medical history: the first death from serial kissing of a fat orange ass. The fumes finally got him I guess.
Jared’s incompetence knows no bounds. He even sucks at being a crook. Oh well, there are plenty of other islands in the Mediterranean for him and Princess Ivanka to “discover”.
I feel really bad that I can't lower my flag to half staff. Something wrong with
the mechanism. I'll have to work on that (next year maybe).
Glenn Kessler, on substack, on why, after 30 some years in Washington DC, he moved to NYC - <a href='https://glennkessler.substack.com/p/the-washington-i-came-to-cover-no?r=leoe8&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true">The Washington I Came to Cover No Longer Exists</a>
"Year by year, that spirit [a sense of doing good, shaping policy, trying to make America better] disappeared. Washington today is bitter, dysfunctional, and broken. Donald Trump’s assault on the city — with his grandiose monuments to himself, his firing of tens of thousands of federal employees, his dismantling of government agencies, his disdain of government expertise — is simply the final chapter of a process that started only a few months after I arrived in Washington in March of 1994."
fixed link-
The Washington I Came to Cover No Longer Exists
Russell Berman, in The Atlantic, on The Return of the Democratic Manly Man
"In 2024, Kamala Harris won just 43 percent of the male vote against President Trump and an even lower portion—39 percent—of white men, according to exit polls. A Democratic presidential nominee hasn’t captured a plurality of men since Barack Obama in 2008, and even then, Obama edged out John McCain among men by only a single point. The party-wide reckoning that Trump’s win spawned has centered in part on why Democrats lost working-class men whose life experiences resemble Poindexter’s—and how the party can win them back. In Poindexter’s view, Democrats’ struggles with men like him owe less to policy than to culture.
....
Closing the gender gap now seems to be an official electoral strategy for Democrats. A couple of months ago, I got a call from a party operative who pitched a story on the Democrats’ effort to “win back the manosphere.” The operative ran through a list of a half dozen candidates in key House districts who “are engaging culturally in male spaces”—a bit of gobbledygook that I took to mean “manly men,” or perhaps “guy’s guys,” but that also reflects the sort of anthropological distance that points to the depth of the party’s problem. After all, an ironworker probably wouldn’t describe himself as “engaging culturally in male spaces.”"
Sunday Sermon, Pt. I
WHO’S PAYING FOR LUNCH?
I first encountered TANSTAAFL in Robert Heinlein’s The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, a 1960’s science fiction tale about a lunar penal colony’s successful rebellion. I was quite taken by the novel's celebration of human courage and independence and its hard-headed assertion that nothing in life is free, that everything we do has a cost. TANSTAAFL was emblazoned on the rebel’s flag. Based on my experience up to then, “There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch” seemed both accurate and profound.
Though I wouldn’t read that novel today the same way I did sixty years ago, I still believe that truly free lunches are hard to come by. Lately though I’m thinking more about who does the paying.
AI’s use in schools prompted some of those thoughts, but long before computers or AI found their way into the classroom, there were sometimes questions about who produced the work students submitted as their own. Had they done the work themselves? Had they copied it or had someone else done it for them? Even then it was sometimes hard to tell. I once questioned a student about an unusually fine piece of writing she’d turned in. She claimed it was her own, but I had doubts. Ultimately, after a difficult conversation with her mother, I accepted it, saying weakly that if she had not done the work, she was cheating only herself. She was the one who would pay.
The internet and AI have only compounded the problem of cheating. Recent reports from students say over half of high school students use AI to cheat (forbes.com). It seems that the plagiarism built into AI has come full circle. AI large language models copy writing from thousands of sources, often without permission and then sell their services to students who present AI work as their own (NYTimes.com). In short, AI cheats to help others cheat too. And again, it is the student who pays. Beyond learning how to employ AI, he or she learns little, and when caught also pays the price school discipline might impose.
But maybe that’s far too simple. When they cheat, students subvert their education and risk punishment, but when cheating is rife in society, ft’s not just those who are caught who pay. We all do. Everywhere corruption is common we all pay in the coin of distrust, wondering if the next scam is just around the corner. My paranoid computer certainly thinks so. Of the one hundred or so emails I receive a day, it sends about a quarter of them to the spam folder. Some scams, though, slip by its ever-watchful eye. The other day I asked a friend about an Evite I received from her. That invitation was phony, too.
