Big Big Lies 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🚀🚢 🔥

Five Alarm🔥:  Last night, Trump who has dismantled much of the country’s election safeguards gave a speech in which he amplified a false narrative about the country’s elections being compromised by foreign players, most notably China and Venezuela but definitely not Russia.  Ironically, he was the president during the “compromised” 2020 election that he insists he won even though he didn’t and won the 2016 and 2024 elections when Democrats were in control because elections are only compromised when he loses. Oddly enough, some of the documents that Trump declassified to buttress his claims actually debunk them.  Trump also claimed hundreds of thousands of noncitizens are registered to vote and went off on China “stealing” voter data.   The voter data that he claims China stole are widely available to anyone who want them and hundreds of thousands of noncitizens are not registered voters, but both assertions are the kind of ominous sounding lies that freak out the people he wants most to alarm and energize.   To quote Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal:  “Trump didn’t provide any evidence of voter fraud, prove that people had cast ballots in the US who shouldn’t have or reveal that election outcomes had been altered because of interference.” The point of his speech was to inject uncertainty into the upcoming elections in order to justify asserting federal control over statewide elections, particularly in those states where elections are likely to be close so that he can ensure that he and his party maintain control of the House and Senate because Trump really fears loss of power, oversight, and another impeachment.  To that end, he also pushed for the passage of the voter squelching SAVE Act. For the most part, the major networks did not air his speech in its entirety or on their main platforms though the increasingly MAGA friendly CBS carried most of it, cutting him off at the end when he called for their competitors to lose their broadcast licenses for not giving him airtime.  While it’s easy to dispute much if not all of what Trump said during the speech, his lies carry enormous weight. Whether Trump’s manages to wrest control away from state and local authorities may not matter. He’s setting the stage for a January 6 on steroids if, as expected, Republicans lose the November elections, and this time there won’t be any Mike Pence types to call his bluff because he’s effectively fired or eliminated the dissenters in his party and there doesn’t appear to be anyone willing to talk truth to power in his administration.

Confirmation Polka: On the subject of truth or the lack thereof, the confirmation process for Jay Clayton and Todd Blanche isn’t done yet. Director of National Intelligence nominee Clayton, like all of Trump’s other picks, refuses to acknowledge that Trump lost the 2020 election to Biden, not because he doesn’t know that Biden won but because he knows his nomination will be pulled if he says so.  The devious Blanche is shifty about everything though he did accidentally speak truth when he inadvertently admitted that he still views himself as Trump’s lawyer.  Yesterday, after outgoing North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis said that he wouldn’t provide the key vote that Blanche needs to get his nomination voted out of the Judiciary Committee onto the floor of the Senate unless Blanche met with some of the Epstein victims, Blanche finally sat down with a few of them.  Though Blanche reports that the meetings were terrific, the victims he met with disagreed with one saying he “treated the meeting as a mere ‘check-the-box’ exercise intended to secure votes for his confirmation. He danced around his wording, repeatedly interrupted us, and could not commit to anything that would demonstrate good faith or begin to restore trust.”  Another said she “found him abrasive, condescending and intentionally noncommittal to survivors.” Tillis, who threatened to vote against Pete Hegseth’s nomination before voting for him, says that he’s now happy with Blanche because crossing Trump even on his way out of the Senate is a step too far especially if he wants one of those lucrative lobbying jobs or maybe even an ambassadorship.  For his part, Secretary of War and Beer Hegseth who keeps firing and/or refusing to promote Black people and women is now focused on making sure members of the military have adequate levels of testosterone. 🤦‍♀️

More 💩:  The Iran war is still on, bigly.  More than 100 House Democrats joined outgoing Republican Thomas Massie in voting against the continued funding of Israel because voting against Israel is a thing these days. Massie whose one good thing was supporting the Epstein victims always votes against foreign aid, he is a member of the Jewish Space laser crowd, his social media posts have grown increasingly anti-Semitic, and he’s very mad at Trump who he holds responsible for his demise so his sponsorship of the anti-Israel amendment is no surprise.  Some of the Democrats votes were performative, a statement against the Netanyahu government, others have always voted against all things Israel, and some voted the way they did because they live in fear of being threatened and/or losing their primaries. Weird how many of the same people are mostly silent when other countries do things.  Why is that?   For his part “walk to the beat of his own drummer” Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman is threatening to abandon the Democratic party if it abandons Israel. He’s erratic but his threat should be taken seriously because losing him could be the difference between Democrats regaining the Senate majority or not.  On the subject of erratic, Trump has countermanded the Department of Homeland Security’s temporary suspension of potentially lethal car stops, more than implying that he wants more rather than fewer opportunities for senseless deaths. Keeping with the 💩 theme, the CDC which has far fewer people focusing on food borne diseases these days because what’s a little diarrhea among friends says it has identified the source of the Cyclospora outbreak.  They say it’s linked to the shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bells in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia.  However, there have also been Cyclospora outbreaks in other states including New York, Texas, North Carolina, Illinois, and New Jersey to name a few so maybe their search should continue?  Turning back to 💩ty things in Trump world, Trump’s teleprompter operator has been suspended for placing bets based on his early view of the contents of Trump’s speeches which makes it that much more bizarre but totally in character that Trump Media plans to further monetize Trump by selling early access to his Truth Social media posts.  That reeks of corruption and insider trading, but it’s not like anyone in power has a👃for that kind of thing anymore.

 

 
Tune in on Thursday 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🚀🚢

Wars:  Despite Trump’s multiple assertions that he’s won the war with Iran and that Tehran wants peace more than us, we’re still at war and the war is escalating with no end in sight.  For a while this week, Trump who is once again threatening to bomb Iran to smithereens, said that the US would take over the Strait of Hormuz, charging passing ships transit fees to cover the costs of their protection. Given that just about everyone, except for Iran and Oman but including Secretary of State Rubio have rejected the idea of imposing transit tolls for a previously free waterway, that idea sunk like a lead balloon. In response to the pushback, Trump pulled another TACO; he now says that countries in the region will compensate for their protection by investing in the US.  That’s one of his favorite lines, it’s a face-saving claim, the transit fee is off the table, the investment will probably never come.  Though there have been no reported deaths of US soldiers on the Iran front this week, the same can’t be said about the war against immigrants.  It turns out that arming untrained ICE agents with guns has consequences, something that proved deadly for 25-year -old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a father and Columbia national who was killed when an ICE agent shot into his car in Maine. Guerrero was not the person ICE was seeking, “just” collateral damage in Trump’s war against immigrants.  Naturally, the official government response is that Guerrero was using his car as a weapon.  There’s no evidence of that and at least for now, in response to Guerrero’s death and last week’s “shooting while driving” death of 52-year-old construction worker Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado in Houston, ICE agents have been directed to halt most traffic stops. Worth noting, Maine Senator Susan Collins provided a critical vote for the huge ICE funding package.  Though Democrats still haven’t selected a candidate to oppose her, they’re making sure that Maine voters are well aware of that vote and though it might be wish casting, polls show her lagging behind a TBD Democrat . On the Senate front, Linsdey Graham’s sister, Darline Graham Nordone was sworn in as his replacement yesterday. She’ll serve until January when she’ll be replaced by the winner of South Carolina’s November election. Picking a family member as an interim replacement for a dead Senator is not without precedent, usually the interim appointee is a spouse but since Graham was a bachelor, Darline, who has no plans to run for election, was not a surprising choice.     