The media and our schools only mirror our increasingly scam-heavy society. The highest levels of our government are showing us how to do it. President Trump is brazenly using his public position to amass private wealth. Middle East petro states have given him a multi-million-dollar jet, since retrofitted by millions of taxpayer dollars. The same nations have invested hundreds of millions in Trump crypto businesses that profited him more than one billion dollars last year (nytimes.com). When asked about mixing his private businesses with his public duties, he said, “I found out nobody cared” (NYtimes.com).
Pt. II
The mining deal the United States recently signed with Kazakhstan in which the United States will invest more than a billion dollars will directly benefit Trump’s sons and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik’s family. It is one of fourteen mining deals in which our government and the Trump and Lutnik family businesses are involved (nytimes.com). Taxpayers will pay up to nine billion dollars for the privilege of padding the Trump and Lutnik families’ bottom lines.
A Justice Department proposal to loosen regulations on mail order guns will be a welcome boost for companies like GrabAGun, where Donald Trump, Jr. is a shareholder and board member (washingtonpost.com). And the Trump sons are also involved in a company trying to sell drones to Middle Eastern countries suffering attacks from Iran in the war their father started (pbs.org).
The nation’s 250th Fourth of July was similarly tainted by the questionable alliance of business and the Trump government. The administration set up a separate Freedom 250 organization to rival the non-partisan America 250 that Congress created to mark our sesquicentennial celebration. Freedom 250 then used taxpayer money, some of it designated for America 250, and solicited donations (reportedly in America 250’s name) from corporations that have business before the government (apnews.com).
Maybe there is such a thing as a free lunch, after all. If you find an entire nation willing to pay for it.
I know it is bad taste, but I have to wonder whether it is a coincidence that Graham who was so full of shit died during an outbreak of explosive diarrhea?
Even Millionaires Are Struggling
"Iowa Republican Representative and U.S. Senate Candidate Ashley Hinson has repeatedly said in interviews that she feels the financial pain of Americans in this economy because her family struggles to keep food in the fridge, despite the fact that she is a documented millionaire based on recent financial disclosures."
Back and Forth on Iran
I got fired from my job as obituary writer for the local newspaper.
I thought "Good Riddance" was perfect for a racist, sexist
homophobe.
Still do.
@Akhilleus: Maybe it wasn't fumes. Maybe it was exploding diarrhea. I did sorta tangentially wish that on Trump yesterday. And I did make some suggestive remark of those standing aft of Trump. I did not, however, anticipate or desire any fatalities.
I am too lazy to look up the references, but from memory:
-- when the "gift 747" topic first arose in 2025, there was plenty of public comment by people (not in the administration) who know airplanes, know security, and know the requirements for AF1, that it would be hyper-expensive and time consuming to retrofit that big stretch 8. It was pretty clear that fitting it to standards would make it financially unattractive and take longer than DiJiT's first term
-- when it went in for retrofit, it became pretty obvious to people in the big plane business that the most that would be done was to bring comm capabilities up to standard (itself a complicated task) and apply cosmetics. The interior luxury appointments, in particular, were retained or upgraded.
-- before its test flights, the word was that it would be restricted to domestic flights because it did not meet the standards for overseas trips
I list these things because they were public knowledge well before the Sultan of Mar a Lardo took the thing to Turkiye. So when he goes after whoever "leaked" information about the new plane's lack of security equipment he will find that general information in the public domain is not a "leak."
Which is not to say that SPECIFIC information is not a problem. If someone told reporters about specific characteristics of, say, anti-missile detection and defeat systems, that could be an actual security violation. But it would not be a violation to tell a reporter "nope, there's no anti-missile system on that model."
Also, someone in the USSS said the P was "embarrassed" by this screw-up? Unpossible, he can do no wrong therefore cannot be embarrassed.
Regarding Grift Force One, Leon Panetta last week came right out and said there's no way the Secret Service could or should allow a president to fly (or even accept) a plane to be used for ferrying him around the country and the world that was not built entirely in the US and transferred directly from a US facility to the executive. No way. Despite going over a gift plane from Qatar with a fine tooth comb, there's no way to guarantee the complete safety and security of this plane.
A 747 has over six billion parts. Six BILLION. Three billion of those are rivets, connectors, bolts, and screws holding the thing together. But there's also over 170 miles of wiring in the thing. Who could possibly guarantee that every tiny corner of the plane was free from bugs or had the appropriate and necessary equipment required to carry a president (or even a fat treasonous president*) safely around the globe unless the thing was designed, built, tested, and housed in the United States?