Flashing Red Lights:  The Iran war and the INS shooting news are newsworthy but something even more frightening is scheduled to take place on Thursday night when Trump takes to the airwaves to deliver a primetime speech in which he plans to provide “evidence” the outcome of the 2020 election, the one he lost to Joe Biden, was swayed by foreign interference in those voting machines that he’s been screeching about for years.  To bolster his claims, he plans to share previously rejected “proof” provided to him by Bill Pulte, the interim Director of National Intelligence who picked up the ball from Tulsi Gabbard who had spent some of her final days as DNI lurking around Fulton County, Georgia’s election facilities and who has been kept in place longer than anyone had anticipated to provide Trump with this kill the midterms ammunition. It’s reported that Trump is going to claim that Georgia’s two Democratic Senators, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock are illegitimate since they benefited from all that phantom foreign manipulation of Fulton County’s election machines. Notably Warnock didn’t just win in 2020 when he was running in a special election to replace Republican Senator Johnny Isaacson who stepped down for health-related reasons, he also won a full term in 2022.  Ossoff is up for reelection in November. Early in the year, Republicans had targeted his seat as their most likely pick up but much to their dismay, his popularity his grown and he’s polling well.  Absent election interference from Trump’s forces, Ossoff is expected to win reelection which goes far to explaining what Trump is doing.  He is laying the groundwork to justify taking over Fulton County’s election apparatus, a plan that will involve scrubbing the election rolls of “illegitimate” Democratic voters while stationing very intimidating armed troops outside of Fulton County polling places to scare off voters. He won’t limit himself to Georgia, he is expected to use his faux claims of election interference to justify doing the same in other heavily Democratic areas in swing states like Michigan and Pennsylvania.

More 💩: Confirmation hearings for Jay Clayton, Trump’s nominee to replace Bill Pulte, and Todd Blanche, the interim Attorney General who Trump wants confirmed to the AG spot that used to be filled by Pam Bondi take place today.  Clayton whose initial hearing was delayed so that Trump could keep the nefarious Pulte in place a bit longer is expected to his quick confirmation, not because he’s qualified but because Senators on both sides of the aisle want Pulte gone from the DNI spot as soon as possible. Unless a few Republicans, especially ones like John Cornyn and Thom Tillis who are on their way out and therefore have little to lose, step up to the plate, Blanche who should not be confirmed will be confirmed as well. That’s a travesty.  He doesn’t even pretend to be anything but Trump’s personal lawyer.  On Monday, while trashing the deal that Blanche helped Trump “negotiate” with the IRS, the one that would eliminate audits of his tax returns and that also involved the funding of a huge slush fund for Trump’s January 6 abettors, Federal Judge Kathleen Williams of the Southern District of Florida referred him to the NY Bar, more than suggesting that he’s not fit to practice law.  As noted in today’s NY Times editorial, Blanche “has celebrated the January 6 rioters. He has misled Congress under oath. He has said it is Mr. Trump’s ‘right,’ and ‘indeed it is his duty,’ to use the department to investigate people he ‘has had issues with.’”  Blanche has also engaged in “frivolous” prosecutions of Trump’s foes, impeded the Epstein investigation, and probably promised Ghislaine Maxwell, who he had moved to a Club Fed, a pardon if only she keeps her mouth shut about Trump’s Epstein related crimes. Sadly, Blanche is the worst, which is why Trump wants him confirmed and also why so many of Trump’s abettors will vote for his confirmation.  On a positive note, E Jean Caroll has finally received the $5 million (plus interest) that Trump fought so hard to deny her.     

 

 

 

Ghost 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🚀🚢

Switcheroo:  Over the past few weeks, the focus has been on the health of Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell with rumors circulating that he was on life-support so when screens lit up very early Sunday morning with news that South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham had died, it was worth a triple take. While older than the 64-year average age of members of the Senate, at 71, Graham wasn’t even among the ten oldest members of the upper house.  In addition to the 84-year-old McConnell, that list includes Iowa’s Chuck Grassley (92), Vermont’s Bernie Sanders (84), Idaho’s Jim Risch (82), Maine’s Angus King (81), Illinois’ Dick Durbin (81), Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal (79), Massachusetts’ Ed Markey (79), New Hampshire’s Jeanne Shaheen (78) and Oregon’s Ron Wyden (77).  Like McConnell, Durbin and Shaheen are retiring this year.  Risch and Markey, who is being primary challenged by Congressman Seth Moulton, are running for reelection because if Grassley can stick around forever, why shouldn’t they try? Though a number of conspiracy theorists and Kremlin watchers have suggested that Graham’s death was due to one of Putin’s nefarious poisons, initial reports are that the globetrotting, pro-Ukraine, pro-Israel Trump whisperer died from an aortic rupture.  As to Mitch, he’s hardly the picture of health, but judging by the message and accompanying photo he posted yesterday which included a “proof of life” copy of a July 12 newspaper, he’s still among the living.  McConnell who suffers from post-polio syndrome, said that despite reports that he’d suffered a heart attack, he hadn’t, rather his absence was due to one of his frequent falls, this one so serious that it knocked him out, landing him in the hospital where he also contracted pneumonia.  He has moved from an acute care hospital to a rehab facility and though he doesn’t know when he’ll return, he asserts he will and intends to remain in the Senate through his retirement in January. 

Senate Bingo:  Since he was running for reelection, Graham will need to be replaced twice.  South Carolina’s termed out Republican Governor Henry McMaster, no doubt with Trump’s forceful input, will first appoint a “place-filler” Senator who will serve through January 3, 2027.  At the same time, McMaster will schedule a primary where state voters will decide who should replace Graham on the November ballot. According to South Carolina law, a one-week filing period for a special primary election begins on the second Tuesday after the candidate’s death, or July 21.  The special primary election would be held on the second Tuesday after that filing period closes, or August 11. Any necessary runoff would follow two weeks after that, or August 25. Reports are that erratic Congresswoman Nancy Mace who came in fifth in the Republican gubernatorial primary is considering a run, as are Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette who lost the gubernatorial runoff despite being endorsed by Trump and businessman Mark Lynch who lost to Graham in this year’s Senate primary. The winner of the special primary, or runoff if necessary, will face off against Democrat Annie Andrews in November. By virtue of Graham’s death, South Carolina pushed the Maine Senate race off the cover for a minute, but since Maine’s November race is expected to be far more competitive than a race in the very Republican South Carolina and may even decide who wins control of the Senate, it will soon be back above the fold. On Friday afternoon, Maine’s Nazi tattooed accused sexual predator Graham Platner finally formally withdrew his candidacy, surprising many who’d thought that the remorseless creep, who signed off of his withdrawal statement with the words “F*ck ICE, Free Palestine, would stall until the last minute.              

More War and 💩: Though Graham’s death dominated the Sunday news, Iran hasn’t gone away, if anything hostilities have gotten worse.  While Trump keeps insisting that Iran wants peace more than he does, the Mullahs and the IRGC have a funny way of showing it.  The missiles continue to fly, ships in the Strait of Hormuz are still being targeted, and to put more pressure on the US and the critical oil markets, Iran continues to target neighboring Arab countries, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Jordan, and the UAE.  The language in the now infamous (worthless?) Memorandum of Understanding about who gets to control transit through the Strait is absurdly vague.  Iran interprets it to mean that they get to govern transit, the US does not agree. Perhaps vagueness and the accidently ceding of control of key transit points are things that happen when a real estate buddy and a son in law are your chief negotiators 🤷‍♀️.  It’s not just Iran that’s frustrating Trump, he’s bigly mad that the NY Times reported that his Qatar gifted 747 is missing crucial security accoutrements.  On Friday, he forced FBI Director Kash Patel to cancel his plans to fly another grift trip on his government funded plane to another one of his girlfriend’s performances, commanding him to show up at the White House and work up subpoenas for the five NYTimes reporters, including Julian Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager, Eric Schmitt and Adam Goldman, who’d worked on the article detailing the security features that Trump’s new airplane/toy lacks.   Those subpoenas which were issued by the SDNY were then delivered to the journalists who Trump wants to force into coughing up the names of the government employees who “leaked” the plane’s obvious inadequacies.  Obvious, because just about everyone knew that the plane was rushed into service too quickly for all the needed expensive, complex, and time consuming security features to be incorporated. The NY Times five are due in court on Wednesday, “setting up what is likely to become an expedited legal battle over whether reporters can be compelled to testify about confidential sourcing and newsgathering.”