But Fat Hitler only cares that he is revered and has been handed a $400 million present which he then proceeds to fatten up on the taxpayers' dime with decorative gewgaws and fake books to impress passengers with his wonderfulness and of course he had to have a rush job done on it so's he could show off his godliness.
Like everything else about him, stupid, incompetent, poorly thought out, and dangerous.
In plain sight
So I listened to a fascinating interview on the History Unplugged podcast with Antonia Senior, author of "Stalin's Apostles", about the Cambridge Five.
I'm sure everyone here is familiar with at least the outlines of this group of traitors, led and protected by Kim Philby, which caused the deaths of tens of thousands, undermined US and British intelligence, conveyed secrets of the atomic bomb to Stalin and his henchmen, and did whatever they could to bring down the West. For 17 years, these traitors passed top secret intelligence (including correspondence between FDR and Churchill) to the Soviets. Most escaped unscathed. Others were not prosecuted (and hanged as they should have been) because of a counter intelligence project already underway in Britain and US which needed to remain secret. A sad chapter in the history of the American and British alliance in the post-war years. These guys operated in secret for most of that time, escaping detection by any means possible.
But you know what? We have almost exactly that same situation going on right now, right out in the open. It's not Kim Philby, Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess, et al. In this case, their names are Donald Trump, JD Vance, Stephen Miller, Sam Alito, John Roberts, Todd Blanche, et al.
We are watching, in real time, the destruction of the United States as a democratic republic, the toppling of a system of government that has stood for generations. The fact that our 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence was so moribund and dim is just a small reflection of what is going on right out in the open. But the media is too intent on not pissing off the traitors to call them out. And Democrats are too engulfed in self flagellation over Kamala Harris, Graham Plattner, and "socialist" Democrats to wake the fuck up and do anything about it.
It was sheer luck that the Cambridge Five were uncovered (a high placed Soviet defector fingered Philby as Stalin's man in London and Washington). We don't need any luck to find America's most dangerous traitors. They're working right out in the open and bragging about it. What we need is a media with some brains and balls and Democrats who can get their fucking act together. Fatty has plans to steal the midterms and he's showing his hand with every new move. The Swine Court is helping him and laughing about it.
If we don't act soon, we may not have a chance to do so. And straight to hell with the mumbling douchebags who say "Oh, you can't call Trump a traitor, he doesn't fit the exact definition." Oh yeah? Well we can discuss terminology in the rubble left behind when he's finished with us. That suit you?
He's a traitor, and a more dangerous one than Kim Philby ever hoped to be, and he was pretty fucking horrible.
RAS,
Yeah, those poor, struggling millionaires. Do you know what it costs to get a complete tune up on a Bentley? No, of course you don't! And finding good maids and gardeners to keep the mansion looking spiffy? And it's getting so that even a crudité platter for the DAR get together is costing more money. And let's not even talk about the rising cost of Château Lafite Rothschild. Our last case cost over $20,000. And that was for one donor party. OH! The humanity! Those lucky ducky poors don't know how good they have it. Why, they can't even pronounce Château Lafite Rothschild!
Wait a minute....Laura Loomer demands that the Eff Bee Eye conduct a toxicology report on Lindsey Graham's body because she doesn't trust the DC crime lab? The Eff Bee Eye? Christ, they can't even get the toxicology report of their director. Kash and Karry is probably at least 23% alcohol (by volume) by now. And Loony Loomey wants THAT guy to oversee a tox screening? Ohhhh...Kaaaay....
Further to Akhilleus' comment about traitors, recall that in 2016, before DiJiT was sworn in, his kin, and his nominated national security advisor (general Flynn) enquired of the Russian embassy whether the Russkis could set up a commo channel to Moscow. The idea was that commo between DiJiT and Puta would be outside and inaccessible to US agencies (but, clearly, available to Russians). Backchannels have always existed, but the US ones always leave at least one record copy. I would be surprised if the 2016 proposed arrangement would have. DiJiT eats interpreters' notes.
Also, the first impeachment case showed that at no time did DiJiT confidantes adhere to the use of secure USG channels for classified info. They obviously thought that if a communication wasn't marked classified, they could use commercial texting and voice. Wrong. And they clearly still do it, as seen in Hegseth's texts about Houthi bombing in 2025.
But her e-mails ...
Fat Hitler is going after anyone who dares to criticize him. Maybe when he was talking to Teddy Roosevelt, he should have asked his opinion on hunting down critics:
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."
Teddy Roosevelt in a 1918 editorial.
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