 

 

Snakes on A Plane 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🚀🚢 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Flying Blind: Trump spent at least $400 million maybe as much as $1 billion of taxpayer money retrofitting his new “grifted” Qatari Air Force One.  The plane is snazzy, has tactless golden Trumpy decor and an exterior color palate more to his liking but is missing some critical defensive features, including anti-missile capability.  It is also lacking presidential level communication capabilities including a situation room because Trump wanted it put into service ASAP, and all those critical features, which he won’t need when he takes the plane with him after his term ends, assuming it ever does, take time 🤦‍♀️. Though he shouldn’t have Trump flew it to Ankara for the NATO meetings so he could show off his new toy but, given that we’re back to what appears to be an escalating war with Turkey’s neighbor Iran, at the insistence of his security advisors, he swapped back to the old Air Force One for his trip out of Turkey.  We shouldn’t be surprised that Trump prioritized aesthetics over security to rush the plane into service, nor should we be surprised that the Memorandum of Understanding that his incompetent and inexperienced negotiating team, AKA son in law and real estate buddy, hastily negotiated is flailing because that’s how he rolls, speed over competence, glitz over function. So here we are, a fancy new plane that shouldn’t be used at all but definitely never used for international travel and a poorly planned war with the country that he very publicly referred to as the Islamic Republic of Japan 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️that is proving increasingly difficult to end.  It’s not just the war and the plane, and all of Trump’s other frighteningly delusional misstatements like the one where he referred to Ukraine’s Zelenskyy who was seated next to him as Putin, despite Trump’s insistence otherwise, he’s mucked up the economy. Yesterday in an editorial titled “How Trump’s Tariffs really work,” the Wall Street Journal pointed out that those tariffs have resulted in a 75,000 lost of manufacturing jobs, raised the costs for US manufacturers, hurt America’s farmers, depressed purchases of agriculture equipment.  National security tariffs on autos and parts have cost $35.2 billion, steel and aluminum tariffs another $17.5 billion and that auto tariffs on Canada and Mexico alone have added $1600 to the cost of US made cars while also depressing the sales of those cars. Though Trump has gotten substantially richer, inflation is up, growth is down, and the oil reserves that were released to ease the pain at the pump caused by the war are critically low and need to be replenished. 

Maine Mess: Graham Platner finally withdrew, well sort of withdrew, from Maine’s Senate race on Wednesday.  Sort of because though he said that he’s suspended his candidacy, he’s yet to officially request that his name be taken off the ballot; he has until Monday to do that and appears to be taking his time and maybe even leaving himself with an opening to stay.  Platner made his announcement on Wednesday night, via a pathetic eleven-minute video where instead of taking the high road, he went low, denying all the accusations levied against him and snarling while saying that he was only withdrawing from the race because the forces of evil, as in those Washington based establishment Democrats (cough, cough Schumer and AIPAC) have lined up against him by withdrawing their financial support 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ 🤦‍♀️. If anything, he made it clear that he never should have been the candidate. Apparently he still doesn’t know what his tattoo represents and those women, they’re all lying about everything.  Just about everyone available, including a number who’ve previously lost primary races and prior bids to unseat incumbent Susan Collins, have thrown their hats into the ring to replace Platner.  Maine Democrats plan to hold a convention during which a total of 600 delegates, 500 from each of Maine’s county party committees, and another 100 who are state committee members will meet to select Platner’s replacement. And because endorsing an unvetted candidate worked out so well for him the first time, uber-progressive Congressman Ro Khanna rushed to immediately endorse “bottle thrower” Troy Jackson, one of the leading new contenders.

More 💩:  ICE has killed another person 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️, this time in Houston where they shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo a Mexican National who had lived in the US for decades, had no criminal record, and who was on his way to work at a homebuilding site.  Araujo wasn’t even the person that the INS intended to arrest but obviously he deserved to be shot, or so authorities want us to believe. On the health front, a few months ago, the CDC cutback its surveillance of foodborne illnesses, probably not all that surprising given RFK and his propensity for hanging with brain worms and jumping in polluted bodies of water but just a bit of a problem given that there’s currently a multi-state outbreak of cyclosporiasis, a gastrointestinal illness.  At least 18 states are affected, with notable infection spikes in Michigan (over 1,000 cases) and New York City (nearly 400 cases).  Weird how those gnarly, persistent bacteria and viruses keep doing their thing even when RFK and his cronies think that if they just ignore them they won’t.  Trump still hasn’t paid E J Caroll the $5 million plus that the courts have mandated that he has to pay her, and even worse, he’s still fighting his obligation, asking for a SCOTUS mulligan.  Then again he’s all into mulligans, he also wants SCOTUS to reconsider its birth right citizen ruling. While he’s not happy about how the decision turned out, he’s already taking advantage of the decision that said he can fire anyone he wants as long as that person isn’t a law-abiding member of the Federal Reserve Board.  Yesterday, Trump terminated the remaining members of the independent, federal commission that assists election administration officials nationwide. The commission certifies voting systems and maintains the national mail-voter registration form developed by the National ​Voter Registration Act of 1993.  Nothing but everything to see there.

 

 

Plan B 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🚀🚢 🧨

War not Peace: On Tuesday, the Pentagon launched major strikes at Iran in response to Tehran’s attacks on commercial ships transiting through the Strait of Hormuz. At the same time the US revoked the controversial authorization permitting Iranian oil sales. Iran responded by saying that they would once again target US military sites in Bahrain and Kuwait. This morning before leaving the NATO meeting in Ankara, Trump announced that the ceasefire is over calling the initial peace agreement with Iran dead.  He also called Iran’s leaders liars and sick people.  So much for that much trumpeted memorandum of understanding. The rocky path to peace is just that, rocky, especially given how well Iran is using its Strait of Hormuz trump card. Trump, who promised no wars, especially long ones, is learning the hard way that Iran is not Venezuela and why the presidents who preceded him resisted efforts to attack Iran despite all the trouble it caused. Oil prices are up again this morning and stock futures are down. As to those NATO meetings in Ankara, Trump behaved about as well as expected as in not well at all.  He cozied up to Turkey’s autocratic leader Erdogan while antagonizing the rest of the members of NATO including Italy’s Meloni who not so long ago was one of his BFFs.  He once again expressed his desire to takeover Greenland saying it should be controlled by the US rather than Denmark, while complaining about all the money the US spends to help Europe defend itself against Russia, again threatening to remove all US soldiers out of Europe. He also dissed Ukraine, probably something he promised to do on a call with Putin.

Maine Mess:  Graham Platner still hasn’t officially pulled out of the Senate race, but he will soon because despite his efforts to extract some kind of commitment to be replaced with a like-minded candidate few care what he thinks anymore. Worth noting that Platner wasn’t even the working-class hero he, or his handlers, portrayed him to be.  He came from an affluent family, attended private school, his father “lent” him the money to buy his home, and my favorite, his mother’s restaurant bought the oysters he farmed. Yesterday another one of his innumerable ex-girlfriends came forward, revealing that without her consent he had a habit of removing condoms during sex. It’s no wonder that Emily’s List, the organization that champions pro-choice women candidates never endorsed him. As to his replacement, a number of candidates have thrown their hats into the ring. The list includes Maine Secretary of State Shena Bellows who ran but lost in the Democratic gubernatorial primary; former president of the Maine Senate Troy Jackson who once threw a bottle at a female colleague; Nirav Shah, a former director of Maine’s public health agency; Jordan Wood, who had been an early candidate in the race but pivoted to and then lost a primary for the northern Maine House district currently represented by retiring Congressman Jared Golden; and Dan Kleban, the founder of Maine Beer Company who had also been an early candidate but dropped out and endorsed Governor Janet Mills. Golden’s representative said that he has no interest in running, not a surprise since he previously decided not to run for the Senate seat.  The Maine Democratic party is currently considering the best way to proceed with a selection process that may involve some kind of mini convention or caucus. Though Platner needs to officially withdraw by July 13, the party has until July 27 to pick a new Senate nominee. Last night on his program Lawrence O’Donnell said that though lots of his colleagues and competitors hosted Platner, he never had him on his program or had much to say about him because he never expected him to go the distance. He went on to talk about the importance of real vetting.  We need to pay more attention to the usually smart and experienced O’Donnell.  

Other 💩:  Senators John Thune and John Barrasso and CNN’s Republican abettor Scott Jennings all insist they’ve spoken with Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell.  Curiously, all their conversations lasted twenty minutes. If McConnell resigns or expires before August 3, Kentucky law no longer allows Kentucky’s Governor, in this case Democrat Andy Beshar, to appoint his replacement; instead, it requires that he be replaced by a special election. If he “leaves” after that date, his seat will remain vacant at least until the results of the November election.  Until the Mitch issue is “resolved,” Republicans remain down a Senate vote. In other news, the Trump administration appears poised to continue rewriting history, as in stripping references to slavery and anything else they determine to be DEI, by taking control of the Smithsonian.  On the election front, they are quietly and not so quietly waging a war against voting in Democratic strongholds.  To that end the DOJ plans to deploy federal election monitors to Detroit, Lansing, and East Lansing for Michigan's August 4 primary election. Add that to the administration’s efforts to get hold of and “cleanse” state voter rolls while also dredging up “proof” that Trump really won the 2020 election to see where all this is going.  Spoiler alert, it’s not going anywhere good.     

 Sinking of the Maine 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🚀🚢 🧨

Maine Mess: The Washington Reporter reports that Maine’s flawed Democratic Senatorial candidate Graham Platner will officially drop out of his race this morning,  Even if they’re jumping the gun, the odds are that he’ll be out by the end of the day.  Who but anyone not so far down the progressive oyster farmer rabbit hole could have possibly guessed that a multiply accused sex offender who denied that he knew his Nazi tattoo was a Nazi tattoo would have even more disqualifying items in his closet?   Yesterday an hour or so before Politico went public with their very disturbing interview of his newest accuser, another one of his prior girlfriends, Platner announced that he was taking time to “reflect” on his path forward.  In the Politico interview, the former girlfriend Jenny Racicot, who says that they had an on again off again relationship, accused a then very drunk Platner of breaking into her house and raping her while she plead for him to stop.  She discussed the rape with a subsequent boyfriend and her therapist.  Racicot isn’t a closet Republican, she shares Platner’s progressive views. She acknowledges that it would have been better if she’d come forward sooner but says that publicly providing details about her experience wasn’t easy for her to do. Naturally, Platner, who’s all into denial, has denied her claims. Those denials ring hollow, which is why during the day and night, he lost most of his endorsements and financial support, not just those who’d reluctantly signed on to his campaign after he won his primary but also from most of those who’d been his earliest and most ardent supporters, including Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren who should have known better than to discount all of the prior accusations against him.  As of this morning, it doesn’t appear that Vermont’s Bernie Sanders has withdrawn his endorsement, though yesterday he found time to post multiple slams of AIPAC, as if that’s the issue here. Platner can be replaced on the Democratic ticket if he drops out before Monday, July 13 so the fight for his replacement as well as a lot of finger-pointing about how Democrats, especially Maine Democrats, got themselves into this mess, has already begun.  Odds are the replacement will not be one time candidate Governor Janet Mills but someone else.  The same progressive “select then vet” crowd are pushing for another progressive, preferably one with anti-Israel views. For his part Platner, says he’ll only pull out of the race if his replacement shares all of his views, as if he should have a say having quite possibly killed the Democrats chances of retaking the Senate.  One name being mentioned is Former Maine Senator Troy Jackson who threw a bottle at a female colleague during a senate caucus meeting.  Come on Maine, do better!  As to Republican incumbent Susan Collins, she’s probably dancing a jig this morning though a few pundits have pointed out that from her perspective it would have been better for this story to go viral after the July 13^th deadline.

In other news, there are reports that Mitch McConnell is brain dead.

Oy.

    

Just Married 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🚀🚢 🧨 🎇 

Independence Weekend:  Taylor and Travis got married; if you had Adam Sandler officiating at their ceremony on your BINGO card you are one up on me. Hundreds of face masked Patriot Front white supremacists carrying Confederate flags marched towards the Capitol, truly scary but also funny in a twisted way given that they’re the same people who objected so forcefully to mask mandates during COVID.  Trump first went to Mount Rushmore, where he probably had some of his Mar a Lago construction cronies, maybe even his pool guy, taking measurements to figure out the most expensive and damaging way he could carve his face alongside those of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theordore Roosevelt.  He followed up by giving a rain delayed Fourth of July speech in Washington DC in which alongside the usual patriotic themes he once again repeated his demand that Congress pass his voter squelching SAVE Act while also warning the sweating attendees that a vote for Democrats was a vote for Communism, a fear mongering theme likely to dominate midterm campaigns given the number of Democratic Socialists who’ve won primaries and all the attention being given to NYC’s Mayor Mamdani who for some reason that escapes me also delivered a much-covered holiday speech. Then because awarding Trump the “inaugural” FIFA peace prize wasn’t enough kowtowing for FIFA president Gianni Infantino, after Trump intervened he took the highly unusual step of lifting the red card suspension that would have prevented American star Folarin Balogun from playing in today’s match against Belgium. Belgium is not happy and assuming the lift stands if the US wins the results will be tainted. Since my football (soccer) knowledge wouldn’t fill a thimble, I won’t opine on whether Balogun deserved that suspension but removing it at Trump’s request seems a bit sketchy, then again Trump did “win” that peace prize. Adding to the irony, player Balogun is a beneficiary of birthright citizenship, that thing that Trump hates so much. Though he grew up in London, he was born in the US when his seven-month pregnant Nigerian mother was restricted from boarding a plane home.

Politics and Grift:  It’s been one year since Republicans in Congress passed Trump’s big ugly bill.  During that time, the average cost of health care has doubled, 4.2 million have lost their ACA (Obamacare) coverage, 3.8 million have lost Medicaid coverage, and nearly 500 hundred hospitals, clinics and nursing homes have closed.  Dr Oz, who heads up Medicare and Medicaid, attributes a lot of that shrinkage in coverage to the removal of fraudulent participants, citing as proof that many of those who’ve lost their ACA coverage didn’t use their insurance anyway.  Apparently Oz doesn’t understand the purpose of insurance.  RFK Jr is still the Secretary of Health and Human Services which partially explains why the FDA, CDC, and NIH don’t have confirmed heads and the Surgeon General slot is still in limbo but there are rumors that he isn’t long for the job and that he’ll be replaced by Oz when he leaves.  Though $1.4 billion of the estimated $4 to 5 billion increase in Trump’s net worth is attributable to his crypto schemes, $86.5 million of it comes from his lawsuit settlements including $16 million from ABC, $16 million from CBS, $24.5 from META, $22 million from YouTube, and $8 million from Twitter.  Notably while he’s all in on extorting money from others, he still hasn’t paid E Jean Carroll the $5 million plus interest that he owes her. It’s also notable that the investors in Trump’s crypto schemes have lost $3.8 to $4.5 billion dollars.

Mess in Michigan:  Gary Peters one of Michigan’s two Democratic Senators is not running for reelection this year. Since Democrats need a net gain of four seats to flip the Senate, holding on to the Michigan seat is essential. Unfortunately, the Democrats race to replace him has been messy.  Over the weekend Mallory McMorrow who had been polling around 12% suspended her candidacy. She isn’t issuing an endorsement but instead said she’ll back whoever wins the primary. The race to replace Peters as the Democratic candidate is now between mainstream candidate Haley Stevens and “progressive” Abdul El-Sayed. During a recent CNN interview El-Sayed who is endorsed by Bernie Sanders and AOC refused to answer whether or not Israel has a right to exist. To state the obvious, you can oppose Israeli politics and dislike Bibi Netanyahu but being unable to come out and say that Israel has a right to exist is depressingly revealing.  Once again, a Democratic primary is mired in ugly Middle East politics with a taint of anti-Semitism.  That last part isn’t overreach, over the weekend social media was full of comments attacking Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce for having Adam Sandler as their wedding officiant, not because he’s a goofy comedian but because he’s a “Zionist” as in Jewish. The primary takes place on August 4.  Congressman Mike Rogers, the Republican candidate for the Senate seat is relatively mainstream.  He could end up winning what is expected to be a close November race especially if the Democrats continue to be so divisive.    

More 💩:  It’s 2026 but Trump is still trying to prove that he didn’t really lose to President Biden in 2020.  To that end, Kash Patel’s FBI has sent 260 agents to complete a “priority” investigation of Fulton County Georgia, still looking for those 11,780 imaginary votes that Trump wanted Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find for him. Locating those mythical votes isn’t the real goal, the destruction of Democratic stronghold Fulton County’s election apparatus, while injecting more doubt about the integrity of the election process, is. It’s not a coincidence that Trump’s attacking Georgia, because going into this year Republicans believed that Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff would be easy to beat. Now that looks unlikely, unless of course, Fulton County’s results can be upended